Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Brieven (Letters) of Hadewijch·Section V

Section V

Three doctrinally weighted Letters of the middle stretch:

• Letter X — Die gode mint, hi mint sine werke — He who loves God loves his works. Virtues prove Love, not sweetness. Long doctrinal Letter on the deceptive sweetness that imperfect souls take for Love: as long as the sweetness lasts they are zacht ende vet (soft and fat); when the sweetness fails, blivet hare gront ru ende magher (their ground remains rough and lean) — because they are not yet established in virtues. The mature soul sien op hare hande, niet opten loen (looks to her hands, not to her reward). On the danger of mistaking natural sweetness for grace; on holding fast to the grace given.
• Letter XI — the famous autobiographical-since-age-ten Letter. Ay lieve kint — since I was ten years old, so close-in-heart constrained have I been by Love that within the first two years she would have died had God not given her special strength. The most direct first-person testimony of Hadewijch's inward formation; one of the keystone biographical loci of the corpus.
• Letter XII — God si u god Ende ghi hem minne — God be your god and you his love. The longest of the three. Begins with the one-only-gathering in one will of one Love doctrine; the Jacob and Esau house-of-fire allegory (Obadiah 1:18); the famous catalogue of the seven harms of crooked affections (wisdom forgotten; fellowship disturbed; the Holy Spirit driven out; the devil strengthened; friendship doubted; virtue left behind; righteousness destroyed). Closes with Sobrie, pie, iuste vivamus in hoc seculo and haest u ter minnen — make haste to Love.

Same conventions as Sections I-IV. Minne rendered as Love (capitalized when personified); gratie (grace), suetecheit (sweetness), doghet (virtue), caritate (charity / caritas), toeverlaet (trust), enecheit (singleness, unity), affectie (affection — usually pejorative in Hadewijch, meaning crooked attachment) are the Section V vocabulary keys.

Letter X

X. Virtues Prove Love, Not Sweetness

He who loves God loves his works. His works are noble virtues. Therefore he who loves God loves virtues. This Love is truth-bearing and full of comfort (probant amorem). Virtues prove Love, and not sweetness. For it happens at times that the person who is loved feels more sweetness; according as each person feels — there is not therefore Love in him, but according as he is founded in virtues and rooted in caritas.

Desire is at times sweet to-God-ward — yet it is not yet wholly God; for it springs more from the stirring of the senses than from grace, and more from nature than from spirit. This sweetness draws the soul rather to the lesser good than to the greater good, and she falls deep on what tastes to her rather than on what is profitable to her. For she takes her nature after the thing she is born from. Such sweetness the imperfect feels as well as the perfect, and weens to be in great Love because he tastes sweetness — yet not pure, but mingled. Even if the sweetness be pure and wholly God (a thing subtle to discern), still by it Love is not to be measured (amor non mensuratur), but according to the having of virtue and of caritas, as you have heard.

For we test in such souls: so long as the sweetness lasts in them, they are soft and fat. And when the sweetness fails, then their Love passes away, and their ground remains rough and lean. This is so because they are not yet established with virtues. For when the virtues are early planted in the soul and with long exercise firmly grounded, even if the sweetness diminishes, the virtues do their nature and work always the work of Love. They wait for no sweetness, but how they may at all times serve faithfully Love. They long for no taste, but they seek the profit. They look to their hands (querunt utilitates vident ad manus), not to the reward. They commend all to Love; thereby they have but the better. Love is so sweet, so noble, and so pure, that no one's reward remains in arrears with her. None need cry out for reward; if he did not, Love herself would well do it (amor facit semper suum). This the wise know well, who always stand after virtues. They seek nothing but Love's will. They pray Love for no other sweetness than that she give them, that they in all things may know her dearest will.

If they are above, they will Love's will. If they are below, they will the same.

Other souls there are who are poor of virtues: when they feel the sweetness, they love; and when the sweetness passes away, so too passes their Love. In the day of grace they are bold; in the night of tribulation they turn their back. These are poor-hearted people (audaces in die gratiae, fugiunt in nocte); they are easily lifted up in the sweet and easily saddened in the sour. And a little grace makes their heart greatly rejoice; and a little hardship greatly sadden. Hence it happens at times that the light-hearted are more saddened than the weighty, and the poor of grace more than the rich. For when God comes with his grace and would comfort their poor-heartedness and help their feebleness and stir their will, they are eager for God and craving for sweetness, and they are more moved than those who are accustomed to walk in the goodness of God.

