2 Introduction

2 Introduction

INTRODUCTION

holie flesh; the Riwle has: In pe masse hwon J)e prest halt vp godes bodi, siggej) pis vers ...: Ecce salus mundi, verbum patris, hostia vera, viua caro, deitas integra, verus homo.l84 Compare also: for his precious bloud: penche]D on godes flesch and on his derworpe blod pat is aboue pe hei3e weued; m his holie passion: Tuam crucem adoranms domme, tuam gloriosam recolimus passionem;186 his dere worthy death: Ladi seinte

Marie, for pat ilke muchele blisse \Mt pow haddest po pow se3e pi dere derworpe sone aftir his deorc de{> arysen; 187 and worshipful woundes:

Jhmi for myne sunnes was honged on rode, for pat ilke fiue wounden pat pow on hire bleddest;188/or ail the blessed kyndnes: And at pis word

Nascendo formam sumpseris cusseb, pe erpe;189 of speciall sainctes:

Halewen pat je louen best, in heore worschupe siggej) oper les oper mo;190 and the endlesse life that we haue: Tu esto nostrum gaudium qui es futurus premium. Sit nostra in te gloria per cunta semper secula;191/or his sweete mothers loue: Ladi seinte Marie, for pat ilke muchele blisse pa£ pow haddest in with pe in pat ilke tyme patjhe.su god, godes sone, after pe angels gretinge nom flesch and blod in pe;192/or his holie crosse: Adoranms te Chrw/e et benedicimw tibi quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundurn.193 Such devotions were integral to the life of prayer as she knew it (cf. 304.4 note); and she goes on to state explicitly that, so long as we understand and know that God is the goodness of all, it pleaseth him that we seke him and worshippe him by meanes (305.27).

The rest of chapter 6 is one of her finest descriptive passages, which will be given theological definition when she expounds the doctrine of the Trinity as natura creatrix. Here she presents us with the images of mother, father and nurse as symbolizing divine goodness; it is the fulness of what God has to give and longs to give which the soule sekyth and ever schalle, tylle we knowe oure god verely, that hath vs all in hym selfe

114 F. 373*; cf. Day, 13.

115 F. 340 (recte 372)"; Day, 7.

146 F. 340 (373)c; Day, 7.

117 F. 373"; Day, 17.

188 F. 340 (372)"; Day, 11.

189 F. 340 (373)'; Day, 8.

190 F. 340 (372)d; Day, is.

191 F. 340 (373)'; Day, 7.

19J F. 373"; Day, 16.

193 F. 340 (373)°; Day, 7. It will be observed that whereas such Riwle manuscripts as Nero and Corpus present these Latin tags so much abbreviated that they can only have served as a guide to some book of devotions where the prayers will be found written out in full, these in Vernon can be read as they stand; this makes more interesting the suggestion offered to us by Nita S. Baugh, that Vernon was written for a woman.

IX.3 REVELATION I

beclosyde (306.32) All true prayer, she concludes here, is consummately unitive; it is the expression of a mutual giving which God has made possible for us, and has demonstrated to us in the incarnate Jesus.

For oure kyndely wille is to haue god, and the good wylle of god is to haue vs, and we may never sesse of wyllyng ne of louyng tylle we haue hym in fulhede of ioy (308.57).

In chapter 7 she returns again to the showing of Mary, because in her Julian has seen that this unitive prayer of petition is the asking and receiving, in the one movement, of divine wisdom, truth and love. It is

Mary of the Visitation as well as of the Annunciation whose love and reverent fear will express themselves in an abundant charity towards

Christ's brethren (309.64). But this contemplation of Mary, as Julian will show with greater precision in Revelation XI, is not an end in itself, but a sight wfier by I am leernyd to know my self, and reuerently drede my god

(399.21). So Julian naturally adverts again to the sight of the head bleeding, which now in the long text she sees as expressing for her the paradox of Crucifixion and Resurrection, life and death, joy and suffering (312.29 e.s.). But, as throughout this revelation, it is consolation which dominates; and she moves to a final manifestation of the 'homely loving'. This particular showing, which she calls an 'example', adding that it was shown bodily, she did not record in the short text. It is an allegory of the condescension displayed by a king or a noble to a poor servant, which will give the servant greater joy than rich gifts offered in a distant manner (313.35-314.45), which is followed by her gloss,

314.46-316.67. This gloss, significantly, concludes with her observation about the application of the rule of faith, hope and love to the contemplative life. A shewyng (316.60) is an operation of divine love; the insights it gives into mysteries is a grace freely given. But when the time of the revelation is past and what was seen has disappeared, its fruits are preserved by the grace of the Holy Spirit to the end of life. We need not doubt that she is here writing, in 1395 or later, of how there have been preserved for her the showings and their fruits which she had been given twenty years or more ago. The example is deceptively simple. As has been observed (313.35 note), it is common in contemporary literature. But for Julian it was shewde so hygh that thys mannes hart myght be rauyssched and almost foryet hym selfe for ioy of thys grette homelynesse

(314.43). It is clear that she is now seeing it in the light of the great parable of the lord and the servant.

The importance which Julian attaches, in the long text, to this first revelation has already been remarked. The point is made again when

INTRODUCTION

we notice how carefully she has reorganized and rewritten, in chapters 9 and 10, what she had set down in chapters v, vi and vii of her first version. To begin with, she adds immediately to her own brief analysis of the contents of the showing that a movement of the heart in love towards all her brethren accompanied the entire revelation, and is integral to her evaluation of it. It is therefore logical that she should go on to provide an example of this movement of the heart; and her remark to those at her bedside, It is this daye domys day with me (319.25), is precisely that: This I sayde for I wolde they schulde loue god the better, for to make them to haue mynde that this lyfe is short, as they my^t se in exsample

(319.28). She therefore inserts these two passages, with which she originally closed the revelation in the short text (224.8), here into chapter 8. She also recalls an experience which she seems to have forgotten when she was writing the short text: the wonder and perplexity which she felt at this point. She was convinced that she was going to die, and yet the purpose of the whole revelation was not, as she had previously thought, to comfort her in the moment of death (296.20 e.s.), if, as now appeared, it was schewde for them that shuld lyue (319.32). The pericope neatly introduces the next section (which had been the beginning of chapter v in the short text), and gives added weight to the apologia, leue the beholdyng of a wreck ... (320.36) (as though she were saying, 'What more useless vehicle of God's love and goodness could there be than one who was at the point of death?'), and illustrates the claim that it is as though Jesus had showed it directly to all whom he loves (320.40 e.s.). The same theme dominates chapter 9. What is remarkable here is that although she still uses much of what she wrote in her short text

(chapter vi, 219.1-223.56), the whole tone and temper have changed.

Previously she conveyed a certain apprehension in her humility, as though her readers might not believe her when she proclaimed her unworthiness:

I praye jowe alle for goddys sake, and cownsayles 3owe for 3owre awne profyt, that 36 leve the behaldynge of the wrechid worme, synfulle creature, that it was schewyd vnto (219.3), and also a fear that if she protests too much her revelations might not be received at all. Now, however, she is serene, balanced and at peace with herself; and even the most captious must believe her as she allies herself withyow that be symple,for ease and comfort; for we be alle one in loue (321.4).

She no longer needs to protest, as she seems to do in the first version (220.11), that For the schewynge I am not goode butjify love god the better; she can state it quite straightforwardly, and round it off with a deceptive

IX.4 REVELATION II

rhetorical simplicity and with quiet conviction: and in as much asy loue god the better, it is more to jow ttian to me (321.2 and notes). With deft touches, such as the insertion of / hope (322.10; cf. 220.21), for god

(322.14; cf. 221.32), and the omissions of he is safe and the clause which follows (322.16; cf. 221.33), she is able to avoid possible theological inaccuracies and misinterpretations, as that she is claiming absolutely to be in a state of grace and confirmed in that state. Finally, she sees that any apologia about the publication of private revelations demands, not only for prudence's sake, but for theological assessment, a clear and lucid profession of faith. This she supplies in the long text, where, in a sense, she goes beyond it. She tells us that the faith stode contynually in my syghte (323.24) throughout the showing, which informs us that in spite of the sickness, she was in full possession of her faculties. But it also tells us that she came to her revelations with a constant mental background to all that she saw or heard furnished by her previous deep meditation and contemplation on the truths of her faith.

4 Revelation II Chapter 10 of the long text, Julian's account of Revelation II, well illustrates her reflective and meditative processes at work on the subject matter of the showings. It begins with her account of what she saw in the face of the crucified Christ (324.3-325.14). There is substantial verbal agreement with the short text (225.21-29), but the detail added — that she saw, first, half of the face covered with dried blood, and then the other half — seems to be a recollected imaginative observation, owed, at least partially, to the reflection on seeking and seeing (325.14326.10), which in its turn seems to be prompted by her desire for more light with which to see clearly what is happening to the crucifix.

