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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cell of Self-Knowledge, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Cell of Self-Knowledge
+       Seven Early English Mystical Treaties
+
+Author: Various
+
+Translator: Edmund G. Gardner
+
+Posting Date: August 8, 2009 [EBook #4544]
+Release Date: October, 2003
+First Posted: February 6, 2002
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CELL OF SELF-KNOWLEDGE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, with thanks to the CCEL
+(www.ccel.org) collection. HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Cell of Self-Knowledge:
+
+Seven Early English Mystical Treatises
+
+
+
+
+Printed by Henry Pepwell
+
+
+MDXXI
+
+
+Edited with an introduction and notes by
+
+Edmund G. Gardner M.A.
+
+1910
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Frontispiece is taken from B.M. MS. Faustina, B. VI.
+
+"Stiamo nella cella del cognoscimento di noi; cognoscendo, noi per
+noi non essere, e la bonta di Dio in noi; ricognoscendo l'essere, e
+ogni grazia che e posta sopra l'essere, da lui."--St. Catherine of
+Siena.
+
+"Tergat ergo speculum suum, mundet spiritum suum, quisquis sitit
+videre Deum suum. Exterso autem speculo et diu diligenter inspecto,
+incipit ei quaedam divini luminis claritas interlucere, et immensus
+quidam insolitae visionis radius oculis ejus apparere. Hoc lumen
+oculos ejus irradiaverat, qui dicebat: Signatum est super nos lumen
+vultus tui, Domine; dedisti laetitiam in corde meo. Ex hujus igitur
+luminis visione quam admiratur in se, mirum in modum accenditur
+animus, et animatur ad videndum lumen, quod est supra se."--Richard
+of St. Victor.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. A very Devout Treatise, named Benjamin, of the Mights and Virtues
+of Man's Soul, and of the Way to True Contemplation, compiled by a
+Noble and Famous Doctor, a man of great holiness and devotion, named
+Richard of Saint Victor
+
+The Prologue
+
+Cap. I. How the Virtue of Dread riseth in the Affection
+
+Cap. II. How Sorrow riseth in the Affection
+
+Cap. III. How Hope riseth in the Affection
+
+Cap. IV. How Love riseth in the Affection
+
+Cap. V. How the Double Sight of Pain and Joy riseth in the Imagination
+
+Cap. VI. How the Virtues of Abstinence and Patience rise in the
+Sensuality
+
+Cap. VII. How Joy of Inward Sweetness riseth in the Affection
+
+Cap. VIII. How Perfect Hatred of Sin riseth in the Affection
+
+Cap. IX. How Ordained Shame riseth and groweth in the Affection
+
+Cap. X. How Discretion and Contemplation rise in the Reason
+
+
+II. Divers Doctrines Devout and Fruitful, taken out of the Life of
+that Glorious Virgin and Spouse of Our Lord, Saint Katherin of
+Seenes
+
+III. A Short Treatise of Contemplation taught by Our Lord Jesu
+Christ, or taken out of the Book of Margery Kempe, Ancress of Lynn
+
+IV. A Devout Treatise compiled by Master Walter Hylton of the Song
+of Angels
+
+V. A Devout Treatise called the Epistle of Prayer
+
+VI. A very necessary Epistle of Discretion in Stirrings of the Soul
+
+VII. A Devout Treatise of Discerning of Spirits, very necessary for
+Ghostly Livers
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+FROM the end of the thirteenth to the beginning of the fifteenth
+century may be called the golden age of mystical literature in the
+vernacular. In Germany, we find Mechthild of Magdeburg (d. 1277),
+Meister Eckhart (d. 1327), Johannes Tauler (d. 1361), and Heinrich
+Suso (d. 1365); in Flanders, Jan Ruysbroek (d. 1381); in Italy,
+Dante Alighieri himself (d. 1321), Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306), St.
+Catherine of Siena (d. 1380), and many lesser writers who strove, in
+prose or in poetry, to express the hidden things of the spirit, the
+secret intercourse of the human soul with the Divine, no longer in
+the official Latin of the Church, but in the language of their own
+people, "a man's own vernacular," which "is nearest to him, inasmuch
+as it is most closely united to him."[1] In England, the great names
+of Richard Rolle, the Hermit of Hampole (d. 1349), of Walter Hilton
+(d. 1396), and of Mother Juliana of Norwich, whose Revelation of
+Divine Love professedly date from 1373, speak for themselves.
+
+The seven tracts or treatises before us were published in 1521 in a
+little quarto volume: "Imprynted at London in Poules chyrchyarde at
+the sygne of the Trynyte, by Henry Pepwell. In the yere of our lorde
+God, M.CCCCC.XXI., the xvi. daye of Nouembre." They may, somewhat
+loosely speaking, be regarded as belonging to the fourteenth
+century, though the first and longest of them professes to be but a
+translation of the work of the great Augustinian mystic of an
+earlier age.
+
+St. Bernard, Richard of St. Victor, and St. Bonaventura--all three
+very familiar figures to students of Dante's Paradiso--are the chief
+influences in the story of English mysticism. And, through the
+writings of his latter-day followers, Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton,
+and the anonymous author of the Divine Cloud of Unknowing, Richard
+of St. Victor is, perhaps, the most important of the three.
+
+Himself either a Scot or an Irishman by birth, Richard entered the
+famous abbey of St. Victor, a house of Augustinian canons near
+Paris, some time before 1140, where he became the chief pupil of the
+great mystical doctor and theologian whom the later Middle Ages
+regarded as a second Augustine, Hugh of St. Victor. After Hugh's
+death (1141), Richard succeeded to his influence as a teacher, and
+completed his work in creating the mystical theology of the Church.
+His masterpiece, De Gratia Contemplationis, known also as Benjamin
+Major, in five books, is a work of marvellous spiritual insight,
+unction, and eloquence, upon which Dante afterwards based the whole
+mystical psychology of the Paradiso.2 In it Richard shows how the
+soul passes upward through the six steps of contemplation--in
+imagination, in reason, in understanding--gradually discarding all
+sensible objects of thought; until, in the sixth stage, it
+contemplates what is above reason, and seems to be beside reason, or
+even contrary to reason. He teaches that there are three qualities
+of contemplation, according to its intensity: mentis dilatatio, an
+enlargement of the soul's vision without exceeding the bounds of
+human activity; mentis sublevatio, elevation of mind, in which the
+intellect, divinely illumined, transcends the measure of humanity,
+and beholds the things above itself, but does not entirely lose
+self-consciousness; and mentis alienatio, or ecstasy, in which all
+memory of the present leaves the mind, and it passes into a state of
+divine transfiguration, in which the soul gazes upon truth without
+any veils of creatures, not in a mirror darkly, but in its pure
+simplicity. This master of the spiritual life died in 1173. Amongst
+the glowing souls of the great doctors and theologians in the fourth
+heaven, St. Thomas Aquinas bids Dante mark the ardent spirit of
+"Richard who in contemplation was more than man."[3]
+
+Benjamin, for Richard, is the type of contemplation, in accordance
+with the Vulgate version of Psalm lxvii.: Ibi Benjamin
+adolescentulus in mentis excessu: "There is Benjamin, a youth, in
+ecstasy of mind"--where the English Bible reads: "Little Benjamin
+their ruler."[4] At the birth of Benjamin, his mother Rachel dies:
+"For, when the mind of man is rapt above itself, it surpasseth all
+the limits of human reasoning. Elevated above itself and rapt in
+ecstasy, it beholdeth things in the divine light at which all human
+reason succumbs. What, then, is the death of Rachel, save the
+failing of reason?"[5]
+
+The treatise here printed under the title Benjamin is based upon a
+smaller work of Richard's, a kind of introduction to the Benjamin
+Major, entitled: Benjamin Minor; or: De Praeparatione animi ad
+Contemplationem. It is a paraphrase of certain portions of this
+work, with a few additions, and large omissions. Among the portions
+omitted are the two passages that, almost alone among Richard's
+writings, are known to the general reader--or, at least, to people
+who do not claim to be specialists in mediaeval theology. In the
+one, he speaks of knowledge of self as the Holy Hill, the Mountain
+of the Lord:--
+
+"If the mind would fain ascend to the height of science, let its
+first and principal study be to know itself. Full knowledge of the
+rational spirit is a great and high mountain. This mountain
+transcends all the peaks of all mundane sciences, and looks down
+upon all the philosophy and all the science of the world from on
+high. Could Aristotle, could Plato, could the great band of
+philosophers ever attain to it?"[6]
+
+In the other, still adhering to his image of the mountain of
+self-knowledge, he makes his famous appeal to the Bible, as the
+supreme test of truth, the only sure guard that the mystic has
+against being deluded in his lofty speculations:--
+
+"Even if you think that you have been taken up into that high
+mountain apart, even if you think that you see Christ transfigured,
+do not be too ready to believe anything you see in Him or hear from
+Him, unless Moses and Elias run to meet Him. I hold all truth in
+suspicion which the authority of the Scriptures does not confirm,
+nor do I receive Christ in His clarification unless Moses and Elias
+are talking with Him."[7]
+
+On the other hand, the beautiful passage with which the version
+closes, so typical of the burning love of Christ, shown in devotion
+to the name of Jesus, which glows through all the writings of the
+school of the Hermit of Hampole, is an addition of the translator:--
+
+"And therefore, what so thou be that covetest to come to
+contemplation of God, that is to say, to bring forth such a child
+that men clepen in the story Benjamin (that is to say, sight of
+God), then shalt thou use thee in this manner. Thou shalt call
+together thy thoughts and thy desires, and make thee of them a
+church, and learn thee therein for to love only this good word Jesu,
+so that all thy desires and all thy thoughts are only set for to
+love Jesu, and that unceasingly as it may be here; so that thou
+fulfil that is said in the psalm: 'Lord, I shall bless Thee in
+churches'; that is, in thoughts and desires of the love of Jesu. And
+then, in this church of thoughts and desires, and in this onehead of
+studies and of wills, look that all thy thoughts, and all thy
+desires, and all thy studies, and all thy wills be only set in the
+love and the praising of this Lord Jesu, without forgetting, as far
+forth as thou mayst by grace, and as thy frailty will suffer;
+evermore meeking thee to prayer and to counsel, patiently abiding
+the will of our Lord, unto the time that thy mind be ravished above
+itself, to be fed with the fair food of angels in the beholding of
+God and ghostly things; so that it be fulfilled in thee that is
+written in the psalm: Ibi Benjamin adolescentulus in mentis excessu;
+that is: 'There is Benjamin, the young child, in ravishing of
+mind."'[8]
+
+The text printed by Pepwell differs slightly from that of the
+manuscripts, of which a large number have been preserved. Among
+others, it is found in the Arundel MS. 286, and the Harleian MSS.
+674, 1022, and 2373. It has been published from the Harl. MS. 1022
+by Professor C. Horstman, who observes that "it is very old, and
+certainly prior to Walter Hilton."[9] It is evidently by one of the
+followers of Richard Rolle, dating from about the middle of the
+fourteenth century. External and internal evidence seems to point to
+its being the work of the anonymous author of the Divine Cloud of
+Unknowing.
+
+This is not the place to tell again the wonderful story of St.
+Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), one of the noblest and most truly
+heroic women that the world has ever seen. Her life and manifold
+activities only touched England indirectly. The famous English
+captain of mercenaries, Sir John Hawkwood, was among the men of the
+world who, at least for a while, were won to nobler ideals by her
+letters and exhortations. Two of her principal disciples, Giovanni
+Tantucci and William Flete, both Augustinian hermits, were graduates
+of Cambridge; the latter, an Englishman by birth, was appointed by
+her on her deathbed to preside over the continuance of her work in
+her native city, and a vision of his, concerning the legitimacy of
+the claims of Urban the Sixth to the papal throne, was brought
+forward as one of the arguments that induced England, on the
+outbreak of the Great Schism in the Church (1378), to adhere to the
+Roman obedience for which Catherine was battling to the death. A
+letter which she herself addressed on the same subject to King
+Richard the Second has not been preserved.
+
+About 1493, Wynkyn de Worde printed The Lyf of saint Katherin of
+Senis the blessid virgin, edited by Caxton; which is a free
+translation, by an anonymous Dominican, with many omissions and the
+addition of certain reflections, of the Legenda, the great Latin
+biography of St. Catherine by her third confessor, Friar Raymond of
+Capua, the famous master-general and reformer of the order of St.
+Dominic (d. 1399). He followed this up, in 1519, by an English
+rendering by Brother Dane James of the Saint's mystical treatise the
+Dialogo: "Here begynneth the Orcharde of Syon; in the whiche is
+conteyned the reuelacyons of seynt Katheryne of Sene, with ghostly
+fruytes and precyous plantes for the helthe of mannes soule."[10]
+This was not translated from St. Catherine's own vernacular, but
+from Friar Raymond's Latin version of the latter, first printed at
+Brescia in 1496. From the first of these two works, the Lyf, are
+selected the passages--the Divers Doctrines devout and
+fruitful--which Pepwell here presents to us; but it seems probable
+that he was not borrowing directly from Caxton, as an almost
+verbally identical selection, with an identical title, is found in
+the British Museum, MS. Reg. 17 D.V., where it follows the Divine
+Cloud of Unknowing.
+
+Margery Kempe is a much more mysterious personage. She has come down
+to us only in a tiny quarto of eight pages printed by Wynkyn de
+Worde:--
+
+"Here begynneth a shorte treatyse of contemplacyon taught by our
+lorde Jhesu cryste, or taken out of the boke of Margerie kempe of
+Lynn."
+
+And at the end:--
+
+"Here endeth a shorte treatyse called Margerie kempe de Lynn.
+Enprynted in Fletestrete by Wynkyn de worde."
+
+The only known copy is preserved in the University of Cambridge. It
+is undated, but appears to have been printed in 1501.[11] With a few
+insignificant variations, it is the same as was printed twenty years
+later by Pepwell, who merely inserts a few words like "Our Lord
+Jesus said unto her," or "she said," and adds that she was a devout
+ancress. Tanner, not very accurately, writes: "This book contains
+various discourses of Christ (as it is pretended) to certain holy
+women; and, written in the style of modern Quietists and Quakers,
+speaks of the inner love of God, of perfection, et cetera."[12] No
+manuscript of the work is known to exist, and absolutely no traces
+can be discovered of the "Book of Margery Kempe," out of which it is
+implied by the Printer that these beautiful thoughts and sayings are
+taken.
+
+There is nothing in the treatise itself to enable us to fix its
+date. It is, perhaps, possible that the writer or recipient of these
+revelations is the "Margeria filia Johannis Kempe," who, between
+1284 and 1298, gave up to the prior and convent of Christ Church,
+Canterbury, all her rights in a piece of land with buildings and
+appurtenances, "which falls to me after the decease of my brother
+John, and lies in the parish of Blessed Mary of Northgate outside
+the walls of the city of Canterbury."[13] The revelations show that
+she was (or had been) a woman of some wealth and social position,
+who had abandoned the world to become an ancress, following the life
+prescribed in that gem of early English devotional literature, the
+Ancren Riwle.14 It is clearly only a fragment of her complete book
+(whatever that may have been); but it is enough to show that she was
+a worthy precursor of that other great woman mystic of East Anglia:
+Juliana of Norwich. For Margery, as for Juliana, Love is the
+interpretation of revelation, and the key to the universal
+mystery:[15]--
+
+"Daughter, thou mayst no better please God, than to think
+continually in His love."
+
+"If thou wear the habergeon or the hair, fasting bread and water,
+and if thou saidest every day a thousand Pater Nosters, thou shalt
+not please Me so well as thou dost when thou art in silence, and
+suffrest Me to speak in thy soul."
+
+"Daughter, if thou knew how sweet thy love is to Me, thou wouldest
+never do other thing but love Me with all thine heart."
+
+"In nothing that thou dost or sayest, daughter, thou mayst no better
+please God than believe that He loveth thee. For, if it were
+possible that I might weep with thee, I would weep with thee for the
+compassion that I have of thee."
+
+And, from the midst of her celestial contemplations, rises up the
+simple, poignant cry of human suffering: "Lord, for Thy great pain
+have mercy on my little pain."
+
+We are on surer ground with the treatise that follows, the Song of
+Angels.[16] Walter Hilton--who died on March 24, 1396--holds a
+position in the religious life and spiritual literature of England
+in the latter part of the fourteenth century somewhat similar to
+that occupied by Richard Rolle in its earlier years. Like the Hermit
+of Hampole, he was the founder of a school, and the works of his
+followers cannot always be distinguished with certainty from his
+own. Like his great master in the mystical way, Richard of St.
+Victor, Hilton was an Augustinian, the head of a house of canons at
+Thurgarton, near Newark. His great work, the Scala Perfectionis, or
+Ladder of Perfection, "which expoundeth many notable doctrines in
+Contemplation," was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, and is
+still widely used for devotional reading. A shorter treatise, the
+Epistle to a Devout Man in Temporal Estate, first printed by Pynson
+in 1506, gives practical guidance to a religious layman of wealth
+and social position, for the fulfilling of the duties of his state
+without hindrance to his making profit in the spiritual life. These,
+with the Song of Angels, are the only printed works that can be
+assigned to him with certainty, though many others, undoubtedly from
+his pen, are to be found in manuscripts, and a complete and critical
+edition of Walter Hilton seems still in the far future.[17] The Song
+of Angels has been twice printed since the edition of Pepwell.[18]
+In profoundly mystical language, tinged with the philosophy of that
+mysterious Neo-Platonist whom we call the pseudo-Dionysius, it tells
+of the wonderful "onehead," the union of the soul with God in
+perfect charity:--
+
+"This onehead is verily made when the mights of the soul are
+reformed by grace to the dignity and the state of the first
+condition; that is, when the mind is firmly established, without
+changing and wandering, in God and ghostly things, and when the
+reason is cleared from all worldly and fleshly beholdings, and from
+all bodily imaginations, figures, and fantasies of creatures, and is
+illumined by grace to behold God and ghostly things, and when the
+will and the affection is purified and cleansed from all fleshly,
+kindly, and worldly love, and is inflamed with burning love of the
+Holy Ghost."
+
+But to this blessed condition none may attain perfectly here on
+earth. The writer goes on to speak of the mystical consolations and
+visitations granted to the loving soul in this life, distinguishing
+the feelings and sensations that are mere delusions, from those that
+truly proceed from the fire of love in the affection and the light
+of knowing in the reason, and are a very anticipation of that
+ineffable "onehead" in heaven.
+
+The three remaining treatises--the Epistle of Prayer, the Epistle of
+Discretion in Stirrings of the Soul, and the Treatise of Discerning
+of Spirits[19]--are associated in the manuscripts with four other
+works: the Divine Cloud of Unknowing, the Epistle of Privy Counsel,
+a paraphrase of the Mystical Theology of Dionysius entitled Dionise
+Hid Divinity, and the similar translation or paraphrase of the
+Benjamin Minor of Richard of St. Victor already considered.[20]
+These seven treatises are all apparently by the same hand. The
+Divine Cloud of Unknowing has been credited to Walter Hilton, as
+likewise to William Exmew, or to Maurice Chauncy, Carthusians of the
+sixteenth century, whereas the manuscripts are at least a hundred
+years earlier than their time; but it seems safer to attribute the
+whole series to an unknown writer of the second part of the
+fourteenth century, who "marks a middle point between Rolle and
+Hilton."[21] The spiritual beauty of the three here reprinted--and,
+more particularly, of the Epistle of Prayer, with its glowing
+exposition of the doctrine of Pure Love--speaks for itself. They
+show us mysticism brought down, if I may say so, from the clouds for
+the practical guidance of the beginner along this difficult way.
+And, in the Epistle of Discretion, we find even a rare touch of
+humour; where the counsellor "conceives suspiciously" of his
+correspondent's spiritual stirrings, lest "they should be conceived
+on the ape's manner." Like St. Catherine of Siena, though in a less
+degree, he has the gift of vision and the faculty of intuition
+combined with a homely common sense, and can illustrate his "simple
+meaning" with a smile.
+
+I have borrowed a phrase from St. Catherine, "The Cell of
+Self-Knowledge," la cella del cognoscimento di noi, as the title of
+this little volume. Knowledge of self and purity of heart, the
+mystics teach, are the indispensable conditions for the highest
+mystical elevation. Knowledge of self, for Richard of St. Victor, is
+the high mountain apart upon which Christ is transfigured; for
+Catherine of Siena, it is the stable in which the pilgrim through
+time to eternity must be born again. "Wouldest thou behold Christ
+transfigured?" asks Richard; "ascend this mountain; learn to know
+thyself."[22] "Thou dost see," writes Catherine, speaking in the
+person of the eternal Father, "this sweet and loving Word born in a
+stable, while Mary was journeying; to show to you, who are
+travellers, that you must ever be born again in the stable of
+knowledge of yourselves, where you will find Him born by grace
+within your souls."[23] The soul is a mirror that reflects the
+invisible things of God, and it is by purity of heart alone that
+this mirror is made clear. "Therefore," writes Richard of St.
+Victor, "let whoso thirsts to see his God, wipe his mirror, purify
+his spirit. After he hath thus cleared his mirror and long
+diligently gazed into it, a certain clarity of divine light begins
+to shine through upon him, and a certain immense ray of unwonted
+vision to appear before his eyes. This light irradiated the eyes of
+him who said: Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon
+us; Thou hast put gladness in my heart. From the vision of this
+light which it sees with wonder in itself, the mind is wondrously
+inflamed and inspired to behold the light which is above
+itself."[24]
+
+Pepwell's volume has been made the basis of the present edition of
+these seven treatises; but, in each case, the text has been
+completely revised. The text of the Benjamin, the Epistle of Prayer,
+the Epistle of Discretion, and the Treatise of Discerning of
+Spirits, has been collated with that given by the Harleian MSS. 674
+and 2373; and, in most cases, the readings of the manuscripts have
+been adopted in preference to those of the printed version. The
+Katherin has been collated with Caxton's Lyf; the Margery Kempe with
+Wynkyn de Worde's precious little volume in the University Library
+of Cambridge; and the Song of Angels with the text published by
+Professor Horstman from the Camb. MS Dd. v. 55. As the object of
+this book is not to offer a Middle English text to students, but a
+small contribution to mystical literature, the orthography has been
+completely modernised, while I have attempted to retain enough of
+the original language to preserve the flavour of mediaeval devotion.
