Middle English Literature

God’s Unknowability
Original compositions of contemplative, or mystical, writings in English
as well as translations of continental works into the vernacular flourished
in the late-fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. From Richard Rolle in the
1340s and even during the persecutions of Lollards in the 1400s (see
“Lollardy Trials,” p. 59), English writers and translators explored modes
of spirituality that centered around ways of approaching God and com-
posed descriptions of union with Jesus. Remarkably popular, religious and
lay people comprised the audiences for these texts, many, like Julian of
Norwich and Margery Kempe, developing novel and emotionally vivid
narratives.
The author of The Cloud of Unknowing is unknown but is thought to
have been active in the last quarter of the fourteenth century, also writing a
paraphrase of the fifth-century pseudo-Dionysian Deonise Hid Divinite and
a sequel to the Cloud, The Book of Privy Counselling, as well as translations.
Seventeen manuscripts of the Cloud survive, the majority from the mid-
fifteenth century. The Cloud is addressed explicitly to people living the
contemplative life and not to tellers of tales or the idle curious. It proposes
the via negativa, a negative way to God, based on the teachings of pseudo-
Dionysius and thirteenth-century commentators such as Thomas Gallus,
the abbot of St. Andrew’s at Vercelli. As opposed to affective piety, which
involves a conscious and deliberate striving to reach the Godhead often
through physical representations, negative theology has its basis in human-
kind’s radical separation from God. God is incomprehensible by human
means, including the senses, intellectual capacities, and desire.

---

Primary documents and further reading
Burrow, J. A. (1997) “Fantasy and Language in The Cloud of Unknowing.” Essays in
Criticism 27: 283–98.
Ellis, R. (1980) “A Literary Approach to the Middle English Mystics.” In M. Glasscoe
(ed.) The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England: Papers Read at The Exeter
Symposium, July 1980. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 99–119.
Gerson, J. (1969) Selections from A Deo exivit, Contra curiositatem studentium, and
De mystica theologia speculativa, ed. and trans. S. E. Ozment. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Hilton, W. (2000) The Scale of Perfection, ed. T. H. Bestul. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval
Institute.
Hodgson, P. (ed.) (1955) “Deonise Hid diuinite” and Other Treatises on Contemplative
Prayer Related to “The Cloud of Unknowing.” EETS, o.s. 231. London: Oxford
University Press.
Knowles, D. (1961) The English Mystical Tradition. New York: Harper.
Robertson, E. A. (1990) Early English Devotional Prose and the Female Audience.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Rolle, R. (1996) [1896] The Fire of Love and The Mending of Life or The Rule of
Living, ed. R. Harvey. EETS, o.s. 106. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer.
British Library MS Harley 674, fols. 24v–62r. In P. Hodgson (ed.) (1985) The Cloud of
Unknowing and The Book of Privy Counselling. EETS, o.s. 218. 1944. London: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 16–83 (selections).
Language: English (East Midland)
Manuscript date: ca. 1425
Lette not therfore, bot travayle ther-in
1
tyl thou fele lyst. For at the first
tyme when thou dost it, thou fyndest bot a derknes and as it were a cloude
of unknowyng;
2
thou wost never what, savyng that thou felist in thi will a
nakid entent unto God. This derknes and this cloude is, how-so-ever thou
dost, bitwix thee and thi God, and letteth thee that thou maist not see him
cleerly by light of understonding in thi reson ne fele him in swetnes of love
in thin affeccion. And therfore schap thee to bide in this derknes as longe as
thou maist, evermore criing after him that thou lovest for, if ever schalt
thou fele him or see him, as it may be here, it behoveth alweis be in this
cloude and in this derknes. And if thou wilte besily travayle as I bid thee, I
triste in his mercy that thou schalt come ther-to . . .
1
I.e., thinking on God himself.
2
See Exodus 24.15–18.
God’s Unknowability
111

