648 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. I 049-1294.
tion.1 The author proves the Trinity in the godhead from the idea of love, which demands different persons and just three because two persons, loving one another, will desire a third whom they shall love in common.
Richard's distinctively mystical writings won for him the name of the great contemplator, magnus contemplator. In the Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation or Benja min the Less, the prolonged comparison is made between Leah and Rachel to which reference has already been made. The spiritual significance of their two nurses and their children is brought down to Benjamin. Richard even uses the bold language that Benjamin killed his mother that he might rise above natural reason.2
In Benjamin the Greater, or the Grrace of Contemplation, we have a discussion of the soul's processes, as the soul rises " through self and above self " to the supernal vision of God. Richard insists upon the soul's purification of itself from all sin as the condition of knowing God. The heart must be im bued witli virtues, which Richard sets forth, before it can rise to the highest things, and he who would attempt to ascend to the height of knowledge must make it his first and chief study to know himself perfectly.3
Richard repeats Hugo's classification of cogitatio, meditatio, and contemplatio . Contemplation is the mind's free, clear, and admiring vision of the wonders of divine wisdom.4 It includes six stages, the last of them being " contemplation above and aside from reason," whereby the mysteries of the Trinity are apprehended. In transgressing the limits of itself, the soul may pass into a state of ecstasy, seeing visions, enjoying sublimated worship and inexpressible sweetness of experience. This is immediate communion with God. The
1 Fides totius boni initium est atque fundamentum, Migne, 196. 889.
2 Interficit matrem uln omnem supergreditur ratio nem. De prep., 86 ; Migne, 196. 62, etc.
3 Animus qui ad sciential altitudinem nititur ascenders, primum etprincipale sit ei stndium se ipsum cognoscere. De prep., 75 ; Migne, 196. 54.
4 Contemplatio est libera mentis perspicacia in sapientice spectacula cum admirations suspensa. De gratia, I. 5 ; Migrie, 196. 67. Here, as in other places, Kichard quotes his teacher Hugo.
§ 105. HUGO AND RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR. 649
third heaven, into which Paul was rapt, is above reason and to be reached only by a rapturous transport of the mind — per mentis excessum. It is " above reason and aside from reason." 1 Love is the impelling motive in the entire process of contem plation and " contemplation is a mountain which rises above all worldly philosophy." Aristotle did not find out any such thing, nor did Plato, nor did any of the company of the philosophers.2
Richard magnifies the Scriptures and makes them the test of spiritual states. Everything is to be looked upon with suspicion which does not conform to the letter of Scrip ture.3
The leading ideas of these two stimulating teachers are that we must believe and love and sanctify ourselves in order that the soul may reach the ecstasy and composure of con templation or the knowledge of God. The Scriptures are the supreme guide and the soul by contemplation reaches a spiritual state which the intellect and argumentation could never bring it to.
Rupert of Deutz. — Among the mystics of the twelfth century no mean place belongs to Rupert of Deutz.4 A German by nationality, he was made abbot of the Benedictine convent of Deutz near Cologne about 1120 and died 1135. He came into conflict with Anselm of Laon and William of Champeaux through a report which represented them as teaching that God had decreed evil, and that, in sinning, Adam had fol lowed God's will. Rupert answered the errors in two works on the Will of God and the Omnipotence of God. He even went to France to con tend with these two renowned teachers.6 Anselm of Laon he found on his death-bed. With William he held an open disputation.
Rupert's chief merit is in the department of exegesis. He was the most voluminous biblical commentator of his time. He magnified the Scrip-
1 Supra rationem et prceter rationem. De prep., 86 ; Migne, 196. 61.
2 De prep., 74 ; Migne, p. 54.
3 Suspecta mihi est omnis veritas, quam non conftrmat scripturarum auctoritas. Deprep., 81 ; Migne, 196. 57.
4 A full edition of his works is given by Migne, vols. 167-170. See Bach and Schwane. Also "Rocholl, Rupert von Deutz. Beitrag zur Gesch. der Kirche im 12ten Jahrh., Gxitersloh, 1886.
5 Rupert gives an account of his journey to France to meet William and Anselm in disputation in his De regula Benedicti, I. 1 ; Migne, 170.482 sq.