Nicholas of Cusa'S Dialectical Mysticism: Text, Translation, and Interpretive Study of de Visione Dei (3rd Edition)

NICHOLAS OF CUSA’S
DIALECTICAL MYSTICISM
Text, Translation, and Interpretive Study
of De Visione Dei
(3rd Edition)
by
JASPER HOPKINS
THE ARTHUR J. BANNING PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS
Herrn Prof. Dr. Rudolf Haubst und allen Mitgliedern
des Instituts für Cusanus-Forschung gewidmet
The translation is made from the Latin text collated by Jasper Hopkins. That text is not
reproduced here online. It is available, together with the accompanying interpretive study,
in the printed (first and second) editions of this work. The page numbers here differ from
the page numbers in those editions.
Second edition 1988

(First published 1985)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 84-71736
ISBN 0-938060-39-2
Printed in the United States of America
Copyright © 1985 by The Arthur J. Banning Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402.

All rights reserved.
678
THE VISION OF GOD
(De Visione Dei)
by
NICHOLAS OF CUSA
CHAPTER TITLES
1. The perfection of the appearance is predicated truly of the most per-
fect God.
2. Absolute Sight encompasses all modes [of seeing].
3. Things predicated of God do not differ really.
4. God's vision is said to be providence, grace, and eternal life.
5. [God's] seeing is His tasting, seeking, showing mercy, and working.
6. [Our] vision of [God's] Face.
7. What the fruit of [our] vision of [God's] Face is, and how this fruit
will be obtained.
8. God's vision is loving, causing, reading, and the having within itself
of all things.
9. [God's vision] is both universal and particular; and what the way to
seeing God is.
10. God is seen beyond the coincidence of contradicto-
ries, and His seeing is His being.
11. In God we see succession without succession.
12. Where the invisible is seen the uncreated is created.
13. God is seen to be Absolute Infinity.
14. God enfolds, without otherness, all things.
15. Actual Infinity is a oneness in which image is Truth.
16. Unless God were infinite, He would not be the End
of desire.
17. God can be seen perfectly only as triune.
18. Unless God were trine, there would not be happiness.
19. Jesus is the union of God and man.
20. How Jesus is understood to be the uniting of the
divine nature and the human nature.
21. Without Jesus happiness is not possible.
22. How Jesus sees and how He worked.
23. How Jesus died even though His union with life
remained.
24. Jesus is the Word of Life.
25. Jesus is the Consummation.
679
1 THE VISION OF GOD
I will now make known the things I previously promised you, most
beloved brothers, regarding the ready accessibility of mystical theolo-
gy. For I esteem you, whom I know to be motivated by a zeal for God,
to be worthy of having disclosed to you this assuredly most precious
and most abundant treasure. First of all, I pray the Heavenly Word and
Omnipotent Expression, who alone can make Himself known, that I be
given the ability to explain—in proportion to your ability to compre-
hend—the wonders which are revealed beyond all sensible, rational,
and intellectual sight. But I will attempt to lead you—by way of expe-
riencing and through a very simple and very common means—into
most sacred darkness. Upon arriving there and sensing the presence.of
Inaccessible Light, each of you—of yourself and in the manner grant-
ed you by God—will endeavor to approach ever nearer. And [you will
seek] to acquire in this lifetime, through a most pleasant savoring, a
foretaste of that meal of eternal happiness to which we are called in the
Word of Life by the Gospel of the Ever-blessed Christ.
2 If I strive to convey you by human means unto divine things, then
I must do this through a likeness. Now, among human works I have not
found an image more suitable to our purpose than the image of some-
one omnivoyant, so that his face, through subtle pictorial artistry, is
such that it seems to behold everything around it. There are in exis-
tence many of these excellently depicted faces—e.g., the one of the
archer in the forum at Nuremberg, the one of the preeminent painter
1
Roger in his priceless painting in the city hall at Brussels, the one of
the veronica [i.e., of the image of Christ] in my chapel at Coblenz, the
one, in the castle at Brixen, of the angel holding the emblems of the
church, and many others here and there. Nevertheless, so that you not
be lacking in practical experience, which requires such a sensible fig-
ure, I am sending to Your Love a painting that I was able to acquire. It
contains the figure of an omnivoyant [individual]; and I call it the "Icon
of God."
3 Hang this icon somewhere, e.g., on the north wall; and you broth-
ers stand around it, at a short distance from it, and observe it. Regard-
less of the place from which each of you looks at it, each will have the
impression that he alone is being looked at by it. To the brother who is
situated in the east it will seem that the face is looking toward the east;
680
De Visione Dei Preface 681
to the brother in the south, that the face is looking toward the south; to
the brother in the west, that it is looking westward. First of all, then,
marvel at how it is possible that [the face] behold each and every one
of you at once. For the imagination of the brother who is standing in
the east does not at all apprehend the icon's gaze that is being directed
toward a different region, viz., toward the west or the south. Next, let
the brother who was in the east situate himself in the west, and he will
experience the [icon's] gaze as fixed on him in the west, just as it pre-
viously was in the east. But since he knows that the icon is stationary
and unchanged, he will marvel at the changing of the unchangeable
gaze.
4 Moreover, if while fixing his sight upon the icon he walks from
west to east, he will find that the icon's gaze proceeds continually with
him; and if he returns from east to west, the gaze will likewise not
desert him. He will marvel at how the icon's gaze is moved immovably.
And his imagination will be unable to apprehend that the gaze is also
moved in accompaniment with someone else who is coming toward
him from the opposite direction. Now, [suppose that] wanting to expe-
rience this [phenomenon], he has a fellow-monk, while beholding the
icon, cross from east to west at the same time that he himself proceeds
from west to east. And [suppose] he asks the approaching brother
whether the icon's gaze moves continually with him. Thereupon he will
be told that the gaze is also moved in this opposite manner; and he will
believe his fellow-monk. And unless he believed, he would not appre-
hend that this [simultaneous opposition of motion] was possible. And
so, through the disclosure of the respondent he will come to know that
that face does not desert anyone who is moving—not even those who
are moving in opposite directions. Therefore, he will experience that
the unmovable face is moved toward the east in such way that it is also
moved at the same time toward the west, that it is moved toward the
north in such way that it is also moved [at the same time] toward the
south, that it is moved toward one place in such way that it is also
moved at the same time toward all other places, and that it observes
one movement in such way that it observes all other movements at the
same time. And while he considers that this gaze does not desert any-
one, he sees how diligently it is concerned for each one, as if it were
concerned for no one else, but only for him who experiences that he is
seen I by it. This [impression] is so strong that the one who is being
looked upon cannot even imagine that [the icon] is concerned for
another. [The one who is pondering all this] will also notice that [the
682 De Visione Dei 1
image] is most diligently concerned for the least of creatures, just as

for the greatest of creatures and for the whole universe.
5 On the basis of such a sensible appearance as this, I propose to ele-
vate you very beloved brothers, through a devotional exercise, unto
mystical theology. To this end I will [now] present three useful [con-
2
siderations].
6 CHAPTER ONE
THE PERFECTION OF THE APPEARANCE IS PREDICATED TRULY
OF THE MOST PERFECT GOD
In the first place, I think we must presuppose the following: whatever

is apparent with regard to the icon-of-God's sight is truer with regard
3
to God's true sight. For, indeed, God, who is the summit of all perfec-
tion and who is greater than can be thought,4 is called “theos" by virtue
of the fact that He observes all things.5 Therefore, if in the image the
depicted gaze can appear to be beholding each and every thing at once,
then since this [capability] belongs to sight's perfection, it cannot truly
befit the Truth less than it apparently befits the icon, or appearance. For
if one person's sight is more acute than another's, if one person's sight
scarcely discerns nearby objects but another's discerns more distant
objects, if one person's sight reaches its object slowly but another's
arrives more quickly, then without doubt Absolute Sight, from which
comes the entire sight of those who have sight, excels all the acuity,
swiftness, and power both of all those who actually have sight and of
all those who can be given it. For suppose I view abstract sight, which
mentally I have freed from all eyes and organs. And suppose I consid-
er (1) the fact that this abstract sight—in its own contracted being,
according as those who see see by means of sight—is contracted to
time, to the regions of the world, to individual objects, and to other
such conditions and (2) the fact that, likewise, abstract sight is free6
from these conditions. Thereupon, I rightly grasp that it is not of the
essence of sight that sight beholds one object more than another—even
though the fact that while sight inspects one object it cannot [at the
same time] inspect either another object or all other objects whatsoev-
er characterizes sight in its contracted being.
7 But God, insofar as He is true Uncontracted Sight, is not sight that
is less than the intellect can conceive abstract sight to be; rather, He is
incomparably more perfect Sight.7 Hence, the appearance of the icon's
gaze is less able to approximate the supreme excellence of Absolute
De Visione Dei 1 - 3 683
Sight than is conception. Therefore, that which is apparent in the case

of that image must undoubtedly be present in an excellent way in
Absolute Sight.
8 CHAPTER TWO
ABSOLUTE SIGHT ENCOMPASSES ALL MODES [OF SEEING]
Notice, next, that in those who have sight sight varies as a result of the
variety of its contractedness. For our sight is conditioned by the affec-
tions of the organ [i.e., of the eye] and of the mind. Hence, a given indi-
vidual looks [upon a given thing] now lovingly and gladly, later sadly
and angrily, now as does a child, later as does an adult, and, still later,
gravely and as does someone elderly. But Sight that is free from all
contractedness—as being the most adequate Measure, and the most
true Exemplar, of all acts of seeing8—encompasses at one and the same
time each and every mode of seeing. For without Absolute Sight there
cannot be contracted sight. But Absolute Sight encompasses all modes
of seeing—encompasses all modes in such way that it encompasses
each mode. And it remains altogether free from all variation. For in
Absolute Sight every contracted mode of seeing is present uncontract-
edly. For all contraction [of sight] is present in Absolute [Sight],
because Absolute Sight is the Contraction of contractions. For it is
9
Uncontractible Contraction. Therefore, most simple Contraction coin-
cides with Absolute [Sight]. Now, without contraction nothing is con-
tracted. Thus, Absolute Sight is present in all seeing, since all con-
tracted sight exists through Absolute Sight and cannot at all exist with-
out it.
9 CHAPTER THREE
THINGS PREDICATED OF GOD DO NOT DIFFER REALLY
Observe, next, that because of God's supreme simplicity whatever

things are predicated of Him cannot differ really, even though we apply
different words to God in accordance with different forms. But since
God is the Absolute Form of all formable forms,10 He enfolds in Him-
self the forms of all things. Hence, although we ascribe to God sight,
hearing, taste, smell, touch, sense, reason, understanding, and other
such things, in accordance with the different forms of signification of
each word, nevertheless in Him seeing is not other than hearing, tast-
ing, smelling, touching, perceiving, and understanding. And so, the
684 De Visione Dei 3 - 4
whole of theology is said to be circular,11 because [any] one of the

attributes is affirmed of [any] other. And God's having is His being, His
moving is His remaining at rest, His running is His being still—and so
on regarding the other attributes. So although on the basis of one form
we ascribe to Him moving and on the basis of another form we ascribe
to Him remaining-at-rest, nevertheless because He is Absolute Form in
which all otherness is oneness and all diversity is identity, there cannot
be in Him a diversity of forms; for this diversity, as we conceive it, is
not identity itself.
10 CHAPTER FOUR
GOD'S VISION IS SAID TO BE PROVIDENCE, GRACE, AND ETERNAL LIFE
Now, 0 brother contemplative, draw near to the icon of God and situ-
ate yourself first in the east, then in the south, and finally in the west.
The icon's gaze looks at you in equal measure in every region and does
not desert you no matter where you go. Therefore, a speculative con-
sideration will be occasioned in you, and you will be aroused and will
say: 0 Lord, by a certain sense-experience I now behold, in this image
of You, Your providence. For if You do not desert me, who am the least
of all men, then You will never desert anyone. You are present to each
and every thing—just as being, without which things cannot exist, is
present to each and every thing. For You who are the Absolute Being
of all things12 are present to each thing as if You were concerned about
no other thing at all. (Consequently, there is no thing which does not
prefer its own being to everything else and does not prefer its own
mode of being to all the modes of being of other things;13 and each
thing so cherishes its own being that it would let the being of all other
things perish rather than its own.) For You, 0 Lord, behold each exist-
ing thing in such way that no existing thing can conceive that You have
any other concern than (1) that this very thing exist in the best manner
it can and (2) that all other existing things exist only in order to serve
the following end: viz., that this thing upon which you are looking exist
in the best way.
11 You, 0 Lord, do not at all allow me to conceive, by any stretch of
the imagination, that You, Lord, love anything other than me more than
me, for it is me alone whom Your gaze does not desert. And since
where Your eye is present Your love is also present, I experience that
You love me, because Your eyes are most attentively upon me, Your
lowly servant. 0 Lord, Your seeing is loving; and just as Your gaze
De Visione Dei 4 685
regards me so attentively that it never turns away from me, so neither

does Your love. And since Your love Is always with me and is nothing
other, Lord, than You Yourself, who love me, You Yourself are always
with me, 0 Lord. You do not desert me, Lord; You safe-guard me on all
sides because You most carefully watch over me. Your Being, 0 Lord,
does not forsake my being, for I exist insofar as You are with me. And
since Your seeing is Your being, I exist because You look upon me. And
if You were to withdraw Your countenance from me, I would not at all
continue to exist.
12 But I know that Your gaze is that maximal goodness which cannot
fail to impart itself to whatever is capable of receiving it. Therefore,
You can never forsake me,14 as long as I am capable of receiving You.
Hence, I must see to it that, as best I can, I be made more and more
capable of receiving You. But I know that the capability which con-
duces to union is only likeness; but incapability results from unlike-
ness. Therefore, if by every possible means I make myself like unto
Your goodness, then according to my degree of likeness thereto I will
be capable of receiving truth. 0 Lord, You have given me being; and my
being is such that it can make itself more and more capable of receiv-
ing Your grace and goodness. And this power, which I have from You
and by virtue of which I possess a living image of Your omnipotent
power, is free will. Through free will I can either increase or decrease
my capability for receiving Your grace. I can increase it through con-
formity, when I endeavor to be good because You are good, when I
endeavor to be just because You are just, when I endeavor to be merci-
ful because You are merciful, when my every endeavor is turned only
toward You because Your every endeavor is turned toward me, when I
look most attentively only unto You (never turning the eyes of my mind
away) because You embrace me with a steadfast look, and when I turn
my love only toward You because You, who are Love,15 are turned only
toward me.
13 And what is my life, 0 Lord, except that embrace by which the
sweetness of Your love embraces me so lovingly? I love my life
supremely because You are the sweetness thereof. I presently contem-
plate eternal life in a mirror, an icon, a symbolism,16 because eternal
life is only Your blessed gaze, by which You never cease looking upon
me most lovingly—even to the point of beholding the intimate recess-
es of my soul. And Your seeing is only Your enlivening, only Your con-
tinually instilling Your most sweet love and, by instilling, inflaming me
686 De Visione Dei 4-5
with love for You. In inflaming me You feed me, and in feeding me You
intensify my desires. In intensifying my desires You give me to drink
of the dew of joy, and in giving me to drink
You cause a fountain of life to well up in me. In so causing, You cause
to increase and to be preserved. You impart Your immortality. You offer
the unfading glory of Your celestial, most lofty, and most great king-
dom. You make me a partaker of that heritage which is the Son's alone,
and You bestow upon me eternal happiness. [Your seeing is all of the
foregoing,] wherein is the source of whatever delights can
be desired. Not only can nothing better than this be imagined by any
man or angel but also nothing better can exist by any mode of being.
For this source is the absolute maximality (which cannot be greater)
of all rational desire.
14 CHAPTER FIVE
[GOD'S] SEEING IS HIS TASTING, SEEKING, SHOWING MERCY, AND
WORKING
0 how greatly manifold is that sweetness of Yours which You have

