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Chapter 1AncreneWisse.1.1

Part Seven: Love

The Supremacy of Love

The author establishes that all ascetic practices are merely tools for cultivating a pure heart, which is defined by the fullness of love for God.

Saint Paul bears witness that all outward hardships, all penances of the flesh, and bodily labors—all of it is nothing compared to love, which purifies and brightens the heart. Bodily exercise is of little value; godliness, however, is valuable for everything.1 That is: physical busyness is worth little, but a sweet and pure heart is good for all things.2 If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels, and so on. If I hand over my body to be burned, and so on. If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, but don't have love, it does me no good.3 "Though I could speak," he says, "the languages of people and of angels; though I put my body through every pain and suffering a body could endure; though I gave the poor everything I had—if I didn't have love with it, love for God and for all people in him and for him, it would all be wasted." For as the holy abbot Moses said, all the woe and all the hardship we suffer in the flesh, and all the good we ever do—all such things are nothing but tools for tilling the heart.4 If the axe didn't cut, the spade didn't dig, and the plow didn't till, who would bother to keep them? Just as no one loves tools for their own sake, but for the work done with them, so no bodily hardship is to be loved except for this: that God may look more readily that way with his grace and make the heart pure and clear-sighted—which no one can have while vices are mixed in, or with earthly love of worldly things.5 For this mixture so clouds the eyes of the heart that it cannot know God or rejoice in the sight of him. A pure heart, as Saint Bernard says, comes down to two things: that in everything you do, you do it either for love of God alone, or for another's good and benefit. In everything you do, hold one of these two intentions, or both together, for the latter falls into the former.6 Always keep a pure heart this way, and do whatever you will; keep a stained heart, and everything goes badly for you.7 To the pure all things are pure; but to the defiled nothing is pure, as the Apostle says. Likewise, Augustine says: Have love, and do whatever you will—that is, with the will of reason.8 Therefore, my dear sisters, above all else, be diligent in keeping a pure heart. What is a pure heart? As I have said before, it means you desire nothing and love nothing except God alone, and you love things for God’s sake only if they help you toward Him—love them for God, I say, and not for their own sake, whether it’s food, clothing, or a person who has done you good.9 For as Saint Augustine says, speaking to our Lord: "He loves you less who loves anything besides you that he does not love for your sake."10 That is: "Lord, they love you less who love anything besides you, unless they love it for your sake." Purity of heart is the love of God alone. In this lies the entire strength of every religious life and the goal of every order.11 The fullness of the law is love. "Love fulfills the law," says Saint Paul.✦ Whatever is commanded is made firm only in love.12 "All God's commandments," as Saint Gregory says, "are rooted in love." Love alone will be set in Saint Michael's scales.13 Those who love most will be most blessed—not those who lead the hardest life—for love outweighs it. Love is heaven's steward because of her great generosity: she holds nothing back, but gives all she has and even herself—otherwise God would care nothing for what was hers.14

The Wooing of the Soul

Using the allegory of a king wooing a poor lady, the author describes Christ's sacrificial love and his passion as a knightly act of redemption.

God has earned our love in every kind of way. He has done much for us, and promised more. A great gift draws love. Indeed, he gave us the whole world in Adam, our first father, and he cast everything in the world under our feet—beasts and birds—before we had fallen into guilt.15 You have put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that travel the paths of the sea.✦ And yet, everything that exists—as mentioned above—serves the good for the soul's benefit; even so, the earth, sea, and sun still serve the wicked.16 He did still more: he gave us not only of his own, but gave his whole self. Such a high gift was never given to such lowly wretches. The Apostle: Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her.✦ "Christ," says Saint Paul, "loved his beloved so much that he gave himself as the price for her." Now pay close attention, my dear sisters, to why we ought to love him. First, like a man who is wooing, like a king who loved a noble but poor lady from a far country, he sent his messengers ahead—they were the patriarchs and the prophets of the Old Testament—with sealed letters. At last he came himself and brought the Gospel as opened letters, and with his own blood he wrote a greeting of salvation to his beloved—a love-greeting—so that he might woo her with it and win her love. To this belongs a story—a veiled parable. A lady was besieged all around by her enemies; her land was completely destroyed, and she was utterly poor inside an earthen castle. Yet a mighty king's love was turned toward her so boundlessly that, to court her, he sent her his messengers, one after another — often many at once — and sent her jewels both many and beautiful, supplies of food, and help from his high household to hold her castle.17 She received it all as someone careless, and was so hard-hearted that he could never come any nearer her love.18 What more do you want? At last he came himself, showed her his face—he who was the fairest of all men to look upon—and spoke so sweetly, with words so delightful they could raise the dead to life; he worked many wonders and performed great feats before her eyes, showed her his power, told her of his kingdom, and offered to make her queen of all he owned.19 All this came to nothing — wasn't this a scornful wonder?20 For she was never worthy even to be his handmaid; but love, through his gracious kindness, had so overcome him that at last he said, "Lady, you are under attack, and your enemies are so strong that you cannot in any way escape their hands without my help — they will put you to a shameful death after all your misery.21 For love of you, I will take that fight on myself and deliver you from those who seek your death. I know for certain, though, that among them I’ll take a mortal wound—and I’ll take it gladly, to win your heart. Now then I beg you, for the love I showed you, that you love me at least after that same deed—when I am dead—since you wouldn't while I lived.22 This king did all of that: he rescued her from all her enemies, and was himself terribly abused and finally slain—yet through a miracle he rose from death to life.23 Wouldn't this same lady be wicked if, after this, she didn't love him above everything? This king is Jesus, God's Son, who in just this way wooed our soul, which the devils had besieged. And he, as a noble wooer, after many messengers and many good deeds, came to prove his love and showed through knighthood that he was worthy of love, as knights were once accustomed to do—he entered the tournament and, for love of his beloved, had his shield in battle pierced through on every side, like a bold knight. His shield, which covered his Godhead, was his dear body stretched upon the cross—broad as a shield above with his outstretched arms, and narrow below, as one foot was set upon the other, according to common belief.2425 The fact that this shield has no sides is a sign that his disciples, who should have stood by him and been his sides, all fled from him and left him like a stranger, just as the Gospel says: Relicto eo omnes fugerunt.✦ This shield is given to us against all temptations, as Jeremiah testifies: Dabis scutum cordis laborem tuum.✦ This shield doesn't just protect us from all evils; it does even more: it crowns us in heaven. With the shield of good will.26 "Lord," David says, "with the shield of your good will you have crowned us."✦ He calls it a "shield of good will" because he willingly suffered everything he endured. Isaiah says, "He was offered because he willed it."✦ "But, Lord," you say, "why couldn't he have rescued us with less suffering?" Yes, indeed, very easily—but he would not. Why? To strip us of every excuse against him for withholding the love he bought so dearly.27 People buy cheaply what they love little. He bought us with his heart's blood—never was there a dearer price—to draw our love out of us toward him, love that cost him so much pain.✦ A shield consists of three things: the wood, the leather, and the coloring.28 Likewise, this shield had the wood of the cross, the leather of God's body, and the coloring of the red blood that painted it so beautifully. Again, the third reason: after a bold knight's death, they hang his shield high in the church in his memory. So too this shield—that is, the crucifix—is set in the church in such a place where people see it most readily, so that by it they may think of Jesus Christ's knighthood, which he carried out on the cross.29 Let his beloved look upon it: see how he bought her love. He allowed his shield to be pierced and his side opened to show her his heart, to demonstrate openly how deeply he loved her, and to draw her heart to him.✦30

The Four Great Loves

The author compares Christ's love to human relationships, demonstrating that his mercy and self-sacrifice surpass all earthly bonds.