And men ween at times that such-natured people have great grace and great Love, who in fact have very little time of God. Therefore at times the lack of God (causa quaeritur dulcedinis) is more the cause of sweetness than the having. At times also the evil spirit is cause of sweetness. For at times when a person feels sweetnesses, he delights in them, and follows the delectation so far that he falls into bodily infirmities (cadit in infirmitatem corporis), and by that loses profitable things.

And also: when a person sees that he has good and lasting sweetnesses, he begins gradually to think himself of perfection and accounts the less of guarding his life. From this it follows well that each should look upon his grace and the good of our Lord wisely, and use the gifts of grace forward (data ad usum). For the gifts of grace do not make the person righteous, but they bind him; for if he works with his grace, he pleases God; and if he does not (tunc dominum veneratur), so he becomes guilty. He must also have wisdom by which he exercises his grace. For just as virtue becomes a trespass when one exercises it outside of its time, so grace becomes not grace unless it be covered with grace (virtutes in vitium). Therefore he whom God has made a merchant of his good (cui dominus bona commendavit) needs to be wise and to guard his grace so that it may remain with him. For just as he who is without grace needs to pray God for grace, so he who is in grace needs to pray God to keep him in it. For as often as a person lets the good of our Lord diminish in him and does not increase it (deminuerentur omnia bona dei), so he would have forfeited it all, did not the goodness of God not [intervene].

For this reason the bride of whom one reads in the Canticles — she sought her bridegroom not only longingly but also wisely. And when she had found him, she was no less anxious-of-heart (fortiter tenent gratiam datam) to keep him. Thus should each wise soul do who is in stir of Love. She should always increase her grace with desire and wisely, and anxiously cultivate her acre (agrum exerce), pulling out the unbearable, and sowing virtues, and making a house of pure conscience, in which she may worthily receive her Beloved.

Letter XI

XI. Since I was Ten Years Old

Ay dear child, God give you what my heart longs of you — that God be loved by you worthily. Yet I never could have chosen, dear child, that another should have done before me as closely as I. I believe nevertheless that many there were who loved him as close and as dear, although I could not well bear that anyone should know or love him so heartily as I have done.

Since I was ten years old, so close-in-heart constrained have I been by Love (haduw incepit), that I should have died within the first two years that I undertook it, had God not given me a peculiar strength beyond the common people, and remade my nature with his own being. And that he at once gave me reason which was somewhat enlightened with many fair witnesses; and that I have had from him many a fair gift in feeling and in showing of himself, and by all the tokens that I found between him and me in after-practice of Love — as friends are wont with each other to keep little hidden and to show much, in which one has most in close-feeling of one another, and in tasting-through, and in eating-through, and in drinking-through, and in swallowing-through-into one another (comedendo).

By these tokens which God my Beloved manifoldly performed to me in the beginning of my life, he gave me trust to him — so that often from that time it has been to my mind that no one has loved him so heartily as I. But reason at times let me know well that I was not the nearest. But the band of close-feeling of Love let me feel no other way nor believe otherwise. Thus it is with me, that I do not most-closely believe that he is most-closely loved by me. And I do not believe either that any person lives by whom God is so deeply loved.

Thus Love at hours makes me so enlightened that I know that I am lacking — that I am not enough to my Beloved after his worthiness. And at hours, Love's sweet nature makes me so blind (caecat amor) with the tasting and feeling of her, that I am satisfied; and that it is at hours so rich to me to be there with her, that I allow her in myself to be enough for me.

Letter XII

XII. God Be Your God and You His Love

God be your god and you his Love. God give you to live the work of Love in all things which belong to Love. Therefore I begin at the right humility, where his loved ones began, where he drew them into himself in herself. So too must he do who would draw God into himself, and have fruition of him in Love. He must remain unlifted-up by all things, and unconquered by all service, and equally strong in the storm, and equally diligent in the seeking, and equally eager in the handling. Although you would have such things written down — you yourself know well enough what one should do for completeness toward God.

Those who stand after this and desire it — to be enough to God with Love — they begin here the eternal life (incipiunt hic vitam eternam), in which God will live eternally. For to give Love her fill and to be enough to her after her worthiness, heaven and earth are at all hours in new service, and that is never accomplished. For that high Love and great Love which God is, that shall never be filled nor known by all that one can perform thereto. All the heavenly ones (ardentes) eternally burn equally to give Love her fill. Therefore he who does not let himself be content here (cui non hic sufficit) and takes no foreign comfort but at all hours is set to be enough to Love — he begins here the eternal life, with which the heavenly gods (dii sunt?) are in fruition-bearing Love.