reserved for those who fear You!17 For it is an uncountable treasure of
most joyous joy. For to taste of Your sweetness is to apprehend the
sweetness of all delights—to apprehend it in its own Beginning and by
experiential contact. It is to attain, in Your wisdom, to the Form of all
desirable things. Therefore, to see Absolute Form, which is the Form
of all [forms], is no other than mentally to taste of You, who are God;
for You are the Sweetness of being and of life and of understanding.
15 0 Lord, when You look upon me with an eye of graciousness, what
is Your seeing, other than Your being seen by me? In seeing me, You
who are deus absconditus18 give Yourself to be seen by me. No
one can see You except insofar as You grant that You be seen. To see
You is not other than that You see the one who sees You. By means of
this icon of You, 0 Lord, I see how favorably disposed You are to show
Your face to all who seek You. For You never close Your eyes; You
never turn [them] away. And although I turn away from You when I
completely turn to something else, You do not on this account change
Your eyes or Your gaze. If You do not look upon me with an eye of
grace, it is my fault, because I am separated from You through my turn-
ing away and through my turning toward something else, which I pre-
fer to You. Notwithstanding, You still do not turn altogether away from
me, but Your mercy follows me in case at sometime I might wish to
turn back to You in order to be capable of receiving Your grace. For the
reason that You do not look upon me is that I do not look unto You but
reject and despise You.
16 0 Infinite Graciousness, how unhappy is every sinner who forsakes
You, the Stream of life, and seeks You not in Yourself but in that which
in itself is nothing and would have remained nothing had You not
called it forth from nothing. How foolish is he who seeks You, who are
Goodness, and while seeking You departs from You and turns away his
eyes. For everyone who seeks seeks only the good, and everyone who
seeks the good and departs from You departs from that which he
seeks.19 Therefore, every sinner strays from You and goes farther away.
But when he turns back to You, You straightway come forth to meet
him; and, before he beholds You, You cast Your eyes of mercy upon
him with fatherly affection. Your showing mercy is nothing other than
Your seeing. Hence, wherever any man goes Your mercy follows him
for as long as he is alive, just as Your gaze, too, does not desert anyone.
Therefore, as long as a man lives You do not cease to follow him and
to urge him, with sweet and inward admonition, to cease from error
and to turn unto You in order to live happily.
17 You, 0 Lord, are the companion for my journey; wherever I go
Your eyes are always upon me. But Your seeing is Your moving. There-
fore, You are moved with me; and You never cease moving as long as
I am moved. If I am stationary, You are with me; if I ascend, You
ascend; if I descend, You descend; in whatever direction I turn, You are
present. And You do not desert me in time of tribulation. As often as I
call upon You, You are nearby; for to call upon You is to turn toward
You. You cannot be absent from him who turns toward You, nor can
anyone turn toward You unless first You are present. You are present
before I turn toward You; for unless You were present and unless You
aroused me, I would be altogether ignorant of You. And how would I
turn toward You, of whom I would be ignorant?
18 You, then, are my God, who sees all things; and Your seeing is
Your working. Therefore, You work all things. Not, then, to us, 0 Lord,
do I sing everlasting glory—not to us but to Your great name,20 which
is Theos.21 For I have nothing which You do not give me; and I could
not retain that which You have given unless You conserved it. Hence,
You supply me with all things; You are the mighty and gracious Lord,
who gives all things; You are the Minister, who supplies all things; You
are the one who provides, the one who cares, the one who conserves.
And by means of Your one most simple viewing You, who are blessed
forever, work all these things
19 CHAPTER SIX
[OUR] VISION OF [GOD’S] FACE
0 Lord my God, the longer I behold Your Face, the more acutely You
seem to me to cast the acute gaze of Your eyes upon me. Now, Your
gaze causes me to reflect upon the following: that the reason this image
of Your Face is depicted in the foregoing perceptible way is that a face
could not have been painted without color and that color does not exist
apart from quantity. But the invisible Truth of Your Face I see not with
the bodily eyes which look at this icon of You but with mental and
intellectual eyes. This Truth is signified by this contracted shadow-like
image.22 But Your true Face is free of all contraction. For it is neither
quantitative nor qualitative nor temporal nor spatial. For it is Absolute
Form, which is also the Face of faces. Therefore, when I consider that
this Face is the Truth of, and the most adequate Measure of, all faces.23
I become astounded. For the Face which is the Truth of all faces is not
quantitative; hence, it is not greater or lesser than any face. Because it
is neither greater nor lesser, it is equal to each and every face; and yet,
it is not equal to any face, because it is not quantitative but is absolute
and superexalted. It is, therefore, Truth, or Equality, that is free from
all quantity. In this way, then, 0 Lord, I apprehend that Your Face pre-
cedes every formable face and is the Exemplar and Truth of all faces—
and that all faces are images of Your Face, which cannot be contracted
and cannot be participated in. Therefore, every face that can look upon
Your Face sees nothing that is other than itself or different from itself,
because it sees its own Truth. But Exemplar-Truth cannot be other or
different; instead, these characteristics befall the image, by virtue of
the fact that it is not the Exemplar.
20 Therefore, just as while I look from the east at this depicted face it
seems likewise to look eastwardly at me, and just as while [I look at it]
from the west or from the south it [seems] likewise [to look westward-
ly or southwardly at me], so the [depicted] face seems turned toward
me regardless of how I change my face. In a similar way, Your Face is
turned toward every face that looks unto You. Your gaze, 0 Lord, is
Your Face. Accordingly, whoever looks unto You with a loving face
will find only Your Face looking lovingly upon him. And the greater
his endeavor to look more lovingly unto You, the more loving he will
likewise find Your Face to be. Whoever looks angrily unto You will find
Your Face likewise to display anger. Whoever looks unto You joyfully
will find Your Face likewise to be joyous, just as is the face of him who
is looking unto You. For just as the bodily eye, in looking through a red
glass, judges as red whatever it sees, and as green whatever it sees if
looking through a green glass, so each mental eye, cloaked with con-
traction and passion, judges You who are the object of the mind,
according to the nature of the contraction and the passion. A man can
judge only in a human way. For example, when a man ascribes a face
to You, he does not seek it outside the human species; for his judgment
is contracted within human nature and does not, in judging, go beyond
the passion that belongs to this contractedness. Similarly, if a lion were
to ascribe to You a face, he would judge it to be only lionlike; an ox
[would judge it to be only] oxlike; and an eagle [would judge it to be
only] eaglelike.
21 0 Lord, how admirable is Your Face! If a youth wished to conceive
it, he would envision it as youthful; if an adult [wished to conceive it,
he would envision it as] adult; and someone elderly [would envision it
as] elderly. Who could conceive of this unique, most true, and most
adequate Exemplar of all faces?—the Exemplar of each and every face
and, yet, so perfectly the Exemplar of each that, as it were, it is not the
Exemplar of any other. He would have to pass beyond all the forms and
figures of all formable faces. And how could he conceive it to be a face,
when he would transcend all faces and all likenesses and figures of all
faces, as well as all concepts which can be made of a face and all color,
adornment, and beauty of all faces? Therefore, as regards whoever sets
out to see Your Face: as long as he conceives of something, he is far
removed from Your Face. For every concept of face is less than Your
Face, 0 Lord; and all beauty that can be conceived is less than the beau-
ty of Your Face. All faces have beauty; but they are not beauty itself.
But Your Face, 0 Lord, has beauty, and this having is being. Hence,
Your Face is Absolute Beauty, which is the Form that gives being to
every beautiful form. 0 Face exceedingly lovely! All the things which
have received the gift of looking thereupon do not suffice for admiring
its beauty.
22 In all faces the Face of faces is seen in a veiled and symbolic man-
ner. But it is not seen in an unveiled manner as long as the seeker does
not enter, above all faces, into a certain secret and hidden silence
wherein there is no knowledge or concept of a face. For this obscuring-
mist, haze, darkness, or ignorance into which the one seeking Your
Face enters when he passes beyond all knowledge and conception is
that beneath which Your Face can be found only in a veiled manner.24
Yet, the obscuring mist reveals that Your Face is there, above every-
thing beveiling. By comparison, when our eye seeks to see the sun's
light, which is the sun's face, it first looks at it in a veiled manner in the
stars and in colors and in all participants in the sun's light. But when
our eye strives to view the sun's light in an unveiled manner, it passes
beyond all visible light, because all such light is less than the light it
seeks.25 But since it seeks to see a light which it cannot see, it knows
that as long as it sees something, this is not the thing it is seeking.
Therefore, it must pass beyond all visible light. So if one has to pass
beyond all light, the place into which he enters will have to be devoid
of visible light; and so, for the eye, it will be darkness. Now, while he
is amid that darkness, which is an obscuring mist: if he knows that he
is within an obscuring mist, he knows that he has approached unto the
face of the sun. For that obscuring mist arises in his eye as a result of
the excellence of the light of the sun. Therefore, the more dense he
knows the obscuring mist to be, the more truly he attains, within that
mist, unto the invisible light. I see, 0 Lord, that in this way and in no
other the inaccessible light and beauty and splendor of Your Face can
be approached unveiledly.
23 CHAPTER SEVEN
WHAT THE FRUIT OF [OUR] VISION OF [GODS] FACE IS
AND HOW THIS FRUIT WILL BE OBTAINED
0 Lord, that sweetness by which You now feed my soul is so great that
[my soul] is somehow aided by means of what it experiences in this
world and by means of those most agreeable likenesses which You
inspire. For example, since You, 0 Lord, are the Power, or Beginning,
from which all things derive and since Your Face is the Power and
Beginning from which all faces are that which they are, I turn toward
this large and tall nut tree, whose Beginning I seek to see. And with the
sensible eye I see that it is large, spacious, colored, laden with branch-
es, with leaves, and with nuts. Then with the mind's eye I see that this
tree existed in its seed not in the manner in which I here behold it but
potentially. I consider attentively this seed's admirable power, wherein
were present the whole of this tree, all its nuts, the entire seminal
power of the nuts, and, in the seminal power of the nuts, all [the deriv-
ative] trees. And I discern that this power is never at any time fully
unfoldable by the motion of the heavens. Yet, the seed's power, though
not [fully] unfoldable, is nevertheless contracted, because [the seed]
has power only with respect to this species of nuts. Hence, although in
the seed I see the tree, nevertheless [I see it] only in a contracted power.
24 Next, I reflect upon the entire seminal power of all the trees of var-
ious species—a power that is contracted to each species. And in the
seeds I see the trees in potency. If, then, I wish to see the Absolute
Power of all the powers of such seeds (this Absolute Power is the
Power that is also the Beginning and that gives power to all seeds), I
must pass beyond all seminal power that can be known and conceived
and must enter into that ignorance wherein remains no seminal power
or seminal force at all. Thereupon I will find amid obscuring mist a
most stupendous Power, accessible by no conceivable power. It is the
Beginning, which gives being to every power, whether seminal or non-
seminal. This absolute and superexalted Power gives to each seminal
power the power whereby it enfolds a tree potentially, together with
[enfolding] all that is required for a sensible tree and all that follows
from the being of a tree. Accordingly, this Beginning and Cause has
within itself—qua Cause, and in an absolute and enfolded manner—
whatever it gives to the effect. In this way I see that this Power is the
Face, or Exemplar, of every arboreal species and of each tree. In this
[Power] I see this nut tree not as in its own contracted seminal poten-
cy but as in the Cause and Maker of that seminal power. And so, I see
that this tree is a certain unfolding of the seed's power and that the seed
is a certain unfolding of Omnipotent Power.
25 Moreover, I see that in the seed the tree is not a tree but is the sem-
inal power, and the seminal power is that from which the tree is unfold-
ed, so that in the tree there can be present only what proceeds from the
seed's power. Similarly, in its own Cause, which is the Power of pow-
ers, the seminal power is not seminal power but is Absolute Power. And
so, in You my God the tree is You Yourself my God; and in You it is the
Truth and Exemplar of itself. Likewise, too, in You the seed of the tree
is the Truth and Exemplar of itself. Of both the tree and the seed You,
0 God, are the Truth and Exemplar. And that seminal power, which is
contracted, is the natural power of the species; it is contracted to the
species and is present in the species as a contracted beginning. But
You, my God, are Absolute Power and, hence, the Nature of all natures.
26 0 God, You have led me to the place where I see Your Absolute
Face to be (1) the natural Face of every nature, (2) the Face which is
the Absolute Being of all being, (3) the Art and Knowledge of every-
thing knowable. So whoever merits to see Your Face sees all things
plainly, and nothing remains hidden from him. He who has You, 0
Lord, knows and has all things. He who sees You has all things, for no
one sees You except him who has You. No one can approach unto You,
because You are unapproachable. Therefore, no one will apprehend
You unless You give Yourself to him. How will I have You, 0 Lord?—
I who am not worthy to appear in Your presence. How will my prayer
reach You who are altogether unapproachable? How will I entreat You?
For what is more absurd than to ask that You, who are all in all, give
Yourself to me? How will You give Yourself to me unless You likewise
give to me the sky and the earth and everything in them? Indeed, how
will You give Yourself to me unless You also give me to myself? And
while I am quietly reflecting in this manner, You, 0 Lord, answer me in
my heart with the words: "Be your own and I will be yours."
27 0 Lord, Sweet Agreeableness of all sweetness, You have placed
within my freedom my being my own if I will to. Hence, unless I am
my own You are not mine. For [if You were mine when I did not will
to be my own], You would be coercing my freedom, since You can be
mine only if I too am mine. And because You have placed this matter
within my freedom, You do not coerce me; rather, You await my choos-
ing to be my own. This matter is up to me, then, not up to You, 0 Lord,
who do not constrict Your maximum goodness but most generously
shed it on all who are able to receive it. But You, 0 Lord, are Your good-
ness.
28 Yet, how will I be my own unless You, 0 Lord, teach me how? But
You teach me that the senses should obey reason and that reason
should govern. Therefore, when the senses serve reason, I am my own.
But reason has no one to direct it except You, 0 Lord, who are the Word
and the Rational Principle (ratio) of rational principles. Hence, I now
see the following: if I hearken unto Your Word, which does not cease
to speak within me and which continually shines forth in my reason, I
shall be my own—free and not a servant of sin—and You will be mine
and will grant me to see Your Face and then I shall be saved.26 May
You, therefore, be blessed in Your gifts, 0 God—You, who alone are
able to comfort and encourage my soul, so that it may hope to attain
unto You and to enjoy You as being its own gift and as being the infi-
nite treasure of all delights.
29 CHAPTER EIGHT
GOD'S VISION IS LOVING, CAUSING, READING, AND
THE HAVING WITHIN ITSELF OF ALL THINGS
My heart is not at rest, 0 Lord, because Your love has inflamed it with
such desire that only in You alone can it find rest.27 I began to pray the
Lord's Prayer, and You inspired me to attend to how it is that You are
our father. Your loving is Your seeing. Your paternity is the seeing
which paternally embraces us all, for we say "Our Father." For You are
father of each and all alike. For [in praying the prayer] each confesses
that You are "Our Father." Your paternal love comprehends each and
every son. For the Father loves all sons in such way that He loves each
son, because He is father of all in such way that He is father of each.
He loves each son in such way that each son conceives himself to be
preferred over all others.
30 If, then, You are father and are our father, we are, accordingly. Your
sons. But paternal love precedes filial love. As long as we, Your sons,
look unto You as sons, You do not cease to look upon us as father. Thus,
You will be our paternal provider, showing paternal concern for us.
Your seeing is Your providence. But if we, Your sons, renounce You
who are our father, we cease being Your sons. And in that case we are
not sons who are free and who are under our own power, but we depart
to a distant region, separating ourselves from You; and thereupon we
undergo harsh servitude to a ruler who is an adversary to You our God.
But You, Father, who allow us (on account of the freedom conceded to
us because we are the sons of You who are freedom itself) to depart and
to waste our freedom and our best substance in accordance with the
corrupt desires of the senses: You do not, for all that, altogether desert
us. Rather, continually showing concern for us, You are present to us,
and You speak within us and call upon us to return unto You. And You
are always ready to look upon us with Your earlier paternal eye if we
turn back and turn unto You. 0 gracious God, look upon me, who,
remorseful, now turn back from wretched servitude—swinelike in its
slimy filth, and in which servitude I was famishing—in order somehow
to be fed in Your house.28 Feed me by Your gaze, 0 Lord. And teach me
how it is that Your gaze sees all sight that sees, every object that can be
seen, and every act of seeing, as well as all power to see, all power to
be seen, and every actual seeing that arises from both. Since Your see-
ing is causing, You who cause all things see all things.
31 Teach me, 0 Lord, how it is that by a single viewing You discern
all things individually and at once. When I open a book, for reading, I
see the whole page confusedly. And if I want to discern the individual
letters, syllables, and words, I have to turn to each individually and
successively. And only successively can I read one letter after another,
one word after another, [one] passage after another. But You, 0 Lord,
behold at once the entire page, and You read it without taking any time.
Now, if two of us men read the same thing, one more quickly and the
other more slowly, You read with both of us; and You seem to read in
time, because You read with us who are reading. But above time You
see and read all things at once; for Your seeing is Your reading. Simul-
taneously—from eternity and beyond all passing of time—You have
viewed all books that have been written and that can be written, and
You have read them at once; but You also now read them successively,
in accompaniment of all who are reading them. You do not read one
thing in eternity and another thing in time, in accompaniment of those
who are reading. Rather, You read [one and] the same thing—doing so
in [one and] the same manner, because You are not mutable, since You
are fixed eternity. But since eternity does not desert time, it seems to
be moved with time, even though in eternity motion is rest.29
32 0 Lord, You see and You have eyes. Therefore, You are an eye,
because Your having is being. Accordingly, You behold within Yourself
all things. For if in me sight were the eye—as is the case with You my
God—then I would view within myself all things. For the eye is like a
mirror; and a mirror, however small, figuratively receives into itself a
large mountain and all that is on the surface of the mountain. And in a
similar way the visible forms of all things are in the mirroring eye.
Nevertheless, by means of the mirroring eye our sight sees only and
particularly that to which it turns; for the power of the eye can be deter-
mined by the object only in a particular way. Consequently, it does not
see all the things which are captured in the mirror of the eye. But since
Your sight is an eye, i.e., a living mirror, it sees within itself all things.
Indeed, because it is the Cause of all visible things, it embraces and
sees all things in the Cause and Rational Principle of all things, viz., in
itself. Your eye, 0 Lord, proceeds to all things without turning. The rea-
son our eye turns toward an object is that our sight sees from an angle
of a certain magnitude. But the angle of Your eye, 0 God, is not of a
certain magnitude but is infinite. Moreover, the angle of Your eye is a
circle—or better, an infinite sphere—because Your sight is an eye of

sphericity and of infinite perfection.30 Therefore, Your sight sees—
roundabout and above and below—all things at once.
33 To all who examine it, my God, how admirable is Your sight,
which is theos! 31 How beautiful and lovable it is to all who love You!
How terrifying it is to all who forsake You, 0 Lord my God! For by
Your vision, 0 Lord, You enliven every spirit, You gladden all who are
made glad, and You dispel all sorrow. Look, then, mercifully upon me,
and my soul shall be saved.
34 CHAPTER NINE
[GOD'S VISION] IS BOTH UNIVERSAL AND PARTICULAR;
AND WHAT THE WAY TO SEEING GOD IS
Since You behold at once each and every one [of us]—even as is befig-
ured by this painted image that I look upon—I am amazed, 0 Lord, at
how in Your visual power the universal coincides with the singular. But
I take note of the following: that because seek [to understand] Your
vision in terms of my own visual power, my imagination does not
grasp how this [coincidence] can occur; since Your vision is not con-
tracted to a sensible organ, as is mine, I am deceived in my judgment.
35 Your sight, 0 Lord, is Your essence. If, then, I consider human
nature, which is simple and singular in all men, I find it in each and
every man. And although in itself it is not in the east or the west or the
south or the north, nevertheless in men who are in the east it is in the
east, and in men who are in the west it is in the west. And likewise:
although neither motion nor rest belong to the essence of humanity,
nevertheless at one and the same time humanity is moved with men
who move, it rests with men who are resting, and it remains stationary
with men who are stationary. For humanity does not desert men,
whether they are moved or are not moved, whether they are sleeping or
resting. Hence, human nature, which is contracted and which does not
exist apart from human beings,32 is such that it is present to one man
as much as to another; yet, it is so completely present to one man that,
as it were, it is not present to any other. If so, then in a much higher
way [the case is parallel regarding] Uncontracted Humanity,33 which is
the Exemplar and Idea of the contracted human nature and which
exists as the Form of, and Truth of, the form of the contracted human-
ity. For Uncontracted Humanity can never desert the humanity that is
contracted in individual human beings. For it is the Form which gives
being to that formal nature [viz., to contracted humanity]. Without this

