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

Section VI

Three Letters, closing with the canonical nine-points-of-pilgrimage structural Letter:

• Letter XIII — Innocent under all things. The soul shall hold herself innocent (onnosel) under every circumstance, seek her growing in all things, work after the right form of Reason in all things; Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi. He who would have all things subject to him must be subject to his Reason. The mature soul takes no contentment in present goods; her life is vita penosa (a painful life) because Love draws her so deeply within that she cannot satisfy what Love is. Qui amat non laborat recurs.
• Letter XIV — on St Paul's caritas. Christ taught the bequame enecheit (fitting singleness) he had with his Father; the soul must found herself in caritas. To be single to the Beloved alone is the only sweetness. The pastoral instruction on self-knowledge in all things: in willing, un-willing, in love, in hate, in fidelity, in faithlessness. Test yourself in adversity; test yourself in prosperity.
• Letter XV — the famous Nine Points of Pilgrimage. Hadewijch sets out nine points the pilgrim with a far way to travel must observe: ask the way; choose good company; guard against thieves; avoid over-eating; gird yourself tight; bow on the upward climb; walk upright on the descent; desire the prayer of good people; gladly speak of God. Each is then unfolded spiritually: Ego sum via (Christ as the Way); the holy order is the company; subtle temptations are the thieves; etc. A canonical structural Letter of medieval Beguine spirituality.

Same conventions as Sections I-V. Minne → Love; caritate → caritas (the Pauline-Latin term Hadewijch borrows directly); onnosel → innocent; peregrinatie → pilgrimage; enecheit → singleness, unity.

Letter XIII

XIII. Innocent under All Things; The Lover Does Not Labor

So shall the person hold himself innocent under all things, that he shall seek his growing in all things (in omnibus adversis quaerat), and work after the right form of Reason (secundum formam rationis) above all things. And so shall God work all things before him and with him, and he shall work with God all righteousness. And he shall desire that God complete all the right works of his nature in himself and in us all — that is, to choose the right of the loving heart, and to will it above all, whether it be damnation or blessing.

And that is her desire always, and her prayer: to be in singleness of Love (amor desiderat, orat), as one reads in the Canticle: Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi (Song of Songs 2:16). Thus shall the single gathering be: in one will of single Love. He who would have all things subject to him must be subject to his Reason (obedi rationi et omnia obedient), above all that he wills or that anyone wills of him. For no one may become perfect in Love but he who is subject to his Reason.

For this one loves God for his worthiness, and the noble person because they are loved by God, and the lowly person because they have need of it. Therefore the person shall use his whole power in all things after the perfection of Love, which is ever insatisfied with what is laid to her. For though it be the case that one person be enough to God in all people's eyes by his manners, yet he is lacking so much in the full satisfying of Love, that the person needs always to be in greater demand of Love and in stronger longing above his having (soliditatem possessionis desideremus).

That contents Love best, that one be wholly forsaken-by-rest from strangers and from friends, and from himself for his own sake. And that is a fearful life that Love wills: that one must abstain from her enjoyments to be enough to her (hic paucis placet si de deo). Those who are thus drawn and held in Love, and whom she has seized, are so very greatly indebted to Love in the great power of her strong nature, always to stand to her enough. And that life is misery above all that a human heart may suffer (vita penosa). For he is content with nothing of his life — neither in gifts, nor in service, nor in comfort, nor in all that he can perform. For Love draws them so sorely within, and they feel Love so great and so incomprehensible, and find themselves too little and too unfit for it, to be enough to that being which is Love.

And they know themselves indebted so much to be enough to Love in all being, that in other things neither love nor grief can happen to them — neither in themselves nor in other people — except for the one cause alone, which is Love herself. For that cause, love and grief may happen to them: love insofar as Love is advanced and grows in them and in others; grief insofar as Love is hindered and wounded in those who love, in themselves and in others, whom the strangers gladly hinder and wound (amicos dei laedunt), where they can.

For Love's furthering, take pains to labor, and for high caritas. For caritas grasps all the commandments of God without wandering, and holds them without labor. For he who loves, he labors not (non laborat); for he feels no labor. And the more burningly he loves, the more fully he runs and comes more quickly into the holiness of God — which is himself — and into the wholeness of God — which is himself. In his wholeness be all your service complete, and the earnestness that belongs to that perfection, which is enough to him in his whole nature, with which he is all-loving.

