A History of Women Philosophers - vol. 3 1600-1900 (Mary Ellen Waithe, ed. publ. 1991, Kluwer Academic Publ., Netherlands)
Brief 1600-1900
17th century
18th century
19th century
20th century - Ayn Rand
Christine of Pisan
Eleanor of Aquitaine
1600-1900:Change from religious to secular society
Early in this period, only Italian universities ever made exceptions and admitted women.
With the closing of convents and the wholesale transfer of convent libraries to male monasteries and to male universities, women’s need to obtain an education required new approaches
18th-19th cent.Women formed salons
Last half of 19th cent:women’s colleges
3
1623-16731. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle:
Materialism, later admitted the possibility of eternal, omnipotent author of nature
1626-16892. Kristina Wasa, Queen of Sweden
Phil of religion - skepticism, corresponded with Descartes
1631-16793. Anne Finch Conway, Viscountess Conway: self-taught
Vitalism; was a strong influence on Leibniz
1648-16954. Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz: self-educated, late scholasticism in Mexico
Phil of religion - neoplatonic mysticism; Augustinian poet// playwright
entered religious order which encouraged study
“architectural representation of the nature of human knowledge”; discursive reasoning
1659-17085. Damaris Cudworth Masham
Locke and Cambridge Platonist school
Relationship between faith and reason and the morality of worldly pursuits (virtue in social intercourse); anti-Calvinist
1666-17316. Mary Astell: self-educated from Newcastle, England
Anti-Locke, but agrees with Locke that intuition was the best source of knowledge; epistemological religious issues
1679-17497. Catherine Trotter Cockburn: self-taught, playwright, Catholic
Locke; recognized philosopher by rulers, Locke and Leibniz
1706-17498. Gabrielle Emilie Le Tounelier de Breteuil du Chatelet-Lomont
Metaphysics—phil of science; Newtonian physics.Metaphysical foundation
1759-17979. Mary Wollstonecraft: England
Phil of education; social and political phil.
1823-?10. Clarisse Coignet
(a later pub.Women morally superior to men; rejected rationalism; glorified
1911)motherhood; support public education; changed laws before women’s
sufferage?
Man is an end in himself
1825-192111. Antoinette Brown Blackwell: American, 1st woman minister in US,
suffragist, novelist, poet
Women morally superior to men; rejected rationalism; glorified motherhood
“synthesized aspects of evolution? And a natural phil informed by Newtonian
physics and inspired by Christian faith.”
1834-189612. Julie Velten Favre: France, moral philosopher
Women morally superior to men; rejected rationalism; glorified womanhood- women’s virtue is to inculcate moral virtue through precept and example
Citizens of the world first, of family and state second.
1607-1678Anne Marie Von Schurman: Dutch born in German, studied Seneca at 11
Learning; argued that women were capable of scholarship
1612-?Bathsua Pell Makin: England, served in court
Learning; called for liberal education for women (separate from men)
1618-1680Elisabeth of Bohemia, Princess Palatine: Catholic convert, exciled after dad died, nun and abbess
critiqued Descartes, but they were friends
1646-1684Helena Lucretia Cornaro Piscopia: father educated, in a religious order
Aristotelian; Dr at age 32
1711-1778Laura Bassi Verati:Bologna, Italy
Aristotelian; Dr at 20 ½, five kids, taught physics=woman in male academia
1731-1791Catharine Sawbridge Macauley-Graham: England, traveled to US & France
Critiqued Hume, Hobbes and Rousseau.Political history; education - encourage PE and care of pets, men and women together
Sophia, a person of quality (pseud.)
