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Rolle, Hilton and the Author of the Cloud of Unknowing: the Divine As Freedom in Middle English Contemplative Writings

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Rolle, Hilton and the Author of the Cloud of Unknowing: the Divine As Freedom in Middle English Contemplative Writings ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following work: Taylor, Cheryl Madeline (1998) Rolle, Hilton and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing: the divine as freedom in middle English contemplative writings. PhD Thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: https://doi.org/10.25903/1vpp%2Dp853 Copyright © 1998 Cheryl Madeline Taylor. The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please email [email protected] ROLLE, HILTON AND THE AUTHOR OF THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING: THE DIVINE AS FREEDOM IN MID LE ENGLISH CONTEMPLATIVE WRITINGS Thesis submitted by Cheryl Madeline Taylor BA (ions) (Qld) MA (Leeds) in December 1998 For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Humanities at James Cook University ELECTRONIC COPY I, the undersigned, the author of this work, declare that the electronic copy of this thesis provided to the James Cook University Library, is an accurate copy of the print thesis submitted, within the limits of the technology available. Signature Date Name (please print) STATEMENT OF ACCESS I, the undersigned author of this work, understand that James Cook University will make this thesis available for use within the University Library and, via Australian Research Online, for use elsewhere. I understand that, as an unpublished work, a thesis has significant protection under the Copyright Act and; I do not wish to place any further restriction on access to this work. 1 (iArti- zo ii Signature Date C (--t, n‘it.._ -rn \IL cx Name (please print) DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any other form for another degree or diploma at any other university or other institution of tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references given. Cheryl Taylor 21 December 1998 STATEMENT OF ACCESS I, the undersigned, the author of this thesis, understand that James Cook University will make it available for use within the Library and, by microfilm or other photographic means, allow access to users in other approved libraries. All users consulting this thesis will have to sign the following statement: "In consulting this thesis I agree not to copy or closely paraphrase it in whole or in part without the written consent of the author; and to make proper written acknowledgment for any assistance I have obtained from it." Beyond this, I do not wish to place any restriction of access on this thesis. Cheryl Taylor 21 December 1998 ABSTA CT The thesis argues that the leading male-authored contemplative writings composed in England in the fourteenth century mediated many aspects of contemporary ideology, including the most conservative, but that their mediation of new social paradigms renders them liminal texts. The key contention is that the writings' social and historical creativity stems from their centring on the divine. The thesis rejects Marxist and post-structuralist constructions of the divine as the peak and ultimate determinant of an unjust social system. It does, however, adopt both Irigaray' s concept of the divine as a feminist strategy, and the Shaivite conception of the divine as the ultimate source of freedom and creativity. Other theories and models applied to the texts in the course of discussion include post-structuralist and Shaivite conceptions of language and of the "reality" produced by discourse, insights into the binary foundations of language and experience developed by Cixous and Kristeva, theories of logos in relation to "feminine" poetic excess, Bynum's views on mediaeval constructions of gender, Volosinov's stylistic theory, theories of utopia and play, and Gnosticism as a model of marginality. The thesis adopts the minute reading practices proposed by David Aers, as a strategy for uncovering the writings' synchronic engagement with contemporary -historical circumstances, which are outlined in preliminary chapters. A purpose of the thesis is to counter the current critical trend to merge the writings diachronically with preceding literary and ecclesiastical traditions, by emphasising their production by the ideology of their period. The basis of discussion is a detailed examination and analysis of all the known works by each of the chosen authors. Rolle's writings and The Cloud of Unknowing and its companion texts are dealt with in the order required by the argument, but Section Two considers Hilton's whole canon in chronological order of composition. To Swami Chidvilasananda Shri Gurumayi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I offer my heartfelt thanks