Christ as Creator, reproduced from Plenarium, Augsburg, 1473
Christ as Creator, reproduced
from
Plenarium,
Augsburg, 1473
n
translating Julian of Norwich's Showing of Love in 1991 from
the
Syon Abbey manuscript owned by Westminster Cathedral and now on loan to
Westminster Abbey, her own English words were kept, rather than
translating
them into our Latinate forms, her 'oneing' instead of our 'uniting',
her
'noughting' instead of our 'negating', her 'endlessness' instead of our
'eternity'. Somehow the Latin hides their meaning into its foreignness.
The English words' truth, though now so unusual that they seem foreign,
are actually closer to what we mean. Also, Julian's theological
concepts
can have a very modern ring. Computers, like brains and noughts and
crosses
games, generally simply 'one' and 'nought' their way through problems.
Julian's 'oneing' is one's shaping oneself to that of God, 'noughting'
the opposite of 'oneing', as evil, which therefore does not exist. Her
'endlessness' is of God, who is all time, but smaller and smaller bits
of time, like death, are of 'noughting'.
There are three versions of Julian's Showing of Love. The first, the Westminster Manuscript, of which excerpts are given here, was written perhaps in 1368 when she was twenty-five. The Long Text, given in the Paris Manuscript and in three Sloane and Stowe Manuscripts in the British Library, presents a text originally written when she was fifty, in 1393, discussing a vision of the Crucifix she had had when she lay, she thought, dying, in 1373. A final version, the Short Text, is given in the British Library Amherst Manuscript, and states it was written when she was still alive in 1413, at seventy, when the Lollards, ancestors to the Quakers, were being burned at the stake. That manuscript also contains Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls , Henry Suso's Horologium Sapientiae and Jan van Ruusbroec's Sparkling Stone (the latter two now transcribed in booklets in the Julian Library Portfolio) amongst other contemplative texts. All of these early Julian manuscripts are connected to Brigittine Syon Abbey. This manuscript was owned by the courageous Lowe family. The last monk to be buried at Syon Abbey at the Reformation was a Lowe. The Lowes in exile continued to be associated with Syon Abbey in exile in the Low Countries and Rouen, women, as well as men, being imprisoned for their recusancy, and a Lowe priest was drawn, hung and quartered at Tyburn for converting five hundred souls to Catholicism. In the nineteenth century Rose Lowe entered Syon Abbey in Lisbon, saving it from extinction under Wellington's deprivations in Portugal and became its Prioress. Bishop James Bramston studied for ordination at the English College, Lisbon. The manuscript then passed from Lowe ownership into his hands, being rebound at this date, and finally to Westminster Cathedral.
Julian thus spent her whole life writing this book. From the age of fifty on she lived as a Solitary, an Anchoress, in an anchorhold at St Julian's Church, Norwich, probably dressed in the black of a Benedictine nun, for she may have earlier been at Carrow Priory, and she gave counsel to troubled people, like Margery Kempe from Lynn. In all these versions, except the last, Julian gives passages from the Bible in her Middle English, from Isaiah, from Jonah, from the Epistles and much else, but she dare not do so in the 1413 version when to own or use John Wyclif' s translation of the Bible into English would have caused one to have been burnt at the stake as a Lollard heretic. Strangely she uses neither Jerome 's Latin Vulgate nor Wyclif's Middle English, the evidence being that she has access to the Hebrew of the Scriptures, likely gained through Cardinal Adam Easton who had taught the Hebrew Scriptures at Oxford and who had translated them into Latin, correcting Jerome's errors. But she is not an elitist scholar. Her last word in her last version is the Lollard term, one's 'even Christian', one's neighbour as one's equal in the eyes of one's Creat or
Julian
begins
the
Westminster
Manuscript
by imagining the Virgin Mary worshipping her
Child. The initial {
in the manuscript is illuminated
in blue with red penwork ornamentation,
the text written in brownish ink. It echoes the lovely Advent Antiphon,
{
Sapientiae, where the pregnant Virgin
worships and addresses her not yet born child as Wisdom.
Ure
gracious & goode/ lorde god shewed me in/ party the wisdom
& the trewthe/ of the soule of oure blessed lady/
saynt
mary.
where in I vnder/stood the reuerent beholdynge/ that
she
behelde her god th at is/ her maker. maruelynge with/ grete
reuerence that he wolde be borne of her that was a/
simple
creature
of his makyng.
Later, Julian speaks of the tender hands of God as our Mother. I have here used a painting by the abused woman painter, Artemisa Gentileschi, of the Virgin and Child.
