Chapter 11. Man`s Redemption: Spiritual

Chapter 11. Man’s Redemption: Spiritual Transformation
The Marriage at Cana
Fig. 1. Peasant Wedding Feast, c. 1568, oil on wood, 114 x 164 cm (45 x 64 ½ in.), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
This is one of Bruegel‟s most widely known paintings, adorning classrooms around the
world, lending itself to use on Christmas cards, jigsaw puzzles, calendars and table-mats.
Art historians suppose it to be a celebration of peasant festivity and greed and have seized
on it as an example of the mention by van Mander, of Bruegel, together with his friend
Frans Frankert, going into the country disguised as peasants and passing themselves off
as invités at such events. Van Mander implies that this was done for amusement and fitted
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in with what was assumed to be Bruegel‟s love for „drollery.‟1 It is typically said of
Bruegel that „His paintings, including his landscapes and scenes of peasant life, stress the
absurd and vulgar, yet are full of zest and fine detail. They also expose human
weaknesses and follies. He was sometimes called the “peasant Bruegel” from such works
as Peasant Wedding Feast‟.2 It has been suggested that the figure at the extreme right of
the picture conversing with a monk may be the artist himself. All the details in the
picture, as is typical of Bruegel, are minutely and accurately observed.
Analysis of this painting will propose that Bruegel saw human beings from the point of
view of a student of the human condition viewed according to the blend of influences
from mysticism, Gnosticism, philosophy and esoteric Christianity that we have called the
Perennial Philosophy. This interpretation aims to show that Bruegel studied humanity,
not just because it was interesting and amusing, but because he believed that the highest
philosophical and religious truths are found within the world of man and human
behaviour.
In this wedding picture the bride is identifiable seated against a black wall-hanging on
which a paper crown is suspended. Her identity is the only certain one in the picture. If it
is no more than just a wedding feast the groom has not been convincingly identified.3 The
absence of both Christ and his mother has precluded any historian from considering that
the picture may be the Marriage at Cana though some commentators note the similarity of
1
See Introduction , p. 2.
Web Museum, Paris, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/bruegel/
3
Suggested candidates are the seated man at the end of the table passing plates from the two servers.
Another is the prominent figure in the centre foreground who wears a blue shirt, red cap and white apron;
yet another is the seated I figure in black next to him.
2
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certain elements to the Cana theme but make no further investigation.4 Bruegel took
gospel events that, for him, had significant hidden meaning and depicted them in a
contemporary „realistic‟ setting and, as we have seen in his treatment of The Adoration of
the Kings, he could use such a scene, changing it very little, to express an entirely
unconventional interpretation. At the same time this new interpretation focuses on
questions of spirituality at the heart of the human condition.
References have been made elsewhere in this work to a school of thought going back to
Origen at the dawn of the Christian era where an allegorical interpretation existed that
saw in the events of the life of Christ, as described by the gospel writers, a meaning
directly related to man‟s spiritual life: his struggle with inner forces encountered on the
journey from human existence to eternal life. The method of allegorical interpretation of
scripture passed from Hellenised Jewish philosophers and Neoplatonists in Alexandria in
the first and second centuries to Christian theologians, such as Clement, Origen and
Augustine. The „allegorical method‟ was widely accepted as a means of interpretation
from the earliest times and only disappeared after the Reformation, giving way to the
literalism and fundamentalism of modern times.
This work will show that the account in Chapter 2 of St John‟s gospel – the story of water
being turned into wine at a wedding in Cana where Jesus and his mother were present –
has a long tradition in theological literature of being interpreted as an allegory; that the
higher meaning of this story concerns the process by which human beings, through the
4
Hagen, R-M. and R. Pieter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1525-1569, Peasants, Fools and Demons. Taschen,
2000, p. 72ff. Also Wilfried Seipel ed., Pieter Bruegel the Elder at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in
Vienna, Milan, 1998. p. 129.
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agency of Christ and his mother, pass from temporal existence into Eternal Life. It has
been shown in earlier parts of this thesis that Bruegel, through his connection with the
House of Love, was in contact with a tradition that can be linked back through the
Brethren of the Common Life and the New Devotion to Eckhart and the Perennial
Philosophy. Among the ancient writers both pagan and Christian in Eckhart‟s writings
one of the most frequently cited is Augustine. Augustine himself said: „That which is
called the Christian religion existed among the ancients and never did not exist from the
beginning of the human race‟.5
Augustine says in his own commentary on the Marriage at Cana, in a passage that
discusses the mystery of Jesus being both God and a man, that „he did it [changed water
into wine] in our midst‟.6 He stresses the humanity of Christ and tells us to search for the
deep hidden meaning of such events; „beyond all doubt … there is some mystery lurking
here‟.7 It will be suggested in what follows that the occurrence of the mystery in our
midst, as Augustine says, (i.e. among human beings,) is the key to Bruegel‟s pictorial
study of the human condition, that for him humanity is the forum in which divine and
earthly energies interact. We have seen in the painting of The Numbering at Bethlehem
that the as yet unborn Jesus is present in the midst of humanity but unrecognized. The
Marriage at Cana, as theologians remind us, is the first miracle recounted in the Gospel
and the point from which Christ‟s ministry to humanity begins. It is from this point that
5
Augustine Epistolae, Lib. 1. xiii
6
St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures on the Gospel of John, Tractate 8,
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701.htm
7
ibid.
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he begins to be known, though not by everyone. The gospel text tells us that „the servants
knew‟ and implies that some knew and understood what was happening while others did
not. From now on there are two types of human beings: those who „know Christ‟ in a
mystical or esoteric sense, that is, who are capable of recognizing the higher or divine
level in themselves, and those who do not. This distinction between human beings at
different levels of spiritual awareness can be seen in images of the Cana miracle from the
Byzantine and Italian Gothic traditions.
Fig. 2. Mosaic from the Kariye Djami, Istanbul, c. 1340
In the 14th-century Constantinopolitan mosaic in the Church of the Chora (today known
in Istanbul as the Kariye Djami) we see the prototype for subsequent medieval images
that will be discussed here (fig. 2). The composition is made up of two separate groups,
one with Christ, his mother and two apostles standing a little apart with restrained
gestures and attitudes while the other group consists of two servants and the master of the
feast busily occupied with fetching, pouring and serving the water turned into wine. We
note the prominence in the foreground of the six stone water jars. There is neither bride
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nor groom; there is no table or feasting and there are no guests. By stripping out all the
narrative elements the artist gives only what is essential and relevant to the mystical
meaning. This is emphasized by the building in the background whose symbolic function
is to denote the enclosure of space and can be understood as a reference to an inner or
psycho-spiritual location rather than a literal rendering of John‟s text; the event is taking
place in what the Philokalia calls „the House of Spiritual Architecture‟.8
In Duccio‟s image (fig, 3), painted at about the same time the mosaic made by the
Constantinople master, there is a similar lack of concession to literalism and, though we
are clearly witnessing a feast, the picture‟s rhythm is laconic and pervaded with an
atmosphere of ritual and mystery. There is a contrast between the seven seated figures all
of whom look or gesture towards Mary, and the livelier more informal movements of the
servants and others (also seven in number) in the foreground. There are no obvious
references to a wedding.
8
See R. Temple, Icons and the Mystical Origins of Christianity, Luzac, 2000, pp 135-143, for a discussion
on „the house of spiritual architecture‟.
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Fig. 3, Duccio (Siena, circa. 1255-1319)
Fig. 4, Giotto, 1267-1337)
In the fresco attributed to Giotto, the isolated contemplative figure at the centre of the
composition next to Mary can be identified as the bride while the young man between
Christ and the bearded apostle is not necessarily identifiable as the groom, nor is the
young man in green with his back to us. The person standing directly before Christ is
probably a servant receiving instruction from Christ. The older man on the right may be
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the master of the feast. Again, there is a contrast between the impassivity of those seated
and the more animated figures in the foreground.
Fig. 5, Giusto de Menabuoi (1320-1391)
In Giusto de Menaubuoi‟s Florentine wall-painting Christ, together with apostles and
apostle-like figures, and Mary, together with four women, all, as can be seen from their
dress, from the highest order of society, have become „guests‟ (fig. 5). By their gestures
and body language they express surprise while the servants, receiving instructions from
Christ, are active and busy. If the bride and groom are present it is not possible to identify
who they are with any certainty.
The next painting (fig. 6), attributed to Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516) or to his school,
while clearly an image of the Cana miracle, breaks some of the established conventions
and introduces new elements into the composition whose idea is not easy to fathom.
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Fig. 6, Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)
Again, there is a clear distinction between two different worlds. The six figures, who sit
on the right hand and far side of the table, by their bearing, body-language and looks,
belong to a different world to that inhabited by the others. But the artist has introduced
unprecedented and odd features into the picture which, following Lynda Harris‟ analysis
that will be considered below, suggest mystical or esoteric ideas that Bosch wanted to
convey. We will return to this after briefly noting three paintings of the Renaissance era.
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The roles of the participants in the Netherlandish painter Gerard David‟s idealised vision
are differentiated in another way (fig. 7). Ten women, including Jesus‟ mother Mary and
the bride, dominate the composition. David seems to show that everyone in the picture
was a participant in the mystery and the sense of hidden meaning is present even if not all
the figures can be clearly identified according to the gospel narrative. As in several of the
preceding images the bride – modest, contemplative and contained – is the least doubtful
after Christ and Mary. We cannot be sure of the two young servers in front of the table
but their prominence at the centre of the circle suggests the same tradition that Bruegel
drew on when he painted the two young men carrying a door laden with plates.
Fig. 7, Gerard David (1460-1523)
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Fig. 8, Garofalo (Italian, 1481-1559)
Fig. 9, Tintorreto
Finally, we see in both Garofalo (Ferrara and Rome, 1481-1559, fig. 8), and the great
Tintorreto, (Venice; 1518-1594, fig. 9), both contemporaries of Bruegel, a new approach.
