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JOHN Dom-:32. A171) ST. 1313117111133 OF CIAKIIEWLUX:
k Study in tysticism

By

CORINNE ELIZABETH KAUFFEAN

Abstract of Thesis

The question of whether or not John Donne is a
mystic is one which every serious student of his works
must face and try to answer. It arises as much from
his style as from.his matter and has been answered
generally in the negative. The purpose of this essay
is not to reverse the decision of previous students,
but to provide a less arbitrary basis for it. The test
of Donne's mysticism lies, I believe, in a careful com-
parison of his doctrines with the system of the mystic
who made the deepest impression upon him. This is St.
Bernard of Clairvaux, whom Donne admires and to whom.he
sometimes turns for doctrinal inspiration. The value of
such an approach is that it does not rely upon descrip—
tions of the mystical states in general which cannot
hope to be definitive, nor upon discernible similarities,
but upon Donne's numerous direct luotations from St.
Bernard.

St. Bernard's system.is an epistemology which has
man as its subject and God as its object. The method of
knowledge is the threefold nnegogic path consisting of
humility, love, and contemplation.

Kan, say Donne, St. Bernard and their contemporaries,

is created to know and enjoy God. His Special endowment

1

which distinguishes him.from.the beasts and relates
him.to the Trinity is his reasonable soul, created in
the image of the triune God. Memory, reason, and will
are the three faculties of the soul and they correspond
to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, respectively. By
mortification, according to Donne and St. Bernard, the
body should be made subject to the soul. The soul's ex-
istence, hey say, consists in animating the body and
the body without the soul would be a senseless trunk.

Donne uses St. Bernard's elaboration of the idea of
the image of the Trinity residing in the faculties of
the soul on three occasions. Reason, memory, and will
are corrupted by man's suggestion, consent, and delight
in sin. But the soul may be returned to its original
trinity, though not perfectly according to Donne, by the
superimposing by God of a third trinity, faith, hope and
charity.

The conclusion reached by St. Bernard in his Tracts-
tus de gratis et libero arbitrio is accepted and preached
by Donna. It is that man's will is a necessary factor in
his salvation. Grace is the efficient cause of salvation,
but man's free choice, his consent, is its material cause.
By his consent to grace nan becomes the subject of the
knowledge of God.

There are two sorts of truth which a man may know,
first, particular truths; and second, Truth in itself, or

God. Knowledge of particular truths is both useful and

necessary, but such truths reluire a sanction beyond
themselves, they must contribute to the knowledge of
Truth, or God. Self-knowledge and scientific knowb
ledge are classed as particular truths.

God's existence is proved by the causal argument.
His essence insofar as it can be known, is determined
on the basis of the ontological argument. God as Being
is by participation in himself, whereas all other crea-
tures "live and move and have their being" by partici-
pation in hbm.

Donne's positive treatment of the attributes of
God divides him indisputably, I believe, from the via”
negative of pseudo-Dionysius the AreOpagite. And the
considerations of the mercy and goodness as well as the
justice of God are the occasions of Donne's most ex-
alted prose.

The doctrines regarding man and God provide the
basis upon which to build the method of knowledge. Han
is capable of knowing God and God has in various ways
revealed himself to all men. The unanimity between
Donne and St. Bernard here leads one to believe that if
Donne were a mystic he would follow the anagogic path
which leads to a vision of Truth belonging neither to
Space nor to time.

The Christian mystical epistemology rests on the
tenet that like knows like, that nan may come to a

special knowledge of God before the resurrection by

making himself more like him. The way to attain this
resemblance is, first, humility which results from a
true knowledge of himself and purifies the reason and,
second, love which results from a true knowledge of his
neighbors and purifies the will.

To know himself as he really is means that a man,
according to Donne and St. Bernard, knows that he is
dignified because of the image of the Trinity residing
in his soul, but made miserable and wretched because of
his suggestion, consent, and delight in sin. Self-know»
ledge, however, is a particular truth which, in order
to be worthy of man's consideration reguires a sanction
beyond itself. Donne and St. Bernard both apply a sane-
tion to self-knowledge, but one is characteristic of the
nonemystic, the other is that applied by the mystics.

For Donne man should know himself in order to knOW'whether
or not he merits the vision of God sicuti est promised to
all who persevere in the faith. St. Bernard studies him-
self because by understanding his own being he comes to
understand the Being of all things before the resurrection.
If Donne were a mystic he would sanction self-knowledae

as a means to a special knowledge of God in this life.

He is no mystic.

This, however, is not the only basis for excluding
Donne from.the company of mystics, although it is the
primary one. Love, the second step of St. Bernard's ana-

gogic path purifies the will. Following sufficient pro-

gress in the second step, he says, the perfect image of
God is restored in the soul. The Son in humility gave
faith and the Holy Ghost in love now gives charity and
by these two, faith and charity, he hope of returning
to the Father is aroused. By the purification of the
ran on and the will, then, the soul has acquired the
perfection necessary for contemplation.

It is his categorical denial of man's ability to
attain this perfection which provides the second basis
for the decision that Donne is not a mystic. Hothing in
this world, neither in spiritual or temporal things, he
says, can be perfect.

Donne's final repudiation of mysticism is hisppro-
nouncement against the experience of co tenplation or
union which constitutes the third step of the anagogic
path. In contemplation, as defined by St. Bernard, the
soul withdraws from sensuous images and desires and com-
munes intuitively with God, or pure Truth. Donne rejects
as a "hypocrical 13137'counterfeiting" the purity reg
quired for such a vision. To know God by intuition in
this life, he says, is to deviate from.the exenple set
by Christ who "contented himself with the ordinary way"
of coming to know anything. For Donne the mystic's in-
effable experience of contemplation is a sin, the sin of
presumption because neither faith, hepe and charity, nor

purity can be perfect in this vorld.

Some explanation, hovever,1ust be elven for Don11e' s
fre1uent use of the term "union." There are, he sags,
two unions with God. One is reserved for heaven, the
other, possible in this life, is s rerrooen11t1on of that
final union. He distinsuishes three steps thich lend th>
soul to that final union. The first is baptism Vhich
cleanses the soul of original sin. The s cond is th
sacrament of comnunion which sbsolves the soul. 0:? actual
sins and constitutes, for Donne, the unitive exfiericnce

noeib e in this life. The third stcn is physi col doe th
which introduces the soul to the coneur1itiou of ell
knowledge end unites it to God insem b].e. In heaven
the soul will be perfect in ell its faculties and till be
able to comprehend God intuitively.

From this exuminotion of his thought unvinst the
background of the system of the one greet mystic to when
he sometimes locked for d:ot3.inel iu~r1r tion, Donne
eyerge s, not as o mvstic, but as a greet Anwlicen divine.
fie SUP“0Tt8 the Church Lnd its ordinances, rather then
privcte inspirations, end the unive:Lselly occeytod doo-
trines, rather than any thmt deviate into unknown or sel-
dome travelled ”1vs, or re1uire more discipline than man's
infirmities arable him to scoorrlisn. God revs Donne
does not fisk pore of mun than he con provide because God

"looks in what earthen vessels" he has placed his ieaoe.

JOHN DONNE AND ST. BERNARD 0F CLAIRVAUX:
A Study in Mysticism

By
CORINNE ELIZABETH KAUFFMAN

A THESIS
Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies of Michigan
State College of Agriculture and Applied Science

in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of English
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PREFACE

The mystic, more than anyone else, deserves to
be called a lover of Wisdom. This Wisdom is not the
wisdom of the world, but that ineffable divine Wis-
dom, which is coeternal and consubstantiel with God,
that is, the second person of the Trinity. This Love
is not the want of something absent, which is desire,
but the enjoyment of something present. The Wisdom
sought by the mystic is to worldly wisdom what reality
is to illusion, and his Love is to desire what under-
standing is to faith. Many love the wisdom of the
world, and many desire the Wisdom of God, but the mys-
tic is one of the he who truly love the true Wisdom.
They transcend the love of worldly wisdom, and they
consummate the desire of Divine Wisdom, in the love
of divine Wisdom experienced in the ecstasy of mystical
contemplation. Rapt from the world to the Word, they
no longer possess anything but the Word. Possessing
it, they no longer seek anything, but rest in it and
love it as the Bridegroom of the soul.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, of all the medieval
Doctors of the Church, best deserves to be called a
mystic and a Lover of Wisdom in this sense. He rises
by means of the anagogic path from a knowledge of
himself to the intuitive knowledge of Truth granted
in this life only to perfect souls.

iii

iv

In regard to Donne as a mystic there has not been
such certainty. There can be no doubt that the object
of his metaphysical thirst is a knowledge of God, or
that his transcendental consciousness was unusually
acute, or that he employs on many occasions the special
vocabulary associated with mysticism. But it is doubt-
ful whether he’seeks the mystic's knowledge of God, and
whether he transcends the world of time in the same
way as the mystic does, and whether he intends the mys-
tic's meaning to be attached to the terms he borrows.
By re-examining the doctrines set forth by Donne in
the §gxmgng in the light of the doctrines of St. Ber-
nard I propose to determine, insofar as possible, his
relationship to mysticism.

In the preparation of this essay I have tried to
do two things: first, to allow Donne to speak for him-
self as often as possible; second, to paraphrase, or
summarise accurately those passages from St. Bernard
which are too long to quote in full in the text.

That I have not intended to prove what was a pre-
conceived notion, will be substantiated, I believe, by
Professor Arnold Williams who has witnessed several of
the essay's metamorphoses.

And to Professor Williams I am grateful for the
original idea as well as for his guidance and interest

in its unfolding.

CONTENTS

Page

Preface iii

I Introduction 3
II Man -- The Subject of Knowledge 10
III God -- The Object of Knowledge 37
IV The Anagogic Path 60
Appendix 95

Bibliography , 97

We ascend Thy ways that be in
our heart, and sing a song of
degrees; we glow inwardly with
Thy fire, with Thy good fire,
and we go, because we go upwards
to the peace of Jerusalem.

Saint Augustine

W. XIfI. 9.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

The question of whether or not John Donne is a
mystic has been a major ingredient of the criticism
which centers around him. This may be due, in part,
to the presence in his poetry and prose of an elu-
sive quality which manifests itself in his ability
to search out the Quintessence of any given object
or event. This search, moreover, is carried out with
the intensity and fervency associated with the writings
of the mystics.

Donne may also have been associated with mysticism
because of his frequent use of its special vocabulary.
He speaks often of the need for purgation, of the ex-
periences of contemplation and union, and of the power
of love.

Finally, it may be due to the fact that mysticism
is not clearly defined in the mind of the critic, or,
more correctly, that mysticism is impossible to define
in such a way that the definition at once describes
the whole movement and applies accurately to each one
of its exponents. Evelyn Underhill's very valuable
study comes closest perhaps to accomplishing this.1
She considers the mystic's development under the time-

honored threefold division of the mystic way. Pur-

1W; 12th ed-
3

gation she defines as the soul's "attempts to eliminate
by discipline and mortification all that stands in the
way of its progress towards union with God."2 She des-
cribes Illumination as the state reached "when by Pur-
gation the Self has become detached from the 'things

of sense,‘ and acquired those virtues which are the
'ornaments of the spiritual marriage.‘"3 This is fol-
lowed by an intermediate step usually called ”the dark
night of the soul.” Miss Underhill defines it as "the
great desolation in which the soul seems abandoned by
the Divine. The Self now surrenders itself, its indi-
viduality, and its will, completely.“+ This prepares
the soul for the third step of the mystic way which is
Union. "In this state," continues Miss Underhill, ”the
Absolute Life is not merely perceived and enjoyed by
the Self, as in Illumination: but is gag with it."5
But even this comprehensive study of mysticism fails,

I believe, to describe accurately the main outlines of
the mystic way set forth by so great a mystic as St.
Bernard. The three steps which he proposes, namely,
humility, love, and contemplation, seem at first to

conform to the traditional steps considered by hiss

2W; 12th ed., p. 169.

Underhill. Closer examination, however, reveals that

both humility and love are part of the process of pur-
gation and that following sufficient progress in these
the soul is prepared for contemplation, or union. Nor
does St. Bernard, so far as I know, suffer the agonies
of the "dark night of the soul," given so prominent a

place in the mystic's experience by Miss Underhill.

It is possible also to distinguish several methods
which have been employed to determine whether or not
Donne is a mystic. The first of these is to use no
method, but to assume that he is a mystic, as George
Williamson does:

However, Donne's closest disciples are
awakened in a profounder way by what we
may call the trinity of his genius, his
mysticism, logic, and passionate intensity.6

The second way has been to study Donne in the light
of Miss Underhill's description of the mystical states.
Itrat Husain has done this and concludes, "we do not
know whether Donne himself reached the unitive stage of
mystical life or not."7 Evelyn M. Simpson, working
against the same background puts the height of Donne's
religious experience at the stage of illumination.8 But

to say that anyone is, or is not a mystic on the basis

of his conformity to the traditional division of the

Wm. p. 235.

7Ih§ QEgmggjg gag Mystjgal Theology 9: John
loans. 9- 1 1.

8A Sigdx g; the Ezgsg spggg gr ggpg Dgggg; 2nd
Ode, De 9 e

mystic way is to base that decision on a definition
which is necessarily incomplete.

nichael F. Moloney tries Donne as a mystic in still
another way.

The test of Donne's real attitude toward
mysticism and the mystic impulse then is
not to be found in his casual employment
of its machinery when his muse is on the
wing; it is to be found rather in an ana-
lysis of his reasoned pronouncements on
more sober occasions. These latter fall
chiefly into two types: the first include
his judgments on the alleged mystic ex-
periences of individuals recognized by
those competent to judge as true exponents
of mysticism; the second embrace his own
particularly private utterances in the
Deggtignfi and Essays in Divinity where his
mysticism, if it were a reality, could
logically be expected to reveal itself.9

It is true, as Holoney says, that Donne denounces two re-
cognised mystics, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Philip
Neri. And this would be a sound basis for excluding him
from the company of mystics, if they were the only ones
whose names appear in his writings. The fact is, however,
that Donne never speaks in a derogatory way of Plotinus,
or of St. Augustine, or of pseudo-Dionysius the AreOpa-
gite,10 or of Hugh of St. Victor, or of St. Bernard, all
of whom are considered mystics. For St. Bernard Donne
shows great reverence and admiration. He often refers

9gghn pgngg: H13 Eljght £29m Medievalism. 1111-
nois Studies in Language and Literature, XXIX, nos.
2-3 (l9h8), 183.

10Donne rejects his 31§_n§g§3113 in regard to the

attributes of God, but never speaks against him as a
mystic.

to him as "devout and holy," or "good and holy."

In regard to Moloney's statement that the‘Dgypjigng
and zippy; are the logical places to seek Donne's mys-
ticism, it is to be noted that he gives no reason why
this should be true. If Donne were a mystic the evi-
dence would not he confined to his private writings.
Mysticism is a way of life, a special way, which, if
accepted, informs and guides every small event of a
man's inward and outward existence. One cannot be a
mystic in private and not manifest it in public.

wary Paton Ramsay studies the mystical element in
Donne's thought against the background of Plotinus' doc-
trine. She gives two reasons for doing this;

11 se peut que le mysticisme de Donne ait
éte directement influence par la lecture
des Enngadgs, alors accessibles dans la
traduction latine de Marsile Ficin. Mais
les auteurs que Donne lisait le plus vol-
ontiers, St. Augustin at St. Bernard par
example, etaient tous mystiques plus ou
moins influence par le plotinisme.11
Although it is true, as Miss Ramsay says, that the in-
fluence of Plotinus is to be found in later mystics,
yet Donne cites Plotinus on only a few occasions while
his direct quotations from St. Bernard's works in the
Segmgn§_alone number well over one hundred.12 Many
llLe e: gggtrjggg me ’gig’ vglg; gh ez pgggg; 2nd ed.,
p e 225e

121 have chosen St. Bernard over St. Augustine be-

cause the latter’ s mysticism, though of great importance

historically, is not the complete, well-reasoned system
that St. Bernard's is.

of these deal with the central truths of St. Bernard's
system which would indicate that Donne was more than
slightly acquainted with his sermons and essays.

With the exception of George Williamson these cri-
tics agree that Donne is not a mystic in the full
sense of the word.13 This, I am convinced, is undeni-
ably true. What they fail to do is to base this con-
clusion on a strong foundation. A comparison, however,
of Donne's thought with that of the one fully devel-
oped mystic whom he admires and from whom he quotes
more than incidentally will, I believe, provide a more
sound basis for Judgment. Such an approach avoids
arbitrary definitions and it does not rely entirely
upon discernible similarities, but can be implemented
with direct quotations.

