1 0 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 chivalrously) to each of the Three Persons, according to the verses I placed first in each Couplet: To be favorable and zealous for every virtue, And not to fail with regard to a multitude of things, And to have compassionate good will for every need. This seems indeed to be the most perfect life one can attain on Earth. And you have heard this continually, for I always recommend it above all; and I also experienced it above all, and rendered service accordingly and worked chivalrously until the day it was forbidden me. The first rule (Fail not with regard to a multitude of things), so says Hadewych, means the power of the Father, making him the almighty God. In the previous Stanza, Hadewych assigned “keeping back” to the Father, in this Stanza it is “pouring out”. This confirms the earlier statement that both “pouring out” and “keeping back” together make up the pure Deity and the whole nature of the Minne. “Not to apply oneself to a particular work” proved to be the nature of the Father. “Fail not with regard to a multitude of things,” as shown in this paragraph, is the power of the Father, making him the almighty God. There is therefore a difference, according to Hadewych, between the nature of God and his strength. The nature of God is “keeping back”, the power of God is “pouring out”. The second rule (but perform no particular work) is, according to Hadewych, the justice of the Father. Only those who are in Unity with the Deity can understand these incomprehensible works of righteousness. People who serve the Persons in a very clean manner are not given the understanding of these works of righteousness, only those who are in Unity with the Deity can understand it. Hadewych describes the actions of the people who serve very clean but who are not in Unity with the Deity. They are people who serve “only” but do not know that in the Unity with the Deity serving and resting coincide, serving is there coming to rest. As the “pouring out” and the “keeping back” belongs to the essence of the Deity and Minne, so “serving” and “refraining from serving” fundamentally belong to each other to be able to get united with the Deity in Minne. The “chivalrous working“ belongs to it but when one is absorbed in the Unity one must refrain from serving. Hadewych describes in this passage a radical change in her own religious consciousness. She hints at what path she travelled before. She lived a life in which she served, until the moment it had been forbidden to her by God. Until that moment she had thought that serving was the most perfect way of life. She always lived in that way. Now, however, she has understood that in order to get into the essence of the Deity, it is necessary not only to serve and work, but also to abandon them. The essence of the Deity is “pouring out” and “keeping back” together in one. To be unified with this essence, it is necessary for man to become a kind of blueprint of this essence of the Deity. This is evident from the fact that to the human soul, personified by Hadewych, is entrusted what the “essence” of the three Persons is. The “pouring out” and the “keeping back” at the level of the Deity corresponds on the level of the human soul with the orders and prohibitions. The human soul can appropriate himself, through the follow-up of the orders and the prohibitions, the mode of being of the three Persons. Thus, he can be incorporated (passively) into the Unity of these Persons, the Deity. Yonder is only “pure Divinity and the entire Nature of Love”. How this togetherness looks like, Hadewych has tried to make clear in the poem of Rule 1–10. She understands, however, that her words are inadequate and that God himself must help her readers to truly understand what she means with this togetherness. 44–77: The Other Stanzas The verses that come second in each of the three Couplets I have composed express the perfection of the Unity and of Love, and according to justice treat of Love as one being, one sole Love, and nothing else. O Deus! This is a frightening being who, at one and the same time engulfs in unison such hatred and such charity! Have good will and compassion for every need. That was the Son in what is proper to his Person. He was purely this and did purely this. But take nothing under your protection. Thus, his Father engulfed him in himself; this cruel great work ever belongs to the Father. Yet it is the Unity of purest love in the Divinity: so that this Unity is also just with the justice of love and includes this Devotion, this Manhood, and this Power; nor would it have anyone left in need. And it includes one’s charity and compassion for those in hell and purgatory; for those unknown to God (Mathew 25:12; Luke 13:25), or who are known to him but still stray outside his dearest will; and for loving souls, who have more sorrow than all the rest, since they lack what they love. Justice takes up all this into itself. And yet each Person separately has given out what is proper to him, as I have said.
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