O right sweet Love, saith this soul, for Gods [sake] suffer me, for I am all abashed for him! even thus the deer will run to the death unless you hinder it. 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. And it would be right, that I should have myself no more; this Right is written within the book of life. MS. I have not of what, nor for what: Fr. Some of the readings have been elucidated by reference to the Latin version of Richard Methley, who, it was hoped, might have known the exact value of contemporary mystical phrases, and whose Latin renderings shed much light on the syntax of an unpunctuated English MS. Lady Love, saith this soul; so [I] was then, but now, your courtesy has delivered me in this way out of this bondage.[38] Therefore I say, Virtues, I take leave of you for evermore. And then I told him that if I wist that I should have as much of torment without end as he hath of goodness unless I misdid against his will, I should choose rather to go suffer those pains everlastingly, than that I should do thing that I wist should displease his will. O ye that shall read this book, do ye as David saith in the psalter : Gustate et videte[15] that is to say Taste and see. And she is not; for she is without being, there where she was, ere she was not. The sphere and mode of this activity is comparatively insignificant. 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. 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. Those that understand rest, and the speakers labour, and knowing may not suffer labour, for labour is a less good. I allow me of these three above all thing, howsoever it may be that these folks be of little peace, who in will and in desire dwell. Ah God! 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. And for this, I love better the most of him that never I shall know, than I do mine which I know. For the influence of Porete on Bernardino Ochino see for Cargnoni. (7) The union of hearing. Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. M. Ye auditors of this book, take keep of these words that say not that we be lords free of all; for whilst we be in this world, we may not be free of all, that is to say, we may not be departed continually from all spots of sin. This being is the Holy Ghost himself, that is the love of the Father and of the Son. They know it not nor they may not, nor they shall not, they be not of the lineage that we speak of. Doth he anything or ceaseth he[136] to do [it], for high or for low, except it please him?, I grant well, Love, saith Reason. NIHIL OBSTAT: Georgius D. Smith, S.T.D., Censor deputatus. nor in losing them. The Mirror of Simple Souls is a classic work of medieval Christian mysticism that was lost for centuries. In this point I found myself, saith this free soul, such a day I saw sometime. The foregoing paragraph must not necessarily be interpreted as teaching the impeccability of the soul in these highest states; the writer may not have been thinking of sin, but of all the positive aspects of mans relationship to God, in which unity of will may be freely exercised; such as desire for union, prayer, and the aspirations of Love. Nor for no other thing was the soul made, but for to have in her without end the being of pure charity., O my Lord God, saith this soul, what have I said of you!, Think, saith Love, and see if you can know your words.. Her other work on Marguerite includes Seeing Marguerite in the Mirror: A Linguistic Analysis of Porete's 'Mirror of Simple Souls' (Peeters, 2011). And without them they have the beams of the divine sun they keep cleanness of heart, and none but they. The Cloud of Unknowing comes nearest to the teaching of our author concerning prayer, but does not include in its range the variety of problems which underlie the teaching of the Mirror and establish its value as a guide to the interior life. And more may nothing avail me to hear of him than this, that my love is not comparable to the least thing that men may compare to him, wherefore my love findeth none end in loving him, and hath alway new love of him in him who is all love, however great he be! For when she is thus free of these four costs and noble[269] by all the freedoms that of her be descended for no churl is accepted[270] in this marriage this soul that is thus noble, falleth then, saith Love, into dismay that is called naught, thinking of the far-off results of what is near;[271] that is her most nigh neighbour. Reason judgeth after that which she knows. And will it he must, for I will not but only what he willeth in me; and what he willeth that I will. They swim into the retina, to be instantly classified by experimental knowledge, and most speedily dismissed in the search for the ultimate, ever-increasing joy of the mountain ranges. Non nobis Domine non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. This is the continual food, saith Love, of my chosen spouse. One, according to goodness, by conjunction of the strength and stirring of union of love. And that little that I had of worth, I have not withholden it from him, but all fully I have given him, body, heart, and soul; this knoweth he. The third censor was Don Frank, Cantor of the Abbey of Villiers, whose interests (perhaps because of his office) were in scriptural interpretation. For else, she should have war with Love, that is, the Holy Ghost. For nothing may see the high divine things, but that which ought everlastingly to be. This which thou speakest of virtues and of the reason, saith Love, this soul recketh naught of she may better do, for love worketh in her who hath led her into him, so that she herself is love. God hath nowhere to put his goodness, saith she, unless he put it in me, for one may have no greater rascal[356] to be made noble by him, nor can he have any [better place] where he may put all. O My Lord God, mercy, mercy. Then liveth she of divine substance. 