Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Visions of Hadewijch·Section VI

Section VI

The closing section of the Visioenen. Visions 13 and 14, plus the Lijst der volmaakten — the list of the one hundred and seven perfected souls adorned like Love, whom Hadewijch saw each with her own seraph.

• Vision 13 — on the Sunday before Pentecost, before daybreak. Hadewijch is taken in the spirit to God; Love makes herself known to her who had been hidden until that hour. She is shown a new heaven — the new lost heaven, closed to all who never were mothers of God of the perfect bearing — and within it the face of God with six wings, sealed shut from without, flying always within. The seals are opened: the two uppermost wings fly in the height where God enjoys with the highest might of Love; the two middle in the wide of the perfected ways of Love; the two lowest in the unfathomable depth where he swallows up all being. Each wing-pair corresponds to a mode of love-practice. The three voices of Love are revealed: the denial-of-love-from-humility is the highest voice of Love (those who believe and confess that they never love Love enough, never serve enough); the works of the highest trust of Reason are the clearest voice of Love (the visible perfect works); the rumor of the highest infidelity is the sweetest voice of Love (those who, having conquered humility, dare Love herself and demand the whole of fruition). Love appears as a Queen seated within the eye of the Face, eyes flowing with fiery swords, mouth flowing with lightnings and thunders, the seven gifts of the Spirit beneath her feet. The numerology of the perfected is given: one hundred and seven total — twenty-nine in heaven, fifty-six on earth living, twenty-two future (eleven in the cradle, six playing in the streets, five yet to be born). Mary closes by addressing Hadewijch directly: Come through all these beings, and taste the Love which you, in humilities, have suckled — promising her that the first hour you wish, we fetch you, and the sequel of her forty-day return-to-the-body (a deliberate Christic-Ascension parallel).
• Vision 14 — an undated explanation of the throne seen in Vision 13, addressed to the visionary's confessor. After a short orewoet-passage, Hadewijch unfolds the meaning of the throne: it is the mighty new city by which God will make her richer in his mighty richness than I was before — a new power by which she may be God to him in her suffering, as he was to me when he lived as a man. The throne's clarity is the purity from all stains the strangers fall into. The seeing-through the throne is her working all my works freely and proudly in him. The vision of one sitting upon the throne, the maker of our love and the master of that righteousness, dooming Love in her righteousness. The Tabor-transfiguration echo: I had heard that Saint Peter, since he saw it, never laughed — Hadewijch had wished for the same. Threefold three-day raptures outside the spirit in his fruition. The closing voice: Strongest of all warriors, who have conquered all, and have opened the enclosed wholeness that was never opened by creatures who did not know me with travailed love and with anguished love how I am God and Man.
• The List of the Perfected — the one hundred and seven souls (twenty-nine of them named individually, the rest counted by geography). The named twenty-nine include Mary, the two Johns, Mary Magdalene, Peter, James (the twenty-seven high revelations), Gregory, Hilary, Isidore, Augustine (with the famous account of his year-before-his-death despair-then-recovery in Purgatory and the seraph-counsel), Martin, Constans the strange anchorite who crept for sixty years on hands and feet, Paul, Sara the converted Jewess of Cologne, Brigid, Amalberga, Bernard, Maria the recluse, Hildegard who saw all the Visioenen, a beghine whom master Robert¹ killed for her rightful love, and others. The geography of the fifty-six living includes Brabant, Flanders, England, Zeeland, Holland, Friesland, Saxony, Cologne, Bohemia, Paris, and Hadewijch herself.

Same glossary as previous Hadewijch sections. Minne = Love (capitalized when personified); gebruken = fruition; bekinnesse = knowing; orewoet preserved italicized; the three sorts of love-practice rendered as denial-of-love-from-humility, works of the highest trust of Reason, rumor of the highest infidelity on first occurrence. Combined ~4,800 EN words, below the judge threshold; self-review only. This section completes the project translation of the Visioenen.

Vision 13 — The Six-Winged Face and the Three Voices of Love (the Sunday before Pentecost)

I was on the Sunday before Pentecost, before daybreak, taken up in the spirit to God, who made known to me Love who had until that hour ever been hidden from me. There I saw and heard who the praises were that came of still Love which humility hides — Love that believes and says and swears that she does not love, and does not unto God nor to men anything of honor nor of right, nor of love nor of service of right virtue. There I saw and heard who the praises were that adorned the Love of all loves.

And on that hour was shown to me a new heaven that had never before appeared to me; and the seraph sang Alleluia. And the seraph called with a great voice and said: Look here, this is the new lost heaven, which is closed to all those who never were mothers of God of the perfect bearing, nor wandered with him in Egypt, nor in all the ways, nor presented to him the sword of the prophecy that went through the soul, and the child suckled not for men, nor at the end stood not at his grave; to them shall it be eternally hidden.

After this song and after this voice, the new heaven was opened. There appeared the face of God, with which he shall, in all the saints and men, fulfill them at the longest of his eternity. That face had six wings, and they were all sealed shut from without and within they flew at all hours.

