The power of books and the practice of mysticism in the fourteenth century: Heinrich of Nordlingen and Margaret Ebner on Mechthild's Flowing Light of the Godhead

Church History, March, 2007 by Patricia Zimmerman Beckman

We can look at two primary examples to see Heinrich's portrait of Mechthild as exemplar in mystical activity. In Letter XLVI, we see one of the few in which he cites a long verbatim passage from Mechthild of Magdeburg's text. He introduced Mechthild's text by saying that a "friend of God" described "mystical drunkenness," language taken from the Song of Songs exegetical tradition so beloved among a host of other medieval writers. He wished Margaret the same "spiritual ascension" that Mechthild modeled when she traveled to the heavenly court to become ennobled by the Holy Trinity. He wished to "stir up" this same loving soul in Margaret until she experienced a unitive experience that is an "eternal knitting together of you and Him in a three person bedchamber." (64)

After another verbatim selection from "a soul drawn high in to God" in Letter XLVIII, Heinrich tried his own hand at a comparable Trinitarian ode; alas, he did not have the poetic powers of Mechthild and Margaret, and the results are a confusing set of interlocking clauses. To clarify, Heinrich quoted verbatim the expert in Trinity travel, Mechthild of Magdeburg. Enter the full citation at the beginning of this article, complete with ritual rubrics. He directed Margaret's reading of this text in even more detail than he did other more common readings. He outlined an elaborate process for reading the text to reinforce its authority and hint at its sacramental power. That is, the text itself, and the reading of it in community, was in some way an outward sign of an inward presence of the Spirit. It was the promise of Christ's return to take the soul into the Trinity. By prostrating themselves and praying Come Holy Spirits, Our Fathers, and Hail Marys, the sisters of Maria Medingen could connect with the divine. Use such prayerful postures to read this book, he suggested, and the transport will follow.

III. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, these letters and the interplay among Mechthild, Heinrich, and Margaret are invaluable for allowing us to eavesdrop on, while certainly not ordinary Christians, groups of Christians who do not fall into scholars' often bifurcated categories of religious or lay, male or female, vernacular or Latin. They are a mixed lot, these Friends of God, and they drew on one another's spiritual teachings to further their piety. This shows us that although we historians may not have always considered the vernacular, or women's, or an itinerant priest's understanding of spiritual authority as key to understanding the history of religion in the Middle Ages, a range of medieval people relied on this type of communication to live out their religious lives. Diverse people drew on the insights of mystical theology to access their own flights of spirit. And those people reached for, or were presented with, women's mystical texts for their spiritual guidance.

They were not passing a mere codex for the library shelf (valuable as that was in the medieval world), but a sacred vessel and indeed a catalyst for religious experience itself. These texts, when read prayerfully, with an "inner concentration of the mind" could produce in their readers the very experiences they were describing. This means that transmitting the book was pushing sacred cargo, the inward fruits of contemplation. Interaction with the book promised immediate experience of the divine.