+
+EDMUND G. GARDNER.
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+HERE FOLLOWETH A VERY DEVOUT TREATISE, NAMED BENJAMIN, OF THE MIGHTS
+AND VIRTUES OF MAN'S SOUL, AND OF THE WAY TO TRUE CONTEMPLATION,
+COMPILED BY A NOBLE AND FAMOUS DOCTOR, A MAN OF GREAT HOLINESS AND
+DEVOTION, NAMED RICHARD OF SAINT VICTOR
+
+A TREATISE NAMED BENJAMIN
+
+THE PROLOGUE
+
+
+A GREAT clerk that men call [25] Richard of Saint Victor, in a book
+that he maketh of the study of wisdom, witnesseth and saith that two
+mights are in a man's soul, given of the Father of Heaven of whom
+all good cometh. The one is reason, the other is affection; through
+reason we know, and through affection we feel or love.
+
+Of reason springeth right counsel and ghostly wits; and of affection
+springeth holy desires and ordained[26] feelings. And right as
+Rachel and Leah were both wives unto Jacob, right so man's soul
+through light of knowing in the reason, and sweetness of love in the
+affection, is spoused unto God. By Jacob is understanden God, by
+Rachel is understanden reason, by Leah is understanden affection.
+Each of these wives, Rachel and Leah, took to them a maiden; Rachel
+took Bilhah, and Leah took Zilpah. Bilhah was a great jangler, and
+Zilpah was ever drunken and thirsty. By Bilhah is understanden
+imagination, the which is servant unto reason, as Bilhah was to
+Rachel; by Zilpah is understanden sensuality, the which is servant
+unto affection, as Zilpah was to Leah. And so much are these maidens
+needful to their ladies, that without them all this world might
+serve them of nought. For why, without imagination reason may not
+know, and without sensuality affection may not feel. And yet
+imagination cryeth so inconveniently[27] in the ears of our heart
+that, for ought that reason her lady may do, yet she may not still
+her. And therefore it is that oft times when we should pray, so many
+divers fantasies of idle and evil thoughts cry in our hearts, that
+on no wise we may by our own mights drive them away. And thus it is
+well proved that Bilhah is a foul jangler. And also the sensuality
+is evermore so thirsty, that all that affection her lady may
+feel,[28] may not yet slake her thirst. The drink that she desireth
+is the lust of fleshly, kindly, and worldly delights,[29] of the
+which the more that she drinketh the more she thirsteth; for why,
+for to fill the appetite of the sensuality, all this world may not
+suffice; and therefore it is that oft times when we pray or think on
+God and ghostly things, we would fain feel sweetness of love in our
+affection,[30] and yet we may not, for are we so busy to feed the
+concupiscence of our sensuality; for evermore it is greedily asking,
+and we have a fleshly compassion thereof. And thus it is well proved
+that Zilpah is evermore drunken and thirsty. And right as Leah
+conceived of Jacob and brought forth seven children, and Rachel
+conceived of Jacob and brought forth two children, and Bilhah
+conceived of Jacob and brought forth two children, and Zilpah
+conceived of Jacob and brought forth two children; right so the
+affection conceiveth through the grace of God, and bringeth forth
+seven virtues; and also the sensuality conceiveth through the grace
+of God, and bringeth forth two virtues; and also the reason
+conceiveth through the grace of God, and bringeth forth two virtues;
+and also the imagination conceiveth through the grace of God, and
+bringeth forth two virtues, or two beholdings. And the names of
+their children and of their virtues shall be known by this figure
+that followeth:
+
+Husband: Jacob temporally, God spiritually. Wives to Jacob: Leah,
+that is to say, Affection; Rachel, that is to say, Reason. Maid to
+Leah is Zilpah, that is to understand, Sensuality; and Bilhah maiden
+to Rachel, that is to understand, Imagination.
+
+The sons of Jacob and Leah are these seven that followeth: Reuben
+signifieth dread of pain; Simeon, sorrow of sins; Levi, hope of
+forgiveness; Judah, love of righteousness; Issachar, joy in inward
+sweetness; Zebulun, hatred of sin; Dinah, ordained shame.
+
+The sons of Jacob and Zilpah, servant of Leah, are these: Gad,
+abstinence; Asher, patience.
+
+The sons of Jacob and of Rachel are these: Joseph, discretion;
+Benjamin, contemplation.
+
+The sons of Jacob and Bilhah, servant to Rachel, are these: Dan,
+sight of pain to come; and Naphtali, sight of joy to come.
+
+In this figure it is shewed apertly of Jacob and of his wives, and
+their maidens, and all their children. Here it is to shew on what
+manner they were gotten, and in what order:--
+
+First, it is to say of the children of Leah; for why, it is read
+that she first conceived. The children of Leah are nought else to
+understand but ordained affections or feelings in a man's soul; for
+why, if they were unordained, then were they not the sons of Jacob.
+Also the seven children of Leah are seven virtues, for virtue is
+nought else but an ordained and a measured feeling in a man's soul.
+For then is man's feeling in soul ordained when it is of that thing
+that it should be; then it is measured when it is so much as it
+should be. These feelings in a man's soul may be now ordained and
+measured, and now unordained and unmeasured; but when they are
+ordained and measured, then are they accounted among the sons of
+Jacob.[31]
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM I
+
+HOW THE VIRTUE OF DREAD RISETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+THE first child that Leah conceived of Jacob was Reuben, that is,
+dread; and therefore it is written in the psalm: "The beginning of
+wisdom is the dread of our Lord God."[32] This is the first felt
+virtue in a man's affection, without the which none other may be
+had. And, therefore, whoso desireth to have such a son, him behoveth
+busily and oft also behold the evil that he hath done. And he shall,
+on the one party, think on the greatness of his trespass, and, on
+another party, the power of the Doomsman.[33] Of such a
+consideration springeth dread, that is to say Reuben, that through
+right is cleped "the son of sight."[34] For utterly is he blind that
+seeth not the pains that are to come, and dreadeth not to sin. And
+well is Reuben cleped the son of sight; for when he was born, his
+mother cried and said: "God hath seen my meekness."[35] And man's
+soul, in such a consideration of his old sins and of the power of
+the Doomsman, beginneth then truly to see God by feeling of dread,
+and also to be seen of God by rewarding of pity.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM II
+
+HOW SORROW RISETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+WHILE Reuben waxeth, Simeon is born; for after dread it needeth
+greatly that sorrow come soon. For ever the more that a man dreadeth
+the pain that he hath deserved, the bitterlier he sorroweth the sins
+that he hath done. Leah in the birth of Simeon cried and said: "Our
+Lord hath heard me be had in despite."[36] And therefore is Simeon
+cleped "hearing";[37] for when a man bitterly sorroweth and
+despiseth his old sins, then beginneth he to be heard of God, and
+also for to hear the blessed sentence of God's own mouth: "Blessed
+be they that sorrow, for they shall be comforted."[38] For in what
+hour the sinner sorroweth and turneth from his sin, he shall be
+safe.[39] Thus witnesseth holy Scripture. And also by Reuben he is
+meeked,[40] and by Simeon he is contrite and hath compunction of
+tears; but, as witnesseth David in the psalm: "Heart contrite and
+meeked God shall not despise";[41] and without doubt such sorrow
+bringeth in true comfort of heart.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM III
+
+HOW HOPE RISETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+BUT, I pray thee, what comfort may be to them that truly dread and
+bitterly sorrow for their old sins, ought but a true hope of
+forgiveness? the which is the third son of Jacob, that is Levi, the
+which is cleped in the story "a doing to."[42] For when the other
+two children, dread and sorrow, are given of God to a man's soul,
+without doubt he this third, that is hope, shall not be delayed, but
+he shall be lone to;[43] as the story witnesseth of Levi, that, when
+his two brethren, Reuben and Simeon, were given to their mother
+Leah, he, this Levi, was done to. Take heed of this word, that he
+was "done to" and not given. And therefore it is said that a man
+shall not presume of hope of forgiveness before the time that his
+heart be peeked in dread and contrite in sorrow; without these two,
+hope is presumption, and where these two are, hope is done to; and
+thus after sorrow cometh soon comfort, as David telleth in the psalm
+that "after the muchness of my sorrow in my heart," he saith to our
+Lord, "Thy comforts have gladded my soul."[44] And therefore it is
+that the Holy Ghost is called Paracletus, that is, comforter, for
+oft times he vouchethsafe to comfort a sorrowful soul.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM IV
+
+HOW LOVE RISETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+FROM now forth beginneth a manner of homeliness for to grow between
+God and a man's soul; and also on a manner a kindling of love, in so
+much that oft times he feeleth him not only be visited of God and
+comforted in His coming, but oft times also he feeleth him filled
+with an unspeakable joy. This homeliness and this kindling of love
+first felt Leah, when, after that Levi was born, she cried with a
+great voice and said: "Now shall my husband be coupled to me."[45]
+The true spouse of our soul is God, and then are we truly coupled
+unto Him, when we draw near Him by hope and soothfast love. And
+right as after hope cometh love, so after Levi was Judah born, the
+fourth son of Leah. Leah in his birth cried and said: "Now shall I
+shrive to our Lord."[46] And therefore in the story is Judah cleped
+"Shrift."[47] Also man's soul in this degree of love offereth it
+clearly to God, and saith thus: "Now shall I shrive to our Lord."
+For before this feeling of love in a man's soul, all that he doth is
+done more for dread than for love; but in this state a man's soul
+feeleth God so sweet, so merciful, so good, so courteous, so true,
+and so kind, so faithful, so lovely and so homely, that he leaveth
+nothing in him--might, wit, conning,[48] or will--that he offereth
+not it clearly, freely, and homely unto Him. This shrift is not only
+of sin, but of the goodness of God. Great token of love it is when a
+man telleth to God that He is good. Of this shrift speaketh David
+full oft times in the psalter, when he saith: "Make it known to God,
+for He is good."[49]
+
+Lo, now have we said of four sons of Leah. And after this she left
+bearing of children till another time; and so man's soul weeneth
+that it sufficeth to it when it feeleth that it loveth the true
+goods.[50] And so it is enough to salvation, but not to perfection.
+For it falleth to a perfect soul both to be inflamed with the fire
+of love in the affection, and also to be illumined with the light of
+knowing in the reason.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM V
+
+HOW THE DOUBLE SIGHT OF PAIN AND JOY RISETH IN THE IMAGINATION
+
+
+THEN when Judah waxeth, that is to say, when love and desire of
+unseen true goods is rising and waxing in a man's affection; then
+coveteth Rachel for to bear some children; that is to say, then
+coveteth reason to know these things that affection feeleth; for as
+it falleth to the affection for to love, so it falleth to the reason
+for to know. Of affection springeth ordained and measured feelings;
+and of reason springeth right knowings[51] and clear understandings.
+And ever the more that Judah waxeth, that is to say love, so much
+the more desireth Rachel bearing of children, that is to say, reason
+studieth after knowing. But who is he that woteth not how hard it
+is, and nearhand impossible to a fleshly soul the which is yet rude
+in ghostly studies, for to rise in knowing of unseeable[52] things,
+and for to set the eye of contemplation in ghostly things? For why,
+a soul that is yet rude and fleshly, knoweth nought but bodily
+things, and nothing cometh yet to the mind but only seeable[53]
+things. And, nevertheless, yet it looketh inward as it may; and that
+that it may not see yet clearly by ghostly knowing, it thinketh by
+imagination.
+
+And this is the cause why Rachel had first children of her maiden
+than of herself. And so it is that, though all a man's soul may not
+yet get the light of ghostly knowing in the reason, yet it thinketh
+it sweet to hold the mind on God and ghostly things in the
+imagination. As by Rachel we understand reason, so by her maiden
+Bilhah we understand imagination. And, therefore, reason sheweth
+that it is more profitable for to think on ghostly things, in what
+manner so it be; yea, if it be in kindling of our desire with some
+fair imagination; than it is for to think on vanities and deceivable
+things of this world. And, therefore, of Bilhah were born these two:
+Dan and Naphtali. Dan is to say sight of pains to come; and
+Naphtali, sight of joys to come. These two children are full needful
+and full speedful unto a working soul; the one for to put down evil
+suggestions of sins; and the other for to raise up our wills in
+working of good and in kindling of our desires. For as it falleth to
+Dan to put down evil suggestions of sin by sight of pains to come,
+so it falleth to the other brother Naphtali to raise up our wills in
+working of good, and in kindling of holy desires by sight of joys to
+come. And therefore holy men, when they are stirred to any unlawful
+thing, by inrising of any foul thought, as oft they set before their
+mind the pains that are to come; and so they slaken their temptation
+in the beginning, ere it rise to any foul delight in their soul. And
+as oft as their devotion and their liking in God and ghostly things
+cease and wax cold (as oft times it befalleth in this life, for
+corruption of the flesh and many other skills),[54] so oft they set
+before their mind the joy that is to come. And so they kindle their
+will with holy desires, and destroy their temptation in the
+beginning, ere it come to any weariness or heaviness of sloth. And
+for that[55] with Dan we damn unlawful thoughts, therefore he is
+well cleped in the story "Doom."[56] And also his father Jacob said
+of him thus: "Dan shall deem his folk."[57] And also it is said in
+the story that, when Bilhah brought forth Dan, Rachel said thus:
+"Our Lord hath deemed me";[58] that is to say: "Our Lord hath evened
+me unto my sister Leah." And thus saith reason, when the imagination
+hath gotten the sight of pains to come, that our Lord hath evened
+her with her sister affection; and she saith thus, for she hath the
+sight of pains to come in her imagination, of the which she had
+dread and sorrow in her feeling. And then after came Naphtali, that
+is to say, the sight of joys to come. And in his birth spake Rachel
+and said: "I am made like to my sister Leah";[59] and therefore is
+Naphtali cleped in the story "Likeness."[60] And thus saith reason
+that she is made like to her sister affection. For there as she had
+gotten hope and love of joy to come in her feeling, she hath now
+gotten sight of joy to come in her imagination. Jacob said of
+Naphtali that he was "a hart sent out, giving speeches of
+fairhead."[61] So it is that, when we imagine of the joys of heaven,
+we say that it is fair in heaven. For[62] wonderfully kindleth
+Naphtali our souls with holy desires, as oft as we imagine of the
+worthiness and the fairhead of the joys of heaven.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM VI
+
+HOW THE VIRTUES OF ABSTINENCE AND PATIENCE RISE IN THE SENSUALITY
+
+
+WHEN Leah saw that Rachel her sister made great joy of these two
+bastards born of Bilhah her maiden, she called forth her maiden
+Zilpah, to put to her husband Jacob; that she might make joy with
+her sister, having other two bastards gotten of her maiden Zilpah.
+And thus it is seemly in man's soul for to be, that from the time
+that reason hath refrained the great jangling of imagination, and
+hath put her to be underlout[63] to God, and maketh her to bear some
+fruit in helping of her knowing, that right so the affection refrain
+the lust and the thirst of the sensuality, and make her to be
+underlout to God, and so to bear some fruit in helping of her
+feeling. But what fruit may she bear, ought but that she learn to
+live temperately in easy things, and patiently in uneasy things?
+These are they, the children of Zilpah, Gad and Asher: Gad is
+abstinence, and Asher is patience. Gad is the sooner born child, and
+Asher the latter; for first it needeth that we be attempered in
+ourself with discreet abstinence, and after that we bear outward
+disease[64] in strength of patience. These are the children that
+Zilpah brought forth in sorrow; for in abstinence and patience the
+sensuality is punished in the flesh; but that that is sorrow to the
+sensuality turneth to much comfort and bliss to the affection. And
+therefore it is that, when Gad was born, Leah cried and said:
+"Happily"[65]; and therefore Gad is cleped in the story "Happiness,"
+or "Seeliness."[66] And so it is well said that abstinence in the
+sensuality is happiness[67] in the affection. For why, ever the less
+that the sensuality is delighted in her lust, the more sweetness
+feeleth the affection in her love. Also after when Asher was born,
+Leah said: "This shall be for my bliss";[68] and therefore was Asher
+called in the story "Blessed."[69] And so it is well said that
+patience in the sensuality is bliss in the affection. For why, ever
+the more disease that the sensuality suffereth, the more blessed is
+the soul in the affection. And thus by abstinence and patience we
+shall not only understand a temperance in meat and drink, and
+suffering of outward tribulation, but also [in] all manner of
+fleshly, kindly,[70] and worldly delights, and all manner of
+disease, bodily and ghostly, within or without, reasonable or
+unreasonable, that by any of our five wits torment or delight the
+sensuality. On this wise beareth the sensuality fruit in help of
+affection, her lady. Much peace and rest is in that soul that
+neither is drunken in the lust of the sensuality, nor grutcheth[71]
+in the pain thereof. The first of these is gotten by Gad and the
+latter by Asher. Here it is to wete that first was Rachel's maiden
+put to the husband or the maiden of Leah; and this is the skill why.
+For truly, but if the jangling of the imagination, that is to say,
+the in-running of vain thoughts, be first refrained, without doubt
+the lust of the sensuality may not be attempered. And therefore who
+so will abstain him from fleshly and worldly lusts, him behoveth
+first seldom or never think any vain thoughts.[72] And also never in
+this life may a man perfectly despise the ease of the flesh, and not
+dread the disease, but if he have before busily beholden the meeds
+and the torments that are to come. But here it is to wete how that,
+with these four sons of these two maidens, the city of our
+conscience is kept wonderfully from all temptations. For all
+temptation either it riseth within by thought, or else without by
+some of our five wits. But within shall Dan deem and damn evil
+thoughts by sight of pain; and without shall Gad put against[73]
+false delights by use of abstinence. Dan waketh[74] within, and Gad
+without; and also their other two brethren helpen them full much:
+Naphtali maketh peace within with Dan, and Asher biddeth Gad have no
+dread of his enemies. Dan feareth the heart with ugsomeness of hell,
+and Naphtali cherisheth it with behighting[75] of heavenly bliss.
+Also Asher helpeth his brother without, so that, through them both,
+the wall of the city is not broken. Gad holdeth out ease, and Asher
+pursueth disease. Asher soon deceiveth his enemy, when he bringeth
+to mind the patience of his father[76] and the behighting of
+Naphtali, and thus oft times ever the more enemies he hath, the more
+matter he hath of overcoming. And therefore it is that, when he hath
+overcome his enemies (that is to say, the adversities of this
+world), soon he turneth him to his brother Gad to help to destroy
+his enemies. And without fail, from that he be come, soon they turn
+the back, and flee. The enemies of Gad are fleshly delights; but
+truly, from the time that a man have patience in the pain of his
+abstinence, false delights find no woning stead[77] in him.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM VII
+
+HOW JOY OF INWARD SWEETNESS RISETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+THUS when the enemy fleeth and the city is peased,[78] then
+beginneth a man to prove what the high peace of God is that passeth
+man's wit. And therefore it is that Leah left bearing of children
+unto this time that Gad and Asher were born of Zilpah, her maiden.