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. I have neither ways nor means;[272] to God this work pertaineth, who doth in me his works: I owe him no work since himself worketh. Whatever joy or sorrow they of my paradise have, though men see their sins or though they receive of me gifts of glory, they have no will to make answer or show for none of these two. And what they do, ye know also; but what they be, as for to speak of their value and of their dignity that know neither ye nor they, then may Holy Church not know., Oh, for God, saith Reason, who knoweth then?, That [knoweth] only God, saith Love, who hath made them and bought them; and ofttimes this may so be wrought [in them] that by his love alone they be both fulfilled and naughted and forgotten.. At that time the author of the manuscript was unknown. Now I shall tell you why God forbade them that they should not speak of that they had seen, till he were arisen. Now we have seven beholdings that be for the marred, profitable enough. In sooth, saith Love, but the Trinity hath in him no dis- ease for such displeasing, no more hath this soul that in him is set and by him led. But if ever I knew you, now excuse me of your courtesy, for need hath no law. Before the soul indwelleth, in the time of my work, saith Love, when I work it, it is so delicious that truth calleth it, glorious food. And then the soul is glad and joyful to hear and to read of all thing that pertaineth to this high feeling of the workings of divine love, by nourishing and increasing her love and devotion to the will and pleasing of him that she loves, God, Christ Jesu. O blissful Lady, it was needful to you to be so; for I hold of God his Son, that if he had found in you as much vanity as the quantity of a wrinkle[376] in a kerchief, of necessity he had never made of you his mother. Generally the subject is proposed on one side, and the opponent chooses his argument and defends it on the humaner line of reasoning. have appeared, nor has any trace been found of the thirteenth-century French original of which the Mirror is a translation. Ah, right sweet divine love, saith Holy-Church-the-little, in birth right little! in sooth, saith Love, though they might through this well-willing for God do miracles and receive every day martyrdom, it is, saith Love, nothing in comparison to that, for as much as Will dwelleth in them.[192], No, saith Love, though they were every day through this Will, ravished to see the Trinity, with Saint Paul the Apostle:[193] let me not speak of it, saith Love, for I may not![194]. These be they who are servants and merchants and seekers; but they be more wise than they that be perished. I am as foolish in the time that I make it except that love maketh it for me at my request as he should be that would shut the sea in the compass of his eye and bear the world upon the point of a rush, and light the sun with a shadow! And of the praising of this soul, and how, by having no more of will, she is above the law, but not against the law, CHAPTER I: Of secrets that this soul speaketh of, whereof the trinity prayeth her to leave for deeming of others that be governed by desire, reason, dread, will, CHAPTER II: Of certain things that this soul would be departed from, by the which she was servant, and of the love (?) This sole power[226] of love, saith Love, giveth her the deepness, the rest, and the stillness, and also it giveth her the flame and the burning of the working of love; witness of Love himself. And I acknowledge that I may have no greater joy nor greater worship than to be servant to this soul., Do you know this? saith Love, you could do no better than to know this!, Ah right sweet soul, saith Reason, what shall I do for my people that I have to govern, that shall no more see of this souls ordinance[162] in her outward usages?, Why? saith Love, is there other ordinance but this?, Nay, saith Reason, not for them that see nor for them that be chosen in this assize: but of such be few in earth, I dare well say., Now, Reason, saith Love, what callest thou ordinance?, I call ordinance, saith Reason, the life of works of virtues [lived] continuously, by thy counsel and that of Discretion, after the ensample of our Lord Jesu Christ., Reason, saith Love, this which the manhood of Jesu Christ suffered, the Deity felt it not. [283] We still ourselves, speech overwhelmed! He wist without beginning that I should believe him well, without witnessing. The mirror of simple souls by Marguerite Porete, 1993, Paulist Press edition, in