the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...
the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ... the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...
occultique manent, nunquam oculis pervii, nisi sit qui reseret sacrumque inferat lumen.” 510 One modern historian, in citing this passage, translates arcae simply as “chest,” 511 but while this is of course the literal translation of the Latin word, it would perhaps be better rendered as “ark” in order to call to mind the Ark of the Covenant, a particularly important allusion, given the importance of Moses to those interested in esoteric or Hermetic traditions. Ficino, as discussed above, saw an essential continuity between Moses and Plato, and ultimately traced Plato’s roots back to Hermes. Moses, moreover, figures prominently in Dionysius’ work as well, where his journey up Mount Moriah is offered as the model for mystical ascent. 512 In other words, Lefèvre d’Étaples begins the preface with a sentiment that Clichtove or Cochlaeus would have found unobjectionable (i.e. Dionysius is an authoritative source because he was taught by an Apostle), but his language in the passage just cited suggests that the supramundanus theologus (as Lefèvre d’Étaples calls Dionysius) offers access to esoteric or hidden wisdom. 513 In fact, Lefèvre is clear that Dionysius is not a Platonist (or an Aristotelian, Stoic or Epicurean, or adherent of any pagan philosophy) but rather a “divine-sounding trumpet of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit” (“Iesu Christi et sancti spiritus...diviniloquam tubam” 514 ), but then goes on to assert that Dionysius “knew what Plato and Aristotle knew.” 515 Lefèvre manages to have his cake and eat it by means of a counterfactual scenario: if history allowed it, Plato and 510 Rice, 62 511 Hughes,7. 512 MT, 1000C-1001A. 513 Rice, 62. 514 Ibid, 63. 515 Ibid. 186
Aristotle would have been glad to have been his disciples (“immo vero uterque (si tempora dedissent) se etiam beatum putasset eius nominari discipulum”). 516 While Lefèvre d’Étaples was not so bold as to fully merge Christian and pre- Christian wisdom as Ficino had done, another of Dionysius’ readers, Oswaldus Crollius (1560-1608), had no such anxiety about his syncretistic views, stitching Christianity, Hermeticism, neo-Platonism, Paracelcianism, Kabbalah, alchemy and chemistry into an eclectic and expansive philosophical quilt. 517 Most importantly for this study, however, is the fact that Crollius was also a reader of Weigel, whom he cites alongside Dionysius in the preface to his major work, the Basilica Chymica (1609). 518 By contrast to Weigel who, as far as is known, never travelled more than a hundred miles from his birthplace, Crollius travelled widely through Europe, first as a student in Marburg, Heidelberg, Strasbourg and Geneva, then as a private tutor, finally setting off on his own through Moravia and Bohemia before settling in Prague for the rest of his life. 519 Born in Lutheran Hessen, he embraced Calvinism in the course of his travels, but, like Weigel, was an eclectic thinker whose wide-ranging reading interests 516 Rice, 63. 517 The most accessible work on Crollius is Owen Hannaway, The Chemists and the Word: The Didactic Origins of Chemistry (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975). See also Oswaldus Crollius, De signaturis internis rerum: Die lateinische Editio princeps (1609) und die deutsche Erstübersetzung (1623), ed. Wilhelm Kühlmann and Joachim Telle (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1996); Oswaldus Crollius, Alchemomedizinische Briefe 1585-1597, ed. Wilhelm Kühlmann and Joachim Telle (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1998). 518 Croll’s knowledge of Weigel provides an interesting glimpse into the circulation of Weigel’s manuscripts before they were printed. The first text of Weigel’s was only printed in 1609, the same year that Croll’s Basilica Chymica went to press, meaning that Croll could only have known about Weigel via manuscripts. Hannaway, 10-11. 519 By the end of the 16 th century, the Emperor Rudolf II had gathered at his court a “distinguished circle of ‘occult’ physicians and philosophers” (2), of which Croll was on the fringes. He did not, in fact, work for the (Catholic) Emperor but served as the personal physician to the (Calvinist) Prince Christian I of Anhalt- Bernburg (the dedicatee of the Basilica) who used him for “delicate diplomatic negotiations in and around the imperial city in furtherance of his project for an Evangelical Union of Protestant Princes” (2). Hannaway, 2; Crollius, 7. 187
- Page 139 and 140: indifference that allows Weigel to
- Page 141 and 142: teacher. 366 However, the turning p
- Page 143 and 144: Weigel gives the passage an unexpec
- Page 145 and 146: Murren”)—and they do this “in
- Page 147 and 148: and all the more so since he saw li
- Page 149 and 150: the strength of the intellectual re