+For truly, but if it be so that a man have refrained the lust and
+the pain of his five wits in his sensuality by abstinence and
+patience, he shall never feel inward sweetness and true joy in God
+and ghostly things in the affection. This is that Issachar, the
+fifth son of Leah, the which in the story is cleped "Meed."[79] [And
+well is this joy of inward sweetness cleped "meed"];[80] for this
+joy is the taste of heavenly bliss, the which is the endless meed of
+a devout soul, beginning here. Leah, in the birth of this child,
+said: "God hath given me meed, for that I have given my maiden to my
+husband in bearing of children."[81] And so it is good that we make
+our sensuality bear fruit in abstaining it from all manner of
+fleshly, kindly, and worldly delight, and in fruitful suffering of
+all fleshly and worldly disease; therefore our Lord of His great
+mercy giveth us joy unspeakable and inward sweetness in our
+affection, in earnest[82] of the sovereign joy and meed of the
+kingdom of heaven. Jacob said of Issachar that he was "a strong ass
+dwelling between the terms."[83] And so it is that a man in this
+state, and that feeleth the earnest of everlasting joy in his
+affection, is as "an ass, strong and dwelling between the terms";
+because that, be he never so filled in soul of ghostly gladness and
+joy in God, yet, for corruption of the flesh in this deadly life,
+him behoveth bear the charge of the deadly body, as hunger, thirst,
+and cold, sleep, and many other diseases; for the which he is
+likened to an ass as in body; but as in soul he is strong for to
+destroy all the passions and the lusts of the flesh by patience and
+abstinence in the sensuality, and by abundance of ghostly joy and
+sweetness in the affection. And also a soul in this state is
+dwelling between the terms of deadly life and undeadly life. He that
+dwelleth between the terms hath nearhand forsaken deadliness, but
+not fully, and hath nearhand gotten undeadliness, but not fully; for
+whiles that him needeth the goods of this world, as meat and drink
+and clothing, as it falleth to each man that liveth, yet his one
+foot is in this deadly life; and for great abundance of ghostly joy
+and sweetness that he feeleth in God, not seldom but oft, he hath
+his other foot in the undeadly life. Thus I trow that saint Paul
+felt, when he said this word of great desire: "Who shall deliver me
+from this deadly body?"[84] And when he said thus: "I covet to be
+loosed and to be with Christ."[85] And thus doth the soul that
+feeleth Issachar in his affection, that is to say, the joy of inward
+sweetness, the which is understanden by Issachar. It enforceth it to
+forsake this wretched life, but it may not; it coveteth to enter the
+blessed life, but it may not; it doth that it may, and yet it
+dwelleth between the terms.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM VIII
+
+HOW PERFECT HATRED OF SIN RISETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+AND therefore it is that after Issachar Zebulun is born, that is to
+say, hatred of sin. And here it is to wete why that hatred of sin is
+never perfectly felt in a man's affection, ere the time that ghostly
+joy of inward sweetness be felt in the affection, and this is the
+skill: for ere this time was never the true cause of hatred felt in
+the affection. For the feeling of ghostly joy teacheth a man what
+sin harmeth the soul. And all after that the harm in the soul is
+felt much or little, thereafter is the hatred measured, more or
+less, unto the harming. But when a soul, by the grace of God and
+long travail, is come to feeling of ghostly joy in God, then it
+feeleth that sin hath been the cause of the delaying thereof. And
+also when he feeleth that he may not alway last in the feeling of
+that ghostly joy, for the corruption of the flesh, of the which
+corruption sin is the cause; then he riseth with a strong feeling of
+hatred against all sin and all kind of sin. This feeling taught
+David us to have, where he saith in the psalm: "Be ye wroth and will
+ye not sin";[86] that is thus to mean: Be ye wroth with the sin, but
+not with the kind.[87] For kind stirreth to the deed, but not to
+sin. And here it is to wete that this wrath and this hatred is not
+contrary to charity, but charity teacheth how it shall be had both
+in a man's self and in his even Christian;[88] for a man should
+[not] hate sin [so that he destroy his kind, but so that he destroy
+the sin and the appetite of sin] in his kind. And, as against our
+even Christian, we ought to hate sin in him, and to love him; and of
+this hatred speaketh David in the psalm, where he saith thus: "With
+perfect hatred I hated them."[89] And in another psalm he saith that
+"he had in hatred all wicked ways."[90] Thus it is well proved that,
+ere Zebulun was born, Judah and Issachar were both born. For but if
+a man have had charity and ghostly joy in his feeling first, he may
+in no wise feel this perfect hatred of sin in his affection. For
+Judah, that is to say, charity, teacheth us how we shall hate sin in
+ourself and in our brethren; and Issachar, that is to say, ghostly
+feeling of joy in God, teacheth us why we shall hate sin in ourself
+and in our brethren. Judah biddeth us hate sin and love the kind;
+and Issachar biddeth us destroy the sin and save the kind; and thus
+it falleth for to be that the kind may be made strong in God and in
+ghostly things by perfect hatred and destroying of sin. And
+therefore is Zebulun cleped in the story "a dwelling stead of
+strength."[91] And Leah said in his birth: "My husband shall now
+dwell with me";[92] and so it is that God, that is the true husband
+of our soul, is dwelling in that soul, strengthening it in the
+affection with ghostly joy and sweetness in His love, that
+travaileth busily to destroy sin in himself and in others by perfect
+hatred of the sin and all the kind of sin. And thus it is said how
+Zebulun is born.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM IX
+
+HOW ORDAINED SHAME RISETH AND GROWETH IN THE AFFECTION
+
+
+BUT though all that a soul through grace feel in it perfect hatred
+of sin, whether it may yet live without sin? Nay, sikerly;[93] and
+therefore let no man presume of himself, when the Apostle saith
+thus: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourself, and
+soothfastness is not in us."[94] And also saint Austin saith that he
+dare well say that there is no man living without sin.[95] And I
+pray thee, who is he that sinneth not in ignorance? Yea, and oft
+times it falleth that God suffereth those men to fall full
+grievously by the which He hath ordained other men's errors to be
+righted, that they may learn by their own falling how merciful they
+shall be in amending of others. And for that oft times men fall
+grievously in those same sins that they most hate, therefore, after
+hatred of sin, springeth ordained shame in a man's soul; and so it
+is that after Zebulun was Dinah born. As by Zebulun hatred of sin,
+so by Dinah is understanden ordained shame of sin. But wete thou
+well: he that felt never Zebulun, felt never yet Dinah. Evil men
+have a manner of shame, but it is not this ordained shame. For why,
+if they had perfect shame of sin, they should not so customably do
+it with will and advisement;[96] but they shame more with a foul
+cloth on their body, than with a foul thought in their soul. But
+what so thou be that weenest that thou hast gotten Dinah, think
+whether thee would shame as much if a foul thought were in thine
+heart, as thee would if thou were made to stand naked before the
+king and all his royalme; and sikerly else wete it thou right well
+that thou hast not yet gotten ordained shame in thy feeling, if so
+be that thou have less shame with thy foul heart than with thy foul
+body, and if thou think more shame with thy foul body in the sight
+of men than with thy foul heart in the sight of the King of heaven
+and of all His angels and holy saints in heaven.
+
+Lo, it is now said of the seven children of Leah, by the which are
+understanden seven manner of affections in a man's soul, the which
+may be now ordained and now unordained, now measured and now
+unmeasured; but when they are ordained and measured, then are they
+virtues; and when they are unordained and unmeasured, then are they
+vices. Thus behoveth a man have children[97] that they be not only
+ordained, but also measured. Then are they ordained when they are of
+that thing that they should be, and then are they unordained when
+they are of that thing that they should not be; and then are they
+measured when they are as much as they should be, and then are they
+unmeasured when they are more than they should be. For why, overmuch
+dread bringeth in despair, and overmuch sorrow casteth a man in to
+bitterness and heaviness of kind,[98] for the which he is unable to
+receive ghostly comfort. And overmuch hope is presumption, and
+outrageous love is but flattering and faging,[99] and outrageous
+gladness is dissolution and wantonness, and untempered hatred of sin
+is woodness.[100] And on this manner, they are unordained and
+unmeasured, and thus are they turned in to vices, and then lose they
+the name of virtues, and may not be accounted amongst the sons of
+Jacob, that is to say, God: for by Jacob is understanden God, as it
+is shewed in the figure before.
+
+
+
+
+CAPITULUM X
+
+HOW DISCRETION AND CONTEMPLATION RISE IN THE REASON
+
+
+Thus it seemeth that the virtue of discretion needeth to be had,
+with the which all others may be governed; for without it all
+virtues are turned in to vices. This is Joseph, that is the late
+born child, but yet his father loveth him more than them all. For
+why, without discretion may neither goodness be gotten nor kept, and
+therefore no wonder though that virtue be singularly loved, without
+which no virtue may be had nor governed. But what wonder though this
+virtue be late gotten, when we may not win to the perfection of
+discretion without much custom and many travails of these other
+affections coming before? For first behoveth us to be used in each
+virtue by itself, and get the proof of them all serely,[101] ere we
+may have full knowing of them all, or else can deem sufficiently of
+them all. And when we use us busily in these feelings and beholdings
+before said, oft times we fall and oft times we rise. Then, by our
+oft falling, may we learn how much wariness us behoveth have in the
+getting and keeping of these virtues. And thus sometime, by long
+use, a soul is led into full discretion, and then it may joy in the
+birth of Joseph. And before this virtue be conceived in a man's
+soul, all that these other virtues do, it is without discretion. And
+therefore, in as much as a man presumeth and enforceth him in any of
+these feelings beforesaid, over his might and out of measure, in so
+much the fouler he falleth and faileth of his purpose. And therefore
+it is that, after them all and last, is Dinah born; for often, after
+a foul fall and a failing, cometh soon shame. And thus after many
+failings and failings, and shames following, a man learneth by the
+proof that there is nothing better than to be ruled after counsel,
+the which is the readiest getting of discretion. For why, he that
+doth all things with counsel, he shall never forthink[102] it; for
+better is a sly man than a strong man; yea, and better is list than
+lither strength,[103] and a sly man speaketh of victories. And here
+is the open skill why that neither Leah nor Zilpah nor Bilhah might
+bear such a child, but only Rachel; for, as it is said before, that
+of reason springeth right counsel, the which is very discretion,
+understanden by Joseph, the first son of Rachel; and then at the
+first bring we forth Joseph in our reason when all that we are
+stirred to do, we do it with counsel. This Joseph shall not only
+know what sins we are most stirred unto, but also he shall know the
+weakness of our kind, and after that either asketh, so shall he do
+remedy, and seek counsel at wiser than he, and do after them, or
+else he is not Joseph, Jacob's son born of Rachel. And also by this
+foresaid[104] Joseph a man is not only learned to eschew the deceits
+of his enemies, but also oft a man is led by him to the perfect
+knowing of himself; and all after that a man knoweth himself,
+thereafter he profiteth in the knowing of God, of whom he is the
+image and the likeness. And therefore it is that after Joseph is
+Benjamin born. For as by Joseph discretion, so by Benjamin we
+understand contemplation. And both are they born of one mother, and
+gotten of one father. For through the grace of God lightening our
+reason, come we to the perfect knowing of ourself and of God, that
+is to say, after that it may be in this life. But long after Joseph
+is Benjamin born. For why, truly but if it so be that we use us
+busily and long in ghostly travails, with the which we are learned
+to know ourself, we may not be raised in to the knowing and
+contemplation of God. He doth for nought that lifteth up his eye to
+the sight of God, that is not yet able to see himself. For first I
+would that a man learned him to know the unseeable[105] things of
+his own spirit, ere he presume to know the unseeable things of the
+spirit of God; and he that knoweth not yet himself and weeneth that
+he hath gotten somedeal knowing of the unseeable things of God, I
+doubt it not but that he is deceived; and therefore I rede that a
+man seek first busily for to know himself, the which is made to the
+image and the likeness of God as in soul. And wete thou well that he
+that desireth for to see God, him behoveth to cleanse his soul, the
+which is as a mirror in the which all things are clearly seen, when
+it is clean; and when the mirror is foul, then mayst thou see
+nothing clearly therein; and right so it is of thy soul, when it is
+foul, neither thou knowest thyself nor God. As when the candle
+brenneth, thou mayst then see the self candle[106] by the light
+thereof, and other things also; right so, when thy soul brenneth in
+the love of God, that is, when thou feelest continually thine heart
+desire after the love of God, then, by the light of His grace that
+He sendeth in thy reason, thou mayst see both thine own unworthiness
+and His great goodness. And therefore cleanse thy mirror and proffer
+thy candle to the fire; and then, when thy mirror is cleansed and
+thy candle brenning, and it so be that thou wittily behold thereto,
+then beginneth there a manner of clarity of the light of God for to
+shine in thy soul, and a manner of sunbeam that is ghostly to appear
+before thy ghostly sight, through the which the eye of thy soul is
+opened to behold God and godly things, heaven and heavenly things,
+and all manner of ghostly things. But this sight is but by times,
+when God will vouchsafe for to give it to a working[107] soul, the
+whiles it is in the battle of this deadly life; but after this life
+it shall be everlasting. This light shone in the soul of David, when
+he said thus in the psalm: "Lord, the light of Thy face is marked
+upon us; Thou hast given gladness within mine heart."[108] The light
+of God's face is the shining of His grace, that reformeth in us His
+image that hath been disfigured with the darkness of sin; and
+therefore a soul that brenneth in desire of His sight,[109] if it
+hope for to have that that it desireth, wete it well it hath
+conceived Benjamin. And, therefore, what is more healfull[110] than
+the sweetness of this sight, or what softer thing may be felt?
+Sikerly, none; and that woteth Rachel full well. For why, reason
+saith that, in comparison of this sweetness, all other sweetness is
+sorrow, and bitter as gall before honey. Nevertheless, yet may a man
+never come to such a grace by his own slight.[111] For why, it is
+the gift of God without desert of man. But without doubt, though it
+be not the desert of man, yet no man may take such grace without
+great study and brenning desires coming before; and that woteth
+Rachel full well, and therefore she multiplieth her study, and
+whetteth her desires, seeking desire upon desire;[112] so that at
+the last, in great abundance of brenning desires and sorrow of the
+delaying of her desire, Benjamin is born, and his mother Rachel
+dieth;[113] for why, in what time that a soul is ravished above
+itself by abundance of desires and a great multitude of love, so
+that it is inflamed with the light of the Godhead, sikerly then
+dieth all man's reason.
+
+And therefore, what so thou be that covetest to come to
+contemplation of God, that is to say, to bring forth such a child
+that men clepen in the story Benjamin (that is to say, sight of
+God), then shalt thou use thee in this manner. Thou shalt call
+together thy thoughts and thy desires, and make thee of them a
+church, and learn thee therein for to love only this good word Jesu,
+so that all thy desires and all thy thoughts are only set for to
+love Jesu, and that unceasingly as it may be here; so that thou
+fulfill that is said in the psalm: "Lord, I shall bless Thee in
+churches";[114] that is, in thoughts and desires of the love of
+Jesu. And then, in this church of thoughts and desires, and in this
+onehead of studies and of wills, look that all thy thoughts, and all
+thy desires, and all thy studies, and all thy wills be only set in
+the love and the praising of this Lord Jesu, without forgetting, as
+far forth as thou mayst by grace, and as thy frailty will suffer;
+evermore meeking thee to prayer and to counsel, patiently abiding
+the will of our Lord, unto the time that thy mind be ravished above
+itself, to be fed with the fair food of angels in the beholding of
+God and ghostly things:[115] so that it be fulfilled in thee that is
+written in the psalm: Ibi Benjamin adolesentulus in mentis
+excessu;[116] that is: "There is Benjamin, the young child, in
+ravishing of mind." The grace of Jesu keep thee evermore.[117] Amen
+
+DEO GRATIAS
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+HERE FOLLOWETH DIVERS DOCTRINES DEVOUT AND FRUITFUL, TAKEN OUT OF
+THE LIFE OF THAT GLORIOUS VIRGIN AND SPOUSE OF OUR LORD, SAINT
+KATHERIN OF SEENES. AND FIRST THOSE WHICH OUR LORD TAUGHT AND SHEWED
+TO HERSELF, AND SITH THOSE WHICH SHE TAUGHT AND SHEWED UNTO OTHERS
+
+
+THE first doctrine of our Lord is this:
+
+"Knowest thou not, daughter, who thou art and who I am? If thou know
+well these two words, thou art and shalt be blessed. Thou art she
+that art nought; and I am He that am ought.[118] If thou have the
+very knowledge of these two things in thy soul, thy ghostly enemy
+shall never deceive thee, but thou shalt eschew graciously all his
+malice;[119] and thou shalt never consent to any thing that is
+against My commandments and precepts, but all grace, all truth, and
+all charity thou shalt win without any hardness."
+
+The second doctrine of our Lord is this:
+
+"Think on Me, and I shall think on thee."
+
+In declaring of which doctrine she was wont to say that:
+
+"A soul which is verily united to God perceiveth not, seeth not, nor
+loveth not herself, nor none other soul, nor hath no mind of no
+creature but only on God."
+
+And these words she expoundeth more expressly, and saith thus:
+
+"Such a soul seeth herself, that she is very nought of herself, and
+knoweth perfectly that all the goodness, with all the mights of the
+soul, is her Maker's. She forsaketh utterly herself and all
+creatures, and hideth herself fully in her Maker, our Lord Jesu; in
+so much that she sendeth fully and principally all her ghostly and
+bodily workings in to Him; in whom she perceiveth that she may find
+all goodness, and all perfection of blessedness. And, therefore, she
+shall have no will to go out from such inward knowledge of Him for
+nothing.[120] And of this unity of love, that is increased every day
+in such a soul, she is transformed in a manner in to our Lord, that
+she may neither think, nor understand, nor love, nor have no mind
+but God, or else in God. For she may not see herself, nor none other
+creature, but only in God; nor she may not love herself, nor none
+other, but only in God; nor she may have no mind of herself nor of
+none other, but only in God, nor she may have no mind but only of
+her Maker. And therefore," she said, "we shall have none other
+business but only to think how we may please Him, unto whom we have
+committed all our governance both in body and soul."
+
+The third doctrine of our Lord is this; in obtaining of virtue and
+ghostly strength:
+
+"Daughter, if thou wilt get unto thee virtue and also ghostly
+strength,[121] thou must follow Me. Albeit that I might by My godly
+virtue have overcome all the power of the fiends by many manner ways
+of overcoming, yet, for to give you ensample by My manhood, I would
+not overcome him but only by taking of death upon the Cross, that ye
+might be taught thereby, if ye will overcome your ghostly enemies,
+for to take the Cross as I did; the which Cross shall be to you a
+great refreshing in all your temptations, if ye have mind of the
+pains that I suffered thereon.[122] And certainly the pains of the
+Cross may well be called refreshing of temptations, for the more
+pain ye suffer for My love, the more like ye be to Me. And if ye be
+so like to Me in passion, needs ye must be like to Me in joy.[123]
+Therefore for My love, daughter, suffer patiently bitter things, and
+not sweet things; and doubt in no wise, for thou shalt be strong
+enough for to suffer all things patiently."
+
+The first doctrine of this glorious virgin is this:
+
+"A soul which is verily mete[124] to God, as much as it hath of the
+love of God, so much it hath of the hate of her own sensuality. For
+of the love of God naturally cometh hate of sin, the which is done
+against God. The soul, therefore, considering that the root and
+beginning of sin reigneth in the sensuality, and there principally
+is rooted, she is moved and stirred highly and holily with all her
+mights against her own sensuality; not utterly to destroy the root,
+for that may not be, as long as the soul dwelleth in the body living
+in this life, but ever there shall be left a root, namely of small
+venial sins. And because she may not utterly destroy the root of sin
+thus in her sensuality, she conceiveth a great displeasaunce against
+her sensuality, of the which displeasaunce springeth an holy hate
+and a despising of the sensuality, by the which the soul is ever
+well kept from her ghostly enemies. There is nothing that keepeth
+the soul so strong and so sure as doth such an holy hate. And that
+felt well the Apostle, when he said: Cum infirmor, tonc fortior sum
+et potens;[125] that is: When I am sick and feeble in my sensuality
+by hate of sin, then am I stronger and mightier in my soul. Lo, of
+such hate cometh virtue, of such feebleness cometh strength, and of
+such displeasaunce cometh pleasaunce. This holy hate maketh a man
+meek, and to feel meek things of himself. It maketh him patient in
+adversity, temperate in prosperity, and setteth him in all honesty
+of virtue, and maketh him to be loved both of God and man. And where
+this holy hate is not, there is inordinate love, which is the
+stinking canal of all sin, and root[126] of all evil concupiscence.
+Do therefore," she saith, "your business to put away such inordinate
+love of your own self, out of your hearts, and plant therein holy
+hate of sin. For certain that is the right way to perfection, and
+amendment of all sin."
+
+Here is a common answer which she used to say to the fiends:
+
+"I trust in my Lord Jesu Christ, and not in myself."
+
+Here is a rule how we shall behave us in time of temptation:
+
+"When temptation," she saith, "ariseth in us, we should never
+dispute nor make questions; for that is," she saith, "that the fiend
+most seeketh of us for to fall in questions with him. He trusteth so
+highly in the great subtlety of his malice, that he should overcome
+us with his sophistical reasons. Therefore a soul should never make
+questions, nor answer to the questions of the fiend, but rather turn
+her to devout prayer, and commend her to our Lord that she consent
+not to his subtle demands; for by virtue of devout prayer, and
+steadfast faith, we may overcome all the subtle temptations of the
+fiend."
+
+Here is a good conceit of this holy maid to eschew the temptations
+of the fiend:
+
+"It happeneth," she said, "that otherwhile[127] the devout fervour
+of a soul loving our Lord Jesu, either by some certain sin, or else
+by some new subtle temptations of the fiend, waxeth dull and slow,
+and otherwhile it is brought to very coldness;[128] in so much that
+some unwitty folks, considering that they be destitute from the
+ghostly comfort the which they were wont to have, leave[129]
+therefore the ghostly exercise that they were wont to use of prayer,
+of meditations, of reading, of holy communications, and of penance
+doing; whereby they be made more ready to be overcome of the fiend.
+For he desireth nothing else of Christ's knights, but that they
+should put away their armour by the which they were wont to overcome
+their enemies. A wise knight of our Lord Jesu should not do so. But
+thus, the more he feeleth[130] himself dull and slow, or cold in
+devotion, the rather he should continue in his ghostly exercise, and
+not for to make them less, but rather increase them."
+
+Here is another doctrine of this holy maid, the which she used to
+say to herself in edifying of others:
+
+"Thou vile and wretched creature, art thou worthy any manner of
+comfort in this life? Why hast thou not mind of thy sins? What
+supposest thou of thyself, wretched sinner? Is it not enough to
+thee, trowest thou not, that thou art escaped by the mercy of our
+Lord from everlasting damnation? Therefore thou shouldest be well
+apaid,[131] wretch, though thou suffer all the pains and darkness of
+thy soul all the days of thy life. Why art thou, then, heavy and
+sorrowful to suffer such pains, sith by God's grace thou shalt
+escape endless pains with Christ Jesu without any doubt, and be
+comforted endlessly, if thou bear these pains patiently. Whether
+hast thou chosen to serve our Lord only for the comfort that thou
+mayst have of Him in this life? Nay, but for the comfort that thou
+shalt have of Him in the bliss of heaven. Therefore arise up now,
+and cease never of thy ghostly exercise that thou hast used, but
+rather increase to them more."
+
+Here is an answer by the which she had a final victory of the fiend,
+after long threats of intolerable pains:
+
+"I have chosen pain for my refreshing, and therefore it is not hard
+to me to suffer them, but rather delectable for the love of my
+Saviour, as long as it pleaseth His Majesty that I shall suffer
+them."
+
+Here is a doctrine of the said virgin, how we should use the grace
+of our Lord:
+
+"Who so could use the grace of our Lord, he should ever have the
+victory of all things that falleth to him. For as often," she said,
+"as any new thing falleth to a man, be it of prosperity or
+adversity, he should think in himself thus: Of this will I win
+somewhat. For he that can do so, shall soon be rich in virtue."
+
+Here followeth notable doctrines of this holy maid, taken of her
+sermon which she made to her disciples before her passing, and the
+first was this:
+
+"What so ever he be that cometh to the service of God, if he will
+have God truly, it is needful to him that he make his heart naked
+from all sensible love, not only of certain persons but of every
+creature what that ever he be, and then he should stretch up his
+soul to our Lord and our Maker, simply, with all the desire of his
+heart. For an heart may not wholly be given to God, but if it be
+free from all other love, open and simple without doubleness." And
+so she affirmed of herself, that it was her principal labour and
+business from her young age unto that time, ever for to come to that
+perfection. Also she said that she knew well that to such a state of
+perfection, in the which all the heart is given to God, a soul may
+not come perfectly without meditation of devout prayer, and that the
+prayer be grounded in meekness, and that it come not forth and
+proceed by any trust of any manner of virtue of him that prayeth,
+but alway he should know himself to be right nought. For she said
+that that was ever her business, to give herself to the exercise of
+prayer, so for to win the continual habit of prayer; for she did see
+well that by prayer all virtues are increased, and made mighty and
+strong; and, without prayer, they wax feeble and defail.[132]
+Wherefore she induced her disciples that they should busy them to
+prayer perseverauntly; and therefore she told them of two manner of
+prayers:[133] Vocal and Mental. Vocal prayers, she said, should be
+kept certain hours in the night and in the day ordained by holy
+Church; but mental prayer should ever be had, in act or in habit of
+the soul. Also she said that, by the light of quick faith, she saw
+clearly and conceived in her soul that what that ever befell to her,
+or to any others, all cometh from God, not for hate but for great
+love that He hath to His creatures; and by[134] this quick faith she
+conceived in herself a love and a readiness to obey as well to the
+precepts of her sovereigns,[135] as to the commandments of God, ever
+thinking that their precepts should come from God, either for need
+of herself, or else for increase of virtue in her soul. Also she
+said, for to get and purchase purity of soul, it were right
+necessary that a man kept himself from all manner of judgments of
+his [neighbour, and from all idle speaking of his][136] neighbour's
+deeds; for in every creature we should behold only the will of God.