Her inability to do so distresses her; but she is calmed, not by any emotional consolation, but by a ratiocinatio in the form of a hypothesis:

If god will shew thee more, he shal be thy light (325.12). From this point on, the rest of chapter 10 is not found in the short text.

Her mind seems to be engaged by a succession of images and ideas, derived from her reading and meditation, presented afresh to her as lights from God. She imagines herself on the sea-bed, and knows herself as safe there as anywhere else in the universe, in the presence of God.

Again, this is presented to her reason: / vnderstode thus (326.23). It brings consolation: Mor solace and comforte then all this wordle may or can tell

(326.26); but it appeals to her faith, the dogmatic fact that it is in God that we live and move. She reverts to her longing to see, her trouble

INTRODUCTION

that she could see so little, and she resolves it by faith: For he will that we beleue that we see hym continually, thow that vs thynke that it be but litle

(326.27).

The recollection of the 'bodily sight' of the Crucifixion presents itself to her mind again and again, and she contrasts her first perturbation, mornyng, dredfull and longyng (327.33), that it was so unremarkable, and her consequent fear that it was perhaps not sent by God, with the increase of sight which he gave her as the vision was represented to her mind, as she came to perceive its true significance. When she writes:

And then dyuerse tymes our lord gafe me more syght (327.35), plainly she is describing not the first reception of the vision but the insights which she has received since it happened, and, perhaps, since she wrote the short text. The vision was given to make her see how Christ who is God suffered death, which came into the world by man (I Corinthians 15.21).

Characteristically, she makes her point by a visual contrast: ... ourfowle blacke dede, which that our feyre bryght blessed lord bare for our synne (328.37); and she continues without interruption: It made me to thynke of the holie vernacle of Rome. She knows of the Vernicle's reputation (328.42 e.s.), but that is of no interest to her; she wants to penetrate the representation of Christ's suffering humanity, to perceive its spiritual significance (329.44 e.s.).

To do this she has recourse to fundamentals of the Christian faith: that the Trinity made man in their image and likeness (Genesis 1.27), and that only man's Creator could restore fallen man. Using the same image again (330.59 e.s.), she contrasts the foul blackness of our mortality with Christ's radiant beauty. Not only does Julian herself affirm the ancient belief that Christ upon earth was as he now is in heaven, the perfection of human loveliness, but also she thinks that everyone else should believe this (330.61 e.s.). But it is important to observe that her motive for wishing that this were generally accepted is not sentimental

Brautmystik, but because of the theological insights it has given her, as it could to others, into the mystery of the Redemption. She refers her readers to what she will write on this topic in chapter 18 (a clear indication of how carefully the long text was drafted).

Then follows a third and final exposition of the theme of 'seeking and seeing', itself an important introduction to her extended teaching on prayer in chapters 41-43. The vision of the Crucifixion has illumined her understanding. The soul can do no more than seke, suffer and trust

(332.70); and the more that she does this, the more is she pleasing to God. Ordinary grace is needed for this to be begun; for it to be perfected in the dernesse offyndyng

(332.71) is of the special grace of the Holy

IX.5 REVELATION III

Spirit, which is his free gift. Seeking pleases God, finding pleases the soul; and therefore was I lernyd to my vndentandyng that sekyng is as good as beholdyng (332.74). When the work is completed, God will have contributed his grace and his guidance, the soul its disposition from the humility given to it (333.78). But whether the soul seeks or sees, the greatest honour it can pay to God is to surrender itself to him (333.81).

Seeking is comyn, and every soul is given the grace for this (334.84).

Grace must form in us three dispositions: zeal and joy (334.87), perseverance and resignation (334.90), and perfect trust.

The authority with which her thinking develops, the clarity and precision of her language, and the ease and subtlety with which this complex of inspirations and the associations which they suggest to Julian is resolved, make this chapter a truly remarkable and wholly professional performance.

5 Revelation III At the end of Revelation II, in the long text, Julian wrote:

For his workyng is prevy, and he wille be perceyved, and his aperyng shalle be swethe. sodeyn (335.94).

Now, at the beginning of Revelation III, she writes: And after this I saw god in a poynte (336.3). It is important for her transition here from II to III that she stress the sudden nature of this sight of God, and for two reasons: this is a ghostly sight, following one which was bodily and repulsive, the image of the face of Christ after he had been crowned with thorns and mocked by the soldiery — dyspyte, spyttyng, solewyng and buffetyng, and manie languryng paynes, mo than I can tell (324.5). It was only after she had received enlightenment 'diverse times' (327.35) that this bodily sight became a lernyng to my vnderstandyng (332.68) on seeking and finding God, so that eventually she learns that the finding will be as sudden as it is blissful (335.93). Thus this ghostly sight with which chapter 12 begins is precisely the finding of God; and she sees him 'in a point', in puncto, in ictu oculi, as the Latin Vulgate text of I Corinthians

15.52 writes of the resurrection of the body (cf. 226. i note). Secondly, in the short text this ghostly sight is made the immediate answer to her prayer for more light, for she is told, in the long-text version of the ratiotinatio: he shal be thy light; thou nedyth none but him (325.13).

In this intellectual vision ('I saw ... in my understanding'), Julian unobtrusively shows her acquaintance with scholastic metaphysics.

'God', writes Thomas Aquinas, quoting the Glossa ordinaria, 'is in all things by his presence, his power and his substance', and he briefly ex-

INTRODUCTION

plains this: 'He is in all things by his power, because all things are within his power, and by his presence, because all things are open to his sight, and by his substance he is present in all things as the cause of their being'.l94 Julian's purpose is not, however, philosophical argument about the divine attributes, but to express her contemplative awareness of the reality of his presence. The same 'unknowing of love' which drives the fearful to pray to God as if he were a pagan deity (cf.

304.4) is also responsible for the ascendancy, in the secular literature of Julian's day, of the ancient Roman cult of the Goddess of Fortune and the personification of 'Saeva Necessitas'; nothing could be more detrimental to contemplative life and prayer, which demands keen awareness that the rational creature is at the centre of the divine concern of a God who is ever at work in his creation:

This vision was shewyd to my vnderstandyng, for our lord wylle haue the sowle turned truly in to the beholdyng of hym, and generally of all his workes (339.31).

In the previous chapter, in the example of the 'drowned soul' (326.21 e.s.), Julian touches upon a cause of unease in contemplalives, the feeling of insecurity which the awareness of evil, and especially of personal sin, can bring. It is true that the Christian must learn to live with this insecurity; but he can only do this with the help of prayer proceeding from faith informed by a sound theology; and to this purpose, to impart this theology, Julian bends her considerable skills and erudition, whether this be her knowledge of the sapiential books, her sympathetic understanding of Chaucer's insights into De consolatione philosophiae, or her grasp of the teaching of John and Paul on the mysteries of faith, the Trinity and the Incarnation. All this finds striking expression in the final summary of this revelation, which shows the triune God speaking of his active presence in creatures and in events, reasoning with Julian in e&Taaftoc; of the classical rhetoricians, and evoking from her the loving response which she knows is his heart's desire:

. < . Thus myghtly, wysely and louyngly was the sowle examynyd in this vision. Than saw I verely that my behovyth nedys to assent with great reverence and joy in god (341.56).

194 Sum ma theologiae 1.8.3 in corf).

IX.6 REVELATION IV

6 Revelation IV The fourth, fifth and sixth revelations seem to form a group in themselves; the first of them, chapter 12, recounts a bodily sight, the next, chapter 13, is a locution, 'words formed in my understanding', the last, chapter 14, another locution, 'I thank thee for thy service...', and Julian's meditations upon heavenly rewards. The bodily sight of chapter 12 constitutes the third way in which oure curteyse lorde shewyd his passyon to me (389.8); it is the only one in which she is shown any other mystery of the Passion beside the crucified Christ in his last moments.

(Though she writes of the crown of thorns in Revelation I, and, in Revelation II, of the results of the soldiers' ill-usage, she does not mendon the actual crowning.) There is possibly here an unusual discrepancy between the short and long texts. The long text reads:

And after this I saw beholdyng the body plentuous bledyng in semyng of the scoregyng (342.3); but the short text has:

And aftyr this I sawe be haldande the bodye plenervouslye bledande, hate and freschlye and lyfelye ... And this was schewyd me in the semes of scowrgynge (227.14).

The short text clearly refers to the furrows made by the scourges; she is not seeing in the vision the scourging itself. However, in semyng of the scoregyng would appear to mean that she was granted an imaginative and not a bodily vision of the actual flagellation at the pillar. As is noted at 342.3, semyng could be interpreted as 'furrowing', but this is rather less likely. More probably, we have in semyng editorial tampering in a longtext common ancestor with Julian's semes, preserved in the short text.

It may be thought that here she departs from her customary moderation in describing the physical details of the Passion, when she continues:

The feyer skynne was broken full depe in to the tendyr flessch, with sharpe smytynges all a bout the sweete body. The hote blode ranne out so plentuously that ther was neyther seen skynne ne wounde, but as it were all blode (342.4).

