part visionaries of the more ordinary female type; such as Osanna

Andreasi of Mantua (1449-1505), Columba Rieti (c. 1430-1501), and her disciple, Lucia of Narni. They seem to represent the slow extinction of the spirit which burned so bright in Catherine of Siena.
That spirit reappears in the sixteenth century in Flanders, in the works of the Benedictine ascetic Blosius (1506-1565), and, far more
APPENDIX 557
conspicuously in Spain, a country almost untouched by the outburst of mystical life which elsewhere closed the mediaeval period. Spanish mysticism, discernible as an influence in the writings of Luis of Leon and Luis of Granada, attained definite expression in the life and personality of St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the great founder of the Society of Jesus. The concrete nature of St. Ignatius’s work, and especially its later developments has blinded historians to the fact that he was a true mystic; own brother to such great actives as St. Teresa and George Fox, actuated by the same vision of reality, passing through the same stages of psychological growth. His spiritual sons influenced greatly the inner life of the great Carmelite, St. Teresa (1515- 1582): an influence shared by another and very different mystic, the Franciscan saint, Peter of Alcantara (1499-1562).
Like St. Catherine of Siena, these three mystics—and to them we must add St. Teresa’s greatest disciple, the poet and contemplative St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)—seem to have arisen in direct response to the need created by the corrupt or disordered religious life of their time. They are the “saints of the counter-Reformation” ; and, in a period of ecclesiastical chaos, flung the weight of their genius and their sanctity into the orthodox Catholic scale. Whilst St. Ignatius organized a body of spiritual soldiery, who should attack heresy and defend the Church, St. Teresa, working against heavy odds, infused new vitality into a great religious order and restored it to its duty of direct communion with the transcendental world. In this she was helped by St. John of the Cross ; who, a scholar as well as a great | mystic, performed the necessary function of bringing the personal experience of the Spanish school back again into touch with the main stream of mystic tradition. All three, practical organizers and pro- found contemplatives, exhibit in its splendour the dual character of the ° mystic life. They left behind them in their literary works an abiding influence, which has guided the footsteps and explained the discoveries of succeeding generations of adventurers in the transcendental world. The true spiritual children of these mystics are to be found, not in their own country, where the religious life which they had lifted to transcendent levels degenerated as soon as their overmastering influence was withdrawn: but amongst the innumerable contemplative souls of succeeding generations who have fallen under the spell of the ‘Spiritual Exercises,” the ‘Interior Castle,” or the ‘‘ Dark Night of
the Soul.” : The Divine fire which blazed up and exhausted itself so quickly in Spain, is next seen in the New World: in the beautiful figure, too little
558 AN INTRODUCTION TO MYSTICISM
known to English readers, of St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617), the Peruvian nun. It appears at the same moment, under a very different aspect, in Protestant Germany; in the person of one of the giants of mysticism, the “ inspired shoemaker ” Jacob Boehme (1575-1624).
Boehme, one of the most astonishing cases in history of a natural genius for the transcendent, has left his mark upon German philosophy as well as upon the history of mysticism. William Law, Blake, and Saint-Martin are amongst those who have sat at his feet. The great sweep of Boehme’s vision includes both Man and the Universe: the nature of God and of the Soul. In him we find again that old doctrine of Rebirth which the earlier German mystics had loved. Were it not for the difficult symbolism in which his vision is expressed, his influence would be far greater than it is. He remains one of those cloud- wrapped immortals who must be rediscovered and reinterpreted by the adventurers of every age.
The seventeenth century rivals the fourteenth in the richness and variety of its mystical life. Two main currents are to be detected in it: dividing between them the two main aspects of man’s communion with the Absolute. One, symbolic, constructive, activistic, bound up with the ideas of regeneration, and often using the language of the alchemists, sets out from the Teutonic genius of Boehme. It achieves its successes outside the Catholic Church: and chiefly in Germany and England, where by 1650 his works were widely known. In its decadent forms it runs to the occult: to alchemy, Rosicrucianism, apocalyptic prophecy, and other aberrations of the spiritual sense.
The other current arises within the Catholic Church, and in close touch with the great tradition of Christian mysticism. It represents the personal and intimate side of contemplation: tends to encourage “ passive receptivity: and produces in its exaggerated forms the aberrations of the Qluietists. It has its chief field in the Latin countries: France, Italy, and Spain.
