The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350–1550)

Abstract

Bernard McGinn's The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism (1350–1550) engages with mysticism as it enters into the wider consciousness of the eager and pious laity emerging across late medieval Europe. It continues the author's tireless cataloging of the mystical tradition in a celebrated series of books and also provides a useful introduction for those unfamiliar with the role mysticism played in the late medieval period. For specialists, McGinn's work provides a refreshingly contextualized approach, reminding us that each of the writers he describes in detail, often writers who have not gained substantial scholarly attention before, both inherited and developed elements of this unique and interesting branch of spirituality.Late medieval Europe experienced something of an explosion of mystical thought. Yet, in comparison with continental Europe, England had relatively few mystical writings in earlier centuries. Works such as the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon prayer book The Book of Cerne, St. Anselm of Canterbury's Meditation on the Dread of Judgement in the eleventh century, and St. Aelred of Rievaulx's twelfth-century The Mirror of Love provide us with glimpses into the early establishment of the tradition that was to later flourish. By the end of the fifteenth century, however, England had produced some of the most diverse mystics of the period. It is vital to note that these writings were produced in the vernacular, or native tongue, and thus accessible to a wider audience than their Latin predecessors. The English mystics also exerted considerable influence on each other. The Augustinian monk Walter Hilton, whose most famous work was The Scale of Perfection, was influenced by the anonymous The Cloud of Unknowing, which was written around the same time. The anchoress Julian of Norwich, who set down her visions in an early shorter work, A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman, and later a more substantial version, A Revelation of Love, along with Richard Rolle's The Fire of Love were both known to Margery Kempe, the fifteenth-century mother of fourteen children and wife of a merchant in King's Lynn.Comparatively, Italy produced some of the mostly widely known mystical works in earlier centuries. Inspired by St. Francis of Assisi, Jacopone de Todi and Angela of Foligno emerged in the thirteenth century from the milieu of Franciscan mysticism. Perhaps the more recognizable names of Bonaventure and Thomas Aquinas reflect how widely the mystical tradition spread in the century and the enthusiasm acquired by those who adopted it, the culmination of which was undoubtedly its role in Dante's Divine Comedy. The fourteenth century saw the startling life of Catherine of Siena, a female mystic who traveled the country advocating clerical reform while also playing a major role in the relocation of the papacy from France to Rome. By the fifteenth century, female mystics such as Catherine of Genoa and Battistina Vernazza, well versed in the writings of their predecessors, established Italy as the home of one of the greatest lines of female mystical writers in the entire tradition.England and Italy along with the Low Countries form the main focus of McGinn's book, labeling the period 1350–1550 as “The Golden Age of Mysticism.” The task of covering these three locations in one single volume is monumental. This is reflected in McGinn's decision to split his book into three clear sections, each with its own introduction, to divide the subject up into manageable topics. These sections are titled “Late Medieval Mysticism in the Low Countries,” “Mysticism in Late Medieval Italy,” and “Mysticism in Late Medieval England.” While it is perhaps slightly unorthodox to subdivide by location rather than thematically, such an approach allows for a clear and focused analysis of the three areas in turn.The first section of the book focuses on late medieval mysticism in the Low Countries, an area that produced writers still understudied in modern accounts of mysticism. It is this oversight that McGinn seeks to rectify by tracing a tradition of Dutch mysticism through the writings of Jan van Ruusbroec, though he emphasizes that Ruusbroec was not the sole influence on the later mystical writings but, rather, epitomizes a set of concerns that featured in most works that followed (2). McGinn begins by exploring the life and writings of Ruusbroec, including a selection of primary source quotes to show his use of Trinitarian mysticism, which gave an essential role to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. McGinn's exploration is at its most lively and its most original when discussing Ruusbroec's use of “relational anthropology” (20) to show how man was made in God's image, followed by an expansive and detailed reading of the other main features of the mystic's work.The emphasis then shifts to the impact and influence of Ruusbroec's works, which McGinn argues are traceable through the Dutch mystic's time as prior of the Augustinian house of Groenendaal. This house produced various Dutch mystical writers, such as Willem Jordaens, Jan van Leeuwen, and Godeverd van Wevele, all of whom McGinn summarizes with extensive primary source quotations. Many well versed in studies of mysticism will perhaps find these the most enlightening summaries of the book, as these writers are all but nonexistent in anthologies on mysticism. The next section of the book is equally as original, with names such as Gheraert Appelmans and Sister Bertken, relative unknowns, finally gaining detailed scholarly attention with a close reading of their texts and an illumination of the wider