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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1which, in the kingdom of Christ, according to the outward man, should be continually dead, that Christ in us may live: None is a true shepherd over Christ's sheep unless he hath the spirit of Christ; if he hath not that, then he hath not the true apostolical power and authority of Excommunication: He mus t in Christ's spirit have the key to heaven and to hell, else he is but a vizor and image without life: How can such an one, who is captivated by the devil, judge in the congregation of Christ? Can the word and commandment of such an one be the word of God, whereas he speaketh but from a false spirit? 21. O you false bishops [come] from the universities, how hath the devil of pride blinded you, that you set shepherds over the lambs of Christ, according to your own favour and respect! St. Paul teacheth you, do but read it, what a heavy account you are to give: Nothing availeth with you but art; and in the kingdom of Christ art is but dross and dung: God leadeth a pure heart by his own spirit; if one incline towards him, and submit unto his will, to such an one he teacheth heavenly art. 22. The congregation of Christ should be in one will, and the shepherds thereof should have the spirit and will [or consent] of the congregation: It is not so slight a matter to put on the garment of Christ, as many suppose who seek only covetousness and honour therein, and they find nothing but the anger of God therein.
223. Or, what shall we say? The priest-devil hath blindfolded the kingdom of Christ, so that the congregation of Christ is stark blind, where men suppose they are gods, and that they teach from the Holy Ghost, whereas their own honour and covetousness are merely sought after in deceit and falsehood: Men see how great mischief they have caused in the world: How many countries have they caused to be laid waste, and murdered many hundred thousand persons with their false opinions, and have only served the devil in the garment of Christ. If the congregation did but discern it, they would presently consider it; but all this cometh to pass, in that they afford not honour to the spirit of Christ: Men will choose shepherds themselves, whereas the devil is in all mere human elections, when it concerneth the honour and doctrine of God. 24. The bishops [or pastors] that are grown up of themselves, and chosen for favour, without the spirit of God, are as profitable to the world as a fifth wheel to a waggon: Indeed they do but little, except it be to make the congregation go astray, slander, jangle, and dispute; as their scandalous pamphlets testify, in many of which there is as much of the fear of God, and love to their neighbour, as the devil in hell hath: Bloody provocations are the devil's drums and trumpets, by which he reproacheth the simple congregation of Christ.
325. O dear children, open your eyes wide, go out from the priest's contentions, and enter into combat against the devil, against your voluptuous flesh and blood: A Christian is not a wrathful soldier or warrior, who desireth the kingdom of this world: For Christ saith, My kingdom is not of this world, else my servants would contend for it. St. Paul saith, Seek that which is above, where Christ is; we are called by Christ out of this world, that so we might serve God with the soul, and be in Christ; but with the body in this world, that we may have maintenance and sustenance for it: Therefore the earthly life ought to labour and maintain its body, but the soul should be lord and governor, and rule the body; it should not suffer the starry-spirit to practise any falsehood, and fill itself with lies and deceit, for such things are so brought into the soul. 26. The poor soul is here in this life in very great danger, where the jaws of hell continually reach to its lips, for it is infected with the spirit of the stars and elements, which fight against it day and night: Consider thyself now, thou dear mind, and think in what vessel thy soul, viz. thy best treasure, lieth, and thou wilt surely awake out of the sleep of the bestial life; and consider what will follow hereafter, when the spirit of the stars and elements will leave thee, where then, thy best jewel (which thou thyself art) will remain, in what condition thou wilt be for ever without end;
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1which, in the kingdom of Christ, according to the outward man, should be continually dead, that Christ in us may live: None is a true shepherd over Christ's sheep unless he hath the spirit of Christ; if he hath not that, then he hath not the true apostolical power and authority of Excommunication: He mus t in Christ's spirit have the key to heaven and to hell, else he is but a vizor and image without life: How can such an one, who is captivated by the devil, judge in the congregation of Christ? Can the word and commandment of such an one be the word of God, whereas he speaketh but from a false spirit? 21. O you false bishops [come] from the universities, how hath the devil of pride blinded you, that you set shepherds over the lambs of Christ, according to your own favour and respect! St. Paul teacheth you, do but read it, what a heavy account you are to give: Nothing availeth with you but art; and in the kingdom of Christ art is but dross and dung: God leadeth a pure heart by his own spirit; if one incline towards him, and submit unto his will, to such an one he teacheth heavenly art. 22. The congregation of Christ should be in one will, and the shepherds thereof should have the spirit and will [or consent] of the congregation: It is not so slight a matter to put on the garment of Christ, as many suppose who seek only covetousness and honour therein, and they find nothing but the anger of God therein.
223. Or, what shall we say? The priest-devil hath blindfolded the kingdom of Christ, so that the congregation of Christ is stark blind, where men suppose they are gods, and that they teach from the Holy Ghost, whereas their own honour and covetousness are merely sought after in deceit and falsehood: Men see how great mischief they have caused in the world: How many countries have they caused to be laid waste, and murdered many hundred thousand persons with their false opinions, and have only served the devil in the garment of Christ. If the congregation did but discern it, they would presently consider it; but all this cometh to pass, in that they afford not honour to the spirit of Christ: Men will choose shepherds themselves, whereas the devil is in all mere human elections, when it concerneth the honour and doctrine of God. 24. The bishops [or pastors] that are grown up of themselves, and chosen for favour, without the spirit of God, are as profitable to the world as a fifth wheel to a waggon: Indeed they do but little, except it be to make the congregation go astray, slander, jangle, and dispute; as their scandalous pamphlets testify, in many of which there is as much of the fear of God, and love to their neighbour, as the devil in hell hath: Bloody provocations are the devil's drums and trumpets, by which he reproacheth the simple congregation of Christ.
325. O dear children, open your eyes wide, go out from the priest's contentions, and enter into combat against the devil, against your voluptuous flesh and blood: A Christian is not a wrathful soldier or warrior, who desireth the kingdom of this world: For Christ saith, My kingdom is not of this world, else my servants would contend for it. St. Paul saith, Seek that which is above, where Christ is; we are called by Christ out of this world, that so we might serve God with the soul, and be in Christ; but with the body in this world, that we may have maintenance and sustenance for it: Therefore the earthly life ought to labour and maintain its body, but the soul should be lord and governor, and rule the body; it should not suffer the starry-spirit to practise any falsehood, and fill itself with lies and deceit, for such things are so brought into the soul. 26. The poor soul is here in this life in very great danger, where the jaws of hell continually reach to its lips, for it is infected with the spirit of the stars and elements, which fight against it day and night: Consider thyself now, thou dear mind, and think in what vessel thy soul, viz. thy best treasure, lieth, and thou wilt surely awake out of the sleep of the bestial life; and consider what will follow hereafter, when the spirit of the stars and elements will leave thee, where then, thy best jewel (which thou thyself art) will remain, in what condition thou wilt be for ever without end;
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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