The Cell of Self-Knowledge : seven early English mystical treatises printed by Henry Pepwell in 1521
Religion
The Cell of Self-Knowledge : seven early English mystical treatises printed by Henry Pepwell in 1521
Devotional literature; Mysticism -- Great Britain; Mysticism -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Religious thought -- Middle Ages, 600-1500
[229]Pepwell adds: "in keeping of silence."
[230]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "more holiness than thou art worthy."
[231]Nature.
[232]Solitude.
[233]Pepwell has: "company."
[234]Pepwell reads: "better."
[235]Causes.
[236]1 Cor. ii. 11.
[237]Simple.
[238]Jas. i. 12.
[239]The MSS. usually read "cleped" for "called."
[240]Pepwell modernizes to "trouble."
[241]Jas. i. 12.
[242]To give place to.
[243]Such impulses to exceptional practices.
[244]Humble itself.
[245]Pleasant.
[246]Pepwell reads: "wits."
[247]Lest.
[248]Pepwell reads: "strait."
[249]Jer. ix. 21: "Quia ascendit mors per fenestras nostras"
(Vulgate). Pepwell reads: "as saint Jerome saith"! Cf. Walter
Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, I. pt. iii. cap 9: "Lift up thy
lanthorn, and thou shalt see in this image five windows, by which
sin cometh into thy soul, as the Prophet saith: Death cometh in by
our windows. These are the five senses by which thy soul goeth out
of herself, and fetcheth her delight and seeketh her feeding in
earthly things, contrary to the nobility of her own nature. As by
the eye to see curious and fair things and so of the other senses.
By the unskilful using of these senses willingly to vanities, thy
soul is much letted from the sweetness of the spiritual senses
within; and therefore it behoveth thee to stop these windows, and
shut them, but only when need requireth to open them" (ed.
Dalgairns, p. 115).
[250]Ignorant.
[251]Where natural and acquired knowledge alike fall shorts.
[252]Fully.
[253]Nature.
[254]Pepwell has: "when thou dost feel."
[255]Pepwell inserts: "I mean except the solemn vows of holy
religion."
[256]2 Cor. iii. 17.
[257]Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 308 (ed. Gigli): "Love
harmonises the three powers of our soul, and binds them together.
The will moves the understanding to see, when it wishes to love;
when the understanding perceives that the will would fain love, if
it is a rational will, it places before it as object the ineffable
love of the eternal Father, who has given us the Word, His own son,
and the obedience and humility of the son, who endured torments,
inuries, mockeries, and insults with meekness and with such great
love. And thus the will, with ineffable love, follows what the eye
of the understanding has beheld; and with its strong hand, it stores
up in the memory the treasure that it draws from this love."
[258]Losing.
[259]Cant. iv. 9.
[260]To exercise love.
[261]Divers.
[262]1 Cor. i. 26, vii. 20; Eph. iv. 1.
[263]Luke x. 42.
[264]Pepwell inserts "Him list thee to see, and."
[265]Pepwell reads: "Let be good and all that is good, and better
with all that is better."
[266]Luke x. 42.
[267]To know how to speak, etc.
[268]Banishing from thy soul's vision.
[269]Be able to.
[270]Pepwell reads: "privily." Cf. Wyclif (Select English Works, ed.
cit., i. p. 149): "And after seith Crist to his apostles, that thes
thingis he seide bifore to hem in proverbis and mystily."
[271]Pepwell reads: "rest."
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