D. MYSTICISM OR PLATONISM?

What has been set forth in the foregoing excursus puts us in a position to estimate the import of a number of expressions habit- ually used by St Augustine, and liable to be understood of mystical experiences. Such are: 'searching after and contemplating truth'; 3 'seeking after, and finding, and knowing, and perceiving, and
1 See tractate of St Bonaventure, *Utrum quidcjuid certitudinaliter cognoscitur a nobis cognoscatur in ipsis rationibus aeternis?' first published, along with tractates on the same subject by other Franciscan doctors 3 at Quaracchi in 1883.
a He is discoursing of the 'intellectus possibilis' and the 'intellectus agens'. After explaining that the latter is that which in the perception of 'intelligibilia' plays the same part as Hght in the perception of colour, he says that some Catholic doctors with much probability have made God Himself the 'intellectus agens'. His words are: 'Intellectus agens dicitur qui facit intelligibilia in potentia esse in actu, sicut lumen quod facit colores in potentia visibiles, esse actu visibiles'; and then: 'Quidam Catholici doctores satis probabiliter posuerunt ipsum Deum esse intellectum agentem' (In Lib. ii. Sentent. dist. 17, quaest. 2. art. i).
8 c. Faust, xxii. 56.
ST AUGUSTINE 41
intuing truth'; 1 contemplation is 'delight in the light of con- spicuous truth'; 2 and in one place it is asked: 'What is happier than he who has the enjoyment of unshaken and unchangeable and most excellent truth?' 3 In the mouth of a later mystic such expressions would rightly be understood of fully religious contemplation and mystical experience; but with Augustine they need mean hardly more than the operations of the speculative intellect, the intellectual apprehension of philosophic or theological truth. It has to be re- membered that, for Augustine, every 'intelligible' perceived by the mind, every abstract or universal, 'the squareness of a square figure', is an unchangeable and eternal truth, perceived by the mind in some way in the Unchangeable Truth itself, and seen in the divine Light of God. So he calls such perception 'the intellectual cognition of things eternal', or 'the cognition of intelligible and supreme things that are everlasting' (de Trin. xii. 25).
There is a tendency, I think, to exaggerate greatly the neo- Platonism of the early treatises, particularly those composed between conversion and baptism, and to minimize the element of very real Christian and religious feeling that pervades them; still they are an ordered attempt to provide a philosophy of Christian belief in the ideas and terms of the most generally accepted and most spiritual philosophic system of the time, the neo-Platonism which Augustine loved as the means, humanly speaking, that had led him back to his Catholic faith. At a later date he corrected the exaggerated in- tellectualism of these early treatises; 4 but to the end he continued a convinced and devoted Platonist. His early position was that c the Platonists with the change of very few words and opinions would become Christians'. 5
This renders it necessary to examine with care and make quite sure that words currently taken as spoken of mystical experiences and conveying mystical doctrine, really do so. And indeed, when we consider the expressions he uses 'a glance at That Which Is', *the perception of something Unchangeable 5 , 'spiritual contact with the Light Unchangeable' we may well wonder whether, under such cold intellectual and philosophical terms, he really describes the same religious experiences as do the mediaeval and later mystics in so many a passage all aglow with exuberant religious emotion, as they speak of their unions with God. Are they not, rather, the
1 de Civ. Dei, xix. 19. 2 Conf. xiii. 23.
8 de lib. Arb. ii. 35. * Retractationum, lib. L
5 De Vera Relig. 7. There is in the 'Introduction' to Gibb and Montgomery's edition of the Confessions (Cambridge), a sane and sensible conciliation of the Confessions and the Dialogues in regard to Augustine's intellectual and religious position just after the conversion. Also Montgomery, St Augustine, c. ii.
42 WESTERN MYSTICISM
language of an exalted Platonism describing only the higher opera- tions of the intellect? In other words, the question has to be faced: Is it Mysticism, or is it Platonism?
The answer to this question is not really in doubt. The longer pieces cited in the course of this study are not susceptible of the suggested interpretation, and manifestly speak of religious experi- ences the same in kind as those described by the other great mystics- In support of this position the following piece is of especial interest: commencing in what seems to be mere Platonism, it develops quite naturally into a mysticism of the highest type:
If one be lifted up into the region of 'intellectualia 5 and 'intelligi- bilia, 9 where without any likeness of bodies the perspicuous truth is seen ... there the one and whole virtue is to love what you see, and the supreme happiness to possess what you love. For there the blessed life is drunk in from its fountain, whence are sprinkled some drops on this human life ... There is seen the brightness of the Lord, not by any vision corporeal or spiritual, but by sight (per speciem) so far as the human mind is capable of it, by God's grace, that He may speak mouth to mouth to him whom He has made worthy of such colloquy the mouth, that is, not of the body but of the mind (de Gen. ad. lift. xii. 26, 54).
The piece is quoted in its entirety at a later place, the Latin text being given (p. 53): it is there dealt with more fully; here it will suffice to say that the whole of it just cited refers to experiences during the present life. 1
Conversely, in the striking passage in the c Enarration s on Psalm xlL, the experience there described culminates in the cold meta- physical formula, 'We were able by a momentary glance of our mind to gaze on Something Unchangeable'; and yet the whole con- text is aglow with the fire and warmth of the highest and purest Christian mysticism (see pp. 20-24, especially 9, 10).
Similarly, the piece cited in a later place (p. 51) from Sermon lii. 16, describes in the very language of the mystics the supreme mystic experience; and yet here, too, the culmination is clothed in a meta- physical garb: 'spiritual contact with the Light unchangeable.*
The remarkable passage at the end of the treatise de Quantitate Animae, written just after baptism, has already been referred to. Here Augustine speaks of the highest grades in the operations or functions of the soul:
The soul realizes how great it is in every way; and when it realizes
1 This is true even of the expression 'drinking the blessed life in its fountain*. In the early treatise de Beata Vita the term 'blessed life* is used of the loiowledge of truth and enjoyment of God that is had in this life.
ST AUGUSTINE 43
this, then with a great and unbelievable confidence it makes its way unto God, that is, unto the very contemplation of Truth, and that most high and secret reward, for which such labour has been under- gone. 1 And the highest spiritual state of the soul in this life consists in the vision and contemplation of Truth, wherein are joys, and the full enjoyment of the highest and truest Good, and a breath of serenity and eternity, such as certain great and incomparable souls have described in some measure, who, we believe, have seen and see such things. And I dare aver that if we with constancy follow the course that God commands, we shall by the Power of God and His Wisdom arrive at the First Cause of all things, and intellectually see It. 2
This passage unquestionably describes the act of religious con- templation and the mystic experience. The reference to the experi- ence of 'certain great and incomparable souls' is without doubt to the ecstasies of Plotinus and Porphyry, to be cited in Appendix. His admiration for the neo-Platonists was great, especially in the early days of conversion and baptism, when he spoke of them as c magni homines et pene divini 5 (de Of 'dine , ii. 28).
The following shorter passage seems to speak unmistakably of the 'experience of the mystics' :
To some it has been granted by a certain holy inebriation of mind, alienated from fleeting temporal things below, to gaze on the eternal light of Wisdom. 3
Compare: If the glorious cup of the Lord intoxicate you, it shall be seen indeed in a certain alienation of your mind, but an aliena- tion from the things of earth to those of heaven (Enar. in Psalm. ciii. 3, 13).