Argued for equality based on previous male illogical arguments
1748-1793(Marie) Olympe de Gouges (Marie de Gouzes): French playwright
Guillotined; political activist
1780-1872Mary Fairfax Somerville: self-taught; Scots; natural philosopher,
experimental scientist; and suffragist; “tested” philosophic theory
1785-1848Anna Doyle Wheeler: Irish
Activist; Charles Fourier, Robert Owen, and Saint-Simon synthesis
Utilitarian society - consistent with female society and polittical equality
1800-1878Catherine Ward Beecher: US, older sister of Harriet, PK
Established Home Economics; activist
Female = more virtuous, moral superiority; Puritan “Common Sense” (Scottish) phil
1802-1876Harriet Martineau: England, much illness, went deaf
Auguste Comte’s positivist phil; spiritual maturation
1807-1858Harriet Hardy Taylor Mill: English; collaborated with John Stuart Mill
Abolition of slavery & enfranchisement (equality) of women (include employed while married)
1809-1875Jenny Poinsaard d’Hencourt: French, doctor obstetrics
Moved to Chicago, worked with Susan B Anthony et al.Wanted to legalize divorce in France
1819-1880George Eliot (Marian Evans): English, little formal ed, writer
Romantic humanist; closely affiliated with Herbert Spencer & George Henry Lewes
1830-1902ClemenceRoyer: born in Nantes
translated Darwin; “moral anthropology”
1836-1936Juliette Lambert LaMessire Adam
Sexual complementarity
1847-1930Christine Ladd-Franklin: Connecticut; philosopher-scientist
Psychology - Helmholtz; received PhD 44 years afterr completion
Hortense Allartde Meritens: French
Phil of religion and moral philosophy
They held different views of women’s socialrights
The Book of the City of Ladies
Christine asks Reason whether there was ever a woman who discovered hitherto unknown knowledge.
I, Christine, concentrating on these explanations of Lady Reason, replied to her regarding this passage: "My lady, I realize that you are able to cite numerous and frequent cases of women learned in the sciences and the arts. But I would then ask you
whether you know of any women who, through the strength of emotion and of subtlety of mind and comprehension, have themselves discovered any new arts and sciences which are necessary, good, and profitable, and which had higher to not been discovered or known. For it is not such a great feat of mastery to study and learn some field of knowledge already discovered by someone else as it is to discover by oneself some new and unknown thing."
She replied, "Rest assured, dear friend, that many noteworthy and great sciences and arts have been discovered through the understanding and subtlety of women, both in cognitive speculation, demonstrated in writing, and in the arts, manifested in manual works of labor. I will give you plenty of examples.
"First I will tell you of the noble Nicostrata whom the Italians call Carmentis. This lady was the daughter of a king of Arcadia, names Pallas. She had a marvelous mind, end owed by God with special gifts of knowledge: she was a great scholar in Greek
literature and had such fair and wise speech and venerable eloquence that the contemporary poets who wrote about her imagined she was beloved of the god Mercury. They claimed t hat a son whom she had with her husband, and who was in his
time most learned, was in fact the offspring of this god. Because of certain changes that came about in the land where she lived, this lady left her country in a large boat for the land of Italy, and in her company were her son and a great many people who followed her; she arrived at the river Tiber. Landing there, she proceeded to climb a high hill which she named the Palentine, after her father, where the city of Rome was later funded. Here, this lady and her son and all those who had followed her built a fortress. After discovering that the men of that country were all savages, she wrote certain laws, enjoining them to live in accord with right and reason, following justice. She was the first to institute laws in that country which subsequently became so renowned and from all the statutes of law derive. This lady knew through divine inspiration and the spirit of prophecy (in which she was remarkable distinguished, in addition to the other graces she possessed) how in time to come this land would be ennobled by excellence and famous over all the countries of the world. Therefore it seemed to her that once the grandeur of the Roman Empire, which would rule the entire world, had been established, it would not be right for the Romans to use the strange inferior letters and characters of another country. Moreover, in order to show forth her wisdom and the excellence of her mind to the centuries to come, she worked and studied so hard that she invented her own letters, which were completely different from those of other nations, that is, she established the Latin alphabet and syntax, spelling, the difference between vowels and consonants, as well as a complete introduction to the science of grammar. She gave and taught these letters to the people and wished that they be widely known. This was hardly a minor or unprofitable contribution to learning which this
woman invented, nor one for which she merits slight gratitude, for thanks to the subtlety of this teaching and to the great utility and profit which have since accrued to the world, one can say that nothing more worthy in the world was ever invented. The Italians were not ungrateful for this benefit, and rightly so, since for them this discovery was so fantastic that they not only deemed this woman to be greater than any man, but they also considered her a goddess and even honored her during her lifetime with divine honors. After her death they erected a temple to her, built at the foot of the hill where she had resided. To ensure eternal remembrance of this lady, they used many names taken from the science she had discovered and gave her name to many other things, so that the people of this country even called themselves Latins in honor of the science of Latin developed by this lady. Moreover, because ita, which means oui in French, is the strongest affirmation in Latin, they were not satisfied calling this country the 'Latin land,' but rather they wished that all the country beyond the mountains, which is quite
large and contains many diverse countries and dominions, be called Italy. Poems were named carmen in Latin, after this lady, Carmentis, and even the Romans who lived long afterward, called done of the gates of the city of Rome the Carmentalis.
