A Mediaeval Mystic Part 3

Of the Seven Cloisters

This was composed for a penitent of our Saint, Margaret von Meerbeke, a Poor Clare of Brussels, and it gives a rule of life for Religious. The holy Prior traces out an order of the day, insisting especially on the need of cultivating the interior life; he mentions the virtues which his penitent should exercise, and inveighs against the abuses which have crept into convents, pointing out the danger of communication with the outer world. In all things Margaret should imitate the example of her foundress, St. Clare, who gained her glorious place in Heaven by shutting herself up within the seven cloisters. After dwelling on these, viz., by expounding seven means of retreating from the world and living close to G.o.d, the author turns again to practical details and condemns the softness and luxury of certain Religious in their dress. Each day, he says, should close with a peep into three books: the book of our own conscience, which shows the imperfections which must be purified; the book of the Life and Pa.s.sion of our Lord, which we should imitate; and finally the book of eternal life, to which we ought to tend with all our strength.

The Mirror of Eternal Life

This also was addressed to a nun, probably the same Poor Clare. It explains again the three degrees of the mystic life, but with special reference now to the cloister and the Blessed Eucharist. Some are in the purgative way: if they persevere in virtue and progress in perfection, they shall partake of the table, Ps. xxiii. 5, which is no other than the banquet of the Holy Eucharist. Ruysbroeck dwells on the virtues necessary for the worthy reception of the Sacrament, and narrates the manner of its inst.i.tution by our Divine Lord at the Last Supper, showing what were the matter and form used by Christ. He discourses on the evidence of G.o.d's love to be found in this mystery of the altar; and then refutes objections as to the manner of the Divine Presence, expressly teaching Transubstantiation. Those who approach the altar rails are divided by him into seven cla.s.ses, and here the author shows a wondrous and intimate knowledge of the working of the human heart. The treatise closes with a description of the contemplative life.

The Seven Degrees of Spiritual Love

In a simile familiar to spiritual writers of all ages, Ruysbroeck compares life to a ladder, or stairway of seven steps, leading up to perfection and union with G.o.d. These stages are respectively: (1) Conformity with the holy will of G.o.d; (2) Voluntary poverty; (3) Purity of soul and chast.i.ty of body; (4) Humility, with her four daughters, obedience, gentleness, patience, and the forsaking of self-will; (5) The desire of the divine glory, involving three spiritual exercises, namely, acts of love and adoration, acts of supplication, and acts of thanksgiving; (6) The contemplative and perfect life, by which man finally attains the last stage of, (7) sublime ignorance. (Compare Walter Hilton's "darksome lightness" in his _Scale of Perfection_.)

Of the Supreme Truth

This treatise was issued by way of explanation of some difficult pa.s.sages in his first work, concerning especially the gift of counsel, and indeed as a kind of defence and apology of his whole mystic teaching. He protests that he has never admitted that the creature can be raised to a state of ident.i.ty with G.o.d, and once more he explains his conception of the union of the soul with her Divine Spouse. There is a union common to all the just, brought about by the grace of G.o.d, with the forsaking of vice, the practice of virtue, and submission to the authority of the Church. Then there is a more intimate union, like unto that of fire and iron, which, when united, seem but one matter, though in fact they remain two distinct substances. Those who attain this love G.o.d and live in His presence, but as yet arrive not at a complete knowledge of His essence.

After this again there is even a yet closer union, whereby the Eternal Father and man become one, not indeed with oneness of substantial unity, but in a oneness of love and bliss. It is evident that language here fails the holy author to express the sublimity of his concept and his experience; in his endeavour to show the intimacy of this last method of union he is driven to use expressions which, taken as they stand, have that pantheistic ring which it is his first object here to disclaim.

The Twelve Beguines

After the _Tabernacle_, this is the most lengthy of our Saint's works, and it is of great importance as throwing considerable light on Ruysbroeck's ideas and system. We are introduced to twelve Beguines discoursing together on the love of Jesus Christ, whence an easy transit to the real subject-matter of the tract, the contemplative life. To attain the state of contemplation, four conditions are required: a ray of divine light, producing illumination, whence, on the part of the soul, a looking at G.o.d, or speculation, pa.s.sing into contemplation, and this stage again merging into a state of sublime, ecstatic love. There are four distinct acts or states of love, corresponding respectively to each of these stages. Ruysbroeck also shows here the action of the Holy Ghost in forming the soul to a more intimate knowledge of G.o.d.

The second part of the book then opens with a fresh order of ideas.