Form, then, the specific form cannot exist, since it does not exist
through itself. For the specific form derives from the Form which
exists through itself and prior to which there is no other form. There-
fore, that Form which gives specific being is Absolute Form; and You
are this Form, 0 God—You, who are Former of heaven and earth and
all things.34
36 Therefore, when I view contracted humanity and, by means of it,
view Absolute Humanity (viz., by seeing in the contracted the
Absolute, as in an effect the cause is seen and in an image the truth and
exemplar is seen), You appear to me, my God, as the Exemplar of all
men and as Human Nature per se, i.e., as Absolute Human Nature. But
likewise, when with regard to all species I turn to [consider] the Form
of forms: in all these species You appear to me as the Idea and Exem-
plar. And because You are the absolute and most simple Exemplar, You
are not composed of many exemplars, but You are one most simple
infinite Exemplar, so that You are the truest and most adequate Exem-
plar of each and every thing that can be formed.35Therefore, You are
the Essence of essences,36 giving to contracted essences that they be
that which they are. Apart from You, then, 0 Lord, nothing can exist.37
37 If, then, Your essence penetrates all things, then so too does Your
sight, which is Your essence. Therefore, Just as none of all existing
things can escape from its own being, so neither [can it escape] from
Your essence, which gives to all things their essential being. Conse-
quently, no [existing thing can escape from] Your sight, either. Thus,
You see each and every thing at once, 0 Lord. And You are moved with
all that is moved, and You remain stationary with all that is stationary.38
And because there are some things which are moved while others
remain stationary, You 0 Lord, at once, are both moved and stationary;
at once You both advance and are at rest. For if, in different things,
being moved and being-at-rest occur contractedly and at the same time,
and if nothing can exist apart from You, then neither motion nor rest
exists apart from You. 0 Lord, You are present at one and the same time
to all these things, and You are present as a whole to each [of them].39
Nevertheless, You are not moved and You are not at rest, because You
are superexalted and are free from all these things, which can be con-
ceived or named. Therefore, You are stationary and You advance, and
likewise You are neither stationary nor do You advance. This very point
is illustrated for me by this painted face. For if I am moved, its gaze
appears to be moved, since it does not desert me. If, while I am mov-
ing, someone else who is looking at the face remains stationary, then
the [face's] gaze does not desert him either but remains stationary with
him. However, a Face that is free from these conditions cannot proper-
ly be characterized as stationary and as moved; for [such a Face] exists
beyond all rest and motion, in most simple and most absolute Infinity.
Indeed, motion and rest and opposition and whatever can be spoken of
or conceived are subsequent to this Infinity.
38 Hence, I experience the necessity for me to enter into obscuring
mist and to admit the coincidence of opposites,40 beyond all capacity
of reason, and to seek truth where impossibility appears. And when—
beyond that [rational capacity] and beyond every most lofty intellectu-
al ascent, as well—I come to that which is unknown to every intellect
and which every intellect judges to be very far removed from the truth,
there You are present, my God, You who are Absolute Necessity. And
the darker and more impossible that obscuring haze of impossibility is
known to be, the more truly the Necessity shines forth and the less
veiledly it draws near and is present.
39 I thank You, my God, for disclosing to me that there is no other
way of approaching You than this way which seems to all men, includ-
ing the most learned philosophers, altogether inaccessible and impos-
sible.41 For You have shown me that You cannot be seen elsewhere than
where impossibility appears and stands in the way. And You, 0 Lord,
who are the Nourishment of the full-grown,42 have encouraged me to
do violence to myself, because impossibility coincides with necessity.
And I have found the abode wherein You dwell unveiledly—an abode
surrounded by the coincidence of contradictories. And [this coinci-
dence] is the wall of Paradise, wherein You dwell. The gate of this wall
is guarded by a most lofty rational spirit; unless this spirit is van-
quished the entrance will not be accessible. Therefore, on the other
side of the coincidence of contradictories You can be seen—but not at
all on this side. If, then, 0 Lord, in Your sight impossibility is necessi-
ty, then there is nothing which Your sight does not see.
40 CHAPTER TEN
GOD IS SEEN BEYOND THE COINCIDENCE OF CONTRADICTORIES,
AND HIS SEEING IS HIS BEING
I stand before the image of Your Face, my God—an image which I

behold with sensible eyes. And I attempt to view with inner eyes the
truth which is pointed to by the painting. And it occurs to me, 0 Lord,

that Your gaze speaks; for Your speaking is none other than Your see-
ing. And because Your seeing and Your speaking are synonymous—
since they do not differ really in You, who are Absolute Simplicity—I
experience clearly that You see each and every thing at once. For when
I preach, I speak at one and the same time to the church assembled as
a congregation and to each individual present in the church. I speak
one word, and in this one word I speak to each individual. That which
the church is to me, this the whole world and each creature that exists
or can exist is to You, 0 Lord. In like manner, then, You speak to each
thing, and You see the things to which You speak. 0 Lord, who are the
supreme consolation of those who place their hope in You, You inspire
me to praise You on the basis of [an illustration regarding] myself. For
You have given me one face, just as You willed to, and it is seen sin-
gularly and at once by all to whom I preach. And so, my one face is
seen by each individual, and my simple sermon is wholly heard by
each. But [only] successively and not at once can I individually hear all
who speak. Nor can I see all individually at once, but [only] succes-
sively. Yet, if in me there were such great power that being heard coin-
cided with hearing, and likewise being seen coincided with seeing, and
speaking with hearing—as is the case with You, 0 Lord, who are
supreme power—then I would hear and see each and every one at once.
And just as I would speak to each at once, so also in the same moment
when I would be speaking, I would be seeing and hearing the respons-
es of each and all.
41 Hence, at the door of the coincidence of opposites, guarded by the
angel stationed at the entrance of Paradise,43 I begin to see You, 0 Lord.
For You are present where speaking, seeing, hearing, tasting, touching,
reasoning, knowing, and understanding are the same and where seeing
coincides with being seen, hearing with being heard, tasting with being
tasted, touching with being touched, speaking with hearing, and creat-
ing with speaking. If I were to see just as I am seeable, I would not be
a creature. And if You, 0 God, were not to see just as You are seeable,
You would not be God Almighty. You are seeable by all creatures,44
and You see all creatures. For in that You see all creatures You are seen
by all creatures. For otherwise creatures could not exist, since they
exist by means of Your seeing. But if they were not to see You, who see
[them], they would not receive being from You. The being of a creature
is, alike, Your seeing and Your being seen.
42 By Your Word You speak to all existing things, and You summon
into being nonexisting things. Therefore, You summon them in order
that they may hear You; and when they hear You, they exist. Therefore,
when You speak, You speak to all; and all the things to which You speak
hear You. You speak to the earth, and You summon it to [become]
human nature; and the earth hears You, and its hearing is its becoming
man. You speak to nothing as if it were something, and You summon
nothing to [become] something; and nothing hears You, because that
which was nothing becomes something. 0 Infinite Power, Your con-
ceiving is Your speaking. You conceive the sky and the sky is as You
conceive it. You conceive the earth and the earth is as You conceive it.
While You conceive, You see and speak and work and whatever else
can be said.
43 But You are wonderful, my God! You speak once, and You con-
ceive once. How is it, then, that all things do not exist at the same time
but that many exist successively? How is it that from the one Concept
there are so many different things? You enlighten me, who am situated
at the threshold of the door; for Your Concept is most simple eternity
itself. Now, posterior to most simple eternity no thing can possibly be
made. Therefore, infinite duration, which is eternity itself, encompass-
es all succession. Therefore, everything which appears to us in a suc-
cession is not at all posterior to Your Concept, which is eternity. For
Your one Concept, which is also Your Word, enfolds each and every
thing. Your eternal Word cannot be multiple or different or variable or
changeable, because it is simple eternity. In this way I see, 0 Lord, that
posterior to Your Concept there is not anything; rather, all things exist
because You conceive [them]. Now, You conceive in eternity. But in
eternity succession is—without succession—eternity itself, i.e., Your
Word itself, 0 Lord God. Any given thing that appears to us in time was
not conceived by You before it existed. For in eternity, in which You
conceive, all temporal succession coincides in [one and] the same now
of eternity. Therefore, where the future and the past coincide with the
present, nothing is past or future.
44 But the reason that [only] in this world [do] things exist according
to earlier and later is that You did not conceive mundane things before
they existed. For if You had earlier conceived them, they would have
existed earlier. Now, if earlier and later can occur in someone's con-
cept, so that he conceives first one thing and then another, this concept
is not omnipotent. (By comparison, that eye which sees first one thing
and then another is not omnipotent.) So because You are God

Almighty, You dwell in Paradise on the inner side of the wall. Now, the
wall is the coincidence where later coincides with earlier, where end
coincides with beginning, where alpha and omega are the same. So, [in
eternity], things exist always, because You command that they exist;
but they do not exist earlier, because You do not command earlier.
Now, when I read that Adam existed so many years ago and that a man
like Adam was born today, the following seems impossible: (1) that
Adam existed then because then You willed [his existence]; (2) that,
likewise, [the other man] was born today because now You willed [his
birth]; and (3) that, nevertheless, You did not will Adam to exist before
[You willed the existence of] the man born today. But that which seems
impossible is necessity itself. For now and then are posterior to Your
Word. And so, to one who approaches unto You, now and then appear
in coincidence in the wall which surrounds the place where You dwell.
For now and then coincide in the circle of the wall of Paradise. But
You, my God, who are Absolute Eternity, exist and speak beyond now
and then.
45 CHAPTER ELEVEN
IN GOD WE SEE SUCCESSION WITHOUT SUCCESSION
I experience Your goodness, my God. Not only does it not spurn me, a
wretched sinner, but it even nourishes me sweetly with a certain long-
ing. With regard to Your mental Word or Concept's oneness and its
variation, successively, in appearances, You have inspired a likeness
that is pleasing to me. For the simple concept of a most perfect clock
guides me, so that I may more wisely be caught up unto a vision of
Your Concept and Word. For the simple concept of a clock enfolds all
temporal succession. Now, let it be that the clock is the concept. Then,
although we hear the sounding of the sixth hour before that of the sev-
enth, nevertheless the [sounding of the] seventh is heard only when the
concept gives the command. And in the concept the sixth hour does not
occur before the seventh or the eight; rather, in the unitary concept of
the clock no hour is earlier or later than another, although the clock
never sounds the hour except when the concept gives the command.
And when we hear the sounding of the sixth hour, it is true to say that
six sounds at that moment because the master's concept so wills it.
46 Now, because in God's Concept the clock is the Concept, we see to
some small extent how the following are true: (1) that succession is
present in the clock without there being succession in the Word, or
Concept; (2) that in this most simple Concept are enfolded all move-
ments and sounds and whatever we experience as in succession; (3)
that whatever occurs successively does not in any way pass outside the
Concept but is the unfolding of the Concept, so that the Concept gives
being to each [successive thing]; (4) that the reason [each event] was
nothing before it occurred is that it was not conceived before it exist-
ed. So, let the concept of a clock be, as it were, eternity itself. Then, in
the clock, movement is succession. Therefore, eternity enfolds and
unfolds succession; for the Concept of a clock—a Concept which is
eternity—both enfolds and unfolds all things.
47 Blessed be You, 0 Lord my God, who feed and nurture me with the
milk of likenesses, until such time as You grant more solid food.45 0
Lord God, guide me unto Yourself by these pathways. For unless You
guide, I cannot stay on the pathway—on account of the frailty both of
my corruptible nature and of the earthen vessel that I carry about.46
Trusting in Your help, 0 Lord, I turn once again in order to find You
beyond the wall of the coincidence of enfolding and unfolding. And
when at one and the same time I go in and out through the door of Your
Word and Concept, I find most sweet nourishment. When I find You to
be a power that enfolds all things, I go in. When I find You to be a
power that unfolds, I go out. When I find You to be a power that both
enfolds and unfolds, I both go in and go out. From creatures I go in
unto You, who are Creator—go in from the effects unto the Cause. I go
out from You, who are Creator—go out from the Cause unto the
effects. I both go in and go out when I see that going out is going in
and that, likewise, going in is going out. (By comparison, he who
counts unfolds and enfolds, alike: he unfolds the power of oneness, and
he enfolds number in oneness.) For creation's going out from You is
creation's going in unto You; and unfolding is enfolding. And when I
see You-who-are-God in Paradise,47 which this wall of the coincidence
of opposites surrounds, I see that You neither enfold nor unfold—
whether separately or collectively. For both separating and conjoining
are the wall of coincidence, beyond which You dwell, free from what-
ever can be either spoken of or thought of.
48 CHAPTER TWELVE
WHERE THE INVISIBLE IS SEEN THE UNCREATED IS CREATED
Earlier,48 0 Lord, You appeared to me as invisible by every creature

since You are an infinite and hidden God. Infinity, however, is incom-
prehensible by every mode of comprehending. Later,49 You appeared to
me as visible by all [creatures] because a thing exists insofar as You see
it, and it would not exist actually unless it saw You. For Your seeing
gives being, because [Your seeing] is Your essence. Thus, my God, You
are both invisible and visible: You are invisible as You are [in Your-
self]; You are visible in accordance with the existence of creatures,
which exist insofar as they see You. You, then, my invisible God, are
seen by all [creatures]. In all sight You are seen by every perceiver. You
who are invisible, who are free from everything visible, and who are
superexalted unto infinity are seen in everything visible and in every
act of seeing.
49 I must, then, 0 Lord, pass beyond the wall of invisible seeing, on the
inner side of which You dwell. But [this] wall is both everything and
nothing. For You, who seem as if You were both all things and nothing
of all things, dwell on the inner side of that high wall, which no intelli-
gence can scale by its own power. At times, You appear to me [in such
way] that I think You see all things in Yourself as would a living mirror
in which all things shined forth. But because Your seeing is knowing, it
occurs to me that You do not see all things in Yourself as would a living
mirror; for, if You did, Your knowledge would derive from things. Here-
upon, You appear to me to see all things in Yourself as would a power
in viewing itself. For example, if the power of the seed of a tree were to
view itself, it would see within itself a tree in potency; for the power of
the seed is potentially a tree. But then it occurs to me that You do not
see Yourself and—in Yourself—all things as would a power. For to see
a tree in the potency of a power is different from the seeing by which
the tree is seen in actuality. And then I find that Your infinite power is
beyond the power of a mirror and of a seed and is beyond the coinci-
dence of radiating and reflecting and, likewise, of causing and being
caused. [And I find] that Your absolute power is absolute seeing, which
is perfection itself and is above every mode of seeing. For Your seeing,
which is Your essence, my God, is, without modality, all [these] modes,
which display the perfection of sight.50
50 But grant, most gracious Lord, that a lowly creature continue to
speak to You. Your seeing is Your creating; and You do not see anything
other than Yourself but are Your own object, for You are (1) the per-
ceiver, (2) that which is perceived, and (3) the act of perceiving. If so,
then how is it that You create things that are other than Yourself? For
You seem to create Yourself, even as You see Yourself. But You com-
fort me, Life of my spirit. For although the wall of absurdity (viz., the
wall of the coincidence of creating with being created) stands in the
way, as if creating could not possibly coincide with being created
(since to admit this coinciding would seemingly be to affirm that some-
thing exists before it exists; for when it creates, it is—and yet is not,
because it is created), nevertheless this wall is not an obstacle. For Your
creating is Your being. Moreover, Your creating and, likewise, being
created are not other than Your imparting Your being to all things, so
that in all things You are all things,51 while nevertheless remaining free
of them all. For to summon nonexisting things into being is to impart
being to nothing. Hence, Your summoning is creating, and Your
imparting is being created. And beyond this coincidence of creating
with being created You, 0 absolute and infinite God, are neither creat-
ing nor creatable, although all things are that which they are because
You exist.
51 0 Depth of riches, how incomprehensible You are!52 As long as I
conceive of a creating creator, I am still on this side of the wall of Par-
adise. Similarly, as long as I conceive of a creatable creator, I have not
yet entered in but am at the wall. But when I see You to be Absolute
Infinity, to which belongs neither the name "creating creator" nor the
name "creatable creator," then I begin to behold You unveiledly and to
enter unto the source53 of delights. For You are not at all something
such that it can be spoken of or conceived but are absolutely and infi-
nitely exalted above all such things. Therefore, although without You
nothing is made or can be made, You are not creator but are infinitely
more than creator.54 To You be praise and glory forever and ever.
52 CHAPTER THIRTEEN
GOD IS SEEN TO BE ABSOLUTE INFINITY
0 Lord God, Helper of those who seek You, I see You in the garden55
of Paradise, and I do not know what I see, because I see no visible
thing. I know only the following: viz., that I know that I do not know—
and never can know—what I see. Moreover, I do not know how to
name You, because I do not know what You are. And if someone tells
me that You are named by this or that name, then by virtue of the fact
that he names, I know that [this] is not Your name. For the limit of
every mode of signification that belongs to names is the wall beyond
which I see You. And if anyone expresses any concept whereby

