JOHN
4S1
JOHN
escape from prison, and. though incomplete, supple-
ment each other, forming a full treatise on mystic
theology. — 3. An e.xplanation of the "Spiritual Canti-
cle" (a paraphrase of the Canticle of Canticles), be-
ginning: "Where hast Thou hidden Thyself?" com-
po.sed in part during the imprisonment, and completed
and commented upon some years later at the request
of Venerable Anne of Jesus. — 1. An explanation of a
poem beginning; "O Living Flame of Love", written
about 15S-1 at the bidding of Dona Ana de Penalosa.
— .5. Some instructions and precautions on matters
spiritual. — 6. Some twenty letters, chiefly to his
penitents. LTnfortunately the bulkof his correspond-
ence, including numerous letters to and from St.
Teresa, was destroyed, partly by himself, partly dur-
ing the persecutions to which he fell a victim. — 7.
" Poems", of which twenty-six have been hitherto
published, viz., twenty in the older editions, and
recently six more, discovered partly at the National
Library at Madrid, and partly at the convent of
Carmelite nuns at Pamplona. — S. "A Collection of
Spiritual Maxims" (in some editions to the number
of one hundred, and in others three hundred anrl
.sixty-five) can scarcely count as an independent work,
as they are sentences culled from his writings.
It has been recorded that during his studies St. John particularly relished psychology; this is amply borne out by his writings. He was not what one would term a scholar, but he was intimately acquainted with the "Summa" of St. Thomas Aquinas, as almost every page of his works proves. Holy Scripture he seems to have known by heart, yet he evidently ob- tained his knowledge more by meditation than in the lecture-room. But there is no vestige of influence on him of the mystical teaching of the Fathers, the Areo- pagite, Augustine, Gregory, Bernard, Bonaventure, etc., Hugh of St. Victor, or the German Dominican school. The few quotations from patristic works are easily traced to the Breviary or the "Summa". In the absence of any conscious or unconscious influence of earlier mystical schools, his own system, like that of St. Teresa, whose influence is obvious throughout, might be termed empirical mysticism. They both start with their own experience, St. Teresa avowedly so, while St. John, who hardly ever speaks of himself, "invents nothing" (to quote Cardinal Wiseman), " borrows nothing from others, but gives us clearly the results of his own experience in himself and others. He presents you with a portrait, not with a fancy picture. He represents the ideal of one who has passed, as he had done, through the career of the spiritual life, through its struggles and its victories. "
His axiom is that the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to be- come united with God. In the application of this simple maxim he shows the most uncompromising logic. Supposing the soul with which he deals to be haljitually in the state of grace and pushing forward to better things, he overtakes it on the very road lead- ing it, in its opinion, to Ciod, and lays open before its eyes a number of sores of which it was altogether ig- norant, viz. what he terms the spiritual capital sins. Not until these are removed (a most formidable task) is it fit to be admitted to what he calls the "Dark Night ", which consists in the passive purgation, where God by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, per- fects and completes what the soul had begun of its own accord. It is now passive, but not inert, for by submitting to the Divine operation it co-operates in the measure of its power. Here lies one of the essential differences between St. John's mysticism and a false quietism. The perfect purgation of the soul in the present life leaves it free to act with wonderful energy; in fact it might almost be said to obtain a share in God's omnipotence, as is shown in the marvellous VIII.— 31
deeds of so many saints. As the soul emerges from
the Dark Night it enters into the full noonlight de-
scribed in the "Spiritual Canticle" and the "Living
Flame of Love". St. John leads it to the highest
heights, in fact to the point where it becomes a "par-
taker of the Divine Nature ". It is here that the neces-
sity of the previous cleansing is clearly perceived, the
pam of the mortification of all the senses and the
powers and faculties of the soul Iicing amply repaid by
the glory which is now being re\'ealed in it.
St. John has often been represented as a grim char- acter; nothing could be more imtrue. He was indeed austere in the extreme with himself, and, to some ex- tent, also with others, but both from his writings and from the depositions of those who knew him. we see in him a man overflowing with charity and kindness, a poetical mind deeply influenced by all that is beautiful and attractive.
His works have appeared in English, tr. Lewis (London, 1S64), with an excellent introduction by Wiseman. The same translation, revised by its author, has been reprinted (London, 1889), and in four volumes, with introductions by Zimmerman (London, 1906).
The best life of St. John of the Cross was written by Jerome DE San Jose (Madrid, 1641), but. not being approved of by the superiors, it was not incorporated in the chronicles of the order, and the author lost his position of annalist on account of it. The Life of St. John of the Cross, compiled from all his Spanish biog- raphers and from other sources, by D. Lewis (London, 1SS9) is excellent; but what is most wanted now is a biography founded upon the depositions of witnesses in the process of beatification. Not until that work is done shall we have a true picture of the saint. Benedict Zimmerman.
John of Victring (Johannes Victoriensis or de Victoria), chronicler, b. probably between 1270 and 1280; d. at Victring, Austria, 12 November, 1347. Nothing is known of his early hfe. In 1307 he became abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Victring, in Karinthia (.\ustria), and was later both chaplain and confidential secretary to Duke Henry of Karinthia. On the latter's death in 1335, John journeyed to Linz at the request of the duke's [laugh- ter, Margaretha Maultasch, to defend before Louis IV her claims to her father's estates. But the two dukes, Albert II and Otto of Austria, took possession of the contested lands in her stead, and thus became the lords of Victring. They likewise soon learned to value the great ability of the abbot, and consulted him in all the more important matters of govern- ment. He frequently tarried in Vienna as their con- fidential secretary imtil 1341, when he withdrew finally to the quiet of his monastery to write the history of his own time. His chronicle, to which he himself gave the title of "Liber certarum histo- riarum ", has come down to us under various forms. In its original form, as preserved in a manuscript at Munich, it is a history of Austria and Karinthia from 1231 to 1341, and is based for the earUer period on the rhyming chronicle of Ottocar of Styria, while the rest was written from data which he himself had collected in the course of his travels.
This work was enlarged the following year (1342) into a chronicle of the empire, which began with the year 1217 (published by Bohmer, "Pontes rerum Germanicarum ", I, 271-450; German translation by Friedensburg in the " Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit", Leipzig, 1888). Once more he rewrote it in 1343, and this time he began with the Carlovingian period. This revised work has only reached us through a later compilation, the so-called "Chronicon Anon\Tni Leobiensis", pubhshed by Fez, "Scriptores rerum Austriacarum", I, 751-966. John ranks among the most important chroniclers of the end of the Middle Ages. He was a very learned man and well acquainted with the Latin and Greek poets. His narrative is lucid and his judgments on the events of his own time show great impartiality