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Here the tendency is for art to become a vehicle for the expression of the artist‟s
individuality and skill. The subject of the picture is still religious but the sense of a
mysterious allegory is giving way to a different emotional content, appealing to human
sentiments and sensibilities. The painting is no longer an object of contemplation and
spirituality. This trend is typical of the Renaissance, but this writer will endeavour to
show that Bruegel was an exception, that he continued to express allegorical mysteries
that are, at the same time, universal truths, but he concealed his grasp of the inner
meaning by appearing to be no more than an observer of human behaviour and a master
of realism. Schuon seems to have intuited this when he speaks of the „valid experiment of
naturalism [which,] combined with the principles of normal and normalizing art, [and
which] is in fact done by some artists‟. He points out that Renaissance art „does include
some more or less isolated works which, though they fit into the style of the period, are in
a deeper sense opposed to it and neutralize its errors by their own qualities‟. To give a
specific example he further says: „of famous well-known painters the elder Brueghel‟s
snow scenes may be quoted‟.9
***
The text for The Marriage at Cana is found only in the Fourth Gospel. There is a
tradition in theology showing that deep meaning can be discovered in the symbolism of
the story and its imagery. It was written later than the preceding three synoptic gospels
9
Schuon, F. Castes and Races, translated by Marco Pallis and Macleod Matheson, Bedfont Middlesex:
Perennial Books, 1982, p. 87.
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and has been universally acknowledged as belonging to a different category of
spirituality. Clement of Alexandria (ca. 155-220) wrote that, “last of all, John, perceiving
that the external facts had been made plain in the Gospel … and inspired by the Spirit,
composed a spiritual Gospel”.10 John Chrysostom, the great Cappadocian bishop of the
4th century tells us that „We need much care, much watchfulness, to be able to look into
the depth of the Divine Scriptures. For it is not possible to discover their meaning in a
careless way or while we are asleep‟.11 When Augustine writes in his tractate on the
Marriage at Cana of „uncover[ing] the hidden meanings of the mysteries‟ he
acknowledges the esoteric dimension of the story.12 He refers to the „garniture of heaven,
the abounding riches of the earth … things which lie within the reach of our eyes‟ and
compares them with another world: „these things indeed we see; they lie before our eyes.
But what of those we do not see, as angels, virtues, powers, dominions, and every
inhabitant of this fabric which is above the heavens, and beyond the reach of our eyes‟.
Augustine is using the terminology of both Pagan and Christian Neoplatonists, in their
elaborations the „Divine Ray‟ or the „Great Chain of Being‟.13
In the Authorised Version of the Bible the text is as follows:
[1]
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of
Jesus was there: [2] And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.
Cited by Steve Ray in http://www.envoymagazine.com/backissues/4.1/bible.htm
Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, HOMILY XXI).
12
St. Augustine of Hippo, Lectures on the Gospel of John, Tractate 8,
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1701.htm
13
Ibid. The reference to „angels, virtues, powers, dominions‟ is part of the specific language, later to be
classified by Dionysius the Areopagite in the 6th century, for describing intermediate cosmic stages between
man and God.
10
11
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[3]
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no
wine. [4] Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is
not yet come. [5] His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto
you, do it. [6] And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of
the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. [7] Jesus saith
unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
[8]
And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.
And they bare it. [9] When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made
wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;)
the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, [10] And saith unto him, Every
man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk,
then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
At the literal level the episode is full of ambiguities. We are told nothing concerning the
bride and the groom is only mentioned once. The exchange between Jesus and his mother
is enigmatic. What is the meaning of the six-water pots and the excessive amount of wine
– more than 150 gallons – that appeared?14 From the vast amount written by theologians,
a tradition can be identified that pertains to our proposal that Bruegel‟s treatment of the
story is allegorical.
Earlier parts of this thesis aimed to establish the allegorical method at the foundations of
the Perennial Philosophy. Summarising briefly it can be said that the method of
14
The Revised Standard Version (1952) gives „each holding twenty or thirty gallons‟. A firkin corresponds
to the attic amphora that held approximately 9 gallons. See http://christiananswers.net/dictionary/dictf.html.
357
allegorical interpretation of Scripture can be traced to the Jews in Alexandria who sought
to accommodate the Old Testament Scriptures to Greek philosophy. Aristobulus and
Philo are the two great thinkers who worked in this way. Aristobulus, who lived around
160 B.C., held that Greek philosophy borrowed from the Old Testament, and that those
teachings could be uncovered only by allegorizing. Philo (c. 20 B.C. - c. 54 A.D.) aimed
to defend the Old Testament to the Greeks and, even more so, to fellow Jews. The
Christian Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 155-220) was influenced by Philo and proposed a
system of interpretation where any passage of the Bible might have up to five meanings.
Thereafter, Origen, who studied Platonic philosophy and is thought to have been a pupil
of Clement, as well as of the mysterious Ammonius Saccas, went so far as to say that
Scripture itself demands that the interpreter employ the allegorical method. Origen's
interpretive approach had great influence on those who would follow in the Middle Ages,
as did Augustine (354-430) who, like Philo, saw allegorization as a solution to Old
Testament problems.
The allegorical system of interpretation prevailed throughout most of the Middle Ages. It
was in the 16th century that it was mostly rejected by the Protestant Reformers who forced
the more literal interpretation of the Bible that has dominated Christian thought for the last
four hundred years. Bruegel, living in the eye of the storm of the Reformation, with his
knowledge of both Renaissance mystical philosophy and the Northern Schools of German
and Flemish mysticism, appears to have worked to place the higher truths to which he had
access into his paintings in the form of hidden allegories.
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***
Bearing in mind John Chrysostom‟s injunction to use „much care, much watchfulness, to
be able to look into the depth of the Divine Scriptures‟ this writer offers the following
material investigating the allegorical meaning of the Cana Miracle story.
The renowned German scholar Rudolf Schnackenburg, in his three-volume commentary
on John‟s Gospel, comments concerning the Cana Miracle:
The first impression given by the narrative is that of a simple miracle-story. But
the mysterious words about the „hour‟ of Jesus, the lavish quantity of wine, the
final remark of the evangelist and indeed the whole purport of the story make it
clear that there is a deeper meaning behind the words of the narrative; and this
level of thought forms the real problem.15
The work of Matthew Estrada makes a significant contribution. He has written
comprehensively on the Cana Miracle story where, according to him „almost every word
and every phrase within the Cana miracle has a deeper level of meaning other than the
literal‟.16 He explains: „Many of the insights that I offer in the interpretation of the Cana
Miracle have been suggested before by the scholars here and there, but no one … has
attempted and succeeded at taking all of these “pieces”… and put them together to form a
coherent whole so as to support an allegorical reading of the Cana Miracle.‟ His method
of exposition depends on a close reading of the Greek to „show how almost every word
and/or phrase has its origin from another source, and therefore has symbolic
15
Rudolf Schnackenburg, The Gospel according to St John, vol. 2 (New York: Seabury, 1980), p. 323.
Matthew Estrada in his An Allegorical Interpretation of The Cana Miracle, unpublished pending revision
and editing but available from the author: [email protected]
16
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significance‟.17 His method is based on the discovery of John‟s sources in the language
and imagery of the Old Testament. He systematically traces the Evangelist‟s use of key
words – words whose allegorical meaning is sometimes openly given in the Old
Testament – which occur again in the gospel where people familiar with the Old
Testament would recognise them. Readers steeped in the imagery and language of the
Old Testament would recognise, at both conscious and unconscious levels, the
implications of certain familiar or well-known words and phrases, or even whole setpiece scenes, whose significance is lost today.
An example of Estrada‟s word-parallelism, where he compares the first words of Genesis
with the Prologue to John‟s gospel, gives an indication of his method:
“In the beginning  was the Word (
), and the Word ( ) was with
God ( ), and the Word was God
(). He was with God ( ) in the
beginning (). Through him all things
were made (); without him nothing
was made () that has been made (
). In him was life, and that life was
the light ( ) of men. The light (
17
Ibid. p. 10. „ John borrows words (“glory”, “stone”, “servants”) and themes (Old vs New, letter vs Spirit,
Moses vs Christ, etc) from this source material (as well as other words and themes from other source
materials), knowing that these words and themes would recall in the minds of his audience the familiar
sources that he himself had turned to in order to compose his story‟. p. 52
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) shines in the darkness ( ),
but the darkness ( ) has not
understood it” (Jn 1:1-5).
He says:
It does not take a bible (sic) scholar to recognize that when John penned these
first few verses he was thinking about and alluding to the first chapters of Genesis
where we read about the First Creation story. Genesis 1:1-3 states:
“In the beginning () God ( )
created the heavens and the earth. Now the
earth was formless and empty, darkness
() was over the surface of the deep,
and the Spirit of God () was hovering
over the waters ( ). And God (
) said, „Let there be () light
(),‟ and there was () light ().
God ( ) saw that the light ( )
was good, and he separated the light (
) from the darkness (
).”18
18
Ibid, p. 13
361
And later he tells his readers:
By beginning his gospel with these allusions to the creation story in Genesis 1,
and in mimicking this first creation story by way of rhetorical imitation, John was
also telling his readers that a New Creation has begun in and through Jesus Christ.
It is this story of the New Creation that John is calling to the attention of his
readers. Again, he does so by alluding to the First Creation story. What John
hopes to accomplish by alluding to the First Creation story is to draw out parallels
between the First and Second Creation stories.19
Thus Estrada suggests that the Cana Miracle story, which begins the next chapter after
the Prologue is actually part of the New Creation idea.20 If, as commentators since the
third century have asserted, the fourth gospel is „a spiritual gospel‟, i.e. esoteric, the idea
of New Creation has to be understood more as „an event in the soul‟ rather than an event
in history. This essay contends that Bruegel expressed his vision of the Marriage at Cana
through the understanding that all the events and the people involved in it represent
psycho-spiritual energies interacting between the higher world and the plane of human
existence. What Estrada has discovered supports this view.