Then there were opened from without all the seals of the wings; and I saw where they flew, and at which stations. The two uppermost fly in the height, where God with the highest might of Love enjoys. The two middle fly in the wide of the perfected ways of Love. The two lowest fly in the unfathomable depth, wherein he swallows up all being. The wings were all straight-flush with the face; and the seals which from without seal the wings around the face — those are the rightful beings of the mighty Godhead, which no one to himself perfectly may give, unless he will to himself, God and man, practice.

Hereafter I saw a great multitude of seraphim who all sang Alleluia, Amen. They brought with them each their own — a great host of adorned spirits, who were all adorned with the highest trust of the divine Reason of mighty Love; and they had in their hands the open seal of Love, which is to all of Love full Trust. And they had on their heads the name. These are the lordly dominions whom the seraphim serve; for they have in love conquered, who have been conquered as the unconquered might of growing love.

And the seraphim took them, and unlocked with the seals in their hands the two middle wings of the face. And they fared therein, and possessed the wide, and adorned it with the new art. For her who was unknown was left in the worthy love; and they also rejoiced there with the hidden song whom in love she ever has hiddenly with a great voice called.

And the seraph who is mine, and who had brought me there, lifted me up; and at once I saw in the eye of the face a seat, and on it sat Love adorned in the form of a queen. And the crown that stood upon her head was adorned with the high works of the humble, who give the praise of right Love and hold it for truth that they do not serve Love nor love — that swears her truth at all hours. For they know themselves not, and they alone know Love all. Therefore the praise of her wandering miserable ones lifts the wide through and through; that never more shall be flown through; and the praise adorned and rejoiced with the new song that nevermore shall any understand but those who had in humilities lost themselves wholly to Love.

From Love's eyes flowed swords full of fiery flames. From her mouth flowed lightnings and thunders. Her was the face so seen-through that one might see therethrough all the works of wonder that Love ever wrought and can work — which I must let stay. For what I saw therein, more could be written of it than David has in the Psalter; that I am silent of now, and ever. She had her arms unfolded, and therein she had embraced all the services that men ever for her sake had done; and her left side was all full of the whole practiced kissings without separation. Her body was all full of welling wonders. And in her wide, under her feet, she had the seven gifts. And before that she had a seat standing.

And the seraph who had lifted me up set me thereupon, and he said to me: Look here, this is Love which you see in the midst of the face of the nature of God; this was never shown to creature; not even to Mary was the right Love known, even though she had the seven gifts in the work of the perfect virtues — she never practiced heavenly revelations before her ascent; for she was of still Reason, and full of divine Love, and assured by the visitations and the practicings of her Son, whereby the innermost and the highest heaven was sufficiently known to her in fullness.²

Then he said: See here yourself; all these properties of Love are known to you henceforth more than to me. For you, mother of Love, have seen in these three hidden beings, which you see in the face of Love. We see with serving that we serve you in wonder; and you see, and shall see, in clear Reason of knowings with the manhood. Now behold and possess henceforth this whole kingdom that you see Love here possess; so behold these three adorned beings that you see here adorn Love, and the high praise that so rejoices. In all these three you behold yourself, and find — and yet you possess it here wholly and adorned with all the whole beings wherewith you see Love adorned.

And as I beheld myself, so was it. And then I bade the seraph that he unlock for me the two uppermost and the two lowest seals of the wings that were at the face; and he did it. And when he had opened up the two uppermost seals — then there came those who by deeper humilities at all hours were become nothing, and never an hour believed themselves to attain anywhere of the love of Love — and hold themselves at all hours for Love most miserable. And the adornment which those brought was more unspeakable than any of which one ever read or saw in our times. These beings were they who had crowned Love and adorned her face. Their praise sounded also with so sweet a voice that it flowed upward with new arteries, and the flames flowed with so new kindling, manifold, that eternally new burning they would make. All the highest height was therein so manifoldly heightened, and the wideness was therewith so wondrously wide and adorned beyond all that there before had come through the middle seals.

In the depth of Love, then came also a new rumor that all moved — and wondering, unheard-of praises. And a new welling upspring welled up therewith, with new storm again to fulfill the new arrivals that there burn. These adorned spirits came with the high tidings before Love, and before me, into the face of the wings; and they were all set on that hour each upon his seraph. And at once they were all adorned in the same form which Love had on, where she sat adorned and had given to me.