I find four chief loves in this world: between good companions, between man and woman, between a wife and her child, and between body and soul. The love that Jesus Christ has for his dear beloved surpasses these four and exceeds them all. Isn't a man counted a good friend who lays his own pledge in Jewry to redeem his friend?✦31 God Almighty laid himself for us in Jewry and gave his precious body to redeem his beloved from the hands of the Jews.✦32 No friend has ever done such a kindness for another.✦ There's often a great deal of love between a man and a woman, but even if she were married to him, she might become so depraved and prostitute herself with other men for so long that, even if she wanted to return, he wouldn't take her back at all. That's why Christ loves more: for though the soul, his spouse, may prostitute herself with the fiend in mortal sin for many years and days, his mercy is always ready for her when she wants to come home and leave the devil.33 He says all this himself through Jeremiah: "If a man puts away his wife," and so on.34 But you have fornicated with many lovers; yet return to me, says the Lord. Yet he cries out all day: "You who have done so wickedly—turn back and come again; you'll be welcome to me." Indeed, he even runs to meet the prodigal as he comes. "Yet he runs," it says, "to meet her return, and at once throws his arms around her neck." What greater mercy is there? Yet here is an even more joyful wonder: no matter how much his beloved has prostituted herself with so many deadly sins, as soon as she comes back to him, he makes her a virgin again.35 For as Saint Augustine says, the difference between how God approaches a woman and how a man does is so great that a man's approach turns a maiden into a wife, while God's approach turns a wife into a maiden.36 "He restores to full integrity," says Job.37 Good works and true faith—these two things are virginity in the soul. Now for the third love. A child that had such an illness that it needed a bath of blood before it could be healed—how much the mother loved it who would make this bath for it. This is what our Lord did for us; we were so sick with sin and so soiled by it that nothing could heal or cleanse us but His blood alone, for that is what He willed. His love creates that bath for us.38 Blessed be He forever! He prepared three baths for his dear beloved, to wash her in them so white and so fair that she would be worthy of his pure embraces.39 The first bath is baptism. The second is tears, inward or outward, after the first bath, if she soils herself.40 The third is Jesus Christ's blood, which hallows both the others, as Saint John says in the Apocalypse: "Who loved us and washed us in his blood."✦ He loves us more than any mother loves her child; he says it himself through Isaiah: "Can a mother forget the child of her womb?"✦ "And even if she should forget, I won't forget you."✦ "Can a mother," he says, "forget her child?" "And even if she does, I can never forget you"—and he gives the reason next: "I have inscribed you on my hands."✦ "I have," he says, "painted you on my hands"—and that's what he did with red blood upon the cross.✦41 A person knots his belt to keep something in mind, but our Lord, because he would never forget us, made a mark of piercing in both his hands, for our remembrance.✦42 Now the fourth love: the soul loves the body very much indeed, and that is plain in the parting—for dear friends are grieved when they must separate—but our Lord willingly parted his soul from his body so that he might join both of ours together, world without end, in the bliss of heaven. So then, Jesus Christ's love for his dear spouse—that is, Holy Church, or a pure soul—surpasses all and outdoes the four greatest loves that can be found on earth.43 And with all this love, he still woos her in this way:

The Divine Invitation

Christ invites the soul to offer its love to him, promising eternal rewards and warning against the tepidity of a lukewarm heart.

"Your love," he says, "must either be given entirely, sold, or seized by force." If it's to be given, where could you bestow it better than on me?44 Am I not the fairest of all things?45 Am I not the richest of kings? Am I not of the highest birth?46 Am I not the wisest of the wise?47 Am I not the most gracious of men?48 Am I not the freest of all things?49 For that's what people say of a freehanded man who can't hold anything back—that he has hands pierced through, as mine are.50 Am I not the most fragrant and sweetest of all things?51 So you can find in me all the reasons why love ought to be given—especially if you love chaste purity. For no one can love me unless she keeps it.52 But it is threefold: in widowhood, in marriage, and in virginity—and virginity is the highest.53 If your love isn't for giving, but you want it bought—bought? How? Either with another love, or with something else. Love is rightly sold for love, and that’s how it ought to be sold—and for nothing else. If yours is to be sold that way, I’ve bought it with love above all others. For of the four greatest loves, I’ve shown you the greatest of them all.54 If you say you won't let it go so cheap, but want still more, name what it should be. Set a high price on your love. You won't name so much that I won't give more. Do you want castles, kingdoms? Do you want to possess the whole world? I'll do even better for you: on top of all this, I'll make you queen of the kingdom of heaven. You'll be seven times brighter than the sun.✦ No evil will come near you.✦ You won't lack any joy. All your will shall be done in heaven and on earth as well—yes, and even in hell.55 Never will a heart imagine such bliss that I will not give still more for your love—immeasurably, beyond all comparison, endlessly more.✦56 All the wealth of Croesus, who was the richest of kings.57 Absalom's fair beauty—who, whenever they cut his hair, sold the clippings, the hair he cut off, for two hundred shekels of weighed silver.✦ Asahel's swiftness—he who raced with the running deer.✦ Samson's strength—he who killed a thousand of his enemies all at once, alone, without a companion.✦ Caesar's generosity.58 Alexander's renown. Moses's health.59 Wouldn’t a person give everything they owned for just one of these? And all of them together, set against my body, aren't worth a needle. If you're so stubbornly self-willed and so out of your mind that, rather than lose nothing, you refuse such gain—with every kind of bliss—look: I hold a cruel sword here over your head to part life from soul, and sink them both into the fire of hell, to be the devil's whore in shame and sorrow, world without end.60 Answer me now and defend yourself if you can, or else give me your love, which I long for so much—not for my sake, but for your own great good. Look: this is how our Lord woos. Is any woman so hard-hearted that such a wooer cannot win her to his love, if she carefully considers these three things: who he is and who she is, and how great is the love of one so high as he is for one so low as she is?61 That is why the Psalmist says: There is no one who can hide from his heat. There is no one who can hide so that she is not bound to love him.62 That is why the true Sun was raised high at the third hour, on the high cross, to spread hot rays of love over everything.63 He was so eager, and remains so to this day, to kindle his love in his beloved's heart; and he says in the Gospel: I have come to cast fire on the earth, and what do I want except that it should burn?64 "I came to bring fire into the earth," he says—that is, burning love into an earthly heart—"and what else do I long for but that it should blaze?" Lukewarm love is hateful to him, as he says through Saint John in the Apocalypse: Would that you were cold or hot!65 But because you are lukewarm, I will begin to spit you out of my mouth.✦ "I would rather," he says to his beloved, "that in my love you were either completely cold or completely hot. But because you're lukewarm between the two—neither hot nor cold—you make me sick, and I will spit you out unless you grow hotter."✦66

Kindling the Fire of Devotion

The author uses the imagery of the widow of Sarepta and Greek fire to teach how to maintain the fire of love against temptations and spite.

Now you've heard, my dear sisters, how and why God is so greatly to be loved. To kindle yourselves well, gather wood for it with the poor woman of Sarepta, the city whose name means "kindling."67 "Look," she says, "I am gathering two sticks" (1 Kings 17:12).68 "Lord," she said to Elijah the holy prophet, "look, I'm gathering two sticks." These two sticks signify the two beams of the precious cross—the one timber that stood upright, and the other that crossed it. From these two sticks you must kindle the fire of love within your heart. Look toward them often. Think about whether you shouldn't readily love the King of bliss, who spreads his arms so wide toward you and bows his head downward as if to offer a kiss. I say this for certain: if the true Elijah—that is, God Almighty—finds you busy gathering these two pieces of wood, he will stay with you and multiply his precious grace within you, just as Elijah multiplied the livelihood of the woman he found gathering two pieces of wood in Zarephath, and stayed with her.69 Greek fire is made of a red man's blood, and nothing can quench it, people say, except urine and sand and vinegar.70 This Greek fire is the love of Jesus our Lord, and you are to make it from a red man's blood—that is, Jesus Christ, reddened with his own blood on the dear cross—and he was ruddy by nature as well, as people believe.71 This blood, shed for you on those two wooden beams, will make you women of Sarepta—that is, kindled with this Greek fire which, as Solomon says, no waters (meaning worldly tribulations) and no temptations, whether inward or outward, can quench.✦72 In the end, there's nothing left but to guard yourselves carefully against everything that quenches it—that is, urine, sand, and vinegar, as I said before. Urine is the stench of sin. Nothing good grows on sand, and it stands for idleness.73 Idleness cools and quenches this fire. Keep stirring yourselves up, always, briskly in good works, and that will warm you and kindle this fire again against the burning of sin. For just as one nail drives out another, so the burning of God's love drives the burning of foul love out of the heart. The third thing is vinegar—that is, a sour heart of spite or envy. Understand this: when the spiteful Jews offered our Lord this sour gift on the cross, he said that pitiful word, Consummatum est.✦✦ "Never," he said, "until now was I fully tormented"—not through that vinegar, but through their envious spite that the vinegar signified, which they made him drink; and it is as if a man who had labored long, and after long toil failed at the end of his wages.✦ In the same way, our Lord labored for more than thirty-two years for their love, and for all his hard toil, he desired nothing but love as his wage. But at the end of his life—which was like the evening hour when workmen are paid their day's wages—look how they paid him: instead of a sweet spiced drink of honeyed love, vinegar of sour spite and gall of bitter envy!✦✦ "Ah," said our Lord then, "Consummatum est."✦ "All my toil on earth, all my pain on the cross neither grieves nor hurts me at all next to this—that I thus throw away all that I have done. "This vinegar that you offer me—this sour payment—brings my suffering to completion."✦74 This vinegar of a sour heart and bitter thinking quenches Greek fire more than anything else—that is, the love of our Lord—and whoever carries it in the breast toward a woman or a man is the Jews' companion.75 She offers God this vinegar and, as far as it lies within her power, completes Jesus's suffering on the cross.76 People throw Greek fire on their enemies to overcome them. You should do the same when God raises against you any war from any enemy.77 Solomon teaches how you should throw it: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.✦ For in this way you will heap burning coals on his head—that is, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him."✦ For his thirst, give him a drink."✦ That means: if after harming you he is hungry or thirsty, give him the food of your prayers, that God may show him mercy.✦78 Give him a drink of tears.✦ Weep for his sins. "In this way," Solomon says, "you will heap burning coals on his head"—meaning, this is how you will kindle his heart to love you.✦ For in Holy Scripture the heart is understood by the word "head." In just this way God will say at the judgment: "Why did you love that man or that woman?" "Lord, they loved me!"79 "Yes," he will say, "you repaid what you owed."80 I don't have much here to repay you. If you can answer, "They did me every harm, and I owed them no love—but, Lord, I loved them for your love"—that love he owes you, for it was given to him, and he will repay it to you.81

The Rule of the Heart

The author concludes by emphasizing that love is the 'lady rule' that governs all other monastic observances, which are merely its servants.