The
manuscript
has
drawings
of hands
in the margin pointing to important parts of the text. The sections
given
here in red are so rubricated in the Paris Manuscript, but not in the
Westminster
Manuscript. In other manuscripts these phrases are in engrossed
letters,
which in one instance, occurs in the Westminster Manuscript and which
may
have been Julian's own practice, perhaps borrowed from Rabbinical
texts,
as in the manuscript of Rabbi David
Kimhi , owned by Cardinal Adam
Easton
, Benedictine from Norwich, who effected Birgitta
of
Sweden 's canonization in 1391.
{
· · ·
Westminster Cathedral Manuscript, Julian of Norwich, Showing of Love
Italian blessed olive leaves , Australian hazel nut
Earth First Seen From Space
And in this
he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel
nut , lying in the palm
of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked
upon
it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, 'What may this be?'
And
it was answered generally thus,'It is all
that is made.' I marvelled how it might
last,
for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nought for littleness.
And
I was answered in my understanding: It
lasts and ever shall, for God loves it.
And
so have all things their beginning by the love of God.
In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it. But what is this to me? Truly, the Creator, the Keeper, the Lover. For until I am substantially oned to him, I may never have full rest nor true bliss. That is to say, until I be so fastened to him that there is nothing that is made between my God and me.
This little thing that is made, I thought it might have fallen to nought for littleness. Of this we need to have knowledge that it is like to nought, all things that are made. For to love and have God that is unmade.
For this is the cause why we are not at ease in heart and soul, for we seek rest here, in this thing that is so little where there is no rest, and knowing not our God who is all mighty, all wise and all good. For he is true rest. God will be known, and he likes us to rest in him. For all that is beneath him cannot suffice us. And this is the cause why no soul is rested, until it is noughted of all that is made. And when he wills to be noughted for love, to have him who is all, then he is able to receive spiritual rest.
Also our Lord showed that it is the fullest pleasure to him, that an innocent soul come to him nakedly, plainly and humbly. For this is the natural yearning of the soul by the touching of the Holy Spirit. And by the understanding that I have in this showing,
Westminster Cathedral Manuscript, Julian of Norwich, Showing of Love
After this, I saw God in a point. That is to say in my understanding. But which sight I saw that he is all things. I beheld with advisement, seeing and knowing in that sight, that he does all that is done, be it never so little. And I saw that nothing is done by chance, nor by hazard, but all by the foreseeing of God's wisdom. And if it be chance or fortune in the sight of man, our blindness and our lack of foresight is the cause. Therefore, well I know that in sight of our lord God, there is not chance or happenstance. And therefore it needs behoove me to grant that all things that are done, are well done, because our lord God does all. For in this time the working of Creation was not showed but of our lord God, in Creation, for he is in the midpoint of all things, and he does all.
And I was sure that he does no sin. And here I saw truly that sin is no deed. Also among other showings our good Lord means thus, 'See, I am God. See, I am in all things. See, I do all things. See, I never left off the works of my hand, nor ever shall, without end. See, I lead all things to the end, to which I ordained them, from without beginning, by the same power, wisdom and love, that I made them with. How should then anything be amiss?'
I
saw
full
surely
that he never changes his purpose in any manner of
thing,
nor ever shall without end. For there was nothing unknown to him in his
rightful ordering from without beginning. And therefore all things were
set in order before anything was made, as it should be without end.
·
·
·
And this was shown in these words,'Are you
well paid' . By
those
other
words
that Christ said, 'If
you
are paid, I am paid'.
As if he had said,'It is joy and liking
enough
to me, and I ask nothing else of you for my travail, but that I might
pay
you' . And
it
is this he brought to my mind. The property of a glad giver: a glad
giver
takes but little heed of the thing that he gives, but his desire is in
all his intent, to please him and solace him to whom he gives it. And
if
the receiver takes the gift gladly and thankfully, then the courteous
giver
sets at nought all his cost and all his travail for joy and delight
that
he has, for he has so pleased and solaced him whom he loves.
Plenteously
and fully was this shown.
·
·
·
Also our
Lord
showed for prayer, in which showing I saw two conditions in our Lord's
meaning. One is right full prayer. And the other is sure trust. But yet
often our trust is not full, for we are not sure that God hears us, we
think, because of our unworthiness, and because of that we feel
nothing.
For we are as barren and as dry often after our prayer, as we were
before.
And thus in our feeling, our folly is the cause of our weakness. For
thus
I have felt in myself.