[allegedly] You can be conceived, I know that this concept is not a con-
cept of You; for every concept reaches its limit at the wall of Paradise.
Moreover, if anyone expresses any likeness and maintains that You are
to be conceived in accordance with it, I know as well that this likeness
is not a likeness of You. Similarly, if anyone recounts his understand-
ing of You, intending to offer a means for Your being understood, he is
still far away from You. For You are separated by a very high wall from
all these [modes of apprehending]. For [this] wall separates from You
whatever can be spoken of or thought of, because You are free from all
the things that can be captured by any concept. Hence, when I am very
highly elevated, I see that You are Infinity. Consequently, You are not
approachable, not comprehensible, not nameable, not manifold, and
not visible.
53 And so, one who ascends unto You must ascend beyond every limit
and every end and [everything] bounded. But how will he attain unto
You, who are the End at which he aims,56 if he is supposed to ascend
beyond [every] end? Does not he who ascends beyond ends enter into
what is indeterminate and confused and so, with respect to the intellect,
into ignorance and darkness, which are characteristic of intellectual
confusion? Therefore, the intellect must become ignorant and must be
situated in a shadow if it wishes to see You. But how, my God, is the
intellect in ignorance? Is it not with respect to learned ignorance?
Therefore, 0 God, You who are Infinity cannot be approached except
by him whose intellect is ignorance—i.e., whose intellect knows that it
is ignorant of You. How can the intellect apprehend You, who are Infin-
ity? The intellect knows that it is ignorant and that You cannot be
apprehended because You are Infinity. For to understand Infinity is to
comprehend the Incomprehensible. The intellect knows that it is igno-
rant of You, because it knows that You can be known only if the
unknowable is known, the unseeable seen, and the unapproachable
approached.
54 You, my God, are Absolute Infinity, which I see to be an Infinite
End. But I cannot apprehend how it is that an end is an End without an
end. You, 0 God, are Your own end, because You are whatever You
have. If You have an end, You are an end. Therefore, You are an Infi-
nite End, because You are Your own end, since Your end is Your
essence. The essence of end is not limited by, or ended in, something
other than end but by and in itself. Therefore, the End which is its own
end is infinite; and every end which is not its own end is a finite end.
Because, 0 Lord, You are the End that delimits all things, You are an
End of which there is no end; and thus You are an End without an
end—i.e., an Infinite End. This [fact] escapes all reasoning, for it
implies a contradiction. Therefore, when I assert the existence of the
Infinite, I admit that darkness is light, that ignorance is knowledge, and
that the impossible is the necessary. And because we admit that there
is an end of the finite, necessarily we admit the Infinite—i.e., the Final
End, or End without an end. But we cannot fail to admit that there are
finite beings. So we cannot fail to admit that there is the Infinite.
Hence, we admit the coincidence-of-contradictories, above which the
Infinite exists.
55 But this coincidence is Contradiction without contradiction, just as
it is End without an end. 0 Lord, You tell me that just as in oneness oth-
erness is present without otherness, because [in oneness otherness is]
oneness, so in Infinity contradiction is present without contradiction,
because [in Infinity contradiction is] Infinity. Infinity is simplicity;
contradiction does not exist apart from otherness. But in simplicity
otherness is present without otherness, because [in simplicity otherness
is] simplicity itself. For whatever is predicated of absolute simplicity
coincides with absolute simplicity, because in absolute simplicity hav-
ing is being. The oppositeness of opposites is oppositeness without
oppositeness, just as the End of finite things is an End without an end.
You, then, 0 God, are the Oppositeness of opposites,57 because You are
infinite. And because You are infinite, You are Infinity. In Infinity the
oppositeness of opposites is present without oppositeness.
56 Lord my God, Strength of the frail, I see that You are Infinity itself.
And so, there is not anything that is other than You or different from
You or opposed to You. For Infinity is not compatible with otherness,
because there is not anything outside it, since it is Infinity. For
Absolute Infinity includes and encompasses all things. And so, if there
were "Infinity" and something else outside it, there would be neither
Infinity nor anything else. For Infinity cannot be either greater or less-
er. Therefore, there is not anything outside it. For unless it included all
being in itself, it would not be Infinity. But if Infinity did not exist, then
end would also not exist. And in that case, what is other and different
would also not exist, for they cannot exist without the otherness of
ends and of limits. So if the Infinite is removed, nothing remains.
Therefore, Infinity exists and enfolds all things; and no thing can exist
outside it. Hence, nothing is other than it or different from it. There-
fore, Infinity is all things in such way that it is none of them.58 No
name can befit it. For every name can have a contrary; but to unname-
able Infinity nothing can be contrary. Moreover, Infinity is not a whole,
to which a part is opposed; nor can Infinity be a part. Furthermore,
Infinity is neither great nor small; nor is it any of all the things which—
whether in heaven or on earth—can be named, Infinity is beyond all
these things. It is not greater than, lesser than, or equal to, anything
else.
57 But when I consider that Infinity is not greater or lesser than any
positable thing, I say that it is the Measure of all things, because it is
neither greater nor lesser. And in this way I conceive it to be Equality
of being. But such Equality is Infinity. And so, it is not equality in the
way in which what is unequal is opposed to equality. Rather, in Equal-
ity inequality is Equality. For in Infinity inequality is present without
inequality, because [in Infinity inequality is] Infinity. Similarly, in
Infinity Equality is Infinity. Infinite Equality is an End without an end.
Hence, although it is neither greater nor lesser, nevertheless it is not on
this account equality in the way in which contracted equality is appre-
hended to be. Rather, it is Infinite Equality, which does not admit of
more or less. And so, it is not more nearly equal to one thing than to
another but is equal to one thing in such way that it is equal to all—and
is equal to all in such way that it is equal to none. For the Infinite is not
contractible but remains absolute. If the Infinite were contractible
away from Infinity, 59 it would not be the Infinite. Therefore, the Infi-
nite is not contractible to equality with the finite, although it is not
unequal to anything. For how could inequality befit the Infinite, which
more and less do not befit? Therefore, the Infinite is not greater than or
lesser than or unequal to any given thing. Yet, it is not on this account
equal to the finite, because it is infinitely above everything finite. And
because it is infinitely above everything finite—i.e., because it exists
per se—the Infinite is altogether absolute and uncontractible.
58 0 how exalted You are above all things, 0 Lord! And at the same
time how lowly You are because You are present in all things! If Infin-
ity were contractible to something nameable (such as a line or a sur-
face or a species), it would attract to itself that to which it would be
contracted. And so, for the Infinite to be contractible implies a contra-
diction, because the Infinite would not be contracted but would attract.
For example, if I say that the Infinite is contracted to a line (as when I
speak of an infinite line), then the line is attracted into the Infinite. For
the line stops being a line when it does not have quantity and an end.
An infinite line is not a line; rather, in Infinity a line is Infinity. And just
as nothing can be added to the Infinite, so the Infinite cannot be con-
tracted to anything so that it would become other than the Infinite. Infi-
nite goodness is not goodness but is Infinity. Infinite quantity is not
quantity but is Infinity. And so on.
59 You, 0 God, are great, and there is no end of Your greatness. And
so, I see that You are the Immeasurable Measure of all things, even as
You are the Infinite End of all things. Therefore, 0 Lord, because You
are infinite You are without beginning and end. You are Beginning
without a beginning and End without an end. You are Beginning with-
out an end and End without a beginning. You are Beginning in such
way that You are End—and End in such way that You are Beginning.
And You are neither Beginning nor End but, above beginning and end,
are Absolute Infinity, blessed forever.
60 CHAPTER FOURTEEN
GOD ENFOLDS, WITHOUT OTHERNESS, ALL THINGS
From the infinity of Your mercy, 0 Lord, I see that You are all-encom-
passing Infinity. Therefore, there is not anything outside You. But in
You no thing is other than You. You teach me, 0 Lord, that otherness,
which is not present in You, does not, and cannot, exist even in itself.
Moreover, otherness, which is not present in You, does not make one
creature to be other than another, even though one creature is not
another creature. For the sky is not the earth, even though it is true that
the sky is the sky and the earth the earth. If, then, I seek otherness,
which is not present either within You or outside You, where shall I find
it? And if it does not exist, how is the earth another creature than the
sky? For without otherness this [difference] cannot be conceived.
61 But You speak within me, 0 Lord, and You say that there is not a
positive beginning of otherness; and so otherness does not exist. For
how could otherness exist without a beginning, unless it itself were
Beginning and Infinity? But otherness is not the Beginning of being.
For otherness derives its name from not-being. For because one thing
is not another thing, it is called another. Therefore, otherness cannot be
the Beginning of being, because it derives its name from not-being.
And it does not have a beginning of being, since it derives from not-
being. Therefore, it is not the case that otherness is something.
62 But the reason the sky is not the earth is that the sky is not Infini-
ty itself, which encompasses all being. Hence, because Infinity is
Absolute Infinity, the result is that one thing cannot be another thing.
By comparison, the essence of Socrates encompasses the whole of
Socratic being.60 In the simple Socratic being there is no otherness or
difference. For the being of Socrates is the individual oneness of what-
ever is present in Socrates, so that the being of all that is in Socrates is
enfolded in this one being—i.e., in the individual simplicity, wherein
there is nothing other or different. But in this one being all the things
that have Socratic being are present and enfolded, and apart from it
they neither exist nor can exist—although with this [qualification]: in
this most simple being the eye is not the ear, the head is not the heart,
sight is not hearing, and the senses are not reason. These differences do
not result from any beginning of otherness. Rather, when most simple
Socratic being is posited, the result is that the head is not the feet,
because the head is not most simple Socratic being. Hence, the head's
being does not encompass the whole of Socratic being. And in this
manner I see, by Your illumination, 0 Lord, that because simple Socrat-
ic being is altogether incommunicable to, and uncontractible to, the
being of any member, the being of one member is not the being of the
other. But the simple Socratic being is the being of all the members of
Socrates; in it the complete variety-of-being and otherness-of-being
that happens to the members is a simple oneness—even as in the form
of a whole the plurality of the forms of the parts is a oneness.
63 In some such way [as the foregoing,] 0 God, Your being—which
is, absolutely, the being of Infinity—is related to all existing things.
Now, by "absolutely" I mean "as the Absolute Form-of-being of all
contracted forms." Thus, if the hand of Socrates were separated from
Socrates, then in spite of its no longer being Socrates' hand after the
amputation, it would nevertheless continue on, in a certain respect, as
the being of a corpse. This [point] holds true because of the fact that
the form of Socrates, which gives being, does not give being in an
unqualified sense but gives contracted being, viz., Socratic being. The
hand's being is separable from the Socratic being, and it continues on,
though under another form. But if the hand were once separated from
altogether uncontracted being, which is infinite and absolute, it would
altogether cease to exist, because it would be separated from all being.
64 Lord my God—who generously manifest Yourself to me to the
extent of my capability to receive—I thank You that You are Infinity
itself, enfolding the being of all things by a most simple power, which
would not be infinite were it not infinitely unified. For power that is
unified is stronger. Therefore, a power that is so unified that it cannot
be more greatly unified is infinite and omnipotent. 0 God, You are
omnipotent, because You are Absolute Simplicity, which is Absolute
Infinity.
65 CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ACTUAL INFINITY IS A ONENESS IN WHICH IMAGE IS TRUTH
Continue to sustain Your servant, who surely is foolish except insofar

as You grant that he speak to You, his God. In this [icon's] painted face
I see an image of Infinity. For the gaze is not confined to an object or
a place, and so it is infinite. For it is turned as much toward one behold-
er of the face as toward another. And although in itself the gaze of this
face is infinite, nevertheless it seems to be limited by any given onlook-
er. For it looks so fixedly upon whoever looks unto it that it seems to
look only upon him and not upon anything else. Therefore, 0 Lord, You
seem to me as if You were absolute and infinite possibility-to-be that is
formable and determinable by every form; for we say that the formable
possibility of matter is infinite, because it will never be fully deter-
mined. But You reply within me, 0 Infinite Light, that Absolute Possi-
bility is Infinity itself, which is beyond the wall of the coincidence in
which the possibility-to-be-made coincides with the possibility-to-
make and in which possibility coincides with actuality. Although prime
matter is in potency to an infinite number of forms, nevertheless it can-
not have them actually. Rather, the potency is determined by one form;
and if this form is removed, the potency is determined by another form.
Therefore, if matter's possibility-to-be coincided with actuality, matter
would be possibility in such way that it would be actuality; and just as
it would be in potency to an infinite number of forms, so it would be
actually formed by an infinity of forms. But Infinity, as it exists actu-
ally, is without otherness; and it cannot exist without existing as one-
ness. Therefore, there cannot be, actually, an infinite number of forms.
Instead, Actual Infinity is oneness.
66 You, then, 0 God, who are Infinity itself, are the one God Himself,
in whom I see that all possibility-to-be exists actually.61 For possibili-
ty which is free from all possibility that is contracted to prime matter
or to any passive potency whatsoever is Absolute Being. For whatever
exists in Infinite Being is most simple Infinite Being. Thus, in Infinite
Being the possibility-to-be-all-things is Infinite Being itself. Likewise,

in Infinite Being actually-being-all-things is Infinite Being itself.
Therefore, in You my God absolute possibility-to-be and absolute actu-
al being are only You my Infinite God. You, my God, are all possibili-
ty-to-be. The possibility-to-be of prime matter is not absolute possibil-
ity, and so it is not convertible with absolute actuality. Therefore, prime
matter is not actually that which it can be, as are You 0 God. The pos-
sibility-to-be of prime matter is material and, thus, is contracted and
not absolute. Likewise, sensible or rational possibility-to-be is con-
tracted. But altogether uncontracted possibility coincides with the alto-
gether Absolute, i.e., with the Infinite.
67 Therefore, my God, when You seem to me as if You were formable
prime matter, because You receive the form of each one who looks unto
You, You elevate me, so that I discern the following: viz., that the one
who looks unto You does not bestow form upon You; rather, he beholds
himself in You, because he receives from You that which he is. And so,
that which You seem to receive from the one who looks unto You—this
You bestow, as if You were a living Mirror-of- eternity, which is the
Form of forms. When someone looks into this Mirror, he sees his own
form in the Form of forms, which the Mirror is. And he judges the form
seen in the Mirror to be the image of his own form, because such would
be the case with regard to a polished material mirror. However, the
contrary thereof is true, because in the Mirror of eternity that which he
sees is not an image but is the Truth, of which the beholder is the
image. Therefore, in You, my God, the image is the Truth and Exem-
plar of each and every thing that exists or can exist.
68 You, 0 God, worthy of admiration by every mind, You who are
Light sometimes seem as if You were a shadow. For when I see that in
accordance with my changing, Your icon's gaze seems to be changed
and that Your countenance seems to be changed because I am changed,
You seem to me as if You were a shadow which follows the changing
of the one who is walking. But because I am a living shadow and You
are the Truth, I judge from the changing of the shadow that the Truth
is changed. Therefore, 0 my God, You are shadow in such way that You
are Truth; You are the image of me and of each one in such way that
You are Exemplar.
69 Lord God, Enlightener of hearts, my face is a true face; for You,
who are Truth, have given it to me. My face is also an image; for it is
not Truth itself but is the image of Absolute Truth. Therefore, in my
conception I enfold my face's truth and image; and I see that with
regard to my face the image coincides with the facial truth, so that my
face is true insofar as it is an image. And subsequently You show me,
0 Lord, that with respect to the changing of my face Your Face is
changed and unchanged, alike: it is changed because it does not desert
the truth of my face; it is unchanged because it does not follow the
changing of the image. Hence, just as Your Face does not desert the
truth of my face, so also it does not follow the changing of the change-
able image. For Absolute Truth is Unchangeability. The truth of my
face is mutable, because it is truth in such way that it is image; but [the
Truth of] Your [Face] is immutable, because it is image in such way
that it is Truth. Absolute Truth cannot desert the truth of my face. For
if Absolute Truth deserted it, then my face, which is a mutable truth,
could not continue to exist. Thus, 0 God, on account of Your infinite
goodness 62 You seem to be mutable, because You do not desert muta-
ble creatures; but because You are Absolute Goodness, You are not
mutable, since You do not follow mutability.
70 0 my God, deepest Depth, You who do not desert creatures and, at
the same time, do not follow them! 0 inexplicable Graciousness, to him
who looks unto You You give Yourself as if You received being from
him;63 and You conform Yourself to him, in order that the more You
appear to be like him, the more he will love You. For we cannot hate
ourselves.64 Hence, we love that which shares in and accompanies our
being; and we embrace our likeness, because we are shown ourselves
in an image, and we love ourselves therein. 0 God, from the humility
of Your infinite goodness You manifest Yourself as if You were our
creature, in order thus to draw us unto Yourself. For You draw us unto
Yourself by every possible means of drawing by which a free rational
creature can be drawn. And in You, 0 God, being created coincides
with creating.65 For the likeness which seems to be created by me is the
Truth which creates me, so that in this way, at least, I apprehend how
closely I ought to be bound to You, since, in You, being loved coincides
with loving. For if in You who are my likeness I ought to love myself,
then I am exceedingly bound to do so when I see that You love me as
Your creature and image. How can a father not love a son who is son
in such way that he is a father? And if someone who is both a son with
a good reputation and a father with knowledge is quite lovable, then are
not You exceedingly lovable who surpass a son in repute and a father
in knowledge? You, 0 God, willed that filial love be established in
repute; and You will to be reputed as one who is of closer likeness than
a son and to be known as one who is more intimate than a father. For
You are love that enfolds both filial and paternal love. May You, then,
my most sweet Love, my God, be blessed forever.
71 CHAPTER SIXTEEN
UNLESS GOD WERE INFINITE, HE WOULD NOT BE THE END OF DESIRE
Fire does not cease from its flame and neither does the burning love
which is directed toward You, 0 God. You are the Form of everything
desirable; You are the Truth which is desired in every desire. Hence,
because from Your mellifluous gift I have begun to taste of Your
incomprehensible sweetness, which becomes more pleasing to me the
more infinite it appears to be, I see the following: that the reason You,
0 God, are unknown to all creatures is so that amid this most sacre-
di&pgrance creatures may be more content, as if [they were situated]
amid a countless and inexhaustible treasure. For one who finds a treas-
ure of such kind that he knows it to be altogether uncountable and infi-
nite is filled with much greater joy than is one who finds a countable
and finite treasure. Hence, this most sacred ignorance of Your greatness
is a most delectable feast for my intellect—especially since I find such
a treasure in my own field,66 so that it is a treasure which belongs to
me.
72 0 Fount of riches! You will both to be comprehended by my pos-
sessing You and to remain incomprehensible and infinite. For You are
a treasure of delights, whose termination no one can desire. How could
the appetite desire to cease being? For whether the will desires to exist
or not to exist, the appetite cannot cease from desiring but is directed
toward infinity. You descend, 0 Lord, in order to be comprehended;67
and You remain uncountable and infinite. And unless You remained
infinite, You would not be the End of desire.68 You, then, continue to be
infinite in order to be the End of all desire.69 For intellectual desire
does not aim at that which can be greater and more desirable but at that
which cannot be greater and more desirable. Now, everything that is
less than infinite can be greater. Therefore, the End of desire is infinite.
73 You, then, 0 God, are Infinity itself, which alone I desire in every
desire. I can approach unto a knowledge of Your Infinity no more
closely than to know that Your Infinity is infinite.70 Therefore, the more
incomprehensible I comprehend You-my-God to be, the more I attain
unto You, because the more I attain the End of my desire. Therefore, I
cast aside anything occurring to me that purports to show that You are
comprehensible, because it misleads me. My desire, wherein You shine

