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Walter Hilton (b. 1340–45, d. 24 March 1396) was an English Augustinian mystic. ==Life== Hilton was born around 1340–45. Writing long after Hilton's death, an early-sixteenth century Carthusian, James Grenehalgh, from Lancashire,referred to Hilton as coming 'from the same region'.〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p14.〕 Presumptive evidence indicates that Hilton received some education at the University of Cambridge,〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p13.〕 which would have been from about 1360 until about 1382. Walter de Hilton, Bachelor of Civil Law, clerk of Lincoln Diocese, was granted the reservation of a canonry and prebend of Abergwili, Carmarthen, in January 1371.〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p14.〕 In January 1371 Hilton was a bachelor of law attached to the diocesan court of Ely, and the Ely Consistory Court in 1375 also refers to a Walter Hilton.〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p13.〕 Some manuscripts describe Hilton as a ''commensor'' or ''inceptor decretorum'' -- that is, he may have completed the studies and examinations that would have entitled him to become a Master of canon law, but did not undertake the regency that would have given him the latter title. In the early 1380s, Hilton turned away from the world and became a solitary, as he mentions in his earliest extant work, the Latin letter ''De Imagine Peccati'' (''On the Image of Sin''). Not long after (perhaps in 1384?), in his Latin epistle of spiritual counsel, ''De Utilitate et Prerogativis Religionis'' (''On the Usefulness and Prerogatives of Religion''), a.k.a. ''Epistola aurea'', for his friend Adam Horsley, a former officer of the Exchequer, who was about to enter the Carthusian Order, Hilton states that he is himself open to the possibility of joining a religious community, but is not yet certain of his vocation.〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p15.〕 Given that Horsley entered the Community of Beauvale in 1386, it seems likely that this is around the date when Hilton joined a community - 1386 is often suggested as the date of his entry as an Augustinian Canon Regular into Thurgarton Priory, in Nottinghamshire.〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p15.〕 Between around 1386 and 1390, Hilton probably wrote the ''Epistola de Leccione, Intencione, Oracione, Meditacione et Allis'' (''Letter on Reading, Intention, Prayer, and Meditation''), a brief treatise in English ''Of Angels' Song'', which criticizes one aspect of Richard Rolle's spirituality, and ''The Epistle on the Mixed Life'' which instructs a devout layman concerning of wealth and household responsibility, advising him not to give up his active life to become a contemplative, but to mix the two. Because of strong echoes between the ''Mixed Life'' and the first of the two books of Hilton’s major work, ''The Scale of Perfection'', both were probably written around the same time, in the late 1380s. Hilton may also have translated ''The Prickynge of Love'' (a.k.a. the popular ''Stimulus Amoris'', an expanded version of a book originally by the thirteenth-century Franciscan James of Milan, which by that time was passing under the name of Bonaventure), though this remains a matter of dispute.〔J. P. H. Clark, ‘Hilton, Walter (c.1343–1396)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, believes this work to be by Hilton.〕〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p17.〕 In his final years (from circa 1390 until circa 1396), Hilton probably wrote his Latin letter ''Epistola ad Quemdam Seculo Renunciare Volentem'' (''To Someone Wanting to Renounce the World''), and a brief piece on scruples entitled ''Firmissime crede''. He produced the English version of ''Eight Chapters on Perfection'', a translation of a now lost Latin work by the Franciscan Lluis de Font (or Luis de Fontibus), an Aragonese Franciscan who had a regency in theology at Cambridge in either 1391–3 or 1392–4.〔Walter Hilton, ''The Scale of Perfection'', translated by John PH Clark and Rosemary Dorward, (New York: Paulist Press, 1991), p17.〕 Also in this period, Hilton produced the second book of ''The Scale of Perfection''. According to manuscript tradition, Hilton died on 24 March 1396 as an Augustinian Canon Regular in the priory of St Peter at Thurgarton, in Nottinghamshire. However, this manuscript was written much later than the history it reports, and it contains a number of historic mistakes. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Walter Hilton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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