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

Section VIII

Four Letters of the late stretch — two of them among the most-cited single doctrinal texts in the Brieven:

• Letter XX — the famous Sermon on the Twelve Unnamed Hours of Love (sermo de xij horis). The nature from which right Love comes has twelve hours that move Love out of herself and bring her back into herself. Each of the twelve is then named and unfolded: Love unsought visiting the soul; Love giving the heart the savor of strong death; Love teaching by what means one may die and live in her; Love showing the hidden judgments deep and dark as the abyss; Love leading the soul up out of herself; Love despising Reason; Love whose hidden name is gerinen (touching); Love whose face is most wondrous; Love most loving at her sharpest assault; Love who stands right to no one; Love who possesses the loved with might; Love at her highest, springing out of herself and working with herself.
• Letter XXI — short pastoral Letter. Be diligent in God and let nothing dismay you. The closing reminder: love is barren of common possessions, beggared of all strange rest; no comfort but God alone.
• Letter XXII — the great God above-all, under-all, within-all, outside-all Letter. Hadewijch's most ambitious cosmological-theological exposition: God's four positions, the four ways by which God bows down to us (giving his nature, falling-down of his substance, bending of the time, the simple way of common folk), the Trinitarian unfolding-by-name (Father, Son, Holy Spirit each poured out his name), and the closing apocalyptic four-animals image (eagle, ox, lion, human) corresponding to the four positions of God. One of the longest single Letters in the corpus.
• Letter XXIII — brief Letter. God be with you in the truth in which he is God and Love at one. Live singly for pure Love alone, not for the contentment of his Love in your exercises. Do not kiss what is given you before the day comes that you know it will eternally endure.

Same conventions as Sections I-VII. Minne → Love; gerinen → touching (Hadewijch's term for Love's hidden essence); enecheit → singleness; toeverlaet → trust; ghebruken → fruition; vier dieren → four animals (the Apocalypse-Ezekiel symbols).

Letter XX

XX. The Twelve Unnamed Hours of Love (sermo de xii horis)

The nature from which right Love comes has twelve hours that move Love out of herself and bring her back again into herself.¹ And when Love returns into herself, she brings with her what the unnamed hours had hunted out of her. That is — a seeking sense, and a desiring heart, and a loving soul. And when Love brings these, she casts them into the abyss of her strong nature, from which Love is born and is fed.

Then come the unnamed hours into the unknown nature. Then has Love come to herself, and has fruition of her nature beneath her and above her and all about her. And all those who are beneath this knowledge — they shudder at those who have fallen into it (abhorrent tales), and who must work in it and live and die as Love commands, and her nature.

The first unnamed hour of the twelve, that draws the soul into the nature of Love, is that Love reveals herself and stirs unforeseen and unsought (prima hora; deus visitat improvise), when one least supposes it after her worthiness; and that she so suddenly seizes the nature — so strong as she is in herself — that this remains to be understood, and therefore is well-called an unnamed hour.

The second unnamed hour is, that Love gives the heart the savor of the strong death, and makes her die without dying. Yet the soul has so shortly known Love, and has barely fallen from the first hour into the second.

The third unnamed hour is, that Love makes one learn by what means one may die and live in her (non potest sine pena diligere), and reveals that one may not love without great pain.

The fourth unnamed hour is, that Love gives the soul to taste her hidden judgments, which are deeper and darker than the abyss. Then she lets her know how wretched one is without Love. Yet she does not yet know the wesen of Love. That may well be an unnamed hour — that before one knows Love, one receives her judgments.

The fifth unnamed hour is, that Love leads the soul and the heart, and makes her do an upward-fare out of herself, and out of the nature of Love into the nature of Love. And then she loses the wondering at the strength, and the darkness of the judgments, and forgets the pains of Love. And then she does not know Love in any nature except simply in Love. That seems a lowness, and is not. Therefore it may well be called an unnamed hour, when one would most-closely know — that one is then most simply in the knowing.

