alter Hilton--who died on March 24, 1396--holds a
position in the religious life and spiritual literature of England
in the latter part of the fourteenth century somewhat similar to
that occupied by Richard Rolle in its earlier years. Like the Hermit
of Hampole, he was the founder of a school, and the works of his
followers cannot always be distinguished with certainty from his
own. Like his great master in the mystical way, Richard of St.
Victor, Hilton was an Augustinian, the head of a house of canons at
Thurgarton, near Newark. His great work, the Scala Perfectionis, or
Ladder of Perfection, "which expoundeth many notable doctrines in
Contemplation," was first printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1494, and is
still widely used for devotional reading. A shorter treatise, the
Epistle to a Devout Man in Temporal Estate, first printed by Pynson
in 1506, gives practical guidance to a religious layman of wealth
and social position, for the fulfilling of the duties of his state
without hindrance to his making profit in the spiritual life. These,
with the Song of Angels, are the only printed works that can be
assigned to him with certainty, though many others, undoubtedly from
his pen, are to be found in manuscripts, and a complete and critical
edition of Walter Hilton seems still in the far future.[17] The Song
of Angels has been twice printed since the edition of Pepwell.[18]
In profoundly mystical language, tinged with the philosophy of that
mysterious Neo-Platonist whom we call the pseudo-Dionysius, it tells
of the wonderful "onehead," the union of the soul with God in
perfect charity:--

"This onehead is verily made when the mights of the soul are
reformed by grace to the dignity and the state of the first
condition; that is, when the mind is firmly established, without
changing and wandering, in God and ghostly things, and when the
reason is cleared from all worldly and fleshly beholdings, and from
all bodily imaginations, figures, and fantasies of creatures, and is
illumined by grace to behold God and ghostly things, and when the
will and the affection is purified and cleansed from all fleshly,
kindly, and worldly love, and is inflamed with burning love of the
Holy Ghost."

But to this blessed condition none may attain perfectly here on
earth. The writer goes on to speak of the mystical consolations and
visitations granted to the loving soul in this life, distinguishing
the feelings and sensations that are mere delusions,