The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Lists of Diagrams and Figures
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Colours of Contemplation: Less Light on Julian of Norwich
- Behold Not the Cloud of Experience
- Walter Hilton on the Gift of Interpretation of Scripture
- Numeracy and Number in The Book of Margery Kempe
- Religious Mystical Mothers: Margery Kempe and Caterina Benincasa
- Authority and Exemplarity in Henry Suso and Richard Rolle
- Mortifying the Mind: Asceticism, Mysticism and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 114
- The Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne
- Envisioning Reform: A Revelation of Purgatory and Anchoritic Compassioun in the Later Middle Ages
- Walton's Heavenly Boece and the Devout Translation of Transcendence: O Qui Perpetua Pietised
- Reformist Devotional Reading: The Pore Caitif in British Library, MS Harley 2322
- Richard Whytford, The Golden Epistle, and the Mixed Life Audience
- Afterword: Future Prospects
- Index
Walter Hilton on the Gift of Interpretation of Scripture
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Lists of Diagrams and Figures
- List of Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- The Colours of Contemplation: Less Light on Julian of Norwich
- Behold Not the Cloud of Experience
- Walter Hilton on the Gift of Interpretation of Scripture
- Numeracy and Number in The Book of Margery Kempe
- Religious Mystical Mothers: Margery Kempe and Caterina Benincasa
- Authority and Exemplarity in Henry Suso and Richard Rolle
- Mortifying the Mind: Asceticism, Mysticism and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 114
- The Meditaciones of the Monk of Farne
- Envisioning Reform: A Revelation of Purgatory and Anchoritic Compassioun in the Later Middle Ages
- Walton's Heavenly Boece and the Devout Translation of Transcendence: O Qui Perpetua Pietised
- Reformist Devotional Reading: The Pore Caitif in British Library, MS Harley 2322
- Richard Whytford, The Golden Epistle, and the Mixed Life Audience
- Afterword: Future Prospects
- Index
Summary
In the latter chapters of the second book of The Scale of Perfection, Walter Hilton enumerates the special graces that accompany the gift of reformation in faith and feeling, which he describes as the union of knowledge and love in their object, Christ, the perfection of meekness, and the clear sight of the ghostly eye. Among these graces, in chapter 43, he discusses the gift of interpretation of Scriptures:
Meknes presumiþ of soþrfastnes and noþinge of itself, and soþrfastnes troweþ wel on meknes, and so þei acorden wundre wel. Þan for as mikel as a soule of a lufere is made meke þur3 inspiracioun of grace bi openynge of þe gostly ei3e, and seep þat it is no3t of itself bot only hangiþ on be mercy and þe godenes of Ihesu, and lastendly is borun vp bi fauour and help of him only and trewly desirende þe presence of him, þerfore seeþ it Ihesu. For it seeþ soþfastnes of Holy Wryt wundirly schewde and opend, abofen study and trauail and resoun of mannus kyndly wit. And þat may wel be called þe felynge and þe perceifynge of Ihesu, for Ihesu is welle of wisdam, and by a litil heldynge of his wisdam into a clene soule he makip pe soule wis inow3 for to vndirstonden al Holy Writ. Not al at ones, in special biholdynge, but þur3 þat grace þe soule resceyuyþ a new abelnes and a gracious habite for to vndirstonden it specially whan it comiþ to mynde.
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- Information
- The Medieval Mystical Tradition in EnglandPapers Read at Charney Manor, July 2011 [Exeter Symposium 8], pp. 51 - 58Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2013