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| Sir Thomas More. Holbein the Younger (1527). Frick Collection. |
The following posts reproduce the text and notes of an edition by D. O’Connor published in 1903 which is close to the English original of 1557.
The 1903 footnotes are indicated by [ ] and my own by [ ].
👈While outwardly he enjoyed a life of comfort, in the privacy of his spiritual life he wore a hair shirt, attended daily Mass, and practised a strict discipline of prayer. He is believed to have become a Third Order Franciscan (and indeed his name is listed in the calendar of Franciscan saints). This may be the significance of the cord shown.
Sancte Thoma
Ora pro nobis.
The Four Last Things
Of two substances. Spiritual pleasure. Fleshly delight.
If men would vouchsafe to put in proof and experience the operation and working of this medicine, the remembrance of these four last things, they should find therein not the pleasure of their life lost, but so great a pleasure grow thereby that they never felt the like before, nor would have supposed that ever they should have felt any such. For it is to be known that like as we be made of two far divers and unlike substances, the body and the soul, so we be apt and able to receive two divers and unlike pleasures, the one carnal and fleshly, the other ghostly[1] and spiritual. And like as the soul excelleth the body, so doth the sweetness of spiritual pleasure far pass and excel the gross and filthy pleasure of all fleshly delight, which is of truth no very true pleasure, but a false counterfeit image of pleasure. And the cause why men be so mad thereon is only for ignorance and lack of knowledge of the other, as those that lack insight of precious stones hold themselves as well content and satisfied with a beryl or crystal well counterfeited as with a right natural diamond. But he that by good use and experience hath in his eye the right mark and very true lustre of the diamond, rejecteth anon and listeth not to look upon the counterfeit, be it never so well handled, never so craftily polished.
Grudge of conscience
And trust it well that in like wise if men would well accustom themselves in the taste of spiritual pleasure, and of that sweet feeling that virtuous people have of the good hope of heaven, they should shortly set at nought and at length abhor the foul delight and filthy liking that riseth of sensual and fleshly pleasure, which is never so pleasantly spiced with delight and liking but that it bringeth therewith such a grudge[2] and grief of conscience that it maketh the stomach wamble and fare[3] as if it would vomit.
And that notwithstanding such is our blind custom that we persevere therein without care or cure of the better, as a sow content with draff[4], dirt and mire, careth neither for better meat nor better bed.
Think not that everything is pleasant that men for madness laugh at. For thou shalt in Bedlam[5] see one laugh at the knocking of his own head against a post, and yet there is little pleasure therein. But ye think, peradventure, this ensample as mad as the madman, and as little to the purpose. I am content ye so think. But what will ye say if ye see men that are taken and reputed wise, laugh much more madly than he? Shall ye not see such laugh at their own craft when they have, as they think, wilily done their neighbour wrong ? Now whoso seeth not that his laughter is more mad than the laughter of the madman, I hold him madder than they both. For the madman laughed when he had done himself but little hurt by a knock of his head to the post ; this other sage fool laugheth at the casting of his own soul into the fire of hell, for which he hath cause to weep all his life. And it cannot be but the grudge[6] and fear thereof followeth his laughter, and secret sorrow marreth all such outward mirth. For the heart of a wicked wretch is like a stormy sea that cannot rest[7], except a man be fallen down into the dungeon of wretchedness, and the door shut over his head. For when a sinner is once fallen into the depth he waxeth a desperate wretch and setteth all at nought, and he is in the worst kind of all and farthest from all recovery. For like as in the body his sickness is most incurable that is sick and feeleth it not, but weeneth[8] himself whole (for he that is in that case is commonly mad), so he that by a mischievous custom of sin perceiveth no fault in his evil deed, nor hath no remorse thereof, hath lost the natural light of reason and the spiritual light of faith, which two lights of knowledge and understanding quenched[9], what remaineth in him more than the bodily senses and sensual wits common to man and brute beasts ?
Worldly and spiritual pleasure
Now, albeit so that the fleshly and worldly pleasure is of truth not pleasant but bitter, and the spiritual pleasure is of truth so sweet that the sweetness thereof many times darketh[10] and minisheth[11] the feeling of bodily pain, by reason whereof good virtuous folk feel more pleasure in the sorrow of their sins and affliction of their penance than wretches feel in the fulfilling of their foul delight ; and credible is it that the inward spiritual pleasure and comfort, which many of the old holy martyrs had in the hope of heaven, darked and in manner overwhelmed the bodily pains of their torments ; yet, this notwithstanding, like as a sick man feeleth no sweetness in sugar, and some women with child have such fond lust that they had liefer[12] eat terre[13] than treacle[14], and rather pitch than marmalade, and some whole people love tallow better than butter, and Iceland loveth no butter till it be long barrelled,
An infected taste
so we gross carnal people, having our taste infected by the sickness of sin and filthy custom of fleshly lust, find so great liking in the vile and stinking delectation of fleshly delight that we list[15] not once [to] prove what manner of sweetness good and virtuous folk feel and perceive in spiritual pleasure. And the cause is why, because we cannot perceive the one, but if we forbear the other.
An instrument to pull out the weds of the soul. Whereof godly pleasure riseth.
For like as the ground that is all foregrown with nettles, briars and other evil weeds, can bring forth no corn till they be weeded out, so can our soul have no place for the good corn of spiritual pleasure as long as it is overgrown with the barren weeds of carnal delectation. For the pulling out of which weeds by the root there is not a more meet instrument than the remembrance of the four last things, which, as they shall pull out these weeds of fleshly voluptuousness, so shall they not fail to plant in their places not only wholesome virtues but also marvellous ghostly pleasure and spiritual gladness, which in every good soul riseth of the love of God and hope of heaven, and inward liking that the godly spirit taketh in the diligent labour of good and virtuous business.
Footnotes
[1] ghostly : Relating to or concerned with the human spirit or soul, as opposed to bodily, carnal, or physical. Now archaic and rare.
[2] i.e., remorse.
[3] wamble and fare : i.e., heave and be in a state to vomit.
[4] i.e., refuse.
[5] A lunatic asylum in London. The word Bedlam is derived from Bethlehem Hospital, which was formerly a relig-ious house dedicated to St Mary of Bethlehem.
[6] i.e., remorse.
[7] But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire. Isa. LVII. 20.
[8] i.e., thinketh.
[9] quenched: i.e., having been quenched (stifled, suppressed, snuffed out).
[10] i.e., darkens or obscures.
[11] diminishes.
[12] i.e., more willingly.
[13] i.e., earth.
[14] treacle: Old Pharmacology. A medicinal compound, originally a kind of salve, composed of many ingredients, formerly in repute as an alexipharmic against and antidote to venomous bites, poisons generally, and malignant diseases. Popular late Latin *triaca for thēriaca < Greek θηριακή antidote against a venomous bite.[15] i.e., desire.
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SUB tuum præsidium confugimus, Sancta Dei Genitrix. Nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. Amen.
The Virgin of Tenderness. >12th century.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
He that hearkeneth to me, shall not be confounded: and they that work by me, shall not sin. They that explain me shall have life everlasting. Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) xxiv. 30-31.
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