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Geschiedenis van de Christelijke Mystiek rond personen(19)
Middeleeuwen:
Engelse mystiek
English mysticism seems to have its roots in the religious
revival which arose during Stephen's reign. It was then, and throughout its course,
closely linked with the solitary life. Its earliest literary monument, the "Ancren
Riwle," was written early in the twelfth century for the use of three anchoresses.
So too the "Meditations" of St. Aldred (Abbot of Rievaulx 1146-1166),
and the Rule he wrote for his anchoress sister, presuppose the desire for the
mystical life. But the first English mystic we can name with certainty is Margery
Kempe (probably writing c. 1290), the anchoress of Lynn. Even so, we know nothing
of this woman's life; and only a fragment of her "Contemplations" has
survived. It is with the next name, Richard Rolle of Hampole (c. 1300-1349), that
the short but brilliant procession of English mystics begins. Rolle, educated
at Oxford and perhaps at Paris, and widely read in theology, became a hermit in
order to live in perfection that mystic life of "Heat, Sweetness, and Song,"
to which he felt himself to be called. Richard of St. Victor, St. Bernard, and
St. Bonaventura are the authors who have influenced him most; but he remains,
in spite of this, one of the most individual of all writers on mysticism. A voluminous
author, his chief works are still in MS., and he seems to have combined the careers
of writer and wandering preacher with that of recluse. He laid claim to direct
inspiration, was outspoken in his criticisms of religious and secular life, and
in the next generation the Lollards were found to appeal to his authority. Rolle
already shows the practical temper characteristic of the English school. His interest
was not philosophy, but spiritual life; and especially his own experience of it.
There is a touch of Franciscan poetry in his descriptions of his communion with
Divine Love, and the "heavenly song" in which it was expressed; of Franciscan
ardour in his zeal for souls. His works greatly influenced succeeding English
mystics. He was followed in the second half of the fourteenth century by the
unknown author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" and its companion treatises,
and by the gracious spirit of Walter Hilton (ob. 1396). With "The Cloud of
Unknowing," the spirit of Dionysius first appears in English literature.
It is the work of an advanced contemplative, deeply influenced by the Areopagite
and the Victorines, who was also an acute psychologist. From the hand that wrote
it came the first English translation of the "Theologia Mystica," "Dionise
Hid Divinite": a work which, says an old writer, "ran across England
at deere rates," so ready was the religious consciousness of the time for
the reception of mystical truth. Hilton, though also influenced by Dionysius
and Richard of St. Victor, addresses a wider audience. He is pre-eminently a spiritual
director, the practical teacher of interior ways, not a metaphysician; and his
great work "The Scale of Perfection" quickly took rank among the classics
of the spiritual life. The moment of his death coincides with the completion of
the most beautiful of all English mystical works, the "Revelations of Love"
of the anchoress Julian of Norwich (1343 - died after 1413), "theodidacta,
profunda, ecstatica," whose unique personality closes and crowns the history
of English medieval mysticism. In her the best gifts of Rolle and Hilton are transmuted
by a "genius for the infinite" of a peculiarly beautiful and individual
type. She was a seer, a lover, and a poet. Though considerable theological knowledge
underlies her teaching, it is in essence the result of a direct and personal vision
of singular intensity.
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LITURGIE
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