On the identities of the bride and groom and on the symbolism of the wedding idea
Estrada provides arguments that „Mary … is being presented not only as the New Eve but
19
20
Ibid, p. 14
ibid, p. 14
362
also as the bride of Christ, and as such, is a symbolic figure for the collective people of
God‟.21
We should, then, understand Mary, first of all, as representing the New Eve who
is the mother of a New Creation, and secondly, as God‟s people of both the Old
and New Testaments ... For this reason John has her coming to Jesus with the
knowledge that He is the One who is able to supply the wine. An abundance of
wine was one of the characteristics of the messianic age that the Old Testament
prophets used to describe that age.22 Mary, in recognizing Jesus as the One who
could supply that wine, was, in effect, recognizing Jesus as the Messiah – the one
who would inaugurate that messianic age.
Chapter I of John‟s Gospel begins with the famous prologue; chapter II begins with the
Marriage at Cana. It is worth noting that the passage connecting the Prologue with the
Cana story23 is precisely about the recognition of Jesus. John the Baptist, who twice
explains that he baptises only with water, says „but among you stands one whom you do
not know‟, further he says „I myself did not know him‟.24
Here Estrada introduces ideas that relate to the „problem‟ in Bruegel‟s picture of the
absence of an identifiable groom:
21
ibid, p. 20
cf. Joel 2: 19, 24; 3: 18; Amos 9: 13
23
ch. I; 19-51
24
Jn I, 31
22
363
A first piece of evidence among many that adds weight to the argument that Mary
is the bride and that Jesus is the groom in our Cana miracle is the fact that John
does not name in this story who the bride and bridegroom are. John has
purposefully left the identification of the bride and bridegroom ambiguous so that
his readers could wonder who they were, and in their wonderment, consider the
possibility of Jesus as the bridegroom and the Church as the bride.
A second piece of evidence [suggesting that] Mary is the bride and Jesus the
bridegroom is found in the very first two verses of our Cana miracle – what I call
a “miniature inclusio”. There we read:
“On the third day there was a wedding
() at Cana in Galilee. Jesus‟ mother
was there, and Jesus and His disciples had
also been invited to the wedding ().”
Between the twice-repeated word “wedding” we find sandwiched together the
mother of Jesus, Jesus and His disciples. These are the participants in the
wedding.25 Mary is the bride and Old Testament Church, Jesus is the groom, and
the disciples, as we shall see, are the New Testament Church and future
“children” (results) of this marriage.
25
My emphasis
364
On the symbolism of famine imagery and Jesus‟ remark to his mother „Woman
what have I to do with thee?‟ Estrada argues:
What then does John … wish to communicate … when he emphasizes, by stating
… that there is no wine? ... what John is alluding to is a “famine situation”... not a
lack of any physical need. It is rather a lack of a spiritual need.26
He further suggests that „we can first look at a third source material that he used as found
in Jn. 2:4a: “Woman, what between me and you?” (   , )”. This phrase
is taken from I Kings 17. This is a story in which God sends a drought, and as a
consequence of the drought, a famine. Elijah miraculously provides for a widow and her
son until the drought has ended. Later on, the woman‟s son becomes sick, and dies. The
woman then says to Elijah: “What between me and you (   ), man of God
(  )? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”27 Elijah
then takes the son to the upper room, stretches himself out on top of him three times, and
the boy‟s life returns to him.
John, chose to borrow [from I Kings 17] … the phrase “What between me and
you?” (   ) and employ it in his own story … Even as Elijah
supplied for this woman‟s need in time of drought, so too will Jesus supply for the
“woman‟s” need in time of famine (the wine that is lacking).
26
27
Ibid. p. 32 ff
I Kings 17:18
365
But the symbolic implications go further. „Even as Elijah brought back the son‟s life,
after she was reminded of her sin … so, too, shall the Son give his life for the sins of the
people and yet live again after being dead for three days.‟
In Genesis 41:55 we have a famine situation.28 The people are in need, and … cry
out to Pharaoh [who] directs them to Joseph with these words: “Go to Joseph and
do what he tells you”. John, in wanting to present his readers with a “spiritual”
famine … recalled this … story, and thus found this phrase useful … “Do
whatever he tells you”. By indirectly quoting Genesis 41:55, John alludes to this
story and thereby conveys the famine theme … to his own readers … So, too, are
we presented with a famine situation in our Cana miracle (there is a shortage of
wine twice repeated in Jn. 2:3).
Estrada continues, in further support of his argument that John was intentionally alluding
to Genesis 41:55 in his use of the phrase “Do whatever he tells you”, saying that we have
two other source materials used by John in the Cana miracle that also contain within them
a famine situation.
In Amos 8:11-12, we read:
„The days are coming,‟ declares the Sovereign Lord, „when I will send a
famine () through the land- not a famine () of food or a thirst
28
“The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the
seven years of famine () began, just as Joseph had said. There
was a famine () in all the other lands, but in the whole land of
Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine…”
Genesis 41:55
366
for water, but a famine () of hearing the words of the Lord
( ). Men will stagger from sea to sea and
wander from north to east, searching () for the word of the
Lord (), but they will not find () it‟.
In Amos 9:13-14 we read:
„The days are coming,‟ declares the Lord, „when the reaper will be
overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes.
New wine () will drip from the mountains and flow from all
the hills. I will bring back my exiled people Israel; they will rebuild the
ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their
wine (); they will make gardens and eat their fruit.‟
Amos speaks of a famine that would come upon the people of Israel, but not a
famine of food or water but rather a famine of the words of the Lord.
The nature of the famine that John is presenting to his readers is a famine of
“hearing the words ( ) of the Lord”. Amos prophecies that the people
are “searching for the word ( ) of the Lord, but they will not find it …
In opening his gospel in this way, John is presenting his readers with what the
people of his time were “starving for” – the Word of God.
367
Estrada finds arguments to demonstrate that the Cana Miracle is a symbolic story
of Jesus „marrying the people of God via his death and resurrection … [It] is a
symbolic story of Jesus both uniting and transforming the dispensation of the Law
and the Prophets into the dispensation of the Holy Spirit‟.29 He goes on to tell us
that the word „water‟ (referred to by John on 15 occasions) symbolizes „the Law
and the Prophets‟ in other words the earlier or preparatory stage (the Old
Testament), „the Father's means of revelation‟ to be completed by the recognition
of Christ as the fulfilment (the New Testament). Further symbolic meaning is
suggested when we learn that Moses‟ name means „drawn from the water‟.30 In
the Synoptic gospels John the Baptist proclaims that he came baptizing with
water.31
29
p. 11
„And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she
called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water‟. Ex 2: 10 (AV)
31
Mt 3: 11; Mk 1: 8; and Lk 3: 16
30
368
The same author shows that the word ‘wine’ in John 2 symbolizes ‘the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit’, and that it alludes to specific Old Testament
texts.31 Performing such function, it further alludes to the prophecy in Joel,32
which speaks of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is from Joel that John draws
the symbolic meaning ‘spirit’ for the word ‘wine’. ‘An abundance of wine was
one of the characteristics of the messianic age that the Old Testament prophets
used to describe that age’. A further hint is given by Luke in Acts 2, where he
reveals his knowledge of John's Cana Miracle allegory. There Luke plays on the
word ‘wine’ as symbolizing ‘the Holy Spirit’ when he quotes the multitude
mockingly saying of the apostles ‘they are filled with new wine’. He immediately
recounts how Peter, quoting Joel to refute this, says ‘God declares, that I will pour
out my spirit on all flesh’.33
The mysterious bride in Bruegel’s painting may be accounted for by the idea
offered by Estrada that the ‘mother of Jesus’, also referred to as ‘woman’ in the
Cana story, symbolizes both the New Eve who gives birth to the New Adam, and
the Old Testament people of God who, as Mary, give birth to Jesus and believe in
him. ‘Mary, therefore, is being presented not only as the New Eve but also as the
31
Amos 9: 13-14, Joel 1: 5, 10; 2: 19, 24; and 3: 18
Joel 2: 28-32
33
Acts 2; 13-17
32
369
bride of Christ, and as such, is a symbolic figure for the collective people of
God’34.
Summarizing, we can say that the case is built on the idea that the dispensation of
Law and the Prophets – the Old Testament – is signified by water and that the
dispensation of the Holy Spirit – the New Testament – is signified by wine. The
miracle whereby Jesus marries Mary, (the New Eve, the people of God) unites
and transforms the old with the new and this is signified by the changing of water
into wine.
We now come to the idea of the necessity for the ‘water’ to be changed into ‘wine’
because both John the Baptist and Moses, who are identified with ‘water’, are
personifications of the old order – ‘the Law and the Prophets’. The Cana ‘marriage’,
where ‘water’ is changed in to ‘wine’, brings into being the ‘new’ which replaces the
‘old’. It is the metaphor for an inner process, a mystical transformation of being.
Augustine is saying something similar when he states that ‘For the bridegroom … to
whom it was said, ‘Thou hast kept the good wine until now’, represented the person of
the Lord. For the good wine – namely, the gospel – Christ has kept until now’.35 If the
Byzantine mosaicist and his Late Gothic contemporaries were following this tradition, it
would account for the absence in their pictures of an obvious groom figure. In Bruegel’s
picture the absence of an obvious Christ figure does not necessarily mean that the
painting does not represent the events of Jn 2, nor even that Christ is absent; he can be
34
Estrada, p. 20
35
Augustine, op. cit, p. 9
370
mysteriously present ‘represented in the person’ of someone else, perhaps one of the
figures at the centre of the painting. Bruegel’s method corresponds with what we have
already seen in other paintings: by slightly adapting the standard imagery he invites his
viewers to contemplate the story’s mystical meaning rather than what had by then
become conventional and superficial.
