The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works

«The writing that follows is the English version of a book written by St Denis to Timothy, which is called in Latin Mystica Theologia» — el prólogo del autor del Cloud a su Mystical Theology of St Denis presenta el texto como versión inglesa de un libro escrito por San Denis a Timoteo. La atribución la hace el propio texto; el verbatim se corta antes de la llamada de nota, pegada a la palabra en el troceo

«It is stated in chapter 70 of an earlier book called The Cloud of Unknowing that Denis’s argument will clearly confirm everything that is written in the» — el mismo prólogo remite al capítulo 70 del Cloud y declara que el argumento de Denis afianza lo que ahí se escribe; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue *Cloud*

«and for that reason, in translating it, I have not only followed the literal sense of the text, but, to clarify its difficulties, I have closely followed the interpretation of the Abbot of St Victor, a noble and excellent expositor of the book» — el autor del Cloud declara su propio método de traducción: además del sentido literal siguió de cerca la interpretación del Abad de San Víctor, a quien llama expositor noble y excelente del libro

«Everlasting Wisdom without beginning, who are in yourself the First Cause transcending all being, the transcendent Godhead3 and the transcendent Good, the inward beholder of the divinely created wisdom of Christians» — la Oración de San Denis, en la versión del autor del Cloud, invoca a la Sabiduría eterna sin principio como Primera Causa que trasciende todo ser, Deidad y Bien trascendentes

«I beseech you to raise us to a capacity that accords with the transcendently unknown and transcendently shining height of your dark, inspired utterances, where all the secret matters of theology are concealed and hidden under the transcendently shining darkness of wisest silence» — la misma oración pide ser elevado a la altura de las oscuras palabras inspiradas, donde las materias secretas de la teología quedan ocultas bajo la tiniebla resplandeciente del silencio más sabio

«And because these matters are beyond understanding, I desire with love beyond understanding as best I can to gain them for myself with this prayer» — cierre de la oración: siendo esas materias inaccesibles al entendimiento, se las desea con un amor que también está más allá del entendimiento

«Timothy my friend, whenever by the stirring of divine grace you set yourself to undertake the active exercise of your blind contemplation, see that with strong, prudent and eager contrition you forsake your bodily senses (namely hearing, sight, smell, taste and touch), and also your spiritual senses, otherwise known as your intellectual activities» — Mystical Theology, capítulo 1: la instrucción a Timoteo manda abandonar los cinco sentidos corporales y también los espirituales, es decir, las actividades intelectuales

«see that you ascend with me in this grace, in a way that is beyond what you know, to be made one with him who is above all being and all ways of knowing» — el capítulo 1 fija el término del ejercicio: hacerse uno con quien está por encima de todo ser y de todo modo de conocer, por una vía que excede lo que se sabe

«then, once everything has been negated in this way, you will be drawn up in your feelings above understanding to the radiance of divine darkness that transcends all being» — el capítulo 1 describe el resultado de la negación completa: el afecto queda arrastrado por encima del entendimiento al resplandor de la tiniebla divina

«Take care that none of those unwise people still dwelling in their senses hear about these matters. That is what I call all those who are bound down to knowing and loving the things that can be known and that have a beginning, and whose opinion is that nothing is transcendently higher than such existing things» — el capítulo 1 impone el secreto: la materia no se dice a quienes viven atados a conocer y amar lo cognoscible y no admiten nada por encima de las cosas que existen

«For these people do not know how to achieve knowledge of the First Cause, which is transcendently set above all things, except by making figures of the last and least worthy of existing visible things, such as stocks or stones» — el capítulo 1 describe a los que rebajan la Primera Causa a figuras de las cosas visibles menos dignas, como palos o piedras

«and they say that there is nothing higher than those wicked and multifarious shapes, created by themselves in their capricious imaginations» — el capítulo 1 les adjudica la afirmación de que nada hay más alto que esas formas que ellos mismos crean en sus imaginaciones caprichosas