We need, however, to recall the early application in the West195 to Christ in his Passion of Psalm 128, and the established variant, 'supra cervicem

195 E.g. Hilary of Poitiers on the Psalms, ed. A. Zingerle, 637-647.

INTRODUCTION

meam arabant arantes' (introduced into many manuscripts of Roman and Gallican psalters, but originating in Jerome's Juxta Hebraeos translation196 of its verse 3: 'supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores', applied to the scourging in particular. None the less, this description of Christ bleeding from the scourging reflects more contemporary enthusiasm for meditating in detail, often gruesome, on the physical sufferings of Christ than do her other descriptions of the 'pains of the Passion'. In addition, the extended reflection in the long text on the Precious Blood, itself at first sight a departure from her customary sober approach, might suggest some acquaintance with the visions and teachings of Catherine of Siena. Chronology (even though some of Catherine's dates have been hotly controverted) suggests however that this could not have been the case. The Bollandists dated Raymond of Capua's Legend as 1390,197 and in 1931 I. Taurisano wrote of it as 'pubblicato nel 1398'.198 In any case, it would be as misguided and misleading to seek to represent Catherine as an innovator or popularizer of devotion to the Precious Blood as have been the attempts to associate

Margaret Mary Alacoque with Sacred Heart devotions more closely than is warranted by the facts. If proof of this be needed, it is found in the Fifteen Oes (inevitably, falsely attributed, usually to Bridget of Sweden), circulating throughout the Western Church in the fourteenth century, recorded both in Latin and English (cf. 201.6 note) in Julian's day:

O Jhesu veritatis speculum, vnitatis signum, caritatis vinculum, memento innumerabilium tuorum vulnerum quibis a summo capitis usque ad ymum pedis vulneratus fuisti et ab impijs ludeis laceratus fuisti et sacratissimo sanguine tuo rubricatus fuisti, quam magnitudinem doloris in virginea carne tua pertulisti pro nobis. Pie Jhesu, quid ultra debuisti facere quod non fecisti? Scribe queso pie Jhesu omnia vulnera tua in corde meo precioso sanguine tuo, ut in illis legam tuum dolorem et amorem, ut in graciarum accione usque in finem vite mee iugiter perseuerem. Amen. '"

Furthermore, a careful examination of this passage in Julian (343.13345.31) in the light of Pauline soteriology, as expressed in Romans chapters 5 and 6 and reflected in Hebrews chapters 8 to 10, leaves us in

196 PL 28 1293.

197 ASS April III, 861.

191 Encidopedia Italiana 9, art., 'Caterina da Siena, santa'.

199 MS Cambridge Fitzwilliam Museum 55, f. 119.

IX.7 REVELATION V

little doubt as to the primary source of Julian's reflection (cf. 344.24 note). As to the language in which the reflection is couched, there are many analogues in contemporary versions of the Meditationes vitae Christi and the Stimulus amoris (cf. the annotations to 342.4-7, 344.21-22).

What is most remarkable about this bodily sight, and surely an argument in favour of its authenticity, is the clarity with which Julian distinguishes between a bodily and an imaginative vision; and this is no hindsight, but an account of the vision itself:

... and this ranne so plenteuouslye to my syght that me thought, 3yf itt hadde bene so in kynde, for J>at tyme itt schulde hafe made the bedde alle on blode and hafe passede onn abowte (227.16, and cf. 342.9).

It follows from this observation that her other sights of the bleeding and dying Christ were likewise imaginative. 20° We are reminded of the description of 'a spiritual vision or imaginative' in the Chastising™ and of the doubts expressed by the Cloud-author that Martin and Stephen

'saw such things with their bodily eyes'.202

7 Revelation V In her contemplation of the suffering Christ, bleeding so freely from the scourging, Julian had remarked upon the redeeming power of his sacrifice, signified by the shedding of the blood:

For it is most plentuous, as it is most precious, and that by the vertu of the blessyd godhead. And it is our owne kynde, and blessydfully ovyr flowyth vs by the vertu of his precious loue (343.17).

Another visionary, the seer of Patmos, had beheld the blood of the Lamb which washes clean and ascends to heaven (cf. 344.24 e.s.). And here, in Revelation V, as she is still pondering what she sees, the words which she hears: Here with is the feende ovyr come (346.7), echo another text from the Apocalypse: 'and that great dragon was cast out, that old serpent who is called the devil and Satan, who seduces the whole world ... and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb'

(Apocalypse 12.9-11). In the showing which follows,ybr he shewed that the passion of hym is the ovyrcomyng of the feende (347.9), Julian laughs, as the valiant woman who 'will laugh at the latter day' (Proverbs 31.25),

200 jror another view, see E. I. Watkin: Poets and Mystics, 78.

201 Bazire and Colledge, 169, 170-171.

202 Hodgson, 106-107.

INTRODUCTION

because he schalle be scornyde at domys day generally of all that schal be savyd

(350.44). She sees with God that all sowles of saluacion eskape hym worshyppfully by the vertue of his precious passion (347.13). With Scripture as her foundation, she synthesizes briefly the teaching of the Western fathers on the impotence of the devil, though the striking phrase, hys myght is alle lokked in gods hande (347.18), is surely her own. He can do no harm at all, unless man permits him, because Christ the true David has triumphed through the Cross over the hellish Goliath.203 She also holds with Aquinas that the devil's attacks proceed from his malice and envy,204 and that all this will redound to the glory of the elect by the divine will:205 for all that god sufferyth hym to do turnyth vs to joy and hym to shame and payne (347.15).

A notable addition to the short text is her penetrating theological reflection on how God regards the reprobate, which anticipates the answer, conveyed through the parable of the lord and the servant (cf.

5ii.i6e.s.), to her conundrum, how does God see us in our sin? So she first states that even though there can be no wrath in God, with myght and ryght he withstondyth the reprovyd, the which of malyce and of shrewdnes besye them to contrary and do against goddes wyll (348.21). This is the first part of her explanation of what she means by the word 'scorn' when she attributes it to God. She then develops the thought by elucidating what withstondyth signifies in the context. The passage (349. e.s), which is evidently corrupt, might be rendered into modern English as follows:

'Where I saw him scorn his malice, this was by the fixing of my understanding on our Lord; that is to say, it was an inward showing of his constancy — there was no change of expression. For as I see it, this immutability of God is a worshipful attribute'. She seems to be conveying the opinion that God 'looks right through' the reproved, who no longer exist for him, but are, in the Old Testament phrase, 'blotted out of the book of the living' (Psalm 68.29).

8 Revelation VI Implicit in the locution in Revelation V, 'Herewith is the fiend overcome', is the classical teaching of monasticism, which in the West has its origin in Athanasius's Vita Sancti Antonii,206 that the Christian life is a 203 Caesarius of Aries (the attribution to Augustine is now regarded as spurious;

Dekkers, no. 368), Sermo CXXI, ed. Morin, i 504-509.

204 Summa theologiae 1.114.1 in corp.

205 Ibid, ad 3.

206 See F. Vandenbrouke, 'Demon en Occident'.

IX.8 REVELATION VI

spiritual combat against the world, the flesh and, particularly, the devil, because to oppose the devil is to share Christ's own battles in the service of his Father. Consequently, the Scriptural theme of Revelation VI is the Pauline hymn, 'If we endure with him, we shall also reign with him' (II Timothy 2.10-13), when the devil shall see that all the woo and tribulation that he hath done them shalle be turned in to encrese ofther ioy without ende (350.46); and it is largely concerned with a special insight into God's 'homely loving', his gratitude for man's service, and particularly that of dedicated contemplatives. The revelation begins with a locution common to both texts, which, as we learn from Julian's editing, is a lifting up of her understanding (351.4). All God's servants are to be the recipients of his everlasting thanks for their patient endurance, but especially those who have made to him the gift of their youth. This ghostly sight is first conveyed by an example, which, it seems, was suppressed in the short text because it so resembles the parable of the lord and the servant, which at that time she did not intend to record. It may itself be a 'ghostly sight in bodily likeness'; at all events, it greatly resembles in form those several instances (e.g. 323.20 e.s.) of Julian's highly individual method of lectio divina, where her recollection of Scripture and her power of imagination rapidly work together, as she contemplates a showing, to construct an illustrative and imaginative 'sight'.

The three aspects of heavenly bliss which are described are common to both texts (230.2-8, 352.13-20; 230.8-11, 352.21-23; 230.11-17,

353-27-32). What she sees as she continues to look at the whole is the applicability of another Pauline text, Romans 8.15-22, where the apostle expresses his confidence that though we are groaning and in travail now, the sufferings of this time are not to be compared with the glory to be revealed in us; and this is because we are co-heirs with Christ. But in the long text particularly,Julian is pre-occupied with the Lord's courtesy. She gives the example of a lord rewarding his servant to show the first degree of bliss; and for the second she offers another curial example:

A kyng, yf he thanke hys subiettes, it is a grett wurschyppe to them; and yf he make it knowen to all the realme, then ther wurschypp is mech incresyd (352.24).