Regardless of the prosperity which the Romans enjoyed and the majesty of some of their emperors, the Romans did not change these names, just as it is apparent in the present-day since they still survive.
"What more do you want, fair daughter/ Can one say anything more solemn about any man born of woman? And do not think for a minute that she was the only woman in the world by whom numerous and varied branches of learning have been
discovered!"
Bonnie Duncan
Eleanor of Aquitaine by: Stephanie Smith
Eleanor of Aquitaine and her husband Henry II formed one of the most potent concentration of forces in feudal Europe. Their relationship contained enough sex, power, and ambition to fuel a Hollywood movie. She was 30 and he was 19 when they met. As the future King of England, she saw him as a lusty, youthful adventurer. He saw in her a chance for a brilliant political alliance, as she owned more than half of France. They married in 1152 (Jones and Wilson 573).
For the next 20 years they would try to dominate each other. He ran around with other women and she sponsored many young troubadours. In the end she convinced her sons into making war on their father. He won and had her put in jail for 15 years. The last laugh was on him though -- she outlived him (Jones and Wilson 573)).
Eleanor's first husband was King Louis of France. Upon her entrance into royalty, she gained a shrewd knowledge of state affairs, as she refused to be the passive ornament of her husband's court. At the arrival of the crusades, she found herself eager
to join in the fight and to leave the tiresome political scene in search of adventure. Far from her romanticized dreams, its trials and disasters turned out to be a maturing experience for her (Owen 214).
Eleanor's inadequacy to produce royal heirs and the incompatible partnership of her and Louis led to their separation, which inclined her to seize the chance of marriage with the dynamic and equally powerful King Henry of England. In the first thirteen
years of their marriage she would produce a total of eight children: five boys and three girls. This satisfied her strong maternal instincts (Owen 215).
Despite her frequent pregnancies in her early years as queen of England, her existence was far from sedentary. She was often found traveling about England with her restless husband, and she retained a lively interest in domestic and international affairs,
always with her children's prospects in mind. As with Louis, her relations with Henry slowly deteriorated. It was not just his notorious bouts of temper or his well-known infidelities, which she had to tolerate. It was more that he lived in the frantic
present and she was devoted to the long-term dynastic ambitions for her sons--he acted and she planned her strategy for the distant future (Owen 215).
When her plan to have her children kill their father failed, he had her confined. Although imprisoned, she kept in touch with affairs. For her, this was a time for contemplation. When Henry gradually allowed her back on the public scene, she remained content acting as his pawn until she would be needed to play an active role once more (Owen 216.)
Death soon struck Eleanor's family. Her sons Henry and Geoffrey, and her daughter Matilda, were the first to go. This was soon followed by the death of her husband, Henry. But, in her late 60's, she found herself revitalized. Her remaining years were
to be full of activity, even after the sad deaths of more of her children: Marie, Alice, Joanna, and particularly Richard, her favorite. Her final resting place ended up being in her cherished abbey of Fontevrault (Owen 216).
Eleanor was a strong, willful women, who definitely lived her life to the fullest. She was a legend of her time. No matter what tragedy or obstacle stood in her path, she always found a way to carry on!
References:
Jones, Judy and William Wilson. An Incomplete Education. New York: Ballantine, 1996.
Owen, D.D.R. Eleanor of Aquitaine. Oxford: Blackwell, 1993.
The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen
(1098-1179)
Introduction
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a remarkable woman, a "first" in many fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as "Sybil of the Rhine", produced major works of theology and visionary writings. When few women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones. She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed. Although not yet canonized, Hildegard has been beatified, and is frequently referred to as St. Hildegard. Revival of interest in this extraordinary woman of the middle ages was initiated by musicologists and historians of science and religion. Less fortunately, Hildegard's visions and music had been hijacked by the New Age movement, whose music bears some resemblance to Hildegard's ethereal airs. Her story is important to all students of medieval history and culture and an inspirational account of an irresistible spirit and vibrant intellect overcoming social, physical, cultural, gender barriers to achieve timeless transcendence.
