The five and sixty chapitre. Of the first secondary might, ymaginacion bi name; and of the werkes, and of the obedience of it unto reson bifore sinne and after.
The Nature and Fall of Imagination
Imagination, a power of the mind, was obedient to reason before the Fall but now produces disordered images and fantasies unless restrained by grace.
Imagination is a power through which we form all images of things absent and present. And both imagination and the thing it works on are contained in the mind. Before humanity sinned, imagination was so obedient to reason—to which it is, as it were, a servant—that it never offered reason any disordered image of any bodily creature, or any fantasy of any spiritual creature. But now it's not so. For unless it's restrained by the light of grace in reason, it will never cease, sleeping or waking, from portraying all sorts of disordered images of bodily creatures—or else some fantasy, which is nothing but a bodily conception of a spiritual thing, or else a spiritual conception of a bodily thing.1 And this is always feigned and false, and joined to error.
Imagination's Disobedience in Prayer
The disobedience of imagination is evident in new converts at prayer, where only grace and meditation on spiritual things can quiet the flood of thoughts, a consequence of original sin.
This disobedience of the imagination can be clearly seen in those who have recently turned from the world to devotion, during their prayer. For until the imagination is largely restrained by the light of grace in the reason—as it is during continual meditation on spiritual things, such as their own wretchedness, the Passion, and the kindness of our Lord God, along with many others like these—they can in no way put away the strange and varied thoughts, fantasies, and images that are supplied and imprinted on their mind by the light and curiosity of the imagination.23 And all this disobedience is the penalty for original sin.4
Read the original Middle English
Imagynacion is a might thorow the whiche we portray alle ymages of absent and present thinges. And bothe it, and the thing that it worcheth in, ben contened in the mynde. Byfore er man synned, was ymagynacion so obedyent unto the reson -- to the whiche it is as it were servaunt -- that it mynystrid never to it any unordeynde ymage of any bodely creature, or any fantasy of any goostly creature. Bot now it is not so. For bot yif it be refreyned by the light of grace in the reson, elles it wil never sese, sleping or wakyng, for to portray dyverse unordeynd ymages of bodely creatures; or elles sum fantasye, the whiche is nought elles bot a bodely conseyte of a goostly thing, or elles a goostly conseyte of a bodely thing. And this is evermore feynid and fals, and anexte unto errour.
This inobedyence of the ymaginacion may clerly be conseyvid in hem that ben newlynges tornid fro the woreld unto devocion in the tyme of here preier. For before the tyme be that the ymaginacion be in grete partye refreynid by the light of grace in the reson - as it is in contynowel meditacion of goostly thinges, as ben theire wrechidnes, the Passion and the kyndenes of oure Lorde God, with many soche other -thei mowe in no wise put awey the wonderful and the diverse thoughtes, fantasies and ymages, the whiche ben mynystred and preentid in theire mynde by the light and the corioustee of ymaginacyon. And alle this inobedyence is the pyne of the original synne.
Notes
- 1 ↩"conseyte" rendered as "conception" (mental notion/image), not modern "conceit" as vanity.
- 2 ↩ME 'wonderful' here means astonishing/strange rather than delightful; rendered 'strange' to keep the negative force of intrusive mental images.
- 3 ↩ME 'corioustee' is the busy inquisitiveness of imagination, not mere intellectual interest; rendered 'curiosity'.
- 4 ↩ME 'pyne' covers both pain/suffering and punitive consequence; rendered 'penalty' to make the causal force of original sin clear in modern English.
The Cloud of Unknowing 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
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