But it is the addition in the long text to the account of the third degree which is most significant. Though the length of service of those who, as she, we believe, had done, have freely dedicated themselves to the contemplative life in their youth will receive a wonderful reward, it remains true that a single day spent in the divine will receives the same

INTRODUCTION

gift, the same measure of bliss. This precisely is the teaching of the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, so feelingly and tellingly expounded by Julian's contemporary, the Pearl poet. For though God thanks her with the gift of himself, and shares his knowledge and gratitude with all the blessed, the gift still is unmerited, a curtesy

(353.35). The very term recalls Pecham's 'dilexit, inquam, curialiter'

(see 392.37 note); and the vision of this courteous love increases her desire to serve him all her life.

9 Revelation VII Though the subject-matter of this revelation — the alternation of spiritual consolation and desolation, the various reasons for the withdrawal of special grace, and how the contemplative is to conduct himself in times of dereliction — is commonplace in late patristic and mediaeval reflection on contemplative life and prayer, it has its importance in the evolution of Julian's practical experience and later theological reflection. First, it reveals what is her response when she is enabled to contemplate the joys of heaven, and that she understands this response to correspond to the fact in faith of her loving union with the endlesse lykyng that is god (356.34). It also associates the heaviness of spiritual desolation with the pains of Christ's Passion, so serving as an introduction to Revelation VIII, with its emphasis on the contemplative prayer of darkness, which assimilates the soul to Christ in his suffering mystical body, his 'ghostly thirst'. Then, too, it begins to prepare the way for her exposition of the mystery of the Incarnation and its effects on the life and prayer of the Christian (chapter 55 e.s.), where she concludes that we may nevyr come to the full knowyng of god tylle we knowe furst clerely oure owne soule (573.32).

It has already been observed that the variation in this chapter between the short and long texts is minimal. There are seven certain variants, none of them consisting of more than a few words. Yet each change is theologically significant. First of all, Julian had in the short text described this vision of God's union with the soul as myghtlye festnede with owtyn any drede (230.20). Now she adds the adjective paynefulle

(354.5), precisely because she has come to perceive that there is a fear which belongs to the unitive life, in heaven as on earth, and that is

'reverent dread':

Loue and drede are bredryn, and they are rotyd in vs by the goodnesse of oure maker, and they shall nevyr be taken from vs without end

(673.20).

IX.9 REVELATION VII

As she will explain, in the same chapter 74, all other fears, even those which are profitable, are painful. The two words which she most commonly employs to describe her experience of God's dealing with the soul are 'mind* and 'feeling'. In the short text, she had written of the 'sovereign ghos.tly liking': This felynge was so gladde to me and so goodly

(230.20). But in editing this, she seems to have thought it too subjective, and not clearly distinguishing from natural feelings of well-being; and so she writes: Thisfelyng was so glad and so goostely (354.5). As her life of prayer developed after the revelations, she received the grace of a progressively deeper contemplative penetration into the mysteries of the Trinity, to such an extent that, in chapter 51, she can paraphrase the text 'Philip, he who sees me sees the Father' (John 14.9) as follows:

But man is blyndyd in this life, and therefore we may nott se oure fader god as he is. And what tyme that he of hys goodnesse wyll shew hym to man, he shewyth hym homely as man, not with stondyng that I saw verely we ought to know and beleue that the fader is nott man (525.140).

So here, where she is attempting to convey her experience of the union of love which is human as well as divine, she substitutes the more personal 'our blessed Lord', which is no pious cliche, but 'said for reverence', for the less personal 'God'.

Margery Kempe's testimony about Julian's expertise in spiritual guidance is constantly confirmed by the long text; and there is evidence of it here. Julian had written, of the state of spiritual desolation:

... it es nedefulle to ylke mann to feele on this wyse ... And sum tyme for the profytte of his saule a man es lefte to hymselfe; and to whethere synne es nought the cause (231.37).

Now she has come to see that universal statements about the divine action in bestowing or withdrawing contemplative graces are imprudent;

'the Spirit breathes where he will' (John 3.8). So she qualifies:

... it is spedfulle to some soules to feele on thys wyse ... all thogh hys synne is nott evyr the cause (355.21).

The additions, to some soules, evyr, are important; and she also gives her reason for the last statement. In the short text it has been:

For in this tyme I synnede nought wherefore I schulde be lefte to my selfe (231-43); but in the long text we read:

For in this tyme I synned nott were for I shulde be left to my selfe, for it was so sodeyne (356.26),

INTRODUCTION

where for it was so sodeyne is not only the observation of common sense — she had not had the time even for a sinful thought — but also the application of an important canon of spiritual discernment. One way of distinguishing the peace of the Lord and his gladness from natural joie de vivre, or human depression from spiritual desolation, is to look for possible natural causes or occasions of a state of mind before attributing it to the divine action.

In her reflections at the end of this revelation on the wonderful alternation of wo and wele, blysse and payne, she is solicitous to find the balance, which is hope, between despair and presumption. So she adds, to her earlier observation that pain will be brought to nothing, the qualifying phrase which has so much meaning for her: to them that shall be savyd (356.32 and note).

10 Revelation VIII The eighth revelation is longer and considerably more complex than those which precede it, apart from the first; and for that Julian provided a recapitulation of the contents (317.4 e.s.). Here she is equally aware that her readers may require help, particularly with the expanded version in the long text. So she concludes the final chapter of this revelation with another such summary:

It is gods wylle, as to my vnderstandyng, that we hauc iij maner of beholdyng of his blessyd passion. The furst is the harde paync that he sufferyd (this is the first maner), with a contriccion (the second maner) and compassion (the third); and that shewde oure lorde in this tyme, and gaue me myght and grace to see it (377.33).

The 'beholding of the hard pain' — a parte of hys passyon nere his dyeng (357-3) — me beginning of this showing, is a bodily sight, no detail of which does Julian spare us. There appear to be two reasons for this intense concentration upon the physical sufferings of the Passion. First, she wishes to show how completely her first prayer, to have recollection of the Passion, was answered:

Me thought I woulde haue ben that tyme with Magdaleyne and with other that were Christus louers, that I might haue seen bodilie the passion that our lord suffered for me, that I might haue suffered with him, as other did that loved him. And therfore I desyred a bodely sight, wher in I might haue more knowledge of the bodily paynes of our sauiour, and of the compassion of our lady and of all his true louers that were lyuyng that tyme and saw his paynes; for I would haue be one of them and haue suffered with them (285.8).

IX. 10 REVELATION VIII

The second reason is contained in the sentence which, according to the scribe of P, closes chapter 20:

And I lokyd after the departyng with alle my myghtes, and wende to haue seen the body alle deed (379.3).

This, and the allusion to her 'doomsday' in chapter 8, seem to suggest that she thought that the moment of her own death might coincide with her sight of Christ's. She had already complained of her failing eyesight

(291.28 e.s.), and the concentration which this demanded from her enabled her to retain (and, apparently, when she came to write the long text, to recall) a wealth of detail, much of which will cause discomfort to a modern reader, which she would otherwise have missed or forgotten. She sees the effects of Christ's suffering, in chapter 16, especially in his head (357.4 e.s.); and the rest of the bodily sight (357.11 e.s.) is concerned with what she calls Christ's greatest bodily pain, the 'deep drying'. She interrupts this only to promise us, later, her reflections on his other, spiritual thirst (360.6; cf. 418.14 e.s.).

The equivalent 'ghostly sight' which follows this description of Christ's pain is that she begins herself to feel his sufferings, as I had before desyerde (364.52). The long text here may seem to lose some of the clarity and force which the short text has when it cites from the Christological hymn in chapter 2 of Philippians (cf. 234.25 and note).

Perhaps she or a later scribe removed this rare direct Scriptural quotation, with its source adduced, because of the contemporary controversies which culminated in the 1408 Oxford condemnation and prohibition of such translation without episcopal licence.207 But she may have decided that Paul's words were not so apposite as she had once thought. He is inviting the Philippians to imitate Christ's humility and obedience, not to experience directly his bodily sufferings. Doubtless she also found it inappropriate to exhort others to share this experience, as she had done in the short text'.ylkesaule ... schuldefeele in hym pat in Criste Jhesu (234.25), especially since she discovers that she herself can hardly tolerate her participation in his pains.

It is at this point that she becomes aware that her prayer for contrition (cf. 286.20) is being answered in an unforeseen way. She finds herself repenting her one-time aspiration to suffer the same pains as Christ and those who stood by his cross (364.50 e.s.). But she is enabled, through ratiodnatio, to understand that this pain of Christ which 207 M. Deanesly: The Lollard Bible, 294-297.

INTRODUCTION

she is now sharing is the purification which she had asked for (cf.