These quotations, the sources of about three-
fourths of which I have found, are accurate. This'
seems to have been important to Donne because he says
that neither Christ, nor the Holy Ghost "were so cur-
ious as our times, in citing chapters and verses, or

13Miss Ramsay' 3 well- informed work is almost an
exception, but she too points out one short-coming}

"11 se sauve de lui-meme dans la communaute de l'Eglise,
cherchant de forces morales dans la presence d'autres
ames en priere. Maia c'est/dans la solitude ques les
grands mystiques ont cherche Dieu. Il manque a Donne,
il lui toujours manque, cette unification, cette har-

monie interieure, que ce grand maitre des mystiques
Plotin, a tenu pour condition essentialle de la vision

mystique." W. p. 2‘+ 2.

such distinctions, no nor in citing the very, very
words of the places."1h

The difficulties involved in systematizing the mass
of St. Bernard's writings can hardly be over-emphasized,
but they can be reduced by regarding his doctrine as an
epistemological system. The subject of knowledge is man,
its object is God, and the method of attaining the spe-
cial knowledge of God sought by the mystic is to follow
the threefold anagogic path, consisting of humility,

love, and contemplation.15

1“Sermon xxx1, (_g1k§g ed. Alford, II 29). All
references to Donne' 3 works are to this edition, here-
after cited only by volume and page number.

15These are the ate 3 set forth in his case
,(£_, CLXXXII, cols. 9h1- 58y.”
That they agree with his other accounts of the method
of knowledge will be seen by referring to the chart
appended.

CHAPTER II
MAN -- THE SUBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE

Anyone endeavoring to reconstruct the intellectual
background of John Donne is impressed first by the re-
markable unanimity among serious thinkers as to the
nature of man and his place in the order of the universe.
Platonism, Aristotelianism, Stoicism, Neo-Platonism, and
Christianity had been woven into a pattern, almost uni-
versally agreed upon, in which they were all but indis-
tinguishable. This pattern, in its main outlines at
least, was in Donne's time the same as that of the Middle
Ages. .

It was universally agreed that man was made to know
and enjoy God. And it was the business of thoughtful
men to enable men to fulfill this end, as well as to warn
them of the dangers incurred by failing to fulfill it.

In his fiymga contra gentile: St. Thomas Aquinas says that
if man, "who is led by faith to God as his last end,
through ignoring the natures of things, and consequently
the order of his place in the universe, thinks himself
to be beneath certain creatures above whom he is placed,"
thereby derogating the natural dignity of his position,
and repudiating the end for which he was made, he is
worthy of the same punishment that the Scriptures promise
to heretics.1

1II, iii. Translation by the Fathers of the English
Dominican Province.

10

11

Man, then, is the subject of knowledge and God is
the object of knowledge. St. Bernard tells us that the
capacity to acquire knowledge is a human property; for
man is a mortal, rational anima1,2 intermediate between
irrational beasts who are unable to sequire knowledge of
spiritual and intelligible things,3 and the immortal
angels who possess such knowledge because of their nature,
that is, eternally.” This means that, as Donne says,
"some things the angels do know by the dignity of their
nature, by their creation, which we know not; as we know
many things which inferior creatures do not."5

"Our nature," Donne writes to his friend Sir Henry
Goodyere, "is meteoric, we respect (because we partake)
both earth and heaven."6 Han, then, in the words of Sir
Thomas Browne, is "that great and true arrhibium, whose
nature is disposed to live not only like other creatures
in divers elements, but in divided and distinguished
worlds: for though there be but one to sense, there are
two to reason, the one visible, the other invisible."7
7h6).256 consideratione, II, iv, 7 (EL, CLXXXII, col.

3Sermones 1n Cantica, v, 3 (2;, c xxxxxr, cols.
799-800). Qfo Zn xigilia nativita ‘ Domini, III, 8
(2L, CLXXXIII, cols. 9a;§§7:“‘“'

h;;;g,, h (3;, CLXYXIII, col. 800).

55ermon CLIV,(VI, 18h).

 

6Letter xxxvrl,(VI, 3M6).
78211219 Hegigi, I, 3h (We 0; ed. Keynes, I, M3).

12

Man is a citizen of two worlds in another sense,
that is, because he is a union of body and soul, His
body relates him to the animals, but his soul relates
him to the whole Trinity.

St. Bernard believed implicitly, as did his contem-
poraries, that the body is a compound of fire, air, water,
and earth.8 Despite the new discoveries regarding the
composition of the body which led Donne to write in 1612:

Have not all soules thought

For many ages that our body'is wrought

Of Ayre, and Fire, and other Elements?

And now they thinks of new ingredients,

And one Souls thinkes one, and another way

Another thinkes, and 'tis an even lay.9
he never, I think, really accepted them. In a sermon,
undated but preached certainly after 1612, he says ex-
plicitly that man's body is composed of fire, air, earth,

and water.10

The soul, according to St. Bernard and Donne, is
created in the image of God and is a trinity consisting
of memory, reason, and will. Donne refers to St. Bernard
as he speaks to his listeners at Lincoln's Inn about the
three faculties of the soul.

That plural word nos, which was used by God,
in the making of man, when God said Faciamus,

Wank.

8Sermones de diversis, LFYXIV (2L, CLXiXIII, C013-
695-96).

9"0f the Progresse of the Soule," 11. 263-68 (ed.
Grierson, I, 259).

losermon xaxv111,(11, 172).

13

Let us usonake rar.,eooordire to our image,

as it intioetes a flurality, a concurrence

of all the Trinity in our making, so doth

it also a plurality in that image of God,

which was then imprinted in us; as God, one

God created us, so we have a soul, one soul,

that represents, and is some image of that

one God; as the three persons of the Trinity

created us, so we have, in our one soul, a

threefold impression of that image, and, as

St. Bernard calls it, A Trinity from the

Trinity, in those three faculties of the

soul, the understanding, the will, and the

UGEOTYell

The corrUption of both body and soul results from
man's "suggestion, consent, and delight in sin," as
Donne says, quoting Et. Bernard.12 According to St.
Bernard, the soul must be purged by love,13 and the body
by asceticism.1h
Exactly how much mortification St. Bernard advocates

is very difficult to determine. Guillaume de Saint-
Thierry, in his biography, tells of his stern words to
novices: Leave at the door the bodies which you have
carried in the world, only spirits enter here.15 It is
probable, however, that this is an exaggeration of the

rigors of the monastic life designed to discourage all

11Sermon CI,(IV, 333).
lzserron XL,(II, 217).

13oe gradihus humilitatis, III, 6 (EL. CLXXXII,
C018. 94L;L5)0

 

lhfiprwrpes in paalwum )CQ QUi Hatitat, X, 3 (PL,
CLXXXIII, cols. 222-23).

155. Bernardi vita et_res fiestas, 1,1V, 20 (2.9
CLXXXV, col. 23o).

1h

but the most sincere because his most characteristic
statement is the one which Donne quotes:

Zrlle corous, ut non telierat, sed tu illud,
Take up thy body, bring thy body into thy
power, that thou govern it, and not it thee;
and then, Aghula,:nondretrespicias, Walk on,
proceed forward, and loek not Eack with a
delight Upon thy former sins.1

Elsewhere St. Bernard says that the body should be to
the soul as a wife, to be loved but disciplined.17
‘Donne knew the weakness of human flesh and the frailty
of human nature and realized the need of self-discipline
and nortification; he points out that even Christ, in
whom nature reached its highest perfection, was not with-
out human infirmity.
All other men, by occasion of this flesh,

have dark clouds, yea nights, yea long and

frozen winter nights of sin, and of the

works of darkness. Christ was incapable of

any such nights, or any such clouds, and

approaches towards sin; but yet Christ ad-

mitted sore shadows, some such degrees of

human infirsity. . .he was willing to show

that the nature of man, in the best per-

fection thereof is not true light, all

light. . .So that no man, not Christ, con-

sidered but so asgman was tots lug, all

light, no cloud.1'
The end of mortification, for Donne, is the reconcilia-
tion of the body and the soul rather than the annihila-
tion of the body. "For neither the spirit nor flesh must

be destroyed in us; a SplTltUal man is not all Spirit,

16Sermon XKXII,(II, 59-60).

17Eerrcnes in taste ornium Sanctoruz, I, 11 (BL,
Cszxxll, cols. his-59).

lasermon CEVII,(V, 52-3).

he is a man still."19 The consideration of the re-

15

lationship between body and soul and the amount of mor-

tification required leads Donne to corplain:

Basil

I have not body enough for my body, and I
have too much body for my soul; not body
enough, not blood enough, not strength
enough, to sustain myself in health, and
yet body enough to destroy my soul, and
frustrate the grace of God in that miser-
able, perplexed, riddling condition of man;
sin sakes the body of ran miseratle, and the
remedy of sin, mortified tion, makes it miser-
able too; if we enjoy the good things of
this world, puziorer cazggre a
we do but carry another wall about our pri-
son, another story of unwieldy flesh about
our souls; and if we give ourselves as much
mortification as our body needs, we live a
life of Fridays and see no Sabbath we make
up our years of Lents, and see no iasters,
and whereas God meant us Paradise, we make
all the world a wilderness. 20

But Donne was decidedly against the extrere forms of as-

ceticism, which he called ”those devilish doctrines (so

St. Paul calls them) that forbid certain meats, and that

make uncommanded macerations of the body, xeritorious."

Though the soul "requires not so large, so sort a house

of sinful flesh, to dwell in," he says,

yet on the other side, we may not by inor-
dinate abstinencies, by indiscreet tastings,
by inhuman flagellations by unnatural macer-
ations, and such disciplines, as God doth

not command, nor authorize, so wither, and
shrink, and contract the body, as though the
soul were sent into it, as into a prison or
into fetters, and manacles, to wring, and
pinch, and torture 1t.21

19Sermon I,(I, 19-20).
20Sermon C,(IV, 323-2”).
zlsermon XIX,(I, 37h-75)o

16

He knew that the process of reconciling spirit and flesh
sas a life-long work, a war not easily won, terminated
only by death.

Our life is a warfare, our whole life; it
is not only with lusts in our youth, and
ambitions in our middle years, and indevo-
tions in our age, but with agonies in our
body, and temptations in our spirit upon
our death-bed, that we are to fight; and
he cannot be said to overcome, that fights
not out the whole battle.22

Only once does Donne ever say that he is willing to be
called a Papist.

If when I study this holiness of life,
and fast, and pray, and submit myself to
discreet, and medicinal mortifications
for the subduing of my body, any man will
say, this is papistical, Papists do this,
it is a blessed protestation, and no man
is the less a Protestant, nor the worse a
Protestant for making it men and brethren,
I am a Papist, that is, i .111 fast and
pray as much as any Papist, and enable my-
self for the service of my God, as seriously
as sedulously, as laboriously as any Papist.é3

There is in St. Bernard's thought a doctrine which,
though rarely found in medieval literature, has, par-
tially at least, a parallel in the work of Donne. This
is the statement that there is no enmity between the body
and the soul and that the soul cannot desire to be freed
from the body itself, but only from the body of death.

His point of departure is St. Paul's famous question:

 

22Sermon LXXIX,(III, ash).
23Sermon XLVII,(II, 368).

17

de corpore tantum, sed corpore mortis hujus,
hoc est ejus quae adhuc durat corruptionis:
monstrans non corpus, sed corporis molestias
esse causam peregrinationis. Corpus quippe
nuod cerrumpitur. aggravat aniram (figp. 9:15).

Wen corpus simpliciter, sed corpus quod pg:-
ggmpitur; ut corruptio corporis oneri sit,

non nature. Unde et qui intra semetipsos

ingemiscunt, redemptionem expectant corporis

sui, non amissionem.21+

Donne, so far as I know, never says that there is

no "enmity" between the body and the soul, but in one
place he does say, following a quotation from Tertullian,
that "these two, body and soul, cannot be separated for-
ever, which, whilst they are together concur in all that
either of them do."25 Three lines in his poem, "0f the
Progresse of the Souls," will serve to show that whether
it may desire so or not, the soul is incapable of leaving
the body before death.

Ky body, could, beyond escape or helpe,

Infect thee [soul/ with Originall sinne, and thgu

Couldst neither then refuse, nor leave it now.2

To St. Bernard's statement that the body is necessary
and useful to the soul both in this life and the next,27
Donne agrees, but uses the "school" as his authority.
To constitute a man, there must be a body,
as well as a soul. Nay, the immortality of

the soul, will not so well lie in proof,
without a resuming of the body. For, upon

2”De praecento et dispensatione, XX, 59 (BL, CLXXXII,
col. 892).

2SSermon XVI,(I, 322).

26L1. 166-68 (ed. Grierson, I, 256).

272e diligendo Egg. x1, 30,31 (3;, CLXXXII, col. 993).

18

those words of the apostle, If there were

no resurrectiong we were the riseratlest

of all ran, the school reasrns reasonably:
naturally the soul and body are united; when
they are separated by death, it is contrary
to nature, which nature still affects this
union; and consequently the soul is the less
perfect, for this separation; and it is not
likely, that the perfect natural state of
the soul, which is, to be united to the body,
should last but three or four score years,
and in most, much less, and the unperfect
StutE, that is the separation, should last
eternally, for ever; so that either the body
must be believed to live again, or the soul
belieV¢d to die.2“

The body and soul of man are brought together, then,
in a most intimate way. Donne and St. Bernard both say
that the soul's existence consists in animating the body29
and that the body without the soul would be a senseless
trunk.3Q fan is a blend of matter and spirit; he par-
takes of death and of immortality. He stands at the
meeting ground of time and eternity. he is related by
his intellect to the angels and by his instincts to the
animals. Though his reason lifts him up to heaven, yet
he is not a pure spirit. Though his passions pull him

down to earth, yet he is not merely an animal. He is

28Sermon XVI,(I, 321).

29Donne, "Airs and Angels," 11. 7-8 (ed. Grierson,

I, 22); Sermon XIX,(I, 377).
St. Bernard, Sermones in nativitate Dori , II,

6 (2;, CLXFXIII, col. 122).

30Donne, Sermon xrx,(II, 16); Sermon crLIx,(v1, us);
Sermon CLVIII,(VI, 285).
St. Eernard, Serrones in nativitate Dorini, II,
2 (EL, CLXXXIII, col. l20):”Hum quid non truncus esset in-
sensibilis caro inanimate?"

l9

placed on a middle rung of the ladder of being, dividing
his allegiance between the kingdoms of light and of dark-
r1833.

Having, thus, put man in his place in the universe
as a rational, mortal being, a union of body and soul, the
essential link between the world of matter and the world
of Spirit, we must now examine the soul more carefully.

The human soul, as defined by St. Bernard, does not
111g, but is life; it contains within itself the prin-
ciple of life. The body, however, lives because vivified
by life, or the soul.

Non stabunt pariter in gradu uno vita et
vivens: multo minus vita, et quae sunt sine
vita. Vita anima est vivens quidem, sed
non aliunde quam se ipsa: ac per hoc non
tam vivens, quam vita, ut proprie de es
quuamur. Inde est quod infuse corpori vi-
vificat illud, ut sit corpus de vitae pree-
sentia, non, vita, sed vivens. Undo liquet,
ne vivo quidem corpori id vivere esse, quid
esse: cum esse, et minime vivere possit.3

It is impossible to find a passage in Donne's sermons
which exactly parallels this one, but since it follows
logically from the fact that the soul's existence con-
sists in animating the body and Donne does say this, it
may well be that he would agree with St. Bernard.

Furthermore, the soul is immortal, that is ever

living, because it is its own life; however, since it is

subject to change, or passage from one being to another

31892§£3€s n Cgpticg, Lxrxx, 3 (3;, Ciriirii, col.

1172). Cf Eerrones in teapore resurrectionis ad abbates,
11, 1 (pg, CL}}RIII, col. 2H3}.

 

20

it is not eternally immutable, like God.

Vera namque et integra innortalitas tam non
recipit nutationem, quao nec finer, quod on-
nis nutatio quaedam sortie imitatio sit.

Omne etenim quod nutatur, dun de uno ad aliud
transit esee, quodam mode necesse est moriatur
quod est, ut esse incipiat quad non est. Quod
si tot mortes quot mutationes, ubi immortali-
tas? Ft huic vanitati subjecta est ipsa crea-
tura non volens, sed ropter eum qui subjecit
cam in see (Rom. 8:90 . Attanen ionortalis
anima est: quoniam cum ipsa sibi vita sit;
sicut non est Sue cadat a se, sic non est quo
cadat a vita.3

Donne, in a curious use of this doctrine, compliments
the Countess of Eedford by telling her that God in making
her soul

tooke Soules stuffs such as shall late decay
Or such as needs small change at the last day.23

The "change at the last day" is the save change intended
by St. Bernard, that is, the change do uno ad aliud. . .
ggsg, from one being to another. Put it is also a change
from a state of mutability to inautatility and, as Donne
:_tatio st r"taking-

tater, To be changed so, as that we can never be changed

says, quoting St. Eernard, "Frrira

   

 

more, is the greatest change of all."31+ Thus, death is
physical death for the body and is death "in a certain
sense" for the soul.

azfergrnes in Centica nyXI, 3 (3;, CLxxxIII, col.
1173). cr. 3:11., xyxz, 1 3;, CLYFXIII, cols. she-hi).

33"To the Countesse cf Eedford," 11. 23-1* (95- Grier-
son, I, 219).

EMSermon CXFYVIII,(V, M77).

