I know well, saith this soul, that Love herself maketh them to endure, that is mistress of this work., I have said before, saith this soul, that nothing faulteth me,[145] since that my love hath all in him, of his rightwise nobleness, without beginning and shall have without end. The one of these two staffs that this soul resteth on to keep her from her is that she keepeth the gifts of her riches, that is, the true knowledge that she hath of the poverty of herself. What emerges from this new approach is the Mirror and its author's unambiguous didactic intent - a fact long . For such [a] will is [a] divine will, and this divine will giveth Being to free creatures. This confusion in the mind of our North-country monk may be due to similarity of doctrine in some points i.e., the dark night, the valley of peace, etc. No, though men knew as much as men shall know in heaven, or that might, passing that, be compared by the comparison of a part; so that all this that men shall know, were naught in regard of the whole to which men compared it. 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. Further, he discards the M.N. Ah God, what great words these be; whoso should understand the truth of the gloss?, Ah God, saith Understanding of the soul naughted, am I not enough in prison of corruption, where I am obliged to be; will I or nil I; though I allow me not to the cart of correction? He held a middle course steadily between the extreme Thomism of the Dominican party and the hostile opposition. Thus they do nothing as in their own sight and judgement, but God doth all thing that good is. So that I witness, my beloved Lord, that you have well quitted me of my debt, for I find no thing in which I find not peace, however it befall or hath fallen concerning my sins, your peace dwelleth with me. MS. ne werke ye it, also schalle the deire but if ye lette him to dethe, werke. Lat. www.capuchinfriars.org.au. Lords hearing, Lords loving! Of what is Love's undertaking, and why Love had . Porete was burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1310. [111] She is common to all, by largesse of pure charity. tell me, for love, when shall he help him, unless he help him when he hath most need? She cometh of the divine deity, where the mother is ancestor of these branches,[282] whose root is of such great fruitfulness. Now be these two things ended in me. Righteousness and Mercy ask how they may comfort her, and what help she would have; and she refuses all help but God himself who Is, and she is Naught. Therefore it is said in such terms as alway, thus, in this wise. Many such other words in this book must be taken [thus]. Now I shall tell you my answer that I said to him, concerning himself, that he would prove me of all points. Her other work on Marguerite includes Seeing Marguerite in the Mirror: A Linguistic Analysis of Porete's 'Mirror of Simple Souls' (Peeters, 2011). For I tell you truly, that none may come to [a] deep foundation, nor to high edification, unless they reach it by the discrimination of great natural intelligence, and by the gladness of the understanding of the spirit. Ebook 489 pages 8 hours The Mirror of Simple Souls Show full title By Margaret Porette and Kent Emery. I have none other usage nor none other usage may have, so overcometh me this knowledge continually.. 37790, but the dialect is slightly more northern and retains some older forms. You have opened [it],[207] saith Love, so that Reason and all his scholars may not be there against., That this seemeth not well said to them, however much it be according to understanding, this is sooth, saith this soul, but they only understand it whom fine love teacheth, and they only wot what this book meaneth. This we believe perfectly, without doubt, Lady Love! say the Virtues. And therefore, divine will is alway one same will with Love. Will ye, right this day, by courtesy, dissolve[375] me, ye fine Love?. This goodness of the Holy Ghost conjoineth her in love of the Father and of the Son. This wit all they who undertake works of themselves without the fervour of the willing of their inwardness.. peterjohnparisis But for those folk, saith Love, that work by their wills, they refuse God the realm., Eh, without fail, saith Reason, so do they [indeed]!, So do they [refuse to yield themselves], saith this freed soul, but they ought to do so, or they should lose all the little cattle[187] that they have., This is sooth, Lady Soul, saith Reason, I grant it you., These folk, saith Love, that work thus by their wills, be not quit from thraldom. We have him, he is with us. It has been collated with the British Museum and both English and Latin Cambridge MSS. There should nothing abide with her, for she hath naught nor never had, as of herself, anything, but [it] hath had a will to do a fault. With the cult of the Magdalen flourishing in the Low Countries and across Europe, Porete adopted the saint to concretize her doctrine of the . Now soul, saith this soul to herself, if ye have all this that this writing deviseth, say we not more, but all is his by debt, ere I be quit of this one debt alone. For she hath no more of her that might make her glad or heavy. I have no life.. O soul touched of God, dissevered from sin, in the first estate of grace, ascend by divine grace into the seventh estate of grace, where the soul hath her fullhead of perfection by divine fruition in life of peace. 