The Holy Ghost teaches that the lips of the heavenly
Spouse, that is The Church, resemble scarlet and the
dropping honeycomb, (1) to let every one know that
all the doctrine which she announces consists in
sacred love; of a more resplendent red than scarlet
on account of the blood of the spouse whose love
inflames her, sweeter than honey on account of the
sweetness of the beloved who crowns her with
delights.So this heavenly spouse when he thought
good to begin the promulgation of his law, cast down
upon the assembly of those disciples whom he had
deputed for this work a shower of fiery tongues,
sufficiently intimating thereby that the preaching of
the gospel was wholly designed for the inflaming of
hearts.
Represent to yourself beautiful doves amidst the
rays of the sun; you will see their plumage break
into as many different colours as you change your
point of viewing them; because their feathers are so
fitted to display the light, that when the sun comes
to spread his splendour on them, a multitude of
reflections are made, producing a great variety of
tints and glancing colours, colours so agreeable to
the eye that they surpass all other colours, even the
enamel of richest jewels; colours so resplendent and
so delicately gilded that the gilding makes their own
colours more bright than ever; for it was this sight
which made the royal prophet say If you sleep among
the midst of lots; you shall be as the wings of a
dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her
back with the paleness of gold. (2)
The Church is indeed adorned with an excellent
variety of teachings,
sermons, treatises and spiritual books, all very
beautiful and pleasant to the sight by reason of the
admirable mingling which the Sun of Justice makes of
his divine wisdom with the tongues of his pastors,
which are their feathers, and with their pens, which
sometimes hold the place of tongues, and form the
rich plumage of this mystic dove.
But amongst all the divers colours of the doctrine
which she displays, the fine gold of holy Charity is
everywhere spread, and makes itself excellently
visible, gilding all the science of the saints with
its incomparable lustre, and raising it above every
other science. All is love's, and in love, for love,
and of love, in the holy Church.
But as we are not ignorant that all the light of the
day proceeds from the sun and yet we ordinarily say
that the sun does not shine, except only when it
openly sends out its beams here or there; in like
manner, though all Christian doctrine be about sacred
love, yet we do not honour all theology indifferently
with the title of this divine love, but only those
parts of it which regard the birth, nature,
properties and operations thereof in particular.
Now it is true that divers writers have already
handled this subject; above all those ancient
Fathers, who as they did lovingly serve God so did
they speak divinely of his love. O how good it is to
hear S. Paul speak of heavenly things, who learned
them even in heaven itself, and how good to see those
souls who were nursed in the bosom of love write of
its holy sweetness! For this reason those amongst the
schoolmen that discoursed the most and the best of
it, did also most excel in piety. S. Thomas has made
a treatise on it worthy of S. Thomas; S. Bonaventure
and B. Denis the Carthusian have made divers most
excellent ones on it under various titles, and as for
John Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris,
Sixtus Senensis speaks of him thus: "He has so
worthily discoursed of the fifty properties of divine
love which are described in the course of the
Canticle of Canticles, that he alone would seem to
have taken proper account of the affections of the
love of God." Truly this man was extremely learned,
judicious and devout.
And that we may know this kind of writings to be made
more successfully by the devotion of lovers than by
the learning
of the wise, it has pleased the Holy Ghost that many
women should work wonders in it. Who has ever better
expressed the heavenly passions of sacred love, than
S. Catharine of Genoa, S. Angela of Foligno, S.
Catharine of Siena, S. Mechtilde?
In our age also many have written upon this subject,
whose works I have not had leisure to read distinctly
but only here and there so far forth as was requisite
to discover whether this book might yet find place.
Father Louis of Granada, that great doctor of piety,
has placed a treatise of the love of God in his
Memorial, which is sufficiently commended in saying
it is his. Diego Stella, of the Order of S. Francis,
made another, which is very effective and profitable
for prayer. Christopher Fonseca, an Augustinian,
brought out one still larger, wherein he has many
excellent things. Father Louis Richeome of the
Society has also published a book under the title of
The Art of Loving God by his Creatures, and this
author is so amiable in his person and in his
beautiful writings that doubtless he is even more so
when writing of love itself. Father John of Jesus
Maria, a discalced Carmelite, has composed a little
book which is also called The Art of Loving God, and
which is much esteemed.