+And therefore she said that in no wise men should deem[137]
+creatures; that is, neither despise them by their doom[138] nor
+condemn them, all be it that they see them do open sin before them;
+but rather they should have compassion on them and pray for them,
+and despise them not, nor condemn them. Also she said that she had
+great hope and trust in God's providence; for, she said, she knew
+well[139] by experience that the Divine providence was and is a
+passing great thing, for it wanteth never to them that hopeth in it.
+
+DEO GRATIS
+
+
+
+
+III.
+
+HERE BEGINNETH A SHORT TREATISE OF CONTEMPLATION TAUGHT BY OUR LORD
+JESU CHRIST, OR TAKEN OUT OF THE BOOK OF MARGERY KEMPE, ANCRESS OF
+LYNN
+
+
+SHE desired many times that her head might be smitten off with an
+axe upon a block for the love of our Lord Jesu. Then said our Lord
+Jesu in her mind: "I thank thee, daughter, that thou wouldest die
+for My love; for as often as thou thinkest so, thou shalt have the
+same meed in heaven, as if thou suffredest the same death, and yet
+there shall no man slay thee.
+
+"I assure thee in thy mind, if it were possible for Me to suffer
+pain again, as I have done before, Me were lever to suffer as much
+pain as ever I did for thy soul alone, rather than thou shouldest
+depart from Me everlastingly.
+
+"Daughter, thou mayst no better please God, than to think
+continually in His love."
+
+Then she asked our Lord Jesu Christ, how she should best love Him.
+And our Lord said: "Have mind of thy wickedness, and think on My
+goodness.
+
+"Daughter, if thou wear the habergeon or the hair,[140] fasting
+bread and water, and if thou saidest every day a thousand Pater
+Nosters, thou shalt[141] not please Me so well as thou dost when
+thou art in silence, and suffrest Me to speak in thy soul.
+
+"Daughter, for to bid many beads, it is good to them that can not
+better do, and yet it is not perfect.[142] But it is a good way
+toward perfection. For I tell thee, daughter, they that be great
+fasters, and great doers of penance, they would that it should be
+holden the best life.[143] And they that give them unto many
+devotions, they would have that the best life. And those that give
+much almesse, they would that it were holden the best life. And I
+have often told thee, daughter, that thinking, weeping, and high
+contemplation is the best life in earth, and thou shalt have more
+merit in heaven for one year thinking in thy mind than for an
+hundred year of praying with thy mouth; and yet thou wilt not
+believe Me, for thou wilt bid many beads.[144]
+
+"Daughter, if thou knew how sweet thy love is to Me, thou wouldest
+never do other thing but love Me with all thine heart.
+
+"Daughter, if thou wilt be high with Me in heaven, keep Me alway in
+thy mind as much as thou mayst, and forget not Me at thy meat; but
+think alway that I sit in thine heart and know every thought that is
+therein, both good and bad.
+
+"Daughter, I have suffered many pains for thy love; therefore thou
+hast great cause to love Me right well, for I have bought thy love
+full dear."
+
+"Dear Lord," she said, "I pray Thee, let me never have other joy in
+earth, but mourning and weeping for Thy love; for me thinketh, Lord,
+though I were in hell, if I might weep there and mourn for Thy love
+as I do here, hell should not noye[145] me, but it should be a
+manner of heaven. For Thy love putteth away all manner of dread of
+our ghostly enemy; for I had lever be there, as long as Thou
+wouldest, and please Thee, than to be in this world and displease
+Thee; therefore, good Lord, as Thou wilt, so may[146] it be."
+
+She had great wonder that our Lord would become man, and suffer so
+grievous pains, for her that was so unkind a creature to Him. And
+then, with great weeping, she asked our Lord Jesu how she might best
+please Him; and He answered to her soul, saying: "Daughter, have
+mind of thy wickedness, and think on My goodness." Then she prayed
+many times and often these words: "Lord, for Thy great goodness,
+have mercy on my great wickedness, as certainly as I was never so
+wicked as Thou art good, nor never may be though I would; for Thou
+art so good, that Thou mayst no better be; and, therefore, it is
+great wonder that ever any man should be departed from Thee without
+end."
+
+When she saw the Crucifix, or if she saw a man had a wound, or a
+beast, or if a man beat a child before her, or smote a horse or
+another beast with a whip, if she might see it or hear it, she
+thought she saw our Lord beaten or wounded, like as she saw in the
+man or in the beast.
+
+The more she increased in love and in devotion, the more she
+increased in sorrow and contrition, in lowliness[147] and meekness,
+and in holy dread of our Lord Jesu, and in knowledge of her own
+frailty. So that if she saw any creature be punished or sharply
+chastised, she would think that she had been more worthy to be
+chastised than that creature was, for her unkindness against God.
+Then would she weep for her own sin, and for compassion of that
+creature.
+
+Our Lord said to her: "In nothing that thou dost or sayest,
+daughter, thou mayst no better please God than believe that He
+loveth thee. For, if it were possible that I might weep with thee, I
+would weep with thee for the compassion that I have of thee."
+
+Our merciful Lord Jesu Christ drew this creature unto His love, and
+to the mind of His passion, that she might not endure to behold a
+leper, or another sick man, specially if he had any wounds appearing
+on him. So she wept as if she had seen our Lord Jesu with His wounds
+bleeding; and so she did, in the sight of the soul; for, through the
+beholding of the sick man, her mind was all ravished in to our Lord
+Jesu, that she had great mourning and sorrowing that she might not
+kiss the leper when she met them in the way, for the love of our
+Lord: which was all contrary to her disposition in the years of her
+youth and prosperity, for then she abhorred them most.
+
+Our Lord said: "Daughter, thou hast desired in thy mind to have many
+priests in the town of Lynn, that might sing and read night and day
+for to serve Me, worship Me, and praise Me, and thank Me for the
+goodness that I have done to thee in earth; and therefore, daughter,
+I promise thee that thou shalt have meed and reward in heaven for
+the good wills and good desires, as if thou haddest done them in
+deed.
+
+"Daughter, thou shalt have as great meed and as great reward with Me
+in heaven, for thy good service and thy good deeds that thou hast
+done in thy mind, as if thou haddest done the same with thy bodily
+wits withoutforth.[148]
+
+"And, daughter, I thank thee for the charity that thou hast to all
+lecherous men and women; for thou prayest for them and weepest for
+them many a tear, desiring that I should deliver them out of sin,
+and be as gracious to them as I was to Mary Magdalene, that they
+might have as much grace to love Me as Mary Magdalene had; and with
+this condition thou wouldest that everich[149] of them should have
+twenty pounds a year to love and praise Me; and, daughter, this
+great charity which thou hast to them in thy prayer pleaseth Me
+right well. And, daughter, also I thank thee for the charity which
+thou hast in thy prayer, when thou prayest for all Jews and
+Saracens, and all heathen people that they should come to Christian
+faith, that My name might be magnified in them. Furthermore,
+daughter, I thank thee for the general charity that thou hast to all
+people that be now in this world, and to all those that are to come
+unto the world's end; that thou wouldest be hacked as small as flesh
+to the pot for their love, so that I would by thy death save them
+all from damnation, if it pleased Me. And, therefore, daughter, for
+all these good wills and desires, thou shalt have full meed and
+reward in heaven, believe it right well and doubt never a deal."
+
+She said: "Good Lord, I would be laid naked upon an hurdle for Thy
+love, all men to wonder on me and to cast filth and dirt on me, and
+be drawen from town to town every day my life time, if Thou were
+pleased thereby, and no man's soul hindered. Thy will be fulfilled
+and not mine."
+
+"Daughter," He said, "as oftentimes as thou sayest or thinkest:
+Worshipped be all the holy places in Jerusalem, where Christ
+suffered bitter pain and passion in: thou shalt have the same pardon
+as if thou were there with thy bodily presence, both to thyself and
+to all those that thou wilt give to.[150]
+
+"The same pardon that was granted thee aforetime, it was confirmed
+on Saint Nicholas day, that is to say, playne[151] remission; and it
+is not only granted to thee, but also to all those that believe, and
+to all those that shall believe unto the world's end, that God
+loveth thee, and shall thank God for thee. If they will forsake
+their sin, and be in full will no more to turn again thereto, but be
+sorry and heavy for that they have done, and will do due penance
+therefore, they shall have the same pardon that is granted to
+thyself; and that is all the pardon that is in Jerusalem,[152] as
+was granted thee when thou were at Rafnys."[153]
+
+That day that she suffered no tribulation for our Lord's sake, she
+was not merry nor glad, as that day when she suffered tribulation.
+
+Our Lord Jesus said unto her: "Patience is more worth than miracles
+doing. Daughter, it is more pleasure to Me that thou suffer
+despites, scorns, shames, reproofs, wrongs, and diseases, than if
+thine head were stricken off three times a day every day in seven
+year."
+
+"Lord," she said, "for Thy great pain have mercy on my little pain."
+
+When she was in great trouble, our Lord said: "Daughter, I must
+needs comfort thee, for now thou hast the right way to heaven. By
+this way came I and all My disciples; for now thou shalt know the
+better what sorrow and shame I suffered for thy love, and thou shalt
+have the more compassion when thou thinkest on My passion."
+
+"O my dear worthy Lord," said she, "these graces Thou shouldest shew
+to religious men and to priests."
+
+Our Lord said to her again: "Nay, nay, daughter, for that I love
+best that they love not, and that is shames, reproofs, scorns, and
+despites of the people; and therefore they shall not have this
+grace; for, daughter, he that dreadeth the shames of this world may
+not perfectly love God."
+
+Here endeth a short treatise of a devout ancress called Margery
+Kempe of Lynn
+
+
+
+
+IV.
+
+HERE FOLLOWETH A DEVOUT TREATISE COMPILED BY MASTER WALTER HYLTON OF
+THE SONG OF ANGELS
+
+
+DEAR brother in Christ, I have understanding by thine own speech,
+and also by telling of another man, that thou yearnest and desirest
+greatly for to have more knowledge and understanding than thou hast
+of angel's song and heavenly sound; what it is, and on what wise it
+is perceived and felt in a man's soul, and how a man may be siker
+that it is true and not feigned; and how it is made by the presence
+of the good angel, and not by the inputting of the evil angel. These
+things thou wouldest wete of me; but, soothly, I cannot tell thee
+for a surety the soothfastness of this matter; nevertheless
+somewhat, as me thinketh, I shall shew thee in a short word.
+
+Wete thou well that the end and the sovereignty of perfection
+standeth in very onehead[154] of God and of a man's soul by perfect
+charity. This onehead, then, is verily made when the mights of the
+soul are reformed by grace to the dignity and the state of the first
+condition; that is, when the mind is stabled sadly,[155] without
+changing and vagation,[156] in God and ghostly things, and when the
+reason is cleared from all worldly and fleshly beholdings, and from
+all bodily imaginations, figures, and fantasies of creatures, and is
+illumined by grace to behold God and ghostly things, and when the
+will and the affection is purified and cleansed from all fleshly,
+kindly, and worldly love, and is inflamed with brenning love of the
+Holy Ghost. This wonderful onehead may not be fulfilled[157]
+perfectly, continually, and wholly in this life, for the corruption
+of the flesh, but only in the bliss of heaven. Nevertheless, the
+nearer that a soul in this present life may come to this onehead,
+the more perfect it is. For the more that it is reformed by grace to
+the image and the likeness of its Creator here on this wise; the
+more joy and bliss shall it have in heaven. Our Lord God is an
+endless being without changing, almighty without failing, sovereign
+wisdom, light, soothness without error or darkness; sovereign
+goodness, love, peace, and sweetness. Then the more that a soul is
+united, fastened, conformed, and joined to our Lord, the more stable
+and mighty it is, the more wise and clear, good and peaceable,
+loving and more virtuous it is, and so it is more perfect. For a
+soul that hath by the grace of Jesu, and long travail of bodily and
+ghostly exercise, overcome and destroyed concupiscences, and
+passions, and unskilful stirrings[158] within itself, and without in
+the sensuality, and is clothed all in virtues, as in meekness and
+mildness, in patience and softness, in ghostly strength and
+righteousness, in continence, in wisdom, in truth, hope and charity;
+then it is made perfect, as it may be in this life. Much comfort it
+receiveth of our Lord, not only inwardly in its own privy
+substance,[159] by virtue of the onehead to our Lord that lieth in
+knowing and loving of God, in light and ghostly brenning of Him, in
+transforming of the soul in to the Godhead; but also many other
+comforts, savours, sweetnesses, and wonderful feelings on sere[160]
+or sundry manners, after that our Lord vouchethsafe to visit His
+creatures here in earth, and after that the soul profiteth and
+waxeth in charity. Some soul, by virtue of charity that God giveth
+it, is so cleansed, that all creatures, and all that he heareth, or
+seeth, or feeleth by any of his wits, turneth him to comfort and
+gladness; and the sensuality receiveth new savour and sweetness in
+all creatures.[161] And right as beforetime the likings in the
+sensuality were fleshly, vain, and vicious, for the pain of the
+original sin; right so now they are made ghostly and clean, without
+bitterness and biting of conscience. And this is the goodness of our
+Lord, that sith the soul is punished in the sensuality, and the
+flesh is partner of the pain, that afterward the soul be comforted
+in the sensuality, and the flesh be fellow of joy and comfort with
+the soul, not fleshly, but ghostly, as he was fellow in tribulation
+and pain. This is the freedom and the lordship, the dignity, and the
+worship that a man[162] hath over all creatures, the which dignity
+he may so recover by grace here, that every creature savour to him
+as it is. And that is, when by grace he seeth, he heareth, he
+feeleth only God in all creatures. On this manner of wise a soul is
+made ghostly in the sensuality by abundance of charity, that is, in
+the substance of the soul. Also, our Lord comforteth a soul by
+angel's song. What that song is, it may not be described by no
+bodily likeness, for it is ghostly, and above all manner of
+imagination and reason. It may be felt and perceived in a soul, but
+it may not be shewed. Nevertheless, I shall speak thereof to thee as
+me thinketh. When a soul is purified by the love of God, illumined
+by wisdom, stabled by the might of God, then is the eye of the soul
+opened to behold ghostly things, as virtues and angels and holy
+souls, and heavenly things.[163] Then is the soul able because of
+cleanness to feel the touching, the speaking of good angels. This
+touching and speaking, it is ghostly and not bodily.[164] For when
+the soul is lifted and ravished out of the sensuality, and out of
+mind of any earthly things, then in great fervour of love and light
+(if our Lord vouchsafe) the soul may hear and feel heavenly sound,
+made by the presence of angels in loving of God. Not that this song
+of angels is the sovereign joy of the soul; but for the difference
+that is between a man's soul in flesh and an angel, because of
+uncleanness, a soul may not hear it, but by ravishing in love, and
+needeth for to be purified well clean, and fulfilled of much
+charity, or[165] it were able for to hear heavenly sound. For the
+sovereign and the essential joy is in the love of God by Himself and
+for Himself, and the secondary is in communing and beholding of
+angels and ghostly creatures. For right as a soul, in understanding
+of ghostly things, is often times touched and moved through bodily
+imagination by working of angels; as Ezekiel the prophet did see in
+bodily imagination the soothfastness of God's privities;[166] right
+so, in the love of God, a soul by the presence of angels is ravished
+out of mind of all earthly and fleshly things in to an heavenly joy,
+to hear angel's song and heavenly sound, after that the charity is
+more or less.[167] Now, then, me thinketh that there may no soul
+feel verily angel's song nor heavenly sound, but he be in perfect
+charity; though all that are in perfect charity have not felt it,
+but only that soul that is so purified in the fire of love that all
+earthly savour is brent out of it, and all mean letting[168] between
+the soul and the cleanness of angels is broken and put away from it.
+Then soothly may he sing a new song, and soothly he may hear a
+blessed heavenly sound, and angel's song without deceit or feigning.
+Our Lord woteth there that soul is that, for abundance of brenning
+love, is worthy to hear angel's song. Who so then will hear angel's
+song, and not be deceived by feigning of himself, nor by
+imagination, nor by the illusion of the enemy, him behoveth for to
+have perfect charity; and that is when all vain love and dread, vain
+joy and sorrow, is cast out of the heart, so that it love nothing
+but God, nor dread nothing but God, nor joyeth, nor sorroweth
+nothing but in God, or for God. Who so might by the grace of God go
+this way, he should not err. Nevertheless, some men are deceived by
+their own imagination, or by the illusion of the enemy in this
+manner.[169] Some man, when he hath long travailed bodily and
+ghostily in destroying of sins and getting of virtues, and
+peradventure hath gotten by grace a somedeal[170] rest, and a
+clarity in conscience, anon he leaveth prayers, readings of holy
+scriptures, and meditations of the passion of Christ, and the mind
+of his wretchedness; and, or[171] he be called of God, he gathereth
+his own visits by violence to seek and to behold heavenly things, or
+his eye be made ghostly by grace, and overtravaileth by imaginations
+his wits, and by indiscreet travailing turneth the brains in his
+head, and forbreaketh[172] the mights and the wits of the soul and
+of the body. And then, for feebleness of the brain, him thinketh
+that he heareth wonderful sounds and songs; and that is nothing else
+but a fantasy, caused of troubling of the brain; as a man that is in
+a frenzy him thinketh that he heareth and seeth that none other man
+doth; and all is but vanity and fantasies of the head, or else it is
+by working of the wicked enemy that feigneth such sounds in his
+hearing.
+
+For if a man have any presumption in his fantasies and in his
+workings, and thereby falleth in to indiscreet imagination, as it
+were in a frenzy, and is not ordered nor ruled of grace, nor
+comforted by ghostly strength, the devil entereth in, and by his
+false illuminations, and by his false sounds, and by his false
+sweetnesses, he deceiveth a man's soul.
+
+And of this false ground springeth errors, and heresies, false
+prophecies, presumptions, and false reasonings, blasphemings, and
+slanderings, and many other mischiefs. And, therefore, if thou see
+any man ghostly occupied fall in any of these sins and these
+deceits, or in frenzies, wete thou well that he never heard nor felt
+angel's song nor heavenly sound. For, soothly, he that heareth
+verily angel's song, he is made so wise that he shall never err by
+fantasy, nor by indiscretion, nor by no slight[173] of working of
+the devil.
+
+Also, some men feel in their hearts as it were a ghostly sound, and
+sweet songs in divers manners; and this is commonly good, and
+sometime it may turn to deceit. This sound is felt on this wise.
+Some man setteth the thought of his heart only in the name of Jesu,
+and steadfastly holdeth it thereto, and in short time him thinketh
+that that name turneth him to great comfort and sweetness, and him
+thinketh that the name soundeth in his heart delectably, as it were
+a song; and the virtue of this liking is so mighty, that it draweth
+in all the wits of the soul thereto. Who so may feel this sound and
+this sweetness verily in his heart, wete thou well that it is of
+God,[174] and, as long as he is meek, he shall not be deceived. But
+this is not angel's song; but it is a song of the soul by virtue of
+the name and by touching of the good angel.[175] For when a soul
+offereth him to Jesu truly and meekly, putting all his trust and his
+desire in Him, and busily keepeth Him in his mind, our Lord Jesu,
+when He will, pureth[176] the affection of the soul, and filleth it,
+and feedeth it with sweetness of Himself, and maketh His name in the
+feeling of the soul[177] as honey, and as song, and as any thing
+that is delectable; so that it liketh the soul evermore for to cry
+Jesu, Jesu. And not only he hath comfort in this, but also in psalms
+and hymns, and anthems of holy Church, that the heart singeth them
+sweetly, devoutly, and freely, without any travail of the soul, or
+bitterness in the same time,[178] and notes that holy Church useth.
+This is good, and of the gift of God, for the substance of this
+feeling lies in the love of Jesu, which is fed and lightened[179] by
+such manner of songs. Nevertheless, in this manner of feeling, a
+soul may be deceived by vain glory; not in that time that the
+affection singeth to Jesu, and loveth Jesu in sweetness of Him, but
+afterward, when it ceaseth and the heart keeleth[180] of the love of
+Jesu, then entereth in vain glory. Also some man is deceived on this
+wise: he heareth well say that it is good to have Jesu in his mind,
+or any other good word of God; then he straineth his heart mightily
+to that name, and by a custom he hath it nearhand alway in his mind;
+and, nevertheless, he feeleth not thereby in his affection
+sweetness, nor light of knowing in his reason, but only a naked mind
+of God,[181] or of Jesu, or of Mary, or of any other good word. Here
+may be deceit, not for it is evil for to have Jesu in mind on this
+wish but if he this feeling and this mind, that is only his own
+working by custom, hold it a special visitation of our Lord,[182]
+and think it more than it is. For wete thou well that a naked mind
+or a naked imagination of Jesu, or of any ghostly thing, without
+sweetness of love in the affection, or without light of knowing in
+reason, it is but a blindness, and a way to deceit, if a man hold it
+in his own sight more than it is. Therefore I hold it siker[183]
+that he be meek in his own feeling, and hold this mind in regard
+nought, till he may, by custom and using of this mind, feel the fire
+of love in his affection, and the light of knowing in his reason.
+Lo, I have told thee in this matter a little, as me thinketh; not
+affirming that this sufficeth, nor that this is the soothfastness in
+this matter. But if thou think it otherwise, or else any other man
+savour by grace the contrary hereto, I leave this saying, and give
+stead to him; it sufficeth to me for to live in truth[184]
+principally, and not in feeling.
+
+EXPLICIT
+
+
+
+
+V.