286.21 e.s.); it is truly redemptive, because it proceeds from her love for him (364.56 e.s.).

The third 'manner of beholding', 'with compassion', now begins.

First she is shown the quality of Mary's compassion for Christ: she was so onyd in loue that the grettnes of her loue was cause of the grettnes of her peyne

(366.3); and then how those others who were close to him shared in this compassion. She sees this suffering extended to all creatures capable of experiencing pain, because of the grett onyng betwene Crist and vs (367.14).

All of diem suffered at the time of the Crucifixion, each in his own fashion, including the pagans, Pilate and Denis 'of France'; and she concludes chapter 18 with the reflection:

Thus was oure lord Jhesu payned for us; and we stonde alle in this maner of payne with hym, and shalle do tylle that we come to his blysse (369.36).

These sights and the accompanying meditation enable her deliberately to choose the crucified and suffering Saviour as the only fulfilment she desires: for I had levyr a bene in that payne tylle domys day than haue come to hevyn other wyse than by hym (371.12).

This deliberate choice enables her to put into psychological and theological perspective her previous feelings of reluctance to share his sufferings. The temptation to reject them was no more than grugyng and dawnger of the flessch without assent of the soule (372.23). In her experience of such oppositio between 'repenting and wilful choice', she appears to have in mind Christ's own struggle in the garden: 'Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass' (Matthew 26.38 e.s.), and that of Paul:

'Who will deliver me from the body of this death?' (Romans 7.24).

Here, too, she makes for the first time the distinction between the two parts of the soul, a teaching of Augustinian psychology which she finds helpful in the elucidation of the parable of the lord and the servant and of its attendant problems (372.24 e.s.). Further, she is shown that the inward and outward parts are destined, in and through Christ, to be united in eternal blessedness (372.33 e.s.).

With Christ's sufferings still the focus for her continued reflections on contrition and compassion,Julian considers anew, in the last chapter of this revelation (374.2 e.s.), Christ's own compassion. She expounds the common theological opinion of her day, that the vnyng of the godhed gaue strenght to the manned ... to suffer more than alle man myght (cf. 374.2 note); and she explains, in a significant addition to the short text, that the purpose of contemplating the Passion is to thynke and to know ... what

IX. 10 REVELATION VIII

he sufferyd, and -..for whom that he sujferyd (375.10). An important point here, she believes, is to consider the mutual compassion between Christ and Mary (376.21), because this illumines the ineffable quality of his compassion for all who will be saved. Her contemplation is not merely recollection of an historical event. She has observed earlier, with theological precision, / wyste welle he suffyryde but onys (364.50); here she adds that although now he is vppe resyn and no more passibylle, yett he sufferyth with vs as I shalle sey after (376.24), promising the treatment of the divine compassion which will follow in Revelation XIII. In these last lines of Revelation VIII, she intimates that this contemplation of passion and compassion demands the presence and action of the Holy Spirit —

And I beholdyng alle this by hys grace (377.26) — and that what is true for her is true for all:

For the soule that beholdyth thus whan it is touchyd by grace, he shalle verely see that tho paynes of Cristes passion passe all paynes; that is to sey, whych paynes shal be turned in to everlastyng joy by the vertu of Cristes passion (377.28).

This analysis necessitates a departure from the division of all the manuscripts into revelations, a departure which is warranted by their lack of agreement (cf. the critical apparatus to 360.2, 378.36, 379.6 and 382. i). First, P and C indicate that Revelation IX begins with chapter 17

(360. i), though they add to the confusion by repeating the rubric at the beginning of chapter 22 (382. i). But at 360. i SS do not announce a new revelation, merely a new chapter (which Si erroneously calls 'xviij').

The next confusion concerns the division of chapters 20 and 21. SS begin chapter 21 at 377.33, but P and C at 379.6. The editors consider that both families are wrong, that Julian intended chapter 20 to end with her recapitulatory remarks on the three manners of beholding

(377.33-36), and chapter 21 to begin with her discussion of a new topic, when she adverts to the bodily sight, and writes that although she had expected to see Christ dead, the revelation did not follow this course, because sodenly I beholdyng in the same crosse he channgyd in blessydfulle chere

(379.6). The introductory remark cannot be separated from the account of the suddenness of this change in Christ's appearance and Julian's mood without doing violence to the sense; and, accordingly, chapter 21 has been made to begin at 379.3. And this has also been made the beginning of Revelation IX, rather than 360.2 (P, C) or 382.2

(P, C, SS). There can be no doubt that Julian intended to convey that with the sudden change, a new revelation began.

Firstly, when she is describing the five manners in which our Lord

INTRODUCTION

showed her his Passion (the first three of which are related in Revelations I, II and IV respectively), she writes: the iiijth is the depe drying — theyse iiij as it is before seyde for the paynes of the passion — and the fyfte is thys that was shewyth for the joy and the blysse of the passion (390.11).

We should note here not only that she does not begin to describe the joy and bliss of the Passion until the 'changing of cheer' in chapter 21, but also that she continues to describe the 'deep drying' throughout chapter

17 (360-364).

Secondly, in her theological discussion of substance and sensuality in chapter 55, she remarks that these two 'parts' are in the incarnate

Christ, and that the lower part, the sensuality, suffered for the salvation of mankind. Then she adds:

And theyse two pertyes were scene and felte in the viij shewyng, in whych my body was fulfyllyd of felyng and mynd of Cristes passion and his dyeng; And ferthermore with this was a suttell felyng and a prevy inwarde syghte of }>e hye partys, and that was shewed in the same tyme, wher I my3te nott for the mene prefer loke vp in to hevyn (569.52).

This passage must refer in its totality to Revelation VIII, since she refers both 'parts' to that showing. It follows then that for Julian the eighth revelation continued to at least the end of chapter 19, where the two parts are first discussed (372.33 e.s.).

Thirdly, we have argued that this revelation is summarized in the iij maner of bekoldyng of his blessyd passion towards the end of P's chapter 20

(377-33-378-36), and that the summary forms the natural end of the eighth revelation. In the short text, the beginning of chapter xii, which corresponds with the opening of Revelation IX, is very clear:

And sodaynlye, me behaldande in the same crosse, he channchede in to blysfulle chere (239.1); and the addition prefixed to this in the long text:

And I lokyd after the departyng with alle my myghtes, and wende to haue seen the body alle deed; butt I saw him nott so. And right in the same tyrne that me thought by semyng that the lyfe myght no lenger last ...

(379-3) emphasizes the suddenness of the change; at one moment she is expecting his last breath, in the next Christ shows himself full of life and gladness, and she stresses this again by her repetition of the word 'suddenly'.

IX. I I REVELATION IX

The scribe of Si appears to have had in his copy a chapter-division approaching that which the editors propose. But the difficulty with that is that Si's division interrupts the smooth transition from the first four manners, shown for the pains of the Passion, to 'the fifth ... that was shown for the joy and the bliss of the Passion' (390.13). What signals the beginning of the new revelation is neither the summary of what has gone before (SS 377.31) nor the locution at the opening of chapter 22 in P (382.3), but the new bodily sight, introduced by the key word sodeynly.

These discrepancies are best explained by the hypothesis that all the witnesses derive from a common ancestor in which the 'Revelation IX' rubric had been omitted, so that later scribes had to use their own judgment about where it should be inserted; and the editors have proposed that this ninth revelation as Julian wrote it in all probability began thus:

And I lokyd after the departyng with alle my myghtes, and wende to haue seen the body alle deed; butt I saw him nott so. And right in the same tyme that me thought by semyng that the lyfe myght no lenger last, and the shewyng of the ende behovyd nydes to be nye, sodenly I beholdyng in the same crosse he channgyd in blessydfulle chere ... (379.3)

11 Revelation IX As has already been noticed, Revelation IX (chapters 21-23) is briefly described by Julian herself as 'shown for the joy and the bliss of the Passion' (390.13). The sudden change from suffering to joy in chapter

21 reveals to her not only our solidarity with Christ in his own human condition during his Passion, but the immediate connexion between the joy and glory of the risen Christ and the glorified Church in heaven. In Revelation VIII, her thought was centring on the first part of the Christological hymn of Philippians 2: 'Let that mind be in you ... He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, death on a cross'. Here she has the second part of the hymn in recollection: 'For this reason

God has exalted him', with its corollary in the other hymn in Paul's second letter to Timothy (2.12): 'If we endure with him, then we shall also reign with him'.

In chapter 22, following on the bodily sight, the locution: Arte thou well apayd that I sufferyd for thee? (382.2), isjulian's way of expressing and communicating what appears to be a singular infused grace affecting alike her will and her intellect. In thys felyng my vnderstandyng was leftyd vppe in to hevyn (382.7). This seems to describe a 'rapture' in the traditional sense, judged both by its language and by what she has previously described. She had been in the severest bodily and mental

INTRODUCTION

anguish (cf. 360-364), and suddenly she is taken out of herself.208 This appears to have been one of the occasions when the bodily sight persisted, unlike her account of the first revelation, when she writes: And the bodyly syght styntyd, and the gastely syght dwellyd in myne vnderstandynge

(218.19), because it was in Christ's manhood that she saw the Father (383.12, an addition to the short text), and the bliss of heaven (or of the three persons of the Trinity), graces which belong to the many/aide joyes that folowen of the passion of Crist (393.47).

