1. In the beginning I invoke the First Principle, from whom all illuminations descend as from the Father of lights, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift—namely the eternal Father—through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that by the intercession of the most holy Virgin Mary, mother of the same God and our Lord Jesus Christ, and of blessed Francis, our leader and father, he may grant illumined eyes to our mind, to direct our feet into the way of that peace which surpasseth all understanding; which peace our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed and gave;
of which preaching our father Francis was the repeater, in all his preaching announcing peace at the beginning and at the end, in every greeting wishing peace, in every contemplation sighing for ecstatic peace, as a citizen of that Jerusalem of which that man of peace—who was peaceable with them that hated peace—says: Pray for the things that are for the peace of Jerusalem. For he knew that the throne of Solomon was not save in peace, since it is written: In peace is his place made, and his dwelling in Sion. 2.
When therefore, after the example of the most blessed father Francis, I, a sinner, was seeking this peace with panting spirit—I who, in the place of that most blessed father himself, succeed as the seventh in the general ministry of the brethren after his passing, though in all things unworthy—it came to pass that by divine prompting, about the time of his passing, in the thirty-third year (1259), I withdrew to Mount Alverna as to a place of quiet, out of love for seeking peace of spirit; and being there, while in mind I was treating of certain mental ascents into God, among other things there occurred to me that miracle which befell blessed Francis himself in the aforesaid place, namely the vision of the winged Seraph in the likeness of the Crucified.
In the consideration of which it at once appeared to me that that vision portrayed the suspension of our father himself in contemplation, and the way by which one comes to it. 3. For by those six wings can rightly be understood the six suspensions of illuminations, by which the soul, as by certain steps or journeys, is disposed to pass over to peace through the ecstatic transports of Christian wisdom. But the way is none other than through the most ardent love of the Crucified, which so transformed Paul, caught up to the third heaven, into Christ, that he said: With Christ I am nailed to the cross; now not I, but Christ liveth in me;
which love also so absorbed the mind of Francis that his mind was made manifest in his flesh, while for two years before his death he bore the most sacred stigmata of the Passion in his body. The figure, therefore, of the six seraphic wings hints at six step-like illuminations, which begin from creatures and lead all the way up to God, to whom no one enters rightly save through the Crucified. For he that entereth not by the door, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. But if any man enter in by the door, he shall go in and out and shall find pastures. On account of which John says in the Apocalypse: Blessed are they that wash their garments in the blood of the Lamb, that their power may be in the tree of life, and that they may enter through the gates into the city;
as if to say that one cannot enter the heavenly Jerusalem by contemplation unless one enter through the blood of the Lamb as through a gate. For no one is in any way disposed to the divine contemplations which lead to mental transports, unless, with Daniel, he be a man of desires. But desires are inflamed in us in two ways, namely by the cry of prayer, which makes one roar from the groaning of the heart, and by the brightness of speculation, by which the mind turns itself most directly and most intensely to the rays of light. 4.
Therefore, to the groaning of prayer through Christ crucified, by whose blood we are cleansed from the filth of vices, I first invite the reader, lest perchance he believe that reading suffices for him without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without wonder, circumspection without exultation, industry without piety, knowledge without charity, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without wisdom divinely inspired.
Therefore, having been prevented by divine grace, to the humble and the pious, the contrite and the devout, to those anointed with the oil of gladness and to lovers of divine wisdom inflamed with desire for it, who are willing to give themselves to magnifying, admiring, and even tasting God, I set forth the following speculations, intimating that the mirror set forth outwardly is little or nothing unless the mirror of our mind has been wiped clean and polished. Exercise thyself, therefore, O man of God, first at the remorse of a stinging conscience, before thou liftest thine eyes to the rays of wisdom shining back in its mirrors, lest perchance from the very speculation of the rays thou fall into a deeper pit of darkness. 5.