And it will be felt that only he could have spoken, as follows, who had enjoyed to th*e full the religious experience of the mystics: What do I love, when I love Thee? It is a certain light that I love, and melody and fragrance and embrace that I love when I love my God a light, melody, fragrance, food, embrace of the inner man; where for my soul that shines which space does not contain, that
1 *Ingenti quadam et incredibili fiducia pergit in Deum, id est, in ipsam con- templationem veritatis, et illud, propter quod tantum laboratum est, altissimum et secretissimum praemium' (de Quant. Anim. 74).
2 'In ipsa visione et contemplatione veritatis, qui ultimus animae gradus est, quae sint gaudia, quae perfructio summi et veri boni, cuius serentitatis atque aeternitatis afflatus, quid ego dicam? Dixerunt haec quantum dicenda esse iudicaverunt, magnae quaedam et incomparabiles animae, quas etiam vidisse ac videre ista credimus. Illud plane ego nunc audeo tibi dicere nos si cursum quern nobis Deus imperat, et quern tenendum suscepimus, constantissime tenuerimus, perventuros per virtutem Dei atque sapientiam ad summam illam Causam, vel summum Auctorem, vel summum Principium rerum omnium: quo intellecto,* &c. (ibid. 76). 'Quo intellecto' means that it will be seen as an object of intellectual vision.
8 .'Quibus donatum est, sancta quadem ebrietate alienatae mentis ab infra labentibus temporalibus, aeternam lucem Sapientiae contueri* (c. Faust. xiL 42).
44 WESTERN MYSTICISM
sounds which time does not sweep away, that is fragrant which the breeze does not dispel, and that tastes sweet which fed upon is not diminished, and that clings close which no satiety disparts. This it is I love when I love my God (Conf. x. 8).
God the Object of Contemplation
In a number of places the Object contemplated, and described after the manner of the Platonists under the great Abstract Ideas, is definitely identified with the Christian God.
To begin with, the phrase 'Id Quod Est, 5 That Which Is, in the mystical elevation described in Confessions, vii. 23, is a refrain of the words of God to Moses in Exodus iii. 14: 'Dixit Deus ad Moysen: Ego Sum Qui Sum, Ait: Sic dices filiis Israel: Qui Est, misit me ad vos.' c God said to Moses: I Am Who Am. He said: So shall you say to the children of Israel: He Who Is, hath sent me to you. 3 And so Absolute Being, of which Augustine obtained a glance, is God.
In the elevation of Confessions, vii. 16 (cited above, p. 31), after saying that he beheld above his soul, above his mind, the Light Unchangeable, he goes on to define the nature of that Light:
Not this ordinary light which all flesh may look upon, nor as it were a greater of the same kind, as though the brightness of this should be manifold brighter, and with its greatness take up all space. Not such was this Light, but other, yea, far other from all these. Nor was It above my soul, as oil is above water, nor yet as heaven above earth: but higher than my soul, because It made me; and I below It, because I was made by It. He that knows the Truth, knows what that Light is; and he that knows It, knows Eternity. Love knoweth It. O eternal Truth, and true Love, and lovable Eternity! Thou art my God, to Thee do I sigh day and night (Conf. vii. 1 6).
In the following pieces, too, God is the object of contemplation:
Wisdom, that is contemplation (as he explains), consists in the knowledge and love of That Which always is and unchangeably abides, namely God (Enar. in Psalm, cxxxv. 8).
I sought my God, that if possible I might not only believe, but even see somewhat (Enar. in Psalm xli. 7).
Similarly he speaks explicitly of 'contemplating the beauty of God' (de Moribus Eccl Cath. 66), and simply of 'contemplating God' (de Civ. Dei, xix. 19).
The Mystic Union
Later mystics commonly designate their experience as Union with God. St Augustine does not employ this term; yet there are passages
ST AUGUSTINE 45
in which he equivalently expresses the same idea. That in which he most nearly approaches an utterance of the idea of union is the one wherein he speaks of arriving in this life at 'some kind of spiritual contact with the Light unchangeable.' 1 Others are the following:
We strained ourselves [in the effort to realize eternal life], and with one flash of thought touched on that Eternal Wisdom, which abideth above all. 2
What is that which gleams through me and strikes my heart without hurting it; and I shudder and I kindle? I shudder inasmuch as I am unlike it; I kindle inasmuch as I am like it. It is Wisdom, Wisdom's self, which gleameth through me. 3
The context shows that the Wisdom is the substantial Wisdom of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity.
So in 'the holy inebriation* of ecstasy 'the eternal light of Wisdom is beheld'; 4 but 'the gaze of the mind is not able to be attuned to the light of the Wisdom of God'. 5
In a passage referring to contemplation exercised in this life, it is said that corporeal images are stirred up, even when somewhat of the spiritual and unchangeable substance of divinity is being heard. 6
Similarly, in contemplation, 'something divine and unchangeable is learned.' 7
Such passages as these plainly describe the experience that the later mystics speak of under the term union. And Augustine's accounts of the characteristic phenomena of such experiences tally perfectly with those of the other mystics he may be compared especially with Gregory and Bernard in the sequel.
Rapturous Joy
According to all the mystics who speak from first-hand experience, rapturous joy, ecstatic delight, is a constant accompaniment of one of the closer spiritual unions of the soul with God. To this joy
1 'Pervenire spiritual! quodam contactu ad illam incomimitabilem lucem* (Serm. Hi. 16).
2 'Extendimus nos et rapida cogitatione attingimus aeternam Sapientiam super omnia manentem' (Conf. ix. 125).
8 'Quid est illud, quod interlucet mihi et percutit cor meum sine laesione? et inhorresco et inardesco: inhorresco, in quantum dissimilis ei sum; inardesco, in quantum similis ei sum. Sapientia, Sapientia ipsa est, quae interlucet mihi' (ibid. xi. n).
4 * Aeternam lucem Sapientiae contueri' (c. Faust, xii. 42).
5 'Acies mentis rnei non potuit contemperari luci Sapientiae Dei* (Serm. lii. 16).
9 *De vetere vita carnalibus sensibus dedita corporeae concitantur^ imagines, etiam cum aliquid de spirituali et incomrnutabili substantia divinitatis auditur' ((. Faust, xxii. 54).
7 'Divinum et incommutabile aliquid discitur' (ibid.).
46 WESTERN MYSTICISM
Augustine refers again and again in passages convincing by their eloquence and by their unmistakable personal character.
For instance, of the experience described in Confessions, vii 16, wherein he attained to a sight of the Light Unchangeable, he says: 'Thou didst stream forth Thy beams of light upon me most strongly, and I thrilled with love and awe.'
The idea of interior sweetness and joy is the dominant note in the long mystical passage in the 'Enarration* on the forty-first Psalm:
a mysterious and hidden interior pleasure; something melodious and sweet to the ears of the heart; ravished by desire to the inward sweetness of God; rejoiced by a certain inward sweetness. 1
He speaks of c a holy inebriation' (c. Faust, xii. 42); of being 'fixed with -sweet delight in the contemplation of Truth 5 (ibid. xxii. 56) ; of the delight of the human heart in the light of Truth (Serm. clxxix. 6); of 'arriving at a shrine of quiet 9 (Ep. cxx. 4); of *a breath of serenity and eternity' (de Quant. Anim. 76).
This last piece deserves to be quoted more fully:
The soul in contemplation will arrive at that most high and secret reward for sake of which it has so laboured; and in which are such joys, such a full enjoyment of the highest and truest Good, such a breath of serenity and eternity, as are indescribable. 2
In more than one place he definitely gives utterance to the idea that the joy felt in the mystical experience is a foretaste of the joy of Heaven, which is but as a perpetual prolongation of those momentarily experienced during the heights of contemplation.