21

Nevertheless, because the soul is nade in the image
of God and is, herefore, life "though nan had a begin-
ning, which the original, the eternal God hirself had not;
yet man shall no more have an end, than the original, the
eternal God himself shall have."35

St. Bernard is not content with defining the soul,
its faculties and its relationship to the body. He applies
the terns of the accepted psychology to the spiritual life
and tells of the "soul" of the soul. It is at this point
that one first susoects that the term of St. Bernard's
system will be nysticism.

The soul, he says, which in relation to the body, is
life,36 may acquire its own life (knowledge) and its own
sensitivity (love) by being animated by its own soul (God
and his grace). God and his grace, then, bear the sane
relationship to the soul which the soul bears to the body.37

Donne sneaks of the "soul" of the soul on a number
of occasions,38 sometimes in the same way as such notions
are used in his poetry, that is, as a conceit. At other
times he uses the idea in the sane way that St. Bernard

6099.

35 Sermon CX, (IV, 527).

36g; onrg an Cantica, LX?YI, 3 (3;, CLXKXIII, col.
1172).

37scy7pnes as agvgrsis, 1, 1 (EL. CIXFXIII, cols.
567-09 ‘.

383e ermon 111v,(11, 111); Sermon XXXVII,(II, 158).

22

Grace doth not ordinarily work upon the
stiffness of the soul, upon the silence,
Upon the frowardness, upon the averseness
of the soul, but when the soul is suppled
and mellowed, and feels this reproof, this
remorse in itself, that reproof, that re-
morse becores as ghe hatter, and grace
becones the soul. 9

In another serron Donne tells his auditory that having
been baptised they must

rise, and ascend to that growth, which
your baptisn prepared you to: and the
heavens shall open, and rain down bles-
sings of all kinds in abundance; and

the Holy Ghost shall descend upon you,

as a dove in his peaceful coming, in
your simple and sincere receiving him;
and he shall rest upon you, to effect

and accomplish his purposes in you. . . .
And so baptized and so pursuing the con-
tract of your baptism, and so crowned
with the residence of his blessed fipirit
in your holy conversation, he God/ shall
breathe a soul into your soul.

For, as Donne says, "except our soul receive another soul,
and be inanimated with grace, even the soul itself is but
a carcaseflh1
The soul was created, as Donne says, "by consultation,
by a conference, by a counsel, Faciaous horinen, Let us
make man; there is a more express manifestation of divers
‘ "1+2

persons Speaking together, of a concurrence of the Trinity.

And each of the three faculties of the soul correSponds

398ermon XKXIV,(II, 99).
hoSermon XLI,(II, 2h6-h7).
1+1Sermon XIX,(I, 377).
bzsemon crLIv,(V, S73).

23

to one person of the Trinity. The Father is represented
by memory, the Son by reason, the Holy Ghost by Will.
"Eeata illa et sempiterna Trinitas," says St. Bernard,

Peter at Filius et Spiritus sanctus, unus
Deus scilicet, supra poterti a, surna sepi-
entia, sumna benipnitas, creavit quandam
trinitatem ad iraginem et similitudines
suar, an iron videlicet rationales, quae in
eo praefert vestigiun quodd as illius sunrae
Trinitatis quod ex menoria, rations et vol-
untate consistit.L3

This explanation of the nature of the inane was one of
two which Professor Arnold Willians distinguishes as
widely accepted in Donne's time.LL

Donne, in one of many references to this subject,
says,

I he-ve the lease of God, in my whole soul,

and of all the three persons, in the three

faculties thereof, the understandin_, the

will, and the menory.L5
Both Donne and St. Bernard feel that "it is a lovely and
religious thing, to find out yestisia Trinitatis, im-
pressions of the Trinity, in as many things as we can,"L6
but the similitude between the faculties of the soul and
the persons of the Trinity is the most perfect impression.

[$30. *Crfinnes (we GAVE? 5:49, XLV’ 1 (2L C.IX:‘)III, C01.
667). Cf. Te conversions ad clericos, Vi, ll (PL, ”CLX))II,
cols. fitO-fil); Eersones in Cantica, )1, 5 (PI, CLXEZXIII,
001. P26).

LL"he Corron Irresitor, pp. 73-h. The other explan-
ation is that it ccnsists in ran' s domination over the
other creatures.

LSSermon CX,(IV, 53h).

L6Sermon XL,(II, 216).

2%

St. Bernard's elaboration of this idea, however, is’
not to be considered as a commonplace. He teaches that
spiritual death, that is the death of the soul brought
about by suggestion, consent and delight in sin, results
in the death of each faculty of the soul.“7 And the re-
surrection of the soul is the resurrection of each of
the faculties by the superimposing, by God, of another
trinity, namely, faith, hOpe, and charity.

Verumtamen hunc tam graven, tam tenebrosum
tam sordidum lapsum nostrae natures reparavit
illa beata Trinitas, memor misericordiae sues,
immemor culpae nostrae. Venit ergo a Patre
missus Dei Filius et dedit fidem; post Filium
missus est Spiritus sanctus et dedit docuitque
caritatem. Itaque per haec duo, id est fidem
et caritatem, facts est spes redeundi ad Pa-
trem. Et haec est trinitas, scilicet fides,
spes, caritas, per quam velut per tridentem
reduxit de limo profundi ad amissam beatitu-
dinem 111a incommutabilis et beata Trinitas
mutabilem, lapsam et miseram trinitatem. Et
fides quidem illuminavit rationem, spes
erexit meroriam, caritas vero purgavit vol-
untatem.u8 ,

"Let us with'St. Bernard," says Donne

consider 1 t m ea r c i, and Erin;-
tatgg greatag, A creating, and a created
Trinity; a trinity, which the Trinity in
heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, hath
created in our souls, reason, memory and

will; and that we have super-created, added
another trinity, suggestion, and consent,

and delight in sin: and that God, after all
this infuses another trinity, faith, hope,

and charity, by which we return to our first.“9

h7sgzmgne§ gg giversis, XLV, 1 (2;, CLXXXIII, col.667).
Lalhido. u (3;, CLXXXIII, col. 668).
1+9Sermon XL, (II, 217).

2'5

The idea that, Just as it was the work of the whole
Trinity to create man, so all three persons contribute
to his re-creation, that is, his spiritual resurrection,
adds new meaning to much that Donne has written. For
example, in the Devotions when he cries:

Look upon me, and that will raise me again
from that spiritual death. . .take me again
to your consultation, 0 blessed and glorious
Trinity; and though the Father Pnow, that I
have defaced his image, received in my crea-
tion; though the Son know, I have neglected
mine interest in the redemption, yet, 0
blessed Spirit, as thou art ry conscience,
so be to them a witness, that at this minute,
I accept that which I have so often, so often,
so retelliously refused, thy blessed inspir-
ationS° be thou my witness to them, that at
more pores than this slack body sweats tears,
this sad soul weeps blood; and sore for the
displeasure of my God, than for the stripes
of his displeasure. Take me then, 0 blessed
and glorious Trinity, into a reconsultatirn.50

And so it is for doctrinal, as much as for poetic reasons
that Donne addresses himself to the "three person'd
God"51 in his plea for freedom from sin.

The dignity of man consists in this threefold simi-
larity between his soul and the Trinity and the fact that
his creation was the work of the whole Trinity.

God had a picture of hinself from all eter-

nity; from all eternity, the Son of God was

9019:. the irase of the invisible God; but then God
1:15 would have one picture, which should be the
picture of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost too,

and so made man to the image of the whole
Trinity. As the apostle argues, Cui dixit,
SOFrayer IX,(III, 538-39).

: i - .
Ilnvly Sonnet xiv, "Batter my heart," (ed. Grierson,
1.328).,

26

 

. 19_ghom did God ever sgxg This day hayg
185 .o te h , but to Christ? so we

say, for tie dignity of man, C dir ,

Of what creature did God ever say Eagle-

mug, Let us, us, make it, all, all, the

persons together, and to employ, and ex-

ercise, not only power, but gunsel in

the making of that creature?

It should be said in regard to this image of God in

man's soul that nothing that man can do will erase that

imagE.

For, thereUpon dces St. Bernard say,

Imago De; uni pgtest in Gghenna, non ex-
uri: Till the soul be burnt to ashes, to

nothing, (which cannot be done no not in
hell) the image of God cannot be burnt
out of that soul. For it is radica%%y,
primarily, in the very soul itself.

There is, in the sermons left to us by Donne, nothing
that compares with St. Bernard's Izagtatgs fig gratis gt
libezg_a1bitrig for fulness of treatment. It must be
dealt with here for two reasons: first, because it follows
naturally from the discussion of the three faculties of
the soul; second, because although Donne never treats the
subject exhaustively he does accept St. Bernard's con-
clusion. The argument of the flzagtatus fig gratis gt 11h—
gzg arbitrio, as biiefly and as clearly as possible, can
be summarized as follows: i

The will and the reason are faculties preper to ran
and to other rational beings, and it is precisely these
faculties that distinguish man from irrational beasts.
S76) stermon LXV.(III, 139). See also Sermon CXIII,(IV,

53Sermon CX,(IV 526). 9;. Sermon CXIII,(IV, 581);
Sermon XLIII,(II, 27%).

27

Their functions are distinct, so they are distinct facul-
ties, but they always act together. Willing means to
choose that which is willedsh; and choosing means willing
that which is chosen.55 Consent is the term used by St.
Bernard to signify this Joint action. And the consenting
faculty, that is, the Joint faculty of will and reason,
is called free choice56; the word free means willing, and
the word choice means the action of the reason.57

Free choice is free because it is voluntary, that
is, of the will, and this is precisely what the word free
means.58 If a person chooses what he does not will,
that means only that he wills the consequence of his choice
more strongly than he wills the alternative; the stronger
will prevails over the weaker will; and so the choice is

truly willed and therefore truly free.59

 
 

, II. 3 (EL.
CLXXXII, col. 1003 .

551hgg., u (3;, CLXXXII, cols. 1003-0h).

561h1g., XIV, L6 (2;, CLXXXII, col. 1026): » Quid
igitur? hoc ergo totum liberi arbitrii Opus, hoc solum
eJus est meritum quod consentit? Est prorsus."

57%p1g. II n (g; CLXXXII cols. 1003-0h); 1:15.
III, 6 EL, CLXKfiIl, cols. lOCh-55). ,

581;;g., I, 2 (EL. CLXXXII, cols. 1002-03): "Non
enim est consensus, nisi voluntarius. Ubi ergo consen-
sus, ibi voluntas. Porro ubi voluntas, ibi libertas.
Et hoc est quod dici puto liberum arbitrium." Cf. St.
Thomas Aquinas, S a. th 0 o , I, 83, 2.

59Ip1§., x11, 38 (2;, CLXXXII col. 1021). For
example, Peter denied Christ unwillingly, as it seemed,
because his will to live was stronger than his will to
acknowledge Christ.

28

Free choice is choice, because it is a distinction
between good and bed, that is, it is a rational distinc-
tion, and this is precisely what the word choice means.
The reason judges its choice as being good or bad, and
this is how it differs from the non-moral discriminations
made by irrational beasts.60

Since it is part of his essential nature, man pos-
sesses it inalienably and under all conditions whatever,
whether of innocence, corruption, grace,salvation, dam-
nation, or any other condition; except only the condi-

61 It means, in

tions of insanity, infancy, and sleep.
the second place, that he possesses it to an equal degree
with all other rational beings, even God.62

The consent of the will, being voluntary, not neces-
sary, makes us Just or unjust;63 and free choice, there -

fore, is the capacity for blessedness or misery.

Sola ergo voluntas, quoniam pro sui ingenita
libertate, aut dissentire sihi, aut praeter

 
 

e V. rtig, II, h (2L
CLXXXII, cols. 1003-0 3 "Et merito libertatem comitatur
Judicium: quoniam quidem quod liberum sui est profecto
uhi peccat, ibi se Judicat." cr. in;g., IV, ii (2;
CLXXXII, col. 1007): "Arbitrium quippe Judicum est."

éllhig,, II, 5 (EL. CLXXXII, col. 100k).

621p1g., 1v, 9 (2;, CLXXXII, col. 1006): "Verum lib-
ertas a necessitate aeque et indifferenter Deo univer-
saeque tam malae quam bonae rationali convenit creaturae."

63Ip1g., II, n (EL. CLXXXII, cols. 1003-0h): "CuJus
voluntatis consensus, utique voluntarius, non necessari-
us, dum aut Justos probat aut injustos, etiam merito
beatos facit vel miseros." Qf. I:id., XII, #1 (EL, CLXXXII,
cols. 1023-2h).

29

se in aliquo consentire, nulls vi, nulla
cogitur necessitate; non emmerito Justam
vel injustam, beatitudine seu miseria dig-
nam a0 capacem creaturam constituit; prout
scilicgt Justitiae injustitiaeve consen-
serit.

Free choice, than is the necessary condition of good merit
and of bad merit; because we are responsible only for what
we do voluntarily. For this reason the case of original
sin is excluded from the discussion because the indivi-
dual is not responsible for it in the same way in which
he is reaponsible for his actual sins.65 Donne is not
inclined to be so lenient, for him even original sin is
voluntary.

Though this original sin that overflows
us all, may in some sense be called peg-
ggjug involuntarium, a sin without any
elicit act of the will . . .and so pro-
perly no sin, yet as all our other facul-

Augus- ties were so Omnium voluntates 1n Idem,

tine All our wills were in Adam, and we sinned
wilfully, when he did so, and so original
sin is a voluntary sin: our will is poi-
soned in the fountain; and, as soon as our
will is able to exercise any election, we
are willing to sin, as soon as we can, and
sorry we can sin no sooner, and sorry no
longer: we are willing before the devil is
willing, and willing after the devil is
weary, and seek occasiggs of tentation,
when he presents none.

Free choice according to St. Bernard, is always

:fflWWy m, 6
(2L, CLXXXII col. 10 .

II, 5 ( CLXXXII col. 100%);géh1? XII
38 (£_,, CLXXiII cols¥Ll02l-22)3’m m., XIII, Bi, ’
CLXXXII, col. 162M)

66Sermon XXXV,(II, 107).

30

free. But there is another meaning of the word "free"

and in relation to it free choice is "enslaved" and

must be "liberated."67 In the state of nature man is not
completely free. The existence of misery shows that man
is not free to enjoy what he wills, and the existence of
sin shows that he is not even able to will what is good.
"I could as soon," says Donne, "believe that I had a
being before God was, as that I had a will to good, before
God moved it."68 For St. Bernard man in that he lacks
freedom of enjoyment is miserable; and in that he lacks
freedom of counsel (the ability to will what is good) he
is sinful.69 In the state of nature free choice is the
slave of sin, so that the soul is both "dead" by the cor-
ruption of the will and "blind" by the corruption of the
reason.70 Nevertheless, the reason, although corrupt,
still exists, and distinguishes between licit and illicit,
and therefore judges its choice as good or bad.71 And

67irggsa ”in a, gzg 1b III
(21,, CLxxxII, cols. 1005-08);1m 111151., .13 5121. cixxxu,

C01. 1010).
68Sermon cx1x,(v, 109) .

6W t liberoaxhiim. IV 11
(EL. CLxxxII, col. 1007.

 

7°S§mpgnes jg cgmgc cg, mom, 2 (EL. CLxxxII, col.
1188): "Nam et malum volendo mortua erat, et bonum ig-
norando caeca." Ct. ngctatus de gr atia gt libero expi-

1119, 1,1.(35, CL X};I:, cols. 1001-02): "Porro duo
nihi sunt necessaria, doceri ac Juvari."

715? JEWW: IV. 11
(3;, CLXXXII, col. 1007 .

31

the will, although corrupt, still exists, and consents
freely to its choice.72 So that man always has freedom
of choice. being able to choose what he will.73

The liberation of free choice requires a twofold
gift of grace, in order that it may be liberated from sin
and from misery. The gift of true wisdom is the will's
conversion to the good, and the gift of full power is its
confirmation in the good. Perfect conversion means that
only the licit pleases; perfect confirmation that nothing
which pleases is any longer lacking.

Ut ergo velle nostrum, quod ex libero ar-
bitrio habemus, perfectum habeamus; duplici
gratiae munere indigemus, et vero videlicet
Sapere, quod est voluntatis ad bonum con-
versio; et pleno etiam Posse, quod est eJus-
dam in bone confirmatio. Porro perfects
conversio est ad bonum, ut nil libeat nisi
quod deceat vel liceat; perfects in bone
confirmatio,ut nil desit 3am quod libeat.
Tunc demum perfects erit voluntas, cum plene
fuerit bona, et bene plena.

Without going into further detail regarding the various
kinds of grace and the action of each one in liberating
or re-creating the free choice we can summarize by saying

that God creates the soul by giving it natural life; he

”We a de 1 mm xx 37
(EL, CLXXXII col. 1021 I "At vero quantislibet quis in-

tus forisve tentationibus urgeatur, libera profecto
semper, quantum ad arbitrium spectat, voluntas erit:
libere quippe de suo nihilo minus consensu Judicabit."

73:39 nes 09.x , LXXZI, 9 (EL. CLXXXIII,
901. 1175 0
7a

21g_cta tus de gra tip at 11b ero arbitzig, VI, 19
(2;, CLxxxII, col. 1012).

