Medieval English Mystics General Background

Middle Ages ( ) Early Middle Ages: Late Middle Ages: Anglo-Saxon England: ca (Norman Conquest)

The Medieval English Church Pope/papal legate Archbishops (Metropolitan Bishops): Canterbury, York (N. England) Diocesan Bishops (diocese/see) ~ 20 Parish priests Secular clergy: priests living in the world, not under a rule; no vows, can possess property, under authority of a bishop Regular clergy: clergy living under a rule; either monastic or regular canons

Monasticism Monks/nuns: members of a religious community living under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience Some monks were priests; recited Divine Office daily Some were not priests (lay brothers) Monastic orders: Benedictine (reformed into Cistercian, Trappist); Carthusian

Friars Members of a mendicant (begging) order, under a rule but heavily involved in community Dominicans (1216: “Black Friars”) Franciscans (1209: “Grey Friars”) Carmelites (1155: “White Friars”) Augustinians (1244: “Austin Friars”) Canons Secular Canons: community belonging to a cathedral (bishop) or collegiate church (no bishop) Regular Canons: lived together under a semi-monastic rule, shared property

Terminology (see Nicholas Watson, “The Middle English Mystics” and Denise N. Baker, “Mystical and Devotional Literature”) Mystical: ME mystike “figurative; secret” – 14 th /15 th c.: symbolic/figurative meaning of the Bible “mystick theology” 1639; “mystic”/”mysticism” 18 th century Contemplative: spiritual practices of professed religious (via activa/via contemplativa) Heightened consciousness of God: union, presence, ecstasy, deification Devotional: “an object or practice that stirs a religious emotion of awe, reverence, or piety” (Baker 423) – between liturgical and contemplative; individuals or groups: defined by objects, not forms; pilgrimages, relics, art, literature Visionary: dreams, otherworlds, prophecies, punishments (many genres) Feminism / cultural studies / literary studies

Two Types of Mystical Theology Affirmative (cataphatic) theology: connects God's unity to the world; can understand God through sensible things, use imagery Negative (apophatic) theology: knowing by not knowing God is transcendent, infinite: darkens our reasoning powers, but this leads to loving union Paradox: closer you come to union with God, the more blinding God becomes to human reasoning nature of God becomes more immediately present. Awe and wonder temper human intellect

Major Figures in Mystical Theology (Pseudo-)Dionysius the Areopagite (ca. 500 CE) Influenced by Neoplatonism Mystical Theology: negates all language about God; radical transcendence of divinity cannot be known mystical union comes from unknowing (agnōsia) Negative theology: God can’t be named adequately even in negative terms - God is prior to all affirmation and negation divine nature is beyond all knowledge and speech union with God can only occur in the cloud and darkness of unknowing Ecstasy: go out from intellect to its hidden source in the divine nature itself return to the God "beyond being"

Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury Orationes sive Meditationes: “affective spirituality” (outside liturgy) Ascetic, intellectual; but added to by others Became more emotional: Passion meditations Suffering human Jesus: passion -> compassion “affective piety”

Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) Sermones super Canticum Canticorum: erotic mysticism Union with God is possible in this life Humbling of Christ Book of experience/book of the Bible Imitatio Christi

Victorine Spirituality Abbey of St Victor, Paris Fl. 12 th c. - regular canons (rule of St Augustine) Hugh of St Victor (d. 1141) Attempt to order stages of asceticism/prayer/m ysticism Made Dionysius mainstream

Victorine Spirituality (II) Hugh’s Noah’s ark treatises: mandala (right) represents cosmos, salvation history, mystic's inward journey to divine union Richard of St Victor (d. 1173): applied psychological method to mystical experience, integrated intellect into contemplation, influenced Bonaventure, Cloud of Unknowing