That great and celebrated
Cardinal Bellarmine has also lately issued a little
book entitled: The Ladder for Ascending unto God by
his Creatures, which cannot be but admirable coming
from that most learned hand and most devout soul, who
has written so much and so wisely in the Church's
behalf. I will say nothing of the Parenetic of that
river of eloquence (3) who flows at present through
all France in the multitude and variety of his
sermons and noble writings. The close spiritual
consanguinity which my soul has contracted with his,
when by the imposition of my hands he received the
sacred character of the episcopal order, to the great
happiness of the diocese of Belley and to the honour
of the Church, besides a thousand ties of a sincere
friendship which fasten us together, permits me not
to speak with praise of his works, amongst which this
Parenetic of divine love was one of the first sallies
of the matchless wealth of intellect which every one
admires in him.
We see further a goodly and magnificent palace which
the R. Father Laurence of Paris, a Capuchin preacher,
erected in honour of heavenly love, which being
finished will be a complete course of the Art of
loving well. And lastly the B. Mother (S.) Teresa of
Jesus, has written so accurately of the sacred
movements of love in all the books she has left us,
that one is amazed to see so much eloquence masked
under such profound humility, such great solidity of
wit in such great simplicity: and her most learned
ignorance makes the knowledge of many learned men
appear ignorant, who after long and laborious study
have to blush at not understanding what she so
happily puts down touching the practice of holy love.
Thus does God raise the throne of his power upon the
ground of our infirmity, making use of weak things to
confound the strong.(4) And although, my dear reader, this Treatise which I
now present you, comes far short of those excellent
works, without hope of ever running even with them,
yet have I such confidence in the favour of the two
heavenly lovers to whom I dedicate it, that still it
may be in some way serviceable to you, and that in it
you will meet with many wholesome considerations
which you would not elsewhere so easily find, as
again you may elsewhere find many beautiful things
which are not here. Indeed, it even seems to me that
my design is not the same as that of others except in
general, inasmuch as we all look towards the glory of
holy love. But this you will see by reading it.
Truly my intention is only to represent simply and
naively, without art, still more without false
colours, the history of the birth, progress, decay,
operations, properties, advantages and excellences of
divine love. And if besides this you find other
things, these are but excrescences which it is almost
impossible for such as me who write amidst many
distractions to avoid. But still I think that there
will be nothing without some utility. Nature herself,
who is so skilful a workwoman, intending to produce
grapes, produces at the same time, as by a prudent
inadvertence, such an abundance of leaves and
branches, that there are very few vines which have
not in their season to be pruned of leaves and
shoots.
Writers are often treated too harshly: the censures
that are passed on them are given hastily, and very
often with more incorrectness than they committed
imprudence in hastening to publish their writings.
Precipitation of judgment greatly puts in danger the
conscience of the judge, and the innocence of the
accused. Many write amiss and many censure foolishly.
The kindness of the reader makes his reading sweet
and profitable. And, my dear reader, to have you more
favourable, I will here give you an explanation of
some points which might peradventure otherwise put
you out of humour.
Some perhaps will think that I have said too much,
and that it was not requisite to go so deep down into
the roots of the subject, but I am of opinion that
heavenly love is a plant like to that which we call
Angelica, whose root is no less odoriferous and
wholesome than the stalk and the branches. The four
first books and some chapters of the rest might
without doubt have been omitted, without disadvantage
to such souls as only seek the practice of holy love,
yet all of it will be profitable unto them if they
behold it with a devout eye: while others also might
have been disappointed not to have had the whole of
what belongs to the treatise of divine love. I have
taken into consideration as I should do, the state of
the minds of this age: it much imports to remember in
what age we are writing.
I cite Scripture sometimes in other terms than those
of the ordinary edition (the Vulgate). For God's
sake, my dear reader do me not therefore the wrong to
think that I wish to depart from that edition. Ah no!
