The Hi, I'm Peter Adamson and you're listening to the History of Philosophy Podcast, brought to you with the support of the Philosophy Department at King

College London and the LMU in Munich. Online at www. History of Philosophy.net.

Today's episode, All Manor of thing shall be well. English mysticism.

In these episodes on medieval philosophy, we've looked at quite a few works written in languages other than Latin, with Dante

writing in Italian, Mecht of Magdeburg, and Maestro Eckard in German, and Marguerite

and French.

But never in the whole podcast series have we discussed a work written in the language of the

podcast itself, English. That's going to change now. We've reached the late 14th century, the time of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Langland's

Piers Plowman, and the time also of several devotional works that deserve a place in our history of philosophy. Of course, the so-called middle English of these texts

is not quite the same as the one we use today. There are unfamiliar words and familiar words

used in unfamiliar ways, but for the most part it's surprisingly

comprehensible and reads like modern English typed by someone with unrestrained

enthusiasm for the silent e and a keyboard whose y key has gotten stuck. Even an inquisitive 4-year-old uses Y less than your average 14th century English author.

But then the authors we need to discuss were hardly average.

They produced several classics of Christian spirituality, sometimes drawing on the same sources

that inspired scholastic thinkers, yet operating outside of a scholastic context.

This is shown not only by their decision to write in English, but also by their intended audience.

For the most part, we're dealing with books of advice on spiritual matters.

Already in the first half of the 14th century, a religious hermit named Richard Roleh

wrote guides to the life of religious devotion, as well as liturgical commentary. His lead was followed by Walter

Hilton, who died at the close of the century in 1396. Close to him in time and in thought is the anonymous author of a book called The Cloud of Unknowing.

It has even been suggested that Hilton may be the author, though scholars generally reject this proposal.

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