The sixth unnamed hour is, that Love despises Reason, and all that is in Reason, and above it and below it. What belongs to Reason is altogether against the salutation of the right nature of Love. For Reason can neither take from Love nor give to her. For right Reason of Love is always a growing flood, without rest and without forgetting.

The seventh unnamed hour is, that nothing can dwell in Love, and that nothing can touch her without longing. And her most hidden name is touching (gerinen) — and that is a nature which springs from Love herself. For Love is always desiring and touching and consuming in herself. Yet she is in herself wholly complete. Love can dwell in all things. Love can dwell in caritas, but caritas cannot dwell in Love (amor in caritate sed non e contrario). In Love can dwell neither compassion, nor merciful kindness, nor humility, nor Reason, nor fear, nor sparing, nor moderation, nor any thing. But in all these dwells Love, and all these are fed out of Love — but she receives no nourishment except from the wholeness of herself.

The eighth unnamed hour is, that Love's nature is most wondrous to recognize in her face (facies amoris). Faces are accustomed to be the most open thing; and this is the most hidden of her, for that is her own being-itself of herself. Her other members and her works are easier to recognize and to understand.

The ninth unnamed hour is — where Love is in her strongest storm and in her sharpest encounter and in her deepest visitation, there is her face most sweet and most pleasant and most loving, and there she has her most lovely appearance. And the deeper she wounds him on whom she storms, the more she with the worthiness of her face — which she loves — gently drowns him in herself.

The tenth unnamed hour is, that Love stands rightly to no one, but to her all things stand rightly. Love takes from God the strength of judgment over those whom she loves. Love yields neither to saints, nor to humans, nor to angels, nor to heaven, nor to earth. She has compelled the Godhead in her nature. She cries in the heart of the loving with loud voice (diligite amorem semper clamat), without rest and without forgetting: Love Love!⁶ The voice makes such great strength, it sounds of unheard-of fearfully more than the thunder. This word is the band with which she binds her captive. This is the sword with which she wounds the one she has touched. This is the rod with which she chastises her children. This word is the mastery with which she teaches her disciples.

The eleventh unnamed hour is, that she possesses by might the one she loves, so that his sense cannot wander an hour outside Love, nor his heart desire, nor his soul love. Love makes his memory so single that he cannot remember saints, nor people, nor the heaven, nor the earth, nor the angels, nor himself, nor any good — other than Love alone, who possesses him in new presence.

The twelfth unnamed hour is that which most resembles Love's supreme nature, when she first springs out of herself, and she works with herself. And she is so sinking-in herself. She makes all enjoyment in her nature. She is so enjoyable in herself. Though no one loved Love, her name would give her loveliness enough in the honorable nature of herself. Her name is her wesen within her. Her name is her works without her. Her name is her crown above her. Her name is her ground beneath her.

These are the twelve unnamed hours of Love. For in no hour of these twelve can one understand Love's Love — except those whom I said, who are cast into the abyss of the strong nature of Love, or who belong thereto. Those who are, believe in her further than they understand.

Letter XXI

XXI. Be Diligent in God

God be your Love. Dear heart, be diligent in God and let nothing grieve you, whatever befall you. For the time is short and there is much to do here, and the reward is great. I have not complained much, and I do not want you to grow weary or complain. And exercise our Love, and let her have fruition of herself. Be wise, and pain yourself to understand which the virtues are with which one attains right Love.

Have compassion, and abandon no one in need. People think their having becomes them all-busy — and their peace and all they may attain. Thus they rather have their own peace than the others'. You should hold yourself so bare for God's sake, and so beggared of all strange rest, that no thing should ever again become good to you except God alone (tristitia vera). And if this were not so, then you should have such woe over him, as a woman who cannot recover from her child.

