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