forth, leads me to You, because it casts aside all finite and comprehen-
sible things. For in these things it cannot find rest; for it is led unto You
by You Yourself. But You are Beginning without a beginning and End
without an end. Therefore, my desire is led by the Eternal Beginning—
from which it has the fact that it is desire—unto the End without an
end. And this End is infinite.
74 I, an insignificant human being, would not be content with You my
God if I knew You to be comprehensible. The reason is that I am led
by You unto You Yourself, who are incomprehensible and infinite. Lord
my God, I see You by means of a certain mental rapture. For if the
capacity of sight is not filled up by seeing nor that of the ear by hear-
ing, then even less that of the intellect by understanding. Therefore, it
is not the case that that which the intellect understands is that which
fully satisfies the intellect, i.e., is the intellect's end. On the other hand,
that which the intellect does not at all understand cannot fully satisfy
it, either. Rather, [it is fully satisfied] only [by] that which it under-
stands by not understanding. For an intelligible object that is known by
the intellect does not fully satisfy the intellect—and neither does an
intelligible object that is not at all known by the intellect. Rather, the
intellect can be fully satisfied only by an intelligible object which it
knows to be so intelligible that this object can never fully be under-
stood. By comparison, a man who has an insatiable hunger is not fully
satisfied by a snack which he can eat. Nor is he fully satisfied by food
that does not reach him but only by food which does reach him and,
though eaten continually, can never all be eaten up, since it is such that
it is not diminished by being eaten, since it is infinite.71
75 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
GOD CAN BE SEEN PERFECTLY ONLY AS TRIUNE
0 Lord, You have manifested Yourself to me as so lovable72 that You

cannot be more lovable. For You are infinitely lovable, my God. There-
fore, except by one whose love is infinite You can never be loved by
anyone as You are lovable. For unless there were someone who loved
infinitely, You would not be infinitely lovable.73 For Your lovability,
which is the ability to be loved infinitely, exists because there is the
ability to love infinitely. From the ability to love infinitely and the abil-
ity to be loved infinitely there arises the infinite union of the love of the
infinite loving one and of the infinite lovable one. But the infinite is not
multiple. You, then, my God, who are Love, are Loving Love, Lovable
Love, and the Union of Loving Love and Lovable Love.
76 In You my God I see Loving Love. And from the fact that I see in
You Loving Love, I see in You Lovable Love. And because I see in You
Loving Love and Lovable Love, I see the Union of each Love. And this
is not other than what I see with regard to Your Absolute Oneness,74
wherein I see Uniting Oneness, Uniteable Oneness, and the Union of
each. But whatever I see in You, this You are, my God. Therefore, You
are that Infinite Love which without the Loving and the Lovable and
the Union of each cannot be seen by me as natural and perfect love. For
how can I conceive of most perfect and most natural love apart from
the loving one and the lovable one and the union of each? For in the
case of contracted love I experience that it is of the essence of perfect
love that love be loving and lovable and the union of each. But that
which is of the essence of perfect contracted love cannot be absent
from Absolute Love, from which contracted love has whatever perfec-
tion it has.
77 Now, the simpler love is, the more perfect it is. But You, my God,
are most perfect and most simple Love. Therefore, You are the most
perfect, most simple, and most natural essence of love, Hence, in You,
who are Love, what loves is not one thing, what is lovable another
thing, and the union of each a third thing; rather, they are the same
thing: viz., You Yourself, my God. Therefore, because in You what is
lovable coincides with what is loving, and being loved coincides with
loving, the union of [this] coincidence is an essential union. For in You
nothing is present which is not Your essence itself. Therefore, those
things which appear to me to be three—viz., the Loving, the Lovable,
and the Union—are the absolute, most simple essence. Therefore, they
are not three but one. Your essence, my God, which appears to me to
be most simple and most one, is not most natural and most perfect
apart from the aforementioned three. Therefore, Your essence is trine.
And yet, there are not three things in it, because it is most simple.
Therefore, the plurality of the aforementioned three is a plurality in
such way that it is a oneness; and the oneness is oneness in such way
that it is a plurality. The plurality of the three is a plurality without plu-
ral number. For plural number cannot be simple oneness, because it is
more than one number. Therefore, there is not a numerical distinction
of the three,75 because a numerical distinction would be an essential
distinction (for number is distinguished from number in an essential

way). Now, because the oneness is trine, it is not the oneness charac-
teristic of a single number; for the oneness of a single number is not
trine.
78 0 most wonderful God, who are neither singular in number nor
plural in number but—beyond all plurality and singularity—are one-
in-three and three-in-one! I see, then, my God, that plurality coincides
with singularity at the wall of the Paradise within which You dwell; and
I see that You dwell ever so remotely beyond [this wall]. Teach me, 0
Lord, how I can conceive to be possible that which I see to be neces-
sary.76 For the following appears to me to be an impossibility: viz., that
the plurality of the three (without which I cannot conceive You to be
perfect and natural love) is a plurality without number—as if someone
were to say "one, one, one." He says "one" three times. He does not say
"three" but "one"—and this "one" three times. However, he cannot say
"one" three times without three; and yet, he does not say "three". For
when he says "one" three times, he repeats the same thing and does not
number. For to number is to alter one. But to repeat one and the same
thing three times is to plurify apart from number. Hence, the plurality
which I see in You my God is otherness without otherness, because it
is otherness which is identity. For when I see that the Loving is not the
Lovable and that the Union is neither the Loving nor the Lovable, then
it is not in the following manner that I see the Loving not to be the Lov-
able: viz., as if the Loving were one thing and the Lovable another
thing. Rather, I see that the distinction between the Loving and the
Lovable occurs on the inner side of the wall of the coincidence of one-
ness and otherness. Hence, this distinction—which is inside the wall of
coincidence, where the distinct and the 'indistinct coincide—precedes
all comprehensible otherness and diversity. For the wall is the limit of
the power of every intellect, although the eye looks beyond the wall
into Paradise. But that which the eye sees, it can neither speak of nor
understand. For it is the eye's secret love and hidden treasure,77 which,
having been found, remains hidden. For it is found on the inner side of
the wall of the coincidence of the hidden and the manifest.
79 But I cannot be drawn away from the sweetness of [this] vision
without in some way proceeding to apply to myself the revelation of
the distinction between the loving, the lovable, and their union. For the
most sweet savoring of this revelation somehow seems to be savorable
in advance by means of a befiguring. For in this [befiguring] manner,
0 Lord, You grant that I see love in myself, because I see myself lov-
ing. And because I see myself loving myself, I see myself as lovable
and I see myself to be a most natural union of each. I am loving; I am
lovable; I am the union [of each]. Therefore, the love, without which
there could not be any of the three, is one. I who love am one; and I
who am lovable am this same one; and I who am the union arising from
the love by which I love myself am this same one. I am one and not
three. Therefore, suppose my love were my essence, as is the case with
You my God. Then, in the oneness of my essence there would be the
plurality of the aforementioned three; and in the trinity of the afore-
mentioned three there would be the oneness of my essence. And all
[three] would be in my essence contractedly, in the manner in which I
see them all to be in You truly and absolutely. So then, the loving love
would not be either the lovable love or the union [of each]. And this
[fact] I experience by means of the following practical example. As a
result of the loving love which I extend outside myself toward an
object other than myself—extend as toward a lovable object external to
my essence—there occurs a union by which I am bound to that object
as much as I have the power to be. [However,] this object is not bound
to me by this union, because it does not love me. Hence, although I
love it, so that my loving love extends itself unto it, nevertheless my
loving love is not accompanied by my lovable love. For I do not
become lovable to the other, since the other is not concerned about me,
even though I exceedingly love the other. (For example, sometimes a
son is unconcerned about his mother, who loves him most tenderly.)
And so, I experience loving love to be neither lovable love nor the
union [of each]; indeed, I see that the loving is distinguished from the
lovable and from the union. This distinction is not present in the
essence of love, because I cannot love either myself or something other
than myself without love. Thus, love is of the essence of the three; and
thus I see that the essence of the aforementioned three is most simple,
even though the three are distinguished among themselves.
80 0 Lord, by means of a likeness I have expressed a kind of foretast-
ing of Your nature. But indulge, 0 Merciful One, my attempt to depict
the undepictable taste of Your sweetness. For if the sweetness of an
unknown fruit remains undepictable by every picture and image, as
well as inexpressible by every word, then who am I, a wretched sinner,
to attempt to portray You who are unportrayable and to depict as visi-
ble You who are invisible? [Who am I] to presume to make tasty that
infinite and altogether inexpressible sweetness of Yours? As yet, I have
not deserved to taste of it. And by the things I express I render it small
rather than great. But so great is Your goodness, 0 my God, that You
even permit the blind to speak of the Light and to sing the praises of
Him of whom they do not and cannot know anything unless it is
revealed to them. But the revelation falls short of the savoring. The ear
of faith does not attain unto Your tastable sweetness. But You, 0 God,
have revealed to me the following: that the ear has not heard and that
there has not descended into the heart of man the infinity of Your
sweetness, which You have prepared for those who love You. This point
was revealed to us by Your great apostle Paul, who, beyond the wall of
coincidence, was caught up into Paradise.78 There alone can You who
are the Fount of delights be seen unveiledly. Trusting in Your infinite
goodness, I endeavored to become the subject of a rapture,79 in order
to see You who are invisible and who are the revealed but unrevealable
vision. But You, not I, know how far I got. And Your grace is sufficient
for me.80 By it You make me certain that You are incomprehensible,
and by it You raise me up in the firm hope that through Your guidance
I will attain unto enjoyment of You.
81 CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
UNLESS GOD WERE TRINE, THERE WOULD NOT BE HAPPINESS81
0 Lord, would that all who by Your gift have obtained mental eyes
would open them and, with me, would recognize that You, 0 Jealous
God,82 cannot hate anything, because You are Loving Love! For every
lovable83 thing is loved by You in Yourself, who are a Lovable God,
enfolding all lovable things. Thus, from this consideration all [rational
beings] may see, with me, by what covenant or union You are united to
all things. 0 Loving God, You love all things in such way that You love
each thing. You shed abroad Your love upon all [rational beings]. Yet,
many do not love You, preferring to You something other than You. But
if lovable love were not distinct from loving love, then (1) You would
be so lovable by all that they would not be able to love anything except
You and (2) all rational spirits would be constrained to love You. But
You, my God, are so noble that You will that whether or not to love You
be [placed] within the freedom of rational souls. Accordingly, Your
loving is not [necessarily] followed by Your being loved. Therefore,
my God, You are united to all by a union of love, because You shed
abroad Your love upon all Your creatures; yet, not every rational spirit
is united to You, for not every such spirit directs its love unto Your Lov-
ability but directs it unto something else, to which it is united.
82 You have betrothed every rational soul through Your loving love.
But not every betrothed soul loves You, her Betrothed; rather, in most
cases a soul loves someone else, to whom she clings. But how could
Your betrothed, the human soul, attain her end, my God, unless You
were lovable, so that thus, by loving You who are lovable, she could
attain unto a most happy union? Who, then, can deny that You who are
God are trine?—when he sees that unless You were three and one, You
would not be either a noble or a natural and perfect God, nor would the
spirit of free choice exist, nor could he himself attain unto the enjoy-
ment of You and unto his own happiness. For since You are Intellect-
that-understands, Intellect-that-is-understandable, and the Union of
both, created intellect can attain in You—its understandable God—
union with You and happiness. Similarly: since You are Lovable Love,
the created will that loves can attain, in You its lovable God, union and
happiness. For he who receives You, who are God and are rational,
receivable Light, can arrive at such a close union with You that he will
be united to You as a son to his father. By Your illumination I see, 0
Lord, that a rational nature can attain unto union with You only because
You are lovable and understandable. Hence, human nature is not unite-
able to You qua loving God, for You are not in this respect its object;
rather, it is uniteable to You qua its own lovable God, since the lovable
is the object of the loving. In like manner, too, what is understandable
is the object of the intellect. Now, we call that which is the object [of
the intellect] truth. Therefore, my God, since You are understandable
Truth, the created intellect can be united to You.84
83 And in the foregoing manner I see that rational human nature is
uniteable only to Your understandable and lovable divine nature and
that a man who receives You, His receivable God, passes over into a
union which, because of its closeness, can be given the name sonship.
For we know of no closer union than that of sonship.85 But if this bond
of union is a maximum bond, than which there cannot be a greater
bond (this will necessarily be the case because You, 0 Lovable God,
cannot be more greatly loved by man), then this union will reach the
point of most perfect sonship, so that this sonship will be the perfec-
tion that enfolds all possible sonship, whereby all sons will attain unto
their ultimate happiness and perfection. In this loftiest Son86 sonship is
present as artistry is present in a master or as light is present in the sun;
but sonship is in other sons as artistry is in [the master's] students or as

light is in the stars.
84 CHAPTER NINETEEN
JESUS IS THE UNION OF GOD AND MAN;
I give ineffable thanks to You-my-God, Life and Light of my soul. For

I now see the faith which the Catholic church holds by revelation of the
Apostles: viz., that You who are God who is loving beget from
Yourself God who is lovable, and that You who are God begotten and
lovable are the Absolute Mediator. For through You there exists what-
ever does and can exist. For You who are God who wills and loves
enfold all things in Yourself, who are God who is lovable. For whatev-
er is willed or conceived by You who are God who wills is enfolded in
You who are God who is lovable. For nothing whatsoever can exist
unless You will that it exist. Therefore, in Your Lovable Concept all
things have the cause of, or reason for, their being. And the sole cause
of all things is that it pleases You [that all be] thus. The one who loves
is pleased, qua one who loves, only by what is lovable.87 You, then,
who are God who is lovable are the Son of God the Loving Father. For
the Father's entire pleasure is in You.88 So all creatable being is enfold-
ed in You who are God who is lovable. Therefore, since from You who
are God who is loving there exists God who is lovable—as a son exists
from a father—then in that You are God the loving Father of God Your
lovable Son, you are Father of all existing things. For Your Concept is
Your Son, and all things exist in Him.89
85 And the Union of You and Your Concept is an activity and a work-
ing that arises, wherein is present the activity and unfolding of all
things. Therefore, just as from You who are God who loves there is
begotten God who is lovable (this begottenness is a conceiving), so
from You who are God who loves and from the lovable Concept begot-
ten from You there proceeds the Activity of You and of Your Concept.
And this Activity is a uniting Union—is God who unites You and Your
Concept (just as the act of loving unites in love the one who loves and
that which is lovable). And this Union is called spirit. For spirit is as
motion, which proceeds from a mover and the movable. Hence, motion
is the unfolding of the mover's concept. Therefore, all things are
unfolded in You who are God the Holy Spirit, even as they are con-
ceived in You who are God the Son.
86 Therefore, because You, 0 God, thus enlighten me, I see that in You
who are God-the-Son of God-the-Father all things are present as in

their Rational Principle (ratio), Concept, Cause, or Exemplar. And [I
see] that the Son is the Medium of all things, because He is the Ratio-
nal Principle [of all things]. For by the medium of Reason (ratio) and
Wisdom You who are God the Father work all things. And Spirit, or
Motion, puts the concept of Reason into effect, just as we witness that
a chest in the mind of an artisan is put into effect by the medium of the
moving force in his hands. I see, then, my God, that Your Son is the
uniting Medium of all things, so that all things may find rest in You by
the medium of Your Son. And I see that Blessed Jesus, the son of man,
was most closely united to Your Son and that only by the mediation of
Your Son, who is Absolute Mediator, could the son of man be united
to You who are God the Father. Is there anyone who, upon quite care-
fully considering these [truths], is not most highly caught up in rap-
ture? For You, my God, disclose to wretched me such a hidden [truth
as this] in order that I may recognize the following: (1) that a man can-
not understand You who are Father except in Your Son, who is the
Understandable One and the Mediator, and (2) that to understand You
is to be united to You. Therefore, man can be united to You through
Your Son, who is the uniting Medium. And the human nature that is the
most closely united to You—in whichever man this uniting occur—
cannot be more closely united to the Medium than it is. For it cannot
be immediately united to You. Therefore, it is maximally united to the
Medium and yet does not become the Medium. Hence, although the
human nature cannot become the Medium (since it cannot be immedi-
ately united to You), nevertheless it is joined to the Absolute Medium
in such way that nothing can mediate between the human nature and
Your Son, who is the Absolute Medium. For if something could medi-
ate between the human nature and the Absolute Medium,90 then the
human nature would not be most closely united to You.
87 0 good Jesus, I see that in You the human nature is joined most
closely to God the Father by means of the exceedingly close union by
which it is joined to God the Son, who is Absolute Mediator. There-
fore, in You, Jesus, the human sonship (for You are son of man) is most
closely united to the Divine Sonship. Hence, You are rightly called Son
of God and of man, since in You nothing mediates between son of man
and Son of God. In Absolute Sonship, which the Son of God is, all son-
ship is enfolded; and to Absolute Sonship Your human sonship, 0
Jesus, is supremely united. Therefore, Your human sonship exists in the
Divine Sonship not only in an enfolded manner but also as the attract-
ed in the attracting, the united in the uniting, and the substantified in