So it is with those who love: they cannot have fruition of her, and they cannot do without her. Thus it comes that they go astray and perish. Therefore before one attains the Beloved, one shall — to woo the Beloved — do all things fairly and well. To all things and to all people, to strangers and to known, for the worthiness of one's Beloved, and for high reputation, and for God, who shall hear from him of his Beloved. For he is courtly, and well understands himself. When he then knows the great pain and the heavy misery which his Beloved has suffered through him, and the fair cost — surely he cannot leave it; he must measure with Love and give himself altogether back. Hereby one woos the Beloved.

So long as one does not have the Beloved, so one has him with the service of all virtues (quando exercetur dilectum). But when one shall exercise the Beloved himself, all the things by which the service was previously rendered shall be shut out without and forgotten within. When one serves for Love's sake, one shall do service; and when one shall love the Beloved with Love, one shall shut everything out and have fruition of Love with all the nied (the longing-zeal), with all the wesen, and be ready to receive the singular fruit which the Beloved in Love can win. Toward that, the strength shall always be ready, and all the veins, and the eyes shall always stare therein, and all the floods of the sweet blood flow all through.

Thus should Love live in Love.

Letter XXII

XXII. God Above-All, Under-All, Within-All, Outside-All; the Four Animals

He who would understand God and recognize what he is in his name and in his being, he must be wholly God (Deo totus vivat) — yes, so wholly that he is altogether his and without himself. For caritas does not seek what is hers, and Love does not practice but herself. Therefore let him lose himself, who would find God and recognize what he is in himself.

He who knows little can say little; that the wise Augustine says. So do I too, God knows: much I believe and hope in God, but my knowledge of God is small. A small whisper I may whisper of him — for one cannot show God with human sinne. But he who were touched in the soul by God, he could show of him something to those who understood with the soul.

Enlightened Reason shows to the inner sinne a little of God, by which they may know that God is a fearful and an over-fearful sweet nature, a wonder to behold — and that he is all things to all and in all things wholly. God is above all and unraised. God is under all and unpressed-down. God is within all and unenclosed. God is outside all and all-grasped (Deus infra omnia).

How God is above all and unraised: that is, that he has the immeasurable nature which he himself is, in his nature eternally, and shall eternally lift in heights. Because he is that same thing which he lifts, he does not exalt himself and is unraised. And because the eternity of himself exercises his being without end, and exercises with the being without beginning in a fruition of his accustomed Love, thus the depth of his being without beginning holds his height unraised. His own fearful sweet nature kisses him best. So his unraisedness falls in the depth of his ground. Thus he remains unraised.

And further: he admonishes humans always to the singleness of his own fruition, and they stir and waver all by the strength of his fearful admonishings. Such-people are terrified of spirit by his right admonishings, and wander. And such people he wakes with fier spirit, and they stand up with a stormed new will, and lift themselves after his unraisedness, which eternally stretches us out and lifts into the highest height. And because we cry his kingdom (adveniat regnum tuum) to come to us, and we so re-admonish his singleness in three Persons — we demand of him strength, and his rich wesen in a fatherly trust. We demand his favor and his wise teaching, and we long to exercise his Love brotherly with our Father, and to be that-same child with him in Love and in inheritance, that he is. We demand him in his goods and in his clarity and in his fruition and in his wonders. And so we become with the fast lime of cleaving-on (viscus haesionis) one spirit with God, because we with the Son and with the Holy Spirit thus admonish the Father — yes, the three Persons (ideo dicitur Pater Noster) with all that they are. Because this is so, therefore God remains unraised. And because we demand his kingdom to us, we cannot exalt him either; for he moves nothing but himself, and therewith all creatures stir in their wesen. Thus God remains unraised; for God is above all, and to all is altogether level. Thus he is most-high and unraised. Him whom God exalts with himself — yes, beyond the earthly man — him shall he deepest into himself draw, and have fruition of him in unraisedness. Ay deus, what wonders happen there, where great-unlike-ness becomes level and all-one without lifting up. Ay, I dare not write more of this; I must keep most silent of the best, for my misfortune, and because almost no one knows of himself that he does not know of God. To people it seems too light enough (non sentiunt carnales),⁵ and if they hear what they do not understand, they doubt. And therefore I trouble myself, for I dare not say to people, nor write, what is worth the pain, or words after my soul's ground.