+
+HERE AFTER FOLLOWETH A DEVOUT TREATISE CALLED THE EPISTLE OF PRAYER
+
+
+GHOSTLY friend in God, as touching thine asking of me, how thou
+shalt rule thine heart in the time of thy prayer, I answer unto thee
+thus feebly as I can. And I say that me thinketh that it should be
+full speedful unto thee at the first beginning of thy prayer, what
+prayer so ever it be, long or short, for to make it full known unto
+thine heart, without any feigning, that thou shalt die at the end of
+thy prayer.[185] And wete thou well that this is no feigned thought
+that I tell thee, and see why; for truly there is no man living in
+this life that dare take upon him to say the contrary: that is to
+say, that thou shalt live longer than thy prayer is in doing. And,
+therefore, thou mayst think it safely, and I counsel thee to do it.
+For, if thou do it, thou shalt see that, what for the general sight
+that thou hast of thy wretchedness, and this special sight of the
+shortness of time of amendment, it shall bring in to thine heart a
+very working of dread.
+
+And this working shalt thou feel[186] verily folden in thine heart,
+but if it so be (the which God forbid) that thou flatter and
+fage[187] thy false fleshly blind heart with leasings[188] and
+feigned behightings, that thou shalt longer live.[189] For though it
+may be sooth in thee in deed that thou shalt live longer, yet it is
+ever in thee a false leasing for to think it before, and for to
+behight[190] it to thine heart. For why, the soothfastness of this
+thing is only in God, and in thee is but a blind abiding of His
+will, without certainty of one moment, the which is as little or
+less than a twinkling of an eye. And, therefore, if thou wilt pray
+wisely as the prophet biddeth when he saith in the psalm: Psallite
+sapienter;191 look that thou get thee in the beginning this very
+working of dread. For, as the same prophet saith in another psalm:
+Initium sapientiae timor Domini;192 that is: "The beginning of
+wisdom is the dread of our Lord God." But for that there is no full
+sikerness standing[193] upon dread only, for fear of sinking in to
+over much heaviness, therefore shalt thou knit to thy first thought
+this other thought that followeth. Thou shalt think steadfastly that
+if thou may, through the grace of God, distinctly pronounce the
+words of that prayer, and win to the end thereof, or if thou die
+before thou come to the end, so that thou do that in thee is, that
+then it shall be accepted of thee unto God, as a full aseeth[194] of
+all thy recklessness from the beginning of thy life unto that
+moment. I mean thus: standing that thou hast before time, after thy
+conning and thy conscience, lawfully amended thee after the common
+ordinance of holy Church in confession; this short prayer, so little
+as it is, shall be accepted of thee unto God for thy full salvation,
+if thou then didst die, and to the great increase of thy perfection,
+if thou didst live longer. This is the goodness of God, the which,
+as the prophet saith, forsaketh none that truly trusteth in Him with
+will of amendment;[195] and sith that all amendment standeth in
+two--that is, in leaving of evil and doing of good--means to get
+these two are none readier than the ghostly working of these two
+thoughts touched before. For what reaveth from a soul[196] more
+readily the affection of sinning, than doth a true working of dread
+of death? And what moveth a soul[197] more fervently to working of
+good, than doth a certain hope in the mercy and the goodness of God,
+the which is brought in by this second thought? For why, the ghostly
+feeling of this second thought, when it is thus truly joined to the
+first, shall be to thee a sure staff of hope to hold thee by in all
+thy good doings. And by this staff thou mayst sikerly climb in to
+the high mount of perfection, that is to say, to the perfect love of
+God; though all this beginning be imperfect, as thou shalt hear
+after. For, what for the general sight that thou hast of the mercy
+and of the goodness of God, and this special experience that thou
+feelest of His mercy and His goodness in this acceptation of this
+little short service for so long recklessness, as it were in a full
+aseeth of so much recklessness (as it is said before), it may not be
+but that thou shalt feel a great stirring of love unto Him that is
+so good and so merciful unto thee--as the steps of thy staff, hope,
+plainly sheweth unto thee in the time of thy prayer, if thou do it
+duly as I have told thee before.[198] The ghostly experience of the
+proof of this working standeth all in a reverent affection that a
+man hath to God in the time of his prayer, caused of this dread in
+the ground of this work, and of this stirring of love, the which is
+brought in by the ghostly steps of this staff hope, touched before.
+For why, reverence is nought else but dread and love medled together
+with a staff of certain hope,
+
+Me thinketh that the proof of this working is devotion; for devotion
+is nought else, as saint Thomas the doctor saith, but a readiness of
+man's will to do those things that longeth to the service of
+God.[199] Each man prove in himself, for he that doth God's service
+in this manner, he feeleth how ready that his will is thereto. Me
+thinketh that saint Bernard accordeth to this working, where he
+saith that all things should be done swiftly and gladly. And see
+why: swiftly for dread, and gladly for hope, and lovely trust in His
+mercy. [And what more? Sikerly, I had lever have his meed that
+lasteth in such doing, though all he never did bodily penance in
+this life, but only that that is enjoined to him of holy Church,
+than of all the penance-doers that have been in this life from the
+beginning of the world unto this day without this manner of doing. I
+say not that the naked thinking of these two thoughts is so meedful;
+but that reverent affection, to the which bringing in these two
+thoughts are sovereign means on man's party, that is it that is so
+meedful as I say.[200]] And this is only it by itself, without any
+other manner of doing (as is fasting, waking, sharp wearing, and all
+these other), the which only by itself pleaseth almighty God, and
+deserveth to have meed of Him. And it were impossible any soul to
+have meed of God without this, and all after the quantity of this
+shall stand the quantity of meed; for whoso hath much of this, much
+meed shall he have, and whoso hath less of this, less meed shall he
+have. And all these other things, as is fasting, waking, sharp
+wearing, and all these other, they are needful[201] in as much as
+they are helply to get this, so that without this they are nought.
+And this without them is sometime sufficient at the full by itself,
+and it is often times full worthily had and come to of full many
+without any of the others. All this I say for that I would by this
+knowing that thou charged and commended each thing after that it is:
+the more, "the more," and the less, "the less"; for oft times
+unknowing is cause of much error. And oft times unknowing maketh men
+to charge more and commend more bodily exercise (as is fasting,
+waking, sharp wearing, and all these others) than they do ghostly
+exercise in virtues or in this reverent affection touched before.
+And, therefore, in more declaration of the meed and the worthiness
+of this reverent affection, I shall say a little more than I yet
+have said, so that, by such declaring, thou mayst be better learned
+in this working than thou yet art.
+
+All this manner of working beforesaid of this reverent affection,
+when it is brought in by these two thoughts of dread and of hope
+coming before, may well be likened to a tree that were full of
+fruit; of the which tree, dread is that party that is within in the
+earth, that is, the root. And hope is that party that is above the
+earth, that is, the body[202] with the boughs. In that that hope is
+certain and stable, it is the body; in that it stirreth men to works
+of love, it is the boughs; but this reverent affection is evermore
+the fruit, and then, evermore as long as the fruit is fastened to
+the tree,[203] it hath in party a green smell of the tree; but when
+it hath been a certain time departed from the tree and is full ripe,
+then it hath lost all the taste of the tree, and is king's meat
+[that was before but knave's meat].[204] In this time it is that
+this reverent affection is so meedful as I said. And, therefore,
+shape thee for to depart this fruit from the tree, and for to offer
+it up by itself to the high King of heaven; and then shalt thou be
+cleped God's own child, loving Him with a chaste love for Himself,
+and not for His goods.[205] I mean thus: though all that the
+innumerable good deeds, the which almighty God of His gracious
+goodness hath shewed to each soul in this life, be sufficient causes
+at the full and more, to each soul to love Him for, with all his
+mind, with all his wit, and with all his will; yet if it might be,
+that may no wise be, that a soul were as mighty, as worthy, and as
+witty as all the saints and angels that are in heaven gathered in
+one, and had never taken this worthiness of God,[206] or to whom
+that God had never shewed kindness in this life; yet this soul,
+seeing the loveliness of God in Himself, and the abundance thereof,
+should be ravished over his might for to love God, till the heart
+brast; so lovely and so liking, so good and so glorious He is in
+Himself.
+
+O how wonderful a thing and how high a thing is the love of God for
+to speak of, of the which no man may speak perfectly to the
+understanding of the least party thereof, but by impossible
+ensamples, and passing the understanding of man! And thus it is that
+I mean when I say loving Him with a chaste love for Himself, and not
+for His goods;[207] not as if I said (though all I well said) much
+for His goods, but without comparison more for Himself. For, if I
+shall more highly speak in declaring of my meaning of the perfection
+and of the meed of this reverent affection, I say that a soul
+touched in affection by the sensible presence of Gods as He is in
+Himself, and in a perfect soul illumined in the reason, by the clear
+beam of everlasting light, the which is God, for to see and for to
+feel the loveliness[208] of God in Himself, hath for that time and
+for that moment lost all the mind of any good deed or of any
+kindness that ever God did to him in this life--so that cause for to
+love God for feeleth he or seeth he none in that time, other than is
+God Himself. So that though all it may be said in speaking of the
+common perfection, that the great goodness and the great kindness
+that God hath shewed to us in this life are high and worthy causes
+for to love God for; yet having beholding to the point and the prick
+of perfection (to the which I purpose to draw thee in my meaning,
+and in the manner of this writing), a perfect lover of God, for
+dread of letting[209] of his perfection, seeketh now, that is to
+say, in the point of perfection, none other cause for to love God
+for, but God Himself; so that by this meaning I say, that chaste
+love is to love God for Himself and not for His goods. And
+therefore, following the rule of mine ensample, shape thee to depart
+the fruit from the tree, and for to offer it up by itself unto the
+King of heaven, that thy love be chaste; for evermore as long as
+thou offrest Him this fruit green and hanging on the tree, thou
+mayst well be likened to a woman that is not chaste, for she loveth
+a man more for his goods than for himself. And see why that I liken
+thee thus; for it seemeth that dread of thy death and shortness of
+time, with hope of forgiveness of all thy recklessness, maketh thee
+to be in God's service so reverent as thou art. And if it so be,
+soothly then hath thy fruit a green smell of the tree; and though
+all it pleaseth God in party, nevertheless, yet it pleaseth Him not
+perfectly, and that is for thy love is not yet chaste.
+
+Chaste love is that when thou askest of God neither releasing of
+pain, nor increasing of meed, nor yet sweetness in His love in this
+life; but if it be any certain time that thou covetest sweetness as
+for a refreshing of thy ghostly mights, that they fail not in the
+way; but thou askest of God nought but Himself, and neither thou
+reckest nor lookest after whether thou shalt be in pain or in bliss,
+so that thou have Him that thou lovest--this is chaste love, this is
+perfect love.[210] And therefore shape thee for to depart the fruit
+from the tree; that is to say, this reverent affection from the
+thoughts of dread and of hope coming before; so that thou mayst
+offer it ripe and chaste unto God by itself, not caused of any thing
+beneath Him, or medled with Him[211] (yea, though all it be the
+chief),[212] but only of Him, by Himself; and then it is so meedful
+as I say that it is. For it is plainly known without any doubt unto
+all those that are expert in the science of divinity and of God's
+love, that as often as a man's affection is stirred unto God without
+mean (that is, without messenger of any thought in special causing
+that stirring), as oft it deserveth everlasting life. And for that
+that a soul that is thus disposed (that is to say, that offreth the
+fruit ripe, and departed from the tree) may innumerable times in one
+hour be raised in to God suddenly without mean, therefore more than
+I can say it deserveth, through the grace of God, the which is the
+chief worker, to be raised in to joy. And therefore shape thee for
+to offer the fruit ripe and departed from the tree. Nevertheless,
+the fruit upon the tree, continually offered as man's frailty will
+suffer, deserveth salvation; but the fruit ripe and departed from
+the tree, suddenly offered unto God without mean, that is
+perfection. And here mayst thou see that the tree is good, though
+all that I bid thee depart the fruit therefrom, for more perfection;
+and therefore I set it in thy garden; for I would that thou should
+gather the fruit thereof, and keep it to thy Lord. And for that that
+I would that thou knew what manner of working it is that knitteth
+man's soul to God, and that maketh it one with Him in love and
+accordance of will,[213] after the word of saint Paul saying thus:
+Qui adhaeret Duo unus spiritus est cum illo;214 that is to say: "Who
+so draweth near to God," as it is by such a reverent affection
+touched before, "he is one spirit with God." That is, though all
+that God and he be two and sere[215] in kind, nevertheless yet in
+grace they are so knit together that they are but one in
+spirit;[216] and all this is for onehead of love and accordance of
+will; and in this onehead is the marriage made between God and the
+soul, the which shall never be broken, though all that the heat and
+the fervour of this work cease for a time, but by a deadly sin.
+
+In the ghostly feeling of this onehead may a loving soul both say
+and sing (if it list) this holy word that is written in the book of
+songs in the Bible: Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi;217 that is: "My
+loved unto me and I unto Him"; understanden that God shall be
+knitted with the ghostly glue of grace on His party, and the lovely
+consent in gladness of spirit on thy party.
+
+And therefore climb up by this tree, as I said in the beginning; and
+when thou comest to the fruit (that is, to the reverent affection,
+the which ever will be in thee if thou think heartily the other two
+thoughts before, and fage[218] not thyself with no lie, as I said),
+then shalt thou take good keep[219] of that working that is made in
+thy soul that time, and shape thee, in as much as thou mayst through
+grace, for to meek thee under the height of thy God, so that thou
+mayst use thee in that working other times by itself, without any
+climbing thereto by any thought. And, sikerly, this is it the which
+is so meedful as I said, and ever the longer that it is kept from
+the tree (that is to say, from any thought), and ever the ofter that
+it is done suddenly, lustily, and likingly, without mean, the
+sweeter it smelleth, and the better it pleaseth the high King of
+heaven. And ever when thou feelest sweetness and comfort in thy
+doing, then He breaketh this fruit and giveth thee part of thine own
+present. And that that thou feelest is so hard, and so straitly
+stressing thine heart without comfort in the first beginning, that
+bemeaneth[220] that the greenness of the fruit hanging on the tree,
+or else newly pulled, setteth thy teeth on edge. Nevertheless yet it
+is speedful to thee. For it is no reason that thou eat the sweet
+kernel, but if thou crack first the hard shell and bite of the
+bitter bark.
+
+Nevertheless, if it so be that thy teeth be weak (that is to say,
+thy ghostly mights), then it is my counsel that thou seek slights,
+for better is list than lither strength.[221]
+
+Another skill there is why that I set this tree in thy garden, for
+to climb up thereby. For though all it be so that God may do what He
+will, yet, to mine understanding, it is impossible any man to attain
+to the perfection of this working without these two means, or else
+other two that are according to them coming before. And yet is the
+perfection of this work sudden, without any mean. And, therefore, I
+rede[222] thee that these be thine, not thine in propriety, for that
+is nought but sin,[223] but thine given graciously of God, and sent
+by me as a messenger though I be unworthy; for wete thou right well
+that every thought that stirreth thee to the good,[224] whether it
+come from within by thine angel messenger, or from without by any
+man messenger, it is but an instrument of grace given, sent and
+chosen of God Himself for to work within in thy soul. And this is
+the skill why that I counsel thee to take these two thoughts before
+all others. For as man is a mingled thing of two substances, a
+bodily and a ghostly, so it needeth for to have two sere[225] means
+to come by to perfection;[226] sith it so is that both these
+substances shall be oned in undeadliness at the uprising in the last
+day; so that either substance be raised to perfection in this life,
+by a mean accordant thereto. And that is dread to bodily substance,
+and hope to the ghostly. And thus it is full seemly and according to
+be, as me thinketh; for as there is nothing that so soon will ravish
+the body from all affection of earthly things, as will a sensible
+dread of the death; so there is nothing that so soon nor so
+fervently will raise the affection of a sinner's soul, unto the love
+of God, as will a certain hope of forgiveness of all his
+recklessness. And therefore have I ordained thy climbing by these
+two thoughts; but if it so be that thy good angel teach thee within
+thy ghostly conceit, or any other man, any other two that are more
+according to thy disposition than thee thinketh these two be, thou
+mayst take them, and leave these safely without any blame.
+Nevertheless to my conceit (till I wete more) me thinketh that these
+should be full helply unto thee, and not much unaccording to thy
+disposition, after that I feel in thee. And therefore, if thou think
+that they do thee good, then thank God heartily, and for God's love
+pray for me. Do then so, for I am a wretch, and thou wotest not how
+it standeth with me.
+
+No more at this time, but God's blessing have thou and mine.
+
+Read often, and forget it not; set thee sharply to the proof; and
+flee all letting and occasion of letting, in the name of our Lord
+Jesu Christ. AMEN.
+
+FINIS
+
+
+
+
+VI.
+
+HERE FOLLOWETH ALSO A VERY NECESSARY EPISTLE OF DISCRETION IN
+STIRRINGS OF THE SOUL
+
+
+GHOSTLY friend in God, that same grace and joy that I will to
+myself, will I to thee at God's will. Thou askest me counsel of
+silence and of speaking, of common dieting and of singular fasting,
+of dwelling in company and only woning[227] by thyself. And thou
+sayest thou art in great were[228] what thou shalt do; for, as thou
+sayest, on the one party thou art greatly tarried with speaking,
+with common eating, as other folk do, and with common woning in
+company. And, on the other party, thou dreadest to be straitly
+still,[229] singular in fasting, and only in woning, for deeming of
+more holiness in thee than thou hast,[230] and for many other
+perils; for oft times now these days they are deemed for most holy,
+and fall in to many perils, that most are in silence, in singular
+fasting, and in only woning. And sooth it is that they are most
+holy, if grace only be the cause of that silence, of that singular
+fasting, and of that only woning, the kind[231] but suffering and
+only consenting; and if it be otherwise, then that is but peril on
+all sides, for it is full perilous to strain the kind to any such
+work of devotion, as is silence or speaking, common dieting or
+singular fasting, woning in company or in onliness.[232] I mean,
+passing the course and the common custom of kind and degree, but if
+it be led thereto by grace; and, namely, to such works the which in
+themself are indifferent, that is to say, now good, and now evil,
+now with thee, now against thee, now helping, and now letting. For
+it might befall that, if thou followed thy singular stirring,
+straitly straining thee to silence, to singular fasting, or to only
+woning, that thou shouldest oft times be still when time were to
+speak, oft times fast when time were to eat, oft times be only when
+time were to be in company. Or if thou give thee to speaking always
+when thee list, to common eating, or to companious woning,[233] then
+peradventure thou shouldest sometime speak when time[234] were to be
+still, sometime eat when time were to fast, sometime be in company
+when time were to be only; and thus mightest thou lightly fall in to
+error, in great confusion, not only of thine own soul but also of
+others. And, therefore, in eschewing of such errors, thou askest of
+me (as I have perceived by thy letters) two things: the first is my
+conceit of thee, and thy stirring; and the other is my counsel in
+this case, and in all such others when they come.
+
+As to the first, I answer and I say that I dread full much in this
+matter and such others to put forth my rude conceit, such as it is,
+for two skills.[235] And one is this: I dare not lean to my conceit,
+affirming it for fast and true. The other is thine inward
+disposition, and thine ableness that thou hast unto all these things
+that thou speakest of in thy letter, which be not yet so fully known
+unto me, as it were speedful that they were, if I should give full
+counsel in this case. For it is said of the Apostle: Nemo novit quae
+sunt hominis, nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est; "No man knoweth
+which are the privy dispositions of man, but the spirit of the same
+man, the which is in himself";[236] and, peradventure, thou knowest
+not yet thine own inward disposition thyself, so fully as thou shalt
+do hereafter, when God will let thee feel it by the proof, among
+many failings and risings. For I knew never yet no sinner that might
+come to the perfect knowing of himself and of his inward
+disposition, but if he were learned of it before in the school of
+God, by experience of many temptations, and by many failings and
+risings; for right as among the waves and the floods and the storms
+of the sea, on the one party, and the peaceable wind and the calms
+and the soft weathers of the air on the other party, the sely[237]
+ship at the last attains to the land and the haven; right so, among
+the diversity of temptations and tribulations that falleth to a soul
+in this ebbing and flowing life (the which are ensampled by the
+storms and the floods of the sea) on the one party, and among the
+grace and the goodness of the Holy Ghost, the manyfold visitation,
+sweetness and comfort of spirit (the which are ensampled by the
+peaceable wind and the soft weathers of the air) on the other party,
+the sely soul, at the likeness of a ship, attaineth at the last to
+the land of stableness, and to the haven of health; the which is the
+clear and the soothfast knowing of himself, and of all his inward
+dispositions, through the which knowing he sitteth quietly in
+himself, as a king crowned in his royalme, mightily, wisely, and
+goodly governing himself and all his thoughts and stirrings, both in
+body and in soul. Of such a man it is that the wise man saith thus:
+Beatus vir qui suffert tentationem, quoniam cum probatus fuerit,
+accipiet coronam vitae, quam repromisit Deus diligentibus se: "He is
+a blissful man that sufferingly beareth temptation; for, from he
+have been proved, he shall take the crown of life, the which God
+hath hight to all those that love Him."[238] The crown of life may
+be said on two manners. One for ghostly wisdom, for full discretion,
+and for perfection of virtue: these three knitted together may be
+cleped[239] a crown of life, the which by grace may be come to here
+in this life. On another manner the crown of life may be said, that
+it is the endless joy that each true soul shall have, after this
+life, in the bliss of heaven, and, sikerly, neither of these two
+crowns may a man take, but if he before have been well proved in
+suffering of noye[240] and of temptation, as this text saith:
+Quoniam cum probatus fuerit, accipiet coronam vitae; that is: "From
+that he have been proved, then shall he take the crown of
+life";[241] as who saith (according to mine understanding touched
+before): But if a sinner have been proved before in divers
+temptations, now rising, now falling, falling by frailty, rising by
+grace, he shall never else take of God in this life ghostly wisdom
+in clear knowing of himself and of his inward dispositions, nor full
+discretion in counselling and teaching of others, nor yet the third,
+the which is the perfection of virtue in loving of his God and of
+his brethren. All these three--wisdom, discretion, and perfection of
+virtue-are but one, and they may be cleped the crown of life.