The Early Years
Hildegard was born a "10"th child (a tithe) to a noble family. As was customary with the tenth child, which the family could not
count on feeding, she was dedicated at birth to the church. The girl started to have visions of luminous objects at the age of tree, but soon realized she was unique in this ability and hid this gift for many years.
At age 8, the family sent this strange girl to an anchoress named Jutta to receive a religious education. Jutta was born into a wealthy and prominent family, and by all accounts was a young woman of great beauty. She spurned all worldly temptations
and decided to dedicate her life to god. Instead of entering a convent, Jutta followed a harsher route and became an anchoress.Anchors of both sexes, though from most accounts they seem to be largely women, led an ascetic life, shut off from the world
inside a small room, usually built adjacent to a church so that they could follow the services, with only a small window acting as their link to the rest of humanity. Food would be passed through this window and refuse taken out. Most of the time would be
spent in prayer, contemplation, or solitary handworking activities, like stitching and embroidering. Because they would become essentially dead to the world, anchors would receive their last rights from the bishop before their confinement in the anchorage.This macabre ceremony was a complete burial ceremony with the anchor laid out on a bier.
Jutta's cell was such an anchorage, except that there was a door through which Hildegard entered, as well as about a dozen of girls from noble families who were attracted there by Jutta's fame in later years. What kind of education did Hildegard receive from Jutta? It was of the most rudimentary form, and Hildegard could never escape the feelings of inadequacy and lack of education. She learned to read Psalter in Latin. Though her grasp of the grammatical intricacies of the language was never
complete - she always had secretaries to help her write down her visions - she had a good intuitive feel for the intricacies of the language itself, constructing complicated sentences fraught with meanings on many levels, that are still a challenge to students of her writings. The proximity of the anchorage to the church of the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg (it was attached physically to the church) undoubtedly exposed young Hildegard to musical religious services and were the basis for her own
musical compositions. After Jutta's death, when Hildegard was 38 years of age, she was elected the head of the budding convent living within cramped walls of the anchorage.
The Awakening
During all these years Hildegard confided of her visions only to Jutta and another monk, named Volmar, who was to become her lifelong secretary. However, in 1141, Hildegard had a vision that changed the course of her life. A vision of god gave her instant understanding of the meaning of the religious texts, and commanded her to write down everything she would observe in her visions.
And it came to pass ... when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming... and suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the books...
Yet Hildegard was also overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy and hesitated to act.
But although I heard and saw these things, because of doubt and low opinion of myself and because of diverse sayings of men, I refused for a long time a call to write, not out of stubbornness but out of humility, until weighed down by a scourge of god, I fell onto a bed of sickness.
The 12th century was also the time of schisms and religious foment, when someone preaching any outlandish doctrine could instantly attract a large following. Hildegard was critical of schismatics, indeed her whole life she preached against them,
especially the Cathars. She wanted her visions to be sanctioned, approved by the Catholic Church, though she herself never doubted the divine origins to her luminous visions. She wrote to St. Bernard, seeking his blessings. Though his answer to her
was rather perfunctory, he did bring it to the attention of Pope Eugenius (1145-53), a rather enlightened individual who exhorted Hildegard to finish her writings. With papal imprimatur, Hildegard was able to finish her first visionary work Scivias ("Know the Ways of the Lord") and her fame began to spread through Germany and beyond.
Major Works
Around 1150 Hildegard moved her growing convent from Disibodenberg, where the nuns lived alongside the monks, to Bingen about 30 km north, on the banks of the Rhine. She later founded another convent, Eibingen, across the river from Bingen. Her
remaining years were very productive. She wrote music and texts to her songs, mostly liturgical plainchant honoring saints and Virgin Mary for the holidays and feast days, and antiphons. There is some evidence that her music and moral play Ordo Virtutum ("Play of Virtues") were performed in her own convent. In addition to Scivias she wrote two other major works of visionary writing Liber vitae meritorum (1150-63) (Book of Life's Merits) and Liber divinorum operum(1163) ("Book of Divine Works"), in which she further expounded on her theology of microcosm and macrocosm-man being the peak of god's creation, man as a mirror through which the splendor of the macrocosm was reflected. Hildegard also authored Physica and Causae et Curae (1150), both works on natural history and curative powers of various natural objects, which are together
known as Liber subtilatum ("The book of subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Things"). These works were uncharacteristic of Hildegard's writings, including her correspondences, in that they were not presented in a visionary form and don't contain any references to divine source or revelation. However, like her religious writings they reflected her religious philosophy-that the man was the peak of god's creation and everything was put in the world for man to use.