For I know the Holy Ghost has authorized it by the
sacred Council of Trent, and that therefore all of us
ought to keep to it: on the contrary I only use the
other versions for the service of this, when they
explain and confirm its true sense. For example what
the heavenly spouse says to his spouse: Thou hast
wounded my heart:(5) is greatly illustrated by the
other version: Thou hast taken away my heart, or,
Thou hast snatched away and ravished my heart. That
which our Saviour said: Blessed are the poor in
spirit: is much amplified and cleared by the Greek:
Blessed are the beggars in spirit: and so with
others.
I have often cited the sacred Psalmist in verse, and
this to recreate your mind and on account of the ease
with which I could do it, by the beautiful
translation of Phillip des Portes, Abbot of Tiron.
This however I have sometimes departed from; not of
course thinking I could improve the verses of this
famous poet (for I should be too impertinent if never
having so much as thought of this kind of writing, I
should pretend to be happy in it in an age and
condition of life which would oblige me to retire
from it in case I had ever been engaged therein), but
in some places where the sense might be variously
taken, I have not followed his verse, because I would
not follow his sense, as in Psalm cxxxii., where he
has taken a certain Latin word for the fringe of the
garment which I thought ought to be taken for the
collar, wherefore I have translated it to my own
mind.
I have said nothing which I have not learned of
others, yet it is impossible for me to remember
whence I had everything in particular, but believe
me, if I had taken any lengthy and remarkable
passages out of any author, I would make it a matter
of conscience not to let him have the deserved honour
of it, and to remove a suspicion which you may
conceive against my sincerity in this matter, I warn
you that the 13th chapter of Book VII. is extracted
from a sermon which I delivered at Paris at S. John's
en Gr?e upon the feast of the Assumption of our
Blessed Lady, 1602.
I have not always expressed the sequence of the
chapters, but if you notice you will easily find the
links of their connection. In that and several other
things I had a care to spare my own leisure and your
patience. After I had caused the Introduction to a
Devout Life to be printed, my Lord Archbishop of
Vienne, Peter de Villars, did me the favour of
writing his opinion of it in terms so advantageous to
that little book and to me, that I should never dare
to rehearse them: and exhorting me to apply the most
of my leisure to the like works, amongst many rare
counsels he favoured me with, one was that as far as
the mutter would permit I should always be short in
the chapters.
For as, said he, travellers knowing
that there is a fair garden some twenty or
twenty-five paces out of their way, readily turn
aside
so short a distance to go see it, which they would
not do if it were further distant; even so those who
know that there is but little distance between the
beginning and end of a chapter do willingly undertake
to read it, which they would not do though the
subject were never so delightful, if a long time were
required for the reading of it. And therefore I had
good reason to follow my own inclination in this
respect since it was agreeable to this great
personage who was one of the most saintly prelates
and learned doctors that the Church has had in our
age, and who at the time that he honoured me with his
letter was the most ancient of all the doctors of the
faculty of Paris.
A great servant of God informed me not long ago that
by addressing my speech to Philothea in the
Introduction to a Devout Life, I hindered many men
from profiting by it: because they did not esteem
advice given to a woman, to be worthy of a man. I
marvelled that there were men who, to be thought men,
showed themselves in effect so little men, for I
leave it to your consideration, my dear reader,
whether devotion be not as well for men as for women,
and whether we are not to read with as great
attention and reverence the second Epistle of S. John
which was addressed to the holy lady Electa, as the
third which he directs to Caius, and whether a
thousand thousand Epistles and excellent Treatises of
the ancient fathers of the Church ought to be held
unprofitable to men, because they are addressed to
holy women of those times. But, besides, it is the
soul which aspires to devotion that I call Philothea,
and men have souls as well as women.
Nevertheless, to imitate the great Apostle in this
occasion, who esteemed himself a debtor to every one,
I have changed my address in this treatise and speak
to Theotimus, but if perchance there should be any
woman (and such an unreasonableness would be more
tolerable in them) who would not read the
instructions which are given to men, I beg them to
know that Theotimus to whom I speak is the human
spirit desirous of making progress in holy love,
which spirit is equally in women as in men.