Bruegel seems to be following St Augustine who advises his readers:
to uncover the hidden meanings of the mysteries … In the ancient times there was
prophecy … But the prophecy, since Christ was not understood therein, was water
… Prophecy … was not silent concerning Christ; but the import of the prophecy
was concealed therein, for as yet it was water … And how did He make of the
water wine? ... He opened their understanding … we are now permitted to seek
Christ everywhere, and to drink wine from all the water-pots.36
There is then a tradition, traceable to John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine in the
fourth century, but probably older, uncovered by Matthew Estrada, symbolized in the
Cana Marriage as an allegorical mystery. This view has been touched on by theologians
and commentators within the mainstream churches. But in the 16th century, to have gone
further, as Estrada does, would have amounted to declaring in favour of Gnosticism. The
allegorical writings of Hendrick Niclaes were just this as has been shown earlier in this
thesis. And this was the position in the 15th and 16th centuries of the non-orthodox
traditions with which Hieronymus Bosch and Peter Bruegel were almost certainly
36
Augustine, op. cit., pp. 11-14
371
associated. One would expect that a Gnostic view, whether in the third century or in the
forms Gnosticism took in the 16th century, would be regarded by the church as heretical
and, according to Lynda Harris it is into this category that Hieronymus Bosch’s Marriage
at Cana, painted circa 1500, falls.37
Fig. 10. Bosch (1450-1516)
37
Lynda Harris, The Secret Heresy of Hieronymus Bosch, Floris Books, Edinburgh, 1985
372
Harris analyses Bosch’s painting of the Marriage at Cana in Rotterdam calling it ‘The
Union of Soul and Spirit’ with the subtitle of the ‘Spiritual Marriage’.38 The six figures at
the table ‘are participating at a solemn ceremony, and pay no attention to the worldly
feast that surrounds them’. They are enacting a ‘genuine religious ritual’ in
contradistinction to ‘the heresy and corruption of Satan’s realm’ to which the other
figures belong. She continues:
The six celebrants of this private rite all sit more or less facing a seventh figure.
This seventh figure is small, youthful and unidentified in gender. Nevertheless it
is clearly very important. It faces the bride, with its back to the viewer. It holds a
chalice in its right hand, and raises its left in some sort of ceremonial greeting. It
wears a garland and a brocaded robe and stands next to an empty throne.
This small but richly dressed child is extremely difficult to explain in terms of
traditional Christian theology. What is its significance and why is it so little and
so young? Looked at from the point of view of Catharism, its meaning becomes
more clear. The Cathar and Manichean records tell us repeatedly that the fallen
angels left their attributes of garland (or crown), robe and throne behind in the
Lord of Light when they descended to Earth. These attributes would only be
regained by the souls after they had reunited once again with their spirits. The
way to achieve this reunion was through spiritual baptism or marriage. It therefore
follows that, while Bosch’s bride represents the initiate, the small and youthful
figure which has recovered its attributes of robe, garland and throne represents her
newly baptized soul. In medieval depictions of death and dying, the soul is often
38
Spiritual marriage refers to a Cathar tenet of belief and practice. See Harris, op. cit.
373
shown as a child which is separated from the adult body. In Bosch’s painting the
bride is not on her deathbed, but her newly saved soul is a key player in the
events, and is therefore depicted as a separate figure.
Comparing the two paintings – Bosch’s Marriage at Cana, which we can assume Bruegel
knew, and his so-called Peasant Wedding, which, we are arguing, is in fact a Marriage at
Cana – we see in the latter painting a diminutive figure (fig. 12), also opposite the bride,
that in some ways reminds us of the ‘soul’ figure in Bosch’s work (fig. 11). We have seen
in The Numbering at Bethlehem, and in The Road to Calvary how Bruegel
characteristically hides or understates what is, for him, the important idea. In his picture
the child wears no regalia, makes no gesture and there is no throne. Yet we feel that
Bruegel, in placing the figure near the centre of the composition, opposite the bride, and
in emphasising the silhouette of the face against the white tablecloth, invites us to
consider its meaning.
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
374
If this child has the hidden significance we are suggesting he may throw light on the
second child seated in the foreground whose meaning has not been satisfactorily
explained. Although Bruegel hid or disguised his ideas, he often also drew attention to
them by repetition (the closed window, the two magpies etc., for example in The
Numbering at Bethlehem). The repetition of the child in a different guise and placed
directly below the first invites us to see a connection. Both figures are on the same
vertical line that divides the picture by the proportion of (approx) 6:15. It can be
mentioned that in Western tradition the peacock signifies the Resurrection and eternal
life.
Fig. 13
The figure of the bride has been described as expressing ‘stupid peasant bliss’ but this
idea could only work if the picture was no more than a realistically observed bucolic feast
(fig. 13). But if there is a mystery here and this ‘bride’ is at its mystical centre, then we
may try to understand the figure in the light of its obvious characteristics. This is a
woman inwardly concentrated and deeply contained within herself; she has the
appearance of someone in a state of meditation. She is one of the personages in the
picture who, like the figures in Giotto’s or Bosch’s works, belongs to ‘another world’.
375
In the other paintings examined, it can be seen that Bruegel treats separately certain
individuals who appear to exist on a different level from those who belong to the general
run of humanity and who are wholly caught up in the carnal world. These are often the
holy personages of the story: Christ, his mother and the apostles in for, example, The
Road to Calvary. In the painting under discussion a similar distinction exists but since
Christ, his mother and the apostles are not present (or not obviously present), the
distinguishing „presence‟ of a higher level of being had to be transferred to others.
Fig. 14
A special role in the story is played by „the servants‟ who „knew‟ („but the servants which
drew the water knew‟). One of these is the figure, given prominence in the foreground on
the left, who is engaged in pouring from a large jug into a smaller one (fig.14). This has
376
been described to as „almost certainly beer‟ but its appearance and colours could also be
interpreted as water becoming wine. What is striking is the attitude of the water/wine
pourer and the special atmosphere around him which is in contrast to the movement and
energy everywhere else in the picture. From the look on his face, from the absence of
agitation in his movement, from the prominence in the picture that the artist gives him
and from his careful, attentive stance, the onlooker can sense that this man knows what
he is doing and why he does it. A recurring theme in Bruegel‟s later paintings is one that
appears to refer to different levels of awareness, to the different states of consciousness of
the participants. The idea that some are spiritually awake while the majority sleep is
perhaps most evident in Bruegel‟s painting of The Road to Calvary where Mary and her
entourage are shown in an entirely different light from all the others. In the Cana painting
the water/wine pourer is placed away from the main action almost as if he belonged to
another picture much as Mary and her group are placed outside the wheel of life in The
Road to Calvary.
What then of the group given such prominence by Bruegel in the foreground on the right?
(fig. 15)
377
Fig. 15
There are two diagonal thrusts in the picture and at the point at which they intersect the
movement of the delivery of food changes direction. The seated man handing plates of
food from the improvised tray provides the axis for this new direction. Bruegel has gone
to considerable lengths to show him in a pivotal position: his arms form a right angle
through which the movement passes and this abrupt change of direction through ninety
378
degrees is energised not only by the thrust of his arms but also by the stance of his legs.
His left foot, which appears beneath the improvised tray next to the right foot of the redcoated carrier, shows that he has placed his legs wide apart so as to give extra stability to
the twist of his movement.
Fig. 16
Yet his face (fig. 16) shows that he too is composed and attentive. Of all the faces in the
picture only this man and the water/wine pourer express such a lack of inner agitation. It
is not the same as the look of the bride which seems to be that of concentrated prayer or
meditation. These men are involved in external activity while maintaining an interior
regard on themselves.
The same may be true of the young man in a blue coat and a white apron that is the
dominant figure of the composition (figs. 17, 17a).
379
Fig. 17
Fig. 18
Here we do not see his face but we see that his attention is focused and not distracted by
random thoughts. The stance of his body, leaning slightly forward with knees bent, his
sure grip on the pole, together with his alert look, betoken a state of self-composed
awareness and confidence that most others do not have. All three in this group have an air
of assurance as they go about their business. It can be seen that they are reliable and
trustworthy in a way that the bagpiper obviously is not. The bagpiper (figs. 18, 18a), by
contrast, dreams about something he cannot have, he is placed in the composition so as to
represent the opposite state of the server. With sagging knees and slack jaw, his face
expressing that his inner attention is lost to dreams, he is a victim figure who cannot
participate in the event taking place that could bring about a change in his level of being
380
– the inner transformation signifying the passage from spiritual sleep to active attention
and consciousness, a transition as miraculous as the changing of water into wine.
Fig. 17a
Fig. 18a
We have seen in The Fall of Icarus how Bruegel plays on the contrasting states of
consciousness of two figures – the good ploughman and the bad shepherd – by placing
them in a significant relationship to each other in the composition. An echo of this device
can be seen The Peasant Wedding/Marriage at Cana in the figures of the blue-coated,
white-aproned server and the bagpiper.
381
It may be that Bruegel took the bagpiper from the figure on the platform above the
servants in Bosch‟s Marriage at Cana. The bagpipes, in Bosch‟s world, according to one
scholar, represent the „vacant gut, stuffed full of fear and hope‟ around which the „jigging
masquerade‟ turns on the „disc of the world‟ … „For the vacant, spectre-like existence of
Goethe‟s “Philistine” is inflated now by fear and now by hope, so too these bagpipes are
idle nothingness, blowing and squeaking only as long as living breath inflates the bag,
and wretchedly collapsing as soon as the breath fails.‟39
If the first food-bearer represents man awake and the bagpiper represents man asleep,
Bruegel introduces between these two the figure of a man at the moment of awakening.
At the very centre of the picture is a man in a black coat who Bruegel, by placing him in
a central position, may intend us to see as the master of the feast. He has just tasted the
wine and he reacts with astonishment. Something extraordinary has happened that jerks
39
Fränger, op. cit. p. 69
382
his body back and his head up in amazement while in his eyes appears a look of
recognition.