297-300). For these souls naught[52] themselves so by very meekness, that they make themselves as no-one, for sin is no-thing, and they hold themselves but sin; therefore in their own beholding they do naught, but God doth in them his works. Therefore his eye beholdeth me, thou makest of two wills one will. In England we can only hazard conjectures. on the Internet. NIHIL OBSTAT: Georgius D. Smith, S.T.D., Censor deputatus. $253. She answereth to none, nor oweth she to do so, unless he be of her lineage, this is to say, unless it be according to her disposition within herself. And with twain she flieth, and so dwelleth in understanding and in sitting. . This is to understand, that he would that creatures begged as he doth in other creatures. Now these folks have, of all the orders, the most high mention for the spirit, and the most noble complexion[322] by nature, when they are sanguine or choleric; that is, not melancholic nor phlegmatic; for of the gifts of fortune, these be the best to have; yet they hold all to be best, according to their will and their necessity, for themselves and for their even-Christian, without anxiety of conscience. Now have ye tasted honey and our wine savoured, saith the Holy Trinity, none can speak but ye, for ye may not any other usages in your heart take, to have in price, but this. Therefore his eye beholdeth me, he may not suffer nor will, but that he be conjoint within me. Reason, saith Love, I answer thee, for I have said, that a soul that is made free knoweth all; and she knoweth naught. The soul describes her own rapturous protestations to Love, and is brought up sharp by three penetrating claims for which she was unprepared. So, of his bounty, he [giveth] the shewing of the seventh estate to which the sixth giveth being. Furthermore, she seeth how good and merciful, benign and meek he is in all things, and in this beholding full often love cometh to her with his ravishing darts and woundeth her so sweetly that she forgetteth all that she afore saw and wist. [30] But this falling of the righteous is more merit than sin, because of the good will that standeth unbroken, and is oned to God. He maketh in a moment of two things, one. But they that would possess the full assurance without inward [feeling] of unbelief,[400] them doth the great wit of nature deceive. It is much to say of such a servant that serveth his Lord well at all points in all thing, that he knoweth that which might best please the will of his Lord. Here me faileth wit I cannot answer, nor will, nor grant it. This is the fulfilling of all their love and the last denial of their way. Soothly, whatever men say, neither they nor I can say aught of your goodness, but the more I hear said of you, the more I am abashed. [9] The method is also that of the scholastic disputations at the Sorbonne, and reflects the interest of a society delighting in sophistry and intellectual subtleties of every kind. Why should it not? So went I not lightly away. Then it behoveth, saith this soul, that I be in certainty that this which I have said is less than naught. There is another resemblance with God which is much more perfect than that which is effected through the practice of virtue. And also to make them have the more clear insight in divine understanding of divine love and declare themselves. [140] Lady Soul, saith Love, I tell you one thing for all, and passing that, desire no more to hear, for ye shall lose your pains; that all creatures this is to understand without none putting out that be and shall be, in the vision of the sweet face of your spouse, have not comprehended of him, nor shall comprehend, in truth, nor in knowing, nor in love, nor in hearing, anything., Ah, Love, saith this soul, what shall I do? Reason judgeth after that which she knows. And [in] that [she] hath neither more nor less of love himself, for this hath she no place, nor recketh of anything that may fall. [63] N. The third point, saith Love, is this. For this, that I hold, that if all diseases of deaths and of other torments that have been or shall be in reasonable creatures from the time of Adam unto the time of Antichrist, and all these miseases toforesaid, were in one creature, truly it were but a point of the misease that Jesu Christ had in his worthy precious Body by one of his pains, without more, for the onbinding[379] of his tenderness and cleanness. And who would ask them, What is the greatest torment that a creature may suffer? they would say, It is to take the lead in love and in obedience of virtues for it behoveth them give to virtues all that they ask, whatever it cost to nature; and they ask worship, honour, heart, body, life. Oh, what a sweet meaning [is this]; for Gods love understand it all! not given herself up to feelings of either doubt or confidence. Obviously no deductions in favour of self-indulgence are to be drawn from this passage by those who have not attained that state. What shall become of Shame, that is the fairest daughter that Meekness hath; and Dread also, she who, to this lady, hath done so many fair services? But she hath not the usages of them, for she is not with them[44] as she was wont. What this work is, and how it is, love showeth it in this book; and whatever the bodies of these souls do of outward[62] deeds, the souls that be thus high set, take not so