Thus, when 'in a flash of thought he touched the Eternal Wis- dom,' he declares:
Were this prolonged, and the vision ravish and absorb and wrap up its beholder in inward joys, so that life might be for ever like that one moment of understanding; were not this the entry into the joy of Heaven? (Conf. ix. 25).
Similarly:
Sometimes Thou dost admit me to an interior experience most unwonted, to a wondrous sweetness, which, if it be brought to pass
1 'Interiorem nescio quarn et occultam voluptatem: nescio quid canoruxn et dulce auribus cordis: raptus desiderio ad interiorem dulcedinem Dei: iam quadam interiore dulcedine laetati' (Enar. in Psalm, xli. 9, 10).
2 De Quant, Anim. 74, 76 (Latin cited above, p. 43).
ST AUGUSTINE 47
in me, there will be something which will not be this life [i.e. I shall have a foretaste of eternal life.] 1
Transiency of the Experience
Here again St Augustine's descriptions of his experiences tally perfectly with those given by the great mystics. They speak of con- templation as a sustained effort of the soul, by recollection and introversion, to mount to God; when successful, the soul enjoys a brief period often but momentary of supreme exaltation in the contemplation of God and union with Him; this is followed by a recoil whereby the soul falls back from its height into its normal work-a-day state, wherein it recuperates its forces for another flight.
This whole process is exactly and eloquently described by Augustine in various passages. The struggle upward of the soul to raise itself above earthly things and ascend to the contemplation of God is vividly depicted in the passages from the Seventh and (especially) the Ninth Books of the Confessions, cited under B, above.
In these same passages the transient and momentary character of the experience itself is brought out by such expressions as these:
In the pre-Christian experience, described in language largely Plotinian, when his mind reached to Absolute Being, it was 'in the flash of a trembling glance'; 2 and in that other later experience, when mother and son together soared aloft to some realization of the heavenly life, they 'barely touched it with the whole beat of the heart,' 3 and 'in swift thought they touched the Eternal Wisdom'; 4 so that the experience was but 'a moment of comprehension.* 5 Else- where it is said that the experience is enjoyed 'briefly and hastily, and as it were in passing,' 6 nor 'can it be endured for long.' 7
Such momentary supreme elevations are followed by a recoil of the soul, beaten back to its normal conditions. This falling away from the height with such difficulty attained is described by all the mystics, and by Augustine in many places.
After experiencing at times a wondrous inward delight, I fall back again, weighed down by my miseries, and am absorbed again in my normal state (solita) (Conf. x. 65).
1 *Aliquando intromittis me in affectum multum inusitatum introrsus ad nescio quam dulcedinem, quae si perficiatur in me, nescio quid erit, quod vita ista non erit' (Conf. x. 65).
* 'In ictu trepidantis aspectus' (Conf. vii. 23). ^
8 'Attingimus earn modice toto ictu cordis' (ibid. ix. 24). 4 'Rapida cogitatione attingimus* (ibid. 525).
6 * Momentum intelligentiae* (ibid.)-
* 'Perstrictim et raptim quasi per transitum* (Enar. in Psalm, xli. 10).
7 'Vidi nescio quid quod dm f erre non potui* (Serm. lii. 16) .
48 WESTERN MYSTICISM
Speaking of an ecstasy:
He had seen somewhat wonderful, which he could not long endure, and he was recalled from God to his normal human condition (Serm. Hi. 16).
The following piece gives utterance to the sorrow felt by the mystics at the loss of the supreme experience and the longing where- by they are consumed for its renewal:
After he had attained to the Vision of Absolute Reality, he says: Thy invisible things, understood by those that are made, I saw, but I was not able to fix my gaze thereon; but my infirmity being struck back, I was thrown again on my normal experience (solita) , carrying with me only a memory that loved and desired what I had, as it were, perceived the odour of, but was not yet able to feed upon (Conf. vii. 23).
We may refer back also to Enarratio in PsalmumxlL 10, already cited (pp. 523-24).
It is noteworthy that in one place the reversion to normal experi- ence is said to be a return to articulate speech. After telling how he and Monica, in the endeavour to realize the joy of the life of the saints in heaven, 'touched it slightly with the whole force of the heart, 3 he goes on:
We sighed, and left there impawned the first-fruits of the spirit, and we lapsed to vocal expressions of our mouth, where the word spoken has beginning and end. 1
Such failure of the power of articulate speech, even when there is no suggestion of ecstasy or trance, is a characteristic feature of such mystic experiences and of higher states of prayer, frequently mentioned by the mystics, from Cassian onwards. 2
Effects of the Experience
Mention has already been made of the important passage in the treatise de Quantitate Animae, 73-76, in certain aspects the most important for our purposes of all Augustine's utterances, being the nearest approach to a formulation of a theory of Mystical Theology. Herein, as has been observed (above, p. 27), the later division of the course of the spiritual life into the Purgative, Illuminative, and Unitive Ways, is clearly foreshadowed in the later of the 'grades',
1 'Remeavimus ad strepitum oris nostri, ubi verbum et incipitur et finitur* (Conf. ix. 24) . f
2 An analysis and summary of Cassian's teaching on contemplation and prayer may be found in my book, Benedictine Monachism, pp. 63-7, 78-82.
ST AUGUSTINE 49
or functions of the soul there distinguished. The seventh and highest grade, e or rather mansion, to which the steps (gradus) lead up,' consists in the vision and contemplation of Truth. After speaking of this contemplation in itself as the full enjoyment of the 'sumrnum bonum', and declaring that it brings the soul to the Great First Cause and Principle of all things, 1 the passage enlarges upon the intellectual effects on the mind of such a contemplation:
When it has been achieved, we shall truly see the vanity of all things under the sun, and we shall discern how far distant are mun- dane things from those that really are. Then shall we know how true are the Articles of Faith (credenda) that have been enjoined, and how well and wholesomely we have been nourished by Mother Church. We shall see into the nature of our bodies so as to consider the Resurrection of the Flesh to be as certain as the rising of the sun. We shall have such understanding of the Mystery of the Incarnation and the Virgin Birth, as to brush aside impatiently all cavilling. And such pleasure is there in the contemplation of Truth, such purity, such sincerity, such undoubting faith, that one now feels one had never really known what previously we had seemed to know; and death is no longer feared, but desired as the greatest gain, that the soul may be free to cleave wholly to the whole Truth (de Quant. Anim. 76: compressed and in some measure paraphrased) .
In a letter written about the same time he speaks in like strain:
When, after calling upon God for aid, I begin to rise to Him, and to those things which are real in the highest sense, I enjoy at times such a vivid realization of things that abide, that I am surprised that I should require any process of ratiocination in order to per- suade myself of the reality of things as truly present to me as I am to myself (Ep. iv. 2).
Here again St Augustine is in harmony with the great mystics, many of whom declare that an effect of their contemplations and unions was a clearer perception of the truths of the Catholic Faith and a deeper insight into the secret things of God the Divine Being and Attributes, the Mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, the nature of the soul itself, anc^he workings of the cosmic laws of God's governance of the Universe. Such claims are made by Ruysbroeck, St John of the Cross, St Teresa, St Ignatius, and are formulated by Fr Augustine Baker in the following passage, which, like his other descriptions of the high mystic states, is certainly autobiographical:
In regard of the understanding, there is a divine light communi- cated, not revealing or discovering any new verities, but affording a 1 Passages cited pp. 42-43.