In the long text, as a result of protracted meditation 'with great diligence' on the locution: If I myght suffer more, I wolde suffer more (387.50), with Hebrews 10.10 constantly in mind (cf. 385.34 note), she is able to communicate the fact in faith that God's love for the world, the proof of which is the sacrificial death of his Son, is as sure and active and manifest now as it was at the time of Christ's passion and death.

Every day a glorified Redeemer is redy to the same, yfit myght be (385.35).

Modern exegetes can write, on the text of the Apocalypse: 'I died, and behold I am alive for evermore', in the same vein:

All the mysteries of Jesus's earthly history, from the cradle to the grave, have been mysteriously endowed in his glorified humanity with a totally new and enduring actuality;209 but they say less than Julian does, as she begins, her understanding of word, of sight and of her own experience unfolded, to develop the insight she receives into the mystery of the Trinity and the divine relationship, in her own person, with all who are to be saved in Christ. She is at one with John, in chapter 15 of his gospel, and with Hebrews chapter

10, in seeing the revelation and operation of the Trinity as focused particularly on the Passion, death and Resurrection of the incarnate Christ.

In this suffering all mankind is involved; it is the preparation for the fulness of salvation. It is a noble precious and wurschypfulle dede done in a tyme by the workyng of loue (386.47), and yet this love is the eternal providential love of the triune God, of his power, wisdom and goodness. The cause why that he sufferyth is for he ivy lie of hys goodnes make vs the eyers with hym in hys blysse (381.23). Because the sight of Christ in his now glorified manhood is constantly before her inward eye, and his words in her recollection, she is able to write firmly and lucidly, using the ideas and the vocabulary with which Scripture provided her in abundance.

208 por a discussion of such phenomena, see C. Butler: Western Mysticism, especially 7178.

209 D. Stanley: 'Contemplation of the Gospels', 430.

IX. 12 REVELATION X

So the sudden change recalls not only the Transfiguration (cf. 379.6 note), but also Paul's prophecy of the resurrection of the body (cf.

380.14, 15 notes), and of our transformation, even in this life, through contemplation (cf. 380.18, 20 notes). With John, as well as with Paul, she can link Passion and Resurrection, earth and heaven in the glory and exaltation of Christ in which we are called to share: Betwene that one and that other shalle alle be one tyme; and than shall alle be brought in to joy

(380.15).

She begins here, too, to develop her teaching on the Holy Spirit, and, as does John himself, she identifies the Spirit with that love which comforts and strengthens (390.15 e.s.). Finally, at the end of the revelation, she offers us a short example which summarizes all the teaching contained :

And in this he brought to my mynd the propyrte of a gladde geauer.

Evyr a glade geauer takyth but lytylle hede at the thyng that he geavyth, but alle hys desyr and alle hys intent is to plese hym and solace hym to whome he geavyth it. And yf the receyver take the gyft gladly and thankefully, than the curtesse gevyr settyth at nought alle hys cost and alle hys traveyle, for joy and deleyght that he hath for he hath plesyd and solacyd hym that he lovyth (392.37), a method in which, in the long text, she proves herself so adept. She has stressed the work of the Father and his joy in giving mankind as a gift; he is the glad giver, and the Son, who receives the gift along with that of his own manhood, is he who pays little heed to the value of the gift ('he did not consider equality with God a prize to be coveted' —Philippians

2.6). He receives from the Father, but becomes a courteous giver to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is in the gift, for he is the joy and delight of Father for Son, of Father and Son in us and for us.

12 Revelation X As the footnotes to the text indicate, the 'bodily sight' of Revelation

X (394.3 e.s., and cf. 242.1 e.s.) has much in common with contemporary representations of the Sacred Heart. Julian's susceptibility to such iconography has been remarked on in Section VII. But we may here ask why in the long text she insists that this be introduced as a separate revelation, and what is the reason for the very significant change in the account there from that in the short text.

First, there is a marked difference in tone between Revelation X and much of the devotional writing of her own age. (As an example, see the French prayer, recorded in England, quoted in 394.3 note). Julian was

INTRODUCTION

shown not the Man of Sorrows but a joyful, glorified Christ (an aspect of the Sacred Heart devotion which almost disappeared in the postTridentine Church, largely through the impetus of the revelations to Margaret Mary Alacoque). Secondly, in the long textjulian has decided to introduce the image of the heart as 'a fair and delectable place', which will find an echo in the parabolic vision of the lord and the servant: Now is the spouse, goddys son, in pees with his lovyd wyfe (545.326); Now sittyth nott pe lords on erthe in wyldernesse, but he syttyth on hys rycfie and noblest seet, whych he made in hevyn (543.312). Thirdly, in the short text she had glossed the locution, Loo how I lovyd the, as follows:

... as jyf he hadde sayde: My childe, 5if thow kan nought loke in my godhede, see heere how I lette opyn my syde and my herte be clovene in twa (242.2).

Since then there had been shown to my vnderstandyng in part — that she writes 'in part' is surely significant — the blyssydfulle godhede asfarforth as he wolde that tyme (395.11). In other words, since she has received new understanding, of which chapter 51 is the foremost example, she has been enabled, in some of the more complex showings, to identify assuredly revelation which is intermediate between 'bodily sight' and 'ghostly sight', that is, 'ghostly in bodily likeness' (514.6). The love of which the pierced heart of Jesus, now glorified but still displaying the marks of his Passion (cf. John 20.19-20, 27), is the sign which she now understands as meaning the endlesse hue tfiat was without begynnyng and is and siial be evyr (395.13); and yet in this love of the Godhead he remains her brother and her Saviour, who has died and risen for her, and she his darling and his child.

This insight into the mystery of the Incarnation, particularly as a corrective of the deficiencies of contemporary devotion, too often betraying its writers and its devotees as morbid, neurotic, hysterical, is of sufficient importance to Julian to merit isolation as a separate and integral revelation.

13 Revelation XI In the closing sight of the 'hard pains' of Christ's sufferings, Julian was shown the compassion of Mary, which the Si scribe, writing in the seventeenth century, calls her 'spiritual martyrdom': she was so onyd in hue that the grettnes of her loue was cause of the grettnes ofherpeyne (366.3). It is thus logical that the sight of the exalted and glorified yet crucified

Christ — 'the joy and bliss of the Passion' — should end with a showing

IX. 14 REVELATION XII

of Mary sharing her Son's joy. So in Revelation XI, chapter 25, the bodily sight seems to be extended to include the mother who is standing by the cross (John 19.25). But Julian has already insisted in the short text that this was an intellectual vision:

Ofte tymes I prayed it, and wened to haffe sene here in bodely lykenes; botte I sawe hir nought soo. And Jhesu in J>at worde schewed me a gastelye syght of hire (242.11).

Here in the long text she tells why she 'saw her not so': it is far more expedient to see the vertuse of her blyssydfulle soule, her truth, her wysdom, her cheryte, wher by I am leernyd to know my self, and reuerently drede my god

(399-20).

Julian has no use for sentimentality in her devotion. As she will tell us further on, what Mary exemplifies par excellence is that a mans soule is a creature in god whych hath the same propertes made ... endlesse souereyne truth, endelesse souereyne wysdom, endelesse souereyne loue (484.13, 11), so that it can do what it was made for, perceive God, contemplate him and love him.

In this same revelation, in chapter 25, we have another instance of Julian introducing an 'example' which does not appear in the short version, and, apparently, for the same reason as before, its connection with the parable of the lord and the servant. Indeed, this 'example' seems to be no more than a reference back to the matter of chapter 14. There she wrote:

... thys exsample was shewd. A kyng, yf he thanke hys subiettes, it is a grett wurschyppe to them; and yf he make it knowen to all the realme, then ther wurschypp is mech incresyd (352.23).

Julian does not now state specifically that this was a part of the revelation introduced by the locution 'Wilt thou see her?', or that the example was shown, as she had written in chapter 14, 'in this time'

(352.23); and it seems that she is here doing no more than indicating the relevance of an earlier insight also to this revelation.

14 Revelation XII When Julian had recapitulated, for purposes of reconstruction, her first great showing (in the long text, chapters 4-9, 294-323), there are

INTRODUCTION

three points which she made with all possible emphasis; that the goodness of God is all (318.15, 322.12), that he is true rest, and that there is no rest except in union with him (301.25), and that this showing, like all the revelations, is given to her for the benefit of all who persevere in the knowledge and love of God (319.23, 319.33, 321.2).