«and more appropriately and more firmly we need to deny all such attributes, in that he is transcendently above them all, supreme in his own nature and distinct from them all» — el segundo paso, declarado más propio y más firme: negarle todos esos atributos, en cuanto está trascendentemente por encima de todos y distinto de todos

«and not to be of opinion that the denial of existing things is contrary to the original affirmation of them, but to hold steadfastly what is seen in faith, that he who in himself is above all things is above all negation of things that exist or could exist, yes, above both their negation and their affirmation» — el capítulo 1 cierra la regla: la negación no se opone a la afirmación, porque él está por encima de la negación y de la afirmación de lo que existe o podría existir

«and all things that now exist or that have existed though they do not now exist; and all things that do not now exist, or that may exist in the future» — el capítulo 1 de la Mystical Theology extiende la negación a los tres tiempos: lo que existe, lo que existió y ya no, y lo que aún no existe pero podrá existir

«In no way is it so. This is how it must be: we need to acknowledge, recognize and affirm in him who is above all knowledge and intellect» — el capítulo 1 enuncia el primer paso de la vía: reconocer y afirmar en quien está sobre todo conocimiento e intelecto; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue *all the positive attributes of all existing things*

«It is for this reason that the saintly Bartholomew, Christ’s apostle, states in his writing that Christian theology is both great and minute» — el capítulo 1 apoya la doble vía en San Bartolomé, apóstol de Cristo, según el cual la teología cristiana es a la vez grande y mínima. Voz nombrada dentro del texto

«It appears to me that he was carried up to supernatural insight when stating that the good Cause of all things speaks both in many words and in brief sayings» — el texto explica la contradicción por arrebato sobrenatural: la buena Causa de todo habla a la vez con muchas palabras y con dichos breves

«Yet, for all that, he is not concealed but manifests himself openly in truth and clarity, not to all, but only to those who rise above all existing things, pure as well as impure, and who pass beyond all ascents to all the holy bounds or limits that are set for human beings or angels, and who abandon all divine illuminations and all heavenly sounds and words, and enter with love into darkness» — el capítulo 1 acota la ocultación: se manifiesta abiertamente, pero solo a quienes se elevan sobre todo lo existente, puro e impuro, abandonan iluminaciones y sonidos celestes y entran con amor en la tiniebla

«See this illustrated in the history which tells of the godly Moses, the humblest of men:12 first he was told to be purified both in himself and also in his people, and after that to be separated from all occasion of defilement» — el capítulo 1 pone a Moisés como ejemplo: primero purificado él y su pueblo, y luego apartado de toda ocasión de mancha

«And then, after all the purification of him and his people, he heard many sounds of trumpets, and saw many lights shining, sending out very broad and pure beams» — la secuencia de Moisés: tras la purificación, trompetas y luces de rayos amplios y puros

«And afterwards he was separated from the multitude of his people, and with chosen priests he attained the height of the ascent to God, which is the limit and bound of human understanding, however much it may be assisted by grace» — la secuencia sigue: apartado del pueblo y con los sacerdotes elegidos alcanza la cima del ascenso a Dios, que es el límite del entendimiento humano por más que lo asista la gracia

«Yet in all this he was not with God in a manner corresponding to the perfection of his divinity; the object of his contemplation was not God himself, for he cannot be seen by the eye of contemplation; but the place where God was, that was his object» — el texto acota lo que Moisés alcanzó: no a Dios mismo, que no puede verse con el ojo de la contemplación, sino el lugar donde Dios estaba

«And that place symbolizes the highest divine vision, passing beyond all human reasonings and holding them in subjection as a lady does her handmaidens» — el lugar se lee como símbolo de la visión divina más alta, que rebasa los razonamientos humanos y los tiene sujetos como una señora a sus criadas

«It was at this point that, in singleness of love, Moses was separated from the chosen priests mentioned above, and entered by himself the darkness of unknowing,16 darkness which is truly hidden, and in which all intelligible knowledge is shut up» — el capítulo 1 cierra con Moisés entrando solo, por simplicidad de amor, en la tiniebla del no saber, donde queda encerrado todo conocimiento inteligible