The second — that God is under all and unpressed-down (Deus sub omnibus) — is that the ground of his eternal nature upholds all things and feeds and makes rich with such riches as God is in divine richness. Because his deep underness and his over-highness have one height, so God is under all and unpressed-down. Because all people also love him after his highest height, which is Love, and not less in him, they love him also without beginning in his eternal nature, where he shall do them eternally enough, all those who shall become God with God. Therewith to be under all, where he is under all, in upholding all and in feeding all — so he remains unpressed-down; for they lift him eternally at all hours with new longing of drawing fiery Love. Now I dare not say more thereto, because we do not know God (Deus infra omnia) — how he is all to all.

The third — that God is within all and altogether unenclosed — is that he is in the eternal fruition of himself, and in the dark strength of his Father, and in the wonders of the Love of himself, and in the clear over-flowing floods of his Holy Spirit. He is also in the single storm which judges all things and blesses them after their fittingness. There within, he has fruition after the glory of himself which he is in himself; all who were and are and shall be — yes, in whom it belongs to him to be — he has fruition of his mighty wonders therewith in all-full glory. Ay, what is within there must most be kept silent, for the strangers' ways are not in it.

Although he is then within, yet therefore he is unenclosed, because God gives out his singleness in Persons and has bowed it in four ways. He gives them the eternal time, which he himself is, in unfollowable Love and in incomprehensibilities to all spirits who are not one spirit with him; so in all that he himself gives with his Spirit and gives all that he has, and is all that he is. Whom he leads the way, no one can follow by strength or by craft, except those whom he gives along with his own high spirit one with him. These are with him out of all the common ways. This is the first way (prima via), the most-high, by which nothing of Reason can be said — except where one might speak with spirited soul to spirited soul. That way is there where he is gone out of his wesen. The three other ways by which he has bowed himself are these (secunda via etc.):

— The first² is: he gave us his nature. — The second: he let fall his substance. — The third: he bent the time.

He gave his nature in the soul, with three powers, his three Persons (tres vires) to love-with: with enlightened Reason the Father; with memory the wise Son of God; with high burning will the Holy Spirit. This was the gift that his nature gave to ours, to love him with.

He let fall his substance — that was his holy body, which fell into the hands of his enemies for the Love of his friends; and he has given himself to eat and to drink, as much and as closely as one wills. That is as unequal (dedit se in abundantia) as a needle's point against all the world. Yes — much smaller is what one has of God than what one might have of God, would one only trust him and want it from him (confidentem facit). Ay, how unfed remain very many, and how little they consume of him (pauci nutriuntur) through many who rightfully should eat and drink him.

The fourth way (4ta via) — he bent the time, that is, a respite over our good living, to await as we will (os praebet). His mouth one sees bent down to kiss whoever will. His arms are opened wide: let him run in who will be embraced. Yes briefly said, so has God bent himself with time, in all that one may have, that one may have and know — as much as one wills, and as close as one wills, that he be one with us in Love and in fruition (ipsi de prima via celestes sunt).

Those who follow the way that he gave his nature, those live here as in the heaven. They exercise themselves in Love without great woe, and in devotion and in enjoyments and in delights they have, without great woe (secundi sunt qui infernales). Those others who walk the way that he let fall his substance, those live as in hell. That comes from the fearful admonishing of God. To them it is so fearfully in the mind; their spirit understands the strength of close-pursuit, and their reason cannot understand it; therefore they damn themselves at all hours. All that they speak and work and serve — that seems to them unfitting, and their spirit does not believe to follow the great. This holds their hearts outside of hope. This way leads them very deep into God, for the great unhope leads them over all length and through all passages and in all truth-bearing states.

