This is to be understood, that God wot all, and whoso consenteth to do sin, he taketh from God his will; this is sooth, for he doeth that which God willeth not, and is against his divine bounty., Now, saith this soul, behold the debt of one only misdoing; for in sooth, she oweth of twain who hath twice fallen into sin.. it is his own proper deed. Love maketh her all drunken and suffereth her not to attend to any but him, by which strength in love she delighteth her so, that the soul may none other being hold precious,[363] for the great light of love hath covered her, that suffereth her not to see passing love. Right so as do the angels of the third hierarchy; for this wit well, and I do them well inform, all those to whom love sendeth his message, that if they refuse them at any point there where the virtues would have them, by the inward working of virtues that should have lordship over the body, and [if] they refuse them in this point, they shall never make their peace with the Sovereign that the message sendeth, but that they shall be taken and troubled in knowing, and encumbered of themselves for default of trust, for love saith that in great need men may know their friend. And ourselves as we ought, is that, in doing of this we look not to our own profit, but to the perfect will of him, God, Christ Jesu. Nor may the soul have her full sufficiency of divine love, nor [may] divine love [have it] of the soul, until such time as the soul be in God and God in the soul, of him, by him, in this being, by divine [indwelling], and then the soul hath all her sufficiency. Lady Love, I would tell you gladly, if I might., Sweet soul, saith Love, now tell me your desire, for I will hear it., Ah right, sweet Love, saith this soul that is abashed, for God, tell me wherefore thought he to make me, and buy me again unto redemption, in order to give me so little, who hath so much to give? For all the orders of angels have not one same name if any would name their greatest name and yet be they all angels. Lord, unwitting I am, unmighty and unable to have done it, but only by your help and grace. But this falling maketh not peace to be less, by troubling the conscience, [so] that the soul liveth not in peace by the gifts that be given her from above. God is enhabited in them[61] and worketh in them, and these souls suffer him [to] work his divine works in them. What thing it is that giveth this soul and is most noble being that may be had in this life, CHAPTER XV: What thing it is that hath given this soul freedom in enduring of things, CHAPTER XVI: Of the peace of this divine life, and how Mary Magdalen had it when she was in the desert. For to will what God wills is to be already like him; to be unable to will except what God wills, is to be already what God is, in whom to be and to will are one and the same thing.. And this doeth she in sooth, at all times when she is unencumbered of herself. And thus their will, which they had chosen, made them lose this high vision by giving their will to that which they could not attain. MS. And this synagogue that our Lord Jesu Christ bought with his precious Body, that heareth not the bestiality of those who, in this travail, please themselves thus. Even so, I tell you, they who keep the commandments and be in that feeling, they have the name of soul, and not of spirit. Their right name is soul, for these folks be full far from the life of spirit. Then thus, my Beloved, you have suffered all that you have suffered in your sweet humanity for me, as much as if none had sinned but I alone! I give thee an ensample. For this soul, saith Love, willeth so perfectly the will of God, that she cannot will and may not will but the will of God. His love is not served in this, nor is this naught[297] it may not be. This soul can no more work. Charity giveth to all, all that she has of value. This Love, the Holy Ghost, swimmeth in a soul and is poured out in abundance of delights, of a gift right high that is given of upraised ravishing, by knitting of union of the sovereign Beloved, that giveth himself simply and simple her maketh. And how that falling, though it be low, is more virtue than vice. So I [would] refuse it at the prayers of the Humanity, and of the saints, and of the Virgin Mary. I sent you the Thrones for to answer you and to summon you, and the Cherubin to enlumine you and the Seraphin for to embrace or kiss[250] you. And he prayed for the love of God that it be wisely kept, and that but few should see it. what faulteth me then? M. This ensample that Love maketh of the innocents that they do nothing nor leave to do, for high nor for low, except it please them, it meaneth, that these creatures should not do for one or for another whatever might unrest the quiet of their spirits. And it saith in another place before, that none can find them, nor know them but they whom Fine Love leadeth, and whoever should find such souls he could say the truth thereof. Right as God is that is, without any beginning so have I been in his divine knowing, that I shall be without end. It may be a very useful text to the people of today. Whoever he may have been, he forms a link between the Flemish mystics of the fourteenth century, and the older scholastics and theologians who wrote on prayer in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. This second part deals with the highest states, not merely by description, but it takes up some of the previous points of controversy and shows them in relation to the further the plea of experience acquired. I answered anon this, that [as] I was, I would [have] no more help of him, nor of anything that might do me good. Whoso hath perfect charity he is mortified in affection of [the] life of spirit,[36] by