«But in the emptying out of all knowledge of what is entirely unknowable, he is united with him in the best way; and in knowing nothing he is made to know beyond understanding» — la fórmula que cierra el capítulo 1: vaciado todo conocimiento de lo enteramente incognoscible, queda unido a él del mejor modo, y no sabiendo nada se le hace saber más allá del entendimiento

«and that the Gospel is broad and great, but (he says soon afterwards) it is narrow and small» — la segunda mitad de la cita de Bartolomé en el capítulo 1 de la Mystical Theology: el Evangelio es ancho y grande, y poco después, estrecho y pequeño. La contradicción se consigna sin resolver

«We pray to be raised up in this transcendently shining darkness, and, by seeing nothing and by not knowing, to see and know in this very absence of sight and knowledge him who is above all seeing and all knowing; and, through the negation of all things that exist, to praise in transcendence him who is intrinsically transcendent» — Mystical Theology, capítulo 2: la petición es ver y conocer por no ver y no conocer, y alabar por negación de todo lo que existe

«While the block is still completely whole, the image may exist inside himself through the sheer power of imagination, but common sense tells you that before he can manage to see it clearly with the bodily sight of his outward eyes, or reveal it to be seen by others, he must always use his skill and his tools to remove all the outward parts of the wood that surround the image and prevent it from being seen» — el ejemplo sigue: la imagen existe en la imaginación mientras el bloque está entero, y para verla hay que quitar con herramienta todo lo que la rodea

«That is just how we must conduct ourselves in this high work of theology, so far as our understanding can be aided by such a crude illustration, so contrary in nature to what it illustrates» — el texto aplica el ejemplo a la alta obra de teología y declara en la misma frase su límite: es una ilustración burda y de naturaleza contraria a lo que ilustra

«For in this work we must be like people making an image of God’s naked nature, uncreated and without beginning. Though it is unconstrained in itself and to itself – inside all creatures yet not enclosed; outside all creatures yet not excluded; above all creatures yet not forced up; below all creatures yet not thrust down; behind all creatures yet not pushed back; in front of all creatures yet not driven forward» — el capítulo 2 enuncia la serie de negaciones de lugar: dentro de las criaturas sin estar encerrado, fuera sin quedar excluido, arriba sin ser forzado, abajo sin ser empujado, detrás y delante sin serlo

«yet all the same, to human understanding, as long as it is linked to this corruptible body, he is never clearly revealed except as something covered up and enwrapped and overlaid with innumerable material bodies and kinds of intelligible substance, with many marvellous fanciful images coagulated around him, as it were, in an encumbering lump» — el capítulo 2 describe cómo se presenta Dios al entendimiento atado a un cuerpo corruptible: cubierto, envuelto y recubierto de cuerpos materiales y sustancias inteligibles, con muchas imágenes fantasiosas cuajadas en torno como un bulto que estorba

«In the divine work of contemplation we must, with the dexterity of grace, skilfully pare completely away this encumbering lump, coagulated in this way out of innumerable unlikenesses, as a powerful hindrance antagonistic to the pure hidden sight of God» — el capítulo 2 prescribe la operación: desbastar con destreza de gracia ese bulto cuajado de desemejanzas, que estorba la vista oculta y pura de Dios

«How this can be done is unknown to all except those alone who experience it, and even to them is unknown except while the experience lasts» — el capítulo 2 pone el límite del saber sobre esto: solo lo sabe quien lo experimenta, y aun él solo mientras dura la experiencia

«All of us who practise this theology need to make our denials in the opposite way to our affirmations; for when we put forward our affirmations we begin at the noblest of existing things and descend in order by intermediate stages to the least noble, but in our denials we begin with the least noble and mount up to the most noble; and later, moving from the highest by stages to the lowest, and back from the lowest to the highest» — el capítulo 2 fija el orden de las dos vías: la afirmación desciende de lo más noble a lo menos, la negación asciende de lo menos noble a lo más