Those who are in the third way (tertii) — those who follow the bent time — they live as in purgatory. They burn with inward longing without ceasing, because all is bent before them. The mouth offered, the arms opened, and the rich heart ready. This fearful opening makes their souls' ground so deep and so wide that they cannot be filled. The wide opening-of-God admonishes them at all hours from within above what they can perform. For in his right arm are embraced all his friends, heavenly and earthly, in an overflowing delight. And in the left side he embraces the strangers, who with bare scraped faith shall come to him for his friends' sake (per fidem), so that the single full joy may be fulfilled in him, of which he never lacked. For his goodness and for his loved ones he gives the strangers his glory and makes them all friends-of-household. Ay, the sweet admonishing and the open heart make them admonish for fruition. The flooding rich wonders out of his rich heart make them gape above reason and burn without quenching. Therefore it is purgatory. For though they burn, that they are un-burnt by the fire — the complete Love is one burning. They burn to become enough to him, and the truth of his rich open heart says to their spirit that he shall be all theirs; with that trust they fly through all the heights of Love. These are in consuming without feeding. For this reason God has given all these ways out — to love him with.

What he is within: so is he within all and altogether unenclosed. For one may by these four ways come into his all-innermost (quinta via simplices). The fifth way is taken by the common with the simple faith — those who with all outward service walk to God. Those who go the first way, which God himself is in unfollowable strengths and in incomprehensible Love, walk in the midst of him from depths to depths. They walk out of all (aliorum viae) his ways. Those who walk the way through the heaven to God, they have consumption and feeding — for he gave them his nature, so they take it freely. These dwell here in the land of peace.

Those who walk the way through hell to God, they are fed without consuming, for they cannot believe nor hope that they could fulfill Love in her substantial wesen. These dwell in the land of debt, and Reason runs through all their veins and bids them lift the inflow from God, and from all loved people, into a high. They cannot believe what they feel. Thus God moves them within in rage without hope.

Those who walk the way through purgatory to God in his depth, they dwell in the land of holy anger. For what is given to them in trust is straightway consumed in that gaping deep nothing. This always makes the angerness of the soul grow, that she with inward spirit knows the un-passing of God — that he has something which she does not fully have, nor is full. This is the angerness of the soul. There is yet a closer anger of such souls of which I must be silent — for by all these ways one goes into God, through himself, through the heaven, through the hell, through the purgatory. Therefore God is unenclosed though he is within all.

The fourth — that God is outside all and all-grasped (Deus extra omnia) — is that he is outside all, for he rests in no thing except in the rushing nature of his flowing flooding floods, which all-around and all-over flow. That is what one says in the Canticles: Oleum effusum (nomen tuum)³ — as oil is your name poured out; therefore the growing maidens love you. Ay, how truly says the Bride who well understands him, and says of him that his name is poured out above all the ways, to make fat each after his need and after his worthiness and after his office of service that God shall have of him.

The pouring out of his name gave us his single name to know in the Prophet's person. The flood of his single eternal name poured out with fearful rushing of admonishings, in which they admonish him single and threefold. The Father poured out his name in mighty works, and in rich gifts, and in right righteousness. The Son poured out his name in showings of burning favor, and in truth-bearing Reason, and in heartfelt tokens of Love. The Holy Spirit poured out his name in great clarity of his spirit and of his light, and in great fulness of flowing good will, and in jubilation of high sweet trust for the fruition of Love.

The Father poured out his name and gave us the Son, and brought him back into himself. The Father poured out his name and sent us the Holy Spirit. The Father poured out his name when he admonished the Holy Spirit to come back with all that he had spirited.

The Son poured out his name when he was born Jesus, when with that name he would make fat all our leanness and would keep all that he would keep, to be his.

The Son poured out his name when he was baptized as Jesus Christ. Thereby he sheds to us the Christian fatness (Christianorum nomen est pinguedo) — we who are named after his name, and with his name and with his body are fed; yes, and feed him in consuming as longingly and as fatly and as savorly as we ourselves will. That is as unequal as the sharpness of one needle against all the world with the sea. Unequally more fatness might one taste and feel of God, if one sought it from him longingly with loving trust (nota: in omnem), and as one well by right might prove on him. He who fier-ly would know that pouring out of his name — he should be the growing one who would love him.