Urine—as I said—which puts out Greek fire, is the stinking love of the flesh, which quenches the spiritual love that Greek fire signifies.82 What flesh on earth was as sweet and holy as the flesh of Jesus Christ? And yet he himself said to his dear disciples, "Unless I go away, the Advocate won't come to you."83 That is: "Unless I leave you, the Holy Spirit—that is, my love and my Father's—cannot come to you." But when I am away from you, I will send him to you."✦ When Jesus Christ's own disciples, while they loved him in a fleshly way, nearly lost the sweetness of the Holy Spirit—they couldn't have both at once.84 Judge for yourselves: isn't he or she mad who loves their own flesh too much, or any man in a fleshly way, so that they yearn too strongly for the sight of him or for his speech? She shouldn't think it strange if she lacks the comfort of the Holy Spirit.85 Choose now, each of you, between these two — earthly comfort and heavenly — which one she will hold onto, for she must let the other go. For if the two are mixed together, she can never again have purity of heart — that is, as we said earlier, the good and the strength of all religious life and of every order. Love makes it pure, peaceful, and clean. Love has a mastery above all others; for everything it touches, it turns entirely to itself and makes entirely its own. Whatever place your foot has trodden—the foot of love, that is—will be yours. Many a person would pay dearly to buy such a thing: that everything he touched would become entirely his own. And didn't it say further up that merely by loving the good that is in another, with the touch of your love you make his good your own good without any other labor — as Saint Gregory bears witness? Look now at how much good the envious lose. Extend your love to Jesus Christ—you've won him. Reach out to him with as much love as you've sometimes given another person; he is yours to do with as you will. But who loves a thing and then leaves it for less than it's worth? Isn't God incomparably better than everything else in the world? Charity is the dearness of what is beloved and precious.86 Whoever lessens their love of God for any worldly thing makes God cheap and worthless—for nothing can be loved rightly except him alone.87 He loves love so intensely that he makes her his equal.88 Yet I'll say more: he makes her his master and does everything she commands as if he had no choice. May I prove this? Yes, I truly can, by his own words—for this is how he speaks to Moses, the man who loved him most. In Numbers: "I have forgiven according to your word"—he doesn't say "prayers."89 "I had meant," he said, "to work out my wrath on this people. But you say I shall not. Let your word be carried out."90 People say that love binds; truly, love binds our Lord so tightly that he can do nothing except by love's leave. Now I'll prove this, for it seems a wonder.91 Isaiah: "Lord, there is no one who rises up and holds you." "Lord, you intend to strike," says Isaiah. "Alas!92 You certainly may—there's no one to hold you back," as if he were saying, "if anyone truly loved you, they could hold you and keep you from striking." In Genesis, to Lot: "Hurry," and so on. I won't be able to do anything there until you have left that place. That is, when our Lord meant to sink Sodom, where Lot his friend was, "hurry yourself," he said, "out of there. For while you are among them, I cannot do anything to them."✦ Wasn't he bound by love?93 What more do you want? Love is his chamberlain, his counselor, his spouse—someone he can't keep anything from, but tells everything he's thinking. In Genesis: Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?✦ "Can I," says our Lord, "hide from Abraham what I intend to do? No, not at all." Now here is one who knows how to love—the one who speaks like this and acts like this toward all who inwardly believe him and love him. The bliss he prepares for them, just as it is beyond comparison with all the world's joys, is likewise beyond the power of worldly tongues to describe. Isaiah: Eye has not seen, O God, apart from you, what you have prepared for those who love you.✦94 The Apostle says, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard," and so on.✦ My dear sisters, you already have writing about these joys elsewhere. This love is the rule that governs the heart. "I will praise you in the directing"—that is, "in the regulating"—"of the heart."95 "The reproach of the wicked: a generation that did not direct its heart."✦ This is the lady rule — all the others serve her.96 And only for her sake are they commanded to be loved. I don't put much stock in them, as long as this one is held precious and worthy. Still, take them up briefly in the eighth part.

Read the original Latin

Seinte Pawel witneth thet alle uttre heardschipes, alle flesches pinsunges, ant licomliche swinkes - al is ase nawt ayeines luve, the schireth ant brihteth the heorte. Exercitio corporis ad modicum valet; pietas autem valet ad omnia. Thet is, "licomlich bisischipe is to lutel wurth, ah swote ant schir heorte is god to alle thinges. Si linguis hominum loquar et angelorum, et cetera. Si tradidero corpus meum ita ut ardeam, et cetera. Si distribuero omnes facultates meas in cibos pauperum, caritatem autem non habeam, nichil michi prodest. "Thah ich cuthe," he seith, "monne ledene ant englene, thah ich dude o mi bodi alle pine ant passiun thet bodi mahte tholien, thah ich yeve povre al thet ich hefde, yef ich nefde luve ther-with, to Godd ant to alle men in him ant for him, al were i-spillet. For as the hali abbat Moyses seide, al thet wa ant al thet heard thet we tholieth o flesch, ant al thet god thet we eaver doth, alle swucche thinges ne beoth nawt bute as lomen to tilie with the heorte.

Yef the axe ne kurve, ne spitel-steaf ne dulve, ne the sulh ne erede, hwa kepte ham to halden? Alswa as na mon ne luveth lomen for ham-seolf, ah deth for the thinges thet me wurcheth with ham, alswa na flesches derf nis to luvien bute for-thi, thet Godd te reathere thider- ward loki mid his grace ant makie the heorte schir ant of briht sihthe, thet nan ne mei habben with monglunge of untheawes, ne with eorthlich luve of worltliche thinges. For this mong woreth swa the ehnen of the heorte, thet ha ne mei cnawen Godd, ne gleadien of his sihthe. Schir heorte, as Seint Bernard seith, makieth twa thinges, thet tu al thet tu dest do hit other for luve ane of Godd, other for othres god ant for his biheve. Have in al thet tu dest an of þes twa ententes, other ba togederes, for the leatere falleth into the earre. Have eaver schir heorte thus ant do al thet tu wult; have wori heorte, al the sit uvele. Omnia munda mundis; coinquinatis vero nichil est mundum (Apostolus). Item, Augustinus: Habe caritatem, et fac quicquid vis - voluntate videlicet rationis.

For-thi, mine leove sustren, over alle thing beoth bisie to habben schir heorte. Hwet is schir heorte? Ich hit habbe i-seid ear, thet is thet ye na thing ne wilnin ne ne luvien, bute Godd ane ant te ilke thinges for Godd, the helpeth ow toward him - for Godd, ich segge, luvien ham, ant nawt for ham-seolven, as is mete other clath, mon other wummon, the ye beoth of i-godet. For ase seith Seint Austin ant speketh thus to ure Laverd: Minus te amat qui preter te aliquid amat, quod non propter te amat. Thet is, "Laverd, leasse ha luvieth the, the luvieth eawt bute the, bute ha luvien hit for the." Schirnesse of heorte is Godes luve ane. I this is al the strengthe of alle religiuns, the ende of alle ordres. Plenitudo legis est dilectio.

"Luve fulleth the lahe," seith Seinte Pawel. Quicquid precipitur, in sola caritate solidatur. "Alle Godes heastes," as Sein Gregoire seith, "beoth i luve i-rotet." Luve ane schal beon i-leid i Seinte Mihales weie. Theo the meast luvieth, schulen beo meast i-blisset, nawt theo the leadeth heardest lif: for luve hit overweieth. Luve is heovene stiward for hire muchele freolec, for heo ne edhalt na thing, ah yeveth al thet ha haveth ant ec hire-seolven - elles ne kepte Godd nawt of thet hiren were.

Godd haveth ofgan ure luve on alle cunne wise. He haveth muchel i-don us, ant mare bihaten. Muchel yeove ofdraheth luve. Me al the world he yef us in Adam, ure alde feader, ant al thet is i the world he weorp under ure fet, beastes ant fuheles, ear we weren forgulte. Omnia subjecisti sub pedibus ejus, oves et boves universas insuper et pecora campi, volucres celi, et pisces maris, qui perambulant semitas maris. Ant yet al thet is, as is th'ruppe i-seid, serveth the gode to sawle biheve, yet te uvele servith eorthe, sea, ant sunne. He dude yet mare, yef us nawt ane of his, ah dude al him-seolven. Se heh yeove nes neaver i- yeven to se lahe wrecches.