32

then re-creates it by giving it spiritual life. This re-
creating grace liberates or saves the free choice from
sin by changing it to free choice of the good, and so it
is called saving grace.75

Saving grace, then, Operates salvation and, being

76

omnipotent, is the sufficient condition of salvation.
But free choice is the necessary condition of salvation.77
The inconsistency of these facts presents a dilemma: if
grace is sufficient how can free choice be necessary?
This question, one of the most important in all of
Christian theology, is the focal point of St. Bernard's
m; it is, in fact, its W. Both God's
omnipotence and man's independence and, indirectly, his
moral responsibility are in Jeepardy. If grace is suf-
ficient, then man is nothing; if free choice is necessary
to salvation, then God's omnipotence is marred at least.
St. Bernard's solution is admirable chiefly because
he maintains the omnipotence of God, without diminishing
man's faculty of free choice. Grace alone saves, and
does not need any c00peration in the sense of assistance.

And free choice is the very thing which is saved. To

be saved means to consent to grace; and consenting is

75W. VI. 16
(21., CLXXXII, col. 1010 .

76:h1d., XIII, L2 (2L, CLXXXII, col. lO2h):" Sola
salvat misericordia."

77111151., xx, 36 (as, crxxxn, col. 1020:"Nemo
quippe salvatur invitus."

33

the function of free choice. God cannot save a man against
his own will, for without it there would be nothing to
save. Grace, then, is the efficient cause of salvation,
but man's will and reason, his free choice is its material
cause. The necessity of free choice for salvation, there-
fore, does not violate the divine omnipotence because it
is a logical, not a psychological necessity.

Tolle liberum arbitrium, et non erit quod

salveturz7§olle gratiam, non erit unde

salvetur.

This doctrine is the basis of much that Donne says
concerning the relationship of grace and man's sill in'
the work of salvation. Against this background it be-
comes clear why he semetimes emphasizes man's nothingness
in conversion and at other times gives man, if never an
active part, at least a part. He is particularly fond
of comparing man's first creation from nothing to his con-
version by grace. As in his creation he was nothing, so
in his conversion he "is nothing, does nothing. His body
is not verier dust in the grave, till a resurrection,
then his soul is dust in his body, till a resuscitation
by grace."79 But, though "man is no such a thing as can
invite God to work upon him. . .he is such a thing, as

nothing else is capable of his working but man,"80 for

78m d ra * 11 are annals. 1» 2 (Elm
CLXXXII, col. 1002 .

79Sermon LIX,(III, 22).

80Sermon CXLIII,(V, 553).

3h

only man has a reasonable soul.81

. Donne insists that "God saves no man against his

will."82 Christ, he says,

promises to come to the door, and to knock
at the door, and to standagt the door, and

Ee1.3 to enter if any man open; but he‘does not
say, he will break open the door."~+

Christ calls men, he "beats his drum, but he does not
press men; Christ is served with voluntaries."85

Trust not to an irresistible grace, that
at one time or other God will have thee,

Ber- whether thou wilt or no. Zgllgvyglgntetsm,

nard g5_ngg_g§_infezngs; If thou couldst quench

thine own will, thou hadst quenched hell;
if thou couldst be content willing to be
in hell, hell were not hell. So, if God
save a man against his will, heaven is not
heaven, if he be loath to come thither,
sorry that he shall be there he hath not
the Joy gf heaven, and then heaven is not
heaven.8

Man is an instrument in his salvation because he provides
the material cause. Donne tells his auditory, quoting
St. Bernard again:
You men know, that yourselves have a part
in those means, which God uses to that
purpose, yourselves are instruments though
not causes of your own salvation. éalxgg
SlSermon xxx,(1, 377).
828ermon cxxx11,(v. 371).
83Donne is referring to Ed].- 33203 "Behold, I stand

at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and
open the door, I will come in to him."

8hSermon cxxx11.(v, 365).
85Sermon CXXXIX,(V, h98).

86Sermon XLIII,(II, 295).

35

us 5 o ih lo non d nih otame ;
Thou bringest nothing for thy salvation,
yet something to thy salvation.87

In other words, man does not merit salvation, yet he brings
to it the consent of his will which is always his own.88
In spite of Donne‘s curious way of expressing himself, he
agrees, I think, with St. Bernard when he says that sal-
vation cannot be accomplished without two things: one by
which it is done; the other to which or in which it is
done. Salvation is given only by God and only to free
choice. To consent is to be saved.

Opus hoc sine duobus effici non potest:
uno a quo fit; altero cui, vel in quo
fit. Deus auctor est salutis, liberum
arbitrium tantum capax: nec dare illam,
nisi Deus; nec capere valet, nisi liber-
um arbitrium. Quod ergo a solo Deo, et
soli datur libero arbitrio; tam abSque
consensu esse (alias, effici) non potest
accipientis, quam abSque gratia dantis.
Et ita gratiae operanti salutem cooper-
ari dicitur liberum arbitrium, dum con-
sentit, hoc est dum salvatur.’ Consen-
tire enim salvari est.89

Donne says essentially the same thing in other words:
In the application of that great work, the
redemption of mankind, that is, in the con-
version of a sinner, and the first act of
that conversion, though the grace of God
work all, yet there is a faculty in man, a
will in man, which is in no creature but
87Sermon L, (II, “39).
88Sermon VIII, (I, 155).
89T c a us de at'a et libero arbitrigé I, 2 (2L,
CLXXXII col. 10025. g1. I ., VI, 1 PL. LXXXII,

col. Ioio); Inig., XIII, M2 L, CLXXXII,‘EoI. 102%).

 

36

man, for that grace of God to work upon;

but in the creation there was nothing

at all.90

To sum up. Only the human being is capable of ac-

quiring knowledge because he alone is endowed with a
reasonable soul. Furthermore, the soul of man is immor-
tal although it is not immutable like the God in whose
image it is created. Donne and St. Bernard place the
image in the faculties of the soul. This image though
defaced by sin may be restored by grace. But grace is
inoperative without the consent of man's will. By con-
senting to receive grace man's potency to acquire know-

ledge becomes act. He is, thus, the subject of the
knowledge of God.

90$ermon CXXIII,(V, I92).

CHAPTER III
GOD -- THE OBJECT OF KNOWLEDGE

The object of all knowledge is truth. Neither Donne '
nor St. Bernard would deny that all knowledge, if it is
true, is good, and an end in itself. Neither would deny
that knowledge requires some sanction beyond itself; that
is, in order to be worth knowing, a particular truth must
be not only an end in itself, as all truths are, but also
a means to something further.

There are truths which are means required by the
practical necessities of life, and therefore knowledge
of them is necessary, even though they are relative and
subject to change. Donne, in a sermon preached at St.
Paul's, says concerning this sort of knowledge:

What one thing do we know perfectly?
Whether we consider arts, or sciences, the
servant knows but according to the propor-
tions of his master's knowledge in that
art, and the scholar knows but according
to the proportion of his master's know-
ledge in that science; young men mend not
their eight by using old men's spectacles;
and yet we look upon nature, but with
Aristotle's spectacles, and upon the body
of man, but with Galen s, and upon the
frame of the world, but with Ptolemy's
spectacles. Almost all knowledge is rather
like a child that is embalmed to make
mummy, than that is nursed to make a man;
rather conserved in the stature of the
first age, than grown to be greater; and
if there be any addition to knowledge, it
is rather a new knowledge than a greater
knowledge; rather a singularity in a desire
of prOposing something that was not known
at all before, than an improving, an ad-

37

38

vancing, a multiplying of former incep-
tions; and by that mians no knowledge
comes to be perfect.

There are other truths which are means to the know-
ledge of God, Truth in itself, and it is upon these that
men must focus their attention. Donne says that we must
even become "blind" to the persons, pleasures, and know-

ledge of this world:

The sight, and the contemplation of God
and our present benefits by him, and our
future interest in him, must make us blind
{to this world so, as that we look upon
no fees, no pleasure, no knowledge, with
such an affection, such an ambition, such

adegotion, as upon God, and the ways to
him.

In a later sermon, Donne tells his listeners that they
should "keep a near, a familiar, and daily acquaintance,

and conversation with the Holy Ghost,” because

Ber- ggmn .e. es_d.o.c_sai_nuesrsrs_._s_l_us

nerd dogs 3 1nv spire, he be eye, {:21 Men can
teach us how to find some th ngs; the pi-
lot how to find a land, the astronomer how
to find a star; men can teach us ways how
to find God, the natural man in the book
of creatures, the moral man in an exemplar
life, the Jew in the law, the Christian in

Ber- general in the GoSpel, but Bolus insg, an:
nard ggget invenize, habgrs, £221, Only the 1y
Ghost enables us to find God so, as to
make him ours, and to enjoy him.
This does not mean that man should not endeavor to learn

those things which other men can teach him, but that all

lsermon LXXX,(III, u72).
25ermon XLIV, (II, 308).
3Sermon XXX,(II, l7).

39

such knowledge should be secondary to the knowledge which
leads to salvation. St. Bernard and Donne both say this:

Tu qui cum timore et tremors tuam ipsius
operari salutem pro temporis brevitate
festinas, ea scire prius ampliufique curato,
quae senseris viciniora saluti.

Blessed are they that inanimate all

their knowledge, consummate all in Christ
Jesus. The university is a paradise,
rivers of knowledge are there, arts and
sciences flow from thence. Council tables
are ggzti gpgglusi, (as it is said in the
Canticles Gardens that are sealed up;
bottomless depths of unsearchable counsels
there. But those Aquae gulglhfil£§m9 which
the prOphet speaks of, The waters of rest,
they flow from this good master, and flow
into him again; all knowledge that begins
not and ends not with his glory, is but
a giddy, but a vertiginous circle, but an
elaborate and exquisite ignorance.

St. Bernard and Donne teach that it is particularly
useful even indispensable, to study the sacred Bcrip-
tures, because, as St. Bernard says, they are "full of
divine mysteries and overflcwing with celestial sweet-
ness, provided the reader knows how to suck honey out of
the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock."6 For God,

“serpeneg jg Cagggcg, XXXVI, 2 ( L, CLXXXIII, col.

968). 22. m e a ons_ssslssias. 11. “ (EL
CLXXXIII, col. 523 .

58ermon XIV, (I, 277-78).
6

pg Lgud1bus Virgigis Maggig, Bomilia I, I (EL
CLXXXIII, col. 5 : "Plena quippe sunt omnia supernis
a

mysteriis ac coelesti singu dulcedine redundantia, si
tamen diligentem habeant inepectorem, qui noverit sugere
mel de petra oleumque de saxo durissimo." St. Bernard

is undoubtedly thinking of Lent. 32:13: " and he made him
to zuck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty
roc .

#0

says Donne, is a God

in whose words there is such a height of
figures, such voyages, such peregrinations
to fetch remote and precious metaphors,
such extensions, such spreadings, such
curtains of allegories, such third heavens
of hyperboles, so harmonious elocutions,
so retired, and so reserved eXpressions,
so commanding persuasions, so persuading
commandments, such sinews, even in thy
milk, and such things in thy words, as all
profane authors seem of the seed of the
serpent that creeps, thou art the dove
that flies. 0, what words but thine can
express the ineXpressible texture an com-
position of thy Word.

Donne sums up the purpose of all study, all knowledge of
particular truths when he says, "all knowledge is ignor-
ance, except it conduce to the knowledge of the Scrip-
tures, and all the Scriptures lead us to Christ."8

If the reason for knowing particular truths is that
they may conduce to a knowledge of God, then what are
these truths? That is, what should a man know?

The first particular object of man's speculation is
himself. If man was created in the image of God and made
to know and enjoy God, it follows that the way to know
him is to study oneself. Etienne Gilson, considering
self-knowledge under the title "Christian Socratism,"9
sums up, as nearly as this can be done, the speculations

of the Fathers concerning the relationship of the image

7mm, Expostulation xxx (111,587).
8Sermon CLIV,(VI, 180).
S M Ph h ; tr. A. H. C.

Downes, Chapter XI, pp. 209-2 .

kl

of God, man's knowledge of it, and his knowledge of God,
by saying that

it is not solely or chiefly in virtue of

the divine image that man effectively

resembles God, but in virtue of his con-

sciousness of being an image, and the

movement whereby the soul, passing in a

way through itself, avails itself of the

factual resemblance in order to attain to

God.

The 395;; Leipggm is of such great importance to St.
Bernard and to Donne that it will be necessary to return
again to it to see how it is related to humility. Here
it will be sufficient to show that they both realised
the vital importance of man's knowledge of himself and of
this knowledge in the way to the consummation of all
knowledge.

Donne believed that we are better diaposed to the
study of ourselves when plunged into adversity or sick-
ness and certainly his own Egyptipng serve to illustrate
this. He tells his congregation of "how hard a thing
the knowledge of ourselves is, till we feel the direction
of adversity."11 And he asserts that

No study is so necessary as to know our-
selves; no schoolmaster is so diligent, so
vigilant, so assiduous, as adversity. . . .
The end of knowing ourselves is to know how
we are disposed for that which is our end,
that is this blessedness. ‘

t
M aeva Ph 030 h ; tr. A.H.C.
Downes, p, 231

11Sermon LIV,(II, 508).

1?;p;g., (II, 509).

h2

By the phrase "this blessedness" he means "that 11§1g_2g1,
that eight of God, which in our glorified state we shall
have in heaven. . .when we shall kHOW.ZEQd7 at once, and
without study."13

To know yourself is the beginning of wisdom; to know

God is its consummation.1u

This is the very core of Cis-
tercian mysticism and the foundation of its whole episte-
mology. Self-knowledge, according to St. Bernard, comes
first in the rational order of knowledge, because our
first concern is naturally to know what we ourselves are;
and it comes first in the order of utility, because it
destroys pride and produces humility, which is the neces-
sary condition of spiritual progress.15
The importance of the.ngggg_1gip§un,to St. Bernard

can be shown by the fact that in one sermon he commends
the Augustinian doctrine that one's self is the only de-
sirable particular object of consideration.

Huic duplici considerationi tota haec

vestra vocatio tribuatur, sicut sanctus

é:t.nfigsgigigz)ufgabatz "Deus, noverim

, .

This however, must be regarded as an exaggerated refer-

ence to the priority of self-knowledge, for his consistent

13Sermon LIV,(II, 508).

1“'fiSt. Bernard' 8 rmones Cant , XXXVII I (EL,
CLXXXIII, col. 9715.

151h11., skxvr, 5'(£;, CLXXXIII, cols. 969-70).
16ngmgn§§ fig Q1v£2§1§3 II, 1 ( L, CLXXXIII, 001. 5h2)e

h3

doctrine is much broader;17 broad enough, in fact, to in-
clude the study of any creatures whatever, provided the
student does not stop there.

The only study which St. Bernard disapproves is po-
sitivism, the study of the phenomenal world without refer-
ence to the source or function of things. All things are
to be studied not for their own sakes, but for the light
which their teleological aspects throw on the nature of
their creator. The being of things reveals God's power,
the arrangement of things reveals God's wisdom, and the
utility of things reveals God's goodness.18

This is the first of the threefold knowledge which
St. Thomas Aquinas says a man may have of divine things.
It is "that knowledge whereby he rises by the light of
natural reason from the knowledge of created things to
knowledge of God."19

Donne, too, advocates the "seeing of God in the book
of creatures." Even the natural man by using his reason,'
though it is corrupt and blind, may see God because

17In his essay pg gr a dings humilita 1;: (EL, CLXXXII,
cols. 9h1-72), three things are commended to the monk's

attention: himself, his neighbors, and God. In the
essay De Considerat ione (EL, CIXIIXIIz cols. 727-808),
six things are commended to the pups s attention: him-
selfi the Church, the Romans, the papal household,

s

ange , and God.

lgisrm2ass_ia_fesie_rsaissesis§. 111. 3 (EL. CLXIXIII.
c010 331 e

1?§BEE§.£2££I§,K§BI11£1, IV, Prologue. Translation

by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province.

every creature calls him to a consideration

of God. Every ant that he sees, asks him

Where had I this providence, and industry;

Every flower that he sees, asks him, Where

had I this beauty this fragrancy, this

medicinal virtue in me? Every creature

calls him to consider what greatnahings

God hath done in little subjects.‘ .
For the Holy Ghost "hath provided, that the world, the
very world itself. . .this very world, that is nature,
a nd no more, should give. . .an universal light of the
knowledge of God.“21 Donne also says that God's "know-
ledge, his wisdom, his power, his mercy, his Justice,
all his attributes are always manifested in all his works."22

Knowledge of the phenomenal world, then, is Justifi-
able in so far as it conduces to a better understanding
of the God who created the earth. ‘And, as Donne quotes
St. Bernard, "everything in the world. . .can say, nggtgg
m§p§_gs_3n, Lord thou hast made me; all things that have
life, and growth, can say, Easigr_mgg§_g§_1n, Lord thou
hast fed me, increased me."23
The world may be regarded either as an expression

of meaning or as an effect produced by a cause. In the
former case it is necessary to put back of it the divine
intelligence and in the latter case the divine will. The
one is the conceptual argument for the existence of God,

the other is the causal argument.