All that comes to a person from God in his thinking, and all that he can understand of him and reach by any figure — that is not God. For if a person could grasp and understand him with his senses and with his thoughts, then God would be less than the person, and he would soon be loved out — as the lowly people now are who are so soon loved-to-ground. Briefly said, those are all the people who are not bound with eternal Love and do not at all hours wake of heart to be enough to Love. But those who stand after to be enough to Love are also eternal and without ground. For all their wandering is in heaven; and their soul follows after her Beloved (animam sequitur) which is without ground.

And though one love them with eternal Love, they are not yet followed-through by Love's ground, since they cannot follow-through what they love, nor be enough to him, and yet they will nothing else, or to die in the way, or to be enough to him, or nothing else. Therefore I beg you sorely and admonish by the right fidelity which God is — that you make haste to Love. And help us that God be loved — that I beg you above all things. And of God's goodness let it ever be your remembrance, and your pity, that it is so un-touched, and that he so well alone has fruition of himself, and we are so wretched concerning it; and he and his friends are so thoroughly joyfully and so worthily in fruition, and in his goodness are flowing and flowing-back in all good.

Ay yes, God whom one may by no being of labor recognize — unless right Love be there, which draws him down and makes him feel close who he is (attrahit deum). So one may know of him who he is. That is an unspeakable wealthy wealth — but God knows, always wealthy with such wealth. But that is the right of the courtly loving heart: that her nearest rest be to labor for her Beloved and to do him love and honor for his fittingness and for gifts of fair service — not for present reward (mos amantis non propter presens premium), but because Love is to herself at all hours full enjoyment and reward enough (amor sui premium).

But Love is now greatly hindered, and her right is much broken by unrighteousnesses. For no one will renounce his affection for Love's honor (secundum affectionem). They will all hate and love after their own contentment, and after their own favor be angry and reconciled — not after the right of brotherly Love. They leave also the right of shame; that is also affection. And they upset right by anger — that is an affection by which much harm comes about (ira destruit omnia haec).

The first harm is: wisdom is thereby forgotten. The second: the fellowship is thereby disturbed. The third: the Holy Spirit is thereby driven out. The fourth: the devil is thereby strengthened. The fifth: friendship is thereby doubted, and remains unexercised, and all the while forgotten. The sixth: virtue is thereby left behind. The seventh: righteousness is thereby destroyed.¹

And the affection of hatred and of strange anger — which is no holy anger — takes Love away and her longing, and removes pure-heartedness, and makes one always look-on with suspicion, and makes one forget the sweetness of brotherly Love. And the heavenly wesene remain unknown to be exercised. But envy always exercises the exercising of the hellish wesene (affectio gaudiosa impedit).

By the affection of joys one forgets the narrow ways which belong to high Love, and the fair manners, and the sweet bearing, and the well-ordered service which belong to high Love. By the affection of light Love one forgets the humility which is the worthiest place, and the purest hall, in which one exercises Love (impedit humilitatem aulam). And in that affection one loses enlightened reason, which is our rule (impedit rationem regulam), which teaches us what we shall do in the right of Love, where one wills to be enough to Love. For enlightened reason illumines through all the ways of service after the fitting will of the highest Love, and shows clearly all the wesene which are enough to Love.

Ay alas, that these two should be driven out by the affection of light Love — that are the most lamentable harms that I know which may come to pass. By all these affections the righteousness of Love is disturbed and hindered under the things shown forth. Under these great points which I have told you, there run many little ones which are countless, and they take away the clarity of Love.

Ay, even though the great points do not hinder you and the others — still many run thereunder among you all under decorated garments, so that they want to take no occasion to drive them off. Scandal is clothed with humility (scandalum vestitur cum humilitate); anger with righteousness; envy with fidelity and with reason; joy with comfort and with trust; Love with sense and with long-while, and with the bearing of over-coming, and with fair words — that is otherwise than God. Therefore one cannot guard them — those whom the band from within of truth-bearing Love does not guard (non quos amor custodit). Know well that I have not said all this for your sake, but for the trouble that befalls us here and elsewhere from it — which is too unconquerable for us. It seems to us all lamentable that one destroys another in wandering, where they overburden us, and do not help us that our Beloved be loved.