It has pleased me to divide the treatise into seven chapters, prefixing titles for the easier understanding of the things to be said. I ask, therefore, that the intent of the writer be weighed rather than the work, the sense of the words rather than the unpolished speech, the truth rather than the elegance, the exercise of affection rather than the erudition of the intellect. That this may be done, the progress of these speculations is not to be run through perfunctorily, but to be ruminated most slowly. 1. Blessed is the man whose help is from thee; he hath disposed ascents in his heart, in the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set. Since beatitude is nothing other than the enjoyment of the highest good; and the highest good is above us:
No one can be made blessed unless he ascend above his very self—not by a bodily ascent, but by an ascent of the heart. But we cannot be raised above ourselves except by a higher power lifting us up. For however the inner degrees be arranged, nothing comes to pass unless divine aid accompany it. And divine aid accompanies those who seek it from the heart, humbly and devoutly; and this is to sigh after Him in this valley of tears, which is done through fervent prayer. Prayer, therefore, is the mother and origin of all upward striving. And so Dionysius, in his book On Mystical Theology, wishing to instruct us toward mental ecstasies, sets prayer first. Let us therefore pray and say to the Lord our God:
Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I shall walk in Thy truth; let my heart rejoice, that it may fear Thy name. 2. By praying in this prayer, one is enlightened to know the degrees of the divine ascent. Since the whole universe of things is a ladder for ascending unto God; and since among things some are a vestige, some an image, some are corporeal, some spiritual, some temporal, some everlasting, and through this some are outside us, some within us: in order that we may come to consider the First Principle, which is most spiritual and eternal and above us, we must pass through the vestige, which is corporeal and temporal and outside us—and this is to be led in the way of God;
we must enter into our own mind, which is the everlasting image of God, spiritual and within us—and this is to walk in the truth of God; we must transcend unto the eternal, the most spiritual, and that which is above us, by gazing toward the First Principle—and this is to rejoice in the knowledge of God and in reverence of His Majesty. 3. This, then, is the way of three days in the wilderness; this is the threefold illumination of a single day, the first being as evening, the second as morning, the third as midday; this regards the threefold existence of things, namely in matter, in intelligence, and in the eternal Art, according to which it was said: 'Let it be made, He made, and it was made';
this also regards the threefold substance in Christ, who is our ladder, namely the corporeal, the spiritual, and the divine. 4. According to this threefold progression our mind has three principal aspects. One is toward exterior corporeal things, according to which it is called animality or sensuality; another within itself and into itself, according to which it is called spirit; the third above itself, according to which it is called mind. From all these it ought to dispose itself to ascend unto God, so as to love Him with the whole mind, with the whole heart, and with the whole soul—in which consists the perfect observance of the Law and at the same time Christian wisdom. 5.
But since each of the aforesaid modes is doubled—according as it happens to consider God as Alpha and Omega, or inasmuch as it happens to see God in each of the aforesaid modes both as through a mirror and as in a mirror, or because one of these considerations may be mingled with the other joined to it, or may be considered in its own purity—hence it is necessary that these three principal degrees be ascended to a sixfold number; so that, just as God in six days perfected the whole world and rested on the seventh, so the lesser world may be led in most orderly fashion, by six degrees of illuminations following one upon another, to the rest of contemplation. As a figure of this, the throne of Solomon was ascended by six steps;
the Seraphim which Isaiah saw had six wings each; after six days the Lord called Moses out of the midst of the cloud, and Christ after six days, as is said in Matthew, led the disciples up the mountain and was transfigured before them. 6. According, then, to the six degrees of ascent unto God, there are six degrees of the soul's powers by which we ascend from the lowest to the highest, from the exterior to the innermost, from the temporal we climb to the eternal—namely sense, imagination, reason, intellect, intelligence, and the apex of the mind or the spark of synderesis. These degrees we have planted in us by nature, deformed by sin, reformed by grace; to be purged by justice, exercised by knowledge, perfected by wisdom. 7.
For according to the first institution of nature, man was created capable of the rest of contemplation, and therefore God placed him in the paradise of delights. But turning himself away from the true light toward a changeable good, he was bent down by his own fault, and his whole race by original sin, which doubly infected human nature, namely the mind with ignorance and the flesh with concupiscence; so that man, blinded and bent down, sits in darkness and does not see the light of heaven, unless grace with justice come to his aid against concupiscence, and knowledge with wisdom against ignorance. All this is wrought through Jesus Christ, who is made unto us by God wisdom and justice and sanctification and redemption.
