25 JUNE 1932, Page 19

Types of Holiness

1515-1595. By Louis Ponnelle and Louis Bordet. Translated by R. F. Kerr. (Sheed and Ward. 16s.)

THE richness of the Christian life will never be fully realised by those who avoid acquaintance with the Christian saints ; for the tendency to generalize about any society from which we are excluded becomes acute in those who look from outside at the household of faith. Saints are holy people, much of a pattern, given to strange austerities and unconcerned with ordinary life. We see vague visions of hair-shirts and haloes ; and forget the noble crowd of makers and menders, thinkers and fighters, who earned the second because they endured the first. Yet we can hardly bring together any people of acknowledged sanctity without astonishment at the variousness of the characters which have been captured for this career, and the vivid contrasts developed within their lives. Thus we see in Nicholas of Cuss a great and learned prelate, equally at home in the worlds of intellect and administration, devoting his life to the reform of the corruptions of his diocese, and the bringing back of the religious life of the fifteenth century to something approaching its early purity. But behind the scenes, this diligent and typical ecclesiastic is really a link in the long chain of the German mystics. Through the Brothers of the Common Life he enters the tradition of Thomas a Kempis, has touched the spirit of Eckhart and Ruysbroeck, and learned from them the passion for the Unseen, the secret of contemplative life. That strange genius, Denis the Car- thusian, is his friend ; and he shares with him a profound understanding of Christian Neoplatonism, a realistic passion for God. His works reveal the delighted adoration which sup- ported his strenuous and exacting career as Papal Legate to

Germany, Bohemia and Countries adjoining," charged with the drastic re-ordering of monastic and secular life. Mr. Bett in his monograph dwells chiefly on Nicholas as a philosopher, and here he has indeed great and ill-recognized importance. But it is in the region where argument falls before vision, and thought dissolves into love, that we find the source of his peculiar power and charm.

• And from this great Renaissance figure, whose outer dignity hid an ardent and a humble life, we turn to Philip Neri ; devoid of all dignity, rejoicing in the ridiculous, doubling the parts of Brother Juniper and the Cure d'Ars, and far more attractive and eccentric than saints are usually supposed to be. The enthusiastic labour of two French priests has produced a life of St. Philip which avoids in its frankness and realism all the usual faults of the hagiographer, and will delight the general reader as much as the specialist in saints. They show us this ardent, unconventional creature emerging within the corrupt Roman world of the sixteenth century : the fellow combatant with St. Ignatius in the struggle for a spiritual renaissance, but adopting a very different method of attack.

St. Philip is at all points one of the most unexpected and un- professional of the saints. Devoured by a spiritual fervour which he could not always conceal, and possessing abnormal gifts of clairvoyance and healing, he was determined at all costs to avoid the reputation of holiness; would entertain too-reverent visitors with comic anecdotes punctuated by peals of laughter, fondle those who pleased him, and pull their hair—even box the ears of any who dared to hint at an appre- ciation:of his sanctity. His pupils were trained in humility by frequent practical jokes, and by the absurd situations in which he placed them : for he was entirely of tIte opinion of Mother Marguerite Acarie that " there is no sin in being thought silly, but there may easily be sin in trying to-look too correct." This small frail being, shaken perpetually by the violent palpitations of his heart (probably due to an aneurism, but held by him to be a sign of Divine possession) yet lived eighty years—half of them in one tiny room which he shared with his eat. When St. Philip moved, and the reigning cat refused to move with him, a reluctant disciple was compelled to take it its dinner every day. Above all else a director of souls, in constant touch with his penitents, he persuaded thousands to a Christian life ; and obliged the idle and dissolute young Romans to fill their endless leisure with religious and charitable work. From the informal meetings of his followers there gradually emerged St. Philip's charac- teristic creation, the "Oratory," gathering its members together for familiar instructions, devotion, and good works, and intended in some way to fill the gap between the life of the religious orders and the life of the world. Like other living things, the Oratory changed as it matured ; and it is hard to connect the stately building at Brompton with the small figure of its founder, playing his tricks upon the pious, or dancing before the altar in an ecstasy of love.

St. Philip did Isis work by contact and influence : by the end of his life he was a notable personage, known and reve- renced by the whole of Rome. But there is another type of creative holiness that works in seclusion, is known to few in its lifetime, but stretches out through the centuries to touch many future lives. Julian of Norwich belonged to this class ; and, supremely, the author of "The Imitation of Christ." And here we may place the obscure French emigre who lived for many years in a cupboard-like room at Lulsvorth Castle ; firmly adhering to the strict rule of the Jesuits, and writing books which continue undiminished their spiritual appeal. This was Wee Grou, saint and scholar ; known to thousands outside his own communion as the author of that little masterpiece, The Manual of Interior Souls. So hidden was his life that few details can be discovered ; but these are set out by Dons Huddleston in his preface to Mrs. Stawell's admirable translation of Grou's finest single work. L'Ecole de Jesus contains all that is most characteristic in his deep yet simple teaching, and should find many grateful readers in its English dress.

EVELYN UNDERHILL.