Chapter I
BOOK V Chapter I That we advance in the grace of contemplation by three modes We advance in the grace of contemplation by three modes:
One from grace alone; another with the addition of human activity; a third from the teaching of another person. We have a type and example of these three in three persons:
Moses, Bezeleel, and Aaron, if we reflect upon their deeds. First of all, Moses saw the ark on the mountain and in the cloud without any labor of activity and solely from the showing of the Lord. Bezeleel formed it by his own labor when he had been able to see it. However, Aaron was accustomed to see the ark that already had been formed by the work of another person. After the manner of Moses we see the Ark of the Lord without any human activity when we receive the ray of contemplation solely from a showing from the Lord. But we then advance in this very thing from our own work when we acquire skill in the same grace by means of our effort and labor, according to the example of Bezeleel, as it were. However, we then learn that we can see the Ark of the Lord by reason of the work of another, as it were, when we are accustomed to the use of such grace from the instruction of others. But we do not want what we say concerning the working of our activity to be understood as though we were able to do anything at all without the cooperation of grace, since our activity cannot do anything whatsoever except from grace. But it is one thing to receive the grace of contemplation as divinely given; it is quite another thing to acquire a gift of this sort from God by means of the cooperation of our own effort. And so, we obtain this
THE MYSTICAL ARK
grace by three modes: Now from divine inspiration, now from our own exertion, and now from the instruction of another.
But in fact, it ought to be noted that some persons are advanced to this grace by their own activity and without the teaching of any doctrine, who nevertheless in their contemplation are never in any way carried away as far as ecstasy of mind. However, some persons advance to the same grace by instruction from another more than by their own keenness of mind, who nevertheless in their contemplations often rise up as far as ecstasy of mind.
For this reason it is read that Bezeleel did build the ark, although he never went into it. But in fact, it cannot be doubted that according to custom Aaron entered into the ark that had been built already by the work of another and placed within the veil. Behold: In this work we who take up, as it were, the office of Bezeleel take the trouble to impart instruction to you for the pursuit of contemplation and to sweat greatly in making this ark. Nevertheless, you go before me by a long way in this grace if, after having been assisted by these things you hear, you are better able to go within the interior of the veil and if you are able to perceive by ecstasy of mind and see, as it were, within the veil that at which we labor out in the open, as it were, and comprehend and assign according to ordinary usage.
It should be noted that some persons, when they return to themselves in the ordinary state of the soul, are completely unable to recollect and to grasp those things which they catch sight of in alienation of the mind. So it is that King Nebuchadnezzar saw a dream, but when awakened from sleep, he was not able to recall the dream to memory (Dan.
2:1). Some persons easily reexamine afterward what they considered by ecstasy.
Others greatly sweat with much labor in order to do this. So it is that King Pharaoh saw a dream and retained the vision (Gen. 41:1-8). On the other hand.
King Nebuchadnezzar recovered the lost dream with much diligent effort. The Ark of the Lord was shown to Moses on the mountain by a showing from the Lord; but afterward in the valley it was known familiarly and seen often. Again, other persons who rarely and as though fortuitously have ecstasy of mind in their contemplations begin at some time to have it familiarly. Hence it is that at long last Moses habitually went within the veil to the Ark of the Lord, which he first learned to see in the cloud only at the calling
RICHARD OF ST. VICTOR
and showing of the Lord. There are many things in all these mysteries that now neither can be nor ought to be treated individually.
Chapter H By what modes every contemplation is accustomed to happen: that is, by enlarging of the mind, by raising up of the mind, by alienation of the mind
It seems to me that the quality of contemplation is varied according to three modes. For now it happens by enlarging of the mind, now by raising up of the mind and at another time by alienation of the mind. Enlarging of the mind is when the sharp point of the soul is expanded more widely and is sharpened more intensely; yet this in no way goes beyond the mode of human activity. Raising up of the mind is when the vivacity of the understanding, being divinely irradiated, transcends the bounds of human activity; nevertheless it does not pass over into alienation of mind, so that what it sees is above it, and yet it does not withdraw even a little from accustomed things. Alienation of mind is when the memory of present things is forgotten by the mind, and by a transfiguration from divine working the mind goes over to a state of soul both alien and inaccessible to human activity. Those who are worthy to be raised up to the supreme stronghold of such grace experience these three kinds of contemplation. The first rises up from human activity; the third from divine grace alone; the middle one from the combination of both, that is from human activity and divine grace.
In the first stage we construct a stronghold, as it were, with our labor when by our effort and activity we acquire the art of contemplating. In the second stage, the ark is raised up on supporting shoulders and follows the traces of the cloud that goes before, as it were, when with busy activity and the cooperating grace of a showing that goes before, as it were, the ray of contemplation is enlarged.
In the third stage the ark is carried into the Holy of Holies and is placed within the veil, as it were, when the sharp point of the contemplative soul is gathered to the innermost recess of the mind and is cut off from the memory of exterior things by a veil of forgetting and alienation. And so the first stage pertains to
THE MYSTICAL ARK
constructing the ark; the second, to carrying forth the ark; the third, to bringing in the same and covering it with a veil. That which is said to Abraham by the Lord is rightly understood concerning the first stage: "Raise your eyes and look from the place in which you now are, to the North and the South, to the East and the West.
I shall give you all the land which you see" (Gen. 13:14-15).
That which is written concerning Moses is rightly understood concerning the second: "From the plains of Moab, Moses ascended upon Mount Nebo, on the peak of Pisgah opposite Jericho. And the Lord exhibited all the land from Gilead to Dan" (Deut.
34:1).
It concerns the third, however, that after the Lord led the witnesses of his transfiguration into a high mountain, he was covered over by a luminous cloud and also, just as has already been said above, that Moses approached the Lord in the middle of a cloud (Matt.
17: 1-8; Exod.
23:
16-18).
In the first Scripture passage Abraham is not commanded to ascend the mountain, nor is it read there that the Lord exhibited anything to him; but from the place in which he was, he was commanded to raise his eyes and to look around at the land that he was to receive. No mention of an ascension or exhibition is read there, in which either the elevation of a raised-up mind or the demonstration of a divine showing might be indicated. We raise our eyes from the place in which we are or are accustomed to be when we do not abandon the common and accustomed state of the soul in the manifestations of our contemplation. The mode of our comprehension is the place in which we are for a time by means of the understanding. We consider the greatness of the inheritance we shall receive when by the eyes of our contemplation we foresee long before how great a width of perfection we shall finally be able to attain at some time by means of the progress of our devotion. In these words of Scripture nothing is intimated that seems to go beyond human activity. For this reason they are suited for that first stage of contemplation. But that Moses is commanded to ascend the mountain and that the Lord is said to have exhibited to him the land of promise—give attention how expressly these seem to indicate the second stage of contemplation. What does that mountainous ascent of Moses mean except a kind of elevation of the human mind above the level of human possibility into supernal things?