In the seventeenth century England was peculiarly rich, if not in great mystics, at any rate in mystically-minded men. Mysticism, it seems, was in the air; broke out under many disguises and affected many forms of life. It produced in George Fox (1624-1690) the founder of the Quakers, a ‘‘great active” of the first rank, entirely unaffected by tradition ; and in the Quaker movement itself an outbreak of genuine mysticism which is only comparable to the fourteenth- century movement of the Friends of God. At the opposite end of the theological scale, and in a very different form, it shows itself in- Gertrude More (1606-1633) the Benedictine nun, a Catholic contem- plative of singular charm. |
APPENDIX 559
Gertrude More carries on that tradition of the communion of love which flows from St. Augustine through St. Bernard and Thomas a Kempis, and is the very heart of Catholic mysticism. In the writings of her director, and the preserver of her works, the Wenerable Augustine Baker (1575-1641)—one of the most lucid and orderly of guides to the contemplative life—we see what were still the formative influences in the environment where her mystical powers were trained. Richard of St. Victor, Hilton and the “Cloud of Unknowing”; Angela of Foligno ; Tauler, Suso, Ruysbroeck ; St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross; these are the authorities to whom Augustine Baker most constantly appeals, and through these, as we know, the line of descent goes back to the Neoplatonists and the first founders of the Church.
Outside that Church, the twins Thomas Vaughan the spiritual alchemist and Henry Yaughan, Silurist, the mystical poet (1622- 1695) show the reaction of two very different temperaments upon the transcendental life. Again, the group of ‘Cambridge Platonists,” Henry More (1614-1687), John Smith (1618-1652), Benjamin Whichcote (1609-1683), and John Norris (1657-1711) developed and preached a philosophy deeply tinged with mysticism ; and Thomas Traherne (c. 1637-1674) gave poetic expression to the Platonic vision of life. In Bishop Hall (1574-1656) the same spirit takes a devo- tional form. Finally, the Rosicrucians, symbolists, and other spiritually minded occultists—above all the extraordinary sect of Philadelphians, ruled by Dr. Pordage (1608-1698) and the prophetess Jane Lead (1623-1704)—exhibit mysticism in its least balanced aspect, mingled with mediumistic phenomena, wild symbolic visions, and apocalyptic prophecies. The influence of these Philadelphians, who were them- selves strongly affected by Boehme’s works, lingered on for a century. appearing again in Saint-Martin the “‘ Unknown Philosopher.”
The Quietistic trend of seventeenth-century mysticism is best seen in France. There, at the beginning of the century, the charming personality of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) sets the key of the spiritual life of the time, with a delicate but slightly sentimental application of the principles of mystic love to popular piety. Under the brilliant worldly life of seventeenth-century France, there was some- thing amounting to a cult of the inner life. Such episodes as the careers of St. Jeanne Francoise de Chantal and St. Vincent de Paul, the history of Port Royal, the apostolate of Madame Guyon, the con- troversies of Bossuet and Fénelon, and the interest which these events aroused, indicate a period of considerable vitality. The spiritual life threatened to become fashionable. Hence, its most satisfactory initiates are those least in touch with the life of the time; such as the simple
560 AN INTRODUCTION TO MYSTICISM
Carmelite, Brother Lawrence (1611-1691). Lawrence shows the passive tendency of French mysticism in its most sane, well-balanced form. He was a humble empiricist, laying claim to no special gifts: a striking contrast to his contemporary, the brilliant and unhappy genius Pascal (1623-1662), who fought his way through many psychic storms to the final vision of the Absolute.
The earliest in date and most exaggerated in type of the true Quietists is the Franco-Flemish Antoinette Bourignan (1616-1680): a strong-willed and wrong-headed woman who, having renounced the world with Franciscan thoroughness, founded a sect, endured consider- able persecutions, and made a great stir in the religious life of her time. An even greater uproar resulted from the doctrinal excesses of the devout Spanish priest Miguel de Molinos (1640-1697); whose extreme teachings were condemned by the Church, and for a time brought the whole principle of passive contemplation into disrepute. Quietism, at bottom, was the expression of a need not unlike that which produced the contemporary Quaker movement in England: a need for personal contact with spiritual realities, evoked by the formal and un- satisfying quality of the official religion of the time. Unfortunately the great Quietists were not great mystics. Hence their unbalanced propaganda, in which the principle of passivity—divorced from, and opposed to, all spiritual action—was pressed to its logical conclusion, came dangerously near to nihilism: and resulted in a doctrine fatal not only to all organized religion, but to the healthy development of the inner life.
Madame Guyon (1648-1717), the contemporary of Molinos and one of the most interesting personalities of the time, though usually quoted as a typical Quietist, taught and practised a far more balanced ‘mysticism. Madame Guyon is an instance of considerable mystical genius linked with a feeble surface intelligence. Had she possessed the robust common sense so often found in the great contemplatives, her temperamental inclination to passivity would have been checked, and she would hardly have made use of the unfortunate expressions which brought about the official condemnation of her works. In spite of the brilliant championship of Fenelon, and the fact that she really con- tinues the tradition of feminine mysticism as developed by Angela of Foligno, St. Catherine of Genoa, and St. Teresa—though lacking the wide, impersonal outlook of these mystics—she was involved in the general condemnation of ‘ passive orison” which the aberrations of the extreme Quietists had called forth.