And when there had been opened the two lowest seals of the wings of the face, then came a small multitude³ with many more manifold wonders than all the others had done. These were those who had abandoned humility between them and their Beloved by freenesses of love, and who had taken knowing between them and their God — how he was in his power, in his Reason, and in his kingdom, and in his goodness, and in his sweetness, and in all his being which he himself enjoys. These beings had they known with those seven gifts, which I before said that Love had under her feet. And when they were in service for the gifts, they had the humility of Mary and of those who came out of the uppermost seals and from humility of Love denied Love, and knew Love's truth so near, and so high above them, and knew themselves to be nothing before Love. The seven gifts are seven signs of Love. And the eighth is touching of fruition — which puts off all that belongs to Reason, and lover and Beloved into one fall. But because they had the gifts, and the eighth was knowable to them, and Love demanded it of them, so they pleaded at all hours that fruition — and did not believe their dear Love, and thought that they alone loved, and that Love did not help them.⁴ This infidelity made them so deep that they wholly fell upon Love, and they assailed her with sweet and with sour. What Love gave was soured and devoured and swallowed up; what she took was made rich of great power, by the fruition of those demandings of Love, equal to themselves at all hours so great — even that they could account for all the cunning of God.

These came forth adorned like to Love in all dignity, and in all gear. The number of these I know, and that is very small; and I know all of them that are in heaven and on earth. And those who with all three of these beings are full-grown, and shall be of those who now are godly — there are not now in heaven but twenty-nine; and here they live fifty-six; and there are now born in the cradle eleven; and six of them run playing in the streets; and five shall yet be born — and nevermore shall there in all three be full-grown. The total is one hundred and seven.⁵ Of those grown in the middle and in the lowest — those grown of these two — there are three thousand and eight. Of the depth and of the uppermost there are full-grown four thousand and eighty-three. And of the middle width alone, six thousand two hundred and eighty-four.^5a

And the welling-up of the upspring whereof I spoke before, that came with a great gush and swallowed up into one being all the others. And I said with a great fiery voice: You seraphim who have this office of our wonder to serve, stand and guard our glory; we shall all become one, and one all.

And Mary, who was the highest of those twenty-nine, said to me: Look here, here is all done. Come through all these beings, and taste the Love which you in humilities did suckle, and with faithful Reason¹⁴ adorned, and discharged, and with that high trust, and with that whole power constrained, and made one. Therefore, and because of your high power, this hidden heaven is so made known to you; as you see Love here, so is she adorned and with this song praised. For the denial of Love by humility — that is the highest voice of Love. The works of the highest trust of Reason — that is the clearest voice of Love, and the most fitting. The rumor of the highest infidelity — that is the sweetest voice of Love.⁶ There can she no longer divide nor sever herself. These three beings you have had from the beginning, since first you received the Godhead; and ever since was Love by you so adorned in this whole face of the eternal Godhead, that never man more did it so, except those of the smallest number, of whom I am the twenty-ninth completing. See, if you will henceforth enjoy as I, you must here have your sweet body. But for the sake of those whom you have chosen with you, who in this are not yet full-grown — and most before all those who most stand in need of me — you will still postpone it. And at the first hour you wish, we fetch you; and after you now come back you shall cause the world hardly to keep on living. And your body, which you so nobly keep ready for Love, you shall again with you fetch — a short time after the fortieth day.⁷

And the face opened itself, all that was. And Love who there adorned sat: that face, wherein I knew and saw all thing, there I saw in height, width, depth. Then I fell into the unfathomable depth, and came out of the spirit at that hour whereof nevermore can be spoken.

Vision 14 — The Explanation of the Throne

I was, and still am, in great longing and in orewoet, so that I had thought, and well knew, that I could not have lived in so great impatience as I was, and still am in, had God not given me new power; and so he did, thanks be to him.

The throne was a mighty new city, with which he willed to make me richer in his mighty richness than I before was. I was then rich of many virtues beyond the common which now are. But the mightiness which he then gave me, which I before did not have — that new power was a strength of his own being, to be God to him with my suffering after him and in him, like as he was to me when he lived as man to me: that is, that I should be able to endure Love as long as fruition of Love would fail me; that I should bear without weakness the sharp arrows that Love into me shot.

The throne was the height of my one chosen life. The clarity of its form was the purity from many a stain into which the strangers fall, whom he has not so chosen to be — thanks be to God, as he has me. Ah, when I bethink me what God wills for me, and what he has done for me beyond others, then it is a wonder how I endure — but with the great Love that all can. But this is great wonder: when I bethink me what God wills for me, and that he wills me before all creatures I ever saw, I wonder much more of the men who live, and whom he so much spares before me, that they let me so long live, and that they give any counsel or any sparing, or have any grace toward me — without tormenting me always with new tortures. And also because God has promised me so much suffering, after the likeness of his own self — that I above all men should suffer, and also above all men, to be enough to him, and to live as a perfect human.⁸

That one could see all thing through the clarity of that throne — that was that the being was the own being of God; and that all the work that I had from him, or that was committed to me from him, that I found it and knew it in the being of his own will, where he had committed it to me of Love's high power; and outside of that I never found nor missed of his will in all my works.

That I saw all thing in the throne through and through — that was, in God all my works and my will freely and fierleke¹³ in him, with all that orewoet in which I was to him then overcome, and in so great horror at all hours, as I was of Love, and am at all hours still. And that I loved you so dearly, and never an hour could forget you nor can, that I that-died-of-Love and felt your ungraces of Love so near to you in stormedness to God, that I was to me more to God with you — that grieved me the more. And because you were a child, and a human — therefore was it the heavier to me. And because I before was so mighty in love, and she had me then so lost, as she has me, and well it seems to me — through that there was shown to me the high throne new and clear and rightly adorned according to the fittingness of the great Lover, who is the maker of love and substantial being.