works of charity. As to the accusation of Quietism, we may probably safely take the humorous comment of Richard Methley in his later translation of the passage descriptive of the last stages of the souls journey (p. 293). It is in a better hand than either of the others, and is both beautifully written and illuminated. If I [put in] mine, I should unmake his, and for this cause the work and teaching of the disciples of Reason would harm me. The Mirror of Simple Souls, written in a vivid literary style in Old French, is a dialogue among the allegorical figures of Love, Reason and the Soul. For else, she should have war with Love, that is, the Holy Ghost. Now is this soul fallen of love into naught, without which naught she may not be all. Then with true love they print so their wills in Gods will, by meek obedience, that they cannot pray in this time for themselves, nor for none other. Adds. Cf. Lord, ye be one only God in three Persons, and I am one only enemy in three mischances.[388]. And so resteth she, of less and more, that is, of all thing. And he waxeth not,[229] but is; for otherwise is the Son of the Father, and otherwise is the Holy Ghost of the Father and of the Son. And he is no good lover that disposeth himself not to fulfil all that, by which he wist he might best please to his beloved. Ah, Love, saith Reason, name this soul by her right name; give the Actives some knowing. And Love nameth her by thus many names. MS. disease. Throughout dis-ease = distress, trouble, anxiety. For, Lord, my weening[156] is this, and it is truth, that though none had sinned but I alone, you would have bought my soul with your love, late laid on cross for me, by the use of powers ordained to destroy my sin. And them that be not nor never were, nor shall be, feel not this being. And right so it is of body and of spirit. The persons that are such, they are thus called and fulfilled, that they have within them no craving of anything. And right so do the souls of which we speak, that be vessels of this election, to whom God showeth and giveth his noble gifts., Now, Reason, saith Love, you ask of us, why we have this soul so little a name named, as is Soul. The Son is fruition agreeable. And that is more mine which he hath which I have not nor shall not have than is this which I have and shall have in possession of himself.. The whole passage is very obscure. His glorious body that is in heaven and knit to the divine person of the Son, cometh not down into the host, but the host turneth into him, as it is aforesaid. But when a soul is touched with grace by which she has tasted somewhat of the sweetness of this divine fruition, and begins to wade and draweth the draughts to her-ward then it savoureth the soul so sweetly that she desireth greatly to have of it more and more, and pursueth thereafter. This phrase and the following seem to be the work of the Translator. Our author is a little before their time, but he may have witnessed a beginning of the preaching movement within the Religious Houses, to which the public was attracted. In England we can only hazard conjectures. Whether he himself was a monk of this or of a Charterhouse in the same locality, we cannot tell. But yet more, saith Love, in order to increase the joy and the sorrow of the soul, and to remind her of all her graces. It explains the apparent contradiction which the previous paragraphs offer to the general message of the book, in the statement that some souls. And in the meantime that I most had them, Love made me hear and speak of him. Also, she comprehendeth much, what time she is oned to God; then in a moment of time she forgetteth herself and all other thing that was afore thought. For there where is most of my love, there is most of my treasure. He was evidently in a position and of a character to stamp the work favourably or the reverse; his approbation is guarded, sober, balanced. Ah, ah, what a thing it is, to think of; who durst ask this, unless his own bounty had made it that Jesu Christ should be poor and despised and tormented for us? For [in] reproaches of the Father, and threatenings of the Son, there is nothing [found] of the oil of peace. She doth nothing by her inward [guiding], for whoso doth anything by the moving of his inwardness, he is not, saith Love, without-himself, for he is with-himself, and hath nature and reason with him. No, in soothness, saith this soul, for because their wills dwell with them, they be servants to their wills. But God hath kept me well, saith this soul, from such lore of Reasons disciples they shall not hold me in their counsel, nor their doctrine will I no more hear; I have been long therein holden, sometime I thought it was good, it is not now my best; of that, they know nothing; for a little wit may not put a price [upon a] thing of worthy value, nor understand anything unless reason be master thereof; and if they did understand it any time, it is not often. station39.cebu He thinketh not, why then should I think? The Vlth Division, the second part of the book (VI-XVII), in which the description of the nature of the free soul is mingled with sundry recapitulations, is illustrated partly from reminiscences of earlier mystical works St Bonaventure, St Augustine, Richard of St Victor. It would appear that the heretical influences from the South of France and Germany were already spreading northwards, and manifesting themselves in Flanders and the Netherlands when Eckhart began to preach. She comprehendeth much when she beholdeth God, how worthy and glorious he is, and how powerful he is in all his works. O thou Lord God! saith this soul, my sins may none know in this world, as they be, in hideous figure, save you. The first estate is that a soul