The end of the seventeenth century saw a great outburst of popular Quietism; some within and some without the official Church.
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Amongst the more respectable of these quasi-mystics—all of whom appealed to the general tradition of mysticism in support of their one- sided doctrine—were Malayal, whose ‘‘ Théologie Mystique ” contains some beautiful French translations from St. Teresa, and Peter Poiret (1646-1719), once a Protestant pastor, then the devoted disciple of Antoinette Bourignan. Later generations owe a considerable debt to the enthusiasm and industry of Poiret, whose belief in spiritual qui- escence was combined with great literary activity. He rescued and * edited all Madame Guyon’s writings; and has left us, in his ‘‘ Bibliotheca . Mysticorum,” the memorial of many lost works on mysticism. From this "unique bibliography we can see how “ orthodox” was the food which
nourished even the most extreme of the Quietists: how thoroughly they believed themselves to represent not a new doctrine, but the true tradition of Christian Mysticism.
With the close of the seventeenth century, the Quietist movement |
faded away. The beginning of the eighteenth sees the triumph of its ‘completing opposite”; that other stream of spiritual vitality which
arose outside the Catholic Church and flowed from the great per- ©
sonality of Jacob Boehme. If the idea of surrender be the main- spring of Quietism, the complementary idea of rebirth is the main- spring of this school. In Germany, Boehme’s works had been collected and published by an obscure mystic, John Gichtel (1638- 1710); whose life and letters constantly betray his influence. In England, where that influence had been a living force from the middle of the seventeenth century, when his writings first became known, the Anglo-German Dionysius Andreas Freher was writing between 1699 and 1720.
In the early years ot the eighteenth century, Freher was followed
by William Law (1686-1761), the Nonjuror: a brilliant stylisi and one of the most profound of English religious writers. Law, who was converted by the reading of Boehme’s works from the narrow Christianity to which he gave classic expression in the ‘‘ Serious Call” to a wide and philosophic mysticism, gave, in a series ec} writings which burn with mystic passion, a new interpretation and an abiding place in English literature to the “ inspired shoemaker’s” astounding vision of Man and the Universe.
The latter part of a century which clearly represents the steep downward trend of the mystic curve, gives us three great personalities ;
all of whom have passed through Boehme’s school, and have placed.
themselves in opposition to the dry ecclesiasticism of their day. In
Germany, Eckartshausen (1752-1803), in “’The Cloud upon the
Sanctuary ” and other works, continued upon individual lines that 00
’
a
562 AN INTRODUCTION TO MYSTICISM
tradition of esoteric and mystical Christianity, and of rebirth as the price of man’s entrance into Reality, which found its best and sanest interpreter in William Law. In France, the troubled spirit of the transcendentalist Saint-Martin (1743-1803), ‘‘the unknown philo- sopher,” was deeply affected in his passage from a merely occult to a mystical philosophy, by the reading of Boehme and Eckartshausen ; and also by the works of the English ‘‘ Philadelphians,” Dr. Pordage _ and Jane Lead, who had long sunk to oblivion in their native land. In England, one of the greatest mystics of all time, William Blake (1757-1827), shines like a solitary star in the uncongenial atmosphere of the Georgian age.
The career of Blake, poet, painter, visionary, and prophet, provides us with a rare instance of mystical genius forcing not only rhythm and words, but also colour and form, to express its vision of truth. So. individual in his case was this vision, so strange the elements from which his symbolic reconstructions were built up, that he failed in the attempt to convey it to other men. Neither in his prophetic books ‘dark with excessive light,” nor in his beautiful mystical paintings, does he contrive to transmit more than great and stimulating sug- gestions of “things seen” in some higher and more valid state of consciousness.
An impassioned Christian of a deeply mystical type, Blake, like Eckartshausen and Saint-Martin, was at the same time a determined and outspoken foe of conventional Christianity. He seems at first sight the Ishmael of the mystics, wayward and individual, hardly touched by tradition; but as a matter of fact his spirit gathered up and expressed the scattered threads of that tradition, parted since the Reformation amongst divergent groups of explorers of the unseen. It is for this reason that his name may fitly close and complete this short survey of European mysticism.
Whilst his visionary symbolism derives to a large extent from Swedenborg, whose works were the great influence of his youth, Blake has learned much from Boehme, and probably from his English inter- preters. But, almost alone amongst English Protestant mystics, he has also received and assimilated the Catholic tradition of the personal and inward communion of love. In his stupendous vision of ‘‘ Jerusalem,” St. Teresa and Madame Guyon are amongst the “ gentle souls ” whom he sees guarding that Four-fold Gate which opens towards Beulah— the gate of the contemplative life—and guiding the great ‘‘ Wine-press of Love” whence mankind, at the hands of its mystics, has received, in every age, the Wine of Life.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Tue WorKS AND LIVES OF THE MYSTICS,