to my husband, Norman Taylor, who generously contributed to the completion of this project through his varied skills in computing, childcare and home management, and who cared for me during two prolonged periods of disability. I also thank our young son, Michael, for being an unfailing source of spiritual and emotional refreshment. I am most grateful to my supervisor, Elizabeth Perkins, for her patient guidance and encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis, and for her love and support over many years. I thank most warmly my friend, Rosemary Dunn, for many stimulating conversations on medieval literature and Christian thought, and for constructive comments and suggestions. Betty Holt willingly transported research materials to and from the library, when I was unable to do so. I am also grateful to John Clark for his generous collegiality in introducing me to the intricacies of medixval Latin scholarship. My gratitude to my mother and father, the late Madeline and Alwyn Frost, who lovingly supported my academic endeavours from childhood, is too great to be spoken. For haue a man neuer so moche goostly vnderstondyng in knowyng of alle maad goostly binges, 3it may he neuer bi be werk of his vnderstondyng corn to be knowyng of an vnmaa.d goostly ling, be whiche is nou3t bot God. Bot by be failyng it may; for whi bat king bat it failib in is nobing elles bot only God. The Cloud of Unknowing, Chapter 70. Rolle, The Cloud and Hilton show the first examples of great English prose. David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England. The revolutionary opposition to feudalism was alive all down the Middle Ages. It took the shape of mysticism, open heresy, or armed insurrection, all depending on the conditions of the time. Friedrich Engels, The Peasant War in Germany. CONTENTS VOLUME ONE General Introduction SECTION ONE: Rites of Passage. The Writings of Richard Rolle Chapter One. English Society in Transition, 1300-1350 24 Chapter Two. Marginality, Liminality and Gnosis 37 Chapter Three. Biography and Autobiography 46 Chapter Four. Reception 64 Chapter Five. Moving Towards and Away from the Centre: Unity and Multiplicity in Rolle's Texts 72 Chapter Six. The Limits of Cohesion: Discourses of Authority and Individual Freedom 84 Chapter Seven. Perspectives on the Passion 102 Chapter Eight. Signs of Utopia 111 Chapter Nine. The Intellect, Learning and Knowledge 116 Chapter Ten. Woman the Temptress, Woman the Friend 124 Chapter Eleven. Formal Experiments in English in the New Age: Ego Dormio 132 Chapter Twelve. Melos Amoris: On the Borders of Latin Culture 141 SECTION TWO: Walter Hilton's Pilgrimage Chapter Thirteen. English Society in Crisis, 1350-1400 156 Chapter Fourteen. Through the Wilderness: Letters of a Solitary 169 Chapter Fifteen. Attaining the Palace Beautiful: Latin Writings at Thurgarton Priory 187 Chapter Sixteen. In Sight of the Delectable Mountains: English Writings at Thurgarton 199 Chapter Seventeen. The Country of Beulah: Late Letters 226 Chapter Eighteen. At Home in the Celestial City: Last English Writings 237 SECTION THREE: The Limits of Language: The Cloud and Its Companions Chapter Nineteen. Introductory 266 Chapter Twenty. Liminality and the Divine 280 Chapter Twenty-One. Minimising Language 291 Chapter Twenty-Two. Speaking and Not Speaking in the Cloud Texts: Technical Demonstrations 308 Epilogue: The Cloud Texts and Scale 2 333 General Conclusion 340 VOLUME TWO Endnotes List of Works Cited 107 NOTE: Citations, punctuation, abbreviations and referencing observe the conventions of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (4th edition). Long citations and references likely to interrupt the argument if included appear as endnotes, which also provide translations and supportive material. Unattributed translations are my own. For ease of consultation, Endnotes and List of Works Cited are bound separately in Volume Two. VOLUME ONE GENERAL INTRODUCTION Genesis Middle English contemplative writings led a subliminal life in manuscripts or rare sixteenth- century printed editions, their doctrines recognised only in conventual and monastic circles, until the late nineteenth-century revival of popular interest in esoteric thought and experience. Some early modern printings, exemplified by Horstman's two-volume collection of Yorkshire Writings (1896), mingled the contemplative texts with the emotional luxuriance of late romanticism, including urges to Germanic cultural supremacy. Others, undertaken with an eye to pastoral care, were true to the writings' genesis in Catholic tradition. The many disparate expressions of enthusiasm were consolidated by the publication in 1911 of Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism. Regularly reprinted for the remainder of the century, this book still conveys the sense of delighted recognition
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