the substantifying. Therefore, in You, 0 Jesus, separation of the son of
man from the Son of God is not possible.91 For separability results
from the fact that a union could have been greater. But where a union
cannot be greater, there can be no mediation. Hence, where nothing
can mediate between the things united, separation will have no place.
Now, where the united does not exist in the uniting, the union is not the
closest. Greater is the union where the united exists in the uniting than
where the united exists separately. For separation is a remoteness from
maximum union. Thus, in You, my Jesus, I see that the human sonship,
by which You are son of man, exists in the Divine Sonship, by which
You are Son of God—even as in a maximum union the united exists in
the uniting. To You, 0 God, be glory forever.
88 CHAPTER TWENTY
HOW JESUS IS UNDERSTOOD TO BE THE UNITING
OF THE DIVINE NATURE AND THE HUMAN NATURE
You show me, 0 Light Unfailing, that the maximum union by which,
in my Jesus, the human nature is united to Your divine nature is not in
any way like an infinite union. For the Union by which You, God the
Father, are united to God Your Son is God the Holy Spirit. And so, it is
an infinite Union, for it attains unto an absolute and essential identity.
But this is not the case when the human nature is united to the divine
nature. For the human nature cannot pass over into essential union with
the divine nature,92 even as the finite cannot be infinitely united to the
Infinite. For the finite would pass over into an identity with the Infinite
and thus would cease to be finite, since infinite would be predicated
truly of it. Therefore, the union by which the human nature is united to
the divine nature is only the attraction—in the highest degree—of the
human nature to the divine nature, so that the human nature, qua
human nature, cannot be attracted more highly. Therefore, the union of
Jesus's human nature, qua human, to the divine nature is maximal,
because it cannot be greater. But it is not maximal and infinite in an
unqualified sense, as is the Divine Union.93
89 Therefore, in You, 0 Jesus, who are the son of man, I see, through
the kindness of Your grace, the Son of God; and in You, the Son of God,
I see the Father. Now, in You, the son of man, I see the Son of God
because You are son of man in such way that You are Son of God. And
in the attracted finite nature I see the attracting infinite nature. In the
Absolute Son I see the Absolute Father, for a son cannot be seen as son
unless the father is seen. In You, Jesus, I see the Divine Sonship, which
is the Truth of all sonship; and, likewise, [I see] the closest human son-
ship, which is the closest image of Absolute Sonship. Therefore, just as
an image between which and its exemplar a more perfect image cannot
mediate exists most closely in the truth of which it is the image, so Your
human nature, I see, exists in the divine nature. Therefore, in Your human
nature I see whatever I also see in Your divine nature. But all this, which
in the divine nature is the Divine Truth, I see to be in the human nature
in a human way. Whatever I see to exist in a human way in You, Jesus,
is a likeness of the divine nature. But the likeness is joined to its Exem-
plar94 without a medium, so that with respect to human, or rational,
nature there can neither be nor be thought to be a greater likeness.
90 I see Your rational human spirit to be united most closely to the
Divine Spirit, which is Absolute Reason; and in like manner [I see]
Your human intellect—and in Your intellect, Jesus, all things—[to be
united] to the divine intellect. For You, 0 Jesus, understand all things
according as You are God, and this understanding is Your being all
things;95 You understand all things according as You are a man, and
this understanding is Your being the likeness of all things. For a thing
is understood by a man only by means of a likeness. A stone is not
present in the human intellect as it is present in its cause or its own
rational principle but as it is present in its image and likeness. There-
fore, in You, Jesus, human understanding is united to divine under-
standing as a most perfect image is united to its truth and exemplar—
as if I were to consider in the mind of an artisan the ideal form of a
chest and the image of a most perfect chest made by the master arti-
san in accordance with his idea.96 As, then, the ideal form is the truth
of the image and is united to it (as truth to image) in the one master,
so in You, Jesus, Master of masters, I see that the Absolute Idea of all
things and the resembling image of these things are likewise most
closely united.
91 I see You, 0 good Jesus, on the inner side of the wall of Paradise,
since Your intellect is both truth and image. And You are God and, like-
wise, creature—infinite and, likewise, finite. You cannot possibly be
seen on this side of the wall. For You are the uniting of the creating
divine nature and the created human nature. But I see the following dif-
ference between Your human intellect and the intellect of any other
man: viz., that no other man knows all that can be known by men; for
no other man's intellect is so conjoined to the Exemplar of all things

(as a likeness is conjoined to its truth) that it could not be more close-
ly conjoined and could not be made more actual. And so, it is not the
case that another man's intellect understands so many things that it
could not understand many more by closer access to the Exemplar of
all things, from which every actually existing thing has its actuality.
But Your intellect actually understands all that can be understood by
man, because in You the human nature is most perfect and is most
closely conjoined to its Exemplar. Indeed, on account of this union
Your human intellect excels every other created intellect with respect
to its perfection of understanding.97 Therefore, all rational spirits are
far beneath You; and You, Jesus, are the Teacher and Light of them all.
You are the Perfection and Fullness of
them all; and through You, as through a mediator, they approach unto
Absolute Truth. For You are the Way unto the Truth and, likewise, are
Truth itself. You are the Way unto the life of the intellect and, likewise,
are Life itself. You are the Fragrance of the food of delight and, like-
wise, are the delighting Flavor. Therefore, most sweet Jesus, may You
be blessed forever.
92 CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
WITHOUT JESUS HAPPINESS IS NOT POSSIBLE
0 Jesus, End98 of the universe, in whom every creature finds rest, as in

the Finality of perfection! You are altogether unknown to all the wise
of this world,99 because we affirm of You most true contradictories. For
You are Creator and likewise creature, the Attracting and likewise the
attracted, the Infinite and likewise the finite. To believe that this is pos-
sible is foolishness, say [the wise of this world]. Hence, they flee from
Your name; and they do not receive Your light, by which You have
enlightened us. But although they consider themselves wise, they will
remain forever foolish, ignorant, and blind.100 But were they to believe
that You are the Christ, God and man, and were they to accept and pon-
der the words of the Gospel, as [words] of so great a Teacher, then they
would come to see the following most clearly: that in comparison to
the light hidden in the Gospel in the simplicity of Your words, all else
is in every respect ignorance and deepest darkness. Therefore, only
humble believers obtain this enlivening and most pleasing revelation.
For as in manna, so in Your most sacred Gospel, which is food from
Heaven, there is hidden all desired sweetness—which can be tasted
only by one who believes and partakes. But if anyone believes and
accepts, he will most truly find that You descended from Heaven and
that You alone are the Teacher of truth.
93 0 good Jesus, You are the Tree of Life in the Paradise of delights.
For no one can be nourished by the desirable Life except from Your
fruit. You, 0 Jesus, are the food forbidden to all the sons of Adam,101
who, expelled from Paradise, seek in the earth, wherein they labor,
their means of life. Therefore, if any man hopes to taste of the food of
life within the Paradise of delights, he must put off the old man of pre-
sumption and put on the new man of humility,102 who conforms to You.
The nature of the new man and of the old man is one nature. But in the
old Adam this nature is fleshly, whereas in You, the new Adam, it is
spiritual; for in You, Jesus, it is united to God, who is spirit. Therefore,
just as every man is united to You, Jesus, by the human nature common
to himself and to You, so every man need also be united to You in one
spirit, so that in this way he can—in his nature, which is common to
You, Jesus—approach unto God the Father, who is in Paradise. There-
fore, to see God the Father and You who are Jesus, His Son, is to be
present in Paradise and in everlasting glory. For if any man is situated
outside of Paradise, he cannot have such a vision, since neither God the
Father nor You, Jesus, dwell outside of Paradise.
94 Therefore, everyone who has attained unto happiness is united to
You, 0 Jesus, as a member [of the body] is united to its head. No one
can come to the Father unless he is drawn by the Father. 103 The Father
has attracted Your humanity, 0 Jesus, through His Son; and through
You, Jesus, the Father attracts all men. Therefore, 0 Jesus, just as Your
humanity is united to the Son of God-the-Father, as to the Medium
through which the Father attracted it, so the humanity of each man is
united to You, Jesus, as to the one Medium through which the Father
attracts all men. Therefore, You, Jesus, are the one without whom no
one can possibly attain unto happiness. You, Jesus, are the Revelation
of the Father.104 For the Father is invisible to all men; He is visible only
to You, His Son, and, subsequent to You, to one who will merit to see
Him through You and by Your revelation. Therefore, You unite every-
one who is happy; and everyone who is happy exists in You, as the unit-
ed exists in the uniting. None of the wise of this world can obtain true
happiness, since they are ignorant of You. No one can see anyone
happy, except inside Paradise with You, Jesus. Contradictories are
predicated truly of anyone happy, even as of You, Jesus; for one who is
happy is united to You in rational nature and in one spirit. For every-
one of happy spirit exists in Your spirit, as the enlivened in the enliven-
ing. Every happy spirit sees the invisible God and is united, in You,
Jesus, to the unapproachable and immortal God. And thus, in You, the
finite is united to the Infinite and Ununiteable; and the Incomprehensi-
ble is apprehended with eternal enjoyment, which is a most joyous and
ever-inexhaustible happiness. Have mercy, 0 Jesus; have mercy. Grant
that I may see You unveiledly, and my soul shall be saved.105
95 CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
HOW JESUS SEES AND HOW HE WORKED
The eye of the mind cannot get enough of seeing You, 0 Jesus, because
You are the fulfillment of all mental beauty. And by means of this icon
I will conjecture about Your exceedingly marvelous and amazing gaze,
0 Superblessed Jesus. For while You, Jesus, walked amid this sensible
world, You used fleshly eyes that were like ours. For with these eyes
You perceived in no other way than do we men: viz., one thing and
another. For in Your eyes there was a certain spirit, which was the form
of the organ—as is the sensible soul in the body of an animal. In this
spirit there was a noble discriminating power through which, 0 Lord,
You saw distinctly and discretely this object to be colored in this way
and that object to be colored in another way. And still more deeply: on
the basis of the poses of the face and eyes of the men upon whom You
looked, You were a true judge of the passions of the soul—viz., of
anger, of joy, and of sorrow. And more subtly still: from merely a few
signs You comprehended that which lay hidden in a man's mind. For
whatever is conceived in the mind is signaled in some way in the face
(and especially in the eyes), since the face is the messenger of the
heart. For in all these judgments You attained much more truly unto the
inner recesses of the soul than does any created spirit. For from some
one sign, be it ever so small, You saw a man's entire conception, even
as from a few words those with discernment foresee the whole, lengthy
preconceived sermon that is to be unfolded. And when those who are
very learned look briefly at a book, they recount the intent of the author
as if they had read the entire book. With regard to this kind of vision,
0 Jesus, You excelled all the perfection, swiftness, and acuteness of all
past, present, and future men.
96 And this seeing, which was not accomplished without fleshly eyes,
was human; nevertheless, it was amazing and wonderful. For if there
are men who through long and meticulous examination read the mind
of a writer beneath what to them are newly devised characters and pre-
viously unseen signs, You, 0 Jesus, saw everything beneath every sign
and figure! If at times we read of there having been a man who, from
whatever signals of the eye, discerned the thought of the one who
queried him [about it]—discerned it even if the questioner was men-
tally singing a certain meter—then You, Jesus, better than all others,
discerned every concept from every signaling movement of the eyes. I
saw a deaf woman who from observing the movement of her daugh-
ter's lips understood everything as if she had heard it. If from a long
period of familiarization this [kind of communication] is thus possible
among the deaf and the mute and among the religious who speak to
one another through signs, then by means of the slightest movements
and signs, as well as by movements and signs invisible to us, You,
Jesus (who as Teacher of teachers knew actually everything that can be
known), more perfectly made a true judgment about the heart and its
concept. But to this most perfect, though finite, human vision of
Yours—a vision contracted to a [bodily] organ—there was united
absolute and infinite Vision. Indeed, through this Vision You, qua God,
saw each and every thing—things absent as well as things present,
things past as well as things future. Therfore, 0 Jesus, with Your human
eye You saw the visible accidents; but with Your absolute, divine gaze
You saw the substance of things. Except for You, 0 Jesus, no one con-
stituted of flesh has ever seen the substance of things or the quiddity of
things. You alone have seen most truly the soul and the spirit and what-
ever else is in man. For just as in man the intellectual power is united
to the seeing power that is animal (so that a man not only sees as an
animal but also discerns and judges as a man),106 so in You, Jesus,
Absolute Sight is united to the human intellectual power, which, in
[man's] animal sight, is [the power of ] discernment. In man the seeing
power that is animal exists not in itself but in the rational soul, as in the
form of the whole soul. Similarly, in You, Jesus, the intellectual seeing
power exists not in itself but in the absolute seeing power.
97 0 wonderful is Your sight, sweetest Jesus! Occasionally, we have
the experience of glimpsing a passer-by. Yet, because we were not
intent upon discerning who he was, we do not know, when asked, the
name of this known passer-by, though we know that someone did pass
by. Therefore, we saw him in an animal way; but we did not see him in
a human way, because we did not use our discriminating power. From
this example we ascertain that even though the natures of these powers
are united in the one form of man, nevertheless they remain distinct
and have distinct functions. So then, I see that in You, Jesus, who are
one, the human intellectual nature is united, in a certain similar way, to
the divine nature and that You did very many things as a man and like-
wise did many marvelous and superhuman things as God. 0 most gra-
cious Jesus, I see that the intellectual nature, in contrast to the sensible
nature, is free from, and not at all limited to, or restricted to, bodily
organs, as is the sensible nature (e.g., the sensible seeing power is
restricted to the eye). But the divine power is incomparably more ele-
vated and unrestricted than is the intellectual power. For the human
intellect, in order to be actua ized, needs images. But images cannot
exist without the senses; and the senses do not exist without a body.
Consequently, the power of the human intellect is contracted and small
and is in need of the aforementioned things. But the divine intellect is
Necessity itself and does not depend on or need anything. Instead, all
else needs it and cannot exist without it.
98 I will consider more closely how the power of inference which, by
reasoning discursively, makes inferences and investigates is distinct
from the power of inference which judges and understands. For we see
that a dog makes inferences and seeks out his master and recognizes
him and responds to his call.107 Indeed, in the nature of animality this
[power of] inference is present in the degree108 of perfection of the
canine species. There are still other animals who have a keener [power
of ] inference, in accordance with their more perfect species. And in
man [the power of ] inference approaches very closely to the intellec-
tual power, so that it is the highest degree of perfection of sensible
power and the lowest degree of [perfection of] intellectual [power].
Therefore, sensible animal power has many—indeed, countless—
degrees of perfection below the level of intellectual [power], as the
species of animals make obvious to us. For there is no species that does
not receive unto itself its own degree of perfection. Moreover, each
species has a range of gradations, and within this range we see that
individuals of a species participate in that species in varying degrees.
Similarly, intellectual nature has countless degrees [of perfection]
below the level of the divine [nature]. Hence, just as in the intellectual
[nature] there are enfolded all the gradations of sensible perfection, so
in the divine [nature are enfolded] all the gradations of intellectual per-
fection—and thus all the gradations of sensible perfection and of the
perfection of all things.
99 And so in You, my Jesus, I see all perfection. For since You are the
most perfect man, I see that in You the intellect is united to the ration-
al power, or power of inference, which is the highest degree of sensi-
ble power. And in this way I see that the intellect is present in reason,
as in its own location, so that the intellect is located in a place as a can-
dle [is located] in a room, illumining the room and all the walls and the
entire building—according, nevertheless, to its greater or lesser degree
of distance [from them]. Next, I see that to the intellect, in its highest
degree, the Divine Word is united,109 and that Your intellect is the place
where the Word is received (even as we know by reference to ourselves
that the intellect is the place where the word of a teacher is received)—
as if the light of the sun were joined to the aforementioned candle, for
the Word of God enlightens the intellect, just as the light of the sun illu-
mines the earth. Therefore, I see that in You my Jesus the sensible life
is illumined by the intellectual light, that the intellectual life is both an
illumining and an illumined light, and that the divine life is only an
illumining light. For in Your intellectual light I see the Fount of light,
viz., the Word of God, which is the Truth that enlightens every intel-
lect. Therefore, You alone are the highest of all creatures, because You
are creature in such way that You are the Blessed Creator.
100 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