«It is outside himself, lying in front of him, while within himself he has the intention and skill to make an image of the smallest size from that part of the wood which, measured by plumb line, lies in the centre and middle of the block» — el ejemplo sigue: el bloque está fuera, delante de él, y dentro lleva la intención y la destreza de sacar del centro, medido a plomada, una imagen del menor tamaño

«clearly, beyond understanding, Beauty itself in its own naked, uncreated reality without beginning» — lo que queda al final del desbaste, en la otra plana: la Belleza misma en su realidad desnuda, increada y sin principio

«Here is a man who has a solid block of wood of the largest size» — el capítulo 2 de la Mystical Theology abre el ejemplo del tallista con un bloque macizo del mayor tamaño; el verbatim se corta antes de la llamada de nota 17, pegada a la palabra en el troceo

«And thus, through the dexterous removal of all these things, brought about by grace, we can praise» — el término de la operación del capítulo 2; el tramo se corta en el cambio de plana y sigue *clearly, beyond understanding, Beauty itself in its own naked, uncreated reality without beginning*

«For this reason in our other books of theology, and especially in those of positive theology, first in the Hierarchies of Heaven and second in the Hierarchies of the Church Militant» — Mystical Theology, capítulo 3: el texto remite a sus otros libros de teología positiva, las Jerarquías del Cielo y las de la Iglesia Militante. Autocatálogo del propio texto atribuido a San Denis

«The author of The Cloud of Unknowing and the group of writings associated with it chose to remain anonymous, but we can deduce that he was an English priest, and probably a Carthusian monk, who lived in the second half of the fourteenth century. In prose of poetic originality he taught ways to achieve union through love with a God whom he saw as totally transcendent, beyond the reach of human understanding and human language» — la solapa del volumen presenta la obra: el autor guardó el anonimato y de él solo se deduce que fue sacerdote inglés, probablemente cartujo, de la segunda mitad del siglo XIV, y que enseñó la unión con Dios por el amor a un Dios enteramente trascendente. Voz del editor en solapa, no del autor ni de Spearing

«A. C. SPEARING is William R. Kenan Professor of English at the University of Virginia and a Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge. He has published numerous books and articles on medieval literature, including books on dream-poetry, on the Gawain-poet, and The Medieval Poet as Voyeur. He wrote the introduction and notes for Elizabeth Spearing’s Penguin Classics translation of Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love» — la misma solapa da la ficha biográfica del traductor: cátedra en Virginia, fellow de Queens' College, estudios sobre literatura medieval y el aparato de la traducción de Elizabeth Spearing de Julian of Norwich. Solapa editorial

«PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England» — el pie editorial del volumen: Penguin Books Ltd, del Penguin Group, con sede en Londres. Voz del sello, no del traductor

«The moral right of the translator has been asserted Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser» — la página de derechos declara el derecho moral del traductor y la condición de venta del ejemplar fuera de los Estados Unidos

«EISBN: 978–0–141–90759–8» — el volumen se identifica por EISBN: el ejemplar del corpus es la edición electrónica del mismo texto

«CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION FURTHER READING NOTE ON THE TEXT» — el índice separa el aparato de Spearing —agradecimientos, introducción, lecturas y nota sobre el texto— de los cuatro textos traducidos, que lo siguen

«In translating and annotating the texts, I have benefited greatly by consulting Phyllis Hodgson’s notes to her 1982 edition of The Cloud of Unknowing and Related Treatises on Contemplative Prayer (Exeter: Catholic Records Press), together with The Cloud of Unknowing, trans. James Walsh (Mahwah, New Jersey, 1981), The Pursuit of Wisdom and Other Works by the Author of the Cloud of Unknowing, trans. James Walsh (Mahwah, New Jersey, 1988), and John P. H. Clark, The Cloud of Unknowing: An Introduction, 3 vols. (Salzburg, 1995–6)» — Spearing declara de qué aparato ajeno se sirvió al traducir y anotar: las notas de Hodgson de 1982, las dos traducciones de James Walsh y la introducción en tres tomos de John P. H. Clark