50 WESTERN MYSTICISM
most firm clear assurance and experimental perception of those verities of Catholic religion which are the objects of our faith, which assurance the soul perceives to be divinely communicated to her. O happy evidence of our Catholic belief. No thanks to them that believe after such sight, which is more evident than anything we see with our corporal eyes (Sancta Sophia, p, 533).
To sum up; in answer to the question: Is it Mysticism or Platon- ism? the evidence adduced shows, beyond all possibility of doubt, that St Augustine 5 s contemplations were the same in kind, were as fully religious experiences, as the highest and most spiritual con- templations and unions of the great Christian mystics.
It remains, in order to complete the exposition of his teachings on the nature of contemplation, to investigate two special points: psycho-physical phenomena and ecstasy; and the vision of God attainable in this life.
E . PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PHENOMENA: ECSTASY
In the autobiographical passages wherein St Augustine relates his own mystical experiences, there is no suggestion of any of the psycho- physical phenomena, such as ecstasy and trance, that figure so largely in the history of mysticism, as frequent accompaniments of absorption in contemplation: there is, I say, no suggestion that St Augustine's elevations of the spirit and contemplations produced any effects, quasi-hypnotic or other, in his body. Yet the phenomena of ecstasy, with its alienation of the senses, were familiar to him. The place wherein he deals ex professo with the problems involved in these phenomena, is the last Book of de Genesi ad litter am^ a psycho- logical discussion arising out of St Paul's description of his great mystical experience (2 Cor. xii. 2-4); but he deals with these same problems also incidentally in many passages of his works.
The physical side of ecstasy is thus described:
When the attention of the mind is wholly turned away and with- drawn (penitus avertitur atque abripitur) from the bodily senses, it is called an ecstasy. Then whatever bodies may be present are not seen with the open eyes, nor any voices heard at all (de Gen. ad litt. xii. 12, 25). It is a state midway between sleep and death: The soul is rapt (rapitur) in such wise as to be withdrawn (avertatur) from the bodily senses more than in sleep, but less than in death (ibid.
26, 53)-
Its causes are thus stated: Ecstasy is a departure (excessus) of the mind, which sometimes happens by fright, but sometimes by some revelation, through an alienation of the mind from the senses of the
ST AUGUSTINE 5!
body, in order that to the spirit may be shown what is to be shown (Enar. in Psalm. Ixvii. 36); cf. Enar. ii. in Psalm, xxx. serin, i. 2, where it is similarly said that ecstasy is caused by fright or by rapt attention (intentio) to things above, so that in some way things below drop out of memory (consciousness).
In a fully religious ecstasy the subject c is withdrawn from the bodily senses and is carried away unto God and afterwards is restored to his mortal members' 1 (Serin. Hi. 16).
The following speculations on St. Paul's words, 'Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not/ throw light on St Augustine's ideas of the psychology of ecstasy:
He did not know whether, when rapt to the third heaven, he was in the body, as the soul is in the body when the body is said to live, be it of one awake or of one asleep, or when in ecstasy the soul is alienated from the bodily senses; or whether his soul had altogether gone forth from his body, so that the body lay dead, until, when the revelation was over, his soul was restored to the dead members: so that he did not awake as one asleep, nor, as one alienated in ecstasy, return to his senses; but as one dead, came to life again. But because, when his soul was alienated from his body, it was uncertain whether it left his body quite dead, or after some manner of a living body the soul was there, but his mind carried away to see or hear the unspeakable things of that vision for this reason, perhaps, he said: Whether in the body or out of the body, I know not; God knoweth (de Gen. ad lift. xii. 5, 14).
See also comment on same text in the Liber de videndo Deo (Ep. cxlvii.), cited below (p. 58).
In this passage a distinction is drawn between the soul (anima) which during an ecstasy remains in the body, and the mind (mens) which is withdrawn from the bodily senses. In most of the places that deal with the phenomena of ecstasy it is the mind (mens or animus) that is said to be alienated from the body; but in some it is the soul (anima) or even the person. The passage just cited, being that wherein he strives with most precision to attain to scientific accuracy, may be taken as the truest expression of his thought; and it is also the one most in harmony with the data of psychology. According to it Augustine's idea of what takes place in ecstasy is an alienation of the mind from the bodily senses, but not of the soul from the body.
So much on the psycho-physical side of ecstasy.
The more spiritual or religious side that which takes place in
1 'Abreptus a sensibus corporis et subreptus in Deum: redditus mortalibus niembris/
52 WESTERN MYSTICISM
the soul when in this condition is delineated in the following piece, which, like the rest, bears unmistakable characteristics of being the record of actual personal experience:
* I said in my ecstasy: I am cast forth from the sight of Thy eyes* (Ps. xxx. 23). It seems to me that he who said this had lifted up to God his soul, and had poured out above himself his soul (Ps. xli. 5, O.L.), and had attained by some spiritual contact to the Light unchange- able, and had been unable, through weakness of sight, to endure it; but had fallen back into his feebleness and languor, and had com- pared himself with that Light, and had felt that he could not yet attune the glance of his mind to the light of the wisdom of God. This he had done in an ecstasy withdrawn from the senses of the body, and carried away unto God; and when he was recalled from God to his normal human condition he said: I said in my ecstasy. For he saw somewhat wonderful in the ecstasy which he could not long endure; and being restored to his bodily frame and to the many thoughts of mortal things, he said: I am cast forth from the sight of Thy eyes (Serm. lii. 1 6) .
In certain places, above all in Book xii. of de Gemsi ad litteram, in passages wherein thought and language vie with each other in the effort to rise to the supreme heights of human experience, Augustine describes the nature of the experiences of the soul and manifestly of his soul in its most spiritual contemplations, while in the state of ecstasy.
It is necessary here to refer back to what was set forth in the 'Excursus on Augustine's Ideology 5 , on the distinction of the three kinds of perception or vision: corporeal, spiritual or imaginary, and intellectual. His doctrine on the content of ecstasy, on what takes place in mind and soul during it, is based on this division.
Frequently in ecstasy it is a case of the second kind of vision, the 'spiritual 9 (imaginary), as in St Peter's ecstasy, when he saw the sheet let down from heaven, with four-footed beasts and creeping things; but sometimes it is a case of the third, or 'intellectual', the soul being raised to the realm of things purely intellectual (in- tellegibilia). 1
1 TJbe twofold kind of vision in ecstasy is brought out also in the following: Ecstasy is an alienation of the mind from the senses of the body, that the spirit of a man taken up by the divine Spirit may be free to attend to the receiving and beholding images: as to Peter was shown the sheet let down from heaven. ... (Or) the mind may be so affected that it comprehends not images of things, but beholds the things themselves, as wisdom and justice are intellectually seen, and every unchangeable and divine species (i.e. *idea* in the divine mind, p. 52) 'itamens afEcitur ut non rerum imagines coniecturali examinatione intelligat, sed res ipsas intueatur, sicut intelligitur sapientia et iustitia omnisque incommutabilis et divina species' (D$ diversis Qwest, ad Simplicianwrn^ ii. Quaest. i. i).