HOW JESUS DIED EVEN THOUGH HIS UNION WITH LIFE REMAINED
0 Jesus, most delectable Food for the mind, when I behold You on the
inner side of the wall of Paradise, You appear to me to be wonderful.
For You are the humanified Word of God; and You are the deified man.
(1) Nevertheless, You are not "composed," as it were, of God and
man.110 Between components a comparative relation is necessary;
without it there can be no composition. But there is no comparative
relation of the finite to the Infinite.111 (2) Furthermore, You are not the
coincidence of creature and Creator in the way in which a coincidence
causes one thing to be another thing. For the human nature is not
divine, nor vice versa. For the divine nature is not changeable or alter-
able into another nature, since it is Eternity itself. Nor would any
nature on account of its union to the divine nature pass over into anoth-
er nature (as when an image is united to its truth). For in the case of
that passing over, the nature could [rightly be said] to recede from oth-
erness but could not [rightly] be said to be altered, because it would be
united to its own Truth, which is Unalterability itself. (3) 0 most sweet
Jesus, You cannot be said, either, to be the uniting medium between the
divine nature and the human nature, since between the two natures
there cannot be posited a middle nature that participates in both. For
the divine nature cannot be participated in, because it is completely and
absolutely most simple. Moreover, in such case, Blessed Jesus, You
would not be either God or man.
101 But I see You, Lord Jesus, to be, beyond all understanding, one
person (suppositum), 112 because You are one Christ. I [see this] in the
way in which I see Your human soul to be one—in which soul, as in
each man's, I see there to have been a corruptible sensible nature and
[see this nature] to exist in an incorruptible intellectual nature. But
Your soul was not composed of the corruptible and the incorruptible;
nor did the sensible [nature] coincide with the intellectual [nature]. Yet,
I see that the intellectual soul is united to the body by a sensible power
that enlivens the body. And when the intellectual soul would cease
enlivening the body, without being separated from the body, then the
man [Jesus] would be dead, because His life would have ceased. Nev-
ertheless, His body would not be separated from life, since the intellect
is the life of the body.113 By comparison, suppose that a man were to
seek intently to discern by means of sight someone approaching him.
And suppose that he were seized by other thoughts and that his atten-
tion subsequently ceased with regard to his seeking, though his eyes
were no less directed toward the on-comer. In this case his eye would
not be separated from his soul, although it would be separated from the
discerning attention of his soul. However, if when seized [by other
thoughts] he not only ceased enlivening [the eye] with the power of
discernment but also ceased enlivening [it] with the power of sensa-
tion, then the eye would be dead, because it would not be enlivened.
Nevertheless, it would not on this account be separated from the intel-
lectual form, which is the form that gives being—just as a withered
hand remains united to the form that unites the whole body.
102 There are men who know how to retract their enlivening spirit and
who appear dead and insentient, as Blessed Augustine recounts.114 For
in this case the intellectual nature would remain united to the body,
which, indeed, would not be a body under another form than previous-
ly but rather would have the same form and would remain the same
body. And the enlivening power would not cease to exist but would
remain in union with the intellectual nature, even though this power
would not extend itself, actually, unto the body. I see that this man
would be truly dead, because he would lack enlivening life; for death
is the lack of enlivening life. But nevertheless, this dead body would
not be separated from its life, which is its soul. In this way I see, most
merciful Jesus, that Absolute Life, which is God, is inseparably united
to Your human intellect and, by means of Your intellect, to Your body.
For this union is such that it cannot be greater. Therefore, a separable
union is far inferior to a union which cannot be greater. Therefore, it
never was true and never will be true that the divine nature is separat-
ed from Your human [nature]; and, thus, it is never separated, either,
from Your soul or from Your body, which are necessary constituents of
human nature. And nevertheless, it is most true that Your soul ceased
enlivening Your body and that You truly underwent death and that, nev-
ertheless, You were never separated from true Life.
103 That priest whom Augustine tells of had a power to withdraw vital-
ity from his body by attracting it into his soul—as if the candle illumi-
nating the room 115 were alive and, without being removed from the
room, were to attract to the center of its flame the rays by which it illu-
mined the room. (This attracting is only the candle's ceasing to radi-
ate.) If so, then what wonder if You, Jesus, since You are most free Liv-
ing Light, had the power to send forth and to withdraw Your enliven-
ing soul? When You willed to withdraw it [from the body], You under-
went death; and when You willed to send it forth [into the body], You
arose by Your own power. Now, when the intellectual nature enlivens,
or animates, the body, it is called the human soul; and when the human
intellect ceases to enliven [the body], the soul is said to be withdrawn.
For when the intellect ceases its function of enlivening and when,
accordingly, it separates itself from the body, it is not therefore sepa-
rated in an unqualified sense.
104 You inspire these [thoughts], 0 Jesus, so that You may reveal Your-
self to most unworthy me, insofar as I am capable of receiving [this
revelation], and so that in You I may contemplate the following: that
mortal human nature put on immortality in order that in You all men,
who are of this same human nature, can attain unto resurrection and
divine life. Therefore, what is sweeter, what more delightful than to
know that in You, Jesus—who alone are all-powerful and who give
most generously and do not reproach116—all things are present in our
nature? 0 inexpressible Graciousness and Mercy! You, 0 God, who are
goodness itself,117 were not able to satisfy Your infinite mercy and gen-
erosity without giving us Yourself. This [giving] could not be done
more suitably and more conducively to our receiving than by Your

assuming our nature, given that we could not approach unto Yours. And
so, You came to us; and You are named Jesus, the Ever-blessed Savior.
105 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

JESUS IS THE WORD OF LIFE
By Your gift, assuredly best and greatest, I contemplate You my Jesus

preaching the words of life118 and generously sowing the divine seed in
the hearts of those who hear.119 And I see that those who did not per-
ceive the things that are of the Spirit go away,120 whereas those who
have already begun to taste of the sweetness of the learning that
enlivens the soul remain as disciples. Peter, that leader and head of the
Apostles, confessed on behalf of all Your disciples that You, Jesus, had
the words of life;121 and he marveled that those who were seeking life
went away from You. Paul, in a rapture,122 heard from You, Jesus, the
words of life; and thereafter neither persecution nor sword nor bodily
hunger was able to separate him from You.123 None of all those who
have tasted the words of life were ever able to forsake You. Who can
separate a bear from honey after it has tasted honey's sweetness? How
great the sweetness of Truth, which furnishes a most delectable life,
beyond all corporeal sweetness! For it is Absolute Sweetness; hence, it
remains all that is desired by any sense of taste. What is stronger than
the Love from which whatever is lovable124 has the fact that it is loved?
If at times the bond of contracted love is so great that the fear of death
cannot sever it, then of what sort is the bond of that tasted Love from
which all love derives? I am not at all surprised, 0 Jesus, at the pun-
ishing cruelty which is esteemed as nothing by these soldiers of Yours,
to whom You have given Yourself as a foretaste of life. 0 Jesus, my
Love, You have sown the seed of life in the field of those who believe;
and You have irrigated it with the testimony of Your blood. By Your
bodily death You showed that truth is the life of the rational spirit. The
seed has grown in good earth and has brought forth fruit.
106 Disclose to me, 0 Lord, how it is that my soul is the breath of life
with respect to a body (into which it breathes, and infuses, life) but
with respect to You who are God is not life but, as it were, a "potency
for life." Because You cannot fail to grant our petitions if they are made
in most earnest faith, You infuse into me [the following disclosure]: in
a boy there is a soul which has an actualized vegetative power, for the
boy grows. This soul also has an actualized sensible power, for the boy
senses. It also has an imaginative power, though not yet actualized.

Moreover, it has a rational power, whose actuality is still more distant.
And it has, as well, an intellectual power, though in quite remote
potency. So we find that the one soul is actual first with respect to its
lower powers and later with respect to its higher powers, so that a man
is animal before he is spiritual. Similarly, we find that there is in the
interior of the earth a certain mineral power—which can also be called
a spirit—and that this spirit is potentially the source of stone or poten-
tially the source of salt; and there is another spirit that is [potentially]
the source of metal. And, [as we find], there are various such spirits, in
accordance with the variety of stones, salts, and metals. Nevertheless,
[we know] that there is a single spirit of the source of gold. As a result
of the influence of the sun or the heavens this spirit is more and more
purified until at last it is fashioned into gold which is such that it is not
corruptible by any other element. And in this gold a great degree of
incorruptible celestial light shines forth. For the gold becomes quite
like the corporeal light of the sun.
107 We find a similar thing regarding the vegetative spirit and the sen-
sible spirit. For in man the sensible [spirit] makes itself quite like the
motive and influencing celestial power; and under the influence of the
heavens it becomes successively increased—to the point where it is
posited in perfect actuality. But it is educed from the potency of the
body; and so, its perfection ceases when the body's perfection, on
which it depends, fails. Next, there is the intellectual spirit, which, with
regard to its actual perfection, does not depend on the body but is unit-
ed to the body by the medium of the sensible power. Because this spir-
it does not depend on the body, it is not subject to the influence of the
heavenly bodies and does not depend on the sensible spirit. Likewise,
it does not depend on the motive power of the heavens; yet, just as the
movers of the celestial orbits are subject to the First Mover,125 so too is
this mover, which is the intellect. But because the intellect is united to
the body through the medium of the sensible [power], it is not perfect-
ed apart from the senses. For whatever comes to it proceeds to it from
the sensible world through the medium of the senses. Hence, there can-
not be in the intellect anything which is such that it was not first in the
senses.126. But the purer and more perfect the senses and the clearer the
imagination and the better the power of rational inference, the quicker
will be the intellect, since it will be less hampered in its intellectual
operations.
108 But the intellect is nourished by the Word of Life—under whose

influence it is placed, as are the movers of the orbits. However, [the
intellect and these movers] are perfected in different ways, just as also
the spirits which are subject to the influences of the heavens are per-
fected in different ways. Moreover, the intellect is perfected by the sen-
sible spirit only accidentally, just as an image does not perfect but
serves as a stimulus for seeking out the exemplar's truth. For example,
an image of the Crucified One does not inspire devotion but stimulates
the memory, in order that devotion may be inspired. And since the
intellectual spirit is not constrained by the influence of the heavens but
is altogether free, it is not perfected unless it subjects itself by faith to
the influence of the Word of God. (By comparison, a free student, who
is under his own guidance, is not perfected unless he subjects himself
by faith to the word of a teacher; for he needs to trust and hearken unto
a teacher.127) Now, through the Word of God the intellect is perfected
and grows and is made progressively more capable of receiving the
Word and progressively more conformed, and similar, to the Word.
And this perfection, which comes in this way from the Word, from
which the intellect has being, is not a corruptible perfection but is God-
like—just as the perfection of gold is not corruptible but is like the
heavens. But every intellect needs to subject itself by faith to the Word
of God and to listen most attentively to the inner teaching of the
Supreme Teacher. And by hearkening unto what the Lord says in His
Word, the intellect will be perfected. Wherefore You, 0 Jesus, sole
Teacher,128 proclaimed that faith is necessary for anyone coming unto
the Fount of life. And You disclosed that the infusing of divine power
is proportional to the degree of faith.
109 O Christ, our Savior, You taught only two things: faith and love.
Through faith the intellect approaches unto the Word; through love it
is united therewith. The closer the intellect approaches, the more it is
increased in power; and the more it loves [the Word], the more it is
fashioned in the Word's light. But the Word of God is within the intel-
lect, which need not search outside itself. For it will find the Word
within, and it will be able to approach the Word by faith. And through
prayer the intellect will be able to obtain the capability of approaching
more closely. For the Word will increase the [intellect’s] faith by
imparting its own light. I thank You, Jesus, because I have arrived at
this [discernment] by means of Your light. For by means of Your light,
0 Light of my life, I see that You who are the Word infuse life to all
believers and perfect all who love You. What teaching was ever more
concise and more effective than Yours, good Jesus? You urge us only to
believe, and You command us only to love. What is easier than to
believe God?129 What is sweeter than to love Him? How pleasant a
yoke is Your yoke, and how light is Your burden, 0 sole Teacher! 130 To
those who heed this teaching You promise all that is desired. For Your
teaching is not difficult for one who believes 131 and is not refusable for
one who loves. Such are the promises which You make to Your disci-
ples. And these promises are most true, because You are Truth, which
can make only true promises. Indeed, You promise only Yourself, who
are the Perfection of everything perfectible. To You be praise, to You be
glory, to You be thanksgiving forever and ever.
110 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

JESUS IS THE CONSUMMATION
But what, 0 Lord, is that which You send forth into the spirit of the man
whom You perfect? Is it not Your good Spirit, which is fully and actu-
ally the Power of all powers and the Perfection of all perfect things,
since it is that which works all things? The power of the sun descends
into the vegetative spirit and moves it, so that it is perfected; and by the
most pleasing and most natural warming from the celestial heat, good
fruit is produced by means of a good tree. Similarly, 0 God, Your Spir-
it comes into the intellectual spirit of a good man and warms the poten-
tial power by the heat of divine love, so that the intellectual spirit is
perfected and so that there is produced fruit that is most pleasing to the
Spirit. We observe, 0 Lord, that Your simple Spirit, infinite in power, is
received in multiple ways. For it is received in one way in an intellec-
tual spirit in which it produces the spirit of prophecy; it is received in
another way in an intellectual spirit in which it produces a skilled inter-
preter; and in another intellectual spirit it imparts knowledge; and so
on, in different ways in different spirits. For the Spirit's gifts are vari-
ous; and they are perfections of the intellectual spirit, just as [one and]
the same solar heat perfects various fruits in various trees.
111 0 Lord, I see that Your Spirit cannot be lacking to any spirit,
because it is the Spirit of spirits and the Motion of motions; and it fills
the whole world.132 But whatever things do not have an intellectual
spirit Your Spirit governs by means of the intellectual nature that
moves the heavens—and by means of the motion of the heavens Your
Spirit governs whatever things are subject to their motion. But in the
case of the intellectual nature Your Spirit has reserved exclusively for
itself the governance and ordering. For it has betrothed this nature, in
which it chooses to rest as in a house of lodging and a heaven of truth.
For nowhere other than in the intellectual nature can Truth itself be
received. You, 0 Lord, who work all things for Your own sake, created
this whole world on account of the intellectual nature. [You created] as
if You were a Painter who mixes different colors in order, at length, to
be able to paint Himself—to the end that He may have an image of
Himself wherein He Himself may take delight and His artistry may
find rest. Although the Divine Painter is one and is not multipliable, He
can nevertheless be multiplied in the way in which this is possible: viz.,
in a very close likeness.133 However, He makes many figures, because
the likeness of His infinite power can be unfolded in the most perfect
way only in many figures. And all intellectual spirits are useful to each
[intellectual] spirit. Now, unless they were countless, You, 0 Infinite
God, could not be known in the best way possible. For each intellectu-
al spirit sees in You-my-God something [without] which the others—
unless it were revealed to them—could not in the best possible manner
attain unto You-their-God. Full of love, the spirits reveal to one anoth-
er their respective secrets; and, as a result, their knowledge of the one
who is loved and their desire for Him is increased; and the sweetness
of their joy is aflame.
112 0 Lord God, without Your Son, Jesus—whom You anointed more
than his fellow-men134 and who is the Christ135—You would not yet
have brought about the completion of Your work.136 In His intellect the
perfection of creatable nature finds rest. For He is the ultimate and
most perfect unmultipliable Likeness of God.137 And there can be only
one such supreme [Likeness]. Yet, all other intellectual spirits, by the
mediation of this Spirit, are also likenesses. And the more perfect they
are, the more like unto this Spirit they are. In this Spirit they all find
rest, as in the ultimate perfection of the Image of God. And they have
attained unto a likeness of this Image and unto a certain degree of its
perfection.
113 Therefore, by Your gift, my God, I have—as an aid for advancing
in knowledge of You—this whole visible world and all Scripture and
all administering spirits. All things induce me to turn toward You, All
Scripture attempts to do nothing other than to disclose You. And all
intellectual spirits have no other duty than to seek You and to reveal as
much of You as they discover. Above all, You have given me Jesus as
Teacher and Way and Life and Truth,138 so that nothing at all can be
lacking to me. You comfort me with Your Holy Spirit, through whom
You inspire holy desires and the decisions of life. Through a foretaste
of the sweetness of a glorious life You draw [me unto Yourself ] I so
that I may love You, who are infinite good. You enrapture me, in order
that I may transcend myself and foresee the glorious place to which
You invite me. You show me many exceedingly appetizing repasts that
attract me by their most appealing aroma. You permit [me] to see the
treasure of riches, of life, of joy, and of beauty. You disclose, in nature
as well as by art, the Fount from which flows everything desirable. You
keep nothing secret. You do not hide the source of love, of peace, and
of rest. To wretched me, whom You created from nothing, You offer all
things.
114 Why, then, do I delay? Why do I not hasten to the fragrance of the
ointments of my Christ? Why do I not enter into the joy of my Lord?139
What holds me back? If ignorance of You, 0 Lord, as well as the empty
delight characteristic of the sensible world has held me back, it shall
do so no longer. For since You grant me to will, 0 Lord, I will to for-
sake the things of this world, because the world wills to forsake me. I
hasten toward the goal; I have almost finished the course; I anticipate
being finished with it, because I aspire to the crown.140 Draw me, 0
Lord, because no one can come unto You unless he be drawn by You.141
[Draw me] so that, being drawn, I may be freed from this world and be
joined unto You, the Absolute God, in an eternity of glorious life.
Amen.
ABBREVIATIONS
Ap. Apologia Doctae Ignorantiae (Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia, Vol. II,
edited by Raymond Klibansky; published by Felix Meiner Verlag, 1932)
DC De Coniecturis (Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia, Vol. III, edited by Joseph
Koch and Karl Bormann; published by Felix Meiner Verlag, 1972).
DD De Dato Patris Lurninum (Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia, Vol. IV (Opus-
cula I), edited by Paul Wilpert; published by Felix Meiner Verlag, 1959).
DI De Docta Ignorantia (Latin-German edition: Schriften des
Nikolaus von Kues in deutscher Übersetzung, published by
Felix Meiner Verlag. Book I (Vol. 264a), edited and trans-
lated by Paul Wilpert; 3rd edition with minor improvements
by Hans G. Senger, 1979. Book II (Vol. 264b), edited and
translated by Paul Wilpert; 2nd edition with minor improvements by
Hans G. Senger, 1977. Book III (Vol. 264c), Latin
text edited by Raymond Klibansky, introduction and translation by Hans
G. Senger, 1977).
DP De Possest (Latin-German edition: Schriften des Nikolaus
von Kues in deutscher Übersetzung, Vol. 285, edited and translated by
Renate Steiger; published by Felix Meiner Ver-lag, 1973. Latin text
reprinted—with J. Hopkins’s translation—by the University of Minneso-
ta Press as a component of A Concise Introduction to the Philosophy of
Nicholas of Cusa, 2nd edition, 1980).
IL De Ignota Litteratura by John Wenck (Latin text edited by
J. Hopkins and published in 1981 by The Arthur J. Banning
Press as a component of Nicholas of Cusas Debate with
John Wenck: A Translation and an Appraisal of De Ignota
Litteratura, 2nd edition, 1984).
MFCG Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft, edited
by Rudolf Haubst. A continuing series published in Mainz, Germany by
Matthias-Griinewald Verlag.
NA Directio Speculantis seu De Non Aliud (Nicolai de Cusa
Opera Omnia, Vol. XIII, edited by Ludwig Baur and Paul Wilpert; pub-
lished by Felix Meiner Verlag, 1944. Latin text reprinted-with J. Hop-
kins’s English translation-by The Arthur J. Banning Press under the title
Nicholas of Cusa on God as Not-other: A Translation and an Appraisal
of De Li Non Aliud, 2nd ed., 1983).
PL Patrologia Latina, edited by J.-P. Migne. Series published in Paris.
SHAW Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Philosophisch-historische Klasse; series published by Carl Winter Ver-
lag.
VS De Venatione Sapientiae (Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia, Vol. XII, edit-
ed by Raymond Klibansky and Hans G. Senger; published in the same
737
738 Praenotanda
volume with De Apice Theoriae by Felix Meiner Verlag, 1982).