This Treatise then is made for a soul already devout
that she may be able to advance in her design, and
hence I have been forced
to say many things somewhat unknown to the
generality, and which will therefore appear more
obscure than they are. The depths of science are
always somewhat hard to sound, and there are few
divers who care and are able to descend and gather
the pearls and other precious stones which are in the
womb of the ocean. But if you have the courage fairly
to penetrate these words which I have written, it
will truly be with you as with the divers, who, says
Pliny, see clearly in the deepest caves of the sea
the light of the sun: for you will find in the
hardest parts of this discourse a good and fair
light. Moreover, as I do not follow them that despise
books treating of a certain supereminently perfect
life, so for my part, I do not speak of such a
supereminence; for I can neither censure the authors,
nor authorize the censors of a doctrine which I do
not understand.
I have touched on a number of theological questions,
proposing simply, not so much what I anciently learnt
in disputations, as what attention to the service of
souls, and my twenty-four years spent in holy
preaching have made me think most conducive to the
glory of the Gospel and of the Church.
For the rest some men of note in various places have
signified to me that certain little books have been
published simply under the first letters of their
author's name which are the same as mine. This made
some believe that they were my works, not without
some little scandal to such as supposed thereby that
I had bidden adieu to my simplicity, to puff up my
style with pompous words, my argument with worldly
conceit, and my conceptions with a lofty and plumed
eloquence.
For this cause my dear reader, I will tell
you, that as those who engrave or cut precious
stones, having their sight tired by keeping it
continually fixed upon the small lines of their work,
are glad to keep before them some fair emerald that
by beholding it from time to time they may be
recreated with its greenness and restore their
weakened sight to its natural condition, so in this
press of business which my office daily draws upon me
I have ever little projects of some treatise of
piety, which I look at when I can, to revive and
unweary my mind.
However, I do not profess myself a writer; for the
dulness of my spirit and the condition of my life,
subject to the service
and requirements of many, would not permit me so to
be. Wherefore I have written very little and have
published much less, and following the counsel and
will of my friends I will tell you what I have
written that you may not attribute the praises of
another's labours to him who deserves none for his
own.
It is now nineteen years since that, being at Thonon,
a small town situated upon the Lake of Geneva, which
was then being little by little converted to the
Catholic faith, the minister, an adversary of the
Church, was proclaiming everywhere that the Catholic
article of the real presence of our Saviour's body in
the Eucharist destroyed the symbol and the analogy of
faith (for he was glad to mouth this word analogy not
understood by his auditors, in order to appear very
learned; and upon this the rest of the Catholic
preachers with whom I was pressed me to write
something in refutation of this vanity. I did what
seemed suitable, framing a brief meditation upon the
Creed to confirm the truth: all the copies were
distributed in this diocese where now I find not one
of them.
Soon afterwards his Highness came over the mountains,
and finding the bailiwicks of Chablais, Gaillard and
Ternier, which are in the environs of Geneva, well
disposed to receive the Catholic faith which had been
banished thence by force of wars and revolts about
seventy years before, he resolved to re-establish the
exercise thereof in all the parishes, and to abolish
that of heresy, and whereas on the one side there
were many obstacles to this great blessing from those
considerations which are called reasons of State, and
on the other side some persons as yet not well
instructed in the truth made resistance against this
so much-desired establishment, his Highness
surmounted the first difficulty by the invincible
constancy of his zeal for the Catholic religion, and
the second by an extraordinary gentleness and
prudence.
For he had the chief and most obstinate
called together, and made a speech unto them with so
lovingly persuasive an eloquence that almost all,
vanquished by the sweet violence of his fatherly love
towards them, cast the weapons of their obstinacy at
his feet, and their souls into the hands of Holy
Church.
