The English Mystical Tradition – The Cloud of Unknowing
The English Mystical tradition of the fourteenth century is one of the richest in the Christian Church. Although the civil and religious worlds were in a state of crisis (the Black Death, the Hundred Years’ War, the Peasants Revolt, the Avignon Papacy) there was a flowering of contemplative prayer. This day will focus on the author of the ‘Cloud of Unknowing’ and Julian of Norwich, but will also make reference to the Yorkshireman Richard Rolle, the university trained Walter Hilton and the lay woman Margery Kempe.