The Transformation of Perfection

Chapter 5 argues that the spiritual experiences of late medieval holy women, in particular their doubts about the Eucharist and their own salvation, were in many respects responses to orthodox figurations of sacred embodiment and the pollution fears that were repeatedly projected onto women. In this context, this chapter examines the Scale of Perfection, a work composed by the English writer Walter Hilton (d. 1394) who manages a set of ongoing contests over rival notions of perfection. Following a growing insistence among orthodox writers on Eucharistic devotion, the Scale subsumes the spiritual legitimacy of charismatic women to the sacrament and does so in a way that marginalizes the devotion of such women to their angels. It is also within the Scale and other late medieval religious writing that the prominent and intersecting ideals of perfection, the virtues, and sacred embodiment came to express a deepening suspicion of angelic charisms.

Foundations of Practical Spiritual Theology: Walter Hilton as a Case Study in Retrieval

This article explores the relationships between spirituality, spiritual theology, and practical theology. It proposes a synthesis of these disciplines – practical spiritual theology – as a method and methodology for retrieving the wisdom of historical Christian mystics for the purposes of sustaining and inspiring the spiritual life of contemporary Christians. The 14th century English mystic, Walter Hilton, is used to illustrate this synthesis in practice.

The Pre-Reformation Landscape

This chapter surveys the rich and vibrant devotional culture of late medieval England, expressed in liturgy and collective religious practices, and in the development of a wide-ranging lay literature of spiritual and theological ambition, from writers such as Walter Hilton, Nicholas Love to energetic promoters of orthodox theology such as Margaret Beaufort. While acknowledging the emergence of Wycliffism, the heresy associated with Oxford theologian John Wyclif, the chapter argues that Wycliffism and its perceived off-shoot, ‘Lollardy’, should be read as part of a spectrum of reformist thinking that characterized the late medieval Church’s conception of its evangelical mission. The chapter problematizes notions of medieval religious culture as either atrophied or homogeneous, arguing instead that the variety and vitality of medieval English religious culture should complicate any quest for origins in accounts of the English Reformation.