These are the themes to which she returns in Revelation XII, which concludes the first part of her book. The first eleven revelations manifest a progressively deeper insight into the Pauline prayer, '... ut

Christum lucrifaciam et inveniar in illo ... ad cognoscendum ilium et virtu tern resurrectionis eius et societatern passionum illius, configuratus morti eius; si quo modo occuram ad resurrectionem quae est ex mortuis' (Philippians 3.8-11), So Revelation XII was given as a bodily sight in ghostly likeness, when oure lord shewyd hym more gloryfyed as to my syght than I saw hym before (402.3). The point is of significance for her. In the short text, she had taken the showing in conjunction with that of Mary

(243.25 e.s.), because of the very important observation she makes concerning contemplative graces; now she omits this observation (probably because her revelations are not to be restricted to ex professo contemplatives), and she stresses the new application of the sight of the glorified Christ as Lord and God who is portrayed to her in the intellectual vision, 1 it am'. And it is as Lord and God that he shows himself as he did in the first revelation, full ofjoye, homely and curteys and blessydfulle and very lyfe (402.5; cf. 314.46). But now it is in and through the bodily sight in ghostly likeness of the exalted crucified Christ that she sees afresh and comprehends more deeply that 'where Jesus appears, the blessed Trinity is understood' (295.15). ... / it am that is alle. I it am that holy church prechyth the and techeyth thee. I it am that shewde me before to the (402.10). But she has still more to see and to learn about the relations of the Trinity and the operationes ad extra. She does not yet know what is comprehended in the word of the triune God, 'I it am' (cf.

403.11, 15 notes). So she ends the revelation, as she had done in the short text, by recalling that her only purpose for writing at all is so that everyone who will be saved, evyry man, aftyr the grace that god gevyth hym in vnder standyng and lovyng (403.16), may receive the locution according to Christ's meaning in it.

15 Revelation XIII During her exposition of the parable of the lord and the servant in chapter 51, Julian informs us that she was granted three ways of knowing the secrets of all that was shown to her, which became so

IX. 15 REVELATION XIII

united in her understanding that she was unable to distinguish them:

The furst is the begynnyng of techyng that I vnderstode ther in in the same tyme. The secunde is the inwarde lernyng that I haue vnderstonde there in sythen. The thyrd is alle the hole revelation fro the begynnyng to the ende whych oure lorde god of his goodnes bryngyth oftymes frely to the syght of my vnderstondyng (519.76).

It is here, in the long Revelation XIII, which occupies chapters 27 to 40 in the long text, that she begins in earnest to give us the fruit of this knowledge, as a comparison with the corresponding sections of the short text (243.37-257.23) soon reveals.

The opening sentence, identical in either text: And qftyr thys oure lorde brought to my mynde the longyng that I had to hym before (404.3, and cf.

243.37), is so muted that one is hardly aware that this announces a separate revelation, until, after her indiscreet reflection (identical with one of the Piers Plowman poet's) that if sin had never been all would have been well (cf. 404.6 and note), she tells us that this is indeed a vision; and it is followed immediately, according to the normal pattern of the revelations, by a locution, which here she emphasizes by calling it, in the long text, pis nakyd worde: Synne (405.14).

Thus the vision consists of two sights: her longing for God (cf.

288.40), and the oygly sytfe (406.26) of all that is not good. This second sight includes her experience of Christ's sufferings, as she has already beheld and pondered them, and the sufferings of his followers, which she associates with the kenosis of the incarnate Word (405.15 e.s.). It is not that she sees sin itself (she makes the precise theological observation that it had no maner of substannce — 406.27 and notes); she sees all the pain that sin occasioned Christ, and still occasions all who will be saved. In the long text this is stressed by a repetition of the original locution (405.13) in another form: It is tru that synne is cause of alle thys payne, but alle shalle be ivele (407.33).

So far, her experience of this double showing resembles that of Revelation VII (354.2 e.s.), with its alternation of consolation and desolation; but here she is anxious to indicate how the desolation which accompanies the sight and experience of pain occasioned by sin redely passyd ovyr in to comfort (406.24); and the chapter ends, in the long text, with her first reference to what will become the focal point of this revelation, the hygh mervelous prevyte hyd in god, whych pryuyte he shalle opynly make and shalle be knowen to vs in hevyn (407.39).

Chapter 28 shows her reflecting on the comfort which our Lord has just afforded her, the experience of his compassionate love for all men, that is, for his own body, the Church. His joy is born of compassion for

INTRODUCTION

the tribulations of his servants, the chastisement which is to bring them to the bliss of everlasting union with God. Here again, it will be in the parable of the lord and the servant that we shall find, in the long text, the clarification of her deep understanding of the divine compassion in the mystery of the incarnate Christ, the rewth and the pytty of the fader over the fallyng of Adam (524.134), the joy and the blysse for thefallyng of his deerwurthy son (524.135), the Father's permitting his owne son wylfully in the manhed to suffer all mans payne (541.287). And here she begins to explain how the longing for God with which the vision begins is shown in Christ's compassion, which we are called to share (410.21 e.s.).

At the beginning of chapter 29, she seems to be telling us that the alternation of consolation and desolation afforded by the experience, now of divine compassion, now of the pain and harm of sin, has been with her whenever she reflects on the 'ugly sight'; and it would appear from the complete agreement at this point of both texts that she is satisfied with the answer her question invited — it is one of the Lord's

'homely courtesies' that he reasons, in the strict philosophical sense, with her (cf. 247.3 note) — an answer which is a summary of the contemporary theology of atonement, theology which Shakespeare in his turn would paraphrase:

Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once, And he that might the vantage best have took

Found out the remedy.210

In chapter 30, Julian's sight of the divine compassion becomes the sight of Jesus himself, crucified and glorified, in his mystical union with the Church; and, as she noted at the outset of the long text, wherjhesu appireth the blessed trinitie is vnderstand, as to my sight (295.15). When she recorded her first version, she was already sufficiently advanced in theology to state clearly that the whole of divine revelation, both the canonical Scriptures and the Church's magisterial tradition, concerns the unity and trinity of God, and the operationes ad extra of this same

Trinity, revealed and performed in Jesus Christ the incarnate Word (248.26-41); so that any authentic private revelation will do no more than cast a brighter light on this, the constant and exclusive object of divinely-inspired Christian contemplation, oure saviour and oure saluacyon

(414.2). There is nothing else here on earth that the heart of man can profitably conceive of oure lordes prevy conncelle, which is the teaching of Paul (cf. 415.13 and note). Nor doesjulian see any reason for altering a 210 Measure for Measure, Act II Scene 2.

IX. 15 REVELATION XIII

word of this in the final text of her revelations. Here is indeed the whole content of her world; whatever is outside its scope cannot be the proper object of contemplation, and will thus militate against the building up of the body of Christ. Her sight at the beginning of this revelation (404.3) was of her own longing for God. Now, in chapter 31, through the reformulation of the locution 'All shall be well' in an explicitly Trinitarian context, common to both versions (cf. 249.1 e.s.), she perceives that this longing is a participation in Christ's own longing; and she now gives us the reflection which she had promised on his

'ghostly thirst' (cf. 418.14 note). She begins with a sight of its fulfilment, everlasting rest and peace, which resembles in doctrine and language the celebrated hymn of Peter Abelard:211

O quanta qualia sunt ilia sabbata ... quae fessis requies, quae merces fortibus cum erit omnia deus in omnibus.

It may well be that this meditation on the love-longing (419.26-421.49) was omitted from the short text because it depends on her then still undeveloped understanding of the Trinitarian locution in Revelation XII,

'I it am ...' (cf. 403.15 and note), and of the relationship between Christ and all mankind who will be saved, as this emerges later in the parable of the lord and the servant.

In the examination (in the long text, in chapter 32) of the two forms of the locution of this revelation: Alle maner a thyng shalle be wele ... Thou shall se thy selfe that alle maner of thyng shalle be wele (422.2; and cf. 244.52,

249-5), what Julian sees and understands belongs to the showing of the compassion which will cease in the fulness of unitive love in heaven (cf.

421.50). The last great work of the Trinity on Judgment Day is not now the proper object of contemplation; that is the compassion which is shown in the hiding of that work for our present peace and joy. It is at this point, when her mind is again occupied by the contraries inducing that disquiet and perturbation of mind which are the hall-marks of spiritual desolation, that she wishes to show that 'reasoning' on God's word (422.9 e.s.) is a form of meditative prayer, which can lead the soul back into God's comfort. The desolation, however, continues to oppress her, here and in the succeeding chapter 33. The 'great deed' may not be the proper object of contemplation until it is done in the fulfilment of the Lord's compassion, when thou shall se thy selfe that alle

211 Cf. Chevalier, Repertorium, no. 13560.

INTRODUCTION

manner thyng shall be wele (423.17), but the doctrines of the faith are:

And one poynt of oure feyth is that many creatures shall be dampnyd, as angelis that felle 01131 of hevyn for pride, whych be now fendys, and meny in erth that dyeth out of the feyth of holy chyrch (425.40).