Apostolus: Christus dilexit ecclesiam et dedit semet ipsum pro ea. "Crist," seith Seinte Pawel, "luvede swa his leofmon thet he yef for hire the pris of him-seolven." Neometh nu gode yeme, mine leove sustren, for- hwi me ah him to luvien. Earst as a mon the woheth, as a king thet luvede a gentil povre leafdi of feorrene londe, he sende his sonden bivoren - thet weren the patriarches ant te prophetes of the alde testament - with leattres i-sealet. On ende he com him-seolven ant brohte the Godspel as leattres i-openet ant wrat with his ahne blod saluz to his leofmon, luve-gretunge, for-te wohin hire with ant hire luve wealden. Her-to falleth a tale, a wrihe forbisne.

A leafdi wes mid hire fan biset al abuten, hire lond al destruet, ant heo al povre in-with an eorthene castel. A mihti kinges luve wes thah biturnd upon hire swa unimete swithe, thet he for wohlech sende hire his sonden, an efter other, ofte somet monie, sende hire beawbelez bathe feole ant feire, sucurs of liveneth, help of his hehe hird to halden hire castel. Heo underfeng al as on unrecheles, ant swa wes heard i-heortet, thet hire luve ne mahte he neaver beo the neorre. Hwet wult tu mare? He com him-seolf on ende, schawde hire his feire neb, as the the wes of alle men feherest to bihalden, spec se swithe swoteliche, ant wordes se murie, thet ha mahten deade arearen to live, wrahte feole wundres ant dude muchele meistries bivoren hire eh-sihthe, schawde hire his mihte, talde hire of his kinedom, bead to makien hire cwen of al thet he ahte. Al this ne heold nawt - nes this hoker wunder? For heo nes neaver wurthe for-te beon his thuften, ah swa thurh his deboneirte luve hefde overcumen him, thet he seide on ende, "Dame, thu art i- weorret ant thine van beoth se stronge thet tu ne maht nanes-weis withute mi sucurs edfleon hare honden, thet ha ne don the to scheome death efter al thi weane. Ich chulle for the luve of the neome thet feht up-o me ant arudde the of ham the thi death secheth.

Ich wat thah to sothe thet ich schal bituhen ham neomen deathes wunde, ant ich hit wulle heorteliche for-te ofgan thin heorte. Nu thenne biseche ich the, for the luve thet ich cuthe the, thet tu luvie me lanhure efter the ilke dede dead, hwen thu naldest lives." Thes king dude al thus: arudde hire of alle hire van, ant wes him-seolf to wundre i-tuket ant i-slein on ende - thurh miracle aras thah from deathe to live. Nere theos ilke leafdi of uveles cunnes cunde, yef ha over alle thing ne luvede him her-efter?

Thes king is Jesu, Godes sune, thet al o thisse wise wohede ure sawle, the deoflen hefden biset. Ant he as noble wohere efter monie messagers ant feole god-deden com to pruvien his luve ant schawde thurh cnihtschipe thet he wes luve-wurthe, as weren sum-hwile cnihtes i-wunet to donne - dude him i turneiment ant hefde for his leoves luve his scheld i feht as kene cniht on euche half i-thurlet. His scheld, the wreah his Godd-head, wes his leove licome thet wes i-spread o rode, brad as scheld buven in his i-strahte earmes, nearow bineothen as the an fot - efter mon ies wene - set up-o the other. Thet this scheld naveth siden is for bitacnunge thet his deciples the schulden stonden bi him ant habben i-beon his siden fluhen alle from him ant leafden him as fremede, as the Godspel seith: Relicto eo omnes fugerunt. This scheld is i-yeven us ayein alle temptatiuns, as Jeremie witneth: Dabis scutum cordis laborem tuum. Nawt ane this scheld ne schilt us from alle uveles, ah deth yet mare, cruneth us in heovene. Scuto bone voluntatis. "Laverd," he seith, Davith, "with the scheld of thi gode wil thu havest us i-crunet."

"Scheld" he seith "of god wil," for willes he tholede al thet he tholede. Ysaias: Oblatus est quia voluit.

"Me, Laverd," thu seist, "hwer-to ne mahte he with leasse gref habben arud us?" Yeoi, i-wiss, ful lihtliche, ah he nalde. For-hwi? For-te bineomen us euch bitellunge ayein him of ure luve thet he se deore bohte. Me buth lihtliche thing thet me luveth lutel. He bohte us with his heorte blod - deorre pris nes neaver - for-te ofdrahen of us ure luve toward him, thet costnede him se sare. I scheld beoth threo thinges: the treo, ant te lether, ant te litunge. Alswa wes i this scheld the treo of the rode, thet lether of Godes licome, the litunge of the reade blod thet heowede hire se feire.

Eft the thridde reisun: efter kene cnihtes death, me hongeth hehe i chirche his scheld on his mungunge. Alswa is this scheld - thet is, the crucifix - i chirche i-set i swuch stude ther me hit sonest seo, for-te thenchen ther-bi o Jesu Cristes cnihtschipe, thet he dude o rode. His leofmon bihalde th'ron hu he bohte hire luve, lette thurlin his scheld, openin his side, to schawin hire his heorte, to schawin hire openliche hu inwardliche he luvede hire, ant to ofdrahen hire heorte.

Fowr heaved luven me i-find i this world: bitweone gode i-feren, bitweone mon ant wummon, bitweone wif ant hire child, bitweone licome ant sawle. The luve thet Jesu Crist haveth to his deore leofmon overgeath theos fowre, passeth ham alle. Ne teleth me him god fere the leith his wed i Giwerie to acwitin ut his fere? Godd almihti leide him-seolf for us i Giwerie ant dude his deore-wurthe bodi to acwitin ut his leofmon of Giwene honden. Neaver fere ne dude swuch fordede for his fere.

Muche luve is ofte bitweone mon ant wummon, ah thah ha were i-weddet him, ha mahte i-wurthen se unwreast, ant swa longe ha mahte forhorin hire with othre men thet thah ha walde ayein cumen, he ne kepte hire nawt. For-thi Crist luveth mare, for thah the sawle his spuse forhori hire with the feond under heaved-sunne, feole yeres ant dahes, his mearci is hire eaver yarow hwen ha wule cumen ham ant leten then deovel. Al this he seith him-seolf thurh Jeremie: Si dimiserit vir ux- orem suam, et cetera. Tu autem fornicata es cum multis amatoribus; tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus. Yet he yeiyeth al dei, "thu thet havest se unwreaste i-don, biturn the ant cum ayein - welcume schalt tu beo me." Immo et occurrit prodigo venienti. "Yet he eorneth," hit seith, "ayein hire yein-cume ant warpeth earmes anan abuten hire swire." Hweat is mare milce?

Yet her gleadfulre wunder: ne beo neaver his leof forhoret mid se monie deadliche sunnen, sone se ha kimeth to him ayein he maketh hire neowe meiden. For as Seint Austin seith, swa muchel is bitweonen Godes neoleachunge ant monnes to wummon, thet monnes neoleachunge maketh of meiden wif, ant Godd maketh of wif meiden. Restituit, inquit Job, in integrum. Gode werkes ant treowe bileave - theose twa thinges beoth meithhad i sawle.

Nu of the thridde luve. Child thet hefde swuch uvel thet him bihofde beath of blod ear hit were i-healet - muchel the moder luvede hit, the walde this beath him makien. This dude ure Laverd us the weren se seke of sunne ant swa i-sulet ther- with thet na thing ne mahte healen us ne cleansin us bute his blod ane, for swa he hit walde. His luve maketh us beath th'rof. I-blescet beo he eavre! Threo beathes he greithede to his deore leofmon for-te weschen hire in ham se hwit ant se feier thet ha were wurthe to his cleane cluppunges. The earste beath is fulluht. The other beoth teares inre other uttre, efter the forme beath, yef ha hire suleth.

The thridde is Jesu Cristes blod thet halheth ba the othre, as Sein Juhan seith i the Apocalipse: Qui dilexit nos et lavit nos in sanguine suo. Thet he luveth us mare then eani moder hire child - he hit seith him-seolven thurh Ysaie: Nunquid potest mater oblivisci filii uteri sui? Et si illa obliviscatur, ego non obliviscar tui. "Mei moder," he seith, "foryeoten hire child? Ant thah heo do, ich ne mei the foryeoten neaver" - ant seith the resun efter: In manibus meis descripsi te. "Ich habbe," he seith, "depeint te i mine honden" - swa he dude mid read blod up-o the rode. Me cnut his gurdel to habben thoht of a thing, ah ure Laverd, for he nalde neaver foryeoten us, dude mearke of thurlunge, in ure munegunge, i ba twa his honden.