«Parts of the introduction derive from papers given at the 34th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in 1999 and the 35th Congress in 2000, and from a lecture given to the English Department of the University of Copenhagen in 1999» — Spearing fecha y sitúa el origen de partes de su introducción: dos congresos de estudios medievales en Western Michigan y una conferencia en Copenhague

«Finally, it gives me pleasure to record that Phyllis Hodgson was the teacher of Elizabeth Salter, who was my teacher and who turned me into a medievalist and first introduced me to the writings translated here» — Spearing traza su propia línea de transmisión: Hodgson enseñó a Elizabeth Salter, y Salter lo hizo medievalista y le dio a leer estos textos

«The Cloud of Unknowing, with its evocative title, is the best known of a group of seven religious writings in English prose that date from the last quarter of the fourteenth century» — Spearing sitúa la obra en un grupo de siete escritos religiosos en prosa inglesa del último cuarto del siglo XIV y la da por la más conocida de todos

«since their rediscovery in the nineteenth century they have gained a new readership for their unwavering focus on God’s radical transcendence of human understanding and human language, and for the brilliant originality with which they force their own language to point towards what lies beyond its scope» — Spearing explica por qué el grupo ganó lectores desde su redescubrimiento decimonónico: la trascendencia radical de Dios respecto del entendimiento y del lenguaje, y la originalidad con que esa prosa fuerza su propia lengua

«The seven consist of four original guides to the contemplative life – the Cloud, The Book of Privy Counselling, An Epistle on Prayer, and An Epistle of Discretion of Stirrings (that is, on discrimination of spiritual impulses) – and three adaptations of other writings – Deonise Hid Divinité (The Mystical Theology of St Denis) adapted from Pseudo-Dionysius, Benjamin Minor (also known as The Study of Wisdom) adapted from Richard of St Victor, and A Treatise of Discerning of Spirits, adapted from two sermons by St Bernard» — Spearing desglosa los siete: cuatro guías originales de vida contemplativa y tres adaptaciones, del Pseudo-Dionisio, de Ricardo de San Víctor y de dos sermones de san Bernardo

«He was at one time thought to be the famous devotional writer Walter Hilton, but it is now generally agreed that the two are not the same, though each responded to and influenced the other in successive works» — Spearing consigna y descarta la identificación con Walter Hilton, y sostiene que los dos se respondieron e influyeron mutuamente. Adjudicación del aparato, no del texto

«The dialect of his writing indicates that, like Hilton, he came from somewhere in the East Midlands. Beyond this there is little point in speculating about his identity or personality» — Spearing sitúa al autor en los East Midlands por el dialecto y pone ahí el límite de lo que se puede decir de su identidad

«The subject of the Cloud and the texts associated with it is ‘contemplation’, a term that has a very specific meaning in medieval religious thought. It means the activity whose goal is the union of the soul with God in this life» — Spearing fija el sentido técnico medieval de contemplación: la actividad cuyo fin es la unión del alma con Dios en esta vida

«That union is understood to be the highest and most desirable experience of which human beings are capable» — Spearing consigna el rango que la época da a esa unión: la experiencia más alta y deseable de que es capaz un ser humano

«While living on earth, as a result of sin, we are cut off from the continuous union with God ‘for which we were made’, but it is possible, by total dedication to the contemplative discipline, to be united with God at least for brief, unpredictable moments, and this experience is so precious that, for those who have the spiritual capacity, it is worth devoting their lives to achieving it» — Spearing expone la economía del asunto: el pecado corta la unión continua, pero queda la posibilidad de instantes breves e imprevisibles, y eso basta para justificar una vida entera dedicada a buscarlos

«Contemplative’, then, has two associated but distinct meanings: it refers to the spiritual discipline and the experience that is its goal (sometimes known, more loosely, as mystical experience), but it also refers to the outward way of life, cut off from the material world, usually as a monk or nun, hermit or anchorite, that enables complete dedication to that discipline» — Spearing separa los dos sentidos de contemplativo: la disciplina y su experiencia, y el modo de vida exterior —monje, monja, ermitaño, anacoreta— que la hace posible