great regard to these works that they save themselves thereby, but only trust to the goodness of God, and so they save them by faith, and believe not nor trust not in their own works, but in all, in Gods goodness. So hath she of God this which she hath; and she is this which God is, by union of love, in that point where she was, before God had her of his bounty made. For if I be discomforted of that which I lack, I am recomforted againward, in that he lacketh nothing. But nay, for Jesu Christ made this accordance so abundantly, so anguishously. Now first edited from the ms by Clare Kirchberger ed. I hold, saith she, for this, mine [own which] I shall not let go; it is in my will, befall what may; for he is with me, then it were a default if I [let myself be] dismayed., This soul, saith Love, is lady of virtues, daughter of deity, sister of wisdom, and the spouse of love., Soothly, saith this soul, but this seemeth to Reason a marvellous language, and that is no wonder, for it shall not be long until he shall not be; but I was, saith this soul, and am, and shall be without failing; for love hath neither beginning, nor comprehending, nor end; and I am [nothing] but love, how might I then have end? This is the peace of the food that Love giveth me to love him. Reason, saith Love. (Divisions XVIII-XX.). Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. And this is the fulfilling of her pilgrimages. But when she took love, she sought him by desire of will, in feeling of her spirit. Thou wouldest have answers to these words aforesaid, and thou askest what it is? To him be offered all glory and praisings to everlasting laud. First, when creatures give themselves to perfection, they set all their desire and all their purpose[47] in these points aforesaid, and all their labour by fervour of love, in which they work and [take the] lead. Himself saith in the Gospel: Whoever believeth in me, he shall do such works as I do, and yet more greater shall he do. This is the originality in an age when religious treatises were either ascetic or speculative, and when the mystical life was sometimes studied as a department of philosophy, or seen only through the eyes of moralists, or even degraded by the interpretation of heresy and self-indulgence. 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. Now, there is in this tun of divine drink, many fausets; this knoweth the manhood that is knit to the person of God the Son, who drank of the most noble wine next the Trinity. Therefore to you only, be the worship and the praising thereof, and of all good works that be done under the sun. 54, 66 and pp. The humour and common sense that mark the treatment throughout is a significant indication of the real sanity of the authors point of view. Now have I never aught, nor naught may I will, as of myself; nor none may give me anything wherewith to pay my debts. 37790). Of Godfrey of Fountains we know a good deal. Right then, saith she, when love hath opened me his book, for his book is of such condition, that what time that love openeth the book, the soul wot all and hath all, all works of perfection it hath in her fulfilled, at the opening thereof. And Reason dwelleth in us. The position of the Church in these matters is now so clear, that for Catholics the warnings against Pantheism and Quietism are superfluous. O God, saith divine Love, that through him resteth concerning this, in soul naughted, how far is their life from the life of freeness, over which not-willing hath lordship. But now, behold, that ye may better understand what thing is the will of God. And of the martyrdom of will and love, CHAPTER II: How the affection of tenderness of love that the soul feeleth in life of spirit which she weeneth it to be in God, is in herself, and of the profit of naught witting, CHAPTER I: How this soul is in her highest perfection when holy church taketh no ensample of her. Goodness and goodwill is set above knowing. And when this sun is in the soul and this beam and this brightness, the body hath no more feebleness, nor the soul dread, for the very Sun of Righteousness, when he did his miracles on earth, never healed soul without the body; but he healed both body and soul; and right so he doeth yet, but he doeth it to none that hath no faith in the same.. And all that men have need for, is needful, and no more. [381] And then I beheld his great purity and truth. MS. God loveth better the more of him in him, than the less of himself., And in the perfect fulfilment of this more , The soul protests against the exaggerated spiritual talk of others, urging first that these speak too little of Gods. We have not one spark of him in comparison with the all of him. O God, say the Virtues, Lady Love, who shall bear us witness, of this that you say, that those who live all by our own counsel, perish? Now I have said, saith this soul, that God would not be God, if my will were taken from me against my will. 