John of Morigny, The Flowers of Heavenly Teaching

John of Morigny (last quarter of the 13^th century – 14^th century) was a French Benedictine monk who experimented with the Ars Notoria (Notory Art), a medieval treatise on angelic magic and the art of memory, but stopped for fear of demons.  He claims to have rewritten and reworked the Ars Notoria under the guidance of the Virgin Mary entitled Liber Florum Caelestis Doctrinae (The Book of Flowers of Heavenly Teaching).  Through a highly organized regimen of prayer and fasting, John’s revised system of the notory art claims to grant its practitioner a fast-track to gaining knowledge in the liberal arts and enhance his or her mental faculties of eloquence, memory, and the retention thereof. 

The following are my English translations of select excerpts from John’s book.  (I will likely update and revise this blog post at a later date.) 

Bibliography:  

John of Morigny, Liber Florum Celestis Doctrine: The Flowers of Heavenly Teaching, (ed. Claire Fanger and Nicholas Watson, Toronto: Ponticial Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2015.).

N.B. Fanger and Watson offer an Introduction in English and a Latin edition of John's book. No English translation of John's book has been published yet.

Bodleian Library, MS. Liturg. 160

MS. Liturg. 160 - Medieval Manuscripts

Image from John's book, Bodleian Library, MS. Liturg. 160, f. 66r.

I.  The Book of Visions

“I. General Prologue.  The Book of Apparitions and Visions of the Blessed, Inviolable, and Most Sacred Virgin Mary, the genitrix, the nourishing Mary for procuring, indeed, revealing and departing from the supreme God.  The Book of the blessed Virgin, the glorious Mary, which is called the Book of Flowers of Heavenly Teaching for the purpose of knowing all arts.

“And which they are burdensome, long, and hardly [able] to be comprehended in other books by a long time and the greatest and fastidious of books [or] by much understanding in those volumes, [but] in this book they are comprehended with very few (perpaucis) and pleasing prayers of angels with revelation and unheard of their words with subtlety, also, they are taught subtly, undoubtedly, and wonderfully, out of the inviolable genitrix of God, the virgin Mary, by vision, apparition, consolation, and procuration, according to the workings deserved in a short amount of time, by which and through that and in what are all things. 

---=---

“I.i.2 About my errors in the nefarious sciences, and especially in the Notory Art (Ars Notoria), which is handed down by the Devil.

“It is said [here about] everything, [and] the most potent queen of heaven, the glorious and inviolable genitrix of God, the Virgin Mary, my friend, the swiftest [female] helper, the truest [female] consul, and the sweetest [female] consoler.  It is said that I used to write to her praise and glory, having celebrated in present and future times.  But afterwards, I had the first aforesaid vision which is called a celestial event in my horoscope (thema) (to which, as it is said all subsequent mysteries are reduced), having been ordained, I began to serve in the Order of the blessed Benedict under the yoke of religion.  And having entered my fourth year of the Order, a certain book from some cleric in which they used to contain much nephalia[1] of the necromantic arts was destroyed by me.  And from that how much I was able to have a copy and afterwards I returned [it] to the cleric.  And having been prosecuted (persecutus)[2] and tempted by the Devil, and having been blinded with a prevailing temptation, I seized to know how I have been able to attain to the perfection of this nephalic science.  And from a certain Lombardian of the name Jacob of Bologna, a medical expert, I ask about this consul.  For which when I used to consul my very self, he said, ‘You must frequently ask for the license to study [from the angel], and when you have obtained a certain book which is called the Notory Art (Ars Notoria), [then] ask [the angel].  And you do not ask only about this [nephalic or necromantic] science from that [notory art], but you discover the truth about all things.’  Because I did it thus, and I obtained the book, asking and discovering for a long time, for which I arranged, having been discovered for the purpose of this work of this, having performed [it], effected [it], [and] following [it] as consequence for my power continually.

“I.i.3. How the Notory Art (Ars Notoria) is interwoven and fabricated within and without as the most fallacious [book]. 