He seems to see, with melting face and softening eyes, the answer to a great longing. It is
as though a never-dared-for hope could at last be fulfilled.
In this work there is a distinction between the world of self-realized, enlightened beings
and the world of those entirely caught on the „wheel of life‟. A similar distinction is
indicated, as has been discussed, in Bruegel‟s Road to Calvary and it is a feature of early
representations of the Marriage at Cana. The language of sacred scripture speaks of those
who are awake and those who are asleep; those who see and those who are blind. Basing
his thought on the allegorical sense of the miracle of the changing of water into wine,
Bruegel is telling us via his painting about the process of transition from the one state to
the other. Here is the real miracle whose meaning hides within the symbolic miracle: the
„awakening‟ from spiritual sleep, or „resurrection‟ from spiritual death. The traditional
symbolism and allegory of religious myth and legend refers to this. It is a central theme
of the Perennial Philosophy and the ultimate challenge for Man – the transition from
existence in time and in the body to existence in eternity. Conventional religion, when it
becomes pseudo religion, helps us avoid confronting this idea by encouraging us to
believe that heaven and hell belong to the afterlife. The view of Tradition holds that these
383
places are here and now; they are „states of being‟ as Coomaraswamy puts in „within
ourselves‟.40 The mystical meaning of the Marriage at Cana then is about the meeting
between the two opposed aspects of Man‟s nature: an alchemical mystery concerning the
joining of otherwise irreconcilable forces; the joining, in man, of the human and the
divine.
The uniting of these two opposites needs the intervention of a third, or „reconciling‟ force
symbolised in the action of Jesus. The idea of three and the idea of (mystical) union are
inferred in the first sentence of the gospel text: „And the third day there was a marriage.‟
Synthesis overcomes duality to give birth to manifestation. Three, according to ancient
Pythagorean and Hermetic ideas and again at the heart of Renaissance mysticism, „is the
first number to which the meaning “all” was given. It is the Triad, being the number of
the whole as it contains the beginning, middle and end. In the Pythagorean tradition three
means harmony, completion, the world of matter.41 In Christianity it represents the
Trinity. The opening line of the Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean (Tablet 11)
„Three is the mystery, come from the great one‟.42
40
A. Coomaraswamy, The Bugbear of Literacy. Sophia Perennis; Revised edition (June 1979)
See Peter Gorman, Pythagoras; A Life. London; Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979. p.143
42
http://www.crystalinks.com/numerology2.html
41
384
Conclusion
The aim of this thesis has been to show Bruegel was among a group of mystics and
humanist philosophers in the 16th-century who believed in and actively sought the
universal philosophical truth common to both ‘pagans’ and Christians and not exclusively
the preserve of the churches. Belief, however, was not the means whereby what they
sought – transformation in the soul – might take place; rather, knowledge and practice
were required.
Although I have used the modern term Perennial Philosophy to refer to this truth, I have
shown that the concept existed since Plato – though Plato himself acknowledged that it
was older – and was central to Renaissance humanist thinking. The verities of the
Perennial Philosophy have no formal doctrine or practical structure. They are partly
hidden from the rational mind and from the sense faculties and require a special initiation
from those who seek them. That initiation is through self-knowledge – the insight gained
through the daily practice of contemplative prayer and the inner journey from ‘Ignorance’
to ‘Spiritual Peace’.
385
The Antwerp truth-seekers, whether they were followers of Hendrik Niclaes, Sebastian
Franck or others, were not an isolated phenomenon; they were not a misguided
aberration, ‘religious libertines’, as historians have sometimes seen them. Their teachers
had not sprung from nowhere as is demonstrated by the influence on them of the Imitatio
Christi and the Theologica Germanica and, beyond those, by Meister Eckhart. And,
antecedent to Eckhart, as this thesis has shown, several lines of transmission concerning
knowledge of the laws of the universe (the macrocosm) and their counterpart in man (the
microcosm) can be traced from antiquity to the Reformation.
The principal method for the transmission of wisdom is oral since by words alone – that
is, words in books – a writer cannot take into account the state of being or the level of
knowledge of his reader. In sacred tradition both the one who transmits and the one who
receives need to be aware each other’s psychological, emotional and intellectual state and
the teacher needs to be aware of the degree of the disciple’s preparedness. Compatibility
has to be established before spiritual exchange can take place – hence the symbolism of
marriage.
The great works of art, architecture and music produced according to the principles of
perennial wisdom are sacred art in the true sense. Works of sacred literature too, belong
to this category for, according to the tradition, sacred knowledge cannot be transmitted in
books other than symbolically which is why the books of the Bible or, for example, Terra
Pacis, should be treated as esoteric and not as history. The research done by Titus
Burckhardt on gothic cathedrals or Schwaller de Lubitch on Egyptian temples, to give
386
examples from many such workers in this field, shows how elaborate programmes of
universal knowledge are conveyed in allegorical ways. If Bruegel’s paintings belong to
this tradition – as this thesis has demonstrated – then Bruegel himself was an initiate of a
philosophical school that vouchsafed hidden knowledge which he, in an unknown way,
succeeded in expressing in his art. We can see the uniqueness of this achievement when
we compare his pictures with those of Peter Brueghel the Younger whose copies
skillfully reproduce the style and the compositions of the father. They reproduce the form
but they are empty of content.
Behind Bruegel the painter is Bruegel the spiritual master tracing out the journey of the
seeker through three stages of endeavour. The first, illustrated by The Numbering at
Bethlehem, The Adoration of the Kings and The Massacre of the Innocents, reveals what
the practitioner of spiritual life experiences at first hand through practices that lead to
self-knowledge: that our human condition is one of spiritual darkness, the title of Chapter
9. This stage corresponds to what the Greek fathers called Praktikos: ‘mastering the
knowledge of the inner self’.
Chapter 10, looking at The Road to Calvary, The Harvesters and The Fall of Icarus,
shows how Bruegel introduces us to the means for man’s possible escape from darkness.
He must engage in spiritual work; the labour of planting seed and growing corn enable
man to eat bread – all this being an allegory for spiritual work, the title of Chapter 10.
This stage corresponds to what the Greek fathers called Theoretikos: the beginning of
vision or ‘seeing’.
387
Chapter 11 deals with the incomprehensible mystery of transformation, the ‘marriage’ or
the perfect union of God and man, the goal of mystical ascent. This stage corresponds to
what the Greek fathers called Gnostikos: ‘knowing’.1
Finally, it is not a question of whether Bruegel was a member of the Hendrick Niclaes’
Family of Love or of Barrefeld’s Hiël group, or whether he was a pupil of Sebastian
Franck or of Agostino Steuco’s school in Rome. Neither is it a question whether he
practiced Christianity as a Catholic or a Protestant. We have seen that the Familist
association is the likely main influence on his spiritual life and that the present state of
knowledge does not permit us to be categorically certain due to lack of documents. But
that is not the important question. All these groups – including even, in its inner essence,
the Church – express aspects of primordial truth and it is from this universal and timeless
primordial tradition – the Perennial Philosophy – that Bruegel speaks to us.
1
These terms: praktikos, theoretikos, gnostikos, are from John McGuckin, The Book of Mystical
Chapters: Meditations of the Soul's Ascent from the Desert Fathers and Other Early Christian
Contemplatives, Boston and London, 2002.
388
Appendix
Text of TERRA PACIS and commentary relating to ideas of the Perennial Philosophy and
to paintings by Peter Bruegel.
N.B. This writer has kept the 17th century spelling.
The Spiritual Land of Peace
Look and behold: there is in the world a very unpeaceable Land and it is the
wildernessed land wherein the most part of all uncircumcised, impenitent and
ignorant people do dwell and in which is, the first of all needful for the man; to
the end that he may come to the Land of Peace and the City of Life and Rest.
The same unpeaceable land hath also a City, the name of which they that dwell
therein do not know, but only those who are come out of it, and it is named
Ignorance.
The people that dwell therein know not their original or first beginning; also they
keep not any Genealogy or Pedigree; neither do they know from whence, or how,
they came into the same. And moreover then, that they are altogether blinde, and
blinde-born.
389
The forementioned city, named Ignorance, hath two Gates. The one standeth in
the North, or Midnight, through the which men go into the city of darkness or
ignorance.
This gate now, that standeth to the North, is very large and great, and hath also a
great door, because there is much passage through the same; and it hath likewise
his name, according to the nature of the same city.
Foreasmuch as that men do come into Ignorance through the same gate, therefore
it is named Men Do Not Know How to Do. And the great door, wherethrough the
multitude do run is named Unknown Error; and there is else no coming into the
City named Ignorance.
The other gate standeth on the one side of the City, towards the East or Spring of
the Day, and the same is the Narrow Gate, through the which, men travel out of
the city and do enter into the Straight Way which leadeth to Righteousness.
Now when one travelleth out through the same Gate, then doth he immediately
espie some Light, and that same reacheth to the Rising of the Sun.
Here the symbolism, taking up the theme of the ‘bread of life’, i.e. spiritual nourishment,
employs the images of ‘corn’ and ‘seed’ whose esoteric meaning was discussed earlier
390
and which will be met again in the paintings by Bruegel of the Harvest and the
Ploughman (Fall of Icarus).1 The importance of spiritual nourishment – or rather the lack
of it – is discussed in the section dealing with the Peasant Wedding Feast (Marriage at
Cana) where the lack of wine is shown to correspond, by rhetorical imitation, with
famine imagery in the Old Testament where the sense is that of ‘famine for the word of
God’.
In this land of Ignorance, for the food of men, there groweth neither corn nor
grass. The people of this land live in confusion or disorder and are very diligent in
their unprofitable work and labor. And although their work be vain or
unprofitable yet hath everyone notwithstanding a delightful liking to the same.
Forasmuch as they all have such a delight to such unprofitable work, so forget
they to prepare the Ground for Corn and Seed to live thereby. And so they live not
on the manly food but by their own dung, for they have no other food to live by,
for their stomach and nature is accustomed and naturally inclined thereto.