+
+In a crown are three things: gold is the first; precious stones are
+the second; and the turrets of the flower-de-luce, raised up above
+the head, those are the third. By gold, wisdom; by the precious
+stones, discretion; and by the turrets of the flower-de-luce I
+understand the perfection of virtue. Gold environeth the head, and
+by wisdom we govern our ghostly work on every side; precious stones
+giveth light in beholding of men, and by discretion we teach and
+counsel our brethren; the turrets of the flower-de-luce giveth two
+side branches spreading one to the right side and another to the
+left, and one even up above the head, and by perfection of virtues
+(the which is charity) we give two side branches of love, the which
+are spreading, one to the right side to our friends, and one to the
+left side to our enemies, and one even up unto God, above man's
+understanding, the which is the head of the soul. This is the crown
+of life the which by grace may be gotten here in this life; and,
+therefore, bear thee low in thy battle, and suffer meekly thy
+temptations till thou have been proved. For then shalt thou take
+either the one crown, or the other, or both, this here, and the
+other there; for who so hath this here, he may be full siker of the
+other there; and full many there are that are full graciously proved
+here, and yet come never to this that may be had here in this life.
+The which (if they meekly continue and patiently abide the will of
+our Lord) shall full worthily and abundantly receive the other
+there, in the high bliss of heaven. Thee thinketh this crown fair
+that may be had here; yea, bear thee as meekly as thou mayst by
+grace, for in comparison of the other there, it is but as one noble
+to a world full of gold. All this I say to give thee comfort and
+evidence of strength in thy ghostly battle, the which thou hast
+taken on hand in the trust of our Lord, and all this I say to let
+thee see how far thou art yet from the true knowing of thine inward
+disposition, and thereafter to give thee warning, not over soon to
+give stead[242] nor to follow the singular stirrings of thy young
+heart, for dread of deceit.
+
+All this I say for to show unto thee my conceit that I have of thee
+and of thy stirrings, as thou hast asked of me; for I conceive of
+thee that thou art full able and full greatly disposed to such
+sudden stirrings of singular doings,[243] and full fast to cleave
+unto them when they be received; and that is full perilous. I say
+not that this ableness and this greedy disposition in thee, or in
+any other that is disposed as thou art, though all it be perilous,
+that it is therefore evil in itself; nay, so say I not, God forbid
+that thou take it so; but I say that it is full good in itself, and
+a full great ableness to full great perfection, yea, and to the
+greatest perfection that may be in this life; I mean, if that a soul
+that is so disposed will busily, night and day, meek it[244] to God
+and to good counsel, and strongly rise and martyr itself, with
+casting down of the own wit and the own will in all such sudden and
+singular stirrings, and say sharply that it will not follow such
+stirrings, seem they never so liking,[245] so high nor so holy, but
+if it have thereto the witness[246] and the consents of some ghostly
+teachers--I mean such as have been of long time expert in singular
+living. Such a soul, for ghostly continuance thus in this meekness,
+may deserve, through grace and the experience of this ghostly battle
+thus with itself, for to take the crown of life touched before. And
+as great an ableness to good as is this manner of disposition in a
+soul that is thus meeked as I say, as perilous it is in another
+soul, such one that will suddenly, without advisement of counsel,
+follow the stirrings of the greedy heart, by the own wit and the own
+will; and therefore, for God's love, beware with this ableness and
+with this manner of disposition (that I speak of), if it be in thee
+as I say. And meek thee continually to prayer and to counsel. Break
+down thine own wit and thy will in all such sudden and singular
+stirrings, and follow them not over lightly, till thou wete whence
+they come, and whether they be according for thee or not.
+
+And as touching these stirrings of the which thou askest my conceit
+and my counsel, I say to thee that I conceive of them suspiciously,
+that is, that[247] they should be conceived on the ape's manner. Men
+say commonly that the ape doth as he seeth others do; forgive me if
+I err in my suspicion, I pray thee. Nevertheless, the love that I
+have to thy soul stirreth me by evidence that I have of a ghostly
+brother of thine and of mine, touched with those same stirrings of
+full great[248] silence, of full singular fasting, and of full only
+woning, on ape's manner, as he granted unto me after long communing
+with me, and when he had proved himself and his stirrings. For, as
+he said, he had seen a man in your country, the which man, as it is
+well known, is evermore in great silence, in singular fasting, and
+in only dwelling; and certes, as I suppose fully, they are full true
+stirrings those that that man hath, caused all only of grace, that
+he feeleth by experience within, and not of any sight or heard say
+that he hath of any other man's silence without-the which cause if
+it were, it should be cleped apely, as I say in my simple meaning.
+And therefore beware, and prove well thy stirrings, and whence they
+come; for how so thou art stirred, whether from within by grace, or
+from without on ape's manner, God wote, and I not. Nevertheless this
+may I say thee in eschewing of perils like unto this: look that thou
+be no ape, that is to say, look that thy stirrings to silence or to
+speaking, to fasting or to eating, to onliness or to company,
+whether they be come from within of abundance of love and of
+devotion in the spirit and not from without by the windows of thy
+bodily wits, as thine ears, and thine eyes. For, as Jeremiah saith
+plainly, by such windows cometh in death: Mors intrat per
+fenestras.249 And this sufficeth, as little as it is, for answer to
+the first, where thou askest of me, what is my conceit of thee, and
+of these stirrings that thou speakest of to me in thy letter.
+
+And touching the second thing, where thou askest of me my counsel in
+this case, and in such other when they fall, I beseech almighty Jesu
+(as He is cleped the angel of great counsel) that He of His mercy be
+thy counsellor and thy comforter in all thy noye and thy nede, and
+order me with His wisdom to fulfil in party by my teaching, so
+simple as it is, the trust of thine heart, the which thou hast unto
+me before many others--a simple lewd[250] wretch as I am, unworthy
+to teach thee or any other, for littleness of grace and for lacking
+of conning. Nevertheless, though I be lewd, yet shall I somewhat
+say, answering to thy desire at my simple conning, with a trust in
+God that His grace shall be learner and leader when conning of kind
+and of clergy defaileth.[251] Thou wotest right well thyself that
+silence in itself nor speaking, also singular fasting nor common
+dieting, onliness nor company, all these nor yet any of them be not
+the true end of our desire; but to some men (and not to all) they
+are means helping to the end, if they be done lawfully and with
+discretion, and else are they more letting than furthering. And
+therefore plainly[252] to speak, nor plainly to be still, plainly to
+eat, nor plainly to fast, plainly to be in company, or plainly to be
+only, think I not to counsel thee at this time; for why, perfection
+standeth not in them. But this counsel may I give thee generally, to
+hold thee by in these stirrings, and in all other like unto these;
+evermore where thou findest two contraries, as are these--silence
+and speaking, fasting and eating, onliness and company, common
+clothing of Christian religion and singular habits of divers and
+devised brotherhoods, with all such other what so they be, the which
+in themself are but works of kind[253] and of men. For thou hast it
+by kind and by statute of thine outer man now for to speak and now
+for to be still, now for to eat and now for to fast, now for to be
+in company and now to be only, now to be common in clothing and now
+to be in singular habit, ever when thee list, and when thou
+seest[254] that any of them should be speedful and helply to thee in
+nourishing of the heavenly grace working within in thy soul; but if
+it be so (which God forbid), that thou or any other be so lewd and
+so blinded in the sorrowful temptations of the midday devil, that ye
+bind you by any crooked avow to any such singularities, as it were
+under colour of holiness feigned under such an holy thraldom,[255]
+in full and final destroying of the freedom of Christ, the which is
+the ghostly habit of the sovereign holiness that may be in this
+life, or in the other, by the witness of saint Paul saying thus: Ubi
+spiritus Domini, ibi libertas: "There where the spirit of God is,
+there is freedom."[256] And thereto when thou seest that all such
+works in their use may be both good and evil; I pray thee leave them
+both, for that is the most ease for thee for to do, if thou wilt be
+meek, and leave the curious beholding and seeking in thy wits to
+look whether is better. But do thou thus: set the one on the one
+hand, and the other on the other, and choose thee a thing the which
+is hid between them; the which thing, when it is had, giveth thee
+leave in freedom of spirit to begin and to cease in holding any of
+the others at thine own full list, without any blame.
+
+But now thou askest me, what is that thing. I shall tell thee what I
+mean that it is: It is God; for whom thou shouldest be still, if
+thou shouldest be still; and for whom thou shouldest speak if thou
+shouldest speak; and for whom thou shouldest fast, if thou shouldest
+fast; and for whom thou shouldest eat, if thou shouldest eat; and
+for whom thou shouldest be only, if thou shouldest be only; and for
+whom thou shouldest be in company, if thou shouldest be in company.
+And so forth of all the remenant, what so they be. For silence is
+not God, nor speaking is not God; fasting is not God, nor eating is
+not God; onliness is not God, nor company is not God; nor yet any of
+all the other such two contraries. He is hid between them, and may
+not be found by any work of thy soul, but all only by love of thine
+heart. He may not be known by reason, He may not be gotten by
+thought, nor concluded by understanding; but He may be loved and
+chosen with the true lovely will of thine heart.[257] Choose thee
+Him, and thou art silently speaking, and speakingly silent,
+fastingly eating, and eatingly fasting, and so forth of all the
+remenant. Such a lovely choosing of God, thus wisely lesinge[258]
+and seeking Him out with the true will of a clean heart, between all
+such two leaving them both, when they come and proffer them to be
+the point and the prick of our ghostly beholding, is the worthiest
+tracing and seeking of God that may be gotten or learned in this
+life. I mean for a soul that will be contemplative; yea, though all
+that a soul that thus seeketh see nothing that may be conceived with
+the ghostly eye of reason; for if God be thy love and thy meaning,
+the choice and the point of thine heart, it sufficeth to thee in
+this life (though all thou see never more of Him with the eyes of
+thy reason all thy life time). Such a blind shot with the sharp dart
+of longing love may never fail of the prick, the which is God, as
+Himself saith in the book of love, where He speaketh to a
+languishing soul and a loving, saying thus: Vulnerasti cor meum,
+soror mea, amica mea, et sponsa mea, vulnerasti cor meum, in uno
+oculorum tuorum: "Thou hast wounded mine heart, my sister, my leman,
+and my spouse, thou hast wounded mine heart in one of thine
+eyes."[259] Eyes of the soul they are two: Reason and Love. By
+reason we may trace how mighty, how wise, and how good He is in His
+creatures, but not in Himself; but ever when reason defaileth, then
+list, love, live and learn, to play,[260] for by love we may feel
+Him, find Him, and hit Him, even in Himself. It is a wonderful eye,
+this love, for of a loving soul it is only said of our Lord: "Thou
+hast wounded mine heart in one of thine eyes"; that is to say, in
+love that is blind to many things, and seeth but that one thing that
+it seeketh, and therefore it findeth and feeleth, hitteth and
+woundeth the point and the prick that it shooteth at, well sooner
+than it should if the sight were sundry in beholding of many things,
+as it is when the reason ransacketh and seeketh among all such
+sere[261] things as are these: silence and speaking, singular
+fasting and common eating, onliness or company, and all such other;
+to look whether is better.
+
+Let be this manner of doing, I pray thee, and let as thou wist not
+that there were any such means (I mean ordained for to get God by);
+for truly no more there is, if thou wilt be very contemplative and
+soon sped of thy purpose. And, therefore, I pray thee and other like
+unto thee, with the Apostle saying thus: Videte vocationem vestram,
+et in ea vocatione qua vocati estis state:262 "See your calling,
+and, in that calling that ye be called, stand stiffly and abide in
+the name of Jesu." Thy calling is to be very contemplative,
+ensampled by Mary Magdalene. Do then as Mary did, set the point of
+thine heart upon one thing: Porro unum est necessarium: "For one
+thing is necessary,"[263] the which is God. Him wouldest thou have,
+Him seekest thou, Him list thee to love, Him list thee to feel,[264]
+Him list thee hold thee by, and neither by silence nor by speaking,
+by singular fasting nor by common eating, by onliness nor by
+companious woning, by hard wearing nor by easy; for sometime silence
+is good, but that same time speaking were better; and againward
+sometime speaking is good, but that same time silence were better;
+and so forth of all the remenant, as is fasting, eating, onliness,
+and company; for sometime the one is good, but the other is better,
+but neither of them is at any time the best. And, therefore, let be
+good all that is good, and better all that is better,[265] for both
+they will defail and have an end; and choose thee the best with
+Mary, thy mirror, that never will defail: Maria (inquit optimam)
+optimam partem elegit, quae non auferetur ab ea.266 The best is
+almighty Jesu, and He said that Mary, in ensample of all
+contemplatives, had chosen the best, the which should never be taken
+from her; and therefore, I pray thee, with Mary leave the good and
+the better, and choose thee the best.
+
+Let them be, all such things as are these: silence and speaking,
+fasting and eating, onliness and company, and all such other, and
+take no keep to them; thou wotest not what they mean, and, I pray
+thee, covet not to wit; and if thou shall at any time think or speak
+of them, think then and say that they are so high and so worthy
+things of perfection, for to conne[267] speak, or for to conne be
+still, for to conne fast, and for to conne eat, for to conne be
+only, and to conne be in company, that it were but a folly and a
+foul presumption to such a frail wretch as thou art, for to meddle
+thee of so great perfection. For why, for to speak, and for to be
+still, for to eat, and for to fast, for to be only, and for to be in
+company, ever when we will, may we have by kind; but for to conne do
+all these, we may not but by grace. And, without doubt, such grace
+is never gotten by any mean of such strait silence, of such singular
+fasting, or of such only dwelling that thou speakest of, the which
+is caused from without by occasion of hearing and of seeing of any
+other man's such singular doings. But if ever this grace shall be
+gotten, it behoveth to be learned of God from within, unto whom thou
+hast listily leaned many a day before with all the love of thine
+heart, utterly voiding from thy ghostly beholding[268] all manner of
+sight of any thing beneath Him; though all that some of those things
+that I bid thee thus void, should seem in the sight of some men a
+full worthy mean to get God by. Yea, say what men say will, but do
+thou as I say thee, and let the proof witness. For to him that will
+be soon sped of his purpose ghostly, it sufficeth to him for a mean,
+and him needeth no more, but the actual mind of good God only, with
+a reverent stirring of lasting love; so that mean unto God gettest
+thou none but God. If thou keep whole thy stirring of love that thou
+mayst feel by grace in thine heart, and scatter not thy ghostly
+beholding therefrom then that same that thou feelest shall well
+conne[269] tell thee when thou shalt speak and when thou shalt be
+still, and it shall govern thee discreetly in all thy living without
+any error, and teach thee mistily[270] how thou shalt begin and
+cease in all such doing of kind with a great and sovereign
+discretion. For if thou mayst by grace keep it in custom and in
+continual working, then, if it be needful or speedful to thee for to
+speak, for to commonly eat, or for to bide in company, or for to do
+any such other thing that longeth to the common true custom of
+Christian men, and of kind, it shall first stir thee full softly to
+speak or to do that other common thing of kind, what so it be. And
+then, if thou do it not, it shall strike as sore as a prick on thine
+heart and pain thee full sore, and let thee have no peace[271] but
+if thou do it. And, on the same manner, if thou be in speaking, or
+in any such other work that is common to the course of kind, if it
+be needful and speedful to thee to be still, and for to set thee to
+the contrary, as is onliness to company, fasting to eating, and all
+such other the which are works of singular holiness, it will stir
+thee to them; so that thus, by experience of such a blind stirring
+of love unto God, a contemplative soul cometh sooner to that grace
+of discretion for to conne speak, and for to conne be still, for to
+conne eat, and for to conne fast, for to conne be in company, and
+for to conne be only,[272] and all such other, than by any such
+singularities as thou speakest of, taken by the stirrings of man's
+own wit and his will within in himself, or yet by the ensample of
+any other man's doing without, what so it be. For why, such strained
+doings under the stirrings of kind, without touching[273] of grace,
+is a passing pain without any profit; but if it be to them that are
+religious, or that have them by enjoining of penance, where profit
+riseth only because of obedience, and not by any such straitness of
+doing without; the which is painful to all that it proveth. But
+lovely and listily to will to love[274] God is great and passing
+ease, true ghostly peace, and earnest of the endless rest. And,
+therefore, speak when thee list, and leave when thee list, eat when
+thee list, and fast when thee list, be in company when thee list,
+and be by thyself when thee list, so that[275] God and grace be thy
+leader. Let fast who fast will, and be only who will, and let hold
+silence who so will, but hold thee by God that doth beguile no man;
+for silence and speaking, onliness and company, fasting and eating,
+all may beguile thee. And if thou hear of any man that speaketh, or
+of any that is still, of any that eateth or of any that fasteth, or
+of any that is in company or else by himself, think thou, and say,
+if thee list, that they conne do as they should do, but if the
+contrary shew in apert.[276] But look that thou do not as they do (I
+mean for that they do so) on ape's manner; for neither thou canst,
+nor peradventure thou art not disposed as they are. And, therefore,
+leave to work after other men's dispositions and work after thine
+own, if thou mayst know what it is. And unto the time that thou
+mayst know what it is, work after those men's counsel that know
+their own disposition, but not after their disposition;[277] for
+such men should give counsel in such cases, and else none. And this
+sufficeth for an answer to all thy letter, as me thinketh; the grace
+of God be ever more with thee, in the name of Jesu. AMEN.
+
+FINIT EPISTOLA
+
+
+
+
+VII.
+
+HERE FOLLOWETH A DEVOUT TREATISE OF DISCERNING OF SPIRITS, VERY
+NECESSARY FOR GHOSTLY LIVERS
+
+
+FOR because that there be divers kinds of spirits, therefore it is
+needful to us discreet knowing of them; sith it so is that we be
+taught of the apostle saint John not to believe to all spirits.[278]
+For it might seem to some that are but little in conning, and namely
+of ghostly things, that each thought that soundeth in man's heart
+should be the speech of none other spirit but only of man's own
+spirit. And that it is not so, both belief and witness of holy
+scripture proveth apertly; for "I shall hear," saith the prophet
+David, "not what I speak myself, but what my Lord God speaketh in
+me";[279] and another prophet saith, that an angel spake in
+him.[280] And also we be taught in the psalm that the wicked spirits
+sendeth evil thoughts in to men; and over this, that there is a
+spirit of the flesh not good, the apostle Paul sheweth apertly,
+where he saith, that some men are full blown or inflate with the
+spirit of their flesh.[281] And also that there is the spirit of the
+world, he declareth plainly, where he maketh joy in God, not only
+for himself, but also for his disciples, that they had not taken
+that spirit of the world, but that that is sent of God, the which is
+the Holy Ghost.[282] And these two spirits of the flesh and also of
+the world are, as it were, servants or sergeants of that cursed
+spirit, the foul fiend of hell; so that the spirit of wickedness is
+lord of the spirit of the flesh, and also of the spirit of the
+world. And which of these three spirits that speaketh to our spirit,
+we should not believe them. For why, they speak never but that anon,
+by their speaking, they lead to the loss both of body and of soul.
+And which spirit it is that speaketh to our spirit, the speech of
+that same spirit that speaketh shall fully declare; for ever more
+the spirit of the flesh speaketh soft things and easy to the body;
+the spirit of the world vain things and covetise[283] of worship;
+and the spirit of malice of the fiend speaketh fell things and
+bitter.
+
+Wherefore, as oft times as any thought smiteth on our hearts of
+meat, of drink, and of sleep, of soft clothing, of lechery, and of
+all other such things the which longeth to the business of the
+flesh, and maketh our heart for to brenne[284] as it were in a
+longing desire after all such things; be we full siker that it is
+the spirit of the flesh that speaketh it. And therefore put we him
+away, in as much as we goodly may by grace, for he is our adversary.
+As oft times as any thought smiteth on our hearts of vain joy of
+this world, kindling in us a desire to be holden fair, and to be
+favoured, to be holden of great kin and of great conning, to be
+holden wise and worthy, or else to have great degree and high office
+in this life--such thoughts and all other the which would make a man
+to seem high and worshipful, not only in the sight of others, but
+also in the sight of himself--no doubt but it is the spirit of the
+world that speaketh all these, a far more perilous enemy than is the
+spirit of the flesh, and with much more business he should be put
+off. And oft times it befalleth that these two servants and
+sergeants of the foul fiend, the spirit and prince of wrath[285] and
+of wickedness, are either by grace and by ghostly slight of a soul
+stiffly put down and trodden down under foot; or else, by
+quaintise[286] of their malicious master, the foul fiend of hell,
+they are quaintly withdrawn, for he thinketh himself for to rise
+with great malice and wrath, as a lion running felly to assail the
+sickness of our sely souls; and this befalleth as oft as the thought
+of our heart stirreth us, not to the lust of our flesh, nor yet to
+the vain joy of this world, but it stirreth us to murmuring, to
+grutching,[287] to grievance, and to bitterness of soul, to pain and
+to impatience, to wrath, to melancholy, and to evil will, to hate,
+to envy, and to all such sorrows. It maketh us to bear us heavily,
+if ought be done or said unto us, not so lovely, nor so wisely[288]
+as we would it were; it raiseth in us all evil suspicion, if ought
+be shewed in sign, in countenance, in word, or in work, that might
+by any manner be turned to malice or to heaviness of heart; it
+maketh us as fast[289] to take it to us.
+
+To these thoughts, and to all such that would put us out of peace
+and restfulness of heart, we should none otherwise againstand,[290]
+but as we would the self fiend of hell, and as much we should flee
+therefrom as from the loss of our soul. No doubt but both the other
+two thoughts, of the spirit of the flesh and also of the spirit of
+the world, work and travail in all that they can to the loss of our
+soul, but most perilously the spirit of malice; for why, he is by
+himself, but they not without him. For if a man's soul be never so
+clean of fleshly lust, and of vain joy of this world, and if it be
+defouled with this spirit of malice, of wrath, and of wickedness,
+not againstanding all the other cleanness before, yet it is losable.