Nu the feorthe luve: the sawle luveth the licome swithe mid alle, ant thet is etscene i the twinnunge - for leove freond beoth sari hwen ha schulen twinnin - ah ure Laverd willeliche totweamde his sawle from his bodi for-te veien ure bathe togederes, world buten ende i the blisse of heovene. Thus, lo, Jesu Cristes luve toward his deore spuse - thet is, Hali Chirche other cleane sawle - passeth alle ant overkimeth the fowr measte luven thet me i-find on eorthe. With al this luve yetten he woheth hire o this wise:

"Thi luve," he seith, " - other hit is for-te yeoven allunge, other hit is to sullen, other hit is to reavin ant to neomen with strengthe. Yef hit is for-te yeoven, hwer maht tu biteon hit betere then up-o me? Nam ich thinge feherest? Nam ich kinge richest? Nam ich hest i-cunnet? Nam ich weolie wisest? Nam ich monne hendest? Nam ich thinge freoest?

For swa me seith bi large mon the ne con nawt edhalden, thet he haveth the honden, as mine beoth, i-thurlet. Nam ich alre thinge swotest ant swetest? Thus alle the reisuns hwi me ah to yeove luve thu maht i-finden in me, nomeliche yef thu luvest chaste cleannesse. For nan ne mei luvie me bute ha hire halde. Ah ha is threo-vald: i widewehad, i spushad, i meidenhad, the heste. Yef thi luve nis nawt to yeovene, ah wult thet me bugge hire - buggen hire? Hu? Other with other luve other with sum-hweat elles.

Me suleth wel luve for luve ant swa me ah to sulle luve, ant for na thing elles. Yef thin is swa to sullen ich habbe i-boht hire with luve over alle othre. For of the fowr measte luven, ich habbe i-cud toward te the measte of ham alle. Yef thu seist thu nult nawt leote th'ron se liht chap, ah wult yette mare, nempne hweat hit schule beon. Sete feor o thi luve. Thu ne schalt seggen se muchel thet ich nule yeove mare. Wult tu castles, kinedomes? Wult tu wealden al the world?

Ich chulle do the betere, makie the, with al this, cwen of heove-riche. Thu schalt te-seolf beo seove-vald brihtre then the sunne. Nan uvel ne schal nahhi the. Na wunne ne schal wonti the. Al thi wil schal beon i-wraht in heovene ant ec in eorthe - ye, ant yet in helle. Ne schal neaver heorte thenchen hwuch selhthe thet ich nule yeoven for thi luve unmeteliche, unevenliche, unendeliche mare. Al Creasuse weole, the wes kinge richest. Absalones schene wlite, the as ofte as me evesede him, salde his evesunge, the her thet he kearf of for twa hundret sicles of seolver i-weiet.

Asaeles swiftschipe, the straf with heortes of urn. Samsones strengthe, the sloh a thusent of his fan al ed a time, ant ane, bute fere. Cesares freolec. Alixandres here-word. Moysese heale. Nalde a mon for an of theos yeoven al thet he ahte? Ant alle somet, ayein mi bodi, ne beoth nawt wurth a nelde. Yef thu art se swithe ane-wil ant swa ut of thi wit thet tu, thurh nawt to leosen, forsakest swuch biyete, with alles cunnes selhthe, lo, ich halde her heatel sweord up-o thin heaved to dealen lif ant sawle, ant bisenchen ham ba into the fur of helle, to beon deofles hore schentfulliche ant sorhfulliche world abuten ende.

Ondswere nu ant were the, yef thu const, ayein me, other yette me thi luve the ich yirne se swithe - nawt for min ah for thin ahne muchele biheve."

Lo, thus ure Laverd woheth. Nis ha to heard i-heortet thet a thulli wohere ne mei to his luve turnen, yef ha wel thencheth theose threo thinges: hwet he is ant hwet heo is, ant hu muchel is the luve of se heh as he is toward se lah as heo is? For-thi seith the Salm-wruhte: Non est qui se abscondat a calore ejus. "Nis nan thet mahe edlutien thet ha ne mot him luvien." The sothe sunne i the under-tid wes for-thi i-stihen on heh, o the hehe rode, for-te spreaden over-al hate luve-gleames. Thus neodful he wes ant is athet tes dei to ontenden his luve i his leoves heorte, ant seith i the Godspel: Ignem veni mittere in terram, et quid volo nisi ut ardeat? "Ich com to bringen," he seith, "fur into eorthe" - thet is, bearninde luve into eorthlich heorte - "ant hwet yirne ich elles bute thet hit bleasie?" Wlech luve is him lath, as he seith thurh Sein Juhan i the Apocalipse: Utinam frigidus esses aut calidus!

Set quia tepidus es, incipiam te evomere de ore meo. "Ich walde," he seith to his leofmon, "thet tu were i mi luve other allunge cald, other hat mid alle, ah for-thi thet tu art ase wlech bitweone twa, nowther hat ne cald, thu makest me to wleatien, ant ich wulle speowe the ut bute thu wurthe hattre."

Nu ye habbeth i-herd, mine leove sustren, hu ant for-hwi Godd is swithe to luvien. For-te ontenden ow wel, gederith wude ther-to with the povre wummon of Sarepte, the burh the spealeth "ontendunge." En inquit colligo duo ligna (Regum iii). "Laverd," quoth ha to Helye the hali prophete, "lo, ich gederi twa treon." Theos twa treon bitacnith - thet a treo thet stod upriht, ant thet other the eode thwert-over - o the deore rode. Of theos twa treon ye schulen ontende fur of luve in-with ower heorte. Biseoth ofte towart ham. Thencheth yef ye ne ahen eathe to luvien the king of blisse, the tospreat swa his earmes toward ow, ant buheth, as to beoden cos, dune-ward his heaved.

Sikerliche ich segge hit: yef the sothe Helye - thet is, Godd almihti - i-fint ow theose twa treon bisiliche gederin, he wule gestnin with ow ant moni-falden in ow his deore-wurthe grace, as Helie dude hire liveneth ant gestnede with hire thet he i-fond the twa treon gederin i Sarepte.

Grickisch fur is i-maket of reades monnes blod, ant thet ne mei na thing bute migge ant sond ant eisil - as me seith - acwenchen. This Grickisch fur is the luve of Jesu ure Laverd, ant ye hit schule makien of reade monnes blod - thet is, Jesu Crist i-readet with his ahne blod o the deore rode - ant wes inread cundeliche alswa, as me weneth. This blod, for ow i-sched up-o the earre twa treon, schal makien ow Sareptiens - thet is, ontende mid tis Grickisch fur, thet as Salomon seith, nane weattres - thet beoth worldliche tribulatiuns, nane temptatiuns, nowther inre ne uttre - ne mahen this luve acwenchen. Nu nis thenne on ende bute witen ow warliche with al thet hit acwencheth - thet beoth migge, ant sond, ant eisil, as ich ear seide. Migge is stench of sunne. O sond ne groweth na god ant bitacneth idel. Idel akeldeth ant acwencheth this fur. Sturieth ow cwicliche aa i gode werkes ant thet schal heaten ow ant ontenden this fur ayein the brune of sunne.

For alswa as the an neil driveth ut then other, alswa the brune of Godes luve driveth brune of ful luve ut of the heorte. The thridde thing is eisil - thet is, sur heorte of nith other of onde. Understondeth this word: tha the nithfule Giws offreden ure Laverd this sure present up-o the rode, tha seide he thet reowthfule word, Consumatum est. "Neaver," quoth he, "ear nu nes ich ful pinet," nawt thurh thet eisil, ah thurh hare ondfule nith thet tet eisil bitacnede thet heo him duden drinken, ant is i-lich as thah a mon thet hefde longe i-swunken, ant failede efter long swinc on ende of his hure. Alswa ure Laverd mare then twa ant thritti yer tilede efter hare luve, ant for al his sare swinc ne wilnede na thing bute luve to hure. Ah i the ende of his lif, thet wes as i the even-tid hwen me yelt werc-men hare deies hure, loke hu ha yulden him: for piment of huni luve, eisil of sur nith ant galle of bitter onde! "O," quoth ure Laverd tha, Consumatum est. "Al mi swinc on eorthe, al mi pine o rode ne sweameth ne ne derveth me na-wiht ayein this - thet ich thus biteo al thet ich i-don habbe.

This eisil thet ye beodeth me, this sure hure thurhfulleth mi pine." This eisil of sur heorte ant of bitter thonc over alle othre thing acwencheth Grickisch fur - thet is, the luve of ure Laverd - ant hwa-se hit bereth i breoste toward wummon other mon, ha is Giwes make. Ha offreth Godd this eisil ant thurhfulleth onont hire Jesues pine o rode. Me warpeth Grickisch fur upon his fa-men ant swa me overkimeth ham. Ye schule don alswa hwen Godd areareth ow of ei va eani weorre. Hu ye hit schule warpen Salomon teacheth: Si esurierit inimicus tuus, ciba illum; si sitierit, potum da illi. Sic enim carbones ardentes congeres su- per caput ejus - thet is, "yef thi fa hungreth, fed him. To his thurst, yef him drunch."