They make there diverse sorts of Puppet works for Babies for to bring up the
children to vanity. There are made likewise many kinds of Balls, Tut-staves, or
Kricket-staves, Rackets and Dice; for the foolish people should waste or spend
their time therewith in foolishness.
1
See above p. 106 ff and pp. 317 and 332.
391
There be made also Playing Tables, Draft-boards, Chess-boards, Cards and
Mummery or Masks, for to delight the idle people with such foolish vanity. There
are made likewise many Rings, Chains, and Gold and Silver Tablets and etc … all
unprofitable and unneedful merchandise.
They build there likewise divers houses for common assembly, which they call
Gods houses; and there use many manner of foolishness of taken on Services
which they call religious or godservices whereby to wave or hold forth something
in shew before the ignorant people.
In this manner are the vain people bewitched with these things, wherethrough
they think or perswade themselves that their godservices, and knowledges, which
they themselves do make, or take on in their hypocrisie, that must needs be some
holy or singular thing, and so honor the works of their own hands.
They make there also many Swords, Halberds, Spears, Bows and Arrows,
Ordinance or Guns, Pellets, Gunpouder, Armor or Harness, and Gorgets and etc.,
for that the tyrannical oppressors, and those that have a pleasure in destroying,
should use war and battel, therewithal, one against the other.
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This could be a description of part of Bruegel’s Adoration of the Kings (1564) in the
National Gallery.2 There the imagery of swords, halberds and etc., conveys the corrupt
state of the world in contrast to the purity of the innocent naked Christ child.
The people of this strange land have strange names, according to their nature. As
their nature is such are their names written upon them. Whosoever can read the
writing let him consider thereon. They are gross letters; whoso hath but a little
sight and understanding, he may read them, whose names are there.
Highmindedness, Lust of the Eyes, Stoutness, Pride, Covetousness, Lust or Desire
to Contrariness, Vanity or Unprofitableness, Unnaturalness, Undecentness,
Masterfulness, Mocking, Scorning, Dallying, Adultery or Fornication,
Contemning, Lying, Deceiving, Variance, Strife and Contention, Vexing, Selfseeking, Oppression, Indiscreetness, etc.
Identically named people are to be seen populating any of Bruegel’s ‘crowd scenes’, in
particular the Numbering at Bethlehem (1566) in Brussels which has already been
discussed and the Road to Calvary (1564) in Vienna.3
Their dealings or manner of life is also variable; for now they take on something,
then they leave somewhat else; now they be thus led, then they be so driven; now
they praise this, then they dispraise that. So, to be short, they are always
inconstant.
2
3
Seep. 277 for a discussion of this painting..
See above pp. 30 and 302.
393
Their Religions or godservice is called the Pleasure of Men. Their doctrine and
ministration is called Good Thinking. Their King is called the Scum of Ignorance.
Which could well describe the kings in Bruegel’s Adoration.4
Whosoever findeth himself in this dark land full of ignorance and desireth to go
out of it, and forsake the same, and hath a good liking towards the good land of
Rest and Peace; he must go through the other gate that lieth towards the East, that
is named Fear of God.
But in travelling forward upon the Way for to come to the good land of Peace, so
do the perils first make manifest themselves. Therefore must the Traveller keep a
diligent watch in the said grace of the Lord; otherwise he becometh hindered and
deceived upon the Way. So we will mark out both the perils of seduction, and also
the means unto preservation for that no man should err upon the Way, nor be
seduced or deceived by any false ends.
Here the text describes how the traveler has to pass the first three stages of his journey: 1.
Fear of God; 2. Beginning of Wisdom; 3. Grace of the Lord in the Confession of Sins.
But he is still ‘young’ and needs instruction form the wise Elders of the Family of Love.
There are two instructors. One is described as outwardly having a form that is
4
See above, p. 273.
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… not very amiable or pleasant (according to the minds of the flesh) to behold,
nor yet his sayings and counsels to be obeyed, because that he is contrary to all
minds and knowledge of the flesh (notwithstanding, if the traveller have no regard
for him, neither daily receive any counsel of him unto obedience, nor yet follow
his counsel, then shall he not come to the Rest). And he is named the Law or
Ordinance of the Lord.
The other wise one cometh before him out of the thoughts of mans good thinking,
to draw him away from the Way that directeth to the Land of the Living. And his
form is sweet and friendly (according to the minds flesh) to behold, and his
sayings and counsels delightful. And he is named the Wisdom of the Flesh.
These two wise ones do give the traveller several counsels.
The traveller who abjures the Wisdom of the Flesh and who accepts the discipline of the
Law or Ordinance of the Lord receives ‘two instruments’: a compass called the
Forsaking of Himself for the Good Lifes Sake. The other instrument overcomes
temptation and hindrance and it is called Patience or Suffrance.
Now the text gives instructions about ‘meate and drink’ which are the body and blood of
Jesus Christ. The traveler accepts to find himself on the Cross from whence comes
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… the death and burial of all the lusts and desires of the sinful flesh and all the flesh’s
wisdom or good thinking.
Again, this should not be understood literally but seen as the transition from the material
to the spiritual, the soul’s liberation from its entanglement in the world.5
Now the ‘traveller’, following the counsel of the Law of the Lord, finds himself
…in an unpathed land where many manner of temptations and deceits do meet
with him, and coming into the same there appeareth unto him immediately a star
out of the East, named Belief and Hope. This great unpathed land is named Many
manner of Wanderings. And there is not one plain paved way.
The names of the Travellers are:
Stricken in Heart, Cumbered in Minde, Wofulness, Sorrowfulness, Anguish, Fear,
Dismaidness, Perplexitie, Uncomfortablness, Undelightfulness, Heavymindedness, Many Manner of Thoughts, Dead Courage.
This is reminiscent of the group consisting of Jesus’ mother and her entourage in the
foreground of Bruegel’s Road to Calvary (1566) in Vienna. There we see the expressing
just these emotions while the vast crowd constituting the main descriptive parts of the
picture are oblivious and display all the characteristics, described by H. N., of those who
5
See especially À Kempis, ‘On the Royal Road of the Holy Cross’, op. cit. pp. 84-89.
396
live in the Land of Ignorance or, as he says elsewhere, the ‘Land of Abomination and
Desolation’.6
This land is an open and weak, or unwalled land; and is like unto a barren
wilderness, wherein there is little joy to be found; but it is full of perils and
deceits, because of the sundry sorts of temptations that do come to Travellers
through perplexitie.
For if they (according to the Law of the Lord) have not a sharp watch unto the
compass, nor hold them fast on the Cross, and also do not still mark the leading
star, then they may soon be led into a by-way. For the wisdom of the flesh doth
also come forth there oftentimes very subtilly, with her self-seeking, to point the
traveller aside. But the traveller that passeth through the land of Mortyfying and,
abstaining from all things, in patience, and seeketh not his own selfness; but
(under the obedience of the Love) hath a much more desire to do the Lords will,
he obtaineth a good salvation of the peaceable life. He shall be saved and rejoyce
in the Everlasting Life.
Moreover, in this land, there is no perfect satisfying of hunger and thirst to be
found, nor come by. For the herb wherewith they be sustained, and the fountain
wherewith they be refreshed, do make them still the longer and more hungry and
thirsty: as long as they are travelling towards the good Land of Peace.
6
See above, p. 302.
397
Here the writer openly reveals the meaning of the available food.
The Herb wherewith the travellers be sustained is named the Serviceable Word of
the Lord, and the fountain waters wherewith they be refreshed are named the
Promise of Salvation in the New Testament of the Blood of Jesus Christ.
***
In this land there lie also fair hills that seem to be somewhat delightful of which
the traveller must beware, for it is nothing but deceit, vanity and seducing. These
hills are garnished with divers trees which do likewise bring forth vain and
deceitful fruits [causing] travellers to leave the forsaking of themselves, taking on
their self-seeking (that is, they take on their own righteousness and made holiness,
or their ease in the flesh.) They do likewise leave the Patience and become
negligent towards the Law of Ordinance of the Lord, wherewith they be drawn
away by the deceit of the wisdom of the flesh.
The hills are named Taken on wit, or Prudence, Riches of the Spirit, Learned
knowledg, Taken on Freedom, Good-thinking Prophesy, Zeal after Chosen
Holiness, Counterfeit Righteousness, New-invented Humility, Pride in Ones Own
Spiritualness, Unmindful of any better, and etc.
398
The trees that grow on the hills are named Colored Love, Literall Wisdom, Greedy
towards Ones Own, Flattering-Alluring, Reproving of Naturalness, Promises of
Vanity, Exalting of his Own Private Invention, Pleasing in Chosen Holiness,
Greatly Esteeming his own Working of Private Righteousness.
The name of their fruits is Vain-Comforts [and] the people, having left forsaking
of themselves, and the Cross, with the Meate-offering and Drink-offering, make
their dwelling among these deceitful hills [and] let themselves be fed. They get
some satisfaction from the Vain-Comforts and are also at first somewhat glad
therethrough, also singing and crying: We have it, We have it, We are
illuminated, Born anew and Come to Rest.
But (alas) when the sun riseth somewhat higher, then do the fruits wither. And
when the Winter cometh, then stand the trees barren, and all is deceit and
seducing.
***
The whilst then that the traveller doth travel towards this good land by the leading
star (named Belief and Hope) so cometh he clean through all the deceit by means
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of forsaking himself. For that is a good compass unto him which pointeth to the
good land.
And, with Patience, he likewise overcometh all assaults.
For there are many molesters and destroyers to be found, which do grievously vex
the travellers in this land. But they do fear and tremble before the Holy Cross.
[They] are named Trying of the Belief, Doubt or Distrustfulness to Come to the
Good Land, Tempting with a Chosen Appeasement to the Flesh, Proving of the
Belief with a Shew of Comforting with the Worldly Beauties, Proffering of the
Possession of all the Riches of the Earthly Corruptibleness.