God let you know all the debt which you are indebted to him, of due pain — and above all, of single Love, which he himself commanded — to love God above all (debitum est paenae et dilectionis).

Letter XIV

XIV. St Paul's Caritas; Self-Knowledge in All Things

God be your greeting and eternal Love, and give you wise living and the egregia virtue with which you shall be enough to his holy Love. Therefore work always without sparing. Be always earnest in humilities, and serve wisely. God be your help and your comfort (optet ei) in all your being, and teach you the right virtue with which one does Love most honor and right.

May God teach you the fitting singleness (bequame enecheit) which he gave his Father, when he lived purely as man. And may he teach you the holy singleness which he taught and ordained to his holy friends, who through the love of God forsook all strange comforts. And may he let you know in truth and in works the dear sweet singleness which he yet lets his dear friends know, who above all things bind themselves to his holy sweet Love.

See that you become new and fresh without weariness, and remember the high wesene of eternal caritas — what manners St Paul says she has, what she altogether is and what she altogether avails, and found yourself in her (fundamentum caritatis). That must surely be, if you would live to God. For what one would do outside of caritas, that would be nothing. Therefore make haste to follow caritas (extra caritatem nihil bene) with the strength of fiery longing of right Love.

To this caritas be wakeful and earnest in the pilgrimage of this life — to fulfill this, and then to come into the fruition in the land of Love, where caritas shall eternally endure. Caritas is bound humility (caritas est). For he who has not exercised himself in the kingdom of the Love of God must humble himself under the mighty strength of God. Ay, that is well right — that he who is intimate to his Beloved alone, his Beloved be intimate to him in return. As the Bride says in the Canticles: Mijn lief mi ende ic hem (My Beloved is mine, and I am his; dilectus meus mihi).

Ay, to whom should one be anything except to the Beloved alone? For all that anyone does to others than the Beloved, that is altogether strange (secretum non acceptum). But of the Beloved alone is it sweet and fitting in all manners. If you would know this perfection, then you must first of all learn to know yourself (passio ad perfectionem pertinet; cognoscere te ipsum): in matter, in willing, in un-willing, in manners, in loving, in hating, in fidelity, in faithlessness, in all things that befall you.

You shall test yourself how you may bear all that displeases you, and how you may abstain from all that you love (in adversis patere). That is also the greatest mishap which a young heart may suffer: to abstain from what she would gladly take. And test yourself in all that befalls you favorably: how you handle it, and how sensible and how moderate you are in it (in omnibus sensatus). In all that befalls you, hold yourself level (in omnibus tranquillus) — in rest, in pain.

Wisely consider always the works of our Lord (visus); from them you shall learn perfection. Therefore it stands well, that each person look upon his grace and the good of God wisely and prudently. For God has given the person fair Reason, which teaches him in all ways and lights him in all works; if the person would follow her, he would never be deceived.

Letter XV

XV. The Nine Points of Pilgrimage

Nine points belong to the pilgrim who has far to travel:¹

1The first is that he ask the way (*primus punctus*).

2The second is that you choose good company.

3The third is that he guard himself against thieves.

4The fourth is that he keep himself from over-eating.

5The fifth is that he gird himself high and tight.

6The sixth is that, when he goes up the mountain, he bow low.

7The seventh is that, when he goes down the mountain, he walk upright.

8The eighth is that he desire the prayer of good people.