+And if a soul be never so much defouled with the lust of the flesh,
+and vain joy of the world, and it may by grace keep it in peace and
+in restfulness of heart unto the even Christian,[291] though all it
+be full hard for to do (lasting the custom of the other two),[292]
+yet it is less losable, not againstanding all the other filth of the
+flesh and of the world touched before. And, therefore, though all
+that our lusty[293] thoughts of our flesh be evil, for they reave
+from the soul the life of devotion, and though all that the vain joy
+of the world be worse, for it reaveth us from the true joy that we
+should have in contemplation of heavenly things, ministered and
+taught to us by the angels of heaven. For who so lustily desireth to
+be worshipped, favoured, and served of men here in earth, they
+deserve to forego the worship, the favour, and service of angel in
+ghostly contemplation of heaven and of heavenly things, all their
+lifetime; the which contemplation is better and more worthy in
+itself than is the lust and the liking of devotion. And for this
+bitterness I clepe the spirit of malice, of wrath, and of wickedness
+the worst spirit of them all; and why? Certes, for it reaveth us the
+best thing of all, and that is charity, the which is God. For who so
+lacketh peace and restfulness of heart, him lacketh the lively
+presence of the lovely sight of the high peace of heaven, good
+gracious God His own dear self. This witnesseth David in the psalm,
+where he saith, that the place of God is made in peace, and His
+dwelling place in Sion.[294] Sion is as much to say as the sight of
+peace; the sight of the soul is the thought of that same soul; and,
+certes, in that soul that most is occupied in thoughts of peace hath
+God made His dwelling place.[295] And thus saith Himself by the
+prophet, when he saith: "Upon whom shall my spirit rest, but upon
+the meek and the restful."[296] And, therefore, who so will have God
+continually dwelling in him, and live in love and in sight of the
+high peace of the Godhead, the which is the highest and the best
+party of contemplation that may be had in this life, be he busy
+night and day to put down, when they come, the spirit of the flesh
+and the spirit of the world, but most busily the spirit of malice,
+of wrath, and of wickedness, for he is the foulest and the worst
+filth[297] of all. And it is full needful and speedful to know his
+quaintise, and not for to unknow his doleful deceits. For sometime
+he will, that wicked cursed wight, change his likeness in to an
+angel of light, that he may under colour of virtue do more
+dere;[298] but yet then, if we look more redely,[299] it is but seed
+of bitterness and of discord that that he sheweth, seem it never so
+holy nor never so fair at the first shewing. Full many he stirreth
+unto singular holiness passing the common statute and custom of
+their degree, as is fasting, sharp wearing, and many other devout
+observances and outward doings, in open reproving of other men's
+defaults, the which they have not of office for to do. All such and
+many other he stirreth them for to do, and all under colour of
+devotion and of charity; not for he is delighted in any deed of
+devotion and of charity, but for he loveth dissension and slander,
+the which is evermore caused by such unseemly singularities; for
+where so ever that any one or two are in any devout congregation,
+the which any one or two useth any such outward singularities, then
+in the sight of fools all the remenant are slandered by them; but,
+in the sight of the wise man, they slander themselves. But for
+because that fools are more than wise men, therefore for favour of
+fools such singular doers ween that they be wise, when (if it were
+wisely determined) they and all their fautors[300] should be seen
+apert fools, and darts shot of the devil, to slay true simple souls
+under colour of holiness and charity. And thus many deceits can the
+fiend bring in on this manner.
+
+Who so will not consent, but meeketh him truly to prayer and to
+counsel, shall graciously be delivered of all these deceits.[301]
+But it is sorrow for to say, and more for to feel, that
+sometime[302] our own spirit is so overcome peradventure with each
+of these three spirits, of the flesh, of the world, and of the
+fiend, and so brought into danger, bounden in bondage, in thraldom
+and in service of them all, that sorrow it is to wit. In great
+confusion and loss of itself, it doth now the office of each one of
+them itself in itself. And this befalleth when, after long use, and
+customable consenting unto them when they come, at the last it is
+made so fleshly, so worldly, and so malicious, so wicked, and so
+froward, that now plainly of itself, without suggestion of any other
+spirit, it gendereth and bringeth forth in itself, not only lusty
+thoughts of the flesh, and vain thoughts of the world, but that
+worst of all these, as are bitter thoughts and wicked, in backbiting
+and deeming, and evil suspicion of others. And when it is thus with
+our spirit, then, I trow, it may not lightly be known when it is our
+own spirit that speaketh, or when it heareth any of the other three
+spirits speaking in it as it is touched before. But what maketh it
+matter[303] who speaketh, when it is all one and the same thing that
+is spoken? What helpeth to know the person of him that speaketh,
+when it is siker and certain that all is evil and perilous that is
+spoken? If it be thine enemy, consent not to him, but meek thee to
+prayer and to counsel, and so mayst thou mightily withstand thine
+enemy. If it be thine own spirit, reprove him bitterly, and
+sighingly sorrow that ever thou fell in[304] so great wretchedness,
+bondage, and thraldom of the devil. Shrive thee of thy customed
+consents, and of thine old sins, and so mayst thou come (by grace)
+to recover thy freedom again; and by the gracious freedom mayst thou
+soon come to, wisely for to know, and soothfastly for to feel by the
+proof, when it is thine own spirit that speaketh these evils, or it
+be these other evil spirits that speaketh them in thee. And so may
+this knowing be a sovereign mean and help of againstanding, for
+often times unknowing is cause of much error, and, againward,
+knowing is cause of much truth; and to this manner of knowing mayst
+thou win thus as I say to thee.
+
+If thou be in doubt or in were[305] of these evil thoughts when they
+come, whether that they be the speech of thine own spirit, or of any
+of the others of thine enemies; look then busily by the witness of
+thy counsel and thy conscience, if thou have been shriven and
+lawfully amended after the doom[306] of thy confessor, of all the
+consents that ever thou consented to that kind of sin, that thy
+thought is aware of. And if thou have not been shriven shrive thee
+then, as truly as thou mayst, by grace and by counsel; and then wete
+thou right well that all the thoughts that come to thee after thy
+shrift, stirring thee oft times to the same sins, they are the words
+of other spirits than thine own (I mean some of the three touched
+before). And thou for none such thoughts, be they never so thick, so
+foul, nor so many (I mean for their first coming in), but if it be
+for recklessness of againstanding,[307] art no blame worthy. And not
+only releasing of purgatory that thou hast deserved for the same
+sins done before, what so they be, thou mayst deserve, if thou
+stiffly againstand them, but also much grace in this life, and much
+meed in the bliss of heaven. But all those evil thoughts coming in
+to thee, stirring thee to any sin, after that thou hast consented to
+that same sin, and before that thou hast sorrow for that consent,
+and art in will to be shriven thereof, it is no peril to thee to
+take them to thyself,[308] and for to shrive thee of them, as of
+thoughts of thine own spirit; but for to take to thyself all other
+thoughts, the which thou hast by very proof, as it is shewed before,
+by the speeches of other spirits than of thyself, therein lieth
+great peril, for so mightest thou lightly misrule thy conscience,
+charging a thing for sin the which is none; and this were great
+error, and a mean to the greatest peril. For if it were so that each
+evil thought and stirring to sin were the work and the speech of
+none other spirit, but only of man's own spirit; then it would
+follow by that that a man's own spirit were a very fiend, the which
+is apertly false and a damnable woodness;[309] for though all it be
+so that a soul may, by frailty and custom of sinning, fall in to so
+much wretchedness, that it taketh on itself by bondage of sin the
+office of the devil, stirring itself to sin ever more and more,
+without any suggestion of any other spirit (as it is said before),
+yet it is not therefore a devil in kind, but it is a devil in
+office, and may be cleped devilish, for it is in the doing like to
+the devil, [that is to say, a stirrer of itself unto sin, the which
+is the office of the devil].[310] Nevertheless yet, for all this
+thraldom to sin and devilishness in office, it may by grace of
+contrition, of shrift, and of amending, recover the freedom again,
+and be made saveable--yea, and a full special God's saint in this
+life, that before was full damnable and full cursed in the
+living.[311] And, therefore, as great a peril as it is a soul that
+is fallen in sin, not for to charge his conscience therewith, nor
+for to amend him thereof, as great a peril it is, and, if it may be
+said, a greater, a man for to charge his conscience with each
+thought and stirring of sin that will come in him; for, by such nice
+charging of conscience, might he lightly run in to error of
+conscience, and so be led in to despair all his life time. And the
+cause of all this is lacking of knowing of discretion of spirits,
+the which knowing may be gotten by very experience; who so redely
+will look soon after that a soul have been truly cleansed by
+confession as it is said before. For fast after confession a soul
+is, as it were, a clean paper leaf, for ableness that it hath to
+receive what that men will write thereupon. Both they do press[312]
+for to write on the soul, when it is clean in itself made by
+confession: God and His angel on the one party, and the fiend and
+his angel on the other party; but it is in the free choice of the
+soul to receive which that it will. The receipt of the soul is the
+consent of the same soul. A new thought and a stirring to any sin,
+the which thou hast forsaken before in thy shrift, what is it else
+but the speech of one of the three spirits the which are thine
+enemies (touched before), proffering to write on thy soul the same
+sin again? The speech of thyself, is it not; for why, there is no
+such thing written in thy soul, for all it is wasted away before in
+thy shrift, and thy soul left naked and bare; nothing left
+thereupon, but a frail and a free consent, more inclining to the
+evil, for custom therein, than it is to the good, but more able to
+the good than to the evil, for cleanness of the soul and virtue of
+the sacrament of shrift; but, of itself, it hath nought then, where
+through it may think or stir itself to good or to evil; and,
+therefore, it followeth that what thought that cometh then in it,
+whether that it be good or evil, it is not of itself, but the
+consent to the good or to the evil, whether that it be, that is ever
+more the work of the same soul.
+
+And all after the worthiness and the wretchedness of this consent,
+thereafter it deserveth pain or bliss. If this consent be to evil,
+then as fast it hath, by cumbrance of sin, the office of that same
+spirit that first made him suggestion of that same sin; and if it be
+to the good, then as fast it hath, by grace, the office of that same
+spirit that first made him stirring[313] to that same good. For as
+oft as any healful thought cometh in our mind, as of chastity, of
+soberness, of despising of the world, of wilful poverty, of
+patience, of meekness, and of charity, without doubt it is the
+spirit of God that speaketh, either by Himself or else by some of
+His angels--that is to say, either His angels of this life, the
+which are true teachers, or else His angels of His bliss, the which
+are true stirrers and inspirers of good. And as it is said of the
+other three evil spirits, that a soul, for long use and customable
+consenting unto them, may be made so fleshly, so worldly, and so
+malicious, that it taketh upon it the office of them all; right so
+it is againward[314] that a soul, for long use and custom in
+goodness, may be made so ghostly by cleanness of living and devotion
+of spirit against the spirit of the flesh, and so heavenly against
+the spirit of the world, and so godly by peace and by charity, and
+by restfulness of heart, against the spirit of malice, of wrath, and
+of wickedness, that it hath them now of office all such good
+thoughts to think when him list, without forgetting, in as great
+perfection as the frailty of this life will suffer. And thus it may
+be seen how that each thought that smiteth on our hearts, whether
+that it be good or evil, it is not evermore the speech of our own
+spirit, but the consent to the thought, what so ever it be, that is
+ever of our own spirit. Jesu grant us His grace, to consent to the
+good and againstand the evil. Amen.
+
+FINIS. DEO GRATIAS
+
+
+
+
+INDEX OF NAMES & SCRIPTURAL REFERENCES
+
+
+Ancren Riwle, The, xx, 28 n
+
+Aquinas, St. Thomas, xiii, 81, 84 n, 86 n
+
+Asher, symbolism of, 6, 16-19
+
+Augustine, St., xii, 25
+
+Benjamin, symbolism of, xvi, xvii, 6, 29-33
+
+Bernard, St., xii, 81
+
+Bilhah, symbolism of, 4-6, 13-16
+
+Bonaventura, St., xii
+
+Catherine of Siena, St., xi, xvii-xix, xxv-xxvii, 35-47, 52 n, 107 n
+
+Caxton, xviii, xix
+
+Chaucer, 17 n, 52 n, 56 n, 95 n, 120 n
+
+Chauncy, Maurice, xxiv
+
+Dan, symbolism of, 6, 13, 14, 18
+
+Dante, xi, xii, xiii, xiv, 38 n, 88 n, 91 n
+
+Dinah, symbolism of, 6, 25
+
+Dionysius, xxiii, xxiv
+
+Divine Cloud of Unknowing, The, Author of, xii, xvii, xxiv, xxv,
+xxvii, 3, 32, 33, 77-132
+
+Eckhart, Meister, xi
+
+Exmew, William, xxiv
+
+Flete, William, xvii, xviii, 52 n
+
+Gad, symbolism of, 6, 16-19
+
+Genesis, 8-11, 14-17, 20, 24, 32
+
+Hawkwood, John, xvii
+
+Hilton (Hylton), Walter, xi, xii, xxii-xxv, 61-73, 104 n, 124 n
+
+Hugel, F. von, 84 n, 86 n
+
+Hugh of St. Victor, xii
+
+Imitatione Christi, De, xxiii n, 65 n
+
+Isaiah, 124
+
+Issachar, symbolism of, 6, 20-24
+
+Jacob, symbolism of, 3-7, 10, 27, 29
+
+Jacopone da Todi, xi
+
+James, Dane, xviii
+
+James, Epistle of, 98, 99
+
+Jeremiah, 103, 104
+
+John, St., Epistles of, 25, 119
+
+Joseph, symbolism of, 6, 27-30
+
+Judah, symbolism of, 6, 10-12
+
+Juliana of Norwich, xi, xxi, 65 n, 123 n
+
+Kempe, Margery, xix-xxi, 49-59
+
+Langland, Piers the Plowman, 79 n, 89 n
+
+Layamons Brut, 28 n
+
+Leah, symbolism of, 3-11, 14, 15-20, 24, 26, 29
+
+Levi, symbolism of, 6, 9, 10
+
+Luke, St., 110
+
+Margery, see Kempe
+
+Matthew, St., 8
+
+Mechthild of Magdeburg, xi
+
+Naphtali, symbolism of, 6, 13-15, 18, 19
+
+Paul, St., Epistles, 21, 40, 41, 88, 97, 106, 109, 119, 120
+
+Pepwell, xiv, xix
+
+Proverbs, 28 n
+
+Psalms, The, xiv, xvi, xxvi, 9, 10, 11, 23, 31, 33, 78, 79, 119, 124
+
+Pynson, xxii
+
+Rachel, symbolism of, 3-6, 12-15, 18, 27, 32
+
+Raymund of Capua, xviii, xix
+
+Reuben, symbolism of, 6, 7-9
+
+Richard of St. Victor, xii-xv, xxii, xxv, xxvi, 3, 4 n, 19 n
+
+Richard Rolle of Hampole, xi, xii, xvi, xvii, xxiii n, xxv, 71 n
+
+Robert of Brunne, Chronicle of, 124 n
+
+Ruysbroeck, Jan, xi
+
+Shelley, xv n
+
+Simeon, symbolism of, 6, 8, 9
+
+Song of Solomon, 88, 108
+
+Suso, Heinrich, xi
+
+Tantucci, Giovanni, xvii
+
+Tyrrell, George, xxi n
+
+Wyclif, 16 n, 79 n, 112 n
+
+Wynkyn de Worde, xviii, xix, xx, xxi, xxvii
+
+Zebulun, symbolism of, 6, 22-25
+
+Zechariah, 119
+
+Zilpah, symbolism of, 4-6, 15-17, 20
+
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+[1] Dante, convivio, i. 12.
+
+[2] Cf. the Letter to Can Grande (Epist. x. 28), where Dante, like
+St. Thomas Aquinas before him, refers to the Benjamin Major as
+"Richardus de Sancto Victore in libro De Contemplatione."
+
+[3]Par. x. 131, 132.
+
+[4] Ps. lxviii. 27.
+
+[5] Benjamin Minor, cap. 73.
+
+[6] Benjamin Minor, cap. 75. Cf. Shelley, The Triumph of Life: "Their
+lore taught them not this: to know themselves." This passage of
+Richard is curiously misquoted and its meaning perverted in Haureau,
+Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique, i. pp. 513, 514, in the
+Dictionary of National Biography, vol. xvi., and elsewhere.
+
+[7] Benjamin Minor, cap. 81.
+
+[8] Cf. below, pp. 32, 33.
+
+[9] Richard Rolle of Hampole and his Followers, edited by C.
+Horstman, vol. i. pp. 162-172.
+
+[10] Sene, Senis, or Seenes, "Siena," from the Latin Senae
+(Catharina de Senis).
+
+[11] Cf. E. Gordon Duff, Hand-Lists of English Printers, 1501-1556,
+i. p. 24.
+
+[12] Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica p. 452.
+
+[13] Quietaclacmium Margerie filie Johannis Kempe de domibus in
+parochia de Northgate. Brit. Mus., Add MS. 25,109.
+
+[14] She was, however, apparently less strictly enclosed than was
+usual for an ancress.
+
+[15] Cf. G. Tyrrell, Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love shewed to
+Mother Juliana of Norwich, Preface, p. v.
+
+[16] In the British Museum copy of Pepwell's volume, ff. 1-2 of the
+Epistle of Prayer and f. 1 of the Song of Angels are transposed.
+
+[17] Cf. C. T. Martin, in Dictionary of National Biography, vol. ix.
+For Hilton's alleged authorship of the De Imitatione Christi, see J.
+E. G. de Montmorency, Thomas a Kempis, his Age and Book, pp.
+141-169.
+
+[18] Edited by G. G. Perry, under the title The Anehede of Godd with
+mannis saule, as the work of Richard Rolle, in English Prose
+Treatises of Richard Rolle de Hampole (Early English Text Society,
+1866), pp. 14-19; and, in two texts, by C. Horstman, op. cit., vol.
+i. pp. 175-182.
+
+[19] In the MSS. this is called: A pystyll of discrecion in knowenge
+of spirites; or: A tretis of discrescyon of spirites.
+
+[20] All in Harl. MS. 674, and other MSS. The Divine Cloud of
+Unknowing, and portions of the Epistle, Book, or Treatise, of Privy
+Counsel have been printed, in a very unsatisfactory manner, in The
+Divine Cloud with notes and a Preface by Father Augustine Baker,
+O.S.B. Edited by Henry Collins. London, 1871.
+
+[21] D. M. M'Intyre, The Cloud of Unknowing, in the Expositor,
+series vii. vol. 4 (1907). Dr. Rufus M. Jones, Studies in Mystical
+Religion, p. 336, regards these treatises as the work of "a school
+of mystics gathered about the writer of the Hid Divinity." Neither
+of these authors includes the translation of the Benjamin Minor,
+which, however, appears to me undoubtedly from the same hand as that
+of the Divine Cloud.
+
+[22] Benjamin Minor, cap. 78.
+
+[23] Dialogo cap. 151.
+
+[24] Benjamin Minor, cap. 72.
+
+[25] The MSS. have: "men clepen."
+
+[26] So the MSS., which agrees with the Latin, ordinati affectus
+(Benjamin Minor, cap. 3); Pepwell has "ardent feelings."
+
+[27] So Pepwell, which accords with the Latin: cum tante
+importunitate. The MSS. read: "unconningly," i.e. ignorantly.
+
+[28] So Harl. MS. 674 and Pepwell; Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman,
+reads: "forthe," i.e. offer. The Latin is: "Et Zelphae quidem sitim
+dominae suae copia tanta omnino extinguere non potest" (Benjamin
+Minor, cap. 6).
+
+[29] The Latin has simply: "vinum quod Zelpha sitit, gaudium est
+voluptatis" (ibid.).
+
+[30] Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, reads: "in our soul."
+
+[31] Pepwell gives the modern equivalent, "ordinate" and
+"inordinate," for "ordained" and "unordained," throughout.
+
+[32] Ps. cxi. 10 (Vulgate cx.).
+
+[33] Pepwell adds: "and high Judge."
+
+[34] Filius visionis.
+
+[35] Gen. xxix. 32 (Vidit Dominus humilitatem meam, Vulgate).
+
+[36] Gen. xxix. 33.
+
+[37] Exauditio.
+
+[38] Matt. v. 4.
+
+[39] Ezek. xxxiii. 14.
+
+[40] Made humble.
+
+[41] Ps. li. 17 (Vulgate l.).
+
+[42] Additus, vel Additio.
+
+[43] Added. Cf. Gen. xxix. 34.
+
+[44] Ps. xciv. 19 (Vulgate xciii.).
+
+[45] Gen. xxix. 34.
+
+[46] Gen. xxix. 35 (Vulgate): Modo confitebor Domino.
+
+[47] Confitens.
+
+[48] Learning.
+
+[49] Ps. cvi. 1, cvii. 1 (cv., cvi., Vulgate).
+
+[50] Pepwell reads: "the true goodness of God."
+
+[51] Pepwell reads: "conning."
+
+[52] Latin Invisibilium: Pepwell has "unseasable."
+
+[53] Pepwell has "feble."
+
+[54] Reasons.
+
+[55] Because.
+
+[56] Judicium (Pepwell adds: "or judgment").
+
+[57] Gen. xlix. 16: "Dan shall judge his people."
+
+[58] Gen. xxx. 6.
+
+[59] Gen. xxx. 8: "Comparavit me Deus cum sorore mea, et invalui"
+(Vulgate).
+
+[60] In the Latin, "Comparalio vel conversio."
+
+[61] Gen. xlix. 21: "Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly
+words" (Nephthali cervus emissus at dams eloquia pulchritudinis,
+Vulgate).
+
+[62] Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, reads: "full."
+
+[63] Underloute, participle of Underluten (O.E. Underlutan), "to
+stoop beneath," or "submit to." Cf. Wycliffe's Bible, Gen. xxxvii.
+8: "Whether thow shalt be oure kyng, oither we shal be undirloute to
+thi bidding?"
+
+[64] Discomfort.
+
+[65] Dixit: Feliciter. Gen. xxx. 11 (Vulgate).
+
+[66] Felicitas. Harl. MS. 674 adds: "whether thou wilt."
+
+[67] The MSS. have: "selyness."
+
+[68] Gen. xxx. 13 (Vulgate): Hoc pro beatitudine mea.
+
+[69] Beatus.
+
+[70] Natural.
+
+[71] Murmurs, complains. Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale, ed. Skeat
+SS 30: "After bakbyting cometh grucching or murmuracion; and somtyme
+it springeth of impacience agayns God, and somtyme agayns man.
+Agayns God it is, whan a man gruccheth agayn the peynes of helle, or
+agayns poverte, or los of catel or agayn reyn or tempest; or elles
+gruccheth that shrewes han prosperitee, or elles for that goode men
+han adversitee."
+
+[72] Pepwell adds: at the least willingly.
+
+[73] Pepwell reads: "put down."
+
+[74] Watches.
+
+[75] Promises. Latin: fovet promissis.
+
+[76] A curious mistranslation: "Sed Aser hosti suo facile illudit
+dum partem quam tuetur, alta patientiae rupe munitam conspicit"
+(Benjamin Minor, cap. 33).
