MECHTHILD OF MAGDEBURG 



had both sternly denounced the evils in the 

 Church. " The insolence of the Clergy," says 

 St. Bernard, " troubles the earth, and molests 

 the Church. The Bishops give what is holy to 

 the dogs, and pearls to swine." But the poor 

 beguine, Mechthild, was not in the same powerful 

 position to stay, or even to modify, the resent- 

 ment which her attacks occasioned. " For 

 more than twenty years was I bound with thee 

 on a hideous gridiron," she writes, likening her 

 anguish to that of St. Lawrence. Nevertheless 

 solace came to her troubled spirit, for, having 

 been warned that it had been said of her writings 

 that they deserved to be burnt, she tells how she 

 prayed to God, as had been her wont when in 

 trouble, and that He told her not to mistrust her 

 powers, since they were from Him, and that no 

 one can burn the Truth. 



In many passages Mechthild dwells on the 

 clergy, and her reflections some very practical, 

 others, to those not versed in symbolism, very 

 quaint seem to suggest how grievously lacking 

 she considered them to be. Writing in God's 

 name to a canon, she begins by saying that we 

 should, in common with all men, give thanks to 

 our Heavenly Father for the Divine gift which 

 day by day, and without ceasing, pours forth 

 from the Holy Trinity into sinful hearts, and 

 then she quaintly adds, " For that it soars so 

 high, the Eagle owes no thanks to the Owl." 

 Furthermore, she calls upon the priest to pray 

 more, to pay his debts in full, and to live 



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