10 - Of Angels' Song

Summary

Of six extant manuscripts, only one (the early sixteenth-century Bodley MS 576) and Pepwell's printed edition of 1521 attribute this tract to Hilton, but the opening recalls those of other Hilton works, and there are parallels throughout in thought and style with his writings (cf. Scale, 1, 10–12). The work responds to a question about the status of angels’ song, and apparently counsels the reader against too simple an understanding of Rolle's notion of canor or song. The ‘ende and the soverante of perfeccioun’ lies in union with God by charity, and spiritual reforming may be accompanied by ‘savours, swetnesses, and wonderful felyngs’. To hear angelic song is another comfort: it is spiritual ‘and aboven al maner ymaginacioun and resoun’, but secondary to ‘the soveran and the essencial joy’ in love of God for himself. It may not be heard unless a soul be in perfect charity. Hilton warns against illusion and presumption, gives advice on devotion to the Holy Name, and towards the close seems to warn of danger inherent in The Cloud's theme of the ‘naked mynde’ of God.

Base manuscript: BL MS Add. 27592 (A), fols. 57V–61V. Also cited: Lincoln Cathedral Library MS 91, the ‘Thornton Manuscript’ (T), and CUL MS Dd. 5. 55 (Dd).