is touched of God by grace, and dissevered from sin, with intention according to her power to keep the commandments of God that he commandeth in the law, up [on] pain of death. She hath neither bottom nor floor, therefore hath she no place, and if she hath no place, then hath she not love for herself. Thus this soul seeth herself without her sight. It seemeth to me, saith Reason, as I may understand these words, that it is a greater thing to this soul to be drunken of that which her love drinketh and shall drink of the divine tun[119] of his own bounty, than of that which she hath not drunk and never shall drink; for she is drunken of the drink that he drinketh of the divine fauset[120] of the same tun.. but make it seem to the understanding of her loving affection, that she cannot make offering to her Beloved that might comfort her, but the thing that he loveth. And of this conjunction amiable, the wills [are] of the goodness of the Holy Ghost. This is the prescription of Fervour-of-Spirit, and Love appeals to the experience of those who have tested it by trial. I have done all.. Ah, ah, Lord God, saith this soul, what shall the soul do that this believeth of him?, She shall do naught, saith God, but I shall do my work in her without her. And he that hath taken all that I have of worth, he gave it me; and he hath all withholden! This that I was then, is marring, for all those be marred that have anything of affection in spirit. Such power hath love over me. For, Lord, it is so great a thing to see the angels and the souls to whom you have given the vision of your face, that no human body is worthy to see so great a thing, as be the angels and the souls. And when I desired [it], saith Love, and when it pleaseth me, and was necessary to you, I hold need [to be] this, that I desired it ye refused me by as many messages as I sent you. This is sooth, saith Love, if it come to them, since their will is not the cause: the souls know not where the end lieth, nor for what cause God will find their salvation, nor the salvation of their even- Christians, nor for what reason God will do righteousness or mercy, nor for what cause God will give to the soul the excellent gifts of the goodness of his divine nobility. These folk be but cowards that so do. has unfreeth not.. N. These twelve names Love giveth her. That which is, is of his bounty; so loveth she his goodness which he hath by bounty given her. But with the first time and now, I have great dread to do it, for the book is of high divine matters and of high ghostly feelings, and cunningly and full dimly[12] it is spoken. And, therefore, the will of this creature loveth only works of goodness, by fervour of grace, in taking all labours in which she may her spirit feed. This can be conveyed through the dramatic form, more convincingly, perhaps, than in a methodical treatise. The mirror of simple souls by M. N., Clare Kirchberger, 1927, Burns, Oates and Washbourne ltd. edition, in English R.H. Steuart, S.J., who have kindly read the MSS., and have made valuable suggestions with great generosity and courtesy. Gladly, saith Love, and unless she be such as I shall tell you, Truth, saith Love, I command you that you answer her that she is ill-arrayed to speak to me in my secret chamber, where none entereth unless they be thus arrayed, as ye shall hear me say. For the bounty of his pure nature is known by the wickedness of my cruel nature. a forgotten soul, drunk! When I was nothing, before I owed to my God anything by the work of self will, and yet should I have nothing ere I were quit of one of my faults, without more, though I had the same that this book speaketh of, where it speaketh of the argument[341] of which ye have heard! This bounty by me[359] God knew had never been known, neither was my wickedness. Reason, saith Love, I answer thee, for I have said, that a soul that is made free knoweth all; and she knoweth naught. 155, 184 are quite definite in guarding against such an interpretation. This soul, saith Love, hath not withheld any will within her, she is fallen into naught-willing and into certainty of naught-witting, and this naught-willing and naught-witting hath stilled and wholly pacified her. And this Being giveth her being without knowing nor feeling, nor willing any being, but only the ordinance of God. And then I beheld the seraphins and asked of them for what cause were done the works that charity did of the Incarnation of the Manhood of Jesu Christ, or of this, that the divine Trinity made them, and of all that he shall do without end in creature, of his bounty. For whosoever it be that speaketh of God, when he will, and to whom he will, and where he will, he may doubt.[96], This is sooth, without fail, saith this soul, nor did he feel the true tidings of divine love that maketh the soul at all times abashed without her perceiving [it];[97] for the very tidings, refined, purified by divine love which are without [the intervention of creatures] and given of the Maker to the creature, truly take away such usages. . [299] She wist not when she sought him, that God was all, by all, in all, she had not then sought him. She may yet fall if she be assailed with adversities or with prosperities. The translators of this Modern English version rely primarily on the original French manuscript, yet also take medieval translations into account. Understand ye lovers what this is., I have said, saith Love, that this soul is fallen of me into naught, and less than naught without number. But the works of virtues be all within this soul enclosed, that obey her without any withstanding. Publication date 1993 . This burden of heaviness may no one lose except he be an innocent. And this hath rested her of all things by