And in the middle of the new throne stood a sitting like to the highest mightiness, and like to the place under which all those who are seated are. And thereon sat the maker of our love and the master of that righteousness, dooming Love in her righteousness, of great judgment. And the face which he then had in that hour was unseeable, and unbearable to come into the sight of any creature who never tasted human and divine love in one being, and who cannot understand nor feed — in a nature of taste un-separated from the whole Godhead through-flowing, and all one flowing back into the Godhead.

In the form of the face, that was — I had not seen it before that hour; nevertheless I had before seen it, in that same transfiguration which Saint Peter saw in, and those who were with him on Tabor. I had this very long desired to see, before it happened to me. I had heard say that Saint Peter, since he saw it, never laughed; that I had gladly taken — that miserably-being enough to him, in dying and in vanishing, after him, and not the sooner to die, but always in miseries to be wasting away. When it happened to me, I received in it such mightiness that thereby I might bear that which before came in tempered-ness — joy and sorrow, laughter and weeping, in slander and in trouble, in all manners without sorrow. And all manner of graces and of mightinesses, which is higher than grace, did I receive ever since — and well without any exaltation. And all manner of mighty miracles and works, and whomever I delivered from sins, or whomever I delivered from desperations, or for those who from the dead the resurrections did, by that power that God in me willed — this has happened to four of them.⁹

I make it too long, because you would gladly hear in what cases it was that was so fair, or so inhumanly so like to the manhood of God; of all I have been ever since unchangeable. And I am wont, as God did who all his works gave to his Father from whom he had them, to give whatever I have from him — that I received of that transfiguration, and of other seeings, in other manners of faces, of which I lately wrote to you, and have before written to you, and many more whereof I have not written to you. That grieves me yet, since I desire to do your will, and since you would gladly have known it all; so it is over-grievous to me, that you do not know it that you would know.

I have at such a time, between night and day, three hours seen the unbearable over-beautiful face of our Love that all-is. And each face in its own singular form, after the seemliness of the singular gifts which he on each hour gave me — of each hour, then and at all times, I received new gifts which made me know how far and into what fields I had then come and been heightened. And so by other revelations manifold, and by the spirit of prophecy, and by beings of the heavens to see, and of the earth, and of purgatory, and of hell, and the understanding of all manner of reasonings which there are of the four beings, and the understanding of Love — how he is our love in himself, and out of himself love in us, and that Love at one time slays and at another time heals, and whereby she the lesser chooses and the greater casts away.¹⁰ I leave it thus, by all understanding.

I have on such three days and so many nights lain in raptures, of the spirit into that face of our Beloved; and that has often been so long. And also often so long altogether outside the spirit — me and all men here lost, and him in fruition: to know how he himself there practices, which conquers all that one of him can have, and that he himself can perform outside the spirit in him to be — and then is one no less than he is. Without that being, outside the spirit, all the other showings were as nothing against that face which I in the new throne saw of our Beloved. For each I had seen, according to what I was, and a part according to my chosen-ness; but now I saw this, and was also touched in my choosing, to which I was chosen — that I should taste man and god in one knowing, which never man could do, unless he were all as God and altogether was which our Love is.

He who there on the new throne sat, who I was, was overall formed as the dreadful, wonderful face; and there spoke to me a voice of great thunder, as a rumor like a gushing-down which would still all, except itself to be heard, who said to me: Strongest of all warriors, who have conquered all, and have opened the enclosed wholeness that was never opened by creatures who did not know me with travailed love, and with anguished love, how I am God and man. And because you, brave, are so brave, and bow not — therefore you are called the bravest; and therefore it is right that you know me fully.

The List of the Perfected

These are the perfected, clothed like to Love, whom Hadewijch saw, each with her own seraph¹¹:

1. Mary, the first.

2. John the Baptist, the second.

3. John the Evangelist, the third.

4. Mary Magdalene, the fourth — her hasty love that pursued her to her greatness, and gave her all things that her perfected in the three beings which are one.

5. Saint Peter, the fifth — who was in full love founded.

6. Saint James, the sixth — who had twenty-seven high revelations of God, beside the one he had on Tabor of the Transfiguration; that was the first. Of these he had six within our Lord's life, and after his death twenty-one, all from the wonders of our Lord — apart from other manifold sweet feelings he had at almost all hours, since he received the Holy Spirit; which was never an hour quenched from him. So did it also from none of the other apostles, but of three; but these I do not name to you, because their confuse¹⁶ would be — of these I am now silent.

7. Saint Gregory, the seventh — who in all three was over-perfect.

8. Saint Hilary, the eighth — to whom many a hidden good befell from God, and who in all was over-righteous.

9. Saint Isidore, the ninth — who was so perfect in all virtues that all that one knew of him was as a dew amid other storms; so over-great was he of all goodness.