ST AUGUSTINE 53
If, as one is rapt from the senses of the body, so as to be among those images of bodies which are seen by the spirit (imagination) ; in the same way may one be rapt from them also, so as to be lifted up into that region of intellectual or intelligible things, where with- out any image of body the perspicuous truth is perceived and is obscured by no mists of false opinions; there the virtues of the soul have no scope for their operations or labours: for neither is there lust to be restrained by temperance, nor adversities to be borne by fortitude, nor iniquity to be punished by justice, nor evils to be avoided by prudence. There the sole and all-embracing virtue is to love what you see, and the supreme happiness to possess what you love. For there the blessed life is drunk at the fountain head, whence there drop some sprinklings on this human life, that amid the trials of this world one may live with temperance, fortitude, justice, and prudence. Since it is for the sake of attaining unto that where will be an untroubled quiet, and an ineffable vision of truth, that the labour is undertaken of restraining oneself from pleasure, and en- during adversities, and helping the needy, and resisting deceivers. There is seen the brightness of the Lord, not by any symbolic vision, whether corporal or spiritual (imaginary); but by 'species', not by enigmas (aenigmata), in so far as the human mind can grasp it, according to the grace of God who takes hold of it, that God may speak mouth to mouth to him whom He hath made worthy of such colloquy: not the mouth of the body, but of the mind. 1
The term 'species' will frequently occur in what follows. The con- trast between 'fides' and 'species' is based on St Paul, 2 Cor. v. 6, 7: 'scientes quoniam dum sumus in corpore, peregrinamur a domino: per fidem enim ambularnus et non per speciem.' Gr. 3ta TrtarwG 06 ta eiSovg. The English versions all translate: 'We walk by faith, not by sight'; but R.V. adds in margin: Gr. 'appearance'. In other N.T. passages el^c, species, is translated' form', e.g. in the one most akin, John v, 37: 'Ye have neither heard God's Voice at any time, nor seen His Form.'
The familiar 'walking by faith, not by sight, 9 certainly fails to render the meaning of eloc and 'species'; nay, even suggests one altogether inadequate, at any rate according to Augustine's mind. The Lexicon says that in philosophical writings elo is used as equivalent to 'essence'; I do not find this meaning of 'species' in the
1 'Porro autem, si quemadmodum raptus est a sensibus corporis, ut esset in istis similitudinibus corporum, quae spiritu videntur, ita et ab ipsis rapiatur, ut in illam quasi regionem intellectualium vel intellegibilium subvehatur, ubi sine ulla corporis similitudine perspicua veritas cernitur, nullis opinionum falsarum nebulis offuscatur, ibi virtutes animae non sunt operosae ac laboriosae. . . . Una ibi et tota virtus est amare quod videas et summa felicitas habere quod amas. Ibi enim beata vita in fonte suo bibitur, unde aspergitur aliquid huic humanae vitae... Ibi videtur claritas domini non per visionem significantem sive corporalem sive spiritalem, sed per speciem non per aenigmata, quantum earn capere humana mens potest, secundum adsumentis Dei gratiam, ut os ad os loquatur Deus ei quern dignum tali conloquio fecerit, non os corporis, sed mentis, sicut intelli-
findum arbitror, quod de Moyse scriptum est (de Gen. ad litt. xii. 26, 54; ed. ycha, 'Corpus Viennense').
54 WESTERN MYSTICISM
Dictionaries, but it appears to be Augustine's, as 'per speciem qua Dens est quidquid est,' cited below from de Gen. ad lift. xii. 28, 56 (p- 5*5) - 1 Accordingly the word 'species' is used untranslated wherever it occurs. Augustine is not forcing St Paul by taking 'per speciem' as meaning 'by essence'. Similarly St Paul's 'in aenigmate' (i Cor. xiii. 12) is left untranslated, as neither 'darkly', nor c in a riddle', represents its full meaning. 2
In the foregoing passage the 'untroubled, quiet, and ineffable vision of truth 3 seems principally to refer to the joys of the future life; but the remainder all that is reproduced in the Latin text describes experiences enjoyed by some souls while still in this life, and does not refer to the vision of God in the life everlasting: this is clear from the passage itself, and from the context, the entire book being concerned with the phenomena of the different kinds of vision, or perception, in this life.
St Augustine's distinction as to the objects perceived in the two kinds of ecstasy, corresponds to that drawn by later mystics between contemplations and unions that are sensible, and those that are purely intellectual (St Teresa, St John of the Gross, and especially Fr Baker, Sancta Sophia, pp. 520 and 531).
We now come to perhaps the most difficult piece with which we shall have to deal, that wherein Augustine seeks to determine the object perceived in ecstasy of the highest and most purely intellectual kind, I translate quite literally and give the Latin.
Among the intellectual objects of vision, some are seen in the soul itself, as the virtues: ... these are intellectually seen. Distinct, however [from things intellectually seen], is that Light Itself, whereby the soul is so enlightened that it beholds, whether in itself or in that Light, all things truly the object of the intellect. For that Light is God Himself; but the soul, although rational and intellect- ual, is a creature made after His image, which when it tndeavours to fix its gaze on that Light, quivers through weakness and is not able. Yet still thence [i.e. from the Light] is whatever it intellectu- ally perceives as it is able. When it is borne away thither, and with- drawn from the bodily senses [i.e. in ecstasy] is more expressly presented to that vision, not in local space but in some way of its
1 Compare: 'Species in re mutabili qua est quidquid illud est' (de Civ. Dei^ viii. 6). In the passage on the Platonic Ideas cited in the Excursus (p. 52), Species* is given along with 'forma* and 'ratio', as the equivalent of 'idea'.
2 Augustine gives the following explanation of 'aenigma* in reference to St Paul: Velamen omni modo intercludit aspectum; aenigma vero, tamquain per speculum, nee evidentissimam detegit speciem, nee prorsus obtegit veritatem (de div. Quaest. ad. Simp. ii. im&).
ST AUGUSTINE 55
own, even above itself it sees That by help of which it sees whatever it intellectually sees even in itself. 1
The words e i!3i expressius visioni praesentatur* are just translated literally, because I am not sure of their meaning. Pusey, who cites the passage in illustration of Confessions vii. 23, takes Visioni' ob- jectively and translates: c The soul is placed more expressly in the presence of That Vision/ i.e. the divine Light.
This is, to me, a difficult passage, and its meaning in various points obscure. But it seems to show that, in St Augustine's con- ception, in an ecstasy of the intellectual order, the soul not only sees 'in* the divine Light, but in some way sees that divine Light which is God Himself. This gives rise to the main question discussed in this place by St Augustine: Whether in this life any man has ever seen the divine Essence.
F. THE VISION OF GOD
In this same Book xii. of de Genesi ad litteram, and in Ep. cxlvii., called also Liber de videndo Deo> St Augustine discusses whether and how God can be seen in His Essence in this life, as in the next. In what follows no^attempt is made to consider the philosophical and theological bearings of St Augustine's positions, or to determine whether they be true; the treatment is a purely historical attempt to ascertain what his teaching was, and to indicate briefly its effect on subsequent thought.
The classic cases on which the discussion turns are those of Moses and St Paul.
In regard to Moses, Augustine bases the discussion on the text in Num. xii. 8, which he cites thus: Os ad os loquar ad ilium in specie et non per aenigmata, et claritatem Domini vidit.' This Old Latin is an exact rendering of the Septuagint; and the Hebrew, as repre- sented in the Revised Version, is practically the same: 'My servant Moses is not so: with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the form of the Lord shall he behold.' The Vulgate differs somewhat: 'I speak to him mouth
1 *Sic etiam in illo genere intellectualium visorum alia sunt quae in ipsa anima videntur, velut virtutes ... ipsae intellcctualitcr videntur ... Aliud autexn est ipsum lumen, quo inlustratur anima, ut omnia vel in se vel in illo veraciter intellects, conspiciat. Nam illud iam ipse Deus est, haec autem creatura, quainvis rationalis et intellectualis ad eius imaginern facta, quae cum conatur lumen illud intueri palpitat infirmitate et minus valet. Inde est tarnen quidquid intellegit sicut valet. Gum ergo illuc rapitur et a carnalibus subtracta sensilms illi expressius visioni praesentatur, non spatiis localibus, sed modo quodam suo, etiam supra se videt, quo adiuta videt quidquid etiam in se intellegendo videt' (de Gm, ad litt. xii. 31, 59, ed. Zycha).