Her scientific views were derived from the ancient Greek cosmology of the four elements-fire, air, water, and earth-with their complementary qualities of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, and the corresponding four humours in the body-choler (yellow
bile), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile). Human constitution was based on the preponderance of one or two of the humours. Indeed, we still use words "choleric", "sanguine", "phlegmatic" and "melancholy" to describe personalities. Sickness
upset the delicate balance of the humours, and only consuming the right plant or animal which had that quality you were missing, could restore the healthy balance to the body. That is why in giving descriptions of plants, trees, birds, animals, stones, Hildegard is mostly concerned in describing that object's quality and giving its medicinal use. Thus, "Reyan (tansy) is hot and a little damp and is good against all superfluous flowing humours and whoever suffers from catarrh and has a cough, let him eat tansy. It will bind humors so that they do not overflow, and thus will lessen."
Hildegard's writings are also unique for their generally positive view of sexual relations and her description of pleasure from the point of view of a woman. They might also contain the first description of the female orgasm.
When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her brain, which brings with it sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during the act and summons forth the emission of the man's seed. And when the seed has fallen into its place, that vehement heat descending from her brain draws the seed to itself and holds
it, and soon the woman's sexual organs contract, and all the parts that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation now close, in the same way as a strong man can hold something enclosed in his fist.
She also wrote that strength of semen determined the sex of the child, while the amount of love and passion determine child's disposition. The worst case, where the seed is weak and parents feel no love, leads to a bitter daughter.
Divine Harmonies
Music was extremely important to Hildegard. She describes it as the means of recapturing the original joy and beauty of paradise. According to her before the Fall, Adam had a pure voice and joined angels in singing praises to god. After the fall,
music was invented and musical instruments made in order to worship god appropriately. Perhaps this explains why her music most often sounds like what we imagine angels singing to be like.
Hildegard wrote hymns and sequences in honor of saints, virgins and Mary. She wrote in the plainchant tradition of a single vocal melodic line, a tradition common in liturgical singing of her time. Her music is undergoing a revival and enjoying huge public success. One group, Sequentia, is planning to record all of Hildegard's musical output in time for the 900th anniversary of her birth in 1998. Their latest recording Canticles of Ecstasy is superb. Be sure to read the translations of the latin text of the songs which provide a good example of Hildegard's metaphorical writing, and are imbued with vibrant descriptions of color and light, that also occurs in her visionary writings.
The Most Distinguished Migraine Sufferer
It is now generally agreed that Hildegard suffered from migraine, and that her visions were a result of this condition. The way she describes her visions, the precursors, to visions, to debilitating aftereffects, point to classic symptoms of migraine sufferers.
Although a number of visual hallucinations may occur, the more common ones described are the "scotomata" which often follow perceptions of phosphenes in the visual field. Scintillating scotomata are also associated with areas of total blindness in
the visual field, something Hildegard might have been describing when she spoke of points of intense light, and also the "extinguished stars." Migraine attacks are usually followed by sickness, paralysis, blindness-all reported by Hildegard, and when they pass, by a period of rebound and feeling better than before, a euphoria also described by her. Also, writes Oliver Sacks
Among the strangest and most intense symptoms of migraine aura, and the most difficult of description and analysis, are the occurrences of feelings of sudden familiarity and certitude... or its opposite. Such states are experienced, momentarily and occasionally, by everyone; their occurrence in migraine auras is marked by their overwhelming intensity and relatively long duration.
It is a tribute to the remarkable spirit and the intellectual powers of this woman that she was able to turn a debilitating illness into the word of god, and create so much with it.
Hildegard today
Bingen, as it exists today, a travel essay contributed by Wolfgang Wanner. See also Tracks of Hildegard in Today's Bingen(German), as well as travel information.
Bibliography:
Hildegard of Bingen, a Visionary Life, by Sabina Flanagan. (Routledge, London, 1989).
Secrets of God: Writings of Hildegard of Bingen, selected and translated from Latin by Sabina Flanagan. (Shambala Publications, Boston and London, 1996).