contexts in which they wrote.The concluding chapter of this first section is more conceptual in focus. McGinn chooses to highlight the later sixteenth century as the time of a “true mystical renaissance” (143) in the eastern Netherlands, beginning with a fascinating exploration of the origins of a little-known work, The Evangelical Pearl, tracing its influence and the circulation of manuscript copies in several varying formats. The work has been much neglected by historians and only partly translated into English, making McGinn's gloss of its main features all the more interesting. The chapter ends with the author again pushing the existing boundaries of knowledge on mysticism, choosing to focus on another little-known work, The Arnhem Mystical Sermons, which is currently in the process of being translated into English (164–75).In the middle section of the book McGinn travels through a period of “turmoil and triumph” (177) in late medieval Italy. In doing so he first traces mystical elements in the poetry of Dante before moving on to discuss the writings of some of the better-known female mystics, Birgitta of Sweden and Catherine of Siena. Here McGinn highlights the strong concern about church reform in the writings of these female mystics, who prophesized that the Church was facing impending divine judgment for its abuses. After a lively conceptual discussion of “renaissance mysticism” in which McGinn handles the thorny subject of the role of Platonism in the tradition and gives a brief sketch of the early history of Christian Cabala, the focus shifts again to the “great cloud of witness” (292) that appeared to women in Italy in the period and resulted in an outpouring of female-authored mystical texts. McGinn argues that this increase in female mystics' writings is due to the higher literacy rates among women of both the aristocratic and bourgeoisie classes. More women read spiritual texts and were therefore encouraged to write their own experiences down. Here McGinn again shows his command of the source material, exploring the writings of several lesser-known female mystics in succession and placing them neatly within their wider contexts.The final part of the book focuses on the English situation. The English examples are challenging to anyone wishing to contribute new insights to current scholarship because they are the most widely researched and analyzed, with the female English mystics in particular becoming the mainstays of studies on the experiences of medieval women, particularly in feminist circles. By presenting the experiences of these mystics and the wider context of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England, McGinn therefore will not reveal anything completely new to scholars who have widely read on the subject. The example of Margery Kempe is proof of this. Although McGinn admits in the notes to this chapter that he includes only a “partial list” (655) of recent works on Kempe, there are some obvious omissions that could have furthered his argument about female mystics as prophetesses of reform. Sarah Rees Jones, for example, argues that The Book of Margery Kempe is in part a clerical construct that attacks the lesser clergy, who appear in a negative light throughout Margery's text.1 Highlighting such an alternative theory would have linked to McGinn's earlier exploration of Italian women mystics as the harbingers of church reform and perhaps given a more balanced picture of the complexities of the historical figure of Margery Kempe.This is only a minor criticism, however. The chapter overall is a fine synthesis of existing knowledge on the English mystics and would allow a reader who is unfamiliar with them to gain a strong understanding from which to explore the wider, complex, and often conflicting historiography. Any reader would finish the chapter feeling confident of the contents of the mystics' works, their production, and their wider context—an achievement considering the multitude of existing works that fail to deliver as clear an outline.This book is McGinn's fifth in his series The Presence of God: A History of Western Mysticism. Such is the expansive nature of the topic that the originally conceived three volumes were later expanded to seven to cover the substantial history of the tradition. The first two volumes, The Foundations of Mysticism (1991) and The Growth of Mysticism (1994), address the origins and development of mysticism. The Flowering of Mysticism (1998) explores the role of women in mysticism along with the Franciscan mystical tradition. The fourth, The Harvest of Mysticism (2005), addresses the German tradition, diverse enough to warrant a substantially lengthy study, focusing on writers such as Nicholas of Cusa and Henry Suso, along with the complex relationship between mysticism and heresy.Overall, McGinn has continued the admirable scholarship of his previous four volumes. Such is the length of the book and the variety of its contents that only a brief gloss has been presented here, which by no means does justice to the myriad of interesting paths the author follows as he explores the lives of a multitude of mystics, poets, and prophets. The book is a veritable gold mine of references that point to further works to explore. The forty-two-page bibliography alone is proof of McGinn's tireless attention to detail and the wide scope and consideration of his research. Yet, for all this, McGinn has still produced an accessible and useful book for researchers, students, and the general public alike. If McGinn continues as he has done here, then the next volume of the series, Mysticism in Divided Christianity, may just prove to be the most successful and interesting so far.

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