excellent nobleness.. But this I shall tell you, saith this free soul, what behoveth a creature ere he come thereto. . The author points out that the natural human desire for devotion and increase of love, for some outward assurance of Gods love and demonstration of our human love, leads to natural efforts which may procure some such phenomena, experienced as fire. She is inebriated by her contemplation of the divine satisfaction of the Trinity, which results from the perfect intercommunion of the Three Blessed Persons. Surmont, Vicartus generalis. by a meditation of [the] love [that is] without [the] hearing [that cometh from] creatures, by such meditation that souls receive in love without desiring any of his gifts, which men call consolations that comfort souls, by feeling of sweetness in prayer. Though they gave her all that ever was given and shall be given, it would be naught compared with that which she loveth and shall love., But God himself, Lady Love, saith this soul, loveth in me and shall love., Save your reverence, that wot I not. As an opponent of the Mendicants his approbation formed a valuable counterpart to that of the Franciscan Friar, Fr. Love in this book layeth to souls the touches of his divine works privily hid under dark speech, so that they should taste the deeper draughts of his love and drink. And will it he must, for I will not but only what he willeth in me; and what he willeth that I will. I live but with the peace that is gotten or born of these two gifts in my soul, without thought. It behoveth me to keep the peace of my divine righteousness and yield to every [man] that which is his. And that you deigned of your excellent Deity, that I, the most wretched and unfit,[406] should translate this book. So doth God [set], saith Love, by divine nature, the drawings of his love in her, who formeth her questions in her without [her] witting. And thus I may not rest in him, that is God, unless he set me so without myself, of him, right as he made me without me, by himself. What he owed to Dionysius Areopagita came to him through the Victorines; but he is, on the whole, untouched by the new scholasticism that was formulated by St Thomas, and had not as yet dominated the thought of the schools. And there they may be deceived, that love by tenderness that they have to affection, which suffereth them not to come to knowing. Upon these two staffs she is apeased,[115] and taketh no count of her enemies, neither on the right side nor on the left side. Ye have sat at my table, so I have given you my mess, and so have ye right well learned, and right well my mess savoured, and my vines of fulness, of which ye be the cutting. This daughter of Sion desireth neither masses nor sermons, fastings nor orisons. Without their witting, these folks be meeked of God himself, who is Almight., I promised, saith this soul, concerning the takings of love to say some things of the seven estates that we call Beings, for so it is. Into this servitude enter they, saith this soul, that in all, they believe and follow these two virtues, Reason and Dread, for they nourish Will. And there she is betaken into the high sea, and so she liveth without her proper will, and sitteth in being above her counsel, for otherwise she should be reproached of the sovereign that putteth her there without herself. They might not put in this comparison, either his power or his wisdom or his bounty, but without more, the knowing of one sole spark of his pure bounty. In view of this no further analysis is needed. And she is in all times demure without heaviness, and glad without dissolution, for God hath in this soul hallowed his name, and the divine Trinity hath there his house., O ye little [ones], who in will and in desire dwell, saith this soul, take the spoils[112] of your food, and desire that ye might be such, for he that desireth the least, unless he desire the most, it is not worthy that God do to him the best of his goodness, on account of the slackness of his poor courage. They have so long striven with vices and wrought by virtues, that they may come to the nut kernel, that is, to the love of God, which is sweetness. Wendy R. Terry, Ph.D. (2007), Graduate Theological Union, is a Continuing Lecturer in Religious Studies at University of California, Davis. And she must let God work and be disposed[133] to his will, for they that have a will that God should do their will, willing to feel his comforts, they trust not perfectly in his sole bounty, but in the gifts of his riches that he hath to give., Without fail, saith this soul, he that loveth well, he thinketh not either of taking nor of asking, but of giving, without anything withholding, that he may love truly. For he that is, hath their will, [and he] knoweth what is good for them, and that sufficeth them without knowing or being sure. To the follower of St Bernard, however, who wrote the letter to the Brethren of Mons Dei, he owed much. And then is a soul in the sixth state, of all things made free, pure, and clarified, not glorified; for glorifying is in the seventh estate that we shall have in glory, that none can speak of. The French book that I shall write after is evil written and in some places for default[18] of words and syllables the reason is away. He is greatly indebted to Richard of St Victor and to the author of the Letter to the Brethren of Mons Dei. Certain passages in this letter give almost verbally the ideas and the expression of some of the most original passages in the Mirror. . Book excerpt: When Dr. Romana Guarnieri, in a letter to Osservatore Romano (16 June 1946), announced her discovery that Margaret Porette (d. 1 June 1310) was the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, certainly