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Oliver Sacks. (New York : Perennial Library, 1987).
Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the "Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum, trans. and commentary Barbara Newman (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1988).
Scivias, trans. Mother Columba Hart and Jane Bishop, The Classics of Western Spirituality (New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1990).
Illuminations of Hildegard of Bingen, text by Hildegard of Bingen with commentary by Matthew Fox. (Santa Fe, N.M. : Bear & Co., 1985).
Hildegard of Bingen : the Book of the rewards of life (Liber vitae meritorum), translated by Bruce W. Hozeski.
(New York : Garland Pub., 1994).
The letters of Hildegard of Bingen, translated by Joseph L. Baird, Radd K. Ehrman. (New York : Oxford University Press, 1994).
Sister of wisdom : St. Hildegard's theology of the feminine, by Barbara Newman. (Berkeley : University of California Press, 1987).
The "Ordo virtutum" of Hildegard of Bingen : critical studies edited by Audrey Ekdahl Davidson. (Kalamazoo, Mich. : Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1992).
Hildegard von Bingen : Mystikerin, Heilerin, Gefahrtin der Engel, by Ingeborg Ulrich. (Munchen : Kosel, 1990).
German mysticism from Hildegard of Bingen to Ludwig Wittgenstein : a literary and intellectual history, by Andrew Weeks. (Albany : State University of New York Press, 1993).
Hildegard von Bingen, by Heinrich Shipperges (Muenchen: Beck, 1995).
Gottfried and Theodoric's Life of Hildegard of Bingen, by Hugh Feiss is available from Peregrina.
Glossary
Plain.chant or plain.song \'plaÅn-,chant\ n or \'plaÅn-,soÇn\ n (1513)
1: GREGORIAN CHANT
1: easily moved to often unreasonable or excessive anger: hot-tempered
2: ANGRY, IRATE
an.ti.phon \'ant-e-fen, -,faÈn\ n
[LL antiphona Ð more at ANTHEM] (1500)
1: a psalm, anthem, or verse sung responsively
2: a verse usu. from Scripture said or sung before and after a canticle, psalm, or psalm verse as part of the liturgy
san.guine \'san-gwen\ adj [ME sanguin, fr. MF, fr. L sanguineus, fr. sanguin-, sanguis] (14c)
1: BLOODRED
2a: consisting of or relating to blood
b: SANGUINARY 1
c: of the complexion: RUDDY
3: having blood as the predominating bodily humor; also: having the bodily conformation and temperament held characteristic
of such predominance and marked by sturdiness, high color, and cheerfulness
4: CONFIDENT, OPTIMISTIC
phleg.mat.ic \fleg-'mat-ik\ adj (14c)
1: resembling, consisting of, or producing the humor phlegm
2: having or showing a slow and stolid temperament
mel.an.choly \'mel-en-,kaÈl-eÅ\ [ME malencolie, fr. MF melancolie, fr. LL melancholia, fr. Gk, fr. melan- + choleÅ bile Ð
more at GALL] (14c)
1a: an abnormal state attributed to an excess of black bile and characterized by irascibility or depression
b: BLACK BILE
c: MELANCHOLIA
2a: depression of spirits: DEJECTION
REVELATIONS of DIVINE LOVE - Recorded by JULIAN,
Anno Domini 1371
In lumine tuo videbimus lumen.
A version from the MS. in the BRITISH MUSEUM
edited by GRACE WARRACK
Methuen & Co. Ltd
34 Essex Street Strand
London
Introduction
First Revelation -- Of His precious crowning with thorns; and therewith was comprehended and specified the Trinity, with the Incarnation, and unity betwixt God and man's soul; with many fair shewings of endless wisdom and teachings of love: in which all the Shewings that follow be grounded and oned.
Second Revelation -- The changing of colour of His fair face in token of His dearworthy Passion.
Third Revelation -- That our Lord God, Allmighty Wisdom, All-Love, right as verily as He hath made everything that is, all-so verily He doeth and worketh all-thing that is done.
Fourth Revelation -- The scourging of His tender body, with plenteous shedding of His blood.
Fifth Revelation That the Fiend is overcome by the precious Passion of Christ.
Sixth Revelation The worshipful thanking by our Lord God in which He rewardeth His blessed servants in Heaven.
Seventh Revelation -- [Our] often feeling of weal and woe; with ghostly understanding that we are kept all as securely in Love in woe as in weal, by the Goodness of God.