Since He is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and is the Word incarnate full of grace and truth, He wrought grace and truth: namely, He infused the grace of charity, which—since it is from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned—rectifies the whole soul according to its threefold aspect aforesaid; and He taught the knowledge of truth according to the threefold mode of theology, namely the symbolic, the proper, and the mystical, so that through the symbolic we may rightly use sensible things, through the proper we may rightly use intelligible things, and through the mystical we may be caught up to supramental ecstasies. 8.
Whoever, then, wishes to ascend unto God must—having shunned the fault that deforms nature—exercise the aforesaid natural powers: toward reforming grace, and this through prayer; toward purifying justice, and this in conduct; toward illuminating knowledge, and this in meditation; toward perfecting wisdom, and this in contemplation. Therefore, just as no one comes to wisdom except through grace, justice, and knowledge, so no one comes to contemplation except through clear meditation, holy conversation, and devout prayer. As, then, grace is the foundation of the rectitude of the will and of the clear illumination of reason;
so we must first pray, then live in holiness, thirdly attend to the spectacles of truth, and by attending ascend step by step until we come to the high mountain where the God of gods is seen in Zion. 9. Since, therefore, in Jacob's ladder it is first to ascend rather than to descend, let us place the first step of ascent at the bottom, setting this whole sensible world before us as a mirror through which we may pass over to God, the supreme Craftsman—that we may be true Hebrews passing over from Egypt to the land promised to the Fathers; that we may also be Christians passing with Christ out of this world to the Father; that we may also be lovers of Wisdom, who calls and says:
Come over to me, all you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For from the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of these may be knowably seen. 10. Now there shines forth in created things the supreme power and wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, according as the sense of the flesh announces this in threefold manner to the inner sense. For the sense of the flesh serves the intellect either in rationally investigating, or in faithfully believing, or in intellectually contemplating. The one contemplating considers the actual existence of things; the one believing, the habitual course of things; the one reasoning, the potential pre-eminence of things. 11.
In the first manner, the gaze of the one contemplating, considering things in themselves, sees in them weight, number, and measure: weight as to position, where they incline; number, by which they are distinguished; and measure, by which they are limited. And through this he sees in them mode, species, and order, and likewise substance, power, and operation. From these he can rise, as from a vestige, to understand the immense power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator. 12. In the second manner, the gaze of the believer, considering this world, attends to its origin, course, and end. For by faith we believe that the ages were framed by the Word of life; by faith we believe that the times of the three laws—namely of nature, of Scripture, and of grace—succeeded one another and ran their course in most orderly fashion;
by faith we believe that the world is to be ended by the final judgment: in the first noting the power, in the second the providence, in the third the justice of the Supreme Principle. 13. In the third manner, the gaze of the one rationally investigating sees that some things merely are; others are and live; and others are, live, and discern—and the first indeed are lesser, the second intermediate, the third better. He sees again that some things are merely corporeal, others partly corporeal and partly spiritual; from which he notes that some are purely spiritual, as the better and more worthy of both. He sees nonetheless that some things are mutable and incorruptible, as the heavenly bodies;
from which he notes that some things are immutable and incorruptible, as the supercelestial things. Therefore from these visible things he rises to consider the power, wisdom, and goodness of God as existing, living, and intelligent, purely spiritual and incorruptible and unchangeable. 14. Now this consideration is enlarged according to the sevenfold condition of creatures, which is a sevenfold testimony of the divine power and goodness, if the origin and order of all things be considered. For the origin of things, according to creation, distinction, and adornment—as regards the works of the six days—proclaims the divine power producing all things from nothing, the wisdom lucidly distinguishing all things, and the goodness lavishly adorning all things.
Now the magnitude of things, according to the mass of length, breadth, and depth; according to the excellence of a power extending itself far, wide, and deep, as is clear in the diffusion of light; according to the efficacy of an operation that is inmost, continuous, and diffused, as is clear in the operation of fire—manifestly indicates the immensity of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the triune God, who exists uncircumscribed in all things through power, presence, and essence. And the multitude of things, according to the general, special, and individual diversity in substance, in form or figure, and in efficacy, beyond all human estimation, manifestly intimates and shows the immensity of the three aforesaid conditions in God.