---

112
Gender, Sexuality, and Difference
And wene not, for I clepe it a derknes or a cloude, that it be any cloude
congelid of the humours that fleen in the ayre ne yit any derknes soche as is
in thin house on nightes when thi candel is oute. For soche a derknes and
soche a cloude maist thou ymagin with coriouste of witte, for to bere before
thin iyen in the lightest day of somer, and also agenswarde in the derkist
night of wynter thou mayst ymagin a clere schinyng light. Lat be soche
falsheed. I mene not thus. For when I sey derknes, I mene a lackyng of
knowyng; as alle that thing that thou knowest not, or elles that thou hast
forgetyn, it is derk to thee, for thou seest it not with thi goostly iye. And for
this skile it is not clepid a cloude of the eire, bot a cloude of unknowyng
that is bitwix thee and thi God . . .
And if ever thou schalt come to this cloude and wone and worche ther-in
as I bid thee, thee byhoveth, as this cloude of unknowyng is aboven thee,
bitwix thee and thi God, right so put a cloude of forgetyng bineth thee,
bitwix thee and alle the cretures that ever ben maad.
3
Thee thinketh, para-
venture, that thou arte ful fer fro God, forthi that this cloude of unknowing
is bitwix thee and thi God, bot sekirly, and it be wel conseyved, thou arte
wel ferther fro hym when thou hast no cloude of forgetyng bitwix thee and
all the creatures that ever ben maad. As ofte as I sey “Alle the creatures that
ever ben maad,” as ofte I mene not only the self creatures bot also alle the
werkes and the condicions of the same creatures. I oute-take
4
not o creature,
whether thei ben bodily creatures or goostly, ne yit any condicion or werk
of any creature, whether thei be good or ivel, bot schortly to sey, alle schuld
be hid under the cloude of forgetyng in this caas.
For thof al it be ful profitable sumtyme to think of certeyne condicions
and dedes of sum certein special creatures, nevertheles yit in this werke it
profiteth lityl or nought. For why mynde or thinkyng of any creature that
ever God maad, or of any of theire dedes outher, it is a maner of goostly
light; for the iye of thi soule is openid on it and even ficchid
5
ther-apon as
the iye of a schoter is apon the prik
6
that he schoteth to. And o thing I telle
thee, that alle thing that thou thinkest apon, it is aboven thee for the tyme
and bitwix thee and thi God, and in so mochel thou arte the ferther fro
God that ought is in thi mynde bot only God.
Ye, and if it be cortesye and semely to sey, in this werk it profiteth litil or
nought to think of the kyndenes or the worthines of God, ne on oure Lady,
ne on the seintes or aungelles in heven, ne yit on the joies in heven, that is
3
Richard of St. Victor (d. 1173), Benjamin major.
4
exclude.
5
fixed.
6
target.

---

to say, with a special beholding to hem, as thou woldest bi that beholding
fede and encrees thi purpos. I trowe that on no wise it schuld be so in this
caas and in this werk. For thof al it be good to think [a]pon the kindenes of
God, and to love hym and preise him for hem, yit it is fer betyr to think apon
the nakid beyng of him, and to love him and preise him for him-self . . .
But now thou askest me and seiest: “How schal I think on him-self, and
what is hee?” And to this I cannot answere thee bot thus: “I wote never.”
For thou hast brought me with thi question into that same derknes and into
that same cloude of unknowyng that I wolde thou were in thi-self. For of
alle other creatures and theire werkes – ye, and of the werkes of God self –
may a man thorou grace have fulheed
7
of knowing and wel to kon thinke
on hem, bot of God him-self can no man thinke. And therfore I wole leve
al that thing that I can think and chese to my love that thing that I can-not
think. For whi, he may wel be loved bot not thought. By love may he be
getyn and holden bot bi thought neither. And therfore, thof al it be good
sumtyme to think of the kyndnes and the worthines of God in special, and
thof al it be a light and a party of contemplacion, nevertheles in this werk it
schal be casten down and keverid with a cloude of forgetyng. And thou
schalt step aboven it stalworthly, bot listely,
8
with a devoute and a plesing
stering
9
of love, and fonde
10
for to peerse that derknes aboven thee and
smyte apon that thicke cloude of unknowyng with a scharp darte of longing
love, and go not thens for thing that befalleth . . .
I bid thee put doun soche a scharp sotil thought, and kever him with a
thicke cloude of forgetyng, be he never so holy, ne hote he thee never so
weel for to help thee in thi purpos. For whi love may reche to God in this
liif bot not knowing. And al the whiles that the soule wonith in this deedly
body, evermore is the scharpnes of oure understonding in beholding of
alle goostly thinges, bot most specialy of God, medelid with sum maner
of fantasie for the whiche oure werk schuld be unclene, and bot if more
wonder were, it schuld lede us into moche errour . . .
And thou schalt understonde that thou schalt not only in this werk
forgete alle other creatures then thi-self, or theire deddes or thine, bot also
thou schalt in this werk forgete bothe thi-self and also thi dedes for God as
wel as alle other creatures and theire dedes. For it is the condicion of a
parfite lover not only to love that thing that he loveth more then him-self,
bot also in maner for to hate him-self for that thing that he lovith.
7
plenitude.
8
readily, cautiously.
9
stirring.
10
strive.
God’s Unknowability
113

---

114
Gender, Sexuality, and Difference
Thus schalt thou do with thi-self: thou schalt lothe and be wery with alle
that thing that worcheth in thi witte and in thi wil, bot if it be only God.
For whi sekirly elles what-so-ever that it be, it is bitwix thee and thi God.
And no wonder thof thou lothe and hate for to think on thi-self; when thou
schalt alweis fele synne a foule stynkyng lumpe, thou wost never what,
bitwix thee and thi God, the whiche lumpe is none other thing than thi-self.
For thee schal think it onyd
11
and congelid with the substaunce of thi
beyng, ye, as it were with-outyn departyng.
And therfore breek doun alle wetyng and felyng of alle maner of creatures
bot most besily of thi-self. For on the wetyng and the felyng of thi-self
hangith wetyng and felyng of alle other creatures, for in rewarde of it, alle
other creatures ben lightly forgetyn. For, and thou wilt besily set thee to the
preof, thou schalt fynde, when thou hast forgeten alle other creatures and
alle theire werkes, ye, and therto alle thin owne werkes, that ther schal leve
yit after, bitwix thee and thi God, a nakid weting and a felyng of thin owne
beyng, the whiche wetyng and felyng behovith alweis be distroied er the
tyme be that thou fele sothfastly the perfeccyon of this werk.