And allow me, my dear readers I pray you, to say this
word
in passing. One may praise many rich actions of this
great Prince, in which I see the proof of his valour
and military knowledge, which with just cause is
admired through all Europe. But for my part I cannot
sufficiently extol the re-establishment of the
Catholic religion in these three bailiwicks which I
have just mentioned, having seen in it so many marks
of piety, united with so many and various acts of
prudence, constancy, magnanimity, justice and
mildness, that I seemed to see in this one little
trait, as in a miniature, all that is praised in
princes who have in times past with most fervour
striven to advance the glory of God and the Church.
The stage was small, but the action great. And as
that ancient craftsman was never so much esteemed for
his great pieces as he was admired for making a ship
of ivory fitted with all its gear, in so tiny a
volume that the wings of a bee covered all, so I
esteem more that which this great Prince did at that
time in this small corner of his dominions, than many
more brilliant actions which others extol to the
heavens.
Now on this occasion the victorious ensigns of the
cross were replanted in all the ways and public
places of those quarters, and whereas a little before
there had been one erected very solemnly at Annemasse
close to Geneva, a certain minister made a little
treatise against the honour thereof, which was a
burning and venomous invective, and to which
therefore it was deemed fit to make answer. My Lord
Claude de Granier, my predecessor, whose memory is in
benediction, imposed the burden upon me according to
the power which he had over me, who beheld him not
only as my Bishop but also as a holy servant of God.
I made therefore this answer, under the title:
Defence of the Standard of the Cross, and dedicated
it to his Highness, partly to testify unto him my
most humble submission, and partly to render him some
small thanksgiving for the care which he took of the
Church in those parts.
Now lately this Defence has been reprinted under the
prodigious title of Panthalogy, or Treasure of the
Cross: a title whereof I never dreamed, as in truth I
am not a man of that study and leisure, nor of that
memory, to be able to put together so many pieces of
worth in one book as to let it deserve the name of
Treasure or Panthalogy, besides I have a horror of
such insolent frontispieces:
A sot, or senseless creature we him call,
Who makes his portal greater than his hall.
In the year 1602, were celebrated at Paris, where I
was, the obsequies of that magnanimous prince Philip
Emanuel of Lorraine, Duke of Mercoeur, who had
performed so many brave exploits against the Turks in
Hungary that all Christianity was bound to conspire
to honour his memory. But especially Madam Mary of
Luxembourg, his widow, did for her part all that her
heart and the love of the deceased could suggest to
her to make his funeral solemn.
And because my
father, grandfather, and great grandfather had been
brought up pages to the most illustrious princes of Martigues her father and his predecessors, she
regarded me as an hereditary servant of her house;
and made choice of me to preach the funeral sermon in
that great celebration, where there were not only
several Cardinals and Prelates but a number of
princes also, princesses, marshals of France, knights
of the Order,(6) and even the Court of Parliament in a
body.
I made then this funeral oration and pronounced
it in this great assembly in the great Church of
Paris, and as it contained a true abridgment of the
heroic feats of the deceased prince, I willingly had
it printed, at the request of the widow-princess,
whose request was to me a law. I dedicated this piece
to Madam the Duchess of Vend?e, as yet a girl, and a
very young princess, yet one in whom were very
clearly to be recognized the signs of that excellent
virtue and piety which now adorn her, and which show
her to be worthy of the bringing forth and educating
by so devout and pious a mother.
While this sermon was in the press, I heard that I
had been made Bishop, so that I came here to be
consecrated and to begin residence. And at first
there was pointed out to me the necessity of
instructing Confessors on some important points. For
this reason I wrote twenty-five instructions, which I
had printed to get them more easily spread amongst
those to whom I directed them: since then they have
been reprinted in various places.
Three or four years afterwards I published the
Introduction to a Devout Life, upon the occasion and
in the manner which I have put down in the preface
thereof: regarding which I have nothing to say to
you, my dear reader, save only that though this
little book has generally had a gracious and kind
acceptance, yes even amongst the most grave prelates
and doctors of the Church, yet it did not escape the
rude censure of some who did not merely blame me but
bitterly attacked me in public because I tell
Philothea that dancing is an action indifferent in
itself, and that for recreation's sake one may make
quodlibets; and I, knowing the quality of these
censors, praise their intention which I think was
good.
