{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "hadewijch-brieven", "name": "The Brieven (Letters) of Hadewijch", "stream": "greco-christian", "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "prose-letters of spiritual direction", "tradition": "Christian mysticism (Beguine)", "author": "Hadewijch of Antwerp/Brabant", "year_approx": 1240, "note": "Hadewijch's Brieven — her thirty-one prose-Letters, addressed to one or more younger Beguines under her direction. Where the Visioenen are apocalyptic-visionary and the Strofische Gedichten and Mengeldichten are verse, the Brieven are spiritual-direction letters in prose: counsel, doctrine, exhortation, and at moments striking personal confession. Modern scholarship considers the Brieven Hadewijch's most-cited and most-influential work — they are the canonical Beguine spiritual-direction document and a direct source for Ruusbroec's later prose. Source: J. Vercoullie diplomatic edition (1895, Werken van Zuster Hadewijch, Vol II: Proza; DBNL hade002werk02, PD by US 95-year rule). Section I (currently shipped) covers Letters I-III: Letter I with the opening prayer-of-blessing and the famous autobiographical-bitter passage *I held him very hard for lord*; Letter II the programmatic counsel Letter with the abyss-of-hell passage (*he who knew that the will of God favored it would gladly be by his will in the abyss of hell*); and Letter III on the heavenly habits with the canonical *touching-the-side* image (*hereby one touches him at the side, where he himself cannot defend himself*). Section II (Letters IV-V) is also shipped: Letter IV's famous catalogue of *Where Reason Errs* (in fear, hope, *caritas*, keeping order, tears, devotion, sweetness, threats, distinguishing, taking, giving, obedience); Letter V's *Why has Love not constrained you nearly enough and swallowed you in her depth?* with the famous *suffering-from-false-brethren* doctrine (*the very greatest perfection it is to bear from the false brethren who appear to be house-fellows of the faith*). **Section III (Letter VI) is now also shipped** — Letter VI is one of the longest and doctrinally densest of the *Brieven*, containing the *trouw-and-untrouw* warning, the *qui amat non laborat* doctrine, the great *with Christ's manhood live here in labor and misery, with the mighty eternal God love and jubilate within with a sweet trust* passage, and the famous *Simon-cross-bearer* trope (we carry the cross like Simon of Cyrene — hired, briefly, not unto death — not like Christ who died on it). **Section IV (Letters VII-IX) is also shipped** — the *Love-is-the-matter-alone* Letter VII (*amor sufficiens*; *Love repays always, though she often come late*); the famous Letter VIII on the *two kinds of fear in Love* and the canonical *edele ontrouwe* (noble faithlessness) passage; and the briefer Letter IX with the famous *mouth-in-mouth, heart-in-heart, body-in-body, soul-in-soul* unitive passage. **Section V (Letters X-XII) is also shipped** — Letter X's *virtues prove Love, not sweetness* doctrine; Letter XI's *since I was ten years old* autobiographical passage; Letter XII's *God be your god and you his love* with the seven-harms-of-affection catalogue and Jacob/Joseph/Esau allegory. **Section VI (Letters XIII-XV) is also shipped** — Letter XIII's *innocent under all things* and *qui amat non laborat* recurrence; Letter XIV's *St Paul's caritas* + the self-knowledge catalogue; Letter XV's canonical **Nine Points of Pilgrimage**. **Section VII (Letters XVI-XIX) is also shipped** — Letter XVI's *lime-band* image (*where two things become one, nothing may be between them but glue — that glue is Love*); Letter XVII's famous **Five Prohibitions** in verse + autobiographical *forbidden me four years before the Ascension*; Letter XVIII's canonical **definition of the soul** (*Soul is a being visible to God, and God visible to her in turn*) and the *two eyes of caritas* (Love and Reason); Letter XIX's verse-Letter with the *moon receives her light from the sun* image of the soul rejoined to her half. **Section VIII (Letters XX-XXIII) is also shipped** — the famous Letter XX *Sermon on the Twelve Unnamed Hours of Love* (sermo de xii horis); Letter XXI's short *be diligent in God*; Letter XXII's vast *God above-all / under-all / within-all / outside-all* doctrine with its four-ways-of-bowing-down and four-animals (eagle-ox-lion-human) Ezekiel symbol; Letter XXIII's short *live to God, not for the contentment of your own Love-exercises*. **Section IX (Letters XXIV-XXVII) is also shipped** — Letter XXIV's pastoral Reason-and-confession compression; Letter XXV's famous **Sara letter** with the *I heard a sermon on Saint Augustine* episode and *Love is all*; Letter XXVI's *Vaertwel ende levet scone — God si met u* (farewell-and-live-well); Letter XXVII's hidden-ways-of-Love anatomy of *embracing*, *kissing*, *singleness*. **Section X (Letters XXVIII-XXXI) is the FINAL section** — Letter XXVIII's *blessed soul speaking in God* with its seven attributes, four soul-speeches, and the canonical *I-saw-God-God-and-human-human* passage; Letter XXIX's deeply personal *be not saddened on my account; however it goes — whether wandering through the lands or in prison — it is Love's work*; Letter XXX's great closing doctrinal Letter on the Trinity-life, the lightning-and-thunder of Love, and the seven-failures catalogue; Letter XXXI's closing voice of God himself to the soul (*Your death and mine shall be one. Therefore we shall with one life live, and one Love shall fill both our hungers*). **The Brieven corpus is now SHIPPED IN FULL across ten sections — approximately 36K English words total. With this section the entire Hadewijch project on /sources/ — Visioenen + Strofische Gedichten + Mengeldichten + Brieven — is COMPLETE.