Notes
Notes
SHORT TEXT
terror and turmoil of the fiends: Medieval pictures of death-beds often show devils waiting eagerly to grasp the dying person’s soul.
Saint Cecilia … painfully died: The legend of Saint Cecilia recounts that she was an aristocratic Christian girl in pagan Rome who, after converting her intended husband and his brother to Christianity, was sentenced to be beheaded. Three sword strokes failed to kill her immediately, but she died three days later. In the late fourteenth century Chaucer retold the story and included it in The Canterbury Tales as the ‘Second Nun’s Tale’.
Benedicite dominus: ‘Blessed be thou, Lord!’
Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: Luke 1:38.
three nothings: Probably (in this chapter) all that is created, and (in ) sin and the Devil. Julian repeats various forms of the word nought throughout this paragraph, as indicated by the repetitions of ‘nothing’ in the translation.
an instant: The word used by Julian, poynte, can mean a point of space or of time.
what sin is … as I shall recount later: In and .
every man’s age: I.e. the age at which a person dedicated himself or herself to God.
Lord save me, I perish: Julian alludes to but does not quote exactly Saint Paul’s words in Romans 8:35 and the cries for help of the disciples in Matthew 8:25 and of Saint Peter in Matthew 14:30.
I thirst: Christ’s words on the cross in John 19:28.
spiritual thirst … as I shall say later: In .
as Saint Paul says … in Jesus Christ: Cf. Philippians 2:5, which in the Vulgate reads: ‘Hoc enim sentite in vobis’ (literally, ‘For feel this in you’).
only in pain: Here Julian deliberately rejects the possibility of transcendent contemplation of the Godhead, almost as if it were a temptation, in favour of a continuing focus on Christ in his suffering Humanity.
blessed Manhood of Christ: In what follows, the bodily emphasis of Julian’s vision goes so far that she sees the whole Trinity within Christ’s Humanity.
the longing I had had for him: This is ‘the wound of an earnest longing for God’ mentioned by Julian in as part of the third gift she had asked from God before she received her showings.
our Lord is our portion: Cf. Psalm 15:5 (16:5 in Protestant Bibles).
privy counsel should be undisturbed: Julian imagines God as if he were an earthly king with a ‘privy council’ with whom he discusses high matters of state.
David … Magdalene: Julian lists various sinners who are nevertheless honoured by the Church for their spiritual achievements. David, the king of Judah, traditionally regarded as the author of the Psalms and as the human ancestor of Jesus, committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband Uriah. Mary Magdalene, to whom Jesus appeared after his resurrection (Mark 16:9), was identified in the Middle Ages with the ‘sinner’ who washed and anointed Jesus’ feet and was told by him, ‘Thy sins are forgiven thee’ (Luke 7:37–48); her sin was said to have been sexual promiscuity or even prostitution. She was also identified with Mary the sister of Martha; Martha complained that Mary did not help her serve Jesus when he visited their house, but merely sat at his feet and ‘heard his word’, but Jesus told her, ‘Mary hath chosen the best part which shall not be taken away from her’ (Luke 10:38–42). Since Mary and Martha were seen as types of the contemplative and active lives, Mary Magdalene would have a special interest for Julian, who chose the best part in becoming an anchorite and receiving God’s showings rather than serving society. Peter, the apostle whom Jesus described as the rock on which he would build his Church (Matthew 16:18), and who became the first Pope, sinned conspicuously after Jesus’ arrest in denying three times that he was one of his followers (Matthew 26:69–74). Paul had sinned in persecuting the earliest Christians, before undergoing a visionary conversion on the road to Damascus, embarking on his great missionary journeys and writing the epistles on which Christian theology was founded. Thomas was famous as the apostle who questioned Jesus’ resurrection until he was able to touch the wounds in his hands and side (John 20:25–9); but it was believed that he later made good this sin of doubt by taking Christianity to India, where he was martyred.
sufferings: In this passage, and in others in both texts, Julian uses the word payne to mean both ‘suffering’ and ‘punishment’ (the two senses are not clearly distinguished in Middle English). Translation is difficult, because for Julian sin is both suffering and its own punishment.
‘Pater noster’, ‘Ave’ and the Creed: The Lord’s Prayer, ‘Hail Mary’ and Creed, the basic Catholic devotions, also contain the principles of Catholic doctrine. As well as being used for private devotion, they would have been recited in English by ordinary people while the liturgy of the Mass was being performed in Latin.
By this is the Fiend overcome: .
doubtful fear: I.e. fear arising from doubt of God’s goodness.
love is nearest to us all: Love is the attribute of the Holy Ghost, as truth is of the Father and wisdom of the Son.