Here the traveller is exhorted in various ways not to forsake the holy Cross. It may help
him to understand the idea that on the spiritual journey he must not seek to escape from
the impossible contradictions he experiences in himself. Indeed he should welcome the
pain of seeing all his folly, weakness and inadequacy. In respect of that which he longs
for, only an unflinching confrontation with the impossibility of his situation will show
him that, in order to understand this lesson, he has to abandon all judgment and opinion
of himself. The ‘travellers’ on the journey are told to ‘forsake [them]selves’ as Niclaes so
often reminds them. The traditions have special exercises associated with the disciplines
of meditation, contemplative prayer and various forms of inner and outer work to help us
400
here. Such labour introduces us to our personal, psychological cross. It is an inner state
that, if we wish to continue, we cannot forsake.
Therefore be not afraid of your enemies, for God hath made them all
dismaid through the Holy Cross of Christ.
The Holy Cross shall be unto you an Altar of the true burnt offering, and
the serviceable gracious word of the Lord a safe-keeping gift or offering of
Christ upon the same altar in the holy of the true Tabernacle of God and
Christ, upon which Altar your gift becometh sanctified. [It is] kindled or
set on fire for a burnt offering to the consuming of all the enemies of the
good life, wherethrough then, likewise, your willing Dept-offering, Sinoffering and Death offering shall be acceptable to the Lord.
***
In this same throughfaring land, men also find a crafty murderer, that both
high and low, wide and far, runneth all over this same land and he is
named Unbelief. Of this wicked villain it behoveth us to be very wary, for
by him there are many murdered. Forsake not the Holy Cross, nor the
serviceable gracious word of the Lord.
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[Also in this land there runs] a dangerous river where many travellers be
drowned and choaked. It is named Desire and Pleasure in the Flesh.
The traveller is warned not to catch or eat the fishes that swim in the river whose
names are:
Meate of the Temporal Delights instead of the Everlasting Good, Ease in
the Flesh instead of Zeal to the Righteous, Honor of the World instead of
Rest in the Spirit and Honor of God.
It seemeth indeed to be a very pleasant water for one to refresh and
recreate himself in, but it is all meer deceit: vain and nothing.
[Also there are] thistles and thorns named Uncertain Consciences.
Likewise divers natures of beasts named Envy, Wrath, Churlishness or
Unfriendliness, Cruelty, Offensiveness, Resistance of Disobedience,
Craftyness, Greedy Desire of Honor, Subtilty of Deceit, and Violence. And
also one of the most detestable beasts (that will worst of all give way) is
named Hypocrisie or Dissimulation, where under all manner of
naughtiness is covered up with a colored vertue, or made holiness, and he
is indeed the subtillest beast who provoketh the other beasts to devour
travellers. Of which wild beasts the travellers must take heed with great
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foresightfulness, that they run not into the mouth of them and be
swallowed up.
***
[There are] three castles [upon which] are subtile watchers which are very
crafty and wily.
The traveler is advised not to fear the castles though their powers are apparently
very terrible. It is necessary to negotiate carefully, but once passed them he will
see that they are
Nothing at all but deceit, vanity and bewitching. [They are named] The
Power of Devils Assaulting, The Forsaking of Hope, Fear of Death.
The watchers, who try to capture people, are named ‘according to their natures’:
Appearing like Angels of Light, Indeavoring to Stealing of the Heart,
Appearance of Vertue, Subtil Invention, Confidence in Knowledg, Made
Laws and Imagined Rights, Disguised or Unknown Holiness, Self-framed
Righteousness, and etc.
403
Now one cometh by the Good Land and approacheth neer unto the
understanding of God. But many do run past the entrance thereof. For the
neerer one cometh the more subtilly the deceits assault him; for beside the
entrance there lieth [joyned to it] also a way that leadeth to an abominable
or horrible land and the same way is a pleasant way to behold and pleasant
likewise to enter into, wherewith many be deceived.
This pleasant way is named Knowledg of Good and Evil.
[Having] come into the pleasant way of the Knowledg of Good and Evil,
and which in itself is ful of contention, ful of great and grievous
incumbrances, then do appear in them an inward or spiritual pride, and
they suppose they are somewhat singular and above other people because
they have so much knowledg to talk of the truth, perswading themselves
that the riches of knowledg is the very light of salvation.
Therefore this land is called the Abomination of Desolation. Howbeit it is
all false and meer deceit.
***
404
In this land there is also a false light. The people do not know the true
light, therefore they be all deceived and corrupted in this wilderness by the
same false light, besides the which they know no other perfect good. [And
so they have] nothing else but destruction and disturbance or dispensing of
mindes and thoughts.
This same land of Desolation is like unto the intangled Babylon, because
the knowledges do there run one against the other and cannot understand
each other.
Here the author gives extended lists of psychological and moral disorders. We are
given to understand that all these result from too much attachment to ‘knowledg’
i.e. ‘made knowledg’ (man-made knowledge) as opposed to revealed knowledge.
There follows this insight
Many do chuse a way unto themselves, according to the knowledg of their
own minde, to the intent to live to themselves therein: and thus doth
everyone walk there according as his knowledg imagineth him.
Everyone is resistant against each other with the knowledg. And the false
light shineth upon them all, quite over the whole land. Therefore everyone
supposeth that he must needs have the right, or cannot err, in his
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knowledg, and that he is illuminated by the Lord. But it is all dust, which
dust scattereth abroad all over the whole land, like unto a drift-sand and is
named Self-Wils Chusing.
***
The following is one of many passages whose psychological, moral and spiritual
meaning has universal application. The description of the human condition, where
things go ‘wonderfully absurdly’ seems close to Bruegel’s vision of the ‘upside
down’ world.
Behold in this land, the Abomination of Desolation, it goeth very strange
and wonderfully absurdly. For every man seeth that another mans
foundation is vain and meer foolishness, but there is no man there, or very
few, that can marke their own vanity or foolishness. Everyone doth very
gladly thrust off another from his foundation to the end to advance his
own. Yet are all their foundations, notwithstanding, Self-Wils Chusing;
and are everyone uncertain and unstable and all their work is very feeble
or weak. They strive and contend, and with high knowledg they caste
down anothers work and turn up the foundations of it.
For whoever hath the highest mounting knowledge, or is the richest in
spirit, or hath the most eloquent utterance of speech, he can there bear the
sway, or get the chief praise, and can overthrow many other firm
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foundations and works which are also vain. And when any mans
foundation or work is overthrown through any manner of knowledg, then
is the same a great delight and glory unto the other that getteth the victory
and an advancement of himself. So (contending or taking part, one against
the other) do they likewise divide themselves into many several religions
or God-services.
But although they be partially affected, as also have severall religions, and
many manner of God-services, yet do they, notwithstanding, give their
Religions and God-services one manner of name. Everyones Religion or
God-service is named Assured Knowledg that is Right and Good. And
everyone liveth in his own God-service, thinking and perswading himself
assuredly that his religion or God-service is the best or the holiest above
all other.
***
They have a fair-spoken tongue; but commonly they are not loving, nor
friendly of heart, but ful of envy and bitterness, soon stumbling and taking
offence by reason that they stand captive under the knowledg and not
submitted under the Love, nor under the obedience of his service.
They are also generally covetous of the earthly riches.
407
Their inclination is to speak false against others, also to blaspheme,
oppress, persecute, betray and kill, and yet do know how to excuse all the
same with the knowledg that they do right and well therein.
They use not any common brotherhood.
Here Niclaes expands this theme, pointing out how the absence of brotherhood
and love extends to their various different religious sects and especially how they
are ‘unmerciful’ to anyone who offers them the truth.
The next chapter further analyses man’s spiritual or psychological condition with
the imagery of the inner ruler or king and his constitution.
[They] have also a king who reigneth very cruelly over them named
Wormwood or Bitterness. His sceptre is named Great Esteeming of the
Vain and Unprofitable Things. His crown is named Honor and Glory in
Evil Doings. His horses and chariots are named Treaders Down or
Oppressors of the Simple People. His council is named Subtil Invention.
His kingdom is Unfaithfulness, All his nobility, horsemen, soldiers and
guards are named Disorderly Life. His decrees or commandments are SelfWil. His dominion or Lordship is Violence.
408
The kings subjects are called Craftiness, Arrogant Stoutness,
Stubbornness, Violence, Harmfulness, Spight, Sudden Anger, Greedy of
Revenge, Gluttony, Cruelty, Bloodthirstyness, Resistance against the Love
and her Service, Despising of Naturalness, Disobedience to Equity,
Accusation over the Righteousness, Betrayers of Innocency, Oppressors of
Humility, Killers of Meekness, Enviers of the Lovers of Unity, Exalters of
Chosen Holiness, Usage of Falsehood, Own-selfness, Self-Wils Desire,
Self-seeking etc.
And when one presenteth or profereth any better thing unto them, then
rises up, by and by in them, their king of Bitterness, for to defend their
causes, and judg him to be naught that loveth them to the best good.
***
A false prophet bewitches them with many longings and so he leadeth
their hearts, mindes and thoughts into captivity of the knowledg and not
into the truth. This false prophet is named Presumption whereof cometh
Nothing.
Forasmuch as he hath allured the people unto him with such a presumption
of boasting that they likewise in their unregenerate state, do boast them of
409
the Light and the Word of Life; so perceive they not that they are
bewitched by him.
It seemeth sometimes indeed, as though it would be somewhat, but it is all
vain and presumption and nothing else but knowledg whereof cometh
nothing.
The false prophet has a horrible beast with him named Unfaithfulness
[who] maketh all the people utterly divided.
Niclaes’ psychological insights are the observations of a specialist. Here, for
example, developing themes he has introduced, he describes how ‘the people’
cover their inner nakedness with ‘Garments named Fear of Being Despised’. His
analysis of the spiritual condition of humanity – perhaps as relevant today as ever
– brings light to the subconscious and shadowy parts of our inner landscape with
the sure hand of a master.