«He never reveals explicitly whether he has reached this point himself, or whether he is like a coach whose task is to train spiritual athletes to achieve what is beyond his own powers; but it seems implicit in his writing3 that he has some personal experience of contemplation» — Spearing señala que el autor nunca dice si él mismo llegó, ni si enseña lo que no alcanza, y arriesga que algo de experiencia propia se trasluce

«In our time Christianity generally emphasizes practical charity and personal consolation as its goals. In the Middle Ages, too, these were highly valued, and the relationship between these and the spiritual aspirations that can seem to be of no benefit to others was often expounded in terms of the contrast between Martha and Mary, as it is in chapters 16–23 of the Cloud» — Spearing contrasta el énfasis cristiano de hoy con el medieval y remite el problema al par Marta y María, que el Cloud trata en sus capítulos 16 a 23

«The desire to participate in this strenuous spiritual ‘work’ became more widespread in the later Middle Ages; and whereas contemplation had earlier been thought possible only for those living in total seclusion from worldly concerns, by the fourteenth century it was increasingly felt to be a possibility for those whose lives were outwardly active» — Spearing describe el ensanchamiento del público: lo que antes se creía posible solo en reclusión total, en el siglo XIV se siente al alcance de quien vive una vida exteriormente activa

«Readership of the Cloud author’s works (and especially perhaps of the Cloud itself, surviving as it does in at least eighteen manuscripts) would not necessarily have been confined to monks and nuns» — Spearing deduce de los dieciocho manuscritos conservados del Cloud que sus lectores no se limitaban a monjes y monjas

«The conception of Christ as a warrior, the means by which God fought and defeated the Devil and thus released human souls from his tyranny, which was dominant in earlier religious writings, was never forgotten, but from the eleventh century onwards that conception began to be outshone by one of Christ as a wounded and suffering man, sent by his Father to arouse compassionate love in his fellow human beings and thus to draw them back to God» — Spearing traza el desplazamiento devocional desde el siglo XI: del Cristo guerrero que vence al Diablo al Cristo herido que despierta compasión y por ella devuelve a Dios

«In his Sermons on the Song of Songs, St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) gave fuller and more intense expression to this notion of mutual love as the bond between Christ and the individual soul» — Spearing adjudica a los sermones de san Bernardo sobre el Cantar la expresión plena del amor mutuo como vínculo entre Cristo y el alma

«In England, it was in the fourteenth century that major works of religious literature began to be written in vernacular prose» — Spearing fecha en el siglo XIV el arranque de la gran literatura religiosa inglesa en prosa vernácula; la frase sigue en la plana siguiente, *in part probably as a consequence of the general spread of literacy*

«The first of the major writers who responded to this demand, and who collectively are sometimes known as the ‘Middle English mystics’, was Richard Rolle, a hermit but not a priest, who wrote passionately lyrical meditations and treatises in both Latin and English» — Spearing abre la serie de los llamados místicos ingleses medios con Richard Rolle, ermitaño y no sacerdote, autor de meditaciones líricas en latín y en inglés

«Rolle composed intensely bodily meditations on the Passion, and he wrote of his experience of God in richly sensory terms, as a matter of music, light, sweetness, fire» — Spearing caracteriza la vía de Rolle como intensamente corporal y sensorial: música, luz, dulzura y fuego

«The Cloud author, as we shall see, warns against this bodily understanding of spiritual matters, which he saw as dangerously influential» — Spearing anticipa la posición contraria del autor del Cloud: la comprensión corporal de lo espiritual le parece peligrosa y de influencia extendida

«Later in the century came Walter Hilton (died 1396), an Augustinian canon and author of numerous devotional works, the most famous of which is The Scale of Perfection, a comprehensive guide to the life of the soul, from moral reform up to contemplation itself» — Spearing presenta a Walter Hilton, canónigo agustino, y su Scale of Perfection como guía completa del alma desde la reforma moral hasta la contemplación