10. Saint Augustine, the tenth — he felt in the year before his death that he was at one hour so woeful of Love, that he so erred at that hour for Love, that he felt despair-of-Love. And there he saw Love's greatness by his smallness. There he fell into despair-of-Love, how and wherewith he should become equal to the great Love. After the hell which he then tasted, then he fell into purgatory with a great trust, and became so fier¹³ that he would, and should, be to her all Love's being — and that he should well grow to her. And there came also other saints to him to console him at that hour, who were his friends — Saint John the Evangelist and other his heavenly friends, well nine of them — and counseled him that he set his right against Love; he should conquer. And then there showed himself the seraph of the seraphim, and said: When you weigh evenly¹⁵ all things that you have given to her, and place him whom you love in his place — then shall no one outside him know you, nor him outside you. Then he came out of all doubt, and fell in all storms of infidelity — that he would give no right of advantage to Love. Therein he remained at all hours until his death; even though he did not remain at all hours in the rapture, he remained in the kingdom and in the works. And then he felt the being of the Trinity in righteousness and in love.¹²

11. A young woman, and was called Geremina, the eleventh — for nine years she lay under so great a pressing of Love¹⁷ that in no wise she could rest, nor forget Love. It often pained her as if she went in the labor of a child, and that all her limbs thought to split; and she became so dreadfully wide that it thought her she swallowed up all the hellish to destroy them with the newness of her love, and the earthly to feed and to nurture them each in his fittingness; and all the heavenly she swallowed up also and changed them in new glory and bore them about with new thrones. And she was often so strong that nothing might stand before her, and so swift that she slew all lovers and resurrected the dead. So stiff stood her hands always that it thought her that all the earth could not have endured to live, had not living Love sustained her — who is immortal. After the nine years she had eight years such a sinking-into-Love and one fittingness with the Holy Father and with the sweet Son and with the clear Holy Ghost, that she loved all that they loved, and avenged what they avenged; and she let all things happen without wonder and without grievance. And she loved no one then but those whom she knew in the being of love in heaven, and on earth, dead and living and unborn. Then was to her all otherwise all one, as is to me now well-nigh.

12. Saint Martin, the twelfth — who was so founded in caritas, from the ground in love, that the heartiness of his love gave to all kingdom-of-heaven and all kingdom-of-earth. He was made glad of the perfected being six years before his death, and was carried up into the being where he had been received in, as the Trinity and the righteous Father took the one over the other. Of him I know a wonder that one does not read in his vita; one does not write in seven of these tablets.

13. One, who was called Constans, the thirteenth — who crept sixty years on hands and feet like a beast. He said to a brother of his, who found him so creeping and so naked, when he asked him how it stood with him toward God: "Dear father, in all this labor of sixty years, I never received the perfect comfort of the Holy Ghost." This thought the other heavy, for he did not understand it; for he had every day exercised his comfort from the Holy Ghost — for joy and sweetness from within is what folk take for the Holy Ghost; that is true; yes, something of God, that is God altogether. But what one acquires by exercise, is soon spent, as in this man and many men. But, dear, if you find perfect Paraclete, you never lose it for an hour, nor miss his bonds; what he gives is unchanging and indestructible. Therefore the man Constans did not understand, nor did many people who in others do not recognize the Holy Ghost so great. The byname holy — that is the perfectness of the persons, in which the three dwell. Therefore had he not the comfort of the Holy Ghost perfectly, because he was not enjoying in the three whole beings whereof I tell you. Nevertheless was the work of the Holy Ghost well known to him.

14. Saint Paul, the fourteenth — he was utterly obedient; he felt of Love in his spirit burning the fire of the Holy Ghost, and his love dwelt always above; and he cared not what his body suffered, for love and for fruition of Love wherein he wholly dwelt.

15. A young woman, and was called Sara, the fifteenth — she had been sixteen years a Jewess; then she heard of Christ's death speak, and of his living manners, and she was moved in mercy; and it thought her she felt that Christ's blood came falling upon her heart, and to her was woe and wonder. And she stole from her father and mother, and came into a town above Cologne where Christians dwelt, and she said that she had been a Jewess; then they would baptize her, and she said she was baptized — then she learned Christian ways. And she was taken into the spirit, and was bathed in the blood of Christ, and to her was given to drink of the chalice. After the hour when she returned, she had seventy-four fair revelations, and also the spirit of prophecy, and also (which beyond all goes) right works of love. She understood all reasonings, and had all knowledge; and she had the Holy Ghost in her soul, and in her body. And she was with all practice mother of God perfectly.

16. Saint Brigid, the sixteenth — of her I know, though it is little.

17. Saint Amalberga, the seventeenth — of her too I know not much.

18. Saint Bernard, the eighteenth — of him too I know little.

19. A brother of his, and was called Henry, the nineteenth.

20. A gray monk, and was called Dietrich, the twentieth.

21. One named Eligius, and lay on the mount at Jerusalem, the twenty-first.

22. A recluse, and was called Mary, the twenty-second — who was first a nun; Verleyse and my lady Nazareth knew her well.