2°Sermon XXVIII,(I, 557).
21Sermon LXVIII,(III, 203).
228ermon CXXXV,(V, #21).
23Sermon XLVIII,(II, 383).

as

The conceptual argument does not necessarily ignore
the world. What it does is simply to direct attention
to the meaning expressed by the world, to its intelligi-
bility and what is implied in it. It does not exclude
the causal principle. It, rather, assumes it. But it
subordinates it to the logical connection of ideas.‘ The
reality of.ideas comes first. Their causal power is more
or less of an inference from their reality, it is not
regarded as constitutive of it.

St. Augustine, for whom both St. Bernard and John
Donne have the greatest reverence, proves the existence
of God by the conceptual argument. His most character-
istic theistic proof is in his epistemological applio
cation of the conceptual argument. It consists in
pointing out that there are certain fundamental ideas
and laws of thought common to all minds, and that this
community of thought can be accounted for only on the
assumption that there is a universal Truth in which all
individual minds share and in whoée Light the intelligible
world is revealed to reason in much the sameway that the
sensible world is revealed to the eye. The human mind
cannot be its own light. For its source of illumination
it must turn to a supreme Being, who is himself the Truth
and the Light. Apart from such a being the light that is
in us might be darkness, and in any case its community
would be wholly unintelligible. The validity of reason

thus requires the existence of God, who as the supreme

h6

Reason imparts himself to all finite minds. For St.

2% He does

Augustine, to_be true is the same as to be.
not distinguish between truth as a general concept and
truth as objectively real. The idea of Truth implies
its reality.

The causal argument, on the other hand, stresses
the world as a fact, as an existence, an effect, which
as such requires the divine will for its explanation.
The divine will does not, of course, exclude the divine
reason, but it is something other and more than the
logical or rational connection of ideas. It involves
a dynamic element and enters the realm of causal self-
determination which is the realm of ontological reality.

It is on the basis of the causal argument that St.
Bernard and Donna demonstrate the existence of God.

Nowhere in the Sgrgons does Donne discuss in a sys-
tematic way the proofs for the existence of God. His
closest approach to such a discussion is in a sermon
preached in 1622 in which he says:

He that made a clock or an organ, will be
sure to engrave his mg_§ggit such a man
made me; he that builds a fair house, takes
it ill, if a passenger will not ask whose
house is it. . . .Can any can look upon the
frame of this world, and not say, there is
a powerful, upon the administration of this

world, and not sayzsthere is a wise and a
Just hand over it?

2“ he s 1 , VIII (Eggig Wzitiggfig ed. Oates,
II, 679- 3 . .

25Sermon cx11,(Iv, 561).

“7

This is not a clear example of the causal argument, but
it does show that Donna believed that the order evident
in the world requires "a hand over it." The world is a

fact,

a work a limited, a determined, a cir-
cumscribed work; and it as gpg§_§jy§, his
work, says Elihu there.2 But whose? Will

you lay hold upon that? upon that, that

Elihu only says, Begggbgr his work,

but names none. But two verses before,

(with which this v rse hath connexion)

he does name God.2 But let the work be

whose it will, whosoever be this he, this

he must be God, whosoever gave the first being
to creatures, must be the Creator. If you
will think that chance did it, and fortune,
then fortune must be your god; and destiny
must be your god, if you think destiny did

it; and therefore you were as good attribute
it to the right God, for a god it must have;
if it be a work, it was made, if it be a
creature, there is a creator; and if it be

his work, that he, muss be God, and there are
no more gods, but one. 8

Here Donne certainly has in mind the argument from cause.
He goes on to say that man need not consider the whole
universe in order to discover God as its cause. He may

take but the Georgics, the consideration
of the earth, a farm, a garden, nay seven
foot of earth, a grave, and that will be
book enough. Go lower; every worm in the
grave, lower, every weed upon the grave
is an abridgment of all; may look up all

26ng 36:2»: "Remember that thou magnify his work,
which men behold.” Donne's text is ggh 36:25: "Every
man may see it; man may behold it afar off."

27Donne refers here to verse 22: "Behold, God ex-
alteth by his powers who teacheth like him?"

28Sermon CXII, (IV, 559).

#8

doors and windows, see nothing but thyself;
nay let thyself be locked up in a close
prison, that thou canst not see thyself,
and do but feel thy pulse; let thy pulse
be intermitted, or stupified, that thou
feel not that, and do but think, and a
worm, a weed, thyself thy pulse, thy
thought are all testimonies, that a 1,
this all, end all the parts thereof, are

opus, a workrrade, and 9229 gigs, his work,
made by God.29

One other passage, taken from a sermon preached at White-
hall in 1618, will serve to point up Donne's admiration
for cosmic order, and its dependence upon an Author:

The correspondence and relation of all

parts of nature to one Author, the consin-

uity and dependence of every piece and Joint

of this frame of the world, the admirable

order, the immutable succession, the lively

and certain generation, and birth of effects

from their parents, the causes: in all these,

though there be no sound, no voice, yet we

may even see that it is an excellent song,

an admirable piece of music and harmony; and

that God does (as it were) play upon this

organ.30
On the basis of these passages and a few others,31 it is
fairly clear that Donne, in spite of his unphilosophical
terminology, would prove the existence of God from the
cosmological or causal argument.

The reason that Donne rarely discusses the proofs

of God's existence lies in the fact that atheism is for

him inconceivable. In order to be an atheist, a man must

29Sermon CXII,(IV, 561).
3OSermon CXLIV, (V, 57%).

31oermon CXLIX (VI, 36); sermon LXVIII,(III; 202);
Sermon XXVIII,(I, 557).

t*9

believe himself to be nothing.

Poor intricated soul! riddling perplexed,
labyrinthical soul: thou couldst not say,
that thou believest not in God if there
were no God; if there were no 60d, thou
couldst not speak, thou couldst not think,-
not a word, not a thought, no not against
God; thou couldst not blaspheme the name of
God, thou couldst not swear, if there were
no God: for, all thy faculties, however de-
praved by thee, are from him; and except thou
canst seriously believe, that thou are nothing,
thou canst not believe that there is no God.

Arguments for the existence of God are not found often
in the works of St. Bernard, either, but he supports the
causal demonstration. The invisible things of God may be
understood by means of the things which are created.

Tanta haec formarum varietas, atque numer-
ositas Specierum in rebus conditis, quid
nisi quidem sunt radii Deitatis, monstrantes
quidem quis vere sit a quo sunt non tamen
quid sit prorsus definientes? itaque de ipso
videa sed non ipsum. Cum autem de eo, quem
non vides, caetera vides; scis indubitanter
existere quem Oportet inquirere, ut inquir-
entem non fraudet gratia, negligentem ignor-
antia non excuset. Verum hoc genus videndi
commune. In promptu enim est, juxta Aposto-
lum, omni utenti rations, invisibilia Dei,
per ea qua? ggcta aunt, intellecta conspicere

(Egg. 1:20
Just as the existence of brilliant objects proves the ex-
istence of the sun which is the source of their light,
so the existence of all creatures proves the existence of
the God who created them, without, however, proving any-

thing about his essence.

328ermon XLVI,(II, 35%).

338 ”H925.§._n._ n 52m, XXXIiI CLmIlIi C0130
931-3343 9:. MW. éLL cuxxxi cola-
9 7- .

50

The essence of God is determined by Donne and St.
Bernard by means of the ontological argument.

The human intellect endeavoring to comprehend God
as he appears to it meets with the extremest difficulties
because, as Donne says, "to comprehend is not to know a
thing as far as I can know it, but to know it as far as
that a thing can be known, and so only God can comprehend
God."3‘+

St. Bernard defines God as that than which nothing
greater or better can be thought.35 Donne's nearest ap-
proach to this classic definition is: "when thou hast
called God what thou canst, he is more than thou hast
said of him."36

This definition of God implies that he has no attri-
butessuch as good, Just, or wise, since these terms can
never be used without implying wiser, and more dust, or
if we call him best or some such phrase, then "highest
degree respects some lower, and mean one, and are these
in cod?"37

According to St. Bernard, God cannot be called good,

in the same sense in which other things are good, because

3“Sermon II (I, 38).

35W. V, vii 15 (as. cmxn, col.
'797). So far as I know neither fionne nor St. Bernard
ever drew any inference concerning God's existence from
this definition.

36Sermon XXXVI,(II, 13h).
37D°nne. Eaaaxs_in_2iziaiixs 66- A- Jessepp,p- 51.

51

he is that very goodness by participation in which good
things are good; otherwise goodness would be something
greater than God. To predicate any attribute of God, is
to commit the fallacy of confusion of types. God cannot
be called great, good, Just, or wise, because he is great-
ness, and goodness, Justice, and wisdom.38
St. Thomas Aquinas held that these names of God

cannot represent him in the same way that one being can
represent another of the same species or genus as itself,
but rather as the principle whose effects they are and
in regard to whom "the effects are defective."

As regards absolute and affirmative names

of God, as good, wise, and the like, various

and many Opinions have been given. . .the

aforesaid names signify the Divine Substance,

but in an imperfect manner, as creatures also

represent It imperfectly. So when we say, God

is good, the meaning is not, God is the cause

of goodness, or God is not bad; but the mean-

ing is, whatever good we attribute to creatures,

pre-exists in God, and in a more excellent and

higher way. Hence it does not follow that God

is good, because He causes goodness; but rather,

on the contrary, He causes goodness in things

because He is Himself good, according to shgg

Augustine says, Because He is good, we are.

Before considering Donne's treatment of these attri-

butes of God it will be necessary to consider the concept
of Being as it applies to God and to man. "To speak of a

Supreme Being," writes Gilson,

 
 

 
 

:1. C.nti. V 1 (EL
. . Es_£2n§idsraiians v 2
COIe 795)e ’ ’ ’ ’

39§nmmé_1hgglgzigfi, I, 13, 2. Translation by the
Fathers of the E nglish Dominican Province.

, LXXX, 7 (EL, CLXXXIII cols.
cfixxxxx,

52

and to give the words all their weight, is
first of all to admit that there is but one
being really worthy of the name of God, and
then, in the second place, that the preper
name of this God is Being, a name that is
applicable to this unique being in a sanse
in which it is applicable to no other. 0

The idea of God as Being is a purely Christian doctrine,
it is "the corner-stone of all Christian philosOphy, and
it was not Plato, it was not even Aristotle, it was Roses
who put it into position."h1

Donne says that in order that he might "know the
mind" and have the heart of him that sends him. . .

God gives Moses a cypher; God declares to
Moses, his bosom name, his visceral name,
his radical, his fundamental name the name

of his essence 1_§zg_g24_ nd t. h._f that
h: whose name is I am,_hath sent thee. t

is true, that literally in the original, this
name is conceived in the future; it is there,

I that shall be. But this present accepta-
tion,.1_gm, hath passed through all trans-
lators, and all commentators, and fathers,
and councils and schools, and the whole
church of God rests in it. . .all intend,
that this is a name that denotes essence,
beingx~ Being is the name of God, and of God
only.1+2

Beside this passage from Donne we may place one from St.
Bernard in which he says the same thing: Being is the most
apprOpriate name for God.

Quis est? Non sane occurrit melius, quam

Qn1_gs1. HOc ipse de se voluit responderi,
hoc docuit, decente Moyse ad papulum, ipso

“Ding $91115 9f Eedgaggal Philgsgphx; tr. A. H. C.
Downes, p0 3e

“1112151.. no. 51.
h25ermon V,(I, 93-h).

quidem ingunEente; Qg¥ estI misit me gg
19§'(Ex. 81 ). Her 0 qu den. 11 com-
petentius aeternitati, quae Deus est. Si
bonum, si magnum, si beatum, si sapientem,
vel quidquid tale de Deo dixeris; in hoc
verbo instauratur, quod est, Est. Nempe
hoc est ei esse, quod haec omnia esse. Si
et centum talia addas, non recessisti ab
esse. 81 ea dixeris, nihil egdidisti: si
non dixeris, nihil minuisti.

God is; he is in a different and higher sense than that
in which creatures are, because he, being being, is, not
by participation in something other than himself, but by
participation in himself.

Creatures are by participation inlseing, they have
being because they are derived, as Donne says, from God
who is Being: "In being derived from God, we have a being,
we are something, in him we live and move and have our
being.”hh And the degree to which man participates in
being makes his "the nearest representation of God" ex-
cept for the angels, of course. Donne considers four of
the gradations constituting "the vast chain of being":k5

First, eggs, being; for some things have
only a being, and no life, as stones: se-
condly, yiygzg, living; for some things have
life and no sense; as plants: and then,
thirdly n i , sense; for some things
have sense, and no understanding. Which
understanding and reason, man hath with his

being, and life and sense; and so is in a
nearer station to God, than any other crea-

l’3Dg considerations, V, vi, 13 (BL, CLXXXII, cols.
795'96) e

“hSermon CLVII,(VI, 259).

“5For a full treatment of this subject see Arthur {
O. Lovejoy, Ihg nggj Chgin of Being.

ture, and a livelier image of him, w o
is the root of being, than all they.6

St. Bernard asks whether anything which is not God,
if compared to the Supreme Being, can be considered to
be at all.

Jam si vidisti hoc tam singulare, tam
summum esse; nonne in comparatione huJus
quidquid hoc meanest, Judicas potius non
ease, quam case?

And Donne provides the answer: ”If we be competed with
God, our being with his being, we have no being at all,
we are nothing."“3

In another sermon Donne enlarges upon this statement

using Plato as his authority.

Plato says well WW8 awn
gsgg; The name of the Creator is, 1_gm, but

of every creature rather, I am not, I am
nothing. He considers it, and concludes it,
in the best, and noblest of creatures, man;

for! he, as well as the rest, plus hghgt pen

5, guam gntig; man hath more privations,
than positives in him; man hath but his own
being; man hath not the being of an angel,
nor the being of a lion; God hath all in a
kind of eminence more excellently than mthg
kinds themselves, only his name is

God, then is that without which nothing is; he is for
himself and for all things.
Quid item Deus? Sine quo nihil est. Tam
nihil esse sine ipso, quam nec ipse sine se
h68ermon CX,(IV, 527).

“7 n d , V, vi, 13 (BL, CLXXXII, col.
796).

“88ermon CLVII,(VI, 259).
”95ermon.V,(I, 9h).

55.

potest. Ipse sibi, ipse omnibus est. Ac
per hoc quodammodo ipse solus est, qui suum
ipsius set, at omnium esse.50
As being, God was not, nor will be, but is -- un- '
created, unending, invariablefi1 “God hath had aslong
a forenoon, as he shall have an afternoon; God hath been
God, as many millions of millions of generations, already,
as he shall be hereafter.”52
In a passage not quoted by Miss Ramsay in her study
of Donne's relation to the 119 nggativg of pseudo-Diony-
sius the AreOpagite, 53 Donne asserts that God cannot be
defined by negations.
Canst thou rely and lean upon so inferior

a knowledge, as is delivered by negations?
And because a devout speculative man (Dio-

nysius) hath said, Nggatignes dg Deo sun;

ygrge affirggtignes autem aunt ingpnv n -

gates, will it serve thy turn to hear that

God is that which cannot be named, cannot

be comprehended, or which is nothing else,

when every negation implies some privation,

whicehcannot be safely enough admitted in

GOde
And his positive treatment of the attributes of God goes
far towards proving his disapproval of the yi§_neggtiyg.

One important attribute of God, according to Donne,
6) 502g ggnsgdezationg, v, vi, 13 (BL. CLXXXII, col.
79 .
51 mones in Cantic , xxxr, 1 (2;, CLXXXIII, cols.
9hO-hl).
5959rmon CLVII,(VI, ~53).

S3Mary Paton Ramsay, Les doctrinesgmédievaleg ghgz
.Daaas. pp- 153-73.

56

is his universality.

How often God admits it into his own
name, this addition of universality,
gang, all, as though he would be known
by that sepecially. He is omnipotent,
there he can do all; he is omniscient,
there he can know all he is omnipresent,
there he can direct a l. . . .So God is
all centre, as that he looks to all, and
s§1a%% circumference, as that he embraces
a .

Because"God sees all, and works upon all, and desires
perfection in all,” Donne concludes that "his most ex-
tensive attribute, or denotation. . .is his mercy.“56

It is Donne's description of God's mercy which George
Saintsbury has called

a passage than which I hardly know anything
more enquisitely rhythmed in the whole range
of English from AElfric to Peter. . . .The
Shakespearian magnificence of the diction,
such as the throng of kindred but never tau-
tological phrases in "wintered and frozen,"
etc. and the absolute perfection of rhyth-
mical -- never metrical -- movement, could
not be better wedded. It has, I have said,
never been surpassed. I sometimes doubt
whether it has ever been equalled.S

It illustrates also what H. J. C. Grierson calls "the uni-
que quality, the weight, fervour and wealth, of Donne's
elocluence."58

God made sun and moon to distinguish sea-
sons, and day and night, and we cannot have

555.:mon LXVII,(III, 189).

56112151.
571 E 1 s a h , pp. 162-63.
SBWMLWS ed-

Ward and taller, IV, 221.