Eighth Revelation -- Of the last pains of Christ, and His cruel dying.
Ninth Revelation -- Of the pleasing which is in the Blissful Trinity by the hard Passion of Christ and His rueful dying: in which joy and pleasing He willeth that we be solaced and mirthed with Him, till when we come to the fulness in Heaven.
Tenth Revelation -- Our Lord Jesus sheweth in love His blissful heart even cloven in two, rejoicing.
Eleventh Revelation -- An high ghostly Shewing of His dearworthy Mother.
Twelfth Revelation -- That our Lord is most worthy Being.
Thirteenth Revelation -- That our Lord God willeth we have great regard to all the deeds that He hath done: in the great nobleness of the making of all things; and the excellency of man's making, which is above all his works; and the precious Amends that He hath made for man's sin, turning all our blame into endless worship.
Fourteenth Revelation -- That our Lord is the Ground of our Prayer. Herein were seen two properties: the one is rightful prayer, the other is steadfast trust; which He willeth should both be alike large; and thus our prayer pleaseth Him and He of His Goodness fulfilleth it.
Fifteenth Revelation -- That we shall suddenly be taken from all our pain and from all our woe, and of His Goodness we shall come up above, where we shall have our Lord Jesus for our meed and be fulfilled with joy and bliss in Heaven.
Sixteenth Revelation -- That the Blissful Trinity, our Maker, in Christ Jesus our Saviour, endlessly dwelleth in our soul, worshipfully ruling and protecting all things, us mightily and wisely saving and keeping, for love; and we shall not be overcome of our Enemy.
Transcribed by John Ockerbloom ([email protected])
This document (last modified July 15, 1997) from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library server, at Wheaton College
THE DIALOGUE OF THE SERAPHIC VIRGIN CATHERINE OF
SIENA. DICTATED BY HER, WHILE IN A STATE OF ECSTASY,
TO HER SECRETARIES, AND COMPLETED
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1370
Translated by Algar Thorold. Englished modernized by Harry Plantinga
This etext is in the public domain.
"Man is placed above all creatures, and not beneath them, and he cannot be satisfied or content except in something greater than himself. Greater than himself there is nothing but Myself, the Eternal God. Therefore I alone can satisfy him, and, because
he is deprived of this satisfaction by his guilt, he remains in continual torment and pain. Weeping follows pain, and when he begins to weep, the wind strikes the tree of self-love, which he has made the principle of all his being." (Page 203). This work was dictated by Saint Catherine of Siena during a state of ecstasy while in dialogue with God the Father. Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was declared a Doctor of the Church on October 4, 1970.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Introduction
A Treatise of Divine Providence
A Treatise of Discretion
A Treatise of Prayer
A Treatise of Obedience
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This document (last modified April 18, 1997) from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library server, at Wheaton College
THE DIALOGUE OF THE SERAPHIC VIRGIN CATHERINE OF
SIENA
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A TREATISE OF PRAYER
Of the means which the soul takes to arrive at pure and generous love; and here begins the Treatise of Prayer.
"WHEN the soul has passed through the doctrine of Christ crucified, with true love of virtue and hatred of vice, and has arrived at the house of self-knowledge and entered therein, she remains, with her door barred, in watching and constant prayer, separated entirely from the consolations of the world. Why does she thus shut herself in? She does so from fear, knowing her own imperfections, and also from the desire, which she has, of arriving at pure and generous love. And because she sees and knows well that in no other way can she arrive thereat, she waits, with a lively faith for My arrival, through increase of grace in her. How is a lively faith to be recognized? By perseverance in virtue, and by the fact that the soul never turns back for anything, whatever it be, nor rises from holy prayer, for any reason except (note well) for obedience or charity's sake. For no other reason ought she to leave off prayer, for, during the time ordained for prayer, the Devil is wont to arrive in the soul, causing much more conflict and trouble than when the soul is not occupied in prayer. This he does in order that holy prayer may become tedious to the soul, tempting her often with these words: 'This prayer avails you nothing, for you need attend to nothing except your vocal prayers.' He acts thus in order that, becoming wearied and confused in mind, she may abandon the exercise of prayer, which is a weapon with which the soul can defend herself from every adversary, if grasped with the hand of love, by the arm of free choice in the light of the Holy Faith."