I should have desired them however to please to
consider that the first proposition is drawn from the
common and true doctrine of the most holy and learned
divines, that I was writing for such as live in the
world and in courts; that withal I carefully
inculcate the extreme dangers which are found in
dancing; -- and that as to the second proposition it
is not mine, but S. Louis's, that admirable king, a
doctor worthy to be followed in the art of rightly
conducting courtiers to a devout life. For, I believe
if they had weighed this, their charity and
discretion would never have permitted their zeal, how
vigorous and austere soever, to arm their indignation
against me.
And therefore, my dear reader, I conjure you to be
gracious and good to me in reading this Treatise. And
if you find the style a little (though I am sure it
will be but a very little) different from that which
I used in the Defence of the Cross, know that in
nineteen years one learns and unlearns many things,
that the language of war differs from that of peace,
and that a man uses one manner of speech to young
apprentices and another to old fellow-craftsmen.
My purpose here is to speak to souls that are
advanced in devotion. For you must know that we have
in this town a congregation of maidens and widows
who, having retired from the world, live with one
mind in God's service, under the protection of his
most holy Mother, and as their purity and piety of
spirit have oftentimes given me great consolation, so
have I striven to return them the like by a frequent
distribution of the holy word which I have announced
to them as well in public sermons as in
spiritual conferences, and this almost always in
presence of some religious men and people of great
piety.
Hence I have often had to treat of the most
delicate sentiments of piety, passing beyond that
which I had said to Philothea: and I owe a good part
of that which now I communicate to you to this
blessed Society because she who is the mother of them
and rules them, knowing that I was writing upon this
subject, and yet that scarcely was I able to
accomplish it without God's very special assistance,
and their continual urging, took a constant care to
pray and get prayers for this end, and holily
conjured me to pick out all the little morsels of
leisure which she judged might be spared here and
there from the press of my hindrances and to employ
them in this.
And because this soul is in that
consideration with me which God knows, she has had no
little power to animate me in this occasion. I began
indeed long ago to think of writing on holy love, but
that thought came far short of what this occasion has
made me produce, an occasion which I declare to you
thus simply and in good faith, in imitation of the
ancients, that you may know that I write only as I
get the chance and opportunity, and that I may find
you more favourable. It is said amongst the Pagans
that Phidias never represented anything so perfectly
as the gods, nor Apelles as Alexander. One is not
always equally successful: if I fall short in this
treatise, let your goodness make progress and God
will bless your reading.
To this end I have dedicated this work to the Mother
of dilection and to the Father of cordial love, as I
dedicated the Introduction to the Divine child who is
the Saviour of lovers and the love of the saved. And
as women, while they are strong and able to bring
forth their children with ease, choose commonly their
worldly friends to be godfathers, but when their
feebleness and indisposition make their delivery hard
and dangerous invoke the saints of heaven, and vow to
have their children stood to by some poor body or by
some devout soul in the name of S. Joseph, S. Francis
of Assisi, S. Francis of Paula, S. Nicholas, or some
other of the blessed, who may obtain of God their
safe delivery and that the child may be born alive:
-- so I, while I was not yet bishop, having more
leisure and less fears for my writings, dedicated my
little works to princes of the
earth, but now being weighed down with my charge, and
having a thousand difficulties in writing, I
consecrate all to the princes of heaven, that they
may obtain for me the light requisite, and that if
such be the Divine will, these my writings may be
fruitful and profitable to many.
Thus my dear reader I beseech God to bless you and to
enrich you with his love. Meanwhile from my very
heart I submit all my writings, my words and actions
to the correction of the most holy Catholic,
Apostolic, and Roman Church, knowing that she is the
pillar and ground of truth,(7) wherein she can neither
be deceived nor deceive us, and that none can have
God for his father who will not have this Church for
his mother.
Annecy, the day of the most loving Apostles S. Peter
and S. Paul. 1616.
BLESSED BE GOD.
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