** Modern English translations (Mother Columba Hart 1980 Paulist Press, Marieke van Baest 1998) remain in copyright.", "books_slug": null, "books_slugs": [ "hadewijch--brieven-section-1--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-2--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-3--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-4--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-5--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-6--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-7--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-8--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-9--project-en", "hadewijch--brieven-section-10--project-en" ], "has_project_translation": true, "steiner_loci": [] }, "parents": [ { "slug": "beguine-mystics", "name": "Beguine Mystics", "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/" } ], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "vol-1-01-letters-1-3", "title": "Section I", "words": 3304, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-1-01-letters-1-3/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-1-01-letters-1-3.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters I-III — opening the prose-letter corpus", "blurb": "The first three of Hadewijch's thirty-one prose-Letters, addressed to one or more younger Beguines under her direction. Where the *Visioenen* are apocalyptic-visionary and the *Gedichten* are verse, the **Brieven** are spiritual-direction letters in prose: counsel, doctrine, exhortation. Modern scholarship considers them Hadewijch's most-cited and most-influential work — the canonical Beguine spiritual-direction document and a direct source for Ruusbroec." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "vol-2-01-letters-4-5", "title": "Section II", "words": 1694, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-2-01-letters-4-5/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-2-01-letters-4-5.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters IV-V — *Where Reason Errs*; the over-Love-cry", "blurb": "**Letter IV** — the famous *Where Reason Errs* catalogue, an elaborate enumeration of the places where Reason errs (in fear, in hope, in caritas, in keeping order, in distinguishing of being, in taking, in giving). **Letter V** — the short blessing-Letter with the *suffering-from-false-brethren* stanza and the famous over-Love-cry: 'why do you not fall deeply into her? — why do you not touch God deeply enough in the depth of the nature which is so bottomless?'" }, { "num": 3, "slug": "vol-3-01-letter-6", "title": "Section III", "words": 4070, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-3-01-letter-6/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-3-01-letter-6.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letter VI — Trouw and untrouw; *Qui amat non laborat*; the Simon-cross-bearer", "blurb": "One of the longest and doctrinally densest of the *Brieven*. Three movements: the *trouw / ontrouw* warning (stop demanding fidelity from each other — it is the sickest sickness of our time); the *qui amat non laborat* doctrine grounded in Christ's life of unceasing labor (*with the manhood of God live here in labor and misery, with the mighty eternal God love and jubilate within with a sweet trust*); the *Simon-cross-bearer* trope (we carry the cross hired for reward, briefly, not unto death — not like Christ)." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "vol-4-01-letters-7-9", "title": "Section IV", "words": 1731, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-4-01-letters-7-9/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-4-01-letters-7-9.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters VII-IX — amor sufficiens; two-kinds-of-fear; mouth-in-mouth", "blurb": "Three of the shorter Letters. **Letter VII** — *Love is the matter alone that may satisfy us* (*amor sufficiens*); the like-with-like axiom; *Love repays always, though she often come late*. **Letter VIII** — the famous *two kinds of fear* doctrine, climaxing in the canonical *edele ontrouwe* (noble faithlessness) passage and eight successive *Die mint* sentences on what the true lover gladly endures. **Letter IX** — the brief unitive Letter: *mouth in mouth, heart in heart, body in body, soul in soul — one sweet divine nature flowing through them both*." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "vol-5-01-letters-10-12", "title": "Section V", "words": 3906, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-5-01-letters-10-12/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-5-01-letters-10-12.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters X-XII — virtues prove Love; the *ten years old* passage; God be your god", "blurb": "**Letter X** — *virtues prove Love, not sweetness*; the imperfect are *soft and fat* in sweetness, but their ground stays *rough and lean*. **Letter XI** — the famous autobiographical *since I was ten years old, so close-in-heart constrained by Love that within the first two years I should have died had God not given me special strength*. **Letter XII** — *God be your god and you his Love*; the seven-harms-of-crooked-affection catalogue; the *Jacob, Joseph, Esau* fire-flame-stubble allegory of Obadiah 1:18; *make haste to Love*." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "vol-6-01-letters-13-15", "title": "Section VI", "words": 2790, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-6-01-letters-13-15/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-6-01-letters-13-15.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters XIII-XV — *innocent under all things*; St Paul's caritas; the Nine Points of Pilgrimage", "blurb": "**Letter XIII** — *Innocent under all things*; *Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi*; *vita penosa* (the loving life is a life of pain); *qui amat non laborat* recurs. **Letter XIV** — on St Paul's caritas and the self-knowledge catalogue (test yourself in willing, un-willing, loving, hating, fidelity, faithlessness). **Letter XV** — the canonical **Nine Points of Pilgrimage**: ask the way, choose good company, guard against thieves, avoid over-eating, gird tight, bow upward, walk upright downward, desire prayer, speak of God." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "vol-7-01-letters-16-19", "title": "Section VII", "words": 5317, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-7-01-letters-16-19/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-7-01-letters-16-19.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters XVI-XIX — lime-band of Love; Five Prohibitions; definition of the Soul; verse-letter", "blurb": "**Letter XVI** — *where two things become one, nothing may be between them but lime: that lime is Love*. **Letter XVII** — the famous **Five Prohibitions** in verse + autobiographical disclosure that God forbade these virtues to her *four years before the Ascension*. **Letter XVIII** — canonical definition: *Soul is a being visible to God, and God visible to her in turn*; the *two eyes of caritas* doctrine (*Reason teaches, Love illumines*). **Letter XIX** — brief verse-letter; the soul un-touched is most God-like; the *two half-souls become one*." }, { "num": 8, "slug": "vol-8-01-letters-20-23", "title": "Section VIII", "words": 6298, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-8-01-letters-20-23/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-8-01-letters-20-23.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters XX-XXIII — Twelve Unnamed Hours; God above-under-within-outside-all; four animals", "blurb": "**Letter XX** — the famous *Sermon on the Twelve Unnamed Hours of Love* (each hour a particular dimension of Love's working without an ordinary name). **Letter XXI** — short pastoral *be diligent in God*. **Letter XXII** — the great *God above-all / under-all / within-all / outside-all* doctrine; the four ways of God's bowing-down + the fifth way of the simple; *the Son poured out his name when he was baptized Jesus Christ* gives the Christian fatness; the four animals (eagle, ox, lion, human) of the Ezekiel-Apocalypse vision. **Letter XXIII** — *do not kiss what is given you before you know it will eternally endure*." }, { "num": 9, "slug": "vol-9-01-letters-24-27", "title": "Section IX", "words": 2929, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-9-01-letters-24-27/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-9-01-letters-24-27.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters XXIV-XXVII — Reason and confession; the Sara letter; farewell; the hidden ways of Love", "blurb": "**Letter XXIV** — pastoral compression on Reason, on bearing slander, on the three-fold *confessio* (before God / priest / those offended). **Letter XXV** — the famous **Sara letter**: *Greet me also Sara with the very anything-and-nothing that I am*; closing with the *Augustine sermon* episode (*the flame in me would have burnt all the earth — Love is all*). **Letter XXVI** — *Vaertwel ende levet scone — God si met u* (Farewell and live well — God be with you). **Letter XXVII** — anatomy of Love's working: *embracing, kissing, singleness, recognizing, taking, giving, humilities, mutual greeting, gracious receiving*." }, { "num": 10, "slug": "vol-10-01-letters-28-31", "title": "Section X — The Closing Section", "words": 6986, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-10-01-letters-28-31/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-10-01-letters-28-31.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Letters XXVIII-XXXI — *blessed soul in God*; *be not saddened on my account*; Trinity-life; *your death and mine shall be one*", "blurb": "The closing section. **Letter XXVIII** — the blessed soul speaking in God, the seven attributes, the *I saw God God and human human; then God human and human god* passage. **Letter XXIX** — *be not saddened on my account; however it goes, whether wandering through the lands or in prison, it is Love's work*. **Letter XXX** — the great closing doctrinal Letter on the Trinity-life (Father / Son / Holy Spirit each lived); lightning and thunder of Love; seven-failures catalogue. **Letter XXXI** — closing voice of God himself: *Your death and mine shall be one. Therefore we shall with one life live, and one Love shall fill both our hungers...* The Brieven corpus is COMPLETE." } ] }