Thet is to understonden, yef he efter thin hearm haveth hunger other thurst, yef him fode of thine beoden thet Godd do him are. Yef him drunch of teares. Wep for his sunnen. "Thus thu schalt," seith Salomon, "rukelin on his heaved bearninde gleden" - thet is to seggen, thus thu schalt ontenden his heorte for-te luvie the. For heorte is in Hali Writ bi heaved understonden. O thulli wise wule Godd seggen ed te dome: "Hwi luvedest tu the mon other the wummon?" "Sire, ha luveden me!" "Ye," he wule seggen, "thu yulde thet tu ahtest.

Her nabbe ich the nawt muches to yelden." Yef thu maht ondswerien, "alle wa ha duden me, ne na luve ne ahte ich ham, ah, sire, ich luvede ham for thi luve" - thet luve he ah the, for hit wes i-yeven him ant he hit wule the yelden.

Migge - as ich seide - thet acwencheth Grickisch fur, is stinkinde flesches luve, the acwencheth gastelich luve, thet Grickisch fur bitacneth. Hweat flesch wes on eorthe se swete ant se hali as wes Jesu Cristes flesch? Ant thah he seide him-seolf to his deore deciples, Nisi ego abiero, paraclitus non veniet ad vos. Thet is, "Bute ich parti from ow, the Hali Gast - thet is, min ant mines feaderes luve - ne mei nawt cumen to ow. Ah hwen ich beo from ow, ich chulle senden him ow." Hwen Jesu Cristes ahne deciples, hwil thet ha fleschliche luveden him, neh ham foreoden the swetnesse of the Hali Gast, ne ne mahte nawt habben bathe togederes. Demeth ow-seolven: nis he wod, other heo, the luveth to swithe hire ahne flesch, other eani mon fleschliche swa thet ha yirne to swithe his sihthe other his speche? Ne thunche hire neaver wunder yef hire wonti the Hali Gastes frovre.

Cheose nu euch-an of thes twa - eorthlich elne ant heovenlich - to hwether ha wule halden, for thet other ha mot leten. For i the tweire monglunge, ne mei ha habben neaver mare schirnesse of heorte - thet is, as we seiden ear, thet god ant te strengthe of alle religiuns ant in euch ordre. Luve maketh hire schir, grithful ant cleane. Luve haveth a meistrie bivoren alle othre; for al thet ha rineth, al ha turneth to hire, ant maketh al hire ahne. Quemcumque locum calcaverit pes vester - pes videlicet amoris - vester erit. Deore walde moni mon buggen a swuch thing, thet al thet he rine to, al were his ahne. Ant ne seide hit th'ruppe feor, ane thurh thet tu luvest thet god thet is in an-other, with the rinunge of thi luve thu makest withuten other swinc his god thin ahne god, as Sein Gregoire witneth? Lokith nu hu muchel god the ontfule leoseth.

Streche thi luve to Jesu Crist, thu havest him i- wunnen. Rin him with ase muche luve as thu havest sum mon sum-chearre, he is thin to don with al thet tu wilnest. Ah hwa luveth thing thet leaveth hit for leasse then hit is wurth? Nis Godd betere unevenlich then al thet is i the world? Chearite is cherte of leof thing ant of deore. Undeore he maketh Godd ant to unwurth mid alle, thet for ei worltlich thing of his luve leasketh, for na thing ne con luvien riht, bute he ane. Swa overswithe he luveth luve, thet he maketh hire his evening. Yet ich dear segge mare - he maketh hire his meistre ant deth al thet ha hat as thah he moste nede.

Mei ich pruvien this? Ye, witerliche ich, bi his ahne wordes, for thus he speketh to Moyses the monne meast him luvede: In Numeri: Dimisi juxta verbum tuum, non dicit preces. "Ich hefde," quoth he, "i-munt to wreoke mine wreaththe i this folc. Ah thu seist I ne schal nawt. Thi word beo i-forthet." Me seith thet luve bindeth; witerliche luve bint swa ure Laverd thet he ne mei na thing don bute thurh luves leave. Nu preove her-of, for hit thuncheth wunder. Ysaias: Domine, non est qui consurgat et teneat te.

"Laverd, thu wult smiten," seith Ysaie. "Wei-la-wei! Thu maht wel - nis nan thet te halde," as thah he seide, "yef ei luvede the riht, he mahte halden the ant wearnen the to smiten." In Genesy, ad Loth: festina, et cetera. Non potero ibi quicquam facere, donec egressus fueris illinc. Thet is, tha ure Laverd walde bisenchen Sodome ther Lot his freond wes inne, "hihe the," quoth he, "ut-ward. For hwil thu art bimong ham, ne mei ich nawt don ham." Nes thes with luve i-bunden?

Hwet wult tu mare? Luve is his chamberleng, his conseiler, his spuse, thet he ne mei nawt heole with, ah teleth al thet he thencheth. In Genesy: Num celare potero Abraham que gesturus sum? "Mei ich," quoth ure Laverd, "heolen Abraham thing thet ich thenche to donne? Nai, o nane wise." Nu con thes luvien the thus speketh ant thus deth to alle the him inwardliche leveth ant luvieth. The blisse thet he yarketh ham, as ha is unevenlich to alle worldes blissen, alswa ha is untalelich to worldliche tungen. Ysaias: Oculus non vidit Deus absque te que preparasti diligentibus te.

Apostolus: Oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, et cetera. Ye habbeth of theos blissen i-writen elles-hwer, mine leove sustren. This luve is the riwle the riwleth the heorte. Confitebor tibi in directione - id est, in regulatione - cordis. Exprobatio malorum, generatio que non direxit cor suum. This is the leafdi riwle - alle the othre servith hire. Ant ane for hire sake me hat ham to luvien. Lutel strengthe ich do of ham, for-hwon thet theos beo deore-wurthliche i-halden.