57

the fruits of the earth but in their seasons;
but God hath made no decree to distinguish

the seasons of his mercies; in Paradise, the
fruits were ripe the first minute, and in hea-
ven it is always autumn, his mercies are ever
in their maturity. We ask our daily bread,

and God never says you should have come yester-
day, he never says you must come again to-
morrow, but to-day if you will hear his voice,
to-day he will hear you. If some king of the
earth have so large an extent of dominion in
north and south, as that he hath winter and
summer together in his dominions, so large an
extent east and west, as that he hath day and
night together in his dominions, much more

hath God mercy and Judgment tOgether; he brought
light out of darkness, not out of a lesser light;
he can bring thy summer out of winter, though
thou have no spring; though in the ways of for-
tune, or understanding or conscience, thou
have been benighted till now, wintred and fro-
zen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed,
smothered and stupified till now, now God comes
to thee not as the dawning of the day,

not as in the bud of the spring, but as

the sun at noon, to illustrate all she-

dows, as the sheaves in harvest to fill

all penuries, all occasions inV1te his

mercies, and all times are his seasons.59

Towards the end of his life Donne, preaching before
the king at Whitehall on the text, "But the liberal de-
viseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall
stand, (Is. 3288)." relies upon St. Bernard as he sets
forth the goodness of God.

Eeus est voluntas omningtgns, is excel-
lently said by St. Bernard; God is all Al-
mightiness, all power; but he might be so
and we never the better. Therefore he is
xpluntas omnipotens, a power digested into
a will, as willing as able to do us all, all
good. What good: receive some drops of it
in St. Bernard's own manna, his own honey;
wanusMesias..s...s.. _ petunia sadism . 8 0 a God
as that he hath first given us souls capable

5793ermon II,(I, 25).

58

of him, and made us so, partakers of the
Divine nature; yivigiggn§_ad sentiepdum, so
good as that he hath quickened those souls,
and made them sensible of having received

him; for, grace is not grace to me, till it
make me know that I have it alliciens pd ap-
peigg us, so good as that he hath given that
soul an appetite, and a holy hunger and thirst
to take in more of him; for I have no grace,
till I would have more; and then, dilatang gg
capiendum, so good as that he hath dilated and
enlarged thga soul, to take in as much of God
as he will.

Donne’s treatment of the mercy and goodness of God
has been under-emphasized while his almost terrified
awareness of God's awful majesty and Justice has been
more than adequately pointed up. Although it is true
that the consideration of God as Judge has been the oc-
casion of great eloquence for Donne, as for example, in
the famous passage beginning, "That God should let my
soul fall out of his hand, into a bottomless pit, and
roll an unremovable stone upon it,“61 it is evident
from the foregoing passages that the inexhaustible good-
ness and mercy of God also raise him to unequalled
heights of eloquence. Hell and the absence of God may
be very real to Donne, but he never rests on that note.
For example, Donne concludes the passage referred to
above by reminding the believers_of the joy and glrry
promised them if they persevere in the faith.

But giganti gt credenti, to him that be-
lieves aright, and overcomes all tempta-
tions to a wrong belief, God shall give the
accomplishment of fulness, and fulness of
Joy, and Joy rooted in glory, and glory es-

60Sermon LXXXV,(III, 360-61).

61Sermon LXXXVI.(III. 186.87).

59

tablished in eternity, and this eternity is
God; to him that believes and overcomes,
God shall give himself in an everlasting
presence and fruition. Amen. 3

Donna and St. Bernard prepose substantially the
same doctrines of_man and God. Man is a creature
whose intermediate position on the ladder of being
places him above the beasts and Just below the angels.
He is the subject of knowledge because of his reason-
able soul which is created in the image of the Trinity
and because he is capable of receiving grace and then
of cosperating with God in his salvation.

God is the object of knowledge because he is ul-
timate reality, or Truth in itself. Both Donne and
St. Bernard assert that to know particular truths is
not enough; they must conduce to a knowledge of the
highest truth, thatis, God. Every particular truth
whether it is self-knowledge or scientific knowledge
requires this sanction, or end beyond itself. Other-
wise, the man who studies either himself or the natural
world wastes his time in a fruitless endeavor.

It is of great importance to establish unanimity
here because these doctrines, although not to be con-
sidered peculiar to Donne and St. Bernard, form the

foundation upon which the mystic builds his way to the

vision of Truth in itself before the resurrection.

62Sermon LXXXVI,(III, 387).

CHIPTER IV
THE ANAGOGIC PATH

The knowledge of God as he manifests himself to
the contemplator is the end of St. Bernard's anagogic
path. The path itself consists of three steps of truth,
namely, humility or knowledge of truth in yourself,
love or knowledge of truth in your neighbors, and con-
templation or knowledge of Truth in itself. St. Ber-
nard's most famous disciple describes the same three-
fold path to God in language more beautiful even than
his. Dante has three guides along the anagogic path.
Virgil conducts him through purgatory, where he recog-
nises his own sins, pride first of all. Beatrice con-
ducts him through paradise, where he enjoys the com-
munion of saints. St. Bernard conducts him, purified
by his passage through purgatory and paradise, to the
vision of Truth.

It is from Dante that we learn the meaning of the
term anagogical in relation to literal, allegorical,
and trapological. In his 11_§gnxizigl Dante distin-
guishes four ways in which the Scriptures may be inter-
preted. The literal interpretation means to employ
words in their standard usage, and symbols of the arbi-
trary-association and descriptive types only. The

allegorical interpretation means to extract from the

1II, 1 (93:23; ed. Moore and Toynbee, p. 251-52).

60

61

words truths related to humanity as a whole or to Christ
as the head of humanity. The moral or trepological in-
terpretation applies specifically to the moral lesson
which might be learned from any event. The anagogic
interpretation means to extract from the words ultimate
truth belonging neither to time nor to space.

The standard illustration of the realtionship be-
tween the four senses of Scripture was that of the four
Jerusalems. Literally, Jerusalem is the historical city
of the Jews; allegorically, it is the Church; trepologi-
cally, it is the Christian soul, anagOgically, it is
the heavenly city where every soul will experience the
special vision of Truth sought by the mystics in this
life.

It is in the anagogic interpretation that the mystic
excels. Although he may interpret the Scriptures in
each of the other three ways, his major emphasis is el-
ways on the fourth. He is not satisfied with literal,
allegorical, or moral truths, but presents the way to e
diredt acquaintance with, or intuitive knowledge of
Truth itself.

The way, in general, is a process of purification
of the reason and the will founded on the tenet that
like knows like, that the greater the similarity between
the subject and object of knowledge, the more perfectly
will the subject know the object. This method of know-
ing God by making oneself more like him is the touch-

62

stone of Christian mystical epistemology. Since it
begins with the anagogic interpretation of Scripture
and rises to the vision of ultimate Truth which trans-
cends space and time, the way may be called the ana-
gogic path.

If Donne is to be considered a true mystic he must
not only desire a direct acquaintance with God before
the resurrection, but must ascend to that intuitive
knowledge by means of the purification of the will and
the reason accomplished along the anagogic path. At
this point a careful comparison of Donne's thought with
that of St. Bernard, the one great mystic from whom he
quotes frequently and reverently, will provide the true
test of Donne's mysticism.-

Humility, the first step of truth, is, according
to St. Bernard, the preeminent monastic virtue, because
it is through humility that the monk knows himself by
seeing how miserable he is. Humility is that thorough
self-examination which makes a man contemptible in his
own sight.2 This is not inconsistent with Plotinus'
doctrine that honoring yourself is the beginning of know-
ledge. Both mystics teach that we must know ourselves
as we really are before we can proceed to seek Truth.

Plotinus, living in a materialistic age, may have feared

2W, I, 2 (BL. CLmn, col.

9H2). 9.1. m1b%.§....§i.giflc;§2gnigggpgznm, v 19
(BL, CLXXXII, col. 21 3 "Humilitas est contemptus pro-
priae excellentiae." €§rzgn§s_ge_211grgig, XII,1

63

that his readers would underestimate themselves, be-
lieving themselves to be soulless animals, and so urged
them to consider that they were souls. St. Bernard
feared the other extreme; his monks knew that they were
men, but were apt to forget that they were subject to
the animal passions, sinful and miserable.

Donne's auditory is different from both but closer
to St. Bernard's than to that of Plotinus. Ha feared
that his listeners, often the nobility, would put too
much value upon their stations and honor and wealth and
so forget that they were miserable men, full of sin.

He tells his congregation at Greenwich that because of
their sins their souls "which at first were all sold in
gross, for (perchance) an apple. . .are now retailed
every day for nothing."3 By "nothing" he means wealth,
and power and favor at court because he continues,

Let no man present his dutals his court

rolls, his bacus, his good debts, his

titles of honour his maces, or his staves,

or his ensigns of power and office, and say,

Call you all this nothing? Compare all h

these with thy soul, and they are nothing.

St. Bernard does not mean that a man should believe
himself to be worse than he really is. The virtue, for
him, is to know yourself as you really are: a soul dig-

nified because made in the image of God, but miserable

3Sermon CXLII,(V, 9+2).
”1pm., or, sun).

a.

because separated from him by sin.5 This virtue is a
mean between two extremes. One extreme is pride, love
of your own excellence, which is ignorance of yourself
by overestimating your own merit.6 The other extreme,
equally false although not equally dangerous, is false
humility, which is ignorance of yourself by underesti-
mating your own dignity.7 Two things are necessary to
know: first, what you are, and second, that you are not
of yourself. And two sorts of ignorance are to be
avoided: first, false humility, unduly diminishing your
inherent dignity, and second, pride, attributing this
dignity to yourself instead of to its proper source,
GOde

Utrumque ergo scias necesse eat, at quid

sis, et quid a te ipso non sis: ne aut om-

nino videlicet non glorieris, aut inaniter

glorieris. . . .Itaque valde cavenda haec

ignorantia, qua de nobis minus nobis forte

sentimus: sed non minus, imo et plus illa,

qua plus nobis tribuimus: quod fit, si

bonum quodcumque8 in nobis esse, at a nobis

decept putemus.8

With St. Bernard's doctrine of humility and self-

knowledge in mind, Donne's readers have an adequate ex-

planation for his vacillations between the considerations

5d§g§g oen s m Cagtigg, mu, 6 (BL. CLXIXIII,
COle 973 e

11 , IV, lh-(EL, CLXXXII,
COle 9 s '
7 m e a v m , II, 1 (EL, CLXXXIII,
col. 120 .
8

d D 0, II, l+ (BL. CLXXXII, cols. 976-77).

65

of man's dignity and his miserable condition. The para-
dox of man's situation is, I believe, one of the pre-
dominant themes in all of Donne's work.

He advocates a twofold knowledge similar to St. Ber-
nard's and he says that it is humility, but he uses St.
Augustine's words.

i , says St. Augustine.

s mus_aualss_ad.ma1 u
‘hgnum: There are but two things necessary
to us to know, how ill we are and how good
we may be; where nature hath left us, and
whither grace would carry us. . . .To know
that we have no strength of ourselves, and
to know that we can lack none if we ask it
of God, are St. K"ugustine's two arts and
sciences, and this is the humility of the
Gospel in general.9

In other words, you must know that you combine qualities
of misery and of dignity. And that though you are cap-
able of improvement, it is only because of grace. Donne
perhaps from his own experience, knows that this two-
fold knowledge is not easily acquired. He says that

it is the hardest thing of all, for a

sinner to return to his own heart and to
find out that, after it is strayed, and
scattered upon so several sins. . . .If he
inquire for his heart, at that chamber where
he remembers it was yesterday in lascivious
and lustful purposes, he shall hear that it
went from thence to some riotous feasting,
from thence to some blasphemous gaming, after,
to some maliscious consultation of entangling
one, and supplanting another; and he shall
never trace it so close, as to drive it home,
that is to the considiration of itself,rand
that God that made it. 0

9Sermon cxnv, (v, 600-01).
1OSermonCXXXVII, (V, #65).

66

flan is to consider himself as a soul dignified by
the image of God imprinted in his natural faculties,
memory, reason, and will, and as a body dignified by
Christ’s incarnation.“ But he 1: also to consider in
what way he has defaced that image and deformed that
body. Man, says Donne, should know that he forfeits his
dignity

for that which is less than all, than
gold, than beauty, than honour for sin;
sin.which is but a privation, {as dark~
ness is but a Brivation) and privations
are nothing. 1

The sins of the mind, as distinguished from the sins
of the flesh, deface the image of God in man. The image,
however, can never be destroyed, as Donne points out on
St. Bernard's authority.

Beloved, whensoever we commit any sin,

upon discourse upon consideration upon
purpose, and plot, the image of God which

is engraved and imprinted in us, and lodged
in our understanding, and in that reason
which we employ in that sin, is mingled with
that sin; we draw the image of God into all
our incontinencies, into all our oppressions,
into all our extortions, and supplantations:
we carry his ima“ge down with us, to eternal
condemnation: for, even in hell, H:i_pgtegt,
W says St. Bernard: The
image of God burns us in hell, but can
never be burnt out of us: as long as the un-
derstanding soul remains, the image of God
remains in it, and so we have used the image
of God, as witches are said to do the images
of men; by wounding or melting the image
they destroy the person: and we by defacing

11Sermon CXIX,(V, 113).

12mg" (v, 112).

67

the image of God in ourselves by sin, to ihe
painful and shameful death of the cross.1

To sin so, upon reason, is to

surrender that, which is the form, and essence
of man, reason and understanding, to the ser-
vice of sin. fihen we come to sin wisely and
learnedly, to sin logically, by a 3313, and an
gzgg, that, because God does thus, we may do
as we do we shall come to sin through all the
arts, an all our knowledge, to sin grammati-
cally, to tie sins together in construction,
in a syntaxis, in a chain, and dependence,

and coherence upon one another: and to sin
historically, to sin over sins of other men
again, to sin by precedent, and to practise
that which we had read: and we come to sin
rhetorically, persuasively, powerfully; and

as we have found examples, for our sins in
history, so we become examples to others by
our sins, to lead and encourage them in theirs.1h

Man, according to Donne, derogates the dignity im-
parted to the body in the incarnation by committing sins
of the flesh. By such sins he crucifies Christ who is
"exalted thus, to sit in that despised flesh, at the
right hand of our glorious God."13 Donne calls upon the
"unclean adulterer" to remember that

that Jesus, whom thou crucifiest, in
stretching out those forbidden arms in

a strange bed, thou that beheadest thy-
self, castast off thy head, Christ Jesus,
that thou mightst make thy body, the body
of a harlot, that igsus, whom thou defilest
there, is exalted.

The miserable condition of man consists in the fact

that he is caught between what Donne calls "inward decay"

13Sermon CXLII, (V, 5M3).

“Sermon cxxxvnr, (v, #71).

15Sermon XVI, (I, 315)-
16

68

and "outward violence." He tells his auditory to

contemplate man, as the receptacle, the
ocean of all misery. Fire and air, water
and earth, are not the elements of man;
inward decay, and outward violence, bodily
pain, and sorrow of heart may be rather
styled his elements; and though he be des-
troyed by these, yet he consists of nothing
but these. . . .As though man could be a
microcosm, a world in himself, no other
way except ali the misery of the world
fell upon him. 7

In the Egyptigng Donne contemplates his own misery until
he is brought to the place where he can ask, "0 who, if
before he had a being, he could have sense of this misery,
would buy a being here upon these conditions?"18
It cannot be denied that Donne's main emphasis is
upon the sinfulness and wretchedness of man and how he
corrupts and murders his own soul, defiles his body. In
his sermons Donne literally carries out what he himself
once said regarding the duties of the preacher.
It is not the depth, nor the wit, nor

the eloquence of the preacher that pierces

us, but his nearness; that he speaks to my

conscience, as though he had been behind

the hangings when I sinned, and as though

he had read t e book of the day of judg-
ment already.

To the end of his life he continued to preach not only
as though he knew the particular sins of every member
of his auditory, but as though he had a special know-
ledge which enabled him to analyse and describe in de-

17Sermon CI, (IV, 339-h0).

18W, meditation XI,(III, sue).
19Sermon XL, (11. 21“).

tail and with eloquence every possible sin. Pride,

envy, adultery, ambition, presumption, desperation, sins
occasioned by various occupations, sins of youth and

sins of old age, all of them come under Donne's intense
scrutiny and all of them combine to make man for him

the most miserable creature in the universe.

However, although it is impossible to read very far
in the §gxmggg without encountering a passage in which
Donne deals with the wretchedness of man, it would be
incorrect to suppose that he never brings his congrega-
tion to consider the true dignity of man. One of the
best examples of this is found in a sermon preached at
St. Paul's in 1622, in which Donne says:

A painter can hardly diminish or contract
an elephant into so little a form but that
that elephant, when it is at the least,
will still be greater than an ant at the ‘
life, and the greatest. Sin hath diminished
man shrewdly, and brought him into a nar-
rower compass; but yet, his natural immor-
tality, (his soul cannot die) and his spiri-
tual possibility, even to the last gasp, of
spending that immortality in the kingdom
of glory, and living forever with God, (for
otherwise, our immortality were the heaviest
part of our curse) exalt this valley, this
clod of earth, to a noble height.2O

And in another sermon Donne says that it is not only be-
cause of what he will be after the resurrection that man

has a special dignity.

