And so do the perished as the marred do. 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. I dare not hear it. I have said, saith the Holy Ghost, that I shall give to this soul all that I have given, saith the Holy Ghost. I am more a fool than he that this would do, when I put so precious[317] a thing in speech, that may not be said, nor written. And the knowing of this maketh her to separate the will from the place where he is not. Why then should I want? We have in us, saith the Holy Ghost, this that is ours by nature divine, and she hath it from us in her, by justice of love, whatever she may be saith the Holy Ghost. Why, saith Love, marvelleth Holy Church, though the virtues serve the high heavenly souls, and why should they not? Thus the divine might hath ordained this worthy sacrament. Then am I not, if I am only that which is; and none is but God; and for this I find nothing but God, wherever that I look, for none is but he, sooth to say.. Sometime I laid mine heart in you without any dissevering; ye wot well this; I was in all thing to you obedient. . The only answer is that many wearinesses and humours of sickness are often put to flight by a fresh sharp act of additional physical mortification. And this soul, saith the Holy Ghost, is of such condition, that if she had in her the same that we have, she would yield it to us; all this as we have it without willing any guerdon in heaven nor in earth, but right according to our will alone. Here endeth the prologue of the translator that drew this hook out of French into English. For [concerning] one thing well done; if God desired a greater good which a creature might do, if it were asked [of him] and he do it not, he sinneth. IMPRIMATUR: Edm. God is divine; so have I a being that is divine., When this soul, saith Love, is thus drawn out of herself, without herself, by God, for him, in him, in this divine work, she cannot never work works of charity of human body;[239] nor can any who attains to this work., O understand holily, saith this soul, the sweet words of Love, for these words be hard to understand for them that desire the meaning of the gloss., This is sooth, saith Love, for work of creatures may not be compared to divine work made of God in creatures, of his bounty, for creature., O God, saith this soul, how far is the country of the Perished and the country of the Marred from the country of freeness and of fulfilled peace, there where the Settled dwell!, That is sooth, saith Love, and I shall say one word soothly, saith this soul, against Will, in which the perished and the marred dwell, that lead life of perfection. 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. She hight[244] pure heavenly spirit of peace, for she sitteth in the deepness of the valley; there she seeth the highness of the mountain, and, then, in a state of faith,[245] she gazeth upon the mountain of highness, that it may not there downfall. We be excused, provided we believe you by the understanding that we have; for we be made of you, to serve such souls., Oh, without fail, saith this soul to Virtues, it is well said, men may well believe you, and therefore I tell you, saith this soul, and all those that hear this book, that whoso serveth a poor lord, since a long time, poor allowances shall he have, and little wages. But every usage is had[153] one after another, as love worketh and as dispositions come and go, but these usages are inhabited in the soul and used customarily. But Love hath now told me the truth, and biddeth me pacify myself; for all that men may tell me is naught in comparison with that which is in him, which may not be said. I know, saith this soul, that if ever I had anything to give, I would not give him so small a portion;[141] I that am naught and he is all. They are printed here from the Bod. [202] This soul, saith Love, liveth in the sweet country of passing peace, there is nothing that may help nor grieve them that live there, neither creature wrought, nor thing given, nor nothing that God commandeth., This, that never was, nor is, nor shall be given, that none here maketh, saith Love, this hath put her at naught. 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 statement of the degree of indifference to be reached by the soul is put in an extreme and provocative form to call forth a challenge. It is the eagerness which is blamed. [325], Oh, saith this soul, why should I do anything that my Beloved doeth not, he wanteth nothing. Then follows, in Division XIV, a summing-up of the seven degrees or estates; it recalls the first chapter of the treatise, but is an interesting summary of St Augustines seven stages in the De Quantitate Animae, treated with the free originality we have learnt to expect of our author. they say Nay. If they would be in Paradise? This passage marks the authors Augustinian training. It may be a very useful text to the people of today. Many sharp pains and bitterness of conscience feeleth this soul in this war. These souls do not allow themselves to be anxious concerning that which they lack, nor go out of their way to supply their own needs unless it be a real necessity of Nature. I answered anon this, that [as] I was, I would [have] no more help of him, nor of anything that might do me good. Soothly, saith the soul that had this book written, this I say for me: so fare I. I hear speak of a king of great might that for courtesy and great largesse is a noble Alexander. Of this, saith Love, we will speak in asking a soul. 