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. The use of this phrase, MS. ledid. Throughout leading or meuing , The change from the singular to the plural pronoun is in the MS.; the reference is from the one soul to that class of souls., MS. Foreign wills = Commands or impulses that seem to come to her from without herself (foreign). Charity obeyeth to nothing that is made, but [only] to love. [32], Among you children of Holy Church, saith she, for you have I made this book, that it should the more avail you [to] the life of perfection and the being of peace; to which creatures may come by virtue of perfect charity, to whom this gift is given of all the Trinity, which in this book ye hear devised, of the understanding of Love at question of Reason.. The snares and pitfalls into which the soul may fall, both with regard to spiritual phenomena, such as visions and auditions, and with respect to the manifold defects or shortcomings of Faith, Hope and Charity, are analysed by St John in a systematic form, but are found in our treatise woven into the web of the work. In 1309 ecclesiastical leaders condemned as heresy Marguerite Porete's rejection of moral duty, her doctrine that "the annihilated soul is freed from the virtues." 1 They also condemned her book, the Mirror of Simple Souls, which includes doctrines associated decades earlier with a "new spirit" heresy spreading "blasphemies" such as that "a person can become God" because "a . She is so far from the works of virtue that she may not understand their language. Thus they lead as they did in work of youth, and dwell so long in works till[395] they have affection of spirit.. This put me in meditation by reasonings on one side, in consenting of will, without receiving [of Gods favours?].[391]. Surmont, Vicartus generalis. Because of this, saith this soul, he loveth me not against himself; for though all these that the Trinity hath wrought in his [know-ledge] should have been damned without end; Jesu Christ, the Son of God the Father, hath not, in sooth, granted to save all., Oh, ah me! saith this soul, from whence came it to me this to say? The mystical exaltation of the soul proceeds not so much from what she has already experienced of the divine love, but from the knowledge of the infinite possibilities of the content of the divine being and his love. She was simultaneously commanded to cease Wit it well, my chosen daughter, Paradise is given to them., Paradise, saith this chosen one, [not] unless you work it! He were purblind that would take it in this wise; but all such words in this book must be taken ghostly and divinely. Not, saith Love, everything that is., Now understand, auditors of this book, saith Love, the gloss of this book, for the thing is as much worth as it is appreciated. She receiveth this that she hath, of the bounty of God, of the will of his love, of this gentle far night. And because of the opinion that these people hold thus, that this is the best of all beings that may be, therefore this people, saith Love, be blinded, and so they perish in their works. 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. But who believeth a thing which he is not? And the great poverty that he took for me [I beheld], and the grievous death that he suffered for me. of that she never drank nor never shall drink. And though I wist that the sweet manhood of Christ Jesu and the Virgin and all the court of heaven might not suffer that I had the torments everlastingly, but [rather] that I had the being that I was come from, and God seeth this in himself (if it might be this pity of them and this good will), and thus saith to me: If thou wilt, I shall yield thee that which thou art come from, by my will, for this that my friends of my court will it, but were it not their will, thou shouldest not have it, wherefore I yield thee this gift, if thou wilt, take it! It should fall in my choice rather without end to dwell in torment than I should take it, since I had it not of his sole will. And this point he hath assured me of without doubt by his pure bounty. The most showeth him that which of less acquitteth her. . Now naught is but he; no one [is] loved but he; for none is but he. This accordance is finely noble., I ask you a question: which is the most noble of these twain, the soul in gladness of that glory which draweth the soul, and embellisheth it by obedience to its nature, or that soul that to this glory is oned?, I know not, saith the soul that this first wrote, but Love, you yourself, say it for me! She recketh not of herself, nor that she is naught. She may not will by her own will, for her will is not with-her, but it is [without any leading thither], in him that she loveth. Now I shall tell you why God forbade them that they should not speak of that they had seen, till he were arisen. And this, the beams of divine knowing work in this soul, which draw her out of herself, without her [help], into a divine peace dbonnair, felt by a gladsome swimming love of the most High, the jealous one, who giveth her, in all places, masterful freedom., Jealous, saith this soul, so seemeth it well by his works, who hath robbed me of all myself and hath put me into divine plesaunce[237] without me, and this union of fulfilled peace joineth and conjoineth me by the sovereign highness of the creation of the other equal member[238] of that union, who is divine. Understand it all two things, one one [ is this ] ; for none is he. Pages 8 hours the Mirror of Simple Souls Show full title by Margaret Porette and Kent Emery denial of way. Margaret Porette and Kent Emery that would take it in this wise ; but all words... And why Love had Kirchberger ed so far from the works of.! Its author & # x27 ; s undertaking, and is brought sharp... 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