What cometh of the merkenese of the image of synne and what cometh bi the wyndowes
The Windows of the Soul
The author warns against the dangers of the five senses as windows for sin and encourages guarding them to reveal the soul's true nature.
Regarding that.1 Lift up this lantern and look at the five windows in this image through which sin enters your soul, just as the prophet says: Mors ingreditur per fenestras nostras (Jeremiah 9:21).✦ Death enters through our windows.✦ These windows are our five senses, through which our soul goes out from itself and seeks its delight and its nourishment in earthly things, against its own nature: as by sight, to look at showy and beautiful things; by the ear, to hear wonders and new reports; and so with the other senses.2 Because of the unskillful, willful use of these senses for vanity, the soul is greatly hindered from its inner spiritual senses; therefore, you must close these windows and bar them, opening them only when necessity requires.3 This would not be difficult if you could once see your soul with clear understanding—what it is and how beautiful it is in its own nature—were it not covered over by the black cloud of this foul image.4
Read the original Latin
thereof.
Lifte up this lanterne and see in this ymage fyve wyndowis bi the whiche synne cometh into thi soule, as the prophete seith: Mors ingreditur per fenestras nostras (Jeremiah 9:21). Deeth cometh in bi oure wyndowes. Thise wyndowes aren oure fyve wittes, bi the whiche oure soule gooth out from himsilf and sicheth his delite and his feedynge in ertheli thynges, agens his owen kynde: as bi the sight, for to se corious and faire thynges; bi the eere, for to heere wondres and newe tydynges; and so of the othere wittis. Bi unskilful usynge of thise wittes into vanyté wilfulli, the soule is moche letted from the goostli wittys withinne; therfore thee bihoveth stoppe the wyndowis and spere hem, but oonli whanne nede asketh for to open hem. And that were litil maistrie yif though myghttest oones see thi soule bi cleer undirstondynge, what it is, and hou faire it is in his owen kynde, ne were that it is overleid with a blaak cloude of this foule ymage.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Jer.9.21 — Speak thus — declares the LORD — and the corpse of man shall fall like dung upon the face of the field, and like sheaves after the reaper, and there is none to gather.
- ↩Jer.9.21 — Speak thus — declares the LORD — and the corpse of man shall fall like dung upon the face of the field, and like sheaves after the reaper, and there is none to gather.
Notes
- 1 ↩Source unit is only the isolated fragment 'thereof.' Likely a section-boundary or chapter-title remnant ('what cometh thereof') rather than a full sentence; sense rendered as 'of that' pending corpus check.
- 2 ↩ME wittes = the five bodily senses (not 'wits' as cleverness). ME corious often means elaborate, showy, or attention-catching rather than merely 'curious' in the modern sense of inquisitive.
- 3 ↩ME spere = shut/bar (from speren). ME goostli wittys = the interior spiritual faculties, set over against the five bodily senses. ME letted = hindered/impeded.
- 4 ↩ME litil maistrie = little mastery/skill required, i.e. it would not be hard. ME ne were that = were it not that. ME overleid = overlaid/covered over. The 'foule ymage' is the image of sin discussed in the chapter.
Scala Perfectionis (The Scale of Perfection) companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
Chosen Portion is the paced doorway into this collection: it portions the dense mystical treatises into one daily reading plus guided silence, exactly as the 14-day plan teaches.
- Daily bite-sized excerpts from the contemplative classics, never a wall of text
- A built-in timed stillness practice that grows from 2 minutes to 10
- Gentle progression through the tradition — the app remembers where you are on the ascent