And because you are one of those who can in this commonwealth advance and check these things, I admonish you that you have a care of them, in yourself and in the others, to advance righteousness of Love in all matters (justitiam diligere). And always with all that you are, show forth to them the token of Love in all things and over all (ostende te semper).

For the heaviest thing that I know in the Scriptures, it seems to me, is the commandment of Love (preceptum dilectionis ad moysen) which God said to Moses: You shall love your Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. When he had said this, he said next: These words you shall never forget, sleeping nor waking. If you sleep, you shall dream of them; if you wake, you shall think of them, and speak and work them. These words you shall write on the door-post and on the lintel and on the walls and in all the places where one shall be — that one not forget what one has to do there — that is, never to forget Love, sleeping nor waking, in any manner. As God himself commands, with all that one is: with heart, with soul, with sense, with strength, with thought.

This he commanded Moses, and in the Gospel likewise (etiam in evangelio) to be all in Love. O woe, how dare we then be anywhere less! Ay, is it not therefore fearful robbery that we spare anything before Love and withhold anything? Ay, for this reason think and work without forgetting, to advance Love in all matters.

Remember also what Obadiah the prophet says: Jacob's house shall be a fire. Joseph's house shall be a flame. Esau's house shall be stubble (Obad. 1:18, domus Jacob ignis). Jacob is each one who conquers: by the strength of Love he conquers God (vincit deum) to be conquered, after he has conquered. So that he is conquered, and has received the blessing — and so shall he further help that they be conquered who must be conquered, and who still go upright on both their feet and do not limp — as those do who have become Jacob (jacob claudicat). For Jacob remained weak after the struggle, and ever after limped on the one side. When he was limping-conquered, then first one gave him the blessing.

So must he be who shall be Jacob, and who shall receive the blessing of God. And he who will struggle against God: let him hold himself to be conquered, that he may conquer him. And he must become limping on the one side, where anything else were to him than God alone, and where anything were more to him.

And whoever has yet anything more to him than God, and is not one with him in his only sweet blessing's place — he stands on two feet (duobus pedibus sine benedictione) and is unconquered, and he tastes no blessing.

You must leave yourself so single, all and in all (omnia relinque), that you in your singleness shall burn so fierily-in all your being and in all your works, that nothing else shall be to you than God alone — neither love nor grief, neither light nor heavy (nec dura nec prospera moneant). When you dwell in this wesen without ceasing, then is Jacob's house a fire, and Joseph's house shall be a flame. Just as Joseph was a savior and a director of the people and of his brothers — so must you and the others who shall be Joseph be leaders and protectors of the others who are not yet enough, and are still in the lackings of strange mishaps. With the fieriness of the single burning life one shall kindle them (haec duo instruunt), and with the flame of burning caritas one shall illumine them.

The strangers in the commonalty of the people — they are Esau. Their house is stubble that is soon kindled with fiery flame (domus esau). Likewise shall the others be kindled by you, when you are such. This also belongs to your prelaten-ship² (ad prelationem pertinet): that you shall kindle the dry stubble with good examples and with manners, and with prayer and with counsel and with threatening. And also you shall direct your brothers with inward Love (haec amanda), and help them to love, that they love in God and in right works to God and to right virtue.

And remember always that the Scripture says: Sobrie, pie, iuste vivamus in hoc seculo (Titus 2:12). This Sobrie, pie, etc. belongs to your office. Ay, with pure single Love help us, that our Beloved be loved. Briefly said: that I would above all things from you — right Love to God. That I admonish you, and beg God to give, and that you fulfill to him what is lacking from us. God be with you. Make haste to Love.

¹ The famous seven harms of crooked affection catalogue. Compare the parallel sevenfold list in Letter IV of Where Reason Errs; here the seven are not Reason's errors but the consequences of indulged affections (affectien) — anger, envy, joy, light Love. Hadewijch's most-extended treatment of affectio as a technical pastoral-pathological term.

² prelaetscap — prelacy, the office of prelate. Hadewijch addresses the recipient as one with formative-pastoral responsibility for younger Beguines or for a wider community. Whether literal abbatial-prelatial office or figurative spiritual-direction-office, the term marks the recipient as a leader.

JSON: /api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-brieven/vol-5-01-letters-10-12.json