And all this brought our Lord suddenly to my mind and showed these words and said ,'I am ground of your seeking. First it is my will that you have it, and I make you to will it. How should it then be that you should not have your seeking of it, since I make you to seek it, and you seek it' . And thus is in the first reason of the three that follow, our lord God shows a great comfort as may be, saying in the same words in the first reason. Where he says , 'And you seek it' , there he shows full great pleasure, and endless reward that he will give us for our seeking.
And in the sixth reason there he says, 'How should then this be?'This was said for an impossibility. For it is the most impossible thing that may be that we should seek mercy and grace, and not have it. For of all things that our Lord makes us to seek, himself has ordained it to us from without beginning.
Here may we [see] then that our seeking is not cause of the goodness and grace that he does to us, but his own proper goodness, and that he shows truly in all these sweet words, where he says, 'I am ground of your prayer and of your seeking' . And our Lord wills that this be known of all his lovers on earth. And the more that we know it, the more should we seek it, if it is wisely taken. And so is our Lord's meaning.
Wise seeking is a true, gracious, lasting will of the soul, oned and fastened into the will of our lord God himself. He is the first receiver of our prayer, it seems to me, and he takes it right thankfully and highly enjoys it. He sends it up above and sets it in the treasury, where it shall never perish. It is there before God with all his holy company continually received, ever fulfulling our needs. And when we shall achieve our bliss, it shall be given to us for a degree of joy with endless worshipful thanking of him. Full glad and merry is our lord God of our prayer. He looks there after and he would have it. For with his grace it makes us like himself in condition, as we be in nature.
Also he says, 'Pray though you think it not help you' .
Also to prayer belong thankings. Thanking is a true inward knowing with
great reverence and lovely dread, turning ourself with all our might
into
the working that our lord God stirred us to, enjoying and thanking him
inwardly. And sometimes with plenteousness, it breaks out into voice,
and
says, 'Good lord, grant mercy, blessed must you be'.
·
·
·
Truth sees God, and wisdom beholds God, and of these two comes the
third,
and that is a marvelous holy delight in God, which is love. Where truth
and wisdom is, truly there is love and truly coming of them both, and
all
of God's making. For God is endless sovereign truth, endless sovereign
wisdom, endless sovereign love unmade.
·
·
·
And furthermore he wills that we know that this dear worthy soul was
preciously
knit to him in the making. Which knot is so subtle and so mighty, that
it is oned to God, in which oneing it is made endlessly holy.
Furthermore,
he wills that we know and understand, that all the souls that shall be
saved in heaven without end are knitted in this kot, and oned in this
oneing,
and made holy in this holiness. And for great endless love that God has
to all mankind, he makes no departing in love between the blessed soul
of Christ and the least soul that shall be saved, for it it is very
easy
to live and to believe, that the dwelling of the blessed soul of Christ
is full high in the glorious godhead. And truly as I understand in our
Lord's meaning, where the blessed soul of Christ is, there is the
substance
of all the souls that shall be saved by Christ.
Highly ought we to enjoy that our God dwells in our soul, and much more highly we ought to enjoy that our soul dwells in God. And the dwelling place of our soul is in God, which is unmade. A high understanding it is inwardly to see and to know that God which is our maker, dwells in our soul. And a higher understanding it is and more inwardly to see and to know our soul that is made dwells in God in substance, of which substance by God we be that we be.
Also
the
almighty
truth
of the Trinity is our Father. For he made us and
keeps
us in him. And the deep wisdom
of the Trinity is our Mother, in whom we be all enclosed, and the high
goodness of the Trinity is our Lord, and in him we are closed, and he
is
in
us. All mighty, all wisdom and all goodness; one God, one Lord and one
goodness.
·
·
·
God is nearer to us than our own soul, for he is ground in whom our
soul
stands, and he is the means that keeps the substance and the sensuality
together so that it shall never depart. For our soul sits in God, in
true
rest, and our soul stands in God in sure strength, and our soul is
naturally
rooted in God, in endless love. And therefore if we will have knowing
of
our soul, and communing and daliance therewith, it is right to seek
into
our lord God in whom it is enclosed.
·
·
·
Also, as truly as God is our Father, so as truly God is our Mother. And
that he shows in all and namely in these sweet words, where he says,'I
it am'. That
is to say,'I it am, the might and goodness
of Fatherhead; I it am, the wisdom and the kindness of Motherhood; I it
am, the light and the grace, that is all blessed love; I it am, the
Trinity;
I it am, the Unity; I it am, the high sovereign goodness of all manner
of things; I it am, that makes you to love; I it am, that makes you to
long, the endless fullness of all true desires'.