56 WESTERN MYSTICISM
to mouth; and plainly and not by riddles and figures doth he see the Lord.' Augustine takes 'species' in his text as signifying 'essence' (see above, pp. 53-54)5 and comments as follows:
Moses longed to see God in that substance whereby He is God [i.e. in His divine Essence], not by any similitude of a bodily creature, but by His 'species', as far as a rational and intellectual creature can grasp it, withdrawn from all bodily sense and from all significative image (enigma) of the spirit [that is, from the two lower kinds of vision]. 1
This is St Augustine's account of what Moses asked God to mani- fest to him, as narrated in Exod. xxxiii.; and though it is not said there that the request was granted nay, though it is rather implied that it was not: Man shall not see My Face and live still he looks on the text in Num. xii. 8 as proving that the request was granted, and that Moses did see the divine Essence c he saw', vidit. His explanation of how this could be is the following:
In that 'species' whereby He is God He speaks beyond all words more secretly and immediately by an ineffable speech, where whoso
1 'Concupiverat videre Deum, non utique sicut viderat in monte nee sicut videbat in tabernaculo, sed in ea substantia, qua Deus est, nulla adsumta corporali creatura, quae mortalis carnis sensibus praesentetur, neque in spiritu figuratis similitudinibus corporum, sed per speciem suam, quantum earn capere creatura rationalis et intellectual potest sevocata ab omni corpons sensu, ab omm significativo aenigmate spiritus.*
Then Moses's petition in Exod. xxxiii. is described: Qstende mam lemet ipsum manifesto ut videam Te'; and again: 'Ostende mihi claritatem tuarn'; and the answer: 'Non videbit homo faciem meam et vivet. 5 Augustine continues: *Nisi tamen concupitam et desideratam Dei claritatem Moyses videre meruisset, non in libro Numerorum diceret Deus: Os ad os loquar ad ilium in specie et non per aenigmata, et claritatem Domini vidit. Neque enim hoc secundum substantiam corporis, quae carnis sensibus praesentatur, intellegendum est; nam utique sic loquebatur ad Moysen facie ad faciem, contra in contra, quando tamen dixit ei: Ostende mihi Temet ipsum. Illo ergo modo in ilia specie, qua Deus est, longe ineffabiliter secretius et praesentius loquitur locutione ineffabili, ubi Bum nemo vivens videt vita ista, qua mortaliter vivitur in istis sensibus corporis, sed nisi ab hac vita quisque quodammodo moriatur sive omnino exiens de corpore sive ita aversus et alienatus a carnalibus sensibus, ut merito nesciat, sicut Apostolus ait, utrum in corpore an extra corpus sit, cum in illam rapitur et subvehitur visionem. ^
*Quapropter si hoc tertium visionis genus, quod superius est non solum pmni corporali, quo per corporis sensus corpora sentiuntur, verum etiam omni illo spiritali, quo similitudines corporum spiritu, non mente cernuntur, tertium caelum appellavit Apostolus, in hoc videtur claritas Dei, cui videndae corda mundantur. Unde dictum est: Beati mundicordes, quia ipsi Deum videbunt, non per aliquam corporaliter vel spiritaliter figuratam significationem tamquam per speculum in aenigmate, sed facie ad faciem, quod de Moyse dictum est "os ad os," per speciem scilicet, qua Deus est quidquid est, quantulumcumque Eum mens, quae non est quod Ipse, etiam ab omni terrena labe mundata, ab omni corpore et similitudine corporis alienata et abrepta capere potest, ... Cur autem non credamus, quod tanto Apostolo, rapto usque ad istam excellentissimam visionem, voluerit Deus demonstrare vitam, in qua post hanc vitam vivendum est in aeternum?' (de Gen. ad. litt. xii. 55, 56 (27, 28).
ST AUGUSTINE 57
sees Him will not live with that life with which we mortals live in the bodily senses; but unless he be in some sort dead to this life, whether as having wholly departed from the body, or as being so withdrawn and alienated from the carnal senses that he knows not whether he be in the body or out of the body, he is not rapt and uplifted to that vision (de Gen. ad lift. xii. 27, 55) .
In this kind of vision is seen the brightness (claritas) of God, not by some corporally or spiritually figured signification, as through a glass in an enigma, but face to face, or, as Moses, mouth to mouth; that is, by the 'species' by which God is what He is, how little soever the mind, even when cleansed from all earthly stain, and alienated and carried out of all body and image of body, is able to grasp Him (ibid. 28, 56).
St Paul also Vas rapt unto this transcendent vision, wherein we may believe that God vouchsafed to show him that life wherein, after this life, we are to live for ever' (ibid.).
The Third Heaven whereunto St Paul was rapt is that which is seen by a mind so separated and removed and wholly withdrawn from the carnal senses and cleansed, that those things which are in that Heaven, and the very Substance of God, and God the Word, in the charity of the Holy Ghost, it is able ineffably to see and to hear (ibid. 34, 67). l
It is difficult to decide which was written first, Book xii. of de Genesi ad litteram or the Liber de videndo Deo (Ep. cxlvii.) ; both seem to have been composed about 415. The problem envisaged in the second work is the vision of God by the just in heaven; but the question of the possibility of God being seen in His Essence by one still in this life, is handled on lines parallel to those just recited. The relevant passages are cited in the footnotes (next page).
The desire of the truly pious, by which they long and eagerly are inflamed to see God, is to see Him not under any appearance, but in the Substance in which He is That He is. This was Moses's desire, to see God in His own Nature, as He will be seen by the saints in heaven, as He is. He was not satisfied that God should speak to him 'face to face' under a figure or appearance, but asked: Show me Thyself openly, that I may see Thee.
The possibility is discussed as follows:
The question may be raised, How the Very Substance of God
1 *Si caelum tertium recte accipimus . . . quod mente conspicitur ita sccreta et remota et omnino abrepta a sensibus carnis atque mundata, ut ea quae in illo caelo sunt, ct ipsam Dei substantiam Verbumque Deum, per quod facta sunt omnia, per caritatem Spiritus Sancti ineflfabiliter valeat videre et audire: non incongruenter arbitraimir et illuc esse Apostolum raptum et ibi fortassis esse Paradisum omnibus meliorem et, si dici oportet, paradisum paradisorum' (de Gen. ad lift. 67 (34).
58 WESTERN MYSTICISM
could have been seen by some while still in this life, unless it be that the human mind may be divinely rapt from this life to the angelic life, before it be separated from the flesh by ordinary death. So was he rapt, who heard unspeakable words that man may not utter, where to such a degree occurred a withdrawal of the attention from the senses of this life, that he declared he knew not whether he was in the body or out of the body: that is, whether, as is wont to happen in a more vehement ecstasy, his mind was alienated from this life to that, the bond with the body remaining; or whether there was a complete severance, as happens in real death. Thus it comes about that that is true which was said: No one can see My face and live, because the mind must be withdrawn^ from this life when it is carried away to the ineffableness of that vision; and also, that it is not incredible that even this transcendent revelation has been granted to certain holy men not yet dead in the full sense that they continued to be corpses for burial (op. cit. 31).