Habbeth ham thah scheortliche i the eahtuthe dale.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Rom.13.10;Gal.5.14 — Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Gal.5.14 — For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
  2. ↩Ps.8.7-Ps.8.9 — You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet— Ps.8.8 — the flocks and the herds—all of them—and also the beasts of the field Ps.8.9 — The birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, passing along the paths of the seas.
  3. ↩Eph.5.25 — Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her.
  4. ↩Mark.14.50;Matt.26.56 — And everyone deserted him and fled. Matt.26.56 — But all this has happened so that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left him and fled.
  5. ↩Lam.3.65 — You will give them a heart of stone; your curse will be upon them.
  6. ↩Ps.5.13 — For you bless the righteous one, O LORD; with favor you crown him like a shield.
  7. ↩Isa.53.7 — He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter, and like a sheep silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.
  8. ↩1Pet.1.18-1Pet.1.19;1Cor.6.20;Acts.20.28 — knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things—silver or gold—from your futile way of life handed down from your fathers, 1Pet.1.19 — but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot 1Cor.6.20 — For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. Acts.20.28 — Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he obtained through the blood of his own.
  9. ↩John.19.34 — But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
  10. ↩John.15.13 — No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.
  11. ↩John.15.13;Mark.10.45 — No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends. Mark.10.45 — For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
  12. ↩John.15.13 — No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.
  13. ↩Rev.1.5 — and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth — to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
  14. ↩Isa.49.15 — Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
  15. ↩Isa.49.15 — Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
  16. ↩Isa.49.16 — Behold, on your palms I have engraved you; your walls are continually before me.
  17. ↩Isa.49.16 — Behold, on your palms I have engraved you; your walls are continually before me.
  18. ↩Isa.49.16 — Behold, on your palms I have engraved you; your walls are continually before me.
  19. ↩Dan.12.3 — And those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.
  20. ↩Ps.91.10 — No evil shall befall you, and no plague shall come near your tent.
  21. ↩1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
  22. ↩2Sam.14.26 — And when he shaved his head — and it was at the end of days, at the appointed time when he would shave it, for it grew heavy on him — he would shave it and weigh out the hair of his head: two hundred shekels by the king's stone.
  23. ↩2Sam.2.18 — And the three sons of Zeruiah were there—Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was swift of foot, like one of the gazelles in the open field.
  24. ↩Judg.15.15-Judg.15.16 — And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and he reached out his hand and took it, and he struck down a thousand men with it. Judg.15.16 — And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey — heaps upon heaps — with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men."
  25. ↩Rev.3.16 — So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
  26. ↩Rev.3.15-Rev.3.16 — I know your works—that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! Rev.3.16 — So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
  27. ↩Song.8.7 — Many waters cannot quench love, and rivers cannot sweep it away. If a man were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.
  28. ↩John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
  29. ↩Matt.27.34;Mark.15.36;John.19.28-John.19.30 — They gave him wine to drink mixed with gall; and when he tasted it, he was not willing to drink. Mark.15.36 — And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink, saying, 'Let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.' John.19.28 — After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, said, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'I thirst.' John.19.29 — A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to his mouth. John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
  30. ↩John.19.28-John.19.30 — After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, said, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'I thirst.' John.19.29 — A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to his mouth. John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
  31. ↩Matt.20.1-Matt.20.16 — For the kingdom of heaven is like a man, a master of a house, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. Matt.20.2 — And when he agreed with the workers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. Matt.20.3 — And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the marketplace, idle. Matt.20.4 — and to them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' Matt.20.5 — But he went out again about the sixth and ninth hour, and did the same. Matt.20.6 — And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around, and he said to them, 'Why are you standing here all day idle?' Matt.20.7 — They answered him, 'Because no one hired us.' He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard.' Matt.20.8 — And when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last and going to the first.' Matt.20.9 — And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. Matt.20.10 — And when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they also received each a denarius. Matt.20.11 — But when they received it, they grumbled against the master of the house. Matt.20.12 — saying, 'These last ones worked one hour, and you made them equal to us, who bore the burden of the day and the scorching heat.' Matt.20.13 — But he answered one of them and said, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?' Matt.20.14 — Take what is yours and go. But I want to give to this last one the same as I give to you. Matt.20.15 — Or is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is mine? Or is your eye evil because I am good? Matt.20.16 — So the last will be first, and the first will be last.
  32. ↩Matt.27.34;Ps.69.21 — They gave him wine to drink mixed with gall; and when he tasted it, he was not willing to drink. Ps.69.21 — Reproach has broken my heart, and I am sick with grief; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found no one.
  33. ↩John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
  34. ↩John.19.28-John.19.30;Matt.27.48 — After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, said, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, 'I thirst.' John.19.29 — A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to his mouth. John.19.30 — When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, 'It is finished,' and bowing his head he gave up his spirit. Matt.27.48 — And immediately one of them ran, took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed, and gave him a drink.
  35. ↩Prov.25.21;Rom.12.20 — If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. Rom.12.20 — But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
  36. ↩Prov.25.22;Rom.12.20 — For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. Rom.12.20 — But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
  37. ↩Prov.25.21;Rom.12.20 — If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. Rom.12.20 — But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
  38. ↩Prov.25.21-Prov.25.22;Rom.12.20 — If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. Prov.25.22 — For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. Rom.12.20 — But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
  39. ↩Prov.25.21;Rom.12.20 — If your enemy is hungry, feed him bread; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. Rom.12.20 — But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
  40. ↩Prov.25.22;Rom.12.20 — For you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you. Rom.12.20 — But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.
  41. ↩John.16.7 — Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.
  42. ↩Gen.19.22 — Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
  43. ↩Gen.18.17 — And the LORD said, 'Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?'
  44. ↩Isa.64.4;1Cor.2.9 — You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness; in your ways they remember you. But behold, you were angry, and we sinned — in those ways we have been for long, and can we be saved? 1Cor.2.9 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him.
  45. ↩1Cor.2.9;Isa.64.4 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him. Isa.64.4 — You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness; in your ways they remember you. But behold, you were angry, and we sinned — in those ways we have been for long, and can we be saved?
  46. ↩Ps.78.8 — and they would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Latin pietas here follows the familiar 1 Timothy 4:8 sense 'godliness/devotion,' not mere sentiment.
  2. 2 ↩licomlich bisischipe: bodily activity/discipline (ascetic busyness), not mere worldly hustle; rendered 'bodily busyness' to keep the bodily-vs-heart contrast.
  3. 3 ↩caritatem rendered 'love' to match the surrounding Middle English luve and the modern-readable register; theological charity is the same virtue.
  4. 4 ↩hali abbat Moyses: the desert father Abba Moses (Cassian tradition), not the biblical Moses; kept as 'abbot Moses' with 'holy' for hali.
  5. 5 ↩flesches derf: bodily/fleshly hardship or affliction, not merely physical exercise; kept as the means by which grace purifies the heart.
  6. 6 ↩the leatere falleth into the earre: acting for another's good is folded into love of God; the second intention is not rival to the first but included in it.
  7. 7 ↩wori heorte: stained, troubled, or muddied heart (contrasted with schir heorte); rendered 'stained' to keep the purity/defilement opposition that the following Titus quotation confirms.
  8. 8 ↩caritatem rendered 'love' to match the section's vernacular luve and modern-readable default; the theological virtue (charity) is intended. voluntate videlicet rationis specifies that 'whatever you will' means the reasoned will, not mere impulse.
  9. 9 ↩i-godet: rendered as 'who has done you good' (benefited you); the relative clause attaches to the people (and by extension the goods) that may be loved only for God's sake, not for their own.
  10. 10 ↩Embedded Latin (Minus te amat qui preter te aliquid amat, quod non propter te amat) is rendered into modern English; the next sentence is the author's Middle English gloss of the same saying.
  11. 11 ↩religiuns/ordres: rendered as 'religious life' and 'order' in the monastic-discipline sense (rules and religious orders), not abstract 'religion' as a belief system. ende = goal/purpose as well as end.
  12. 12 ↩Latin solidatur: secured, grounded, or made firm; rendered "made firm" to keep the sense that commandments hold only when rooted in caritas.
  13. 13 ↩Seinte Mihales weie: the balance/scales of judgment traditionally associated with Saint Michael weighing souls; "scales" preserves the weighing image that overweieth continues in the next sentence.
  14. 14 ↩freolec: freeness/liberality/generosity of giving; "generosity" keeps the open-handed steward image without archaic "largesse."
  15. 15 ↩ME 'Me' is an emphatic particle ('indeed'/'why'), not the object pronoun; 'forgulte' means become guilty / forfeited through sin.
  16. 16 ↩The contrast is that creation serves the good for spiritual profit (soul's benefit), while even the wicked still receive the service of earth, sea, and sun.
  17. 17 ↩wohlech: courtship/wooing; beawbelez: jewels or precious ornaments; liveneth: provisions/livelihood; hehe hird: high household or retinue.