· · ·
I understand three manners of beholding of
Motherhead in God. The first is ground of our natural making. The
second
is taking of our nature, and there begins the Motherhead of grace. The
third is Motherhead of working and therein is a spreading forth by the
same grace of length and of breadth, of height and of deepness without
end. And all is one love.
·
·
·
The mother's service is nearest, readiest and surest. It is nearest,
for
it is natural, readiest, for it is most of love, and surest for it is
of
truth. This office might nor could anyone ever do to the full, but
Christ
Jesus, God and Man alone. We know well that all our mothers bear us
with
pain and for dying. But our true Mother Jesus, he alone bears us to joy
and to bliss, and endless living, blessed must he be.
Thus he sustains us within him in love. And travailed into the full time that he would suffer the sharpest throes and the most grievous pains that ever were or ever shall be, and died at the last and when he had done and so borne us to bliss, yet might not all this be enough to his marvellous love. And that showed he in these high overpassing words of love, 'If I might suffer more I would suffer more' .
He
might
no
more
die, but he would not cease working. Therefore then he
needs
must feed us, for the dear worthy love of Motherhead has made him
debtor
to us. The mother may give her child to suck her milk, but our precious
Mother Jesus, he may feed us with himself, and does full courteously
and
full tenderly with the blessed sacrament of his body and blood that is
precious food of very life. And with all the sweet sacraments he
sustains
us well mercifully and graciously.
.· · ·
The sweet gracious hands of our Mother are
ready and diligent about us. For he in all this working uses the true
office
of a kind nurse, that has nothing else to do, but to attend about the
salvation
of her child. It is the office of our lord Jesus Christ to save us. It
is his worship to do it, and it is his will, we know it. For he wills
that
we love him sweetly and trust in him meekly and strongly. And this he
showed
in these gracious words, I keep you most surely'. Furthermore a natural
child despairs not of the mother's love, and naturally the child
presumes
not of itself, naturally the child loves the mother, each of them loves
the other.
Artemisia Gentileschi, Madonna and Child
Also I had great desire and longing for God's gift to be delivered of this world and of this life. For often I beheld the woe that is here in this life, and the weal and the blessed being that is in heaven, and I thought sometimes, though there had been no pain in this life but the absence of our lord God, it was more than I might bear, and this made me to mourn and anxiously yearn. And also my own wretchedness, sloth and irksomeness helped thereto, so that I wanted not to live and to travail as it fell out to me to do. And to all our courteous lord God answered for comfort and patience, and said these words, 'Suddenly you shall be taken from all your pain, and from all your sickness, from all your illness and from all your woe, and you shall come up above, and you shall have me to your pay and reward, and you shall be filled with joy and with bliss, and you shall never more have any manner of pain, neither any manner of sickness, nor manner of misliking, nor no wanting of will, but be ever in joy and bliss without end. What should it then grieve you to suffer a while, since it is my will and my worship' .
It is God's will that we set the point of our thought in this blessed beholding, as often as we may, and as long.
LIMITED EDITION
JULIAN OF NORWICH
SHOWING OF LOVE
WESTMINSTER TEXT
Two
hundred and fifty numbered, signed editions of the Julian of Norwich, Showing
of
Love, Westminster Text, in its entirety, edited, translated,
typeset
in William Morris Troy font, replicating the original manuscript
layout,
handbound in vellum with hand-marbled end papers, are being created and
made available for purchase by fine book lovers, Rare Book libraries,
etc.
These volumes are produced in the English Cemetery in Florence, Italy.
A similar number of copies present the same text but translated into
Italian.
Their sales will help fund the Biblioteca e
Bottega
Fioretta Mazzei in the 'English' Cemetery.
Please write to
Julia Bolton Holloway
Biblioteca e Bottega Fioretta
Mazzei
'English Cemetery'
50132 FIRENZE, ITALY
or
to place your order. Specify
with
or without CD recording of the text being read by Julia Bolton
Holloway,
retrievable with Windows 'Recordit' on a computer.
Suggested price, with CD: $60.00,
€50,00, £45.00; without CD: $50.00, €45,00, £30.00.
Payable by cheque to Julia Bolton
Holloway.
JULIAN
OF NORWICH, HER SHOWING OF LOVE AND ITS CONTEXTS ©1997-2010
JULIA BOLTON HOLLOWAY ||
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