Ruysbroeck divides mankind into good Christians and wicked men. Holiness consists of the union of the active and the contemplative life. There are, however, some who practise neither one nor the other and yet give themselves out as the most holy of all. Among these Ruysbroeck proceeds to distinguish four kinds of errors or heresies: (1) Errors against the Holy Ghost and His Grace; (2) Errors against G.o.d the Father and His power; (3) Errors against G.o.d the Son and His Sacred Humanity; and finally errors against G.o.d and all that makes up Christendom, namely, the Scriptures, the Church, and the Sacraments. On the other hand, the good Christian is one who loves G.o.d with all his heart and mind and soul and strength.

Blessed John then goes on to discourse of the Divine Nature in Unity and Trinity. He also discusses man in his material and in his spiritual nature. The spiritual part of man alone he says, can elevate him to the mystic life (of which once more the three ways are expounded), and alone also can show him the reasons wherefore G.o.d created the universe. The three ways of the mystic life are symbolised by the three heavens. The stars and the planets exercise an influence on terrestrial creatures, that is to say, upon our bodies, for G.o.d alone can touch the soul, leading it to good and restraining it from evil. Thence also Ruysbroeck describes the various temperaments of men by reference to the planets and their conjunction with the signs of the zodiac.

A chapter on our Divine Lord, held up as the Model Religious, serves as a transition to the third part, which is a treatise, largely symbolical, on the Pa.s.sion of Christ, divided and subdivided according to the sequence of the Canonical Hours.

This is perhaps the most discursive of Ruysbroeck's works, and in that sense the most difficult to follow, because of the number and length of the digressions. For instance, when he comes to speak of the planet Venus, he mentions the sign of the Balance, and this suggests a whole treatise of thirty-nine chapters on the _Balance of Divine Love_. The love of G.o.d for us, and all the blessings, spiritual and temporal, which flow from it, are cast into one pan of the balance, and we must weigh down the other pan with our virtues; and there follows a long disquisition on the virtues we should practise, prominent among which, as usual, he ranks humility. Here, further, he finds occasion to work out his distinction between the spirit and the reasonable soul; and the whole digression closes with a sad and striking comparison between the fervour of primitive Christianity and the laxity of his own days.

Bossuet very severely criticised this work, holding it up as an example of forced allegories, and so forth, and speaking of Ruysbroeck as involved in the vain speculations of astrologers. This opinion, though not surprising, is not just, for the author is careful to insist that the planets have not influence on the will of man as such. But it is natural that Bossuet should regard such works with suspicion and dislike, for he had considerable trouble with false mystics, the quietists of his own day; and even Ruysbroeck's own friends and contemporaries found much in the volume that was strange, even to startling, and Gerard Groote advised him not to publish it in its entirety.

Of the Twelve Virtues

The reader will not be surprised to learn that Blessed John contrives here to speak of considerably more virtues than just twelve. The princ.i.p.al and first is said to be humility, and this again twofold--one humility inspired by the contemplation of the power of G.o.d, the other by the consideration of His goodness. The daughter of humility is obedience, and obedience naturally involves denial of self-will, poverty of spirit, and patience in adversities. He then proceeds to treat very beautifully and at length of interior detachment, remarking that to secure this it is not necessary to flee external occupations, but that the attainment of perfection consists in a perfect abandonment to the will of G.o.d and the forsaking of our own will. When we have arrived thus far, we shall no longer sin. For past sins there must be continued sorrow, but external penances are not equally for all. And those who cannot endure great bodily austerities must apply themselves to imitate the austere life of Christ by interior self-denial.

The Letters of Ruysbroeck

These are spiritual letters, of course, conferences in epistolary form.

The first is addressed to Margaret van Meerbeke, the Poor Clare of Brussels mentioned above. Ruysbroeck writes: "When I was at your convent last summer, you appeared sad; methought G.o.d or some special friend had forsaken you; therefore am I writing you as follows." And he proceeds to console his spiritual daughter, and to warn her against the dangers which may be found even in the cloister. He declaims against the abuses which sometimes creep into monasteries, and almost always through _self-will_, whereas every Religious should strive to have all things _in common_, to be submissive to superiors and affable to all. The holy author closes with a description of the terrible punishments to be meted out to those Religious who fail to keep their rule and lead a holy life.

The second, addressed to Matilda, the widow of John of Culemberg, is of more importance. After treating of the Apostles' Creed, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, the Decalogue, the vows of religion and the precepts of the Church, the Incarnation and death of Christ, Ruysbroeck expounds the Catholic doctrine on the seven Sacraments, and especially the Blessed Eucharist. He describes the fruits which flow from a worthy Communion, and treats again of the three ways of the contemplative life, and describes the elements of superessential contemplation.