The Son poured out his name in wonders, when with his death he carried life and light to the hell (ad limbum), which yet is death without life. There he brought life and light, where no light may be. There his name fetched his loved ones in clear light and in full fatness. The same name burned (berrede) those who remained there, with the eternal fire of the dark death. Ay how dark is the death where one does not know his name. The Son poured out his name when he said: Father, clarify me with that clarity which I had by you before the world was.⁴ Not that he ever lacked clarity, but he would clarify her with him, when with him he had drawn all things, as he then said: I will, Father, that they be so one in us as you, Father, in me, and I in you (oratio Christi). This was the loveliest thing that God ever openly said, that one reads in the Scripture (verbum Christi suavissimum). Then he poured in with his name — which he had over-greatly poured out — and which he also poured back into him many-fold-very-fat. There was no more, yet it was many-folded; for all things were without beginning as great in him, as without end shall be, although it be by the fat oil of his high name poured out and many-folded.

The Holy Spirit poured out his name — from him flow all the holy spirits and the angels who reign there in glory (angeli fluunt ab eo). Their names in which they are ordered are called choirs, and these are poured out of the name. And the holy spirits of the heaven and of the earth, and the good spirits who are not yet sanctified, nor such as shall sanctify themselves, and all spirits singular and common — those his name has all spirited, each after the measure of the loveliness of his spirit. His name spirits all wise spirits and all quick spirits and all strong spirits and all sweet spirits; these he spirits all. His name is also poured out over all the earth, on the commonalty, to uphold and to feed each after his lovedness.

Thus God is outside all (Deus extra omnia), for anything of God is God altogether. And because each has of him after his fitting, so each grasps of him all that he has of him. Thus he is all-grasped. And because the fatherly strength at all hours so fearfully admonishes his singleness for fruition, in which he himself is enough — so he grasps himself at all hours all. And yes, even each's wesen, however his name is poured — all he grasps in the singleness of himself, and all he admonishes in fruition of himself. Also they grasp him — the inward spirits of the four first ways who walk into himself, and who would be that same in all that he is, and not give themselves before-hand; they will with trust and with Love attain all, and become all that same that he is, without less (volunt esse).

The inward spirits of Love grasp him all-about. And the jubilation of his wonders grasps him with full delight above all. And the Father grasps him with righteousness in his single right. And therefore his judgments are deep and dark as the abyss, and above all the righteousness of the Father (judicia Dei Patris) and the jubilation of his Spirit. And so the Father grasps the Son's righteousness and the Holy Spirit's; yes, in all spirits whom he has spirited, in jubilation and in full fruition of Love. And therein it is wonder that God is fully grasped.

Thus God is with all the floods of his name overflowing in all and around all and above all and under all, and in fruition of Love grasped. Now the four wesen of God have come together in one whole fruition.

The wholeness about sits adorningly in a circle with the four animals. The eagle shall at all hours fly with flying wings to the height, how God is above all and unraised. The ox shall hold the place, how God is under all and unpressed-down. The lion guards the place, how God is within all and unenclosed. The human beholds the place, how God is outside all and all-grasped.

The inward soul (anima aquila) shall be the eagle that shall fly above herself into God — as one reads of the four animals. The fourth flew above them four, as he did when he said: In principio. The eagle looks into the sun without turning; so does the inward soul too without looking-back into God. John shall be the wise soul in the choir — that is, in the exercise of God in Love. There one shall remember neither saints nor humans, but only fly into the height of God (more aquilae abice propter). When the eagle's young cannot see into the sun, she throws it out; so shall the wise soul throw from her all that may darken the clarity of her spirit. For the wise soul does not stand to rest all the while she is the eagle: she flies at all hours after that unraised height (ibant et revertebantur).