St Augustine goes on to declare his belief that Moses's petition was granted, and that he saw God c as He is', with the contemplation of the saints in heaven. 1
Whatever may be thought of it, St Augustine's meaning in the above passages is not in doubt they speak for themselves with
i (N.B. i n these passages 'species' has meaning 'appearance' or 'form'.) 'Desiderium veraciter piorum, quo videre Deum cupiunt et inhianter ardescunt, non, opinor, in earn speciem [= 'appearance'] contuendam flagrat, qua ut vult apparet, quod Ipse non est; sed in earn substantiam, qua Ipse est quod est. Huius enim desiderii sui flammam sanctus Moyses ostendit. (God while speaking to Moses 'face to face') erat in ea specie qua apparere yoluerat, non autem Ipse apparebat in natura propria, quam Moyses videre cupiebat' ( 2o) ;
'Nunc quaeritur quo modo videatur Deus non ea specie, qua et in isto saeculo quibusdam voluit apparere, sed quo modo videatur in illo regnp, ubi Bum filii eius videbunt, sicuti est. Tune quippe satiabitur in bonis desideriurn eorum, quo desiderio flagrabat Moyses, cui loqui ad Deum facie ad faciem non sufficiebat et dicebat: Ostende mihi Temet ipsum manifesto, ut videam Te s ( 26).
'Deinde potest movere, quo modo iam ipsa Dei substantia videri potuerit a quibusdam in hac vita positis, propter illud quod dictum est ad Moysen: Nemo potest faciem meam videre et vivere, nisi quia potest humana mens divinitus rapi ex hac vita ad angelicam vitam, antequam per istam cpmmunem mortem carne solvatur. Sic enim raptus est, qui audivit illic ineffabilia verba quae non licet homini loqui, ubi usque ad ea facta est ab huius vitae sensibus quaedam inten- tionis aversio, ut sive in corpore sive extra corpus fuerit, id est utrum, sicut solet in vehementiore exstasi, mens ab hac vita in ifiam vitam fuerit alienata manente corporis vinculo, an omnino resolutio facta fuerit, qualis in plena morte contingit, nescire se diceret. Ita fit ut et illud verum sit quod dictum est: Nemo potest faciem meam videre et vivere, quia necesse est abstrahi ab hac vita mentem quando in illius ineffabilitatem visionis adsumitur, et non sit incredibile quibusdam sanctis nondum ita defunctis, ut sepelienda cadavera remanerent, etiam istam excellentiam revelationis fuisse concessam' ( 31). ^
'Quod dicere institueram, desiderio eius (Moysis) etiam illud, quod petierat, fuisse concessum, in libro Numerorum postea demonstratum est, ubi Dominus dicit se apparere Moysi per speciem, non per aenigmata, ubi etiam addidit dicens; Et gloriam Domini vidit: ... ut quern ad modurn concupiverat, videret Deum sicuti est, quae contemplatio cunctis filiis in fine promittitur' ( 32), (Ed, Gold- bacher, 'Corpus Viennense'.)
ST AUGUSTINE 59
unmistakable clearness. 1 St Thomas so understood them, and accepted their teaching quite definitely. 2 Probably on this range of subjects there is no better commentator on St Thornas than the seventeenth-century Spanish Dominican, Vallgornera, and his sum- ming up is: Ergo in doctrina Divi Thomae Moyses et Paulus in via viderunt divinam essentiam per modum transitus.' 3 But though St Thomas takes these two as palmary instances, it is not the case that he would limit to Moses and St Paul the Vision of God's Essence, but implies that to others also may have been, and has been 3 granted the same vision: this appears clearly from the passages referred to in the de Veritate.*
We have to consider St Augustine's position on this point. I think that, like St Thomas, he does not limit this supreme vision to Moses and St Paul, but holds that it is enjoyed by others. The passage cited from the Liber de videndo Deo speaks of its being granted to 'certain holy men' though, expressed thus generally, it is open to the contention that the reference is solely to the two cases explicitly spoken of. But the concluding words of 54 of de Genesi ad litteram> xii. (cited above, E, p. 53) seem to show that the case of Moses is
1 The Augustinian theologian Berti, while recognizing their meaning, puts forward the view that St Augustine changed his mind at a later date. He relies chiefly on de Trin. ii. 27; but the question there discussed is whether Moses saw the divine Essence with his bodily eyes (Berti, Opus de theol. Disciplinis, Lib. iii. c. vL). Moreover, the dates assigned for writing of de Trin. are 400-16, of de Genesi ad litteram 401-15; consequently de Trin. ii. was prior to de Genesi ad litteram xii. Other authorities, too, say that he changed his mind; I can see no evidence of it in the passages cited in support of this view. Certainly in the 'Retractations', written in 426, in neither chapter, on de Genesi ad litteram or de videndo Deo, does he retract or make any reference to what he has taught on this point. St Augustine's paramount authority has secured for his theory a certain amount of hesitating acceptance from later theologians. St Thomas's acceptance is due, it may safely be said, to his reverence for St Augustine. But it is counter to the general trend of theological thought, even among the mystics, and has been a source of em- barrassment to St Thomas's commentators.
2 'Summa, secunda secundae', quaest. clxxv. 6 de Raptu', arts. 3 and 4; clxxx. 'de Vita Contemplative', art. 5: more fully De Veritate, quaest. x. art 1 i, xiii. arts. a, 3 and 4. We may cite his words ia Comment on 2 Cor. xii. 2-4: 'Paulus dicitur raptus ad tertium cadum, quia sic fait alienatus a sensibus et sublimatus ab omnibus corporalibus, ut videret intelligibilia nuda et pura eo modo quo vident angeli et anima separata; et quod plus est, etiam ipsum Deum per essentiam, ut Augustinus expresse dicit. ... De Moyse autcm, quod vident Deum per essentiam, patet' and he reproduces St Augustine's argument (In Ep. ii. ad Cor. xii. Lectio i).
8 Mystica Theologia D. Thomae, 1662; ed. 1911, i. 485.
4 According to Haeften, Banez, the great Dominican commentator on bt Thomas, does definitely limit this privilege to Moses and St Paul (Haeften, Monasticae Disquisitwnes, Comm. in Vitam S.P.B., p. 169). Besides the places m St Thomas referred to in text, cf. 'Summa' Pars Prima, quaest. xii. art 1 1, ad. 2: 'supernaturaliter et praeter communem ordinem mentes diquorwn in. hac carne viventium, sed non sensibus carnis utentium, usque ad visionem suae essentiae elevavit (Deus), ut dicit Augustinus de Moyse et de Paulo/ Here it seems that these two are only examples of the 'some', 'aliquf , who have been raised to the
6o WESTERN MYSTICISM
introduced in illustration of the account there given of what is ex- perienced by anyone raised to the highest kind of intellectual vision, evidently not looked upon as a thing practically unattainable. This seems to be borne out by another passage, the meaning of which, however, I confess is not clear to me:
The unchangeable Creator and also Moderator of changeable things so regulates all till the beauty of the entire world breaks forth like the great song of some ineffable musician; and thence pass to the eternal contemplation of 'species* those that rightly serve God, even while it is the time of faith. 1
Whatever it may mean, this passage, based on St PauFs contrast, 'We walk by faith and not by "species"/ seems to assert the possi- bility of contemplation by 'species' even in this life, 'the time of faith 3 .