The third was sent to three Recluses of Cologne. Blessed John exhorts them to persevere in their holy manner of life. He treats of the spiritual life, comparing Christ to the precious pearl, the hidden treasure. And finally he earnestly exhorts them to constant meditation on the Pa.s.sion of Our Lord.

The fourth was addressed to Catherine of Louvain, a devout young lady living in the world; and the other three were likewise sent to persons in the world. All are full of wise spiritual maxims, and all insist on the need of humility and the abnegation of self-will.

XII

The Teaching of Ruysbroeck[7]

In no one work, as already remarked, does Blessed John Ruysbroeck give a complete outline of his doctrines; the elements rather are to be found dispersed among the various treatises.

In common with most of the German mystics, Ruysbroeck starts from G.o.d and comes down to man, and thence rises again to G.o.d, showing how the two are so closely united as to become one. In His essence G.o.d is simple unity, the one supremely pure and supernatural being, devoid of all mode, in Himself still and immovable, and yet at the same time the first cause and active principle of all things. This principle is the divine _nature_, which does not in reality differ from the essence, and which is fruitful in the Trinity. The Father is the essential principle, and yet He is consubstantial with the other two Persons. The Son, the uncreated Image of the Father, is the Eternal Wisdom. The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the other two, and returning unto them, is the eternal Love, which unites Father and Son. As regards Persons, G.o.d is eternally active: as regards essence, He abides in unbroken repose. Creatures have been existing as ideas in G.o.d from all eternity.

In man, whose body is merely a perishable instrument, there is a spiritual, immortal principle, like unto G.o.d, though less than He. In this principle Ruysbroeck distinguishes, with a distinction of the reason, soul and spirit; the former is the principle of the merely human life, uniting together the lower powers; the other is the principle of man's supernatural life in G.o.d, gathering together his higher faculties.

The soul has four inferior powers: the _irascible_, and the _concupiscible_, which two become b.e.s.t.i.a.l when not under the ruling of a virtuous will; _reason_, by which man is distinguished from the brute, and _freedom of choice_, an exercise of the higher faculty of the will.

The spirit has the three superior faculties, memory, understanding, and will. In every man likewise there is a triple unity, or oneness: the unity of the lower faculties in the soul, the unity of the higher in the spirit, and the unity of the whole being in G.o.d, on Whom all things essentially depend for their being.

Blessed John delivers the accepted teaching of the Church on the Fall, the Incarnation and Redemption, on the need and on the means of divine grace, the inst.i.tution of the Sacraments, the establishment of the Church, the gifts of the Holy Ghost, etc.

But coming now to his more purely mystical doctrine, we find that Ruysbroeck distinguishes three degrees, or states--the active life, the interior life, and the contemplative life. The active life consists of the effort to conquer sin and to draw nigh to G.o.d by exterior works. Here in Christ is the Divine Exemplar, for in His life He practised the three fundamental virtues of humility, charity, and patience. Humility is the foundation of the whole building, and it is exercised chiefly in obedience, which engenders the abdication of our own will, and patience, or submission in all things to the holy will of G.o.d. When a man has arrived so far, he can exercise charity, shown at this stage chiefly by compa.s.sion for Christ suffering on the Cross for all men, and bringing with her the four cardinal virtues of prudence, temperance, fort.i.tude, and justice, whereby also the Christian is enabled to fight and conquer his three deadly enemies, the devil, the world, and the flesh.

Perseverance in this active life is crowned by union with G.o.d, a union wherein G.o.d alone is regarded as the exemplar and the final end, wherein He alone is sought and loved. Thus does a man become a _Faithful Servant_.

As yet, however, there is only an imperfect knowledge of G.o.d, and to become more closely united with G.o.d, as an _Intimate Friend_, one must strive to attain the second stage of the mystic way, namely the _interior life_. For this three preliminary conditions are requisite. On the part of G.o.d, there must be a yet stronger movement of divine grace, and on the part of man, an absolute recollection, with freedom from sensible images, attachments, and cares, and then the gathering together of all the powers in the unity of the Spirit. Christ, then, the Eternal Sun, enkindles in the soul thus duly prepared a divine fire, which engenders a warm, sensible love, a devotion full of ardent desires, with thankfulness for the divine mercies and affliction at one's own unworthiness. Then, as the action of the sun draws up the moisture in the form of vapour, to fall back again in refreshing and fertilising showers of rain, so if the soul persevere Christ sends down a fresh shower of consolations, which fill the whole being with a chaste pleasure and an indescribable sweetness superior to all the delights of the earth, rising even to a species of spiritual intoxication, which may manifest itself in outward acts. As yet there are no severe trials for the soul, but she must beware of pride and presumption, and of leaning too much on these sensible delights instead of on the Divine Giver. Meanwhile the Sun of Justice is reaching its apogee in the heavens, and Christ draws up all the powers of the soul, so that the heart is enlarged and fit to burst with love, and at the same time it begins to suffer from the wound of love, because of the urgency of the power drawing upward and its own impotency to follow; whence also a spiritual languishing, a very madness and impatience, or fever of love, capable even of wasting the bodily strength. Love is liable to be so intense at this stage, that visions and ecstacies are granted; but at the same time care must be taken against the delusions of the evil one.