The animals went and returned, and they went and did not return. That they did not return: that is that the height shall never be fully lifted. That they returned: that is to be and to see in the wide and depth and in the level wesene.

Letter XXIII

XXIII. God Be With You in the Truth

God be with you in the truth in which he is God and Love at one (Deo vivere Deo soli propter). If he is to you in Love, you must with him have, in yourself, Love-life — so that trust gives you to the truth which he himself is. Live singly thus, of holy Love for pure Love alone (non propter tuis operibus) — not for the contentment of your own exercises of his Love, but in those works to exercise of him that contents Love.

In all that God gives you — however fair it is — do not give your kiss to it before the day (noli osculari) that you know that it shall eternally endure. Be wise now where you are; you have well to do, and above all things I commend you that you guard yourself wisely from singularities, of which there are very many here. Neither in love nor in grief shall you undertake yourself of him. Be humble at all hours in all — and also not so humble that you become foolish (sis humilis non stulte), and leave behind truth and righteousness in all that you can perform. For I say to you in truth: he who lies in humility, he is rebuked there. They know much there.

See to yourself and arrange your time; and be faithful and grow with us. They would gladly draw you from us to themselves. Their hearts grieve over our singular fidelity. Now be too busy with nothing; do all things upon Love's reason, and live in single diligence with us, and let us in sweet Love live (in confidentia operis). Live to God, and he to you, and you to us.

¹ The Twelve Unnamed Hours (sermo de xii horis). Hadewijch's most-cited single structural-doctrinal text. The Letter develops the medieval hours-of-the-day allegory (with parallels in Hugh of St Victor's De Arrha Animae and in Bernard's sermons) into a twelve-stage taxonomy of the soul's progressive seizure by Love. Each unnamed hour names a particular dimension of Love's working that does not have an ordinary name — and so is unnamed. The Letter is also a doctrinal compression of much that the verse Songs treat in extended form.

² Hadewijch's own surface labels here are die een / die andere / die derde — "the one / the other / the third." The translation re-labels as the first / the second / the third for readability; Hadewijch's surface arithmetic distinguishes the first way (the highest, beyond reason) from the three others, so what the relabel calls "the first" is in fact the second in the running tally. The whole numbering of the four ways is unusual: after distinguishing the first way (the highest, beyond reason) from the three others, she enumerates "the three others" but the reader expecting them to be ways 2, 3, 4 may find them re-labeled. The structure is: (i) the first way = the high way beyond reason; (ii) the bowing-down in nature → the heavenly way; (iii) the falling-down of substance → the way through hell; (iv) the bending of time → the way through purgatory; (v) the fifth way = the simple-faith way of the commonality. So five ways in total: the high inner way + three bowing-down ways + the common outer way. The five-way arithmetic relates to the four positions of God (above / under / within / outside): the highest inner way knows God-above; ways ii, iii, iv correspond to the bowings into nature, substance, time; the fifth common-faith way is the way of those who live outside the four positions and yet through their works arrive at God.

³ Oleum effusum nomen tuum — Song of Songs 1:3 (Vulgate). Your name is poured-out oil — the verse Hadewijch uses as the central image of the Letter's exposition.

⁴ John 17:5. Christ's high-priestly prayer.

⁵ Vercoullie's 1895 diplomatic edition has non sensiunt carnales at this point in the marginalia — a likely scribal slip in the witness, since the Latin verb is sentire, 3rd-pl. sentiunt. The translation silently corrects to sentiunt ("the carnal do not perceive"). The phrase glosses Hadewijch's preceding clause about how "people" find these matters "too light enough" and refuse what they cannot understand.

⁶ Mint de minne! ("Love Love!") — the vox amoris crying in the heart of the loving, Hadewijch's signature double-naming. The construction recurs across the Liederen and the Mengeldichten (e.g. Minne, dies leuet, dies mint hare!). The doubling — Love loving Love — is the doctrinal compression of the Twelve Hours: Love is desiring and touching and consuming in herself, yet in herself wholly complete (seventh hour).

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