+
+[77] Dwelling-place.
+
+[78] Pacified. Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, reads: "the cite of
+conscience is made pesebule."
+
+[79] Merces.
+
+[80] So Harl. MS. 674; omitted in Harl, MS. 1022 and by Pepwell.
+
+[81] Gen. xxx. 18.
+
+[82] The MSS. read: "erles."
+
+[83] Gen. xlix, 14: "Issachar asinus fortis accubans interterminos"
+(Vulgate).
+
+[84] Rom. vii. 24.
+
+[85] Phil. i. 23.
+
+[86] Ps iv. 5. Harl. MS. 674 has: "Wraththes and willeth not synne,
+or thus: Beeth wrothe and synnith not."
+
+[87] Human nature in our fellow-man.
+
+[88] Fellow-Christian. The words in square brackets are omitted in
+Harl. MS. 674.
+
+[89] Ps. cxxxix. (Vulgate cxxxviii. ) 21.
+
+[90] Ps. cxix. (Vulgate cxviii.) 104.
+
+[91] Habitaculum fortitudinis.
+
+[92] Gen. xxx. 20.
+
+[93] Assuredly. Pepwell sometimes modernises this word, but not
+invariably.
+
+[94] 1 John i. 8.
+
+[95] Cf. St. Augustine's various writings against the Pelagians,
+e.g. Epist. clvii. (Opera, ed. Migne, tom. ii. coll. 374 et seq.),
+Ad Hilarium.
+
+[96] Deliberate intention.
+
+[97] Warnes in the MSS.
+
+[98] Disposition.
+
+[99] Coaxing, beguiling. Harl. MS. 674 reads: "glosing."
+
+[100] Madness.
+
+[101] In particular. Pepwell has: "surely."
+
+[102] Regret.
+
+[103] Better is art than evil strength. A proverbial expression. Cf.
+Layamons Brut, 17210 (ed Madden, ii. p. 297); Ancren Riwle (ed.
+Morton), p. 268 (where it is rendered: "Skilful prudence is better
+than rude force"). Cf. Prov. xxi. 22.
+
+[104] The MSS. have: "ilke."
+
+[105] Invisibilia.
+
+[106] So Pepwell and Harl. MS. 674. Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman,
+reads: "see thiself and the candell."
+
+[107] Pepwell reads: "waking."
+
+[108] Ps. iv. 6-7.
+
+[109] Harl. MS. 674 reads: "light."
+
+[110] Salutary.
+
+[111] Skill.
+
+[112] So Pepwell. Harl. MS. 674 reads: "each desire on desire."
+Harl. MS. 1022, ed. Horstman, has: "hekand desire unto desire."
+
+[113] Gen. xxxv. 18.
+
+[114] Ps. xxvi. (Vulgate xxv.) 12.
+
+[115] So Harl. MSS. 1022 and 2373; Pepwell and harl. MS. 674 read:
+"godly."
+
+[116] Ps. lxviii. 27 (Vulgate lxvii. 28).
+
+[117] So Harl. MS. 2373; omitted in Harl. MS. 674. Pepwell has
+instead: "To the which us bring our blessed Benjamin, Christ Jesu,
+Amen." Harl. MS. 1022 ends: "Jesus Jesu, Mercy, Jesu, grant Mercy,
+Jesu." The whole of this concluding paragraph, which is an addition
+of the translator, differs considerably in Pepwell.
+
+[118]So Pepwell and MS. Reg. 17 D.V.; Caxton has: "Thou art she that
+art not, and I am he that am"; which is nearer to the Latin.
+
+[119]Caxton reads: "I escape gracyously all his snares."
+
+[120]Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii. 100-105:--
+
+  "A quella luce cotal si diventa,
+  Che volgersi da lei per altro aspetto,
+  E impossibil che mai si consenta;
+  Pero che il ben, ch'e del volere obbietto,
+  Tutto s'accoglie in lei, e fuor di quella
+  E difettivo cio che li e perfetto."
+
+"Such at that light does one become, that it were impossible ever
+to consent to turn from it for sight of ought else, For the good,
+that is the object of the will, is wholly gathered therein, and
+outside it that is defective which there is perfect."
+
+[121]So Pepwell: Caxton has: "yf thou wilt gete the vertu of
+ghostely strength."
+
+[122]Pepwell and the MS. add: "and temptations" (Caxton: "of
+temptacyons"); which is clearly out of place. Cf. Legenda, SS 104
+(Acta Sanctorum, Aprilis, tom. iii.).
+
+[123]2 Cor. i. 7.
+
+[124]Mated. Caxton has: "vertuously y-mette." Cf. Legenda, SS 101:
+"Talis anima sic Deo conjuncta."
+
+[125]2 Cor. xii. 10.
+
+[126] "And the cause and the rote" (Caxton).
+
+[127]Sometimes.
+
+[128]Caxton has: "It happed she sayde that other whyle deuoute
+feruour of a sowle leuyng oure lorde Jhesu other by somme certeyne
+synne, or ellys by newe sotyll temptacyons of the fende wexyth dull
+and slowe, and other whyle it is y-brought to veray coldenesse."
+Pepwell and the MS. are entirely corrupt: "It happeneth (she sayth)
+that otherwhyle a synner whiche is leuynge our Lord Jhesu by some
+certeyn synne, or ellys by some certeyn temptacyons of the fende,"
+&c. The original of the passage runs thus: "Frequenter enim (ut
+inquiebat) contingit animae Deum amanti quod fervor mentalis, vel ex
+divina providentia, vel ex aliquali culpa, vel ex haustis
+adinventionibus inimici, tepescit, et quandoque quasi ad
+frigiditatem usque deducitur" (Legenda SS 107).
+
+[129]So Caxton; Pepwell has: "leaving."
+
+[130]Caxton has: "seeth"; the Latin text: quantumcumque videat seu
+sentiat.
+
+[131]Requited.
+
+[132]So the MS.; Pepwell reads: "were feble and fayle"; and Caxton:
+"wexed feble and defayled."
+
+[133]Caxton reads: "prayng" (praying).
+
+[134]So Caxton: Pepwell and MS. have: "in."
+
+[135]Latin, Praelatorum suorum (i.e. of her ecclesiastical
+superiors), Legenda, SS 361.
+
+[136]Omitted in Pepwell and in MS.
+
+[137]Judge. Cf. above, p. 14.
+
+[138]Judgment.
+
+[139] "Also she sayd that she hadde alwaye grete hope and truste in
+Goddes prouydence, and to this same truste she endured her dysciples
+seyng unto theym that she founde and knewe" (Caxton).
+
+[140]The habergeon or the hair-shirt, the former term being applied
+to an instrument of penance as well as to a piece of armour. Cf.
+Chaucer, The Persones Tale (ed. Skeat, SS 97): "Thanne shaltow
+understonde, that bodily peyne stant in disciplyne or techinge, by
+word or by wrytinge, or in ensample. Also in weringe of heyres or of
+stamin, or of haubergeons on hir naked flesh, for Cristes sake, and
+swiche manere penances. But war thee wel that swiche manere penances
+on thy flesh ne make nat thyn herte bitter or angry or anoyed of
+thy-self; for bettre is to caste awey thyn heyre, than for to caste
+away the sikernesse of Jesu Crist. And therfore seith seint Paul:
+'Clothe yow, as they that been chosen of God, in herte of
+misericorde, debonairetee, suffraunce, and swich manere of
+clothinge'; of whiche Jesu Crist is more apayed than of heyres, or
+haubergeons, or hauberkes."
+
+[141]Wynkyn de Worde has: "sholde."
+
+[142]Wynkyn de Worde has: "profyte."
+
+[143]Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Letter to William Flete (ed. Gigli,
+124): "There are some who give themselves perfectly to chastising
+their body, doing very great and bitter penance, in order that the
+sensuality may not rebel against the reason. They have set all their
+desire more in mortifying the body than in slaying their own will.
+These are fed at the table of penance, and are good and perfect, but
+unless they have great humility, and compel themselves to consider
+the will of God and not that of men, they oft times mar their
+perfection by making themselves judges of those who are not going by
+the same way that they are going."
+
+[144]Perhaps, simply, "say many prayers"--without any special
+reference to the rosary.
+
+[145]Annoy.
+
+[146]Wynkyn de Worde has: "mote."
+
+[147]Wynkyn de Worde has: "lownesse."
+
+[148]With-out-forth=outwardly. Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale, (ed.
+Skeat, SS 10): "And with-inne the hertes of folk shal be the bytinge
+conscience, and with-oute-forth shal be the world al brenninge."
+
+[149]Everyche=each one.
+
+[150]According to the legend, certain "indulgences," to be gained by
+all who visited the Holy Places at Jerusalem, were first granted by
+Pope St. Sylvester at the petition of Constantine and St. Helena.
+There seems no evidence as to the real date at which these special
+indulgences were instituted. Cf. Amort, De origine, progressu,
+valore, ac frauctu Indulgentiarum, Augsburg, 1735, pars i. pp. 217
+et seq.
+
+[151]Plenary.
+
+[152]All the indulgences attached to the Holy Places.
+
+[153]Probably Racheness in the parish of South Acre, where "there
+was a leper hospital, with church or chapel dedicated to St.
+Bartholomew, of early foundation" (Victoria History of the County of
+Norfolk, ii. p. 450).
+
+[154]In true union.
+
+[155]Established firmly.
+
+[156]Wandering.
+
+[157]So Horstman. Pepwell reads: "With this wonderful onehede ne may
+none be fuifilled."
+
+[158]Unreasonable impulses.
+
+[159]Secret nature. Cf. Mother Juliana, Revelations of Divine Love,
+xiv. cap. 46: "And our kindly substance is now blessedfully in God."
+
+[160]Divers.
+
+[161]Cf. De Imitatione Christi, ii. 4: "If thine heart were right,
+then every creature would be a mirror of life, and a book of holy
+doctrine. There is no creature so small and vile, as not to
+represent the goodness of God."
+
+[162]Horstman reads: "a mans saule."
+
+[163]So Horstman: Pepwell reads: "as virtues in angels and in holy
+souls and in heavenly things."
+
+[164]Pepwell omits the "not."
+
+[165]Before.
+
+[166]The truth of God's hidden mysteries.
+
+[167]According to the measure of its love.
+
+[168]All intervening hindrance.
+
+[169]Horstman reads: "matter."
+
+[170]A little.
+
+[171]Before.
+
+[172]Overtaxes.
+
+[173]Craft.
+
+[174]Horstman reads: "wete he wele."
+
+[175]This passage is defective in Pepwell.
+
+[176]MS. Dd. v. 55, ed. Horstman, has: "purges."
+
+[177]Pepwell has: "in feeling of the sound."
+
+[178]MS. Dd. v. 55, ed. Horstman, reads: "toune" (i.e. tone).
+
+[179]Illumined.
+
+[180]Cools down grows cold. Also construed with "from." Cf. Richard
+Rolle Psalter (ed. H. R. Bramley, p. 156): "He gars sa many kele fra
+godis luf."
+
+[181]A mere abstract thought of God.
+
+[182]Construe: "But if he hold this feeling and this mind (that is
+only his own working by custom) to be a special visitation."
+
+[183]Surer, safer.
+
+[184]Pepwell adds "and in faith."
+
+[185]The MSS. add: "And bot if thou spede thee the rather or thou
+come to the ende of thy prayer."
+
+[186]Pepwell reads: "find."
+
+[187]Coax, beguile.
+
+[188]Falsehoods.
+
+[189]The MSS. read: "behetynges of lenger leuyng."
+
+[190]Promise.
+
+191Ps. xlvi. 8 (Vulgate), xlvii. 7 (A.V.): "Sing ye praises with
+understanding."
+
+192Ps. cxi. 10 (cx. 10 Vulgate).
+
+[193]So Pepwell; Harl. MS. 674 reads: "Bot forthi that there is no
+sekir stonding."
+
+[194]Pepwell adds in explanation: "or amends"; i.e. satisfaction.
+Cf. Langland, Piers the Plowman, B. xvii. 237: "And if it suffice
+noughte for assetz"; and Wyclif, Pistil on Cristemasse Day (Select
+English Works, ed. T. Arnold, ii. p. 237): "And thus, sith aseeth
+muste be maad for Adams synne."
+
+[195]Ps. xxxiv. 22 (Vulgate xxxiii. 23).
+
+[196]The MSS. read: "fro a lyf."
+
+[197]The MSS. read: "a lyf."
+
+[198]So Harl. MS. 674. Pepwell reads: "Also the steps of thy staff
+Hope plainly will shew unto thee if thou do it duly, as I have told
+thee before, or not."
+
+[199]Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 82, A. I: "Devotio nihil aliud
+esse videtur, quam voluntas quaedam prompte tradendi se ad ea, quae
+pertinent ad Dei famulatum."
+
+[200]The whole passage included in square brackets is omitted in
+Pepwell, but is identical in the two MSS.
+
+[201]So Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS. 674 reads: "medeful."
+
+[202]The trunk.
+
+[203]Pepwell inserts: "it is but churl's meat, for."
+
+[204]Not in Pepwell.
+
+[205]Pepwell reads: "and for nothing else."
+
+[206]Had never received it from Him.
+
+[207]Pure Love, or Charity, which "attains to God Himself, that it
+may abide in Him, not that any advantage may accrue to us from Him"
+(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 23, A. 6). For the
+whole doctrine of "Pure Love or Disinterested Religion," cf. F. von
+Hugel, The Mystical Element of Religion, ii. pp. 152-181.
+
+[208]So both MSS.; Pepwell reads: "blessedness."
+
+[209]Hindering or marring.
+
+[210]Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 27, A. 3;
+and F. von Hugel, op. cit., ii. p. 167.
+
+[211]In the Divine Essence.
+
+[212]So Harl. MS. 674, I take "it" as the beatitude of man which is
+God Himself.
+
+[213]Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii, 143-145:--
+
+"Ma gia volgeva il mio disiro e il velle,
+Si come rota ch' egualmente e mossa,
+L'Amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle."
+
+"But already my desire and will, even as a wheel that is equally
+moved, were being turned by the Love that moves the sun and the
+other stars."
+
+[214]1 Cor. vi. 17.
+
+[215]Pepwell adds: "or sundry."
+
+[216]So Pepwell and Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS, 674 reads: "they ben
+one spirit."
+
+[217]Cant. ii. 16.
+
+[218]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "glose." Pepwell adds: "or flatter."
+
+[219]Heed.
+
+[220]Pepwell adds: "or betokeneth." Cf. Langland, Piers the Plowman,
+A. i. 1: "What this mountein bemeneth."
+
+[221]Cf. above, p. 28 note.
+
+[222]Pepwell adds: "or counsel."
+
+[223]Of thyself thou hast nought but sin.
+
+[224]So the MSS.: Pepwell has: "to God."
+
+[225]Pepwell changes to "divers."
+
+[226]Cf. Dante, De Monarchia, iii. 16: "Man alone of beings holds a
+mid-place between corruptible and incorruptible; wherefore he is
+rightly likened by the philosophers to the horizon which is between
+two hemispheres. For man, if considered after either essential part,
+to wit soul and body is corruptible if considered only after the
+one, to wit the body, but if after the other, to wit the soul, he is
+incorruptible. . . . If man then, is a kind of mean between
+corruptible and incorruptible things, since every mean savours of
+the nature of the extremes, it is necessary that man should savour
+of either nature. And since every nature is ordained to a certain
+end, it follows that there must be a twofold end of man, so that
+like as he alone amongst all beings partakes of corruptibility and
+incorruptibilty, so he alone amongst all beings should be ordained
+for two final goals of which the one should be his goal as a
+corruptible being, and the other as an incorruptible" (P. H.
+Wicksteed's translation).
+
+[227]Pepwell modernises this throughout to "dwelling alone."
+
+[228]Pepwell substitutes "doubt." Cf. Chaucer, Legend of Good Women,
+2686: "Thryes doun she fil in swiche a were."
+
+[229]Pepwell adds: "in keeping of silence."
+
+[230]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "more holiness than thou art worthy."
+
+[231]Nature.
+
+[232]Solitude.
+
+[233]Pepwell has: "company."
+
+[234]Pepwell reads: "better."
+
+[235]Causes.
+
+[236]1 Cor. ii. 11.
+
+[237]Simple.
+
+[238]Jas. i. 12.
+
+[239]The MSS. usually read "cleped" for "called."
+
+[240]Pepwell modernizes to "trouble."
+
+[241]Jas. i. 12.
+
+[242]To give place to.
+
+[243]Such impulses to exceptional practices.
+
+[244]Humble itself.
+
+[245]Pleasant.
+
+[246]Pepwell reads: "wits."
+
+[247]Lest.
+
+[248]Pepwell reads: "strait."
+
+[249]Jer. ix. 21: "Quia ascendit mors per fenestras nostras"
+(Vulgate). Pepwell reads: "as saint Jerome saith"! Cf. Walter
+Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, I. pt. iii. cap 9: "Lift up thy
+lanthorn, and thou shalt see in this image five windows, by which
+sin cometh into thy soul, as the Prophet saith: Death cometh in by
+our windows. These are the five senses by which thy soul goeth out
+of herself, and fetcheth her delight and seeketh her feeding in
+earthly things, contrary to the nobility of her own nature. As by
+the eye to see curious and fair things and so of the other senses.
+By the unskilful using of these senses willingly to vanities, thy
+soul is much letted from the sweetness of the spiritual senses
+within; and therefore it behoveth thee to stop these windows, and
+shut them, but only when need requireth to open them" (ed.
+Dalgairns, p. 115).
+
+[250]Ignorant.
+
+[251]Where natural and acquired knowledge alike fall shorts.
+
+[252]Fully.
+
+[253]Nature.
+
+[254]Pepwell has: "when thou dost feel."
+
+[255]Pepwell inserts: "I mean except the solemn vows of holy
+religion."
+
+[256]2 Cor. iii. 17.
+
+[257]Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 308 (ed. Gigli): "Love
+harmonises the three powers of our soul, and binds them together.
+The will moves the understanding to see, when it wishes to love;
+when the understanding perceives that the will would fain love, if
+it is a rational will, it places before it as object the ineffable
+love of the eternal Father, who has given us the Word, His own son,
+and the obedience and humility of the son, who endured torments,
+inuries, mockeries, and insults with meekness and with such great
+love. And thus the will, with ineffable love, follows what the eye
+of the understanding has beheld; and with its strong hand, it stores
+up in the memory the treasure that it draws from this love."
+
+[258]Losing.
+
+[259]Cant. iv. 9.
+
+[260]To exercise love.
+
+[261]Divers.
+
+[262]1 Cor. i. 26, vii. 20; Eph. iv. 1.
+
+[263]Luke x. 42.
+
+[264]Pepwell inserts "Him list thee to see, and."
+
+[265]Pepwell reads: "Let be good and all that is good, and better
+with all that is better."
+
+[266]Luke x. 42.
+
+[267]To know how to speak, etc.
+
+[268]Banishing from thy soul's vision.
+
+[269]Be able to.
+
+[270]Pepwell reads: "privily." Cf. Wyclif (Select English Works, ed.
+cit., i. p. 149): "And after seith Crist to his apostles, that thes
+thingis he seide bifore to hem in proverbis and mystily."
+
+[271]Pepwell reads: "rest."
+
+[272]Pepwell modernises "conne" to "learn to" throughout this
+passage.
+
+[273]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "stirring"; the other MS, as Pepwell.
+
+[274]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "have."
+
+[275]Pepwell reads: "else."
+
+[276]Manifestly, i.e. unless they clearly show that they do not know
+how to act as they should. Pepwell has: "in a part."
+
+[277]i.e. take their advice, but do not simply imitate them. I
+follow the MSS. in preference to Pepwell, who reads: "Work after no
+men's counsel, but sith that know well their own disposition; for
+such men should," etc.
+
+[278]1 John iv. 1-6.
+
+[279]Ps. lxxxv. 8 (Vulgate lxxxiv. 9).
+
+[280]Zech. i. 9-19.
+
+[281]Col. ii. 18.
+
+[282]1 Thess. i. 2-9.
+
+[283]Pepwell adds: "or ambition." Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale,
+ed. Skeat, SS 18: "and coveitise of hynesse by pryde of herte."
+
+[284]Burns.
+
+[285]So Harl. MS. 674; Pepwell has: "war."
+
+[286]Crafty device.
+
+[287]Cf. above, p. 17 note.
+
+[288]Pepwell has: "gladly."
+
+[289]Pepwell reads "ever ready."
+
+[290]Withstand, resist.
+
+[291]Cf. Mother Juliana, Revelations of Divine Love, i. cap. 9: "In
+general I am, I hope, in onehead of charity with all my even
+Christian, for in this onehead standeth the life of all mankind that
+shall be saved."
+
+[292]If it is still guilty of the other two.
+
+[293]Pepwell adds: "and voluptuous."
+
+[294]Ps. cxxxii. (Vulgate cxxxi. ) 13.
+
+[295]Cf. Walter Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, II. pt. ii. cap.
+3: "Jerusalem is, as much as to say, a sight of peace, and
+betokeneth contemplation in perfect love of God; for contemplation
+is nothing else but a sight of God, which is very peace."
+
+[296]Probably Isa. lvii. 15.
+
+[297]Pepwell reads: "most folly."
+
+[298]Pepwell adds: "or harm." Cf. The Chronicle of Robert of Brunne,
+8905-6: "Now may ye lyghtly bere the stones to schip wythouten
+dere."
+
+[299]Advisedly.
+
+[300]Partisans, abettors.
+
+[301]The MSS. read: "doles."
+
+[302]Pepwell reads: "But it is more sorrow to feel of our own
+spirit's deceits. For sometime our own spirit."
+
+[303]The MSS. read: "Bot what thar reche"; what need to care.
+
+[304]Pepwell reads: "didst feel in there."
+
+[305]Cf. above, p. 95, note.
+
+[306]Pepwell adds: "and judgment."
+
+[307]Unless because of carelessness in resisting them when they
+first come.
+
+[308]To regard thyself as responsible.
+
+[309]Madness.
+
+[310]Not in Harl. MS. 674.
+
+[311]Pepwell reads: "a full damnable and a full cursed fiend in his
+living."
+
+[312]Pepwell adds: "and desire much."
+
+[313]Pepwell reads: "suggestion."
+
+[314]On the other hand.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cell of Self-Knowledge, by Various
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