§ 37. ENGLISH MYSTICS. 297
life he represents man as "seeing into heaven with his ghostly eye." ^
Juliana of Norwich, who died 1443, as it is said, at the age of 100, was also an anchoress, having her cell in the churchyard of St. Julian's church, Norwich. She received 16 revelations, the first in 1373, when she was 30 years old. At that time, she saw " God in a point." She laid stress upon love, and presented the joyful aspect of religion. God revealed Himself to her in three properties, life, light and love. Her account of her revelations is pronounced by Inge "a fragrant little book. "2
The Ladder of Perfection^ written by Walter Hylton^^an Augustinian canon of Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire, who died 1396,3 depicts the- dlfferenJLstaggs.^ spiritual attainment from the simple knowledge of the facts of religion, whicTTis likened to the water of Cana which must be turned into wine, to the last stages of contemplation and divine union. There is no great excellency, Hylton says, "in watching and fasting till thy head aches, nor in running to Rome or Jerusalem with bare feet, nor in building churches and hospitals." But it is a sign of excellency if a man can love a sinner, while hating the sin. Those who are not content with merely saving their souls, but go on to the higher degrees of contemplation, are overcome by " a good darkness," a state in which the soul is free and not distracted by anything earthly. The light then arises little by little. Flashes come through the chinks in the walls of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is not reached by a bound. There must be transformation, and the power that transforms is the love of God shed
1 C. Horstman, Richard Bolle of Hampole, 2 vols. The Early Engl. Text Soc. publ. the Engl, versions of Misyn, 1896. G. G. Perry edited his liturgy in the vol. giving the York Breviary, Surtees Soc. The poem, Fricke of Conscience, was issued by H. R. Bramley, Oxford, 1884. See Stephen, Diet. Xatl. Biog. XLIX. 164-165.
2 The Bevelations of Divine Love has been ed. by R. F. S. Cressy, London, 1670, reprinted 1843 ; by H. Collins, London, 1817, and by Grace Warrack. 3d ed. Lond., 1909, See Inge and Diet, of Natl. Biog.
3 Written in English, the Ladder was translated by the Carmelite friar, Thomas Fyslawe, into Latin. Hylton's death is also put in 1433.
298 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
abroad in the soul. Love proceeds from knowledge, and the more God is known, the more is He loved. Hylton's wide reputation is proved by the ascription of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation to him and its identification in manuscripts with his De 7nusiea ecclesiastica.^
These_writina;s,Jf we except Rolle, betray much of that sobriety of temper which characterizes the English religious thought. ^ They contain no flights of hazy mystification and no rapturous outbursts of passionate feeling. They emphasize features common to all the mystics of the later Middle Ages, the gradual transformation through the power of love into the image of God, and ascent through inward contemplation to full fellowship with Him. They show that the principles of the imitation of Christ were understood on the English side of the channel as well as by the mystics of the Lowlands, and that true godliness is to be reached in another way than by the mere practice of sacramental rites.
These English pietists are to be regarded, however, as isolated figures who, so far as we know, had no influence in preparing the soil for the seed of the Reformation that was to come, as had the pietists who lived along the Rhine. ^
^ The Ladder of Perfection was printed 1494, 1506, and has been recently ed. by R. E. Guy, London, 1869, and J. B. Dalgairns, London, 1870. See Inge, pp. 81-124 ; Montmorency, Thomas a Kempis, etc., pp. 138-174 ; and Diet, of Natl. Bioff., XXVI. 435 sqq.
2 Montmorency, p. 69, makes a remark for which, so far as I know, there is no corroborative testimony in the writings of tlie English Reformers, that " in this English mystical movement — of which a vast unprinted literature survives — is to be found the origin of Lollardism and of the Reformation in England."