“Indeed, that book, namely the Notory Art (Ars Notoria), at first appearance (that is, the exterior), appears because it is the most beautiful and most useful of all books, and indeed, the most sacred, because a passage of scripture ought to be written with diverse colors in it.  The most beautiful figures are colored with diverse colors in it.  It is the shortest book, and God Almighty promises and grants through its very operations the attainment of all the sciences, scriptures, and arts in a short time.  The prayers are holy and wonderful in this very [book], and there are figures of these mysteries, as it is said in this very [book], it is more a little miracle than the accustomed exemplar of erudition.[3] 

“O astute one of the old snake!  O fury of the lion I have looked upon maliciously, he who devours circumventing deceptively (circumventis) and lamenting!  That heat of a rapacious wolf!  O false hypocrisy of the enemy, who appears outwardly in sheep’s clothing and are inwardly a rapacious wolf![4]  You are not able to refuse me with this/in this place (hoc), you are not strong enough to hide; I have reproved you, I discover you, and I see you in the most ingenious said book to be restrained.  For I, John, reproved that book, or that Notory Art (Ars Notoria), is, without a doubt, the head of malice in the truth of the matter, through me and through many others who testify, the principal/beginning of deviation, the master teacher of error, the vessel of fallacy, the fountain of malice, the stream of worthlessness, and the fallacious grace.  Peace is joined to odium in itself, the faithfulness to the fraudulent, hope to the fearful, and the fury mixed with reason.  For this very art is an acceptable storm, a lucid night, a shadowy light and a living death, an insipid reason, a deviating prudence. 

“A surge (aestus) [of] prosperity, a mulcible [and] infernal one, outwardly an anointed sweet one but inwardly a death-bearing poison.  Firstly, he makes sweet the paradise of sorrow; secondly, he scourges; thirdly, he kills.  Outwardly, the gentle lamb but inwardly, the rapacious wolf.  The honey of acrimoniousness and the sweetness of wormwood.[5]  Firstly, he places the argument of verity but the solution of falsity, secondly, he joins the bitter and false [things] to himself, and thirdly, he concludes all thing to end badly.  He deceives all using these very things, and he leads [them] into the pit of perdition.  Indeed, all bad things are conglutinated together out of those very ones.  And what’s more?  Because [the Ars Notoria] is not able to exercise something without that very thing from necromancy; but it is so much subtler as it is deceiving.  [The Ars Notoria], having been composed in five languages, that is, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Chaldean, [and] Arabic, because in this way it is not able to be understood from something unless it is expounded, and however much more it is studied in that so much more it will be obscured.     

---=---

The second book is called a book of prayers.  It is divided into three parts: (1) seven prayers, (2) thirty prayers, and (3) the first procedure.  The following prayer comes from the first part of seven prayers.  The prayer itself consists of four parts of which only the first part I have translated below:

II.i Book of Prayers: Seven Prayers

“First Work

[Prayer 1]

“The first prayer of the general [prayers] which is the prayer of praise to our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Which is to be said twice in a day (namely, the early morning and the evening) with the grace of Christ is exercised as I, brother John, composed with divine help to the augmentation of grace.  And it is the first prayer of the Book of the blessed and glorious virgin Mary.

“[a] O king of kings, you who are the strongest prince of princes, the most excellent one and the lord of lords, the most powerful man, the just and true God, the judge making justice and judgment; you are pious, accustomed to using a gentle hand, and glorious, performing mercy and grace.  Without the prince of princes, without the end of ends, the blessed leader of all, the most wise, incomprehensible, and eternal who you procreated all things out of nothing; you are the Wisdom of God the ineffable Father and the mirror of God’s majesty and the image of that goodness without a stain, procreated from the timeless beginning.  O Lord Jesus Christ, the most gentle Son of God, the omnipotent Father, you are my savior and my redeemer, one great man, strong and powerful, you who made [it] and you perform mercy and grace where judgment and justice had ought to be made.  Who from the supreme citadel, from the bosom of the Father, hail in the direction of our salvation descending into the womb of the most blessed and inviolable and most glorious virgin Mary, conceived from the Holy Spirit, in this very flesh you are deemed worthy to assume as the precious one.  I pray to you, I ask you, and I supplicate my entire heart, listen to and help me, a sinner.

[b] Having meditated here because you may see the annunciation of the incarnation of Christ and say:

O wondrous one and worthy admiration,[6] so great a prince and lord, the savior and Creator of all things, from so much a higher and worthier place in so much an inferior and more humbly place (yet more blessed) just as in the womb of the glorious Virgin having descended and having assumed humbly in this very flesh. 