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. [190], Nothing, saith Love, she willeth naught. And [she] so dwelleth in standing, for she is alway in sight of God; and sitting, for she dwelleth alway in the divine will of God. they say Nay. Eh! Her work can be situated within the ascetic-mystical tradition of Beguine spirituality or Free Spirit, which was formally condemned as heretical by the Council of Vienna of 1311-1312. This soul findeth none that calleth her, nor none that she answereth to, nor her enemy hath no more answers from her., This is right, saith this soul, since I draw God to me, it behoveth that he support me. As the knowledge of her naught deepens, her knowledge of Gods bounty grows. And then I said this, that if I had of my proper condition this [which was] aforesaid, I should love better and rather choose that it went to naught without recovering, than that I should have it, unless it came of him. Also it should be naught, as in regard of the least part that dwelleth in him, that is not known but by him. O latest loved in all moments for me! But this, that they save themselves by faith without works, and that they can no more work, it is not meant that they cease from all good works for evermore, and never do any work, but sit in sloth and idleness of soul and body; for those who take it so, they misunderstand it; but it is thus. 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. 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. Yea! Will ye, right this day, by courtesy, dissolve[375] me, ye fine Love?. Divisions XV, XVI, and XVII are short interludes, an apology for himself, and an exhortation to discreet secrecy put into the mouth of the Blessed Trinity. And therefore, divine will is alway one same will with Love. And the divine will calleth not these perfect[80] creatures, with such encumbrances[81] as we have here devised. And if I had as great torments as he is of might, I should love better these torments, if they came of him, than I should glory that came not of him, [even were I] to have it everlastingly. Ah, my soul, saith this soul, what have you done for me? Not held, etc. Oh, what marvel it is they lead in dread, which suffereth them not that God work in them!, The second is that a soul behold what God counselleth to his special lovers, passing that that he commandeth. These were verse competitions produced at the Puys, in which some question is mooted and alternate sides are taken by two or more characters. 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. Then doth she all without her. . How truly this manhood dwelleth with them, Faith teacheth it, and this clerks know.. And that men [should] remain in dread of all manner of loves whatever they be, on account of perils that might happen; and that men [should] desire Paradise sovereignly, and also that men should fear of going to hell, and that they refuse all manner of worships[78] and temporal things, and all kinds of ease, taking away from nature all that she asketh, save only that without which they might not live, after the ensample of suffering that our Lord Jesu Christ suffered. They have indeed a being, and that a right good being, to come to the best being that we speak of, to which the perished can have no succour.. And so ye be the lark that before the king goeth. So that the knowing of this naught compared with the greatness of all, hath acquitted her and made her free, that she lacketh nothing. For by the knowing of her naught, and by the believing in me [comes] the putting her at naught, that she may naught do. With twain she covereth the face of our Lord; that is to say, the more that this soul hath of the knowing of the divine bounty, the more she knoweth that she knoweth not the mere wittance of a mote in regard of his bounty, the which is not comprehended but of himself. For by right, the contemplatives should pass the state of scholars, as masters of divinity be passed schools. Lord, how much comprehend[389] I of your might, of your wisdom and of your goodness? Uploaded by The most showeth him that which of less acquitteth her. Ye have something heard there, he said, I hold all thing that was and is and shall be; I am of all goodness fulfilled, take of me what ye will; if ye will have me all, I unwill it not, saith my friend, how seemeth it you of me? Then Truth said to me, that I shall not see the divine Trinity until my soul be all so clean without spot of sin, as is the soul of Jesu Christ. Lord God, ye be all thing: thus is all thing made by you, and nothing is made without you, and I am naught; thus is all thing made without me. But pure, clarified, she seeth not God nor herself, but God seeth this of him, in her, for her, without her, and showeth her that there is none but her. It pleaseth them best that it be as God will have it done, [even] though they might, by their prayer, have it any otherwise, they offer all unto his divine ordering and will. And she will not have her will, for she is naught and hath no will. Chief of these was Walter de Manny, who, with Michael of Northbrook, Bishop of London, was co-founder of the London Charterhouse. This conjunction putteth a soul in a being, without her being, which is being. And among you, actives and contemplatives, that to this life may come, hear now some crumbs[27] of the clean love, of the noble love, and of the high love of the free souls, and how the Holy Ghost hath his sail in his ship. I have said this, saith this soul, that he wants naught. I certify thee, Reason, saith Love, and trust me fully, that all that this soul hath heard of God and all that might be said, is not worth speaking of compared to that which is in him, that never was said nor never shall be, and may not be said : and that is something that I have said, may not be said. By this way, saith this soul that is free; if she holdeth all without care or without heart[285] and all giveth without heart, and all taketh without heart, and all hath without heart; and if her heart feel it, this is she not.