Lk.6:35 Even here he [5od7 hath made him zilinm

in,3:19 2&1, the son of God, and gggeg ng, the

ell—Es: seed of God. and sansarisa_£ixinas_ns-
la

turae, partaker of the divine nature,

208ermon cxxx (v, 112).

70

and fiegg_1psg§, gods themselves, for
111g_gizit D11 estis, he hath said we
are gods. . . .David asks that question
with a holy wonder, Quid est hemp? What
is man that God is so mindful of him?
But I may have his leave and the Holy
Ghost's, to say, since God is so mindful
of him, since God hath set his mind upon
him, What is not man? man is a11.21

"Man" says Donne, "is an abridgment of all the world;
and as some abridgments are greater, than some other
authors, so is one man of more dignity, than all the
earth.”2 The idea of man as a microcosmos, so widely
accepted and used in Donne's time, is the background
for this statement. Donne, however, seldom content to
rest in a definition or to entertain an idea without
qualifying it, says also that man is more than a world
in little and that he is so because of his soul.

The philosopher draws man into too
narrow a table, when he says he is a
migzgggsmgg, an abridgment of the
world in little; Nasiansen gives him
but his due, when he calls him mnndgm

, a world to which all the rest
of the world is but subordinate: for
all the world besides, is but God's
foot-stool; man sits down upon his

Tertul-right hand. . . .Man therefore is £32;
lian Q11151_1pgeg11, A creature upon whom
not only the greatness and the good-

ness, but even the study and diligence
of God is employed. And being thus a
greater world than the other, he must

be greater in all his parts, and so in
his lights; and so he is: for instead
of this light, which the world had at

2lsormon va, (III, inc-k1).
22Sermon CXIX, (V, III).

71

first man hath a nobler light, an im-
mortal, a discerning soul, the light of
reason.23
St.Bernard, as we have seen, teaches that man must
know himself as he really is in order to avoid being
guilty of two extremes of ignorance. The first extrema
he calls false humility. This ignorance arises from man's
failure to fully understand the significance of the three-
fold image of God imprinted in the faculties of his soul
and manifests itself in his underestimation of himself.
Donne also warns his listeners against false humility.
However insignificant a men might be, according to Donne,
he is still endowed with natural faculties which place
him above the beasts and make him capable of receiving
grace and then of cooperating with God.2h For him, as
for St. Bernard, to forget or to derogate this dignity is
false humility.

Eunilitas_nsa_niiiiur.aianidiiati,25 An
undiscerning stupidity 1: not humility,
for humility itself implies and requires
discretion, for humiliation is not pre-
cipitation: when the devil enticed the
Jesuit at his midnight studies, and the
Jesuit rose and offered him his chair,
because howsoever he were a devil, yet
he was his better, this was no regulated
humility.26

Now, the second thing constituting self-knowledge,

23Sermon CLIV, (VI, 159).
2hSermon CLXIII, (v, 555).

25Donne gives no source for this phrase.

26Sermon CXLV, (V, 601).

72

according to St. Bernard, is to know that you are not

of yourself. This is closely related to the knowledge of
yourself as you are, because to know that you are created
in the image of the Trinity means also to know that you
are greased and hence dependent. Since it is implied by
the first knowledge there is no need to dwell upon it
here. Donne says that we are dependent upon God for our
natural faculties, our dignity, as much as for grace.

Why should we be loath to acknowledge to
have all our ability of doing good freely
from God, and immediately by his grace, when
as, even those faculties of nature, by which
we pretend to do the offices of grace, we
have from God himself too? For that question

of the apostle involves all, What ha§t_thgn
that thou has; not received? Thy natural'
faculties are no more thing own, than the
grace of God is thine own. 7

 

By knowing that his only dignity depends not upon
anything that he himself has done, but upon God's giving
it to him in his creation, man avoids the second sort of
ignorance. When a man understands that he is not of
himself he cannot then be proud, or love his own exce1~
lence. For St. Bernard pride is more dangerous than
false humility.

Donne, in a sermon preached upon the text, "Be not
as the horse, or the mule, who have no understanding;
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest
they come near unto thee, (Ps. 32:9)," tells his audi-
tory of exactly this sort of pride.

27Sermon LXII, (111, 101). St. Paul's question 1:
in we l"'7e

73

This is the pride that is forbidden man;
not that he think well of himself, ;n_ggn-
erg sug, That he value aright the dignity

of his nature, in the creation thereof ac-
cording to the image of God and the in-
finite improvement that that nature re-
ceived, in being assumed by the Son of God;-
this is not pride, but not to acknowledge
that all this dignity in nature, and all
that it conduces to, that is, grace here,
and glcry hereafter, is not only infused

by God at first, but sustained by God still,
that nothing in the beginning, or wag8 or
end, is of ourselves, this is pride.

St. Bernard associates the incarnate Christ with
humility; he is, in fact, the example to which the monk
is to conform. Speaking to Christ, St. Bernard uses the
words of ignn_lh:6, “Thou art the way, the truth and the
life,“ and he adds to them his own interpretation: the
way in example, the truth in promise, the life in re-
ward.29 Christ while on earth provided men with the
perfect example of humility, which is the way to contem-
plation, or truth in promise, which is itself a means to
a higher end, namely, eternal life.

Donne says also that the human life of Christ is
the only perfect example of humility. His text is flat;
1gg1,h218,l9,20, the account of the calling of Peter
and Andrew, "And he fiesug saith unto them,"Follow me,
and I will make you fishers of men." Half of the ser-

mon is devoted to showing the sorts of pride which are

28Sermon LX, (III, M6).

2W. 11 6 ( , CLmIII
col. 3 8 ”Tu es via, veritas et vita ( can. 1 :6); via In

example, veritas in promisso, vita in praemio."

avoided by following Christ. And these are the two

parts of that first half:
First, that there is an humility enjoined
them, in the sgguexg, follow, come after.
That though they be brought to a high
calling, that do not make them proud, nor
tyrannous over men's consciences; and then,
even this humility is limited, figquexe mg,
follow me; for there may be a pride even

in humility, and a man may follow a danger-
ous guide; our guide here is Christ, 1;-

guexg_mg, follow me.30
Self-knowledge and humility, then, are considered

by Donne and St. Bernard to constitute the condition
necessary for spiritual progress. St. Bernard says,
'Be is not wise who is not wise to himself.”31 And to
know yourself as you really are is, as Donne says, ”the
humility of the Gospel in general."32

Self-knowledge, we have said, falls into the classi-
fication of particular truths which need a sanction be-
yond themselves in order to make them worthy 0f man's
consideration. It is the nature of the sanction applied
to self:know1edge which divides mystics from non-mystics.
The mystic, unsatisfied with particular truths and with
the traditional religious means of knowing God, seeks
direct acquaintance with Truth itself. And the Truth
with which he seeks direct acquaintance is Being. No-
thing is so incomprehensible as the being of all things.

3OSermon LXXII, (III, 280).

3;Dg_ggnsidgzatigng, II, iii, 6 (EL, CLXXXII, col.
7h5): ”Non ergo sapiens, qui sibi non est."

32Sermon CXLV, (V, 601).

7'5

Yet nothing is so immediately knowable to the mystic as
his own being. These he finds to be identical, for there
is only one being, which is the being of himself and of
all things which are. When the problem of knowledge is
stated in these terms, that is, when this sanction is
applied to selfskncwledge, then its solution is mysticism;
for mysticism is that introspection whereby a man, by
knowing himself comes to know the being of all things,
which he finds to be the same as his own.33

It is at precisely this point that the unanimity
between St. Bernard and Donne vanishes. An examination
of the sanctions which they apply to self-knowledge .111
make it very clear that Donne does not follow St. Ber-
nard along the anagogic path beyond this point.

The sanction applied to self-knowledge by St. Ber-
nard is that, being itself the first step of truth, it
prepares the monk for the second step, love, or know-
ledge of neighbors, and this in turn leads him to the
third step which is contemplation, or knowledge of Truth

11min We

Ad primum3u ratio ducit, qua nos discuti-
mus; ad secundum affectus perducit, quo
aliis miseremurx ad tertium pusétas rapit,
qua ad invisibilia sublevamur.

33Pantheistic mysticism maintains that man is the
same being as all things; monotheistic mysticism main-
tains that man hg§,the same being as all things.

3‘(That is, the first step of truth.

35 - t , VI, 19 (BL. CLxxxn,
c01e 952 e

76

The sanction which Donne applies to self-knowledge is
found in a passage already quoted:

The end of knowing ourselves is to know

how we are disposed for that which is our

end. . .that s o D , that sight of God,

{giggaignogg glorified state we shall have
The difference is apparent immediately. For Donne man
should know himself and his miserable condition because‘
it prepares him, not for St. Bernard's vision of God on
earth, but for the vision reserved for the soul after
the resurrection.

Although this is enough to separate Donne forever
from the mystics who devote their entire lives to the
attainment of the direct acquaintance with God in this
life, it is not the only ground on which he denies the
possibility of the mystical experience. In order to
see this it will be necessary to continue with St. Ber-
nard along the anagogic path. The second step of this
way is love.

St. Bernard distinguishes three kinds of love:
that which is emotional but not spiritual, that which
is spiritual but not emotional, and that which is both
emotional and spiritual; only the last is love in the
strict sense.37

Insofar as it is an objective emotion, with an ob-

368ermon LIV, (II, 508, 509).

37s e c. a, L, It (BL. CLXXXIII, col.
1022).

77

Ject outside the lover himself, it is consensus or sym-

pathy, which is community of will between lover and be-

loved.38 This requires a psychological union of wills.39

Just as marriage makes two bodies to be one flesh, so

no

love makes two souls to be one spirit. Love, says

Donna,

is a possessory affection, it delivers
over him that loves into the possession
of that that he loves; it is a transmu-
tatory affection, it changes him that
loves, into the very nature of t t that
he loves, and he is nothing else.

The preper objects of a man's love, according to
St. Bernard, are himself,”2 his neighbors,“3 and God,
or Love, by which he loves and is loved.1m God is the
supreme object of man's love.

Donne preposes the same three objects of man's

love, they are:

38

WW. II. 8 (EL;
CLXXXIII, col. 2 : "Communis voluntas caritas est.

39§g§gggeg jg Cantigg, LXXXIII 3 (BL CLXXXIII
col. ll 2 : "Complexus plane, ubi idem velle, et nolle
idem, unum facit spiritum de duobis."

no

Wilma. VIII. 9 (EL. CLXXXIII.
001. 81 e .

Flsermon CLIII, (VI, 101).

t‘212ii_iiiJ.J.zsx.1.si.s2_.12_en. VIII. 23 (BL CLXXXII. c018.
987.88)é 8 .one v , CHI, 1 (EL. CLmIII,
col. 72 ). Self-love, however is not sympathy be-
cause it involves only one will.

”Wants. mu, 3 (2;, cmxm,
COle 860 e

kh

1 SW. V. xiv, 30 (£1, CLXXXII,
CO e e

78

Love to thy God, and love to his image,
thyself, and love to thine image, that
man whom thy virtue and thy example hath
declined ane kept from offending his,
and thy God 5

In another sermon Donne asks, "If a man love not the Lord,
if he love not God, which is, which was, and which is to

come, what will please him? whom will he love?“6 In

other words, as St. Bernard says, only those who love God,

“7 are satisfied; those who do not are con-
he

that is, Love,
stantly seeking. The extent of man's love for God,
if proportioned to the loveableness of its object, must
be infinite."9

The cause, that is, the efficient cause, of love,
even of self-love, is God's grace.‘50 And the condition

of receptivity of this grace is humilityfi1

“55ermon CXLVII, (VI, 9).
h6Sermon XXXVIII, (II, 185).

‘07
m c LXXXIII u (EL CLXXXIII
col. 113:3l'tmm‘fl‘mmflm’ ’ ' ’
1+8

d D VII 19 ( CLXXXII cols.
985-86).' . s o 3L9 s

M9De diligendo fieo, I, 1 (EL, CLXXXII, col. 9?“ )8
"Vultis ergo a me audire, guare, at quomodo dilig dus
sit Deus? Et egos Cause (that is, the final cans?
diligendi Daum, Deus est; modus, sine mode diligere."

5Q§armssas_ds_dixsrsis. 6111, 3 (BL, CLXXXIII,
512a_aradihss_husiliiaiis. 11. 3 (EL, CLXXXII. '
col- 9M3 . 9:, 2s_maaigss_stja£fiaia_aaissanaraa. V.

17 (BL. CLXXXII, cols. 20-21 .

79

The desired product of love is love itself.52 The
reward or fruit, which the lover does not seek but never-
theless obtains, is twofold -- knowledge and purity.

Just as the first step of truth, knowledge of yourself,
is the fruit of humility; so the second step of truth,
knowledge of your neighbors, is the fruit of love. This
knowledge enables you to commiserate with others who are
miserable.

Et hic est secundus gradus veritatis,
quo eam in proximis inquirunt; dum de
suis aliorum necessitates exquirunt;
dum ex his quae atiuntur, patientibus
compati sciunt.5§

The other frUit of love is purity of the will,5It which
makes the mind’s eye capable of contemplation,55 or the

perfect love of God.

SZSgggogeg 13 Qanticg, LXXXIII, h (2;, CLXXXIII,
col. ll 3 3 "Is per se sufficit, is per se placet, et
propter se. Ipse meritum, ipse praenium est sibi.
Amor praeter as non requirit causam, non fructum.
Fructus ejus, usus ejus. Ano, quia amo; amo ut amem."
By the last sentence St. Bernard does not, I think
mean "I love because I realize that loving is good for
me." Rather, he means, “The emotion by which my be-
loved attracts me is sufficient to move me without any
rationalization; will, not reason, provides the only
motive." The lever, then, loves the beloved, not his
love. ‘

53p§ gragjbug hnmglggaggg, v, 18 (BL. CLXXXII,
C01e 951 e

5‘sgzmgggg dg divergig, XLV, u (EL, CLXXXIII, col.
668): "Caritas vero purgavit voluntatem."

552g praefigptg e3 gigpensatiogg, XIV, 36 (BL,
CLXXXII, col. 1 : "Ego vero ut interior oculus vere
simplex sit, duo 1111 case arbitror necessaria, chari~
tatem in intentions, et in elections veritatem."

80

Donna, we have seen, makes self-knowledge a prepara-
tion for the vision of God in heaven rather than for the
mystic's intuitive knowledge of him on earth. Now we
will see that he denies the possibility of attaining
what is for St. Bernard one of the fruits of love and
the prerequisite of contemplation, that is, purity or
perfection.

Humility, according to St. Bernard, has purified
the reason, love has purified the will.. In the monk's
soul after the second step of the anagOgic path the
original image is restored, it is now perfect in reason,
will, and memory and is ready for the consummating ex-
perience of contemplation. The Son, in humility, gave
faith, the Holy Ghost taught love and by them, that is,
faith and love, the hope of returning to the Father was
aroused. And this is the trinity, namely faith, hape,
love, with which as with a trident that changeless and
blessed Trinity has brought back the changeable, fallen
and wretched trinity from the slime of the abyss to its
lost beatitudefi6

Donne uses this idea of the "creating and created
Trinity" three times in the figzmgn§,57 which indicates

séwmones aw XLV 1. (EL. CLxxxnI col.
668): "it haec est trinitas scilicet fides, spes: chari-
tas; per quam velut per tridentem reduxit de limo pro-
fundi ad amissam beatitudinem ills incommutabilis et
beata Trinitas mutabilem, lapsam, et miserm trinitatem."

57Sermon XL (II, 217); Sermon LXXXVI, (IV, loo-01);
Sermon CI, (IV, 333).

81

that he had grasped the central truth of St. Bernard's
58

system. That he does not carry it to St. Bernard's
conclusion has been shown first by his treatment of
self-knowledge and is now substantiated by his denial
of the possibility of attaining perfect purity in this
life.

Absolute pureness cannot be attained to

1.n gig. It is reserved for us 1n_ngt11g;

at home in heaven, not in our Journey
here, is that pureness to be expected,59

In another sermon Donne distinguishes "three great
dangers in this consideration of perfectness, and pur-
ity." One of these dangers is ”to presume upon God,
nay upon thy own right, in an overvaluing of thine own
purity, and perfectness.” He continues by saying that
"against. . .this presumption in God, to think ourselves
so pure, as that God is bound to look upon us. . .
Christ arms as by his example,”

he receives these sisters of Lazarus, and
accomplishes as much as they desired, though
there were weaknesses in their faith, in

their hOpe, in their charity. . .for there 6
is nothing, not in spiritual things perfect. 0

We can conclude, then, that when Donne speaks of the
return to the original image of God he does not mean that

538ee Etienne Gilson, Lg théfilggig mystique fig
gain; ngpa 2g. Etudes de philosophic medievale, Vol.

H. St. Bernard's system is treated by Gilson entirely
on the basis of this elaboration of the doctrine of the
Trinity, and only indirectly as an epistemological system.

59Sermon CLIII, (VI, 106).

60Sermon LXXX, (III, It83).