This horrible beast, Unfaithfulness; this false prophet, Presumption; and
the cruel king, Wormwood, have a great dominion in this same desolate
abominable land.
410
***
[The traveller] perceiving that these abominations of desolation do stand
in the place where Gods Holy Beeing ought to stand [must] immediately
flie out of the same and submit himself under the obedience of Love, and
not have any regard any more to the Knowledg of Good and Evil, nor to
Boasting of the Knowledge, nor to Assured Knowledg, nor to Presumption,
nor yet to Unfaithfulness. [And thus he frees himself from] bondage to
Bitterness, the king of that detestable land.
[The traveller] must at the end of his journey find himself altogether
turned about.
Hendrik Niclaes is making it quite clear that there can be no half measures for
seekers on the spiritual path. To be ‘altogether turned about’ is nothing less than
the ‘dying to oneself’ in order to be ‘reborn from above’ that is taught in all
traditions. He refers here to the necessarily arduous methods of spiritual work,
symbolized in the text as ‘the Compass’, ‘the Cross’ and ‘Patience’. With the help
of these, having come thus far he now
cometh before the city gate of the Holy Land and stands in submission like
unto a good willing one to the Lords will. [This] is called the Burying of
the Affections and Desires. He findeth, through the same submission, the
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key for to enter therewithal through the gate into the City where the
Everlasting Life, Peace and Rest is. This key is called Equity.
In the City of Peace he is lovingly received:
Even thus one becometh as they, incorporated to the body of the same true
king, Gods True Beeing, with all the people of the same good land.
The names of the saints [there] are Meekness, Courtesie, Friendliness,
Longsuffrance, Mercifulness, etc.
The city, we are told, has strong fortress-like walls and a watchman who ‘keeps a
diligent watch’, who never sleeps and who
Overlooketh all things, namely, Good and Evil, Light and Darkness. His
trumpet, wherethrough he playeth his song is named After this Time no
More.
There follow several chapters consisting almost entirely of quotations from both
Old and New Testaments in the celebratory style reserved for praising God, his
creation and all his works. The author then returns to describing details of the
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city’s layout and structure. We learn, for example, that situated on the walls is an
ordinance called the Power of God., and from the city
floweth an unsearchable or infinitely deep river with also a very
tempestuous winde [that] devours all the enemies of the same good City.
[The river and the winde] are called Righteous Judgment of God and the
Spirit of the Almighty God. [Protected by these] the children of the City
learn Understanding and Knowledg, which wisdom (that they learn
thereout) is also an holy wisdom and that Understanding is Godly
knowledg.
The author stresses the entirely different nature and quality of the attributes of the
City and its inhabitants. No enemy can get into the city; and Niclaes is
uncompromising in his criticism and warnings regarding the attempts of men,
through their own foolish and arrogant ‘manly knowledg’, to gain an entrance.
For without this City there is no understanding, wisdom or knowledg of
God, or of Godly things; no not at all. All else is foolishness and
hypocrisie.
Niclaes emphasizes the absolute newness of everything in this place. He tells us
that we have to be ‘new-born in the spirit’ and that this new birth takes place only
413
through ‘Love and the service of Love’. For Niclaes and the Familists the
definition of love is that given in the New Testament: ‘God is Love’.7
His remarks here remind us that what he describes in an entirely inner experience.
The City is a spiritual City of Life
The nature and minde [of the inhabitants] is nothing else but love, like
those that are risen from the death with the Resurrection of the
Righteousness in the Everlasting Life.
The God whom we serve is a secret God. He is the substance of all
substances, the true life of all lives, the true light of all lights, the true
mind of all minds.
Whosoever now forsaketh all the desolate lands and people [and] also hath
his respect diligently bent upon the leading star in the East, and walketh on
rightly according to the compasse, as likewise, forsaketh not the Crosse,
7
cf ‘steady manifestation of love…nobody has ever expressed in equal perfection and beauty the fervor and
enthusiasm of the initiated mystic, inspired by union with God, as Paul has expressed them in his two
hymns of love ― the hymn on the love of God (Rom. viii. 31 ff), and the hymn on the love of men (1 Cor.
xiii) 15. Love is the Kingdom of God.’. See above p. 101.
414
and so cometh to the Submission, by him shall be found the equity, with
the which he entereth into Gods nature. And so he cometh into the good
Citie, full of riches and joy.
The traveler, having reached his goal, is free to go anywhere he wants. He may
even wish to return to his previous abode in order to help those still there to make
their escape.
He now therefore, that is, in this manner come thereunto, may, as then, in
the love and in the unity of peace, go out and in without any harme, and
may walk through all Lands, Places and Cities; bring unto all lovers of the
good land, that are seeking the same, good tydings, give them good
incouragement, as to respect all enemies like chaffe, and as nothing, show
them the next way into the life, and so lead them with him into the good
land.
Whosoever now is under the obedience of the love doth flow out of and
into the same secret kingdome, even like unto a living breath of God. And
[he] can very well walk in freedome, among all people, and also remaine
still free.
For the knowledg separateth nor hurteth not him
415
The serpents deceit nor her poison cannot kill him
The foolishness allureth not him
The chosen righteousness snareth not him
The deceitfull hills seduceth not him
The ignorance blindeth not him
Nor the leaders of the blind doe not lead him
And even thus is God with him and he with God
We praise thee O Father for thou hast hidden these things from the proudboasting wise, and the prudent understanding ones, and revealed them to
the little humble ones. The rich in spirit, nor the great, wise or industrious
scripture-learned ones, have not understood the same; but to the poor in
spirit, and to the simple of understanding, has thou given it.
There follow here several chapters in the form of hymns of praise and rejoicing,
very much in the style of – if not actually quoting from – the Psalms and the Old
Testament prophets.
H. N. now lays out his justification for speaking so openly ‘because of the great
need of the times’. Yet he regrets that he is so little heard. Again and again he
416
emphasizes the fact that a man cannot come to God through his ordinary mind,
however well educated and well developed.
But oh, Alas! We have now in this rebellious time, very speciall cause to
sigh and mourn grievously, over the blindness of many people and to
bewaile the same with great dolour of our hearts. And that chiefly, because
there is now in the same day of love and of the mercy of God, so little
knowledg of the good life of peace and of Love to be found among them.
And also, for that the same knowledg is desired of so few, and yet much
lesse loved. But they do almost everyone delight to walk in strange waies
that stretch to contention and destruction, by which occasion they live in
molestations and deadly afflictions everywhere.
Therefore may we, with wofulness and sighing hearts, very justly say, that
it is now a perilous time to be saved, and to escape or to remain over to
preservation. Oh, what venomous windes do there blow to the desolation
and destruction of men! Yea, it seemeth almost unpossible for the man to
come to his salvation, or preservation in Christ, or the lovely life of peace.
Yet have some, notwithstanding, according to the imagination of their
knowledg, run on, or labored for the spiritual things, for that they would
417
understand them; also many have, according to their understanding of the
flesh, testified of them.
But seeing they have not sought their knowledg of spiritual things in the
obedience of the Christian doctrine of the service of love, but in their
knowledg of the flesh, and so have taken on their understanding of the
knowledg of spiritual things out of the imagination of their own
knowledge; therefore they have likewise understood those same spiritual
things according to the mind of their flesh, and witnessed of them in the
same manner also. For that cause likewise the right knowledge of spiritual
things and heavenly understanding hath not in the cleernesse of the true
light shined unto them.
Wherefore it is in like manner found true, that the fleshly-minded ones,
which sow upon the flesh or which build upon the foreskin of their
uncircumcised hearts, doe mow the corruption and inherit the destruction.
But those that are circumcised in their hearts, in the laying away of the
fore-skin of the sinfull flesh, and in the obeying of the requiring of our
most holy service of Love, are become spiritually minded and so then do
sow upon the spirit, or build upon the spirituall, which is the true being
itselfe.
418
For all flesh, although it does speak of spirituall and heavenly things,
through knowledg, yet it is doubtlesse nothing else but like the grasse of
the field, and all his garnishing of beauty and holiness is like the unto the
flowers of the field; behold the grasse drieth away, and the beauty of the
field withereth and decayeth.
But the spirituall good, the power of God and his living being (whereof all
what is good standeth firm, and floweth thereout) remaineth stedfast,
unchangeable for ever and in the same, or through, the manifestation of
the same being, the Kingdome of God of heavens, cometh inwardly in us,
and that is the true light of everlasting life.
Whose naked cleernesse, although the same be nothing else but light and
life, is hidden, shut and covered from all understandings and wisdomes of
the flesh, or that build thereon.
But it is manifest and shineth bright to the circumcised heart, and to the
upright spirituall minded ones, in a spirituall heavenly understanding. And
the same cleerness is the beeing of God from heaven, the upright
righteousness and holinesse, and the life of God in eternity.
419
Wherefore the doore of life is now opened unto us, the Kingdome of the
God of heavens and the Heavenly Jerusalem, or the City of Peace,
descended downe to us and come neerby.
But not according to the thinking-good, or imagination, of our own hearts,
nor according to the mind of the earthly wisdome, wherethrough many
have estranged them from the truth of life.
Therefore can no man see the kingdom of God except that he becometh
born anew in the spirit and is become plain, and just, and simple like unto
a new-born babe.
***
We have signified or shewed in writing all of what the lover of the
kingdom must forsake; if he will come to the good land of Peace, or enter
into the rest of all the holy ones of God.
But not that the lover of the good land shall therefore think that he must
first come to everyone of the forementioned horrible places, or that must
pass through them all, before he can come to the good city of Peace. O no,
420
ye dearly beloved, but the cause why we have marked out all the
abominations and desolation is, for to make knowne every place of deceit
and all the seducing or leading away from the good land of life.
421
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