[286] for the inward life of spirit, they shall yet come to all lordship and sovereignty., Oh, saith the spirit that this same seeketh in life marred,[287] tell me how?, Forsooth, saith this soul that standeth in freedom, none can see it but he only that is this thing in creatures, of his bounty for creature. Cordoni draws heavily on Porete, making us of entire passages of her work.[5]. The soul describes the last stage of her spiritual journey, the nature of the fierce conflict to which Love puts her love, and the final issue. It is, in general, the doctrine of Clement of Alexandria, These estates refer to St Augustines Seven Degrees of preparation for the knowledge of God in, The divine ray (rastro, apparitio) gives knowledge of Gods essence and of the soul s nothingness, so blinding, that afterwards the soul is left without. As a result, this edition offers a reading of The Mirror of Simple Souls that solves a number of difficulties found in the French. Of what is Love's undertaking, and why Love had . It fitteth the Beloved since he is worthy, that he of his bounty call his lover to peace., Martha is troubled, peace hath Mary. I tell you forsooth, saith Faith, that it is not now, since it may not be seen nor felt. To this you may answer, Where has it then gone? Nay, saith Truth, it was, and now it is not, understand wholly of the humanity. This forget not, for she failed when she sought divine life, but when she was in [the] desert, love took her and annihilated[298] or naughted her, and in her wrought. But so hath he given me, that he may nothing withhold from me, for love asketh that; else it were not love of [the] Beloved, unless it were of such a [kind]. Appease you, Lady Soul, if you believe me, for there is none other thing than this for you [to do] but that you should have the gift of creature, soothly such as belongeth to you to have., Ah, Lady Love, saith this soul, this said you not to me when I knew you first. But yet also she doth the other, as by usage of good custom, as Love saith, in this book, that by usage of good custom this soul doth these outward works. But she doth it without desire and without that kind of usage that she had before, in labouring by outward impulses;[51] but fully she attendeth in all that she may to the usages of love, which be all divine and upward. The similarity in point of view is, however, clear, and as we have seen, the Englishman who in the late fifteenth century translated the Mirror into Latin believed the work to have been composed by Ruysbroeck. Now have I never aught, nor naught may I will, as of myself; nor none may give me anything wherewith to pay my debts. I have done all.. But this I say to her, whereby to will the divine will: soothly, the more that she willeth it, the less hath such [a] will of this her [own] satisfaction, and this same [will] is the only [pure] will of God and the souls glory., Ah, Love, saith Reason, you have done our prayer for the actives and the contemplatives, and now I pray you to declare and expound to the common people, these double[76] words that be hard to understand, to their understanding; [so] that some, by adventure, may come to this Being, by which this book may show to all the very light of truth and the perfection of charity of those who preciously be called and chosen of God and sovereignly be loved of him., Reason, saith Love to this, I will answer for the profit of those for whom thou makest to us this piteous request. Nor they unwill[168] none of all the torments of hell. She finds what she seeks, and by her own activity procures the spiritual consolation she desires, and does the work herself but it is not, The author exhausts the snares into which the soul may fall by desires. He warns against spiritual curiosity seeking even in the explicit writing of his own book for knowledge which is to come from God alone. This God is over all in his divine nature, but the manhood is in heaven glorified and joined to the divine person of the Son, and [beside that] only in the holy Sacrament of the Altar. [299] She wist not when she sought him, that God was all, by all, in all, she had not then sought him. After them drank the burning seraphins, with whose wings these free souls fly., Ah God, saith Holy Church, how it behoveth her to attend and cleanly keep herself, the soul that thus high flieth![123], Such souls, saith Love, have the mind and the understanding and the will low, by meekness and right perceiving, of knowing by subtlety of wit in divine [things], and [are] right free in all places, of the love of the Deity., Ah, Love! saith Reason, when are these souls in the right freedom of pure love?. Then am I the laud of God everlastingly and the salvation of mankind, for the salvation of all creatures is none other thing than knowing of the bounty of God. This edition of The Mirror of Simple Souls is a translation from the French original with interpretive essays by Edmund Colledge, O.S.A., Judith Grant, and J.C. Marler, and a foreword by Kent Emery, Jr. Lord God, how much comprehend I of my feebleness, of my foolishness, and of my wickedness? 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