82

the soul is then the perfect soul described by St. Ber-

nard as flawless through humility and unruffled through

love.61

The third step of St. Bernard's anagogic path for
‘which the other two steps prepare the soul is contemp-
lation. He defines it as the mind's true and certain in-
tuition of any object, or as the indubitable apprehension
of a truth.62 The supreme object of mystical contempla-
tion 1: Truth in itself.63

In contemplation the soul departs from the remem-
brance of things present, it puts away not only the de-
sire for but even the images of lower and material things
and has communion with those things in which the image
of purity resides. This is ecstasy, or communion with

pure Truth.

Sed moriatur anima mea morte etiam, si
dici potest, angelorum, ut praesentium
memoria excedens, rerum se inferiorum
corporearumque non modo cupiditatibus,
sad at similitudinibus exuat, sitque ei
pure cum illis conversatio, cum quibus
est puritatis similitudo. Talia, ut
opinor, excessus aut gantum, eut maxime
contemplatio dicitur.

61 u 1 , v11 21 (BL. CLXXXII
col. 953 8 "Tandem Jam perfectam animam propter humili-
tatem sine macula, propter charitatem sine ruga."

62De consideratione II, 11,5 CLXXXII, col.
7k5): "Potest contemplatio quidem defin r, verus cer-
tusque intuitus animi de quacumque re, sive apprehen-
sio veri non dubia.” -

63 , III, 6 (EL. CLXXXII,
9th-h5); jbig., vI, 19 2;, c XXXII, cols. 951-52)-
6hs on.s 1 c , LII, s (2;, CLXXXIII, col.

1031).

83

The necessary condition of contemplation is purity be-‘
cause only the pure in heart can see pure truth.65

Contemplation is the ineffable experience of the
absorption of a pure soul into God or of the descent of
God into the soul, so that God is in the soul and the
soul is in God. As air flooded.with sunlight is trans-
formed into the same brilliant light, so that it seems
to be no longer lighted but rather light itself, so in
contemplation every human emotion must finally melt
away in some ineffable way and be wholly absorbed into
the will of God. The substance of man remains, but in
another form, another glory, another power.

0 amor sanctus et castua: o dulcis et
suavis affectioi 0 pure et defaecata in-
tentio voluntatis: so certs defaecatior
et purior, quo in es de preprio nil Jam
admixtum relinquitur: eo auavior et dul-
cior, uo totum divinum est quod sentitur.
Sic af ici, deificari est. Quomodo stills
aquae modiea, multo infuse vino, deficere
a se tota videtur, dum et saporem vini in-
duit et coloremi et quomodo ferrum ignitum
et candens, ign simillimum fit, pristine
{rcpriaque forma exutum; et quomodo solis

uce perfusus ear in eamdem transformatur
luminis claritatem, adeo ut non tam illu-
minatus, quam ipsum lumen gsse videatur:
sic omnem tune in sanctis6 humanam affec-
tionem quodam ineffabili modo necesse erit
a semetipsa liquescere atque in Dei peni-
tus transfundi volunta em. Alioquin quo-

5513 re .u a is, III, 6 (EL. CLICXXII,
col. 9h5 : "Pure veritas non nisi puro cords videtur.

9f“ s o e 1 Ca 1 xxxx, 1+ (31,, cmxnr, col.
9 2); ibid., mu, 3 i331; CLmIII, col. 9M6).
66But the description applies equally to mystical

contemplation in this life, the possibility of which is
being considered in this chapter. '

8h

modo omnia in omnibus erit Deus, si in
homine de homine quidquam supererit? Mane-
bit quidem substantia, sad in glia forms,
alia gloria, aliaque potentia.

With this definition and brief description of con-
templation in mind it is necessary to quote only one
passage from Donne to see his unqualified rejection of
the mystic's experience of gxtggig.

Yet there is no foulness so foul so in-
excusable in the eyes of God, nor that
shall so much aggravate our condemnation,
a1 a false affection, and an hypocrical
‘Lsig7 counterfeiting of this purity.
There is a pureness, a cleanness imagined
(rather dreamed of) in the Roman church
by which (as their words are) the soul is

abstracted, not only_g_ngs§19nibus, but 1
phantgsmatihug, not only from passions,
and perturbations, but from the ordinary

way of coming to know anything; The soul-
(say they) of men so purified, understands
no longer aaI__nhantasaata_rsrum_earnaz
111nm; not by having anything presented
by the phantasy to the senses, and so to
the understanding, but altogether by a
familiar conversation with God, and an
immediate revelation from God; whereas
Christ himself contented himself with the
ordinary way; he was hungry, and a fig-
Kati, tree presented itself to 2am upon the way,
21:20 and he went to it to eat.

For Donne the mystic's ineffable experience of con-
templation is a sin, the sin of presumption. It is so
because neither faith, hope, and charity, nor purity
can be perfect in this world. But Donne's denial of the
possibility of mysticism need not rest entirely on this.
In a passage which appears to be autobiographical he

67na‘ d,]j.,ngg Deg. x, as (EL. CLXXXII, col. 991).
68Sermon CLIII, (VI, 102).

85

denies the possibility of maintaining what St. Bernard
considers the pro-requisites of contemplation: perfect in-
tention of the will, and withdrawal from sensory impres-

sions.

I throw myself down in my chamber, and

I call in, and invite God, and his angels
thither, and when they are there, I neg-
lect God and his angels, for the noise of

a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for

the whining of a door; I talk on in the
same posture of praying; eyes lifted up;
knees bowed down; as though I prayed to
God; and, if God, or his angels should ask
me, when I thought last of God in-that
prayer, I cannot tell: sometimes I find
that I forgot what I was about, but when I
began to forget it,.I cannot tell. A mem-
ory of yesterday's pleasures a fear of to-
morrow's dangers, a straw under my knee, a
noise in mine ear a light in mine eye, an
any thing, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in
my brain, troubles me in my prayer. So cer-
tainly there is nothing, nothing in spiri-
tual things, perfect in this world.

He has called the purity required as the theoreti-
cal basis for contemplation a sin. Now from his own
experience Donne denies the practioal basis, the ability
to empty the mind of all sensuous desires and images.
Donne is no mystic.

It remains to ask and to try to answer what is
after all a very important question: If Donne is not a
mystic, then what explanation is to be given,for the
occurrence, in the figrmgng, of the terms ”union" and

"contemplation?"

69Sermon LXXX, (III, h76-77).

86

We may begin with a passage based on St. Bernard's
elaboration of the doctrine of the Trinity.

God created one trinity in us; (the ob-
servation, and enumeration is St. Ber-
nard's) which are those faculties of our
soul, the reason, the memory, the will;
that trinity in us, by another trinity
too, (by suggestion towards sin by de-
light in sin, by consent to sin is fallen
into a third trinity; the memory into a
weakness, that that comprehends not God,
it glorifies him not for benefits received;
the reason to a blindness, that that dis-
cerns not what is true; and the will to a
perverseness, that that wishes not what is
good; but the goodness of God by these
three witnesses on earth regenerates and
re-eatablishes a new trinity in us, faith,
and hOpe and charity; thus far that devout
man carries it; and i this new trinity,
faith, hope, and charity witness to us

c m, .11 the work of Christ,
if my faith testify to me, that Christ is
sealed to my soul; and my hope testify that
at the resurrection I shall have a per ect
fruition in soul, and body, of that glory
which he purchased for every believer; and
my charity testifies to the world, that I

labour to make sure that salvation, by a
good life, then there is a trinity of trini-
ties, and the six are made nine witnesses:
there are three in heaven that testify that
this is done for all mankind, three in the
church that testify this may be done for me,
and three in my soul, 58st testify, that all
this is applied to me.

The three witnesses on earth, or in the church are the
spirit, the water, and the blood; or the preacher,

baptism, and communion.71

This passage provides a clue to the solution of the

question. For St. Bernard the first two steps of the

.703ermon Lxxxvx, (Iv, 100-01).
71mg" m, 100).

anagogic path restore the soul to its lost beatitude,
but according to Donne the image of the trinity is re-
stored through the sacraments of the church. This be-
comes clear when the passages where Donne deals at
length with the idea of "union" are examined.
First, distinguish with Donne two unions, One

is reserved for heaven.

We call it s o D , the sight of

God, and we call it,,nnigngm, an union

with God; we shall see God, and we shall
be united to God: for our seeing, we

I_ln. shall see him gigu11_gst, as he is; which
:2 we cannot express, till we see him; Qggp
1_§gz. ngsgag n; gogpitgs, I shall know as I am

13:12 known, which is a knowledge reserved for
that school, and a degree for that cpm-
mencement, and not to be had before. 2

The other is a representation in this world of the
final union in heaven.

Such an union, as that the church of
which we are parts, is his spouse, and
that is egggm_ggzg the same body with
him; and such a an on as that the
obedient children of the church are lagm

r tus cum om , we are the same body,
and the same spirit: so united, as that
by being sowed in the visible church, we

I_ln; are one D , the seed of God, and by

339 growing up there in godliness and holi-
ness, we are v a a ,
partakers of the divine nature itself. . .
our baptism, at our entrance into this
world, is a seal of this union; our mar-
riage, in the passage of this world, is
a sacrament of this union; and that which
seems to be our dissolution, (our death)
is the strongest band of this union, when
we are s9 united, as nothing can disunite
“3 more. 3

728ermon Lxxxvr, (Iv, 120).
73 mm. (IV. 120-21).

88

In this passage he names three steps which lead to the
union reserved for heaven, namely baptism, spiritual
marriage, and death.

Baptism cleanses the soul from original sin, but
not from actual sins.

In the church there is gszg_anzgm, a
golden sea which is hantistgxinm,

the font, in which we discharge our-
selves of all our first uncleannesses,
of all the guiltiness of original sin;
but because we contract new unclean-
nesses, by our unclean ways here; there-
fore there must be 5h}utig_pggum, a
washing pa our feet, of our ways, of our
actions.

The sacrament of communion absclvesthe soul of
actual sins and constitutes, for Donne, the unitive ex-
perience, the spiritual marriage, possible in this life.

Now, as God provided a liquor in his
church, for original sin the water of
baptism, so hath he provided another for
those actual sins: that is, the blood of
his own body, in he other sacrament.

In which sacrament besides the natural
union, (that Christ hath taken our nature)
and the mystical union, (that Christ hath
taken us into the body of his church) by
a spiritual union, when we apply faith-
fully his merits to our souls, and by a
sacramental union, when we receive the
visible seals thereof worthily, we are
so washed in his blood, as that we stand
in the sight of his father, as clean, and
innocent, as himself, both because he and
we are thereby become one body, and be-
cause the garment of his righteousness
covers us all.7

If the sacrament of holy communion has been preceded

7hSermon LXXXVI, (IV, 12“).

7513211., m, 125).

89

by repentance and so received worthily, than the soul
thus cleansed is united to the Saviour and is capable of
contemplating Christ crucified.

If I can say That the blood of my Saviour
runs in my veins, that the breath of his
Spirit quickens all my purposes, that all
my deaths have their resurrection all my
sins their remorses, all my rebellions their
reconciliationa6 I will hearken no more after
this question, as it is intended fig sort:

a , of a natural death, I know I must
die that death, what care I? Nor fi§_m21§g
ua , the death of sin, I know I
do and shall die so; why despair I?
But I will find out anbther death, mg;-

l2. a u , a death of rapture, and of

ecstacy, that St. Paul dies more than
Acts once. . .and in this death of rapture,

9 and of ecstacy, in this death of the
contemplation of my interest in my Sa-
viour I shall find myself, and all my
sins interred and entombed in his wounds,
and like a lily in Paradise, out of red
earth I shall see my soul rise out of
his blade, in a candour, and in an inno-
cence contracted there, acceptable in
the sight of his Father.7

This is certainly contemplation, but it is not what
St. Bernard considers the highest form. He describes
two levels of contemplation proper and a third level
which is meditation. For those perfect souls who have
the capacity for mysticism, and who have made sufficia
cient progress in humility and love, there is mystical
contemplation of the hidden treasures of Wisdom.78

76rhat is his text: What man is he that liveth,
and shall not see death? (23. 89:h7)."

77Sermon XXV, (I, Sl3-lh).

78§a§ssnss_in_2aniisaa LXII. 6 (2L, CLxXXIII,
COIIe 107 -79).

90.

For monks less proficient, there is contemplation of the
saints and angels in heaven. These souls, not perfect,
are content to intuit mentally the glory of the saints.79
If anyone finds even this impossible, says St. Bernard,
to him the Church presents Jesus crucified; so that even
such a one, without any labour of his own, may dwell in
those clefts of the rock on which he has not labored.8°
The feeble and inactive soul is shown a place already
excavated where it may lie until it grows strong enough
to cut out its own clefts in the rock, by which to enter
into the heart of the Word by means of vigor and purity
of mind.81 In other words, for those incapable of
mystical contemplation, there is meditation upon Christ
crucified which will lead to the overcoming of their
di'abilitieSe .

Donne, however, does not meditate on Christ cruci-
fied in order to become a proficient mystic. For him,

79W. L111. 6 (EL. CLmIII. 00L
1079): “Contenti vel gloriam sanctorum mente intueri."

8OAccording to the symbols set up at the beginning
of the sermon, the rock is Christ and the clefts of the
rock are his wounds. St. Bernard's text is c

281k: "My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the

hollows of the wall.”

81W. L111. 6 (EL. CLXXXIII. c01-
1079): "51 cui ne hoc quidem possibile sit huic sane
proponet Jesum, et hunc crucifirum: ut et ipse absque
suo labore, habitat in foraminibus petrae, in quibus
non laboravit. . . .Infirmae adhuc et inerti animae
fossa ostenditur humus ubi latest, donec convalescat
et proficiat, ut possit et ipsa per se cavare sibi

foramina in petra, per quae intret ad interiors Verbi,
animi utique vigore et puritate."

91

only physical death introduces the soul to the consum-

mation of all knowledge and unites it to God insepar-

ably 0

Salvation through the ordinances of the Church

is the union possible in this life, but in heaven, he

says,

salvation is eternal salvation; not the
outward seals of the church upon the per-
son, not visible sacraments, nor the out-
ward seal of the person to the church,
visible works, nor the inward seal of the
Spirit, assurance here, but fruition,
possession of glory, in the kingdom of
heaven; where we shall be. . .fully wise,
and that without ignorance of necessary,
or study of unnecessary knowledge. . .
where we shall see God face to face, for
we shall have such notions and apprehen-
sions, as shall enable us to see him,

and he shall afford such an imparting,
such a manifestation of himself, as he
shall be seen by us; and where we shall
be as inseparably united to our Saviour,
as humanity and divinity are united to-
gather; this unspeakable, this unimagin-
able happiness is this salvation and
therefore let us be glad when th s is
brought near us.

And this is brought nearer and nearer
unto us, as we come nearer and nearer to
our end. As he that travels weary, and
late towards a great city, is glad when
he comes to a place of execution, because
he knows that is near the town; so when
thou comest to the gate of death, glad of
that for it ié but one step from that to
thy Jerusalem. 2

Not only the perfect union of the soul and God, but the

'end of St. Bernard's anagogic path, the knowledge of

God by contemplation, or intuition, is reserved for hea-

ven when the soul will be perfect in all its faculties.

826ermon crux, (VI, 50-51).

92

In heaven, I shall have gentigyijgtgm
d ; it is not only vision, but in-
tuition, not only a seeing, but a behold-
ing, a contemplating of God, and that in
ggntinuita tg, I shall have an uninter-
rupted, an unintermitted, an undiscon-
tinued sight of God; I shall look, and
never look off; not look, and look again,
as here, but look, and look still, for
that 15: We 0 o 012‘
m gt tot gs lg; ggpigigm; I shall
see the whole light here I see some
parts of the air enlightened by the sun,
but I do not see the whole light of the
sun; there I shall see God entirely,
all God isia__ln_sm and 12ins_lnx. I
myself shall be all light to see that
light by. Here, I have one faculty en-
lightened, and another left in darkness:
mine understanding sometimes cleared,
my will at the same time perverted.
There, i shall be all light, no shadow
upon me; my soul invested in the light
of Joy83 and my body in the light of
EIOTYe3

From this examination of his thought against the
background of the system of the one great mystic to
whom he sometimes looked for doctrinal inspiration,
Donne emerges, not as a mystic, or "searcher of majesty,"8u
but as a great Anglican divine. He supports the Church
and its ordinances, rather than private inspirations,85
and the universally accepted doctrines, rather than any

that deviate into unknown ways,86 or require more dis-

83Sermon CXXV, (V, 253-5“).

8%
Ezazsrhs 25:27.

3hh) 85Sermon LXII, (III, 95-96); Sermon LXXIV, (III,

86Sermon CLV, (VI 213-1 ); Sermon CXXXVII, (V,
Lt5%); Sermon LXII, (III, 83-1.

93

cipline that man's infirmities enable him to accomplish.
God, says Donne, does not ask more of man than he can
provide because, "though God look upon the inscription,
he looks upon the metal too, though he look that his
image should be preserved in us, he looks in what earthen

vessels this image is put, and put by his own hand."87

878ermon Lxxx, (III, #83).

APPENDIX

95

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BIBLI OGRAPHY

97

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