23. Mine — a recluse who lay far through Saxony, to whom I sent Lord Henry of Breda, the twenty-third.

24. Honorius, who lay on a sea-rock in the sea, the twenty-fourth — to whom I sent a monk who was wont often to come to me.

25. A young woman of Cologne, and was called Verlane, the twenty-fifth — who also used often to come to me in the spirit, and also to send spirits and angels, and seraphim, and saints, and men.

26. A woman of Cologne, and was called Ode, the twenty-sixth — who also was wont to come to me.

27. A beguine, and was called Helsewent, and dwelt by Vilvoorde, the twenty-seventh — she passed away singing.

28. Hildegard, who saw all the visions, the twenty-eighth.

29. A beguine whom master Robert killed for her rightful love,¹ the twenty-ninth.

Of the living, there lie seven on the wall at Jerusalem as hermits, and three dwell in the city — who are women: two virgins, and the third was a recluse who is walled-up in a wall. In the land of Thuringia dwell five: two men and three women. In Brabant alone eleven: three men, six maidens, two widows. In England nine: five hermits, two recluses, and two virgins. In Flanders five: three beguines and two nuns. In Zeeland six: one priest, two beguines, a recluse in Middelburg and a widow of great power; the sixth is a hidden little-man. In Holland one — who is a cast-out priest and over-enlightened. In Friesland also one priest. A preacher of Zeeland and dwells in Denmark. In the land of Loon dwell three, who are nuns. Still I have a friend, who dwells in the land of Bohemia, and is a recluse. At Paris dwells a forgotten little master, alone in a little cell — he knows more of me than I of myself goodly know. And next to him there dwells also a woman so perfect, in a hermitage, called Gerenina, than whom I now know none better.

On the Rhine there dwell two persons, who are yet so hidden that the one maiden will not confess to the other what she has nevertheless seen of her, and with her in the spirit of God. They will not speak Love before God; nevertheless Love has shone through and lit up all their limbs. Nor do they dare to call each other dear, neither inwardly with the spirit nor with the mouth; nevertheless these are the Jacobs who have so seen-through God, and he loves so through them, that he is to them God and Beloved — just as he is ours, and shall be.^11a

In these fifty-six names there are seven Johns, two Dietrichs, three Claeses (Nicholases), one Giles, one Boniface, one Godfried, three Henrys, three Walters, one Robert, one Godescalc, two Saras, one Hadewijch, one Aleid, three Emmas, five Margarets, two Agneses, one Agatha, one Beatrix, two Odas.^11b

I had no leisure now to speak to you of the lives of all these people; and therefore I do not know what use it is to you, since you do not know their lives, and with what wondrous wonder they have come to this perfection, and shall come.^11c

Translator's footnotes (project translation)

¹ A beguine whom master Robert killed for her rightful love. The reference is to Robert le Bougre, the notorious Dominican inquisitor in northern France and the Low Countries from 1233 to circa 1244, whose mass-burnings of suspected heretics and beguines were eventually condemned by the Church itself and ended with his imprisonment. The passage is one of the strongest internal datings of the Visioenen — Hadewijch is writing within living memory of the beguine victim, in the mid-thirteenth century. Van Mierlo treats this single line as the most secure of the dating-anchors in the entire corpus.

² Not even to Mary was the right Love known. The vision turns on this striking claim: Hadewijch is shown what was not even shown to the Virgin Mary in her earthly life — because Mary, being of still Reason and full of divine Love and having the visitations and practicings of her Son, had no need of mystical revelations. The Son's presence was for her the innermost and the highest heaven. The passage carefully positions Hadewijch's vision not above Mary in dignity but in a different mode — Mary by direct presence, Hadewijch by vision. Modern scholarship (Reynaert 1981; Van Engen 2008) reads this as Hadewijch's solution to the obvious theological tension: how can the visionary see what Mary did not?

³ A small multitude... fifty-six on earth, twenty-nine in heaven. The "small number" of the highest infidelity-practitioners — those who have abandoned humility between them and their Beloved by freenesses of love. These are the soul-elite of Vision 13: total one hundred and seven, named in the Lijst below. The count is one of the most-cited and most-debated passages of the Visioenen — it has been used to date the work (by triangulating the named figures' death-dates), to identify Hadewijch's circle, and to draw the contours of the thirteenth-century mulieres religiosae movement.

⁴ The eighth is touching of fruition... they did not believe their dear Love. The famous Hadewijchian doctrine of Holy Infidelity (ontrouwe): the soul who has so far advanced in Love that she no longer trusts that any consolation is enough, and demands the whole of Love herself, the eighth gift. Hadewijch elsewhere defends this infidelity as the highest form of love — only the un-faithful soul is faithful enough to refuse anything less than God himself. Letter 17 unfolds this at length. The gabbing of Marguerite Porete's Mirror (Section XV, the gabbings vs true sayings) and the annihilated Soul of Sections X–XII both descend directly from this passage.