It may be of interest here to refer to the passage wherein he likens St John to the Eagle, in that *he contemplated with steady gaze the interior and eternal Light, 1 which for Augustine is God Himself, 2
An interesting question arises: Did St Augustine believe that he himself had had such a vision of the divine Essence? There is nothing in the strictly autobiographical accounts (cited in B) of his own elevations of spirit that need imply this. It is true he speaks of them as if he believed they were momentary foretastes and participations of the heavenly life; but this seems to refer only to the rapturous joy felt in these experiences, according to the testimony of all the mystics. It would, I think, be unduly pressing his words to argue that as the Beatific Vision is the essential happiness of Heaven, he therefore virtually claims to have had momentary views of it: I believe he means no more than that the joy was so great that he could imagine none greater.
It is true also that he speaks of his mind touching the eternal Wisdom, seeing the Light unchangeable, gazing on perspicuous Truth. But such expressions must not be unduly pressed in the case of so thorough a Platonist as was St Augustine. After his full con- version to Catholic Christianity his Platonism continued ineradic- able, and he used the thoughts and language of Plato's philosophy, as interpreted by the neo-Platonic school, as the vehicle for the
14 ... donee imiversi saeculi pulchritude, velut magnum carmen cuiusdem ineffabilis modulatoris excurrat, atque inde transeant in aeternam contempla- tionem specie! qui Deum rite colunt, etiam cum tempus est fidei' (Ep. cxxxviii. 5) . The language suggests the possibility that this passage may refer to some sort of (what is called) 'cosmic rapture 5 , rather than a vision of God.
2 *Aquila ipse est Joannes, subliiruum praedicator et lucis internae atque aeternae fixis oculis contemplator 5 (Tract, in loan, xxxvi. 5),
ST AUGUSTINE
61
formulation and expression of Christian truth and theology, just as naturally and whole-heartedly as did St Thomas use those of Aristotle. Thus to argue from one of St Augustine's expressions, that as the divine Truth is to be identified with the divine Being, there- fore to see the unchangeable Truth' is to see the divine Essence, would be, perhaps, in the case of St Thomas a valid argument, but I venture to think in the case of St Augustine it is not. It has to be remembered that he held that every truth perceived by the human mind is seen in the unchangeable Truth above the mind, which is the very Truth of God; 1 also that every idea that is the object of the pure intellect is seen in the unchangeable Light above the mind, which is God himself. 2 This does not, of course, mean that in all intellectual cognition this divine Light is itself seen, just as physical objects may be seen in the light of the sun without the sun itself being seen. But the conclusion of the passage in 59 of de Genesi ad litteram> xii, does imply that the divine Light can be, and sometimes is, Itself directly seen. Moreover, it is impossible to read the account of the highest intellectual vision, cited above, 3 without the con- viction that it describes a personal experience, wherein Augustine believed had been seen the Brightness of the Lord by 'species', not by enigma, in the same manner as Moses had seen it.
It is not asserted here that St Augustine had ever in fact been accorded such a vision of God's Essence, but only that it seems probable he believed he had. As was said at the outset of this inquiry, the philosophical or theological correctness or possibility of Augustine's idea is no concern of ours here; we are concerned only with ascertaining what his idea was.
Meantime it would be extravagant, to suppose that Augustine believed that this supreme vision is always seen in intellectual con- templation, or is attained to in all ecstasies, even intellectual, or is a constant factor of the mystic experience. The following passages show this, speaking the language that is usual among theologians:
There is another life which is immortal, in which there are no ills. There we shall see face to face what here is seen through a mirror in enigma, even when great progress has been made in con- templating truth (Tract, in loan, cxxiv. 5).
In this life contemplation is rather in faith, and with a very few through a mirror in enigma, and in part, in some vision of un- changeable Truth (de Cons. Evang. i. 5)-
With this compare St John of the Gross: 'It is believed that God showed his own Essence to Moses. These essential visions, such as 1 Conf. xii. 35. 2 De Gen. ad litteram, xii. 59 (p. 77)*
8 Ibid. xii. 54 (p. 75)-
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those of St Paul, Moses, and our Father Elias, are transient and of most rare occurrence, and scarcely ever granted, and to very few; for God shows them only to those who, like these, are the mighty ones of His Church and Law' (Ascent ofCarmel, ii. 24).
The idea that a transient visitation of the lumen gloriae is imparted by the fact of the mystical union, so that the difference between the beatific vision of heaven and the mystical vision of persons still living on earth is merely that the one is habitual and permanent, and the other transient and exceptional (Sharpe, Mysticism, pp. 94, 95), seems, as an account of normal mystical experience, to be little conformable to the teaching of the best-accredited mystics, or (I believe) of the theologians.
CONTEMPLATION 2. ST GREGORY THE GREAT
ANALYSIS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY GENERAL SKETCH 65
HOMILY ON EZECHIEL II. n. 66
A. PRELIMINARY PHASES 68
REMOTE PREPARATION: PURGATION
PROXIMATE PREPARATION: RECOLLECTION, INTROVERSION
B. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL PASSAGES 71 (C, D). THE ACT OF CONTEMPLATION 76 E. PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PHENOMENA : ECSTASY 83 R THE VISION OF GOD 87
ST GREGORY THEJGREAT
ST GREGORY was a Roman, born in Rome of a senatorial family about the year 540. After following the course of liberal studies of the day, he entered public life, and sometime before 573 became Prefect of the City and Governor of Rome. In 574 he determined to forsake his career in the world and become a monk; and having turned his ancestral palace on the Gaelian Hill into a monastery, he entered as a monk there, and in all probability in due time became the abbot. He was sent in 579 to Constantinople as the Pope's Apocrisiarius or Nuncio, and passed six years there. While there he composed the famous book of Morals on Job, that will figure so largely in these pages, and addressed it in a series of familiar conferences to the little community of his monks he had brought with him from Rome. After his return to Rome he was in 590 elected Pope. He died in 604.
The story of his life and his works has been well told by Mr F. H. Dudden. 1 Here it will suffice to say that he is recognized on all hands as one of the very greatest, if not the greatest, of the Popes. His activities and his influence in every other sphere have been made the object of appreciative study, but as a mystic and teacher of mystical theology he has been strangely overlooked by recent writers on mysticism. 2 Yet he was the recognized master thereon throughout Western Europe during the five centuries of the early Middle Ages, and, along with St Augustine and pseudo-Dionysius, he was St Thomas's principal authority over the range of subjects comprised under contemplation and contemplative life.
Collections of extracts on contemplation from St Gregory's writings are made by Blosius in Psychagogia, Book iv., and by Abb6 Saudreau in Vie d 9 Union avec Dieu; but quite half these passages are from the doubtful or certainly spurious Commentaries on Kings, on the Canticle and on the Penitential Psalms. In the following pages only the certainly authentic works will be used, and they will be found to furnish ample material. St Gregory wrote no set treatise on mystical theology; his teaching is to be found embedded in his
1 Gregory the Great: his Place in History and Thought, 2 vols., 1905; a shorter account in Abbot Snow's St Gregory the Great: his Work and his Spirit, 1892.
2 The most surprising omission of St Gregory is in the recent good, and in most cases adequate, work of Abbe" Pourrat, La Spiritual Chretienne. His treatment of SS Augustine and Bernard is quite satisfactory, but St Gregory's spiritual teaching is despatched in a page, and without a word on contemplation.
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principal writings, and is manifestly the record of his personal experiences. The chief continuous passages wherein he sets forth his teaching are the following:
Morals on Job: v. 52-66; vi. 55-61; viii. 49, 50; x, 31; xviii. 88-90; xxiii. 37-43; xxiv. ii, 12; xxxi. 99-102.
Homilies on Ezechiel: i. iii. 9-14; v. 12, 13: n. i. 16-18; ii. 7-15;