The abbreviations for the books of the Bible are the standard ones.
PRAENOTANDA
1. In the Interpretive Study commas and periods are occasionally placed outside of
quotation marks in order to emphasize that they are not included in what is being
cited or mentioned.
2. In the Notes to the Interpretive Study longer Latin passages that stand by themselves
are not italicized.
3. All translations are mine, unless otherwise indicated. Many of these translations are
taken verbatim from my previous works; sometimes, however, italics are added or
various emendations made. E.g., most translations of Anselm are taken from
Anselm of Canterbury: Volumes I-III (New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1974-
76). These volumes contain, in translation, Anselm’s complete treatises, and they
are more literal and more accurate than the earlier Harper and Row Torchbooks
Truth, Freedom, and Evil and Trinity, Incarnation, and Redemption, which should
no longer be regarded.
4. The present bibliography is supplementary to the bibliographies contained in my
previous works A Concise Introduction to the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa and
Nicholas of Cusa on Learned Ignorance: A Translation and an Appraisal of De
Docta Ignorantia. Accordingly, not all the entries in the present bibliography are
directly relevant to the present topics and themes; and some entries that are direct-
ly relevant occur in the earlier bibliographies. Moreover, practical considerations
necessitated keeping short the number of entries under “Select Related Works.”
See also the bibliography in my Nicholas of Cusa’s De Pace Fidei and Cribratio
Alkorani.
5. All references to Nicholas of Cusa’s works are to the Latin texts—specifically to the
following texts in the following editions (unless explicitly indicated otherwise):
A. Heidelberg Academy edition of the Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia: De Con-
cordantia Catholica; Sermones; De Coniecturis; De Deo Abscondito; De
Quaerendo Deum; De Filiatione Dei; De Dato Patris Luminum; Coniectura
de Ultimis Diebus; De Genesi; Apologia Doctae Ignorantiae; Idiota (1983
edition) de Sapientia, de Mente, de Staticis Experimentis; De Pace Fidei; De
Li Non Aliud (Banning reprint); De Venatione Sapientiae; Compendium; De
Apice Theoriae.
B. Texts authorized by the Heidelberg Academy and published in the Latin-Ger-
man editions of Felix Meiner Verlag’s Philosophische Bibliothek: De Docta
Ignoranti; De Beryllo; De Possest (Minnesota reprint).
C. Paris edition (1514) of the Opera Cusana: Complementum Theologicum, De
Aequalitate, De Principio (=Paris edition, Vol. II, Part I, fol. 7r-11v).
D. Strasburg edition (1488) of the Opera Cusana as edited by Paul Wilpert and
Praenotanda 739
republished by W. de Gruyter (Berlin, 1967, 2 vols.): Cribratio Alkoran, De

Ludo Globi.
E. My edition of the Latin text of De Visione Dei as found in J. Hopkins, Nicholas
of Cusa's Dialectical Mysticism.
The references given for some of these treatises indicate book and chapter,
for others margin number and line, and for still others page and line. Readers
should have no difficulty determining which is which when they consult the par-
ticular Latin text. E.g., “DI II, 6 (125:19-20)” indicates De Docta Ignorantia,
Book II, Chap. 6, margin number 125, lines 19-20. And “Ap. 8:14-16” indicates
Apologia Doctae Ignorantiae, p. 8, lines 14-16.
NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION
1. The reference is to the self-portrait of Roger van der Weyden (1400-1464) in his
Examples of Justice.
2. These considerations are presented in Chapters 1-3 respectively.
3. Literally: "With regard to the icon-of-God's sight nothing can be apparent that is
not truer with regard to God's true sight."
4. Cf. Chapter 15 of Anselm of Canterbury's Proslogion.
5. Note DVD 5 (18:2-3); 8 (33:1); and NA 23 (104:12-14).
6. "Free" translates both "abstractus" and "absolutus". N.B.: Although abstract
sight is absolutus ab his conditionibus, it is distinguished by Nicholas from Absolute
Sight, which is God. At the beginning of Chapter 2 Nicholas further explains that in
human beings sight is conditioned by the dispositions (passiones) of the body and the
affections (passiones) of the mind. Cf. De Ludo Globi I (26:1-6), Strasburg edition,
reprinted in two volumes by de Gruyter, 1967, under the title Nikolaus von Kues:
Werke, edited by Paul Wilpert.
7. Nicholas later makes clear that God, who is infinite, is not Sight—even as He is
also not Goodness (Chapter 13). But just as, in accordance with the via negativa, He
is called Goodness, so Nicholas here calls Him Sight, as well. Note DVD 12 (51:8-9).
8. DI I, 16 (46:9-12). DP 13:11-12. DVD 6 (19:13-15); 9 (36).
9. In calling God the "Contraction [i.e., the Contractedness] of contractions,"
"Uncontractible Contraction," and "most simple Contraction" Nicholas does not mean
to imply that either God or His Sight is contracted. These are modi loquendi. Indeed,
just a few lines earlier Nicholas spoke of God's Sight as "free from all contractedness"
(8:7); and in Chapter 13 (57:12-13) he goes on to state flatly that the Infinite is not con-
tractible. Also note DVD 6 (19: 10-11).
10. DI I, 23 (70:23-24). DD 2 (98). Ap. 8-9 and 26.
11. DI I, 21 (66:3-8).
12. DI I, 8 (22:7-8); 1, 23 (73:3); 11, 2 (98:6). Ap. 17:17-18.
13. DI II, 2 (104:10-20); 11, 5 (121:1-7). DD 1 (93:4-11). DVD 15 (70:4-5); 17
(79:5-7).
14. Heb. 13:5.
15. I John 4:8.
16. I Cor. 13:12.
740 Notes to De Visione Dei
17. Ps. 30:20 (31:19).

18. Isa. 45:15. DP 74:2 1.
19. In the corresponding Latin text for this English sentence (16:5-7) I regard "igi-
tur” as a mistake on Nicholas's part. Hence, I render the text as if Nicholas had writ-
ten "enim".
20. Ps. 113B:1 (115: 1).
21. Note DVD 1 (6:6). NA 23 (104:12-14).
22. Literally: ". . . by the contracted shadow here."
23. See the references in n. 8 above.
24. DI III, 11 (245-246).
25. Ap. 2:16-22.
26. Ps. 79:20 (80:19).
27. Cf. Augustine, Confessions, opening sentence.
28. Luke 15:16-17.
29. DP 18-19.
30. Cf. De Ludo Globi II (84), Strasburg ed. DI II, 11 (157:23-26). Note the title of
DI I, 23.
32. DI II, 6 (125:2-5; 12-13).
33. "Uncontracted Humanity," "Absolute Humanity," and "Human Nature per se"
are names for God. They are modi loquendi, since Nicholas does not believe that God
is Humanity in any sense that can be conceived by us. See notes 7 and 9 above.
34. Ap. 26:3-6.
35. De Mente 5 (65:13-14). See the references in n. 8 above.
36. DI I, 16 (45:4). Ap. 33:21-22.
37. DI II, 3 (110:4-6).
38. DP 21.
39. DP 21.
40. DVD 10. Note the title of DI I, 22.
41. DVD 21 (92: 4-5). Also note Complementum Theologicum 12 (Paris ed., Vol. II,
r
fol. 99 , lines 22-24).
42. Heb. 5:14. In the remainder of the Latin sentence—specifically at 39:6-7I take
the future tense of "coincidere" to express a present meaning.
43. Gen. 3:24.
44. Cf. the discussion in Chapter 12. Also note Complementum Theologicum 14
v
(Paris ed., Vol. II, fol. 100 , lines 11-13).
45. Heb. 5:12.
46. II Cor. 4:7.
47. The beginning of Chapter 13 makes clear what kind of "seeing" this is. Also
note Complementum Theologicum 2 (Paris ed., Vol. II, fol. 93, lines 18-21).
48. Chapter 5. See n. 18 above.
49. Chapter 10.
50. This English sentence is a correct translation of the corresponding Latin text
(49:17-19). Skeptics are referred to Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar, 3rd ed. (London:
St. Martin's Press, 1980), p. 149, Remark Ic. Cf. the syntax in DVD 16 (74:5-6). Cf.
DI II, 11 (156:26-27) with II, 12 (162:16-17).
51. This view belongs to earlier medieval philosophy as well. Cf. Anselm of Can-
Notes to De Visione Dei 741
terbury, Monologion 14 and 23. The formula "in all things You are all things" is from
I Cor. 15:28 but is mediated to Nicholas from Pseudo-Dionysius. Note NA 14 (59:9).
DP 74:6. DI 111, 4 (206:12).
52. Rom. 11:33.
53. In the corresponding Latin text (51:6) "ortum" is from "ortus,-us". (Cf. 13:14.)
At 52:3 "horto" is from "hortus,-i"; I have added the "h" for clarity. As for God's being
v
a creatable Creator, see Complementum Theologicum 14 (Paris ed., Vol. II, fol. 100 ,
lines 16-19). N. B.: In DVD17(80:17) God is called fons deliciarum.
54. See n. 7 above.
55. See n. 53 above.
56. "End" (“finis") here has the sense of goal; but in the next paragraph it has more
the sense of limit.
57. NA 19 (89:13-14).
58. DI I, 16 (43:15-16). Ap. 31:25-27.
59. With regard to the idiom "contrahibile a" note DC II, 16 (170:11-14) and Com-
v
plementurn Theologicum 12 (Paris ed., Vol. II, fol. 99 , lines 23-26).
60. DD 2 (100:13-20).
61. DI I, 5 (14:11-12). DP 14.
62. In Chapter 13 (58:11) Nicholas states that infinite goodness is not goodness but
v
is Infinity. [Cf. Complementum Theologicum 12 (Paris ed., Vol. II, fol. 99 , lines 20-
22).] Nevertheless, he continues to refer to God as Absolute Goodness—a modus
loquendi associated with his conviction that God is not less than goodness.
63. DVD 6 (20:14-19); 15 (67:1-2).
65. DVD 12 (50:14-16).
66. Matt. 13:44. Nicholas also uses the example of an inexhaustible treasure at the
end of De Beryllo (Latin-German edition, edited by Karl Bormann, 1977), Chapter 31.
68. "End" (“Finis") here has the sense of goal, more than of limit.
69. This point is made in reference to the Incarnation. The incarnated Son of God
continues to be infinite.
70. Nicholas does not hesitate to predicate "infinite" of "Infinity".
71. DI III, 12 (25 9).
72. As this chapter makes clear, "amabilis" means "able to be loved." But Nicholas,
like the Ancients, tends to regard only certain kinds of things as able to be loved by us.
Human nature is not able, for example, to love the ugly (qua ugly). What is able to be
loved by human nature is what has worth or value. Hence, "amabilis" has the conno-
tation of being worthy of love. Cf. DI III, 12 (255:5-8).
73. Nicholas is not here drawing the mistaken inference that nothing could be lov-
able (i.e., able to be loved) unless someone actually loved it. Rather, he is discussing
the Trinity; and he goes on to indicate in the next sentence that the Son (Infinite Lov-
ability) exists from the Father (Infinite Loving) and could neither exist nor be infinite
apart from the Father. Cf. DI I, 20 (59). De Mente 11 (95:6-14).
74. DI I, 5 (14:9-12).
75. DI I, 19 (57: 10-11). DP 46:1-6. Contrast Anselm of Canterbury, De Incarna-
tione Verbi 2 (Schmitt Latin text, p. 13, lines 17-2 1).
76. DVD 9 (38:7-9).
742 Notes to De Visione Dei
77. Matt. 13:44.

78. I Cor. 2:9. II Cor. 12:3-4.
79. See Edmond Vansteenberghe's Autour de la Docte Ignorance. Une controverse
e
sur la Thélogie mystique au XV siècle [Vol. 14 of Beiträge zur Geschichte der
Philosophie des Mittelalters (Münster: Aschendorff, 1915)], p. 113, lines 4-7, where
Nicholas appears to be declaring—in his letter to the abbot of the Monastery at
Tegernsee—that he has not yet had any mystical experience.
80. II Cor. 12:9.
81. See Chapter 21.
82. Ex. 34:14.
84. God is understandable only to Himself. But just as in seeking truth the intellect
(whether wittingly or unwittingly) is seeking God, who is Truth, so in understanding
any truth the intellect aims to understand Truth itself, which is beyond all finite com-
prehension. Thus, the union of Jesus's human intellect with the divine nature is not a
cognitive union—i.e., is not a union in which the human intellect acquires either
knowledge, or a correct concept, of what God is in Himself. In Chapter 19 Nicholas
makes clear that human nature can understand God the Father only in God the Son and
can understand God the Son only in Jesus.
85. This statement reflects the values of Nicholas's day. But it is also a consequence
of his orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.
86. Viz., Jesus.
88. Mark 1: 11.
89. DP 38:11-12.
90. Cf. DI III, 7 (225:15-17).
91. DI III, 7 (224).
92. DI III, 2 (194:7).
93. Cf. DI III, 12 (261:6-17).
94. Jesus's divine nature is the Exemplar; thus, Jesus is the Medium. Cf. the previ-
ous chapter.
At 89:16 - 90:1 I have repunctuated my Latin text to read: “... nec esse nec cogitari
potest in natura humana seu rationali. Video spiritum rationalem humanum ....” Previ-
ously, I regarded the punctuation in the Paris edition as being the more perceptive.
95. DI II, 3 (108:8-11).
96. I. e., in accordance with the ideal form.
97. DI III, 4 (206).
98. I. e., End in the sense of Goal.
99. DVD 9 (39:1-5).
100. I Cor. 1:20-21.
101. Cf. Gen. 3:22-24.
102. Eph. 4:22-24.
103. John 6:44.
104. John 1: 18. John 14:8-9.
105. Ps. 79:20 (80:19).
106. De Mente, Chapter 5.
107. Ap. 14:25 - 15:2.
Notes to De Visione Dei 743
108. In this chapter "gradus" is translated by both "degree" and "gradation".

109. DI III, 4 (206). DVD 20 (9 1).
110. DI III, 2 (194).
111. DI I, 3 (9:4-5); 11, 2 (102:4-5). Ap. 32:7-8.
112. Cf. the use of "suppositum" at DI III, 8 (228:1-3). Also note Sermon 17 ("Glo-
ria in excelsis Deo"), Nicolai de Cusa Opera Omnia, Vol. XVI, Fascicle 3, ed. Rudolf
Haubst and Martin Bodewig, 1977, Sections 6-7 (pp. 274-276). Sermon 19 (“Verbum
caro factum est"), Ibid., Sec. 9 (p. 297).
113. DI III, 7 (224).
114. City of God 14.24.2 (PL 41:433).
115. DVD 22 (99).
116. James 1:5.
118. John 6:64 (6:63).
119. Mark 4:14-20.
120. I Cor. 2:14.
121. John 6:68-69 (6:67-68).
122. II Cor. 12:2-4.
123. II Cor. 12:10. Rom. 8:38-39.
125. The First Mover is God.
126. This well-known slogan was also Thomas Aquinas's. Cf. Nicholas's use of it
r
in his sermon Spiritus autem Paracletus (Paris ed., Vol. II, f. 104 , lines 3 and 4 from
the bottom.
127. Cf. p. 48, lines 6-12 of Das Vermächinis des Nikolaus von Kues. Der Brief an
Nikolaus Albergati nebst der Predigt in Montoliveto (1463), ed. and trans. by Gerda
von Bredow (SHAW, 1955).
128. Matt. 23: 10.
129. On the distinction between believing God (deo credere) and believing in God
(in deum credere) see Sermon 4 ("Fides autem catholica"), Nicolai de Cusa Opera
Omnia, Vol. XVI, Fascicle 1, ed. Rudolf Haubst, Martin Bodewig, and Werner Krämer,
1970, Sec. 25 (p. 67).
130. Matt. 11:29-30.
131. Cf. p. 50, line 3 of Das Vermächtnis des Nikolaus von Kues, op. cit., SHAW
1955. Cf. Nicholas's use of "astruebat" at DI I, 7 (18:8).
132. Wisdom 1:7.
133. DI II, 2 (99 and 104). DD 2 (99).
134. Hebrews 1:9.
135. Christus—i.e., the Anointed One.
136. DVD 22 (99).
137. Col. 1: 15.
138. John 14:6.
139. Matt. 25:21.
140. II Tim. 4:7-8.
141. John 6:44.

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NICHOLAS OF CUSA’S

THE ARTHUR J. BANNING PRESS

Second edition 1988

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 84-71736

Printed in the United States of America

Copyright © 1985 by The Arthur J. Banning Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402.

image] is most diligently concerned for the least of creatures, just as

In the first place, I think we must presuppose the following: whatever

Sight than is conception. Therefore, that which is apparent in the case

Observe, next, that because of God's supreme simplicity whatever

whole of theology is said to be circular,11 because [any] one of the

regards me so attentively that it never turns away from me, so neither

0 how greatly manifold is that sweetness of Yours which You have

nite treasure of all delights.

circle—or better, an infinite sphere—because Your sight is an eye of

being to that formal nature [viz., to contracted humanity]. Without this

I stand before the image of Your Face, my God—an image which I

truth which is pointed to by the painting. And it occurs to me, 0 Lord,

and then another is not omnipotent.) So because You are God

Earlier,48 0 Lord, You appeared to me as invisible by every creature

which I see You. And if anyone expresses any concept whereby

Continue to sustain Your servant, who surely is foolish except insofar

Being the possibility-to-be-all-things is Infinite Being itself. Likewise,

comprehensible, because it misleads me. My desire, wherein You shine

0 Lord, You have manifested Yourself to me as so lovable72 that You

distinction (for number is distinguished from number in an essential

but sonship is in other sons as artistry is in [the master's] students or as

I give ineffable thanks to You-my-God, Life and Light of my soul. For

who are God-the-Son of God-the-Father all things are present as in

ed in the attracting, the united in the uniting, and the substantified in

no other man's intellect is so conjoined to the Exemplar of all things

0 Jesus, End98 of the universe, in whom every creature finds rest, as in

100 CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

more suitably and more conducively to our receiving than by Your

105 CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

By Your gift, assuredly best and greatest, I contemplate You my Jesus

senses. It also has an imaginative power, though not yet actualized.

108 But the intellect is nourished by the Word of Life—under whose

110 CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

volume with De Apice Theoriae by Felix Meiner Verlag, 1982).

republished by W. de Gruyter (Berlin, 1967, 2 vols.): Cribratio Alkoran, De

NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION

17. Ps. 30:20 (31:19).

77. Matt. 13:44.

108. In this chapter "gradus" is translated by both "degree" and "gradation".

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