- Page 151 and 152: CHAPTER 3 • DIONYSIUS, WHOEVER HE
- Page 153 and 154: demonstrated for Eckhart, I will de
- Page 155 and 156: destroyer that Dionysius is most of
- Page 157 and 158: ears good news to the church.” 39
- Page 159 and 160: points out, with a purification, a
- Page 161 and 162: served as cornerstones in defences
- Page 163 and 164: (Acts 17: 15-34), one of the skepti
- Page 165 and 166: to make the interpretation of these
- Page 167 and 168: Outside the universities, Dionysius
- Page 169 and 170: defiled the “sacred things” by
- Page 171 and 172: other leaders of the Protestant Ref
- Page 173 and 174: valorization of hierarchy per se in
- Page 175 and 176: as well as the with the arguments u
- Page 177 and 178: freedom, but rather obedience. 468
- Page 179 and 180: The primary piece in the compilatio
- Page 181 and 182: It is hardly surprising that Cochla
- Page 183 and 184: it does during the Council of Trent
- Page 185 and 186: for a hierarchical church, seizing
- Page 187 and 188: the ancient teaching”) that “be
- Page 189: Dionysiacum. For Lefèvre d’Étap
- Page 193 and 194: enlightens all great thinkers in ev
- Page 195 and 196: offered Dionysius to the Gelehrtenr
- Page 197 and 198: nine distinct editions of Dionysius
- Page 199 and 200: editions of Greek and Latin classic
- Page 201 and 202: (Turin), and is a reprint of Lefèv
- Page 203 and 204: presses in Spain (his first publica
- Page 205 and 206: growing body of evidence suggesting
- Page 207 and 208: Weigel concludes that, precisely be
- Page 209 and 210: apart, he suggested that true Chris
- Page 211 and 212: and so did not dwell on the fact th
- Page 213 and 214: Names, as the title suggests, is ba
- Page 215 and 216: animals, through plants and non-liv
- Page 217 and 218: of being.” 580 As we will see lat
- Page 219 and 220: (“God is a rock”) or even a neg
- Page 221 and 222: This is admittedly a nonsensical as
- Page 223 and 224: compositions, most likely dating to
- Page 225 and 226: Dionysius to show that, just as God
- Page 227 and 228: efer to Greek and Hebrew, the bibli
- Page 229 and 230: argues that there cannot be more th
- Page 231 and 232: dicitur una.” 616 The stress that
- Page 233 and 234: Weigel suggests will allow the soul
- Page 235 and 236: saving sacraments by means of which
- Page 237 and 238: Melanchthon’s Defence of the Augs
- Page 239 and 240: alternative—namely prayer. 643 We
occultique manent, nunquam oculis pervii, nisi sit qui reseret sacrumque infer<strong>at</strong><br />
lumen.” 510 One modern historian, in citing this passage, transl<strong>at</strong>es arcae simply as<br />
“chest,” 511 but while this is <strong>of</strong> course <strong>the</strong> literal transl<strong>at</strong>ion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> L<strong>at</strong>in word, it would<br />
perhaps be better rendered as “ark” in order to call to mind <strong>the</strong> Ark <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Covenant, a<br />
particularly important allusion, given <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> Moses to those interested in<br />
esoteric or Hermetic traditions. Ficino, as discussed above, saw an essential continuity<br />
between Moses and Pl<strong>at</strong>o, and ultim<strong>at</strong>ely traced Pl<strong>at</strong>o’s roots back to Hermes. Moses,<br />
moreover, figures prominently in Dionysius’ work as well, where his journey up Mount<br />
Moriah is <strong>of</strong>fered as <strong>the</strong> model for <strong>mystical</strong> ascent. 512<br />
In o<strong>the</strong>r words, Lefèvre d’Étaples begins <strong>the</strong> preface with a sentiment th<strong>at</strong><br />
Clichtove or Cochlaeus would have found unobjectionable (i.e. Dionysius is an<br />
authorit<strong>at</strong>ive source because he was taught by an Apostle), but his language in <strong>the</strong><br />
passage just cited suggests th<strong>at</strong> <strong>the</strong> supramundanus <strong>the</strong>ologus (as Lefèvre d’Étaples calls<br />
Dionysius) <strong>of</strong>fers access to esoteric or hidden wisdom. 513 In fact, Lefèvre is clear th<strong>at</strong><br />
Dionysius is not a Pl<strong>at</strong>onist (or an Aristotelian, Stoic or Epicurean, or adherent <strong>of</strong> any<br />
pagan philosophy) but ra<strong>the</strong>r a “divine-sounding trumpet <strong>of</strong> Jesus Christ and <strong>the</strong> Holy<br />
Spirit” (“Iesu Christi et sancti spiritus...diviniloquam tubam” 514 ), but <strong>the</strong>n goes on to<br />
assert th<strong>at</strong> Dionysius “knew wh<strong>at</strong> Pl<strong>at</strong>o and Aristotle knew.” 515 Lefèvre manages to have<br />
his cake and e<strong>at</strong> it by means <strong>of</strong> a counterfactual scenario: if history allowed it, Pl<strong>at</strong>o and<br />
510 Rice, 62<br />
511 Hughes,7.<br />
512 MT, 1000C-1001A.<br />
513 Rice, 62.<br />
514 Ibid, 63.<br />
515 Ibid.<br />
186
Change language