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Kyssegyrlan Vuched or Ymborth yr Eneit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
Extract
Sir John Morris Jones, the most distinguished pupil of Sir John Rhys, collaborated with the latter in editing a Jesus College manuscript. This work appeared in 1894 in the Medieval and Modem Series of Anecdota Oxoniensia under the title of The Elucidarium and other tracts in Welsh from Llyuyr Agkyr Llandewivrevi, A.D. 1346 (Jesus College Ms. 119) (The Book of the Anchorite of Llanddewifrefi). A note added to the translation of the preface to the Elucidarium says:
Gruffudd ap Llywelyn ap Phylip ap Trahaearn of Cantref Mawr caused this book to be written by the hand of a friend, namely a man who was an anchorite at that time at Llanddewifrefi: whose souls may God hold in His mercy. Amen.
There are seventeen stories in the book, beginning with ‘Hystoria Lucidar’ and ending with ‘Hystoria o uuched beuno ae wyrtheu’ (The story of Beuno's life and of his miracles). One might say that the contents of this book give some idea of the nature of the religious teaching of the Church in Wales in the Middle Ages. Practically all the works included in this book are translations from Latin except for one which is our special interest on this occasion. It is known as ‘Kyssegyrlan Vuched’ or ‘Ymborth yr Eneit’ (The Holy Life or The Food of the Soul) ff. 78v - 92r. It begins on f. 78 with the words ('we now deal with divine love which joins the Creator God and the creature Man ...'). On f 80r there is the sentence ‘and so ends the second part of this book, namely, of Divine Love'.
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- Copyright © 1996 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Fratris Gerardi de Fracheto, OP. Vitae Fratrum Ordinis Praedicatorum necnon cronica Ordinis ab anno MCCII1 usque ad MCCLIV, ed. B.M. Reichert OP (MOPH I).
2 ibid 45, cap vi, §viii.
3 ibid 60, cap vii, §iv.
4 ibid 214, cap xxiv, §v.; see also §xii where the Liber de arte amoris Dei is mentioned. There are accounts of other experiences on pp. 61, 62, 160, 319.
5 Hengwrt Mss ii, 759.
6 The Welsh text is also reminiscent of Bk. of Solomon ii, 'Ostende mini faciem tuam, sonet vox tua in auribus meis; vox enim tua dulcis, et fades tua decora.
7 ed. A. Vögtlin, Tübingen, 1888.
8 Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg, 78.
9 It may be pertinent to quofe Suso: ‘Non sunt omnes (visiones) accipiende secundum litteram’ (Horol. Prol. 11–12).
10 Quoted by St Bonaventure in Soliloquium (Quaracchi, viii, 28–67).
11 It is not outside the bounds of possibility that the Welsh version may have been taken from an Anglo‐Norman text.
12 Cf HE. Allen, Writings ascribed to Richard Rolle 72–76, 245. It seems that ‘Rolle's predilection for the Holy Name of Jesus’ took ‘more than one form of expression'. In his earlier work, ‘the devotion is an instrument, not of discipline, but of ecstasy’ (as in the Welsh text). In his later manuals it is treated under the second degree. In addition to +Yessu+, the mystic names (f 89v) are ’Messias + Sother + Emanuel + tetragramton [sic]+ Sabaoth + adonay + alpha + & o + agyos +'. There is another series of ‘holy names’ in Llanstephan Ms 27, f 152.
13 Cf Hugh of St Victor (quoting pseudo‐Dionysius), In Hierarch, coelest, ‘Multas quidem, et beatas videns pure contemplationis, simplosque et immediatos fulgores, illuminata, et divino alimento repleta’, PL clxxv, 1062; Gilbert de Hoilandia, Serm. in Cantic. (xviii), PL clxxxiv, 94: Tertiam ad aureum reclinatorium, ubi Domini facies sine velamento sincere videtur: et in auro rutilat majestas regia … Et fulgor iste fulguri comparatur. In momento fit, in ictu oculi, in novissima tuba … Eructa tu nobis, Jesu bone, aeterni illius diei horas aliquas. Diem ilium statim efficies, cui tuae lucis verbum eructas, qui dies es aetemus. Fulgura nobis coruscationes tales, Fulgur efficitur, cui tu fulguras; pseudo‐Bonaventure, De septem itineribus aeternitatis, IV, Dist. iv, Art iii, ‘Quasi lux splendens procedit et crescit usque ad perfectam diem, scilicet perfectae charitatis’.