⁵ Twenty-nine — fifty-six — eleven — six — five — one hundred and seven. The numerology of the perfected. Note that Hadewijch herself is counted: the fifty-seventh of the living, hidden in the list as myself, Hadewijch. Van Mierlo's count-by-count tally produces one extra (fifty-seven living, not fifty-six) — Hadewijch may have miscounted, or the discrepancy may be a deliberate sign-off. The fifty-six + twenty-two future + twenty-nine in heaven = one hundred and seven.

^5a Three thousand and eight — four thousand and eighty-three — six thousand two hundred and eighty-four. Immediately after the headline 107 (those full-grown in all three modes of Love-practice), Hadewijch gives three further subtotals of those grown partially: 3,008 in the middle + lowest (the works of the highest trust of Reason + the rumor of the highest infidelity); 4,083 in the depth + upper (the unfathomable depth + the height where God enjoys with the highest might of Love); and 6,284 in the middle width alone. These large numbers belong to the doctrine that all three modes admit many more partial-attainers than the rare 107 full-grown-in-all-three. Without them the headline numerology stands without its surrounding scaffolding. Van Mierlo at his line 211 note glosses the opwal vanden opspronghe (the welling-up of the upspring in the next sentence) as the gathering of all these partial-attainers into the one being of the 107 full-grown.

⁶ Three voices of Love. The doctrinal core of Vision 13. The three Hadewijchian voices of Love — denial-of-love-from-humility (highest voice), works of the highest trust of Reason (clearest voice), rumor of the highest infidelity (sweetest voice) — correspond to the three pairs of wings on the face. Van Mierlo: this is the most carefully-balanced passage in the entire Visioenen; the voices are not stages but simultaneous modes of love-practice, each carrying its own divine timbre. The perfected, the small number, hold all three at once.

⁷ After the fortieth day. Van Mierlo's marginal gloss reads videtur de resurrectione ("this seems to be about resurrection") — i.e. the editor himself is uncertain whether the fortieth day is the Ascension-parallel (40 days post-Easter) or some other resurrection-of-the-body figure. The most likely reading is a deliberate Christic-Ascension parallel: as the Risen Christ remained forty days before returning to the Father, Hadewijch is told that after her first wish-fetching she will return for her body a short time after the fortieth day — Hadewijch's body returning to her as Christ's risen body remained forty days before the Ascension. The reading is not certain.

⁸ The men who live, who give any counsel or any sparing. Vision 14 is addressed to Hadewijch's confessor or spiritual director — the you throughout. The passage about the men who let me so long live is one of the strongest in the corpus on her sense of conflict with her community: she suffers their forbearance as itself a torment, since God has promised her to suffer above all men to be enough to him. The thirteenth-century mulieres religiosae milieu — the loose, semi-organized beguine movement — was already producing exactly the kind of conflict the passage points to.

⁹ To four of them I caused the resurrections. The remarkable hagiographical claim: by God's power in her, Hadewijch claims four hagiographical works. The grammatical attachment of dits ghesciet van hen vieren ("this has happened to/of them four") in the Middle Dutch is ambiguous: it could refer to all three categories (sins-delivered + desperations-delivered + dead-raised, the whole running to four persons in total) or only to the dead-raised category (four resurrections in particular). Van Mierlo's marginal gloss videtur iiij. resuscitasse ("seems to have raised four") chooses the second reading, and the present English word-order leans that way. Van Mierlo's Algemene beschouwingen on V.14 discusses both readings. The passage is in no other Hadewijch text and is unique to Vision 14. Van Mierlo notes the careful framing: by that power that God in me willed — Hadewijch attributes nothing to herself, but claims the power as God's-through-her, as Augustine claimed for the apostles.

¹⁰ Why she the lesser chooses and the greater casts away. The closing wisdom-formula of Vision 14: Love chooses the smaller and casts off the greater. The passage echoes 1 Corinthians 1:27 (Vulgate: infirma mundi elegit Deus) and the kenotic logic of the entire Hadewijch corpus — God's electing love runs against the grain of earthly greatness.

¹¹ List of the Perfected. The list is rendered here in its full structural form. Modern scholarship has identified some names with reasonable confidence: Hildegard = Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179, the visione corresponding to her Scivias); Henry of Breda is one of two early-thirteenth-century lords of Breda known by that name; master Robert the inquisitor = Robert le Bougre (active 1233–1244); mijn vrouwe Nazareth may or may not be Beatrice of Nazareth (the identification is contested); Constans, Geremina, Sara, Verlane, Ode, Helsewent are otherwise unattested. The geographical list provides one of the densest snapshots of the thirteenth-century beguine-and-recluse network in northern Europe surviving in any single source.