  18. 18 ↩unrecheles: a careless/indifferent person; heard i-heortet: hard-hearted.
  19. 19 ↩as the the wes: read as ME relative þe þe, 'he who was'; neb: face/countenance; meistries: masteries, marvelous feats of power.
  20. 20 ↩hoker wunder: a marvel mixed with scorn/insult — wonder that such love was refused, or a scornful marvel at her hardness.
  21. 21 ↩thuften: handmaid/servant; deboneirte: gracious courtesy/kindness; i-weorret: warred upon, besieged; weane: misery/woe. The king's speech continues into the next sentence and section.
  22. 22 ↩ME 'cuthe' taken as 'made known/showed' (the love demonstrated in deeds); 'lanhure' as 'at least'; 'naldest lives' is elliptical for 'would not love me in life/while alive,' parallel to 'dead'.
  23. 23 ↩ME 'i-tuket' = roughly treated/mistreated/mauled; rendered 'terribly abused' to keep the physical violence without archaic diction.
  24. 24 ↩wreah his Godd-head: the human body is the shield that hid/covered the divine nature; Godhead kept as the durable term for divinity.
  25. 25 ↩efter mon ies wene: read as monies wene, 'according to people's belief/opinion' (a traditional detail of the crucifixion pose).
  26. 26 ↩Latin Scuto bone voluntatis is a truncated psalm incipit; English renders the sense; full resolution deferred.
  27. 27 ↩bitellunge: excuse, reckoning, or defense; rendered as 'excuse' for the claim one might make against owing Christ love.
  28. 28 ↩litunge: dyeing/coloring/paint on a shield face; rendered 'coloring' to keep the craft image before the blood-application in s8.
  29. 29 ↩cnihtschipe = knighthood / knightly service: the text's allegory of Christ's Passion as a knight's combat; keep the chivalric sense rather than flattening to 'deed' alone.
  30. 30 ↩leofmon = beloved / dear one (here the soul or the Church as Christ's spouse; feminine hire). bihalde can be jussive ('let her look') or descriptive; jussive fits the exhortative devotional address.
  31. 31 ↩wed = pledge/surety; Giwerie = Jewry, the Jewish quarter as the medieval setting for moneylending and pawning. The image is of a friend putting himself or his goods in pawn to buy another free.
  32. 32 ↩Continues the pawn/ransom metaphor: God puts himself as pledge (leide him-seolf i Giwerie) and offers his body to buy his beloved free (acwitin ut). Giwene honden keeps the source's Passion-era phrasing.
  33. 33 ↩heaved-sunne rendered as mortal sin (capital/deadly sin); feond/deovel kept as fiend/devil in the soul's spiritual adultery metaphor.
  34. 34 ↩Source has line-broken 'ux- orem' for Latin uxorem; translated as the intended Vulgate reading of Jeremiah 3:1.
  35. 35 ↩ME meiden is spiritual virginity restored after repentance, not physical virginity recovered.
  36. 36 ↩neoleachunge = approach / coming near / intimacy; rendered as approach to keep both human and divine senses parallel.
  37. 37 ↩Latin tag Restituit ... in integrum is presented as Job; final Moses resolution belongs to a later stage.
  38. 38 ↩ME 'maketh us beath th'rof' is dative of advantage: his love makes for us a bath of his blood (thereof), not that love turns us into a bath.
  39. 39 ↩'leofmon' is the bridal beloved of the soul (Christ's lover); kept as 'beloved' to preserve the spousal allegory without eroticizing the register.
  40. 40 ↩ME 'other' here is ordinal 'second' (the second bath), not modern 'other'; 'inre other uttre' = inward or outward tears (compunction of heart and visible weeping).
  41. 41 ↩depeint can mean painted, depicted, or drawn; rendered as painted to keep the vivid image of blood as ink on the hands.
  42. 42 ↩mearke of thurlunge = mark of piercing (the nail wounds); munegunge = remembrance/memorial. The girdle-knot is an ordinary memory-aid contrasted with the permanent wounds.
  43. 43 ↩other = 'or': Holy Church and the pure soul are alternative readings of the spouse, not alternatives excluding each other in the tradition.
  44. 44 ↩biteon: spend/employ/bestow (of a gift of love); rendered "bestow" as the natural modern sense.
  45. 45 ↩Nam ich is Middle English ne + am ("am I not"), a rhetorical question, not Latin causal nam.
  46. 46 ↩hest i-cunnet: highest-begotten / of noblest kin; rendered "of the highest birth" for natural modern English.
  47. 47 ↩weolie: genitive plural, "of the wise"; wisest among the wise.
  48. 48 ↩hendest: most courteous, gracious, noble in manner (ME hende); "gracious" keeps courtly courtesy without archaism.
  49. 49 ↩freoest: freest / most open-handed and generous; the next section develops freeness as lavish giving (pierced hands that cannot hold back).
  50. 50 ↩Middle English large mon is the freehanded, open-handed giver; i-thurlet (pierced through) both continues the proverb of hands full of holes and points to Christ's crucified hands.
  51. 51 ↩swotest and swetest are near-synonyms of sweetness: the first often more of scent/fragrance, the second of pleasant taste or delight; both are kept as a paired climax.
  52. 52 ↩hire ('it') points back to chaste cleannesse in the previous sentence; ha ('she') fits the anchoress address.
  53. 53 ↩spushad is spousehood/married state; meidenhad is maidenhood/virginity, marked the heste as the highest form of chaste purity.
  54. 54 ↩"the four greatest loves" (fowr measte luven) is a courtly-love motif: four principal grounds that win love; Christ claims to have demonstrated the greatest of them toward the soul.
  55. 55 ↩Christ promises that the beloved soul's will is wrought everywhere—heaven, earth, and even hell—an inversion/extension of the Lord's Prayer petition about God's will being done.
  56. 56 ↩unevenliche rendered as 'beyond all comparison' (lit. unequally); unmeteliche = immeasurably; unendeliche = endlessly/infinitely.
  57. 57 ↩Catalogue item: Christ begins listing worldly goods that pale beside what he offers for love; the list continues in the next section.
  58. 58 ↩freolec can mean liberality, generosity, or noble freeness of spirit; 'generosity' fits this catalog of worldly excellences.
  59. 59 ↩heale can mean health, well-being, or fairness; in this list of worldly excellences, 'health' is the plainest fit, though some readers hear beauty/fairness as well.
  60. 60 ↩thurh nawt to leosen is rendered as 'rather than lose nothing': the soul refuses heavenly gain so as not to give up worldly goods that are themselves worthless.
  61. 61 ↩wohere: Christ as suitor/wooer in the bridal-mysticism register of Part Seven; ha/heo keep the feminine address to the anchoress.
  62. 62 ↩edlutien: hide/conceal oneself; mot: must / is obliged to. Vernacular expansion of the psalm's 'none can hide from his heat' as 'none can escape having to love him.'
  63. 63 ↩under-tid: undern-tide, the third hour (terce), traditional hour of the Crucifixion (cf. Mark 15:25). sothe sunne = Christ as the true Sun; luve-gleames = beams/rays of love.
  64. 64 ↩neodful here is eagerness/urgency of desire, not bare necessity; leoves heorte = the beloved's heart (the soul he courts).
  65. 65 ↩wlech = lukewarm/tepid (bridges into the next section's tepidus / wlech love that Christ would spit out).
  66. 66 ↩leofmon: 'beloved/lover' in the text's bridal-wooing register for the soul courted by Christ, not a secular romantic partner.
  67. 67 ↩Sarepte (biblical Sarepta/Zarephath) is given a folk-etymology as meaning ontendunge ('kindling/igniting'), fitting the love-as-fire allegory.
  68. 68 ↩Latin lemma from Vulgate 3 Regum (modern 1 Kings); citation left as in source (Regum iii) pending Moses resolution.
  69. 69 ↩Helye/Helie is Elijah; 'the true Elijah' is God Almighty, continuing the Sarepta (Zarephath) allegory of the two sticks as the Cross. 'Dude hire liveneth' points to Elijah’s miracle of multiplying the widow’s meal and oil (her livelihood/sustenance), not merely ordinary hospitality.
  70. 70 ↩enm 'migge' is urine (medieval lore held that urine, sand, and vinegar could quench Greek fire); the allegory is unpacked in s5–s7 and the following section.
  71. 71 ↩'inread cundeliche' = naturally ruddy/red in complexion; medieval tradition that Christ was of ruddy color by nature, not only by blood on the cross.
  72. 72 ↩'earre twa treon' continues the Sarepta allegory (the widow gathering two sticks = the two beams of the cross / the two loves). 'Sareptiens' = people of Sarepta (Zarephath).
  73. 73 ↩enm 'idel' = idleness / idle occupation; not mere 'idle' as adjective alone.
  74. 74 ↩hure = hire/wages; thurhfulleth = fills up / brings to completion (echoing Consummatum est from the previous section).
  75. 75 ↩Grickisch fur (Greek fire) is glossed in the source as the love of our Lord—the legendary unquenchable fire quenched only by the vinegar of envious spite. Giwes make = mate/companion of the Jews: the text identifies the envious person with those who offered Christ vinegar on the cross (medieval passion rhetoric; rendered faithfully).
  76. 76 ↩onont hire = as far as concerns her / as far as is in her power. ha can be singular feminine or plural in Ancrene Wisse; feminine singular fits the anchoress audience and the prior relative (hwa-se).
  77. 77 ↩areareth ow of ei va eani weorre: most plausible reading is that God stirs up against you any war of any foe (ei va = any foe; eani weorre = any war).
  78. 78 ↩ME are = mercy/grace/favor; rendered as mercy in the petition that God do him are.
  79. 79 ↩ME Sire as address at the divine judgment rendered Lord rather than Sir.
  80. 80 ↩Source sentence ends mid-dialogue without a closing quotation mark; the next section continues God's reply.
  81. 81 ↩ME 'ahte' / 'ah' carries the debt sense of 'owe': the speaker did not owe the offenders love, yet God does owe repayment when the love was given for his sake.
  82. 82 ↩ME migge is urine; the allegory is deliberate and blunt, matching the text's teaching that carnal love puts out spiritual love as urine puts out Greek fire.
  83. 83 ↩Source quotes Latin Nisi ego abiero, paraclitus non veniet ad vos (John 16:7). Paraclitus rendered Advocate; the next sentence expands it as the Holy Spirit, the love of Christ and the Father.
  84. 84 ↩fleschliche luveden marks affection still tied to bodily presence, not sexual lust; the point is that even this attachment blocked fuller spiritual sweetness.
  85. 85 ↩frovre is comfort/consolation (the Spirit as Comforter); rendered comfort to keep the pastoral force without softening the warning.
  86. 86 ↩Wordplay: Chearite (charity) is glossed through cherte (dearness, high price, preciousness); the line equates charity with holding the beloved as costly.
  87. 87 ↩Final clause na thing ne con luvien riht, bute he ane can also be read as 'nothing can love rightly except him alone' (God as sole right lover). The rendering takes the value-rhetoric of the section: only God is a fit object of right love.
  88. 88 ↩evening = equal/peer (one who is 'even' with him), not the time of day.
  89. 89 ↩The Latin citation Dimisi juxta verbum tuum (Numbers) is rendered "I have forgiven according to your word"; dimisi can also mean "I have let go / remitted." The author's contrast is that God credits Moses's word, not his prayers.
  90. 90 ↩i-forthet: past participle of forthien, "furthered / carried forward / accomplished."
  91. 91 ↩preove may be read as 1sg ("I prove") or imperative ("prove"); context of the author's ongoing demonstration favors 1sg.
  92. 92 ↩Wei-la-wei is a Middle English cry of grief (wellaway); rendered as plain Alas rather than archaic wellaway.
  93. 93 ↩thes points back to our Lord in the Lot episode: love binds him so that he cannot strike while his friend is still present—continuing the section's proof that love binds the Lord.
  94. 94 ↩Attributed here to Isaiah; the Latin wording mixes the Isaianic 'absque te' form with 'diligentibus te' (those who love you), closer to the Pauline reception of the same promise.
  95. 95 ↩Source glosses Latin directione as regulatione: directing/straightening of the heart = its ordered ruling under love.
  96. 96 ↩leafdi riwle: love as the mistress/principal rule to which the other rules are servants.

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