TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

THE Blessed Henry Suso was born at Ueberlingen, near Constance, on St. Benedict’s-day, A.D. 1300. He was of ancient and noble descent both on his father’s and mother’s side. Out of devotion to his mother, who was a person of eminent holiness, he called himself by her maiden name of Seuss, Latinised into Suso, instead of taking his father’s sur name, Von Berg. His baptismal name was Henry; but many years later, when he had attained to great holiness, God changed his name into Amandus, or Beloved. The Blessed Henry did not make this known to any one so long as he lived, but a record of it was discovered among his papers after his death. At the age of thirteen he entered the novitiate of the Dominican Convent at Constance, where he was admitted to the vows of religion, and after some years was sent to the convent of his Order at Cologne, to pursue his studies at that University. While there he made such great progress in learning that he was about to be promoted to the degree of doctor in theology. But he was forbidden to accept this honour by a voice from God within him saying:—Thou knowest ivwell enough already how to give thyself to God and to draw other men to Him by thy preaching. From that time forth he began to preach with great zeal and fervour, and to devote himself to the conversion of sinners and the guidance of souls along the highest paths of mystical perfection. At length, after many years of unceasing labours and sufferings, he died at Ulm, on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, A.D. 1365, and was buried in the cloister of the Dominican Convent in that city. Two hundred and forty-eight years after this, when Ulm had become Protestant, the B. Henry’s body was accidentally discovered, A.D. 1613, by some workmen who were digging the foundations for^a new building. It was quite incorrupt, and lay there clothed in the habit of the Order, and emitted a fragrant odour. The workmen went in alarm to inform the burgomaster, who bade them fill up the grave and say nothing about it; adding, that he had always heard that the dead should be allowed to rest in peace. Meanwhile, during the absence of the workmen, a devout person went down into the grave:—and cut off part of the black mantle and white scapular—portions of which were afterwards distributed as relics among different Catholics. One of these relics came into the possession of Henry Murer, who has given an account of the discovery of the body in his Helvetia Sancta, published at Luzern A.D. 1648. At a later period, when Ulm was occupied by the French during one of vtheir campaigns, they caused excavations to be made in the hope of discovering the sacred remains, but without success. The Blessed Henry has never been formally beatified, but his feast is kept by the Dominican Order on March 2d, with the approbation of Gregory XVI., granted April 16, 1831.

Such are the main outlines of B. Henry’s external life and history. The details of the picture must be sought for in the brief record which he has himself left, us of his experiences in the ways of God.

The following translation has been made from the edition of the B. Henry Suso’s Life and Works, edited by Cardinal Diepenbrock, Prince Bishop of Breslau in 1828. The text of the life is based upon a manuscript of the end of the fourteen century from the Royal Library at Munich, which the editor carefully collated with the earliest printed copies published at Augsburg A.D. 1482 and A.D. 1512.

Surius, the Carthusian, translated the Life and Works from the German into Latin. The first edition, dedicated to the Venerable Abbot Blosius, appeared at Cologne A.D. 1535. The rendering is singularly graceful and accurate, so far as the different genius of the two languages and the occasional imperfections of the German text used by Surius, principally in the last nine chapters, would permit.

A French translation by the Carthusian Le Cerf was published at Paris in 1586, and an Italian one by the Dominican Del Nente at Rome in 1651. The vilatter has been frequently reprinted, but it does not in any sense merit the name of a translation, as it is nothing more than a mere epitome or condensed abridgment of the original. Cartier has recently translated Del Nente’s work into French, under the title of Œuvres du B. Henri Suso. The second edition appeared in 1856.

As the chief object of the present translator has been to provide a book of spiritual reading for the devout, he hesitated for some time whether or not to omit the last nine chapters, which treat for the most part of deep points of mystical theology in language which, from its antiquated character and excessive conciseness, is sometimes obscure, and is always difficult to translate into intelligible English without indulging in paraphrase. Surius has relegated these chapters to another part of the volume, under the title of “Appendix of certain sublime questions.” Still, as Cardinal Diepenbrock observes, they really belong to the Life, and form part of it in the earliest manuscript and printed editions. On the whole, it seemed better to include these chapters in the present translation. They contain several passages of wonderful beauty, which every one will read with pleasure. They are, moreover, a protest against the errors of pantheism and quietism, to which a spirit of false mysticism naturally tends, and against which the B. Henry often raised his voice in warning. Lastly, their absence would leave one side of the B. Henry’s life viiwholly unrepresented. For they serve to remind us that if his personal and experimental acquaintance with mystical theology was great, he was no less conversant with it as a science, and could treat with learning and accuracy the many deep and subtle questions which it suggests.

The Oratory, London,

Feast of St. Richard, 1865.