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142 III. THE ROMANIZED CHURCH (A.D. 11301389).
There is an English Life (The Life of St. Bridget of
Sweden, by the late Mrs. F. J. M. A. Partridge, Burns and
Gates, London, 1888), which only professes to be a condensation
of the book of a German nun published at Mayence. This
latter is Leben der Heiligen Birgitta von Schweden von einer
Klosterfrau der ewigen Anbetung zu Mainz [der Abtissin Maria
Bernardina], ist ed. Mainz, 1875, 2nd ed., 1888. It is intended
for edification, and must be read with this qualification in mind.
But it is brightly written, and well conveys the feeling and spirit
of the old authorities. It also gives references to the books and
chapters of the revelations which more pretentious books some
times lack. Mr. Westman has also most kindly helped me to
identify a number of them.
As regards the literary relations of St. Birgitta the following
letter from Mr. Westman will be read with interest :
SYSSLOMANSGATAN 16, UPSALA, SWEDEN,
27th March, 1910.
RIGHT REVEREND SIR,
Professor Soderblom has asked me to tell you what is known
about the books Birgitta owned or studied, especially with re
ference to a possible literary influence on her from some of the
earlier mystics. Unfortunately the notices in this respect are
very few and not very significant. She has surely known the
following books :
The Bible ; Historian Scholastics (which I suppose to be
the Historia Scholastica by Petrus Comestor) ; Dialogus
Gregorii ;
Vitae patrum ; Pseudo-Bernhard, Liber de modo
bene vivendi ;
and Speculum Virginum (an ascetic book,
later on translated into Swedish, now edited by Geete,
Stockholm, 1897-8).
There is scarcely anything more to mention, if not some
Italian heretical and apocalyptic books no doubt emanating
from the Fraticelli which she disapproves (III., 33; VI., 68,
67).
So there is no explicit trace of any literary influence from any
of the earlier female mystics. To the question whether any
such influence on the text of the revelations for instance, from
Gertrude, or either of the two Mechtilds is, on inner reasons,
to be supposed, I would personally answer in the negative. At
least, no such influence is needed to explain those rather un-
literary writings of Birgitta. If there can be found any detail,
a thought or parable or something like that, that could be best
explained by supposing such an influence (a possibility which I
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