«Like the Cloud author, Hilton warns against the mere bodiliness into which Rolle’s mysticism could easily degenerate, insisting that a true desire for Jesus in the heart is of greater value than ‘visions or revelations of angels appearing, songs and sounds, savours and smells, burnings and any pleasing bodily feeling» — Spearing sitúa a Hilton junto al autor del Cloud frente al riesgo de corporalidad de la mística de Rolle: vale más el deseo de Jesús en el corazón que visiones, cantos, sabores, olores y ardores

«On the other hand, Hilton writes repeatedly of the Incarnation, and willingly accepts earthly language and bodily analogies as capable of revealing divine truth» — Spearing marca la diferencia de Hilton: acepta el lenguaje terreno y las analogías corporales como capaces de revelar verdad divina

«Another late-fourteenth-century writer is the anchorite Julian of Norwich (c. 1342–after 1416), the first woman known to have written a book in English» — Spearing presenta a Julian of Norwich, anacoreta, como la primera mujer de quien se sabe que escribió un libro en inglés

«Unlike Hilton or the Cloud author, she acknowledges from the beginning that she is writing about experiences of her own» — Spearing marca lo que distingue a Julian de Hilton y del autor del Cloud: ella declara desde el principio que escribe de experiencias propias

«She developed a conception of God as our mother as well as our father, and came to the very verge of denying the existence of hell, because she saw no anger in God and was told by him that at the Last Day he would perform a great deed that, it seemed, would bring about universal salvation» — Spearing consigna dos rasgos de la teología de Julian: Dios como madre además de padre, y el borde mismo de negar el infierno, porque no vio ira en Dios y le fue dicho que haría una gran obra al final

«Later still comes another female writer, Margery Kempe (c. 1373–c. 1440), a married laywoman, whose union with God was again of a more bodily kind» — Spearing cierra la serie con Margery Kempe, laica casada, cuya unión con Dios es de orden más corporal

«Though illiterate, she persuaded others to write her spiritual autobiography, the first autobiography in English» — Spearing consigna que Margery Kempe, siendo iletrada, hizo escribir a otros su autobiografía espiritual, la primera en inglés

«Views differ as to the authenticity of her religious experiences; but then, except for those prepared to accept a dogmatic theological judgement, ‘authenticity’ in devotional writing will be a literary effect, always open to question» — Spearing no arbitra la autenticidad de Margery Kempe y desplaza la cuestión: fuera de un juicio teológico dogmático, la autenticidad en la escritura devocional es un efecto literario y queda abierta

«One other religious prose writer of this period must be mentioned: Nicholas Love (died 1424), a Carthusian prior, whose Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ was a translation of a Latin work once attributed to St Bonaventure, but probably by the Franciscan Johannes» — Spearing añade a Nicholas Love, prior cartujo, cuyo Mirror traduce una obra latina antes adjudicada a san Buenaventura y probablemente de Johannes de Caulibus. Atribución consignada como disputada, no corregida

«The Mirror, an extended series of meditations on Christ’s human life, was endorsed by the Church as a bastion against the Lollard translation of the Bible into English and the heretical views that were springing up in consequence of individual readings of Scripture unguided by the Church’s teaching» — Spearing declara la función eclesial del Mirror: baluarte contra la Biblia de los lolardos y contra las lecturas de la Escritura sin guía de la Iglesia

«The great age of devotional writing in England was also the great age of heresy. England had been largely free of the heresies that had arisen in earlier centuries on the continent, but the Oxford theologian John Wyclif (c. 1330–84) was the source of a group of heterodox views that included questioning the doctrine of transubstantiation and the use of images of saints in worship, views which have been seen as amounting to a ‘premature Reformation» — Spearing enlaza los dos hechos del siglo: el auge devocional y el de la herejía, con Wyclif como origen de las tesis heterodoxas que se han llamado una reforma prematura