Now the beauty of things, according to the variety of lights, figures, and colors in bodies simple, mixed, and even complex—as in heavenly and mineral bodies, such as stones and metals, plants and animals—evidently proclaims the three aforesaid. And the fullness of things, according as matter is full of forms according to the seminal reasons, form is full of power according to active potency, and power is full of effects according to efficiency, manifestly declares the same thing.
The manifold operation—according as it is natural, according as it is artificial, according as it is moral—by its most manifold variety shows the immensity of that power, art, and goodness, which is indeed to all things 'the cause of being, the ground of understanding, and the order of living.' And the order, according to the principle of duration and of influence, namely by prior and posterior, higher and lower, nobler and ignobler, in the book of the creature manifestly intimates the primacy, sublimity, and dignity of the First Principle as regards the infinity of power; and the order of the divine laws, precepts, and judgments in the book of Scripture intimates the immensity of wisdom;
and the order of the divine Sacraments, benefits, and recompenses in the body of the Church intimates the immensity of goodness—so that this very order most evidently leads us by the hand to the First and Supreme, the most powerful, most wise, and most good. 15. Whoever, then, is not illumined by such great splendors of created things is blind; whoever does not awake at such great shouts is deaf; whoever does not praise God from all these effects is mute; whoever does not note the First Principle from such great signs is foolish.
Open therefore your eyes, apply your spiritual ears, unloose your lips, and apply your heart, that in all creatures you may see, hear, praise, love, and worship, magnify and honor your God—lest perchance the whole world rise up against you. For on this account the world shall fight against the senseless, and on the contrary it shall be a cause of glory to the sensible, who according to the Prophet can say: Thou hast delighted me, O Lord, in Thy doing, and in the works of Thy hands I shall rejoice. How magnified are Thy works, O Lord! Thou hast made all things in wisdom; the earth is filled with Thy possession. 1.
But since, in regard to the mirror of sensible things, it happens not only to contemplate God through them as through vestiges, but also in them, inasmuch as He is in them by essence, power, and presence—and to consider this is higher than the preceding—therefore a consideration of this kind holds the second place, as the second degree of contemplation, by which we ought to be led by the hand to contemplate God in all the creatures that enter into our mind through the bodily senses. 2. It is to be noted, then, that this world, which is called the macrocosm, enters into our soul, which is called the lesser world, through the gates of the five senses, according to the apprehension, delectation, and judgment of these sensible things. This is clear thus:
that in it some things are generating, some generated, some governing these and those. The generating are simple bodies, namely the heavenly bodies and the four elements. For from the elements, by the power of light reconciling the contrariety of the elements in compounds, whatsoever are generated and produced by the operation of natural power have their being generated and produced. The generated, indeed, are bodies composed of elements, such as minerals, vegetables, sensible things, and human bodies.
The things ruling these and those are spiritual substances, whether wholly conjoined, as are the souls of brutes; or conjoined separably, as are rational spirits; or conjoined separably, as are the heavenly spirits, which the philosophers call Intelligences and we call Angels. To these, according to the philosophers, it belongs to move the heavenly bodies, and through this is attributed to them the administration of the universe, in receiving from the First Cause, namely God, the influence of power, which they pour back according to the work of governance, which regards the natural subsistence of things.
But according to the theologians the governance of the universe is attributed to these same spirits according to the command of the Most High God as regards the works of restoration, according to which they are called ministering spirits, sent forth for the sake of those who receive the inheritance of salvation. 3. Man, therefore, who is called the lesser world, has five senses as it were five gates, through which the knowledge of all things that are in the sensible world enters into his soul.