[c] Having meditated here because you may see the nativity of Christ and say:

O how lucky, delightful and gracious, noble, delectable, and specious and worthy to praises, of so great a leader, king, and lord to humanity and the glorious nativity.

[d] Having meditated here because you may see the passion of our lord Jesus Christ:

O how medicinal, curable, and sound, pious and just, memorable and compassionate, the morals of such a great man and the precious passion; but the impious Judas and the other infidels, destructive and terrible, not believing this very one [i.e., the Virgin Mary].

[e] Having meditated here because you may see the resurrection of our lord Jesus Christ:

O how strong, invincible, virtuous, most potent, of so great a victor and triumphant one and the strong and vigorous resurrection of the lion.

[f] Having meditated here because you may see the ascension of Jesus Christ and say:

O how miraculous and wonderful, the glorious ascension of so great a prince and victor.

[g] Having meditated here because you may see the Holy Spirit descending over the apostles and say:

O how holy, gracious, worthy, desirable, ineffable, famous, and renowned, the clean and precious Spirit of God of the Holy Paraclete’s sevenfold grace.

[h] Having meditated here because you may see God in the Trinity reigning and say what follows:

O how lucky as brilliant that blessed curia must be a silent praise in that mere hour or half-hour; and although that blessed father of heaven and that glorious palace – decorated with every rest, joy, beauty – who is not heard with ears nor an eye has seen[7] [and] neither does it ascend in the heart of man – in whom/that with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one with the holy angels and all their own elected ones, he [who] presently lives and reigns and has always reigned without beginning and without end.  He is to be glorified and he rules through the immortal age of ages.  Amen.”

---=---

II.ii Book of Prayers: Thirty Prayers

“Second Work (Prayers 1-12)

“The second [part] begins which the Introitus (“entrance”) of the prayers to God or to the blessed Virgin Mary are called.

[Prayer 1]

“But that prayer before the others are called out of the writings or it must be to God or to the blessed Virgin is always said.

“The first prayer to God before all which is to be said, and it is the first general prayer.

“O God the most powerful and triumph one, the most glorious ruler Adonay, the strongest conqueror Eloi, the most just judicator Va, the most merciful retributor On, the most benevolent rewarder Eloy, Ioth, He, Vau, Heth, (that is, IEVE [Jehovah]),[8] which [the name] is said to be the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, the most ineffable and most wonderful, and also the sweetest listener who answers[9] all your devotees; O Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the most gentle commiserator; O Holy Spirit, the most benevolent one proceeding from both, the planner and consul, not three gods but one, the omnipotent true God, with that wonderful order of your ministry of angels and the dispensing of humankind, propitiously grant [it] in order that he/it is always assisted by those to you in the heavenly ministries, from these, today, now and always, our life is defended, and in your presence and in the presence of the blessed Mary, the mother and glorious virgin, my prayers, thoughts, figures and imaginations, prayers, praises and devotions and affections are carried along consecrated in this very place; and they will be committed to me now and in eternity, and they conserve, guard, and defend the most faithful.  And whatever good thing for the salvation of my soul but[10] those for the cause of eternal felicity, I perjure myself in your name, with favoring you, you the glorious Creator, and the souls of all the deceased faithful fulfill [it] hastily and joyfully, through your mercy without end they rest in peace.  Amen.”

[1] Religious libations given as ritual offerings without wine.  Common libation practices in ancient Greece were often made with milk, honey, water, oil, or a combination thereof. 

[2] Fanger and Watson’s critical Latin edition reads perscrutatus, meaning “having been searched thoroughly” makes less sense here.  Considering the spelling of perscrutatus and persecutus and their shorthand abbreviations look similar, I suspect that persecutus is the intended word here as it makes much more sense. 

[3] Ars Notoria, 3-4.

[4] From the Gospels of Matthew and Mark.

[5] Wormwood is an intensely bitter herb used in medicine and the making of absinthe and can be infused with the sweetness of honey in order to consume it.  

[6] Latin admiratione.

[7] 1 Corinthians 2:9. Gospel of Thomas, 17.

[8] The four-lettered Hebrew name of God, also called the Tetragrammaton and often expressed as YHVH, called Yahweh by modern scholarship. 

[9] Exauditor.

[10] Sev corrected to set or sed.