English IV and VI), but it is mingled with the doctrine of the far night (which we shall discuss later), and which seems here to mark the souls full entry into the passive state of Quiet, experience of Rapture or Ecstasy (Division XI). The very innocents are never right nor never wrong, they feel all naked, that have not anything to answer. And why, saith Love, knoweth not Holy Church[100] these Queens, Kings daugh- ters, Kings sisters, Kings spouses? They have forgot that anything that I did for them sufficed me not unless I had done all that mine humanity might bear, unto the death., Ah, right sweet Lord Jesu Christ saith the soul, do not trouble yourself thereof, nor displease yourself, for these souls be so for themselves, and with themselves, that they forget you, for the littleness of themselves, in which they suffice themselves., Oh, saith Love, without fail it is great villainy!, This people, saith this soul, be merchants; in the world they be called thralls, for thralls they be, for it behoveth not to any gentleman to be able to meddle with merchandise, nor to be one of them. The persons that are such, they are thus called and fulfilled, that they have within them no craving of anything. And thus well you know, that I may naught do and I am so greatly indebted. She hath nothing with holden. Fr. My works that be done, these have ye done. 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. This he gave for us with such right great abundance, for he will rob me by this, and separate me of myself, for to make me live of divine pleasure. 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. Soothly, saith she, they that be governed by reason, the rudeness nor the cumberings of them no man may say. Nor he loveth never divinely who loveth bodily. Thus it is [concerning] this book, and myself, saith this soul, who was of God and of creatures. In heaven when the divine Trinity made the angels of the courtesy of his divine noblesse, some were evil, on account of their perverse election in agreeing to the evil will of Lucifer, who desired to have, by his nature, that which he might not have but by divine grace. ", Advanced embedding details, examples, and help, Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). for the angels of the first order be not seraphins, nor may not be, for God gave them not the being of seraphins. And if it might better please him that I went to naught and had naught of being than that I should take this gift of him, I should love more that I went to naught. He that brenneth hath no cold, nor he that drinketh hath no thirst, and this soul, saith Love, is so burnt in the furnace of fire of love, that she is become fire; so that she feeleth no fire, for she herself is fire, by the virtue of love that hath brought her into himself, by fine love. Therefore whosoever would have these gifts let him flee desire and will, for otherwise they may not have them. In this he hath set me of his courtesy; that he willeth this that I will, nor he willeth nothing that I unwill. 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. 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. Reason, saith this soul, if I shall be loved without end, of the three Persons in Trinity, I have been loved of them already without beginning. Of Godfrey of Fountains we know a good deal. Porete was burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1310. By an unknown French mystic of the thirteenth century. For God threw out of her seven fiends. It has been collated with the British Museum and both English and Latin Cambridge MSS. Why take we him not without seeking? We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us! Even if they have some possessions, they themselves are hidden from men. Him so high and me so low that I might no more from thence rise, nor help of myself have, and that was best. This is the established state that later writers call Spiritual Marriage. We may surmise, moreover, that the English translators fears were not ungrounded, and that, if plain Englishmen found the Frenchmans treatise beyond their grasp in the first version he produced, the second may have met with similar fate. $253. There is she overlooked, for so it is that there be two greater estates in this life than this is, but Love so leadeth that a soul is unseeing, by the gift of sweetness of the love that updraweth her as hastily as she approacheth to the same. A Companion to Marguerite Porete and "The Mirror of Simple Souls." Wendy R. Terry and Robert Stauffer, eds. Also these souls have no proper will[53] nor desire, they have wholly planted it in God, so that they may nothing will nor desire, but God willeth in them and maketh them to do his will. Dis-ease = discontent, or here, I think, a feeling of monotony due to the hiddenness of Gods work in her. She seeth well then, that God by his high majesty, he is in all. He is blessed that often falleth for he is such a one that cometh soothly from thence whither none goeth unless he have the name of righteous. In the fount of baptism these two natures are put together without corruption, by the divine justice that hath made these two natures. 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