But thence the Sun enters on the sign of the Virgin and its downward path, that is, Christ hides Himself and deprives the soul of the warmth of sensible love and the like. It is the autumn, the time of gathering the really ripe and lasting fruits; but to the soul a time of seeming abandonment, aridity, darkness, etc. She must then beg the prayers of others, be glad to leave herself in G.o.d's hands, willing to suffer and to sacrifice all sweetness. Likewise, she must be careful not to compromise G.o.d's favour by seeking earthly pleasures and delights, the consolations of human friendship, and so forth.

Then there is a second coming of the Divine Spouse, bringing with Him the gifts of the Holy Ghost, whereby He adorns the three supreme faculties of the spirit. Pure simplicity empties the memory of all external images and renders it stable. Spiritual brightness gives the intelligence a sure discernment of the virtues. And a spiritual fervour arouses the will to a boundless love for G.o.d and men.

There is yet a third coming, which affects the supreme union of the spirit with G.o.d. It is a species of intimate contact with G.o.d in the very depths of the soul. The intellect cannot comprehend the manner of this union, it can only witness its effects upon the reason and the will. The power of loving increases with the intimacy of this union, and the intimacy increases the power of love; and hence also a kind of loving strife ensues, each wishing to possess the other and each wishing to give himself to the other utterly.

This is the apogee of the interior life, the meeting, the union of the soul with G.o.d. It may be brought about in three different ways: (1) Man, struck by a light coming forth from G.o.d, forsakes all images; he is plunged into the union of fruitive love; he meets G.o.d without any medium, a spirit like unto Him; it is the state of absolute repose in G.o.d, utter emptiness and leisure. (2) At other times man adores G.o.d and consumes himself in continual love, which ceaselessly feeds on the presence of G.o.d; it is the mediate stage, the state of affective love, needful for the attainment of the preceding. (3) Finally, it is possible to unite enjoyment with activity: man enjoys a most profound peace and produces all the acts of love; he receives G.o.d; and His gifts in the superior faculties, images and sensations in the lower powers; it is the most perfect state, the state of combined activity and repose.

Even so, it is not the most sublime state. Above the interior life there is the superessential contemplative life; above the _faithful friends_ there are the _Intimate Sons_ of G.o.d. This third stage of perfection can never be acquired by any act of the intelligence or will; and so sublime is it that he only who has experienced it can attempt its description, and then in terms the most halting and imperfect. This contemplation consists in an absolute purity and simplicity of the understanding; it is a knowledge and possession of G.o.d, without modes, without limits, without medium, without any consciousness of the difference of His qualities.

Nevertheless, it is not G.o.d, it is the light by which He is seen. It is the death and destruction of self to behold only the Being eternal and absolute. Its essence is union with G.o.d, the still contemplation of G.o.d, abandonment to G.o.d, so that He alone acts, and not the soul. This repose of the spirit engenders a supernatural contemplation of the Trinity without any medium, a feeling of bliss unspeakable, a sublime ignorance; the last consciousness of the difference between G.o.d and the creature--being and nothingness--disappears.

This is the honeymoon of Christ with the soul, to which the preceding stages are only a preparation. The spirit is led from brightness to brightness; and since no medium comes between it and the divine splendour, since the brightness by which it sees is the light itself which it sees, in a certain sense itself becomes this brightness; it attains a consciousness of its own superessential being, of the unity of its essence in G.o.d.

XIII

Some Appreciations

Arrived thus at the summit of mystic speculation, Ruysbroeck finds himself on the confines of pantheism. However, he constantly insists, as we have already remarked, on the essential difference between the created spirit and the Spirit Eternal. Man, he says, must become deiform as far as that is possible for the creature; in the union with G.o.d it is not the difference of personality which is destroyed, it is only the difference of will and of thought, the desire to be anything apart in oneself which must disappear. He declares: "There where I a.s.sert that we are one in G.o.d, I must be understood in this sense that we are one in love, not in essence or in nature." His own strenuous opposition to the pantheists of his day proves his orthodoxy in this matter; yet it must be confessed again that from the very nature of his sublime discourse, his expressions are at times exceedingly bold and seemingly unorthodox. The truth is that the resources of human language prove inadequate to describe even the foretaste on earth of that "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive."