CHAPTER I NOTES

1The chief biographical resources for this studyare: Bruno de Jesus-Marie, St. John of the Cross, ed.Benedict Zimmerman, with an Introduction by Jacques Maritain(New York: Sheed and Ward, 1957); Crisogono de JesusSacramentado, The Life of st. John of the Cross, trans.Kathleen Pond (Glasgow: The University Press, 1958); andRichard P. Hardy, Search for Nothing: The Life of St. John ofthe Cross (New York: Crossroad, 1982). Other works consultedinclude: Gerald Brenan, st. John of the Cross: His Life andPoetry, with a translation of his poetry by Lynda Nicholson(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973); Allison Peers,Spirit of Flame, and Handbook to the Life and Times of st.Teresa and st. John of the Cross (Westminster, MD: NewmanPres s, 1954) •

2 See Teresa of Jesus, The Collected Works of st.Teresa of Avila, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and OtilioRodriguez, 3 vols. (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1976,1980, 1985).

30ne always does biography from within aparticular world view and therefore some biographicaldistortion according to the presuppositions of one's worldview is perhaps inescapable. The picture given here of St.John is certainly drawn according to the author's own biases.

4Payne,5Hardy,

7spain unified under Spanish rule was a historicalfirst. For centuries, Spain had been ruled by outsiders:first by the Romans (ca. 19 B.C. to 410 A.D.), then theVisigoths (ca. 410-712), followed by the Moors who ruled muchof the southern half of the peninsula from 711 until 1492;see Jean Descola, A History of Spain, trans. Elaine P.Halperin (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1967), 24-92; and J. P.de Oliveira Martins, A History of Iberian Civilization,trans. Aubrey F. G. Bell (New York: Cooper Square Publishers,1969), 37-85. For two fine historical studies of ImperialSpain see J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain: 1469-1716 (New York:

"The Philosopher and the Mystic," 22-3.

1. 6Ibid., 3.

86

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87New American Library, 1963); and John Lynch, Spain under theHapsburgs, vol. 1, Empire and Absolutism, 1516-1598 (NewYork: University Press, 1981).

8Louis Bertrand and Sir Charles Petrie, TheHistory of Spain (Cambridge: The University Press, 1973),160.

9W• L. Reese, Dictionary of Philosophy andReligion: Eastern and Western Thought (Atlantic Highlands,NJ: Humanities Press, 1980), s.v. "Averroes. 1126-1198."

10Descola, 158-64; see also Pierre Pourrat,Christian Spirituaiity, vol. 3, Renaissance to Jansenism(Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1953), 82-85; and MiguelASln Palacios, St. John of the Cross and Islam, trans.Elmer H. Douglas and Howard W. Yoder (New York: vantagePress, 1981).

11Pourrat, 80-82; Palacios, 30-31.12Descola, 162-64.13Hatzfeld contends that Raymond Lull and Jan Van

Ruysbroeck were major sources for st. John; see HelmutHatzfeld, "The Influence of Raymond Lull and Jan vanRuysbroeck on the Language of the Spanish Mystics," Traditio4 (1946): 337-97.

14Whether or not the Muslim mystics contributeddirectly to John's thought remains an open question, althoughMiguel ASln Palacios makes a fairly convincing argument forsuch direct influence by the Sufis. Palacios compares thevocabulary of the Muslim mystic al-Shadhili (d. 1258) withthat of st. John. He claims that their vocabulary andmetaphors of renunciation share striking similarities intechnical detail and that the particular metaphorical imagesthey share "are a distinctive patrimony of the Shadhiliteschool and of the mysticism of Saint John of the Cross"(Palacios, 24-7).

15Bertrand, 154-6, 238-9; Elliott, 232-7.16Bertrand, 242-46; see also Marcelin Defourneaux,

Daily Life in Spain: In the Golden Age, trans. Newton Branch(New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971), 78-82; and Allison E.Peers, Spain: A Companion to Spanish Studies (London:Methuen, 1930), 122-54.

17Louis L. Snyder, The Making of Modern Man: Fromthe Renaissance to the Present (Princeton: D. Van Nostrand,1967), 43-55; see also 15-135,231.

8818Ibid., 16. 19Ibid., 15-27.

20Elliott, 158-9, 213-5; Lynch, 64-73; Pourrat, 49-62; Snyder, 61-66.

21Believing that the Beatific Vision could be hadin this life, the Illuminists also held that the union withGod was so complete that it brought about an annihilation ofone's personality; see Pourrat, 85-87; Baruzi, 251-65.

22Their moral transgressions combined with attackson essential aspects of Catholic Faith put them in greattrouble with the Inquisition; see Pourrat, 85-87.

23Ibid•

24Even many loyal Catholics were investigated forheresy. St. Ignatius of Loyola was himself arrested onsuspicion of heresy, interrogated, and forbidden to preachfor three years; see Elliott, 211.

25Ibid., 212-15.

26Ibid., 222-3. Even some sound mystical writingshighly prized by st. Teresa were condemned and her own firstautobiography was seized and never seen again. What affectif any the Inquisition had on st. John's own writing isdebated. Steven Payne dismisses the claims of those whothink that John was intimidated into suppressing his ownthought. If anything, Payne holds that John was "motivatedto express himself with greater precision and care so as toavoid any possible misunderstanding"; see Payne, "ThePhilosopher and the Mystic," 41-3.

27Will and Ariel Durant, The story ofCivilization, vol. 6, The Reformation (New York: Simon andSchuster, 1975), 198. Officially all Jews and Moslems weresupposed to have been expelled from Spain between 1492 and1502; see Elliott, 50-1, 106-8; Bertrand 154-6.

28Ferdinand and Isabella formally requested thatRome establish a tribunal of the Inquisition first in Castilein 1478 and then in other states in 1487. Its main task wasto investigate the new converts to Catholicism who had lapsedfrom the Faith, although much of the motive for this was thequest for imperial power and the promotion of national unity;Elliott, 104-6, 209-44.

29Elliott, 108-23, 178-208.

8930Bertrand, 235, 237; see also Defourneaux, 123-7;

Descola, 311-6; Lynch, 23-9. As will be noted later in thiswork, both the physical and psychological poverty of the timetook a heavy toll upon the family of Juan de Yepes y1\lvarez.

31Between the ehd of the 15th century and thebeginning of the 17th, obscene ethnic and religious purges,together with the great export of men and materiel tocolonize the New World, stripped Spain of its most importantresource--productive people; see Snyder, 124-35; Peers,Spain: A Companion to Spanish Studies, 59-66. To makematters worse, syphilis, newly imported from the Americas,was epidemic in Europe and killing large numbers of people.

32Elliott, 215.

33st• Teresa's own grandfather was a converted Jewwho had suffered public humiliation by the Inquisition in hisnative city of Toledo. For this reason he moved his familyto Avila where Teresa was born. See Justo L. Gonzalez, TheStory of Christianity, vol. 2, The Reformation to the PresentDay (New York: Harper and Row, 1984), 115.

34Hardy makes this point, (6-8). Speculatingfurther, it might be surmised that John was acutely awarethat his parents had married for love at tremendoussacrifice. Later in this study, when the importance of earlyobject (human) relations for the child is examined, thelasting influence on John of the love between Catalina andGonzalo, bought at the cost of radical poverty, will beconsidered. It can be argued that the important symbols oflove, marriage, sacrifice, suffering, and fidelity whichcharacterized the marriage of John's parents wouldunderstandably become the primary symbols in John's"spiritual marriage" to God.

35peers gives varying dates for Gonzalo's death;in one place he states c. 1543 and in another c. 1549. Otherauthorities are divided as to when he actually died; seeHandbook to the Life and Times, 250; and "An Outline of theLife of S. John of the Cross," in The Complete Works of SaintJohn of the Cross: Doctor of the Church, trans. and ed. E.Allison Peers (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1934),vol. 1, xxv.

36... ...Crisogono de Jesus contends that, because ofSalamanca's high standards, John's admission there "meantthat he was a good Latinist and an excellent grammarian"(Life of st. John of the Cross, 28).

37Descola, 208-9.

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90

38Ibid• Elliott reports that under CardinalQuiroga, who became Inquisitor-General in 1573, theInquisition permitted the teaching of the Copernican systemand that by 1594 it was part of the recommended course ofstudies at Salamanca (239).

39Crisogono, 34. Even the Islamic philosophersAvicenna and Averroes were considered important atSalamanca (33).

40 ...• ..•Crlsogono de Jesus claims, in San Juan de laCruz, su obra cientifica y su obra literaria, 2 vols. (Madridand Avila: Sigirano Diaz, 1929), that Baconthorpe had aconsiderable influence on John (73-123).

41 ... ... .See Crisogono de Jesus who wrltes that:"The independence he observed in the matter of schools anddoctors was to give him flexibility and breadth of judgement,and the terse scholastic style was to give the logical andirresistible structure of his thought a coalescence andfirmness which would enable him to raise mysticism to ascientific level hitherto unknownfl (Life of st. John of theCross, 37). See also Denis Edwards, "The Dynamism in Faith:The Interaction Between Experience of God and Explicit Faith:A Comparative Study of the Mystical Theology of John of theCross and The Transcendental Theology of Karl Rahner," (Ph.D.diss., The Catholic University of America, 1979), 35-6.

42These translations were halted and the readingof them forbidden by the Index of 1551 although authors couldcontinue to translate passages into the vernacular but onlyin support of their argument; See Jean Vilnet, Bible etmystigue chez Saint Jean de la Croix (Brussels: Desclee deBrouwer, 1949), 4-8; quoted in Edwards, flTheDynamism inFaith," 39.

43Kavanaugh, General Introduction to CollectedWorks of st. John, 18.

44Luis de Leon was arrested (1572) on sixteencharges besides the charge of translating and misinterpretingthe Song of Songs. These charges also included failure torespect the Vulgate translation and failure to denouncecertain heretical propositions taught by some of hiscolleagues (Vilnet, 22; cited in Edwards, flThe Dynamism inFaith,fI 38). He was acquitted by the Inquisition underQuiroga (Elliott, 239).

45Willis Barnstone, Introduction to The Poems ofSaint John of the Cross, trans. Willis Barnstone (New York:New Directions, 1972), 11.

9146Edwards, "The Dynamism in Faith," 39-40; quotes

Vilnet, 9-18.

47see respective references in Luis de San Jose,Concordancias de las obras y escritos.

48Including possibly a treatise on the Song ofSongs allegedly written by Gregory; see Bruno, st. John ofthe Cross, 49; Crisogono, Life of st. John of the Cross,38.

49crisogono, Life of St. John of the Cross, 38;Cristiani, 30; Bruno, 49.

50Kavanaugh, General Introduction to CollectedWorks of st. John, 18.

51Hardy, 23.53Ibid., 24-5.

54unlike the Lutheran view of grace as primarilythe antidote of human sinfulness by which righteousness ismerely imputed, St. John of the Cross's teaching isthoroughly Catholic. For John, grace perfects human nature,elevating it to divine status and union with God; seeCanticle 5; 32.4-8.

55Canticle 5.1.

52Ibid•

56Hardy, 39.

57Teresa was not wholly original in her attempt toreturn to primitive Carmelite observance. In the fifteenthcentury, two important attempts at reform were made in theOrder, one by the Congregation of Mantua and another led byBl. John Soreth, prior general from 1451-71 i see Keith Egan,"The Spirituality of the Carmelites," in ChristianSpirituality: High Middle Ages and Reformation, ed. JillRaitt, vol. 17, World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic Historyof the Religious Quest (New York: Crossroad, 1987), 56.

58under the primitive observance, the nuns were tobe "dis-calced" or "without shoes," and instead they usuallywore sandals.

59In 1580 the Discalced group was established as aseparate province in the Carmelite Order by order of PopeGregory XIII. In 1587 Pope Sixtus V granted the Discalcedrequest to become a separate congregation from the Calced andthe division of this new congregation into five newprovinces. It was not until 1593, two years after st. John'sdeath, that the Discalced Carmelites were given full status

92

as an order independent from the Calced as decreed by PapalBull of Clement VIlli see Peers, Handbook to the Life andTimes, appendix 3, "Biographical and Historical Outlines."

60St• John was kidnapped and imprisoned by theCalced in Medina del Campo for a short time the year before,but was freed under the intervention of the Papal NuncioOrmaneto.

61Hardy tells us that in the friary "after supperthe monks would go to a common room to listen to Fray Juanand to relax a little. His conversations were so fascinatingthat the monks always left that room laughing or rested.Whether he spoke of ordinary things or spiritual things, hishearers were always happy when they departed" (86).

62Hardy, 40. 63Ibid., 86.64Peter-Thomas Rohrbach, Journey to Carith: The

story of the Carmelite Order (Garden City: Doubleday, 1966),212, 221-22.

65Kavanaugh writes that: "As for the Song ofSongs, we must remember that it was the book most frequentlycommented on in the medieval cloisters. • • • The medievalcommentators found it to be more attuned than any other bookin Sacred Scripture to loving, disinterested contemplation,and John read it in this sense and therefore fittingly askedon his death bed that it be read to him" (GeneralIntroduction to John of the Cross: Selected Writings, 30).

66John calls it a journey in love through a "darknight" to the "divine light of perfect union with God." Theroad to this "high state of perfection" is marked by numer-ous profound "darknesses and trials" (Ascent Prole 1).

67The Spiritual Canticle was written for Madre Anade Jesus, prioress of the Convent of San Jose in Granada,and The Living Flame of Love at the request of a lay woman,Dona Ana de Penalosa.

68Canticle Prole 3.

69Canticle Prole 2.

70For studies of St. John's sources see: ABenedictine of Stanbrook Abbey, Mediaeval Mystical Traditionand Saint John of the Cross; Crisogono de Jesus, San Juande la Cruz, su obra cientffica y su obra literaria, 1: 21-53; Jean Krynen, La theologie du baroque. Denys Iemystique et st. Jean de la Croix: Contribution a l'etude

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de la tradition dionysienne en Espagne au XVI siecle et al'etude des sources de St. Jean de la Croix (These deDoctorat es Lettres, Univ. de Paris, 1955); and JeanOrcibal, Saint Jean de la Croix et les mystiques rheno-flamands (Bruges, Belgium: Desclee de Brouwer, 1966).

71Ascent Prole 2.72 ..Cr:Lsogono, 226.73Kavanaugh, General Introduction to Selected

Writings, 28.74Ibid., 29.

75This is evident when we learn, for example, thathe wrote, in the midst of a busy schedule, The Living Flameof Love for Dona Penalosa in a fortnight.

76In his writings, besides some persons he knewand a few passages from the Liturgy and Roman Breviary, Johnspecifically mentions only: Aristotle, Boethius, Ovid,(Pseudo-) Dionysius, and sts. Augustine, Thomas, and Gregory,and these altogether less than thirty-five times. Of thesereferences, several are actually pseudonymous: DeBeatitudine and De Decem Gradibus Amoris Secundum Bernardum,both falsely attributed to St. Thomas, and Soliloquiorumanimae ad Deum liber unus, falsely attributed to st.Augustine; see Kavanaugh and Rodriguez, Collected Works ofSt. John, 774.

77Jaques Maritain, The Degrees of Knowledge, 311.

78p• Silverio de Santa Teresa, GeneralIntroduction to The Complete Works of Saint John of theCross: Doctor of the Church, trans. and ed. by E. AllisonPeers, (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1934), p. xlv.Three major Spanish authors also bear mentioning: RaymondLull, who was named earlier for his significant contributionto Spanish mysticism; Bernardino de Laredo who wrote thepopular Ascent of Mount Sion, a title that possiblyinfluenced ~Tohn'sown The Ascent of Mount Carmel; and"perhaps the greatest Spanish ascetico-mystical writerprevious to st. John, Francisco de Osuna," whose ThirdSpiritual Alphabet was a major inspiration to St. Teresa deJesus (A Benedictine Monk of Stanbrook Abbey, 135, 138, and140); also see Brenan, 113.

79silverio, General Introduction to Complete Worksof Saint John, pp. xliv-xlvi.

9480See Jean Krynen, La theologie du baroque.

Denys le mystique et St. Jean de la Croix; Dictionnaire deSpiritualite, s.v. "Denys l'Areopagite en Occident," byEulogio de la Virgen del Carmen; Trueman Dicken, 323.

81Trueman Dicken doubts that st. John actuallyread any of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius. He admits howeverthat: "The influence of Pseudo-Dionysius on the spiritualwriters who certainly formed the background of his readingcannot be overestimated" (The Crucible of Love, 323).Federico Ruiz Salvador, in Introduccion a San Juan de laCruz: El hombre, los escritos, el sistema (Madrid: Bibliotecade Autores Cristianos, 1968), indicates three major lines ofDionysian influence upon st. John: "a) apofatismo: ningunaaprehension distinta puede ser Dios 0 semejanza de eli b)purificacion como fruto de la misma contemplacion queillumina; c) algunas alegorlas e imagines, coma lavidriera, las lampares, etc. La influenza es quiza menosperceptible, porque se halla perfectamente asimilada" (94-5);quoted in Denis Edwards, The Dynamism in Faith, 43, n. 30.

82unless otherwise noted, references to the worksof Dionysius will be from pseudo-Dionysius: The CompleteWorks, trans. Colm Luibheid, and will include the following:The Divine Names, The Mystical Theology, The CelestialHierarchy, The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and The Letters. Inall references to these works, the first number refers to thechapter and the second to the paragraph except where thereare subchapters which will then be entered prior to theparagraph number. The last number of the citation willindicate the column number from the Greek text of the Migneedition (PG3).

83See Introduction of this work, 13-4, esp. n. 41.

84In his Mystica Theologiae, Dionysius describestwo fundamental forms of the knowledge of God: one thatproceeds by way of affirmation, which is called kataphatictheology (via positiva), and one that proceeds by way ofnegation, which is called apophatic theology (or vianegativa); see also Lossky, Mystical Theology, 25-6. Both"ways" are viewed as necessary (Lossky, Vision of God, 125;Bouyer, "Pseudo-Dionysius," 414). Although symbols,concepts, and particular knowledge in general are necessary,they are inadequate means for the mystical knowledge of Godwhich transcends all finite understanding. Dionysius'sapophatic theology is not an attempt to undermine kataphaticand symbolic theology, but it tries to demonstrate theirfundamental inability to make God, who is beyond allparticular knowledge or experience, knowable. Mysticaltheology, which is experiential, negative, and apophatic, is

95

built upon yet sublates and transcends the necessaryfoundation of positive, symbolic theology (Lossky, Vision ofGod, 125-128).

85BOUyer, "Pseudo-Dionysius," 416, 419; Lossky,Vision of God, 126. Dionysius affirms that a person'shumanity is not left behind in death: "Thus the entireperson is made holy, the work of his salvation is allembracing, and the full rites (for the dead) make known thetotality of the resurrection that is to come" (EcclesiasticalHierarchy 7.3.9.565C; see also Celestial Hierarchy 3.1.164D-3.2.165A).

86Lossky, Vision of God, 123. God for Dionysiusis not the Neo-Platonic "One," but is both "one and triune[and this] must not be understood in any of our typicalsenses" (Divine Names 13.3.981A). Lossky contends thatDionysius attempts to show that "God is neither one nor manybut that He transcends this antinomy, being unknowable inwhat He is" (Lossky, Mystical Theology, 31).

87Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 6.3.5.536D.

88see Canticle, The Theme, 415. Those who havebelieved themselves to be following the Dionysian tradition,have usually understood purification (or purgation) to meanthe abandonment, through progressive non-attachment, of allcreated being, and the subsequent surrender of oneself toGod. Illumination paradoxically has been understood as thesoul's entry through love into the divine darkness in whichGod dwells in inaccessible light.

89Bouyer, "Pseudo-Dionysius," 404.

90Divine Names 4.13.712A.

91Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.7.433C. Johnstates that souls, in the perfection of divinetransformation, "are truly gods by participation, equals andcompanions (companeros) of God" Canticle 39.6.

92BOUyer, "Pseudo-Dionysius," 412.93Mystical Theology 3.1033B-1033C. Some

misunderstand Dionysius (and John) to mean that one mustleave behind the Incarnation in contemplation. Kennedybelieves: "It is very easy to understand some of histeachings in a sense which is not that of orthodoxChristianity: the Pseudo-Dionysian apophaticcontemplation • • • appears to be a-Christic and directed toan abstract impersonal monad" (70; also see his reference to

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96John, 113). Dionysius replies (to a similar assertion):"But, he is hidden even after this revelation, or, if I mayspeak in a more divine fashion, is hidden even amid therevelation. For this mystery of Jesus remains hidden and canbe drawn out by no word or mind" (Letter 3.1069B). Thenotion of abandoning "everything that is" is a qualifiedabandonment (in Dionysius and John) and is not in any way arenunciation of creation, the Church, or the person of JesusChrist.

94Divine Names 2.0.636B-2.11.652A.

9511The divinity of Jesus is the fulfilling causeof all, and the parts of that divinity are so related to thewhole that it is neither whole nor part while being at thesame time both whole and part. Within its total unity itcontains part and whole, and it transcends these too and isantecedent to them" (Divine Names 2.10.648Ci see alsoEcclesiastical Hierarchy 3.3.13.444C).

96Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1.1.372A.97Ibid., 3.3.12.444B.

98For a discussion of the spiritual senses in st.John of the Cross, see Payne, "The Philosopher and theMystic," 106-14.

99Lossky, Vision of God, 126-7. Hesuchiafor Dionysius means "silence of the divine life."

100Ibid., 127. Lossky points out that this isoften misunderstood in the West, while in the East,Dionysius's doctrine of dynamic manifestation, which implies"a distinction between the unknowable essence and its naturalprocessions or energies," is the "common patrimony ofByzantine theologians."

101Scholars generally agree that The Ascent ofMount Carmel and The Dark Night were intended by John to beone work. Taking the Ascent-Night as one major treatiseleaves two others: The Spiritual Canticle and The LivingFlame of Love. For John, "the sweet and living knowledge"that is mystical theology is no different than "that secretknowledge of God which spiritual persons call contemplation"(Canticle 27.5).

102Canticle Prole 1.

97103Harvey Egan, 172-73. The ineffability of

mystical experience so stood out for William James that inThe Varieties of Religious Experience he calls it the"handiest" of the "four marks of mystic states" (xv, 292).From his studies of mystics, James concluded that mysticism"must be directly experienced" for "no adequate report of itscontents can be given in wordsll (293-292). See alsoKavanaugh: "Expression of the Ineffable,1I in Introduction toThe Spiritual Canticle, in Collected Works of st. John, (397-398) •

104Harvey Egan, 173.105Canticle Prole 1.

106Some studies of John's poetry, in addition toBrenan mentioned above, include: Damaso Alonso, LaPoesla de San Juan de la Cruz, 3d ed. (Madrid: Aguilar,1958); Cristobal Cuevas GarcIa, San Juan de la Cruz:Cantico Espiritual: Poeslas (Madrid: Alhambra, 1979);George Tavard, Poetry and Contemplation in St. John of theCross (Athens: Ohio University, 1988); and Colin Thompson,The Poet and the Mystic: A Study of the IICanticoEspiritual" of San Juan de la Cruz (Oxford: University Press,1977).

107Canticle Prole 1. John continues by statingthat: "It would be foolish to think that expressions of lovearising from mystical understanding, like these stanzas, arefully explainable. • • • The Holy Spirit, unable to expressthe fullness of His meanings in ordinary words, uttersmysteries in strange figures and likenesses.1I

108All graced experience holds both revelation andmystery for the person who receives it. There is thereforein every such experience a great tension between theexpressible and the inexpressible, between that which can bespoken of and that before which one must remain foreversilent. In the study of mysticism this is often examined interms of kataphatic and apophatic experience.

109His extant poems number twenty-two, includingten romances.

110Barnstone, 9-10.

1110nly three of John's poems have commentaries:"The Dark Nightll (commentary in the Ascent-Night), "TheSpiritual Canticle," and "The Living Flame of Love."

112Canticle Prole 3.

98113Kavanaugh, General Introduction to Collected

Works of St. John, 35.

114"If some people still find difficulty inunderstanding this doctrine, it will be due to my deficientknowledge and awkward style, for the doctrine itself is goodand very necessary" (Ascent Prol. 7).