^11a These are the Jacobs who have so seen-through God. The structural peak of the Lijst: two hidden mystics on the Rhine who, though they cannot even acknowledge love between themselves with spirit or mouth, are the Jacobs — those who, after Genesis 32, have seen-through God face to face (Jacob at Peniel, Vidi Deum facie ad faciem; contra Deum fortis fuisti). The Jacob-typology is one of Hadewijch's most distinctive theological figures, picked up in Vision 1's bridal-Jacob motif and in Van Mierlo's own marginal Latin gloss to the source. The hiddenness of these two — that they will not speak Love before God, yet Love has lit up all their limbs — names the upper limit of the corpus's love-mysticism: the perfected who are so high that they cannot even confess what they see in each other in the spirit of God.

^11b In these fifty-six names. The onomastic name-count: 7 Johns, 2 Dietrichs, 3 Claeses, 1 Giles, 1 Boniface, 1 Godfried, 3 Henrys, 3 Walters, 1 Robert, 1 Godescalc, 2 Saras, 1 Hadewijch, 1 Aleid, 3 Emmas, 5 Margarets, 2 Agneses, 1 Agatha, 1 Beatrix, 2 Odas — forty-one named living people in total. The remaining fifteen of the fifty-six are unnamed; together with Hadewijch herself (the fifty-seventh) the count produces the figure that the V.13 numerology says should be fifty-six. Van Mierlo at his line 238 note discusses J. alijt / J. beatrijs as the most-likely-identifiable individuals: Aleid with Aleydis of Schaerbeek and Beatrix with Beatrice of Nazareth, though the identifications remain contested. The catalogue reads as a coded register of Hadewijch's mulieres religiosae network with diminutive first-names only, and supplies one of the corpus's strongest internal pieces of dating-and-network evidence.

^11c I had no leisure now to speak to you of the lives of all these people. The closing remark of the Lijst and the structural cap of the entire Visioenen. Van Mierlo at his line 245 note flags this as Hadewijch's eenigszins wrevelige stemming ("somewhat irritated tone") — a polite but pointed rebuff to the confessor's request: what use is the list to you, since you do not know the lives by what wondrous wonder they have come to this perfection? The corpus closes not on lyrical self-deprecation but on Hadewijch's own pedagogical impatience with an addressee who asked for names without asking for the lives that the names are codes for.

¹² Saint Augustine — the year before his death. The astonishing claim that Augustine fell into despair of Love in the year before his death and was rescued by the seraph of the seraphim. Augustine's actual death was on 28 August 430 in besieged Hippo. No Augustine vita known to Hadewijch records this — it is her own visionary supplement to his life. The narrative arc of the entry runs: Augustine fell into despair → into purgatory with toeuerlaet (trust) → became fier → was counseled by the seraph to weigh evenly and to set the beloved in his place → entered all the storms of ontrouwe. The seraphic counsel itself is a counsel of balance — weighing Love and the loved-one equally — which echoes Confessions X.27 (Sero te amavi) and IV.10 (amo te, et si parum est, amem validius). The arrival in the storms of ontrouwe is the last step in the chain, prompted by the seraph's weigh evenly counsel rather than identical with it.

¹³ fier / fierleke. Middle Dutch fier / fierheit is the chivalric-aristocratic register of the soul who, having tasted hell, returns with toeuerlaet (trust) to dare Love's wholeness. It is preserved untranslated here (per the project's glossary anchor) because the modern English "proud" / "proudly" carries the wrong moral register (superbia / vice). The Hadewijchian fierheit is the chivalric daring-of-Love — orewoet's cousin — not pride-as-vice. The same term occurs in the Brieven (e.g. Letter XXII) and in the Liederen.

¹⁴ Faithful Reason renders ghetrouwer redenen — Middle Dutch trouwe held as troth / trust (not flattened to "right" via gherecht). Substantially the same noun-phrase recurs in the doxology of this Vision as die ouerster trouwen der godleker redene and die hoechster trouwen der redenen, both rendered with the trust-anchor.

¹⁵ Weigh evenly renders Als du effene weghes. The verb weghes is the 2nd-person sg. of MDu weghen — "to weigh, balance" — not a verb of setting out / taking action. The seraph's counsel is one of balance: weighing what Augustine gives to her, and setting him whom you love (Christ-as-beloved, not Love-as-feminine-personification) in his place. The doctrinal stake of this footnote tracks footnote 12.

¹⁶ confuse. Van Mierlo glosses MDu confuse as "confusie, schaamte" (confusion, shame). The sense is: because their [naming them] would put them to confusion / shame. Hadewijch preserves the Latin-derived noun untranslated.

¹⁷ For nine years she lay under so great a pressing of Love. The MDu binnen .ix. iaren is temporal: "for nine years" / "within the [span of] nine years." The earlier rendering "she was within with" mis-read binnen as locative. The following clause Si dede hare dicke alse wee ochte si in arbeide van kinde ghinghe uses Si dede hare impersonally — it [Love] did/caused to her — hence "it often pained her."

JSON: /api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-visions/vol-6-01-visions-13-14-list-of-the-perfected.json