Spirituality

The culmination of Hugh’s theological enterprise - and clearly the most copied, and presumably read, works - are his spiritual writings. Some of these works, such as the Soliloquium de arrha animae (327 mss.), De virtute orandi (226 mss.), and De archa Noe morali (152 mss.) exist in hundreds of manuscripts, demonstrating that they were incredibly popular spiritual writings (Poirel 1998:44-47). The works that have received the most scholarly attention recently are Hugh’s triad of works on the theme of Noah’s Ark: De archa Noe morali (or De archa Noe), De archa Noe mystica (or Libellus de formatione arche), and De vanitate mundi.

The Ark trilogy is an elaborate schema in which the human heart or soul is related to God. God, throughout the trilogy, is found to dwell in the human being through knowledge and love; knowledge constructs the structure of faith, the Ark, and love is that which gives the Ark its beauty and embellishment. God dwells in the human heart as if in a temple or an Ark. But, the relationship between God and the human heart is worked out through a complex structure of scriptural and historical imagery. This work is begun in De archa Noe morali and continued in De archa Noe mystica. The latter work encapsulates all of Biblical and Church History, emphasizing the place of the Church (CCCM 176:127; PL 176, col. 685) and its human inhabitants from Adam through the pontificate of the present Pope Honorius (CCCM 176:128-132; PL 176, col. 686-7). The final work in the triad, De vanitate mundi, is in the form of a dialogue between Reason and the Soul. The work continues the same theme, in which the Ark saves humanity from the flood and brings it to

God - who both resides above, but is also the helmsman, or captain, of the Ark.

See also: > Augustine > Bonaventure > Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite > Richard of St. Victor