For through sight enter sublime and luminous bodies and other colored things; through touch, indeed, solid and earthy bodies; through the three intermediate senses enter intermediate things, as through taste watery things, through hearing airy things, through smell vaporous things, which have something of a moist nature, something of the airy, something of the fiery or hot, as is clear in smoke dissolved from aromatic substances. Through these gates, therefore, enter both simple bodies and also composite ones mixed from these. But since by sense we perceive not only these particular sensibles, which are light, sound, odor, savor, and the four primary qualities which touch apprehends, but also the common sensibles, which are number, magnitude, figure, rest, and motion;
and 'everything that is moved is moved by another,' while certain things are moved and at rest of themselves, as are animals: while through these five senses we apprehend the motions of bodies, we are led by the hand to the knowledge of spiritual movers, as through an effect to the knowledge of causes. 4. There enters, therefore, into the human soul through apprehension, as regards three kinds of things, this whole sensible world. Now these exterior sensibles are what first enter into the soul through the gates of the five senses; they enter, I say, not through their substances, but through their likenesses, first generated in the medium, and from the medium into the organ, and from the exterior organ into the interior, and from this into the apprehensive power;
and thus the generation of the species in the medium, and from the medium in the organ, and the turning of the apprehensive power upon it, brings about the apprehension of all those things which the soul apprehends exteriorly. 5. Upon this apprehension, if it be of a fitting thing, there follows delectation. Now the sense is delighted in an object perceived through an abstracted likeness, either by reason of beauty, as in sight; or by reason of sweetness, as in smell and hearing; or by reason of wholesomeness, as in taste and touch—speaking by appropriation. But every delectation is by reason of proportionality.
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Sedquoniamspeciestenetrationemformae, virtutisetoperationis, secundumquodhabetrespectumadprincipium, aquomanat, admedium, perquodtransit, etadterminum, inquemagit: ideoproportionalitasautattenditurinsimilitudine, secundumquodtenetrationemspecieiseuformae, etsicdiciturspeciositas, quia "pulcritudonihilaliudestquamaequalitasnumerosa", seu "quidampartiumsituscumcolorissuavitate". Autattenditurproportionalitas, inquantumtenetrationempotentiaeseuvirtutis, etsicdicitursuavitas, cumvirtusagensnonimproportionaliterexceditrecipientem; quiasensustristaturinextremisetinmediisdelectatur.
But since the species holds the principle of form, power, and operation, according as it has respect to the principle from which it flows, to the medium through which it passes, and to the term into which it acts: therefore proportionality is attended to either in the likeness, according as it holds the principle of species or form, and so it is called beauty, because 'beauty is nothing other than numerical equality,' or 'a certain arrangement of parts together with sweetness of color.' Or proportionality is attended to inasmuch as it holds the principle of potency or power, and so it is called sweetness, when the agent power does not disproportionately exceed the recipient; for sense is saddened in extremes and delighted in means.
Or it is attended to inasmuch as it holds the principle of efficacy and impression, which is then proportional when the agent by impressing fills the need of the patient—and this is to save and nourish it, which appears most of all in taste and touch. And thus, through delectation, the delightful exterior things enter into the soul through their likeness according to the threefold reason of delighting. 6. After this apprehension and delectation there comes judgment, by which it is judged not only whether this be white or black, since this pertains to the particular sense; not only whether it be wholesome or harmful, since this pertains to the interior sense; but also, since it is judged and a reason is rendered why this delights;
and in this act there is inquiry into the reason for the delectation which is perceived in the sense from the object. This is the case when the reason for the beautiful, the sweet, and the wholesome is sought: and it is found that this is the proportion of equality. Now the reason of equality is the same in great and small things, nor is it extended by dimensions, nor does it succeed or pass away with passing things, nor is it altered by motions. It abstracts, therefore, from place, time, and motion, and through this it is unchangeable, uncircumscribable, and wholly spiritual. Judgment, therefore, is the action which makes the sensible species, sensibly received through the senses, enter into the intellective power by purifying and abstracting it.
And thus this whole world has to enter into the human soul through the gates of the senses according to the three operations aforesaid. 7. Now all these are vestiges in which we can behold our God. For since the apprehended species is a likeness generated in the medium and then impressed upon the organ itself, and through that impression leads into its principle, namely into the object to be known;
it manifestly intimates that He who is the image of the invisible God and the splendor of glory and the figure of His substance, who is everywhere through His first generation—just as an object generates its likeness throughout the whole medium—through the grace of union is united, as the species to the bodily organ, to an individual of rational nature, so that through that union He might lead us back to the Father as to the fontal principle and object. So, then, all knowable things, having to generate their own species, manifestly proclaim that in them, as in mirrors, can be seen the eternal generation of the Word, the Image, and the Son eternally emanating from God the Father. 8.