9The ninth is that he gladly speak of God (*in hac peregrinatione*).
**So too it is with our divine pilgrimage**, in which we shall seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness in complete works of Love (*quaere regnum et justitiam*). **The first is: You shall ask the way.** That is — he himself says it: *I am the way* (*ego sum via*). Ay, according as he is the way, so mark his ways which he went: how he wrought, and how he burned in *caritas* from within, and in works of virtues from without toward friends and toward strangers. And hear how he commanded humans how greatly they should love their God: with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their strength; and that they should never forget it, sleeping nor waking. Now see how he himself did this — who was yet himself God: how he gave all, and how he lived altogether to the right Love of his Father and to the *caritas* of human beings. **He wrought with waking *caritas*, and he gave to Love all his heart and all his soul and all his strength.** This is the way that Jesus shows, and is, and which he himself went, in which the eternal life lies and the fruition of the truth of his Father's glory. Then ask the way of his saints (*quaere viam a sanctis*) — those he has brought home, and those who have still remained here, and his followers in complete virtues, who have followed him onto the mountain of high life out of the deep valley of humility, and have climbed up the high mountains with strong faith and with high trust of the contemplation of inward sweet Love. And yet ask the way of those who are with you and whom you see (*quaere viam a viventibus*), whose ways now go most like his and who are obedient to him in all the labor of virtues. **Thus follow him who himself is the way, and follow those who have walked it, and who now walk it.** **The second is: You shall choose good company** (*secundus punctus*). That is the holy Order in which you become participant of much good; and above all, with the holy lovers of God, by whom God is most loved and honored, and from whom you feel that you are most helped, and with whom your heart is most made-one and lifted up to God, and whose words and company most draw and forward you to God. But shun here greatly your own ease and your own favoritism. And mark carefully — of me and of all people in whom you seek fidelity — who they are by whom you are bettered (*considera in primis spiritibus*). And mark what their life is, for there are now few in the world who can have *truth-bearing fidelity* (*pauci amici*). For nearly all the people now will of God and of human beings what contents them and what they desire, or else they would abstain. **The third is: You shall guard yourself against thieves** (3). These are subtle temptations from without and from within. Since one cannot know any office without a master, so never be so bold that you undertake any singular wesen without the counsel of spiritual wise persons. **The fourth is: You shall guard yourself against over-eating** (4) — that is, from all strange rest. And that no matter outside God shall ever content you nor taste to you, before that you have tasted God, how wonderfully sweet he is (*haec est epula*). Ay, remember and know always: that wherever anything else than God alone contents anyone, that is altogether over-eating. **The fifth is: You shall gird yourself high and tight** (5) — that is, to be guarded from all earthly stains and from all baseness, and to be so firmly girded with the band of Love which God is, that you nowhere let yourself sink down into anything else. **The sixth is: When you go up the mountain, you shall bow low** (6) — that is, give thanks (*laudemus*) in all the pains that come upon you for the sake of Love. And humble yourself with all your heart — though you could alone work all the virtues that all people who live may work, that should seem to you all small and altogether nothing against the greatness of God and against the debt you owe to God in service and in Love. **The seventh is: When you go down the mountain, you shall walk upright** (7) — that is, though you must at times sink in the taking of your need and in the feeling of the needs of your body, yet you shall hold up your longing to God with the holy who lived high, and who said: *Our wandering is all in heaven*. **The eighth is: You shall desire the prayer of good people** (8) — that is, you shall desire from all the holy and from all people to be furthered to the highest will of God, and you shall leave all things in order to be one with him in God (*omnia relinque propter*). **The ninth is: You shall gladly speak of God** (9). That is a token of Love: that the name of the Beloved be sweet (*nomen amati dulce*). Of this Saint Bernard says: *Jesus is honey in the mouth*.² **It is super-sweet to speak of the Beloved.** And it stirs Love over-deeply, and it makes the works fly. Now I admonish you by the holy Love of God: that you make your pilgrimage fairly and purely, without wearying and without burden of self-wills, in a sweet peaceable joyful spirit (*in spiritu dulci*). And walk through this misery so righteously and so purely and so burningly, that you find God your Beloved at the end. Of which may he himself grant you, and his holy Love. --- ¹ The **Nine Points of Pilgrimage** — Hadewijch's most-structurally-explicit pastoral text. The Letter belongs to the late-medieval *peregrinatio*-as-allegory tradition (compare Bonaventure's *Itinerarium*, and the later *Pilgrim's Progress*) but its compactness and the doubled structure (the points listed first, then unfolded each in turn) is distinctive to Hadewijch. ² *Jesus est mel in ore* — *Jesus is honey in the mouth*. From Bernard of Clairvaux's sermon-cycle on the Song of Songs; the closest single Bernardine commonplace Hadewijch cites. The Bernardine *nomen amati dulce* tradition feeds the medieval *Iesu dulcis memoria* hymn-tradition.

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