a major French document of pre-Reformation spirituality, a sensation was created in the academic world. Then, the soul ought to die entirely, so that there dwell not in her neither colour, nor savour, nor smell of nothing that God forbiddeth in the Law. This is carried to the extreme in his contemptuous attacks on that Reason which is litteral, and in his glorification of not-knowing and not-willing, culminating in the experience of the Dark Night. Ah, without fail, no! And Gods Son is our ensample; we ought in this beholding to follow him, for we should will solely in all things the will of God, and so shall we be the sons of God the Father, to follow the ensample of Jesu Christ his Son. Though he describes the ensuing complete passivity of the soul as belonging chiefly to the times of prayer, it would appear that, at the end of the journey, there is some sort of identification of the soul with the gentle far night, in its complete union with God (cf. This being is the Holy Ghost himself, that is the love of the Father and of the Son. Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Not, saith the Holy Ghost, by nature divine, for that may not be, but by the strength of love, for that behoveth to be.[170], Now Holy Church, saith Love, here you have heard why this soul hath all., Sooth! saith the Holy Ghost, all that I have received of the Father and of the Son, who knoweth that she hath all that I have, saith the Holy Ghost, and the Father and the Son have nothing but that I have it in me. (11) And [she who is] called without fail by the divine goodness, of the work of the Trinity. The contradictions of doctrine are only superficial, if we keep in mind the distinctions made earlier between the four (not three) classes, the perished, the marred, those in life of affection of spirit, and those free souls united to God by love. ABSTRACT. Of this, saith Love, we will speak in asking a soul. For by right, the contemplatives should pass the state of scholars, as masters of divinity be passed schools. And the light of this divine knowing taketh from her the knowing of Gods self, and of herself, and of all things.[223], This is sooth, saith this soul, there is no more; but when God wills that I know him, it taketh the knowledge of him from me; for otherwise, saith this soul, should I no knowing have of him. And I say to him, As much care have ye for me as I for you, though I gave you as much as you have, for such is the largesse of your divine nature. So willeth he, so saith this gentle Far Night, that is my counsel. And since by my wickedness God is known and also his divine bounty, and since the souls salvation is no other thing than to know the divine bounty, then am I the cause of the salvation of all creatures, for the goodness of God is known by me. It is well asked, and, saith Love, I will answer thee to all thy askings., Reason, saith Love, I certify thee that these souls, whom Fine Love leadeth, they have as lief[79] shame as worship, and worship as shame; and poverty as riches and riches as poverty; and torments of God and of his creatures, as comforts of God and of his creatures; and to be hated as loved and loved as hated; and hell as paradise and paradise as hell; and little estate as great, and great estate as little. We have come to a stage when intensive mortification of the soul and spirit is described and shown as Gods action rather than the souls endeavour, and as resulting in a deepening experience of union with God (chap, xi), and the Division ends with a renewed warning concerning the fewness of those who will understand, and the condition of participating in this life; they only understand it whom fine love teacheth. Thus prayeth she not. MS. would have without any incredence within the full assize; The Latin translators note effectually disposes of all objections to this sentiment. The author refers probably to a rough classification of rationalists and mystics among the teachers and disciples within the general body of the Church each regarding itself as an, It is enough to know that God has hidden these souls yet are others near them, for they are always among us, unknown. . Though it were all at their pleasure to choose any of these aforesaid, they desire not nor they will not none of these.. For why? There is none but he that is, and she seeth this being of his divine majesty by union of love of bounty, spread and laid in him. So they stand to attend [upon], and wait to follow the Lords work, who is sovereign master; for if they do the contrary, truly, it will unrest them. A curious point is that these MSS. But she is settled in the fifth state[217] with her Beloved, there faulteth her nothing. Our Lord God Christ bring it to a good end. Then be all the virtues that be germain to Reason mothers of holiness? saith this soul. for as often-times as I have had will against his will, I have lost will and withdrawn and with-holden it from himself, who hath given it me freely, of his bounty. Here endeth the book that Love calleth The Mirror of Simple Souls. A few years earlier her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, had also been burned in Valenciennes, with Marguerite as a witness. When love dwelleth and leadeth in them, and virtues serve them without any understanding or painfulness in these souls., Soothly, Love, saith Reason, these souls that thus become free, they have many a day known what control can do. None know in this letter give almost verbally the ideas and the seem!, yet also take medieval translations into account done it, but by! Goodness which he hath all withholden her without any incredence within the full assize ; the Latin translators effectually! 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