Here is a contrary which reasoning cannot resolve (426.49 e.s.). Thus she is emboldened to ask for a sight of hell and purgatory (427.2 e.s.).

But this is a prayer which is not answered, and she must, following the advice which she gives herself and us in the showing on prayer, await a better time, a greater grace or a better gift (469.27). She recalls that in all of her visions of Christ's Passion she saw none of the reproved, except only the devil himself; and this accords exactly with the Church's teaching, which, in affirming eternal damnation, has never defined that anyone is in hell, except only the devil.212 She takes this occasion to offer another, far more reasonable theological opinion than that current among the scholastics which Hilton repeats (cf. 427.2 note):

In whych sy3t I vnderstond J>at alle the creatures pat be of the devylles condiscion in thys lyfe and ther in endyng, ther is no more mencyon made of them before god and alle his holyn then of the devylle, notwythstondyng that they be of mankynde, wheder they haue be cr is tend or nought (427.10).

In chapter 34 Julian further clarifies the distinction which she has already made (414.2 e.s.) between matters which belong to our salvation and matters which do not. She accepts that there are de facto secrets which it is profitable for us to know in this life, but which our ignorance and sinfulness prevent us from seeing. Such privities are revealed, both in her showings and in the Church's teachings, and to know these is to be consoled by God's compassionate love. But curiosity about matters belonging to the great mysteries, such as predestination and reprobation, can only bring disquiet and a troubled conscience.

This is her introduction to the general solution of the apparent contradiction: that since God is Holy Church, its teachings cannot be opposed to authentic revelation (430.5 e.s.).

At this point in the short text (252.13 e.s.)Julian had written that the consideration of this revelation of God's immense goodness and compassion prompted her to ask the question, on behalf of a friend, which is at the root of so much Christian fear and preoccupation: shall I persevere to the end in the grace and love of God? The stock spiritual an212 E.g. I.ateran IV (Den/inger-Schonmetzer 801).

IX. 15 REVELATION XIII

swer to this in contemplative writings is that this is a false question, in that it draws a person away from God's own view of his creatures, and is thus an obstacle to contemplative prayer (cf. 432.5 and 252.15, notes). In the short text Julian seems to have accepted this, for she writes: and in pis desyre I lettyd my selfe (252.15). In the long text, however, she qualifies this: and in this syngular desyer it semyd that I lettyd my selfe (432.5), because she has learnt that the contemplative is being drawn to see and feel the divine compassion in a way which cannot possibly exclude the particular case (440.49 e.s.), though it remains true that any overriding anxiety is itself a hidden lack of trust in God's love, and is thus a cause of desolation. So in this chapter 35, she is led again to reflect on what she has already seen in Revelation III: the whole Trinity working in all things to bring the divine love to fulfilment in every creature (433.15 e.s.), and that this is possible because of the nature of the divine attribute of rightfulness, which not only is not contradicted by his mercy and compassion, but is complementary to it, in bringing good out of evil (435.34 e.s.). It is also subordinated to it, since, when all are made perfect in love, and the ghostly thirst has an end, the working of divine compassion will cease.

Chapter 36 begins with a locution in reported speech, a grammatical device not often used by Julian (cf. 436.4, 438.35, notes) which was a cause of confusion to the scribes. The locution represents a more penetrating insight into the Lord's compassion. It is a sight of the promise of God's fulfilment, consequent on his gift to his creature of the longing for himself, which follows naturally on the contemplation in the previous chapter of righteousness and mercy; and the end is the rest and peace of the eternal Sabbath. Julian explains clearly, again in the context of the 'great deed', that man can do nothing in the order of his salvation which is pleasing to God without prevenient and concomitant grace. This was the teaching of the Council of Orange (A.D.

529) against the heresy later to be called 'semi-Pelagianism'; the seventh canon there defined states: Si quis per naturae vigorem bonum aliquid, quod ad salutem pertinet vitae aeternae cogitare ut expedit aut eligere, sive salutari, id est evangelicae praedicationi consentire posse confirmat absque illuminatione et inspiratione spiritus sancti ... haeretico fallitur spiritu; and it goes on to quote II Corinthians 3.5: Not that we are sufficient to think anything by ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.213 Here is the meaning of Julian's phrase, startling to ears less theologically attuned, and man shall do ryght nought but synne

213 Denzinger-Schdnmetzer no. 377.

INTRODUCTION

(438.38). The firm confidence of her theology here is in marked contrast to the view that the saints in heaven will rejoice in the sufferings of the damned (extended by Hilton, as we have seen, to those who in this life are raised to the higher stages of contemplative prayer); and it is rooted in her own contemplative experience of purification, active and passive, illumination and union. All this she specifies as she describes the Lord's compassionate dealings with one who longs for him:

... here hast them mattyr of mekenesse, here hast them mattyr of loue, here hast thou matter of knowyng thy selfe, here hast thou mattyr of enjoyyng in me. And for my love enjoy in me (439.41), where mekenesse and nowten (the SS variant, probably superior, to knowyng) describe active purification, loue and enjoyyng passive purification; And as long as we be in this lyfe, what tyme that we by oure foly turne vs to the beholdyng of the reprovyd, tendyrly oure lorde towchyth vs and blysydfully callyth vs (439.44), describing the impulse of grace, drawing the soul towards union; seyeng in oure soule: Lett me aloone, my derwurdy chylde, intende to me. I am inogh to £>e, and enjoy in thy sauiour and in thy saluation

(439.46), describing the soul's illumination. This whole passage is reminiscent of one of the most beautiful images of the divine compassion in sacred

Scripture, Isaias 66.12-13, which will again be present in her mind when she writes in chapter 60 of the Torthspreading' of God's motherhood

(594.2 e.s.). Her immediate comment on this locution: The soule that is perced therwith by grace stialle se it andfele it (440.49), illumines this entire revelation. She is writing of compunction of heart, which, according to Jean Leclercq, is primary in Gregory the Great's conception of Christian life and prayer:

Compunction becomes pain of the spirit, a suffering resulting simultaneously from two causes: the existence of sin and our own tendency towards sin — compunctio paenitentiae, timom, formidinis — and the existence of our desire for God and even our very possession of God. St.

Gregory, more than others, accentuated this last aspect: an obscure possession, awareness of which does not last and consequently gives rise to regret at seeing it disappear and to a desire to find it again. The 'compunction of the heart', 'of the soul' — compunctio cordis, animi — always tends to become a 'compunction of love', 'of delectation' and 'of contemplation' — compunctio amoris, diledionis, contemplationh. Compunction is

IX. 15 REVELATION XIII

an act of God in us, an act by which God awakens us, a shock, a blow, a 'sting', a sort of burn. God goads us as if with a spear; he 'presses' us with insistence (cum-pungere), as if to pierce us ... How is this action of God accomplished in us? By what means, through what intermediaries, and on what occasions? By all kinds of trials: tribulation, the flagella Dei, the thousandfold sufferings of life, sin itself ... The ultimate role of compunction is to bring to the soul a longing for heaven.2M

Here and elsewhere in Revelation XIII, as she recounts it in the long text, Julian is expanding Gregory's doctrine of compunction from her own experience of sights, sickness, and, it would seem, the infused graces which followed the showings. Much of the account (433.15441.73) is an addition to the short text, inserted, it would appear, not so much because it depends for its clarity on the parable, but because it is integral to all that she has seen, heard and felt since she first recorded her showings. This seems particularly true of the special understanding she has received concerning miracles (440.59-441.73), itself a corroboration of what she has formulated concerning the great deed which will not be known until it is done (cf. 440.57 and note). Just as the angel instanced the miracle of the opening of Elizabeth's womb as corroboration of the miracle of the Incarnation — 'No word will be impossible with God' (Luke 1.37) — so here for Julian That pat is vnpossible to the w nott vnpossible to me (426.49). The gospel miracles are preeminently signs of God's compassion (healing, feeding, stilling the storm, raising the dead), of the consolation which follows trouble, anguish, desolation (440.60).

As Julian explains in chapter 37, the greatest sign of the Lord's compassion is that he loves us whilst we are in sin. This is a truth which she finds hard to grasp; and she expects this to be hard also for her fellowChristians. Thus she is anxious to communicate it to them, even though, in this final draft of the long text, she knows that it will not become clear — as it did not become clear to her — except in the light of the parable (cf. 442.5 and note). Once again, she points out that Revelation XIII consisted in two 'sights', the first of the mystery of the divine compassion, the second of the mystery of sin. At this juncture she had received special grace to attend more closely to the second sight; and the fear and desolation which came upon her were assuaged by the final locution of the original showing: / kepe the fulle sekerly (254.3).

Then there follows her first reference to the godly will. She has already defined sin as 'all that is not good'; and now she reflects on how it is possible for God to love that which is evil. She knows, from what

214 The Love of Learning, 37-39-

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