HENRY
239
HENRY
when, giving up his careless habits of the five preced-
ing years, he made himself "the Servant of the Eter-
nal Wisdom", which he identified with the Divine
essence and, in a concrete form, with the personal
Eternal Wisdom made man. Henceforth a burning
love for the Eternal Wisdom dominated his thoughts
and controlled his actions. He had frequent visions
and ecstasies, practised severe austerities (which he
prudently moderated in maturer years), and bore with
rare patience corporal afflictions, bitter persecutions,
and grievous calumnies. He became foremost among
the Friends of God in the work of restoring religious
observance in the cloisters. His influence was espe-
cially strong in many convents of women, particularly
in the Dominican convent of Katherinenthal, a famous
nursery of mysticism in the thirteenth and four-
teenth centuries, and in that of Toss, where lived the
mystic Elsbeth Stagel, who turned some of his Latin
into German, collected and preserved most of his
extant letters, and drew from him the history of his
life which he himself afterwards developed and pub-
lished. In the workl he was esteemed as a preacher,
and was heard in the cities and towns of Swabia,
Switzerland, Alsace, and the Netherlands. His
apostolate, however, was not with the masses, but
rather with individuals of all classes who were drawn
to him by his singularly attractive personality, and
to whom he became a personal director in the spiritual
life. It has often been incorrectly said that he estab-
lished among the Friends of God a society which he
called the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wisdom. The
so-called Rule of the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wis-
dom is but a free translation of a chapter of his " Horo-
logium Sapientia;", and did not make its appearance
until the fifteenth century.
The first writing from the pen of Suso was the "Biichlein der Wahrheit", which he issued while a student at Cologne. Its doctrine was unfavourably criticized in some circles — very probably on account of its author's close relations with Eckhart, who had just been called upon to explain or to reject certain propositions — but it was found to be entirely ortho- dox. As in this, so in his other writings Suso, while betraying Eckhart's influence, always avoided the errors of "the Master". The book was really written in part against the pantheistic teachings of the Beg- hards, and against the libertine teachings of the Brethren of the Free Spirit. Father Denifle con- siders it the most difficult "little book" among the writings of the German mystics. Whereas in this book Suso speaks as a contemplative and to the intellect, in his next, " Das Buchlein der ewigen Weis- heit", published early in 1328, he is eminently practi- cal and speaks out of the fullness of his heart to "simple men who still have imperfections to be put off". Bihlmeyer accepts Denifle's judgment that it is the "most beautiful fruit of German mysticism", and places it next to the "Homilies" of St. Bernard, and the "Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a Kempis. In the second half of the fourteenth and in the fifteenth century there was no more widely read meditation book in the German language. An English trans- lation has been brought out by C. H. McKenna, O.P. ("The Little Book of Eternal' Wisdom". New York, 1889). In 1334 Suso translated this work into Latin, but in doing so added considerably to its contents, and made of it an almost entirely new book, to which he gave the name " Horologium Sapientise". Even more elevating than the original, finished in language, rich in figure, rhythmic in movement, it became a favourite book in the cloisters at the close of the Middle Ages, not only in Germany, but also in the Netherlands, France, Italy, and England. A new critical edition is desiderated! as the edition of Stran- ger (Cologne, 1861) has many defects. .\n English translation by R. Raby appeared in 1868 (London).
To the same period of Suso's literary activity may
belong "Das Minnebiichlein", but its authenticity is
doubtful. After retiring to Ulm, Suso wrote the story
of his inner life ("Vita" or "Leben Senses"), revised
the " Buchlein der Wahrheit", and the " Buchlein der
ewigen Weisheit", all of which, together with eleven
of his letters (the " Briefbiichlein"), and a prologue, he
formed into one book known as the "Exemplar
Senses". Melchior of Diepenbrock (afterwards car-
dinal) modernized the text in his " Heinrich Susos,
genannt Amandus, Leben und Schriften" (Ratisbon,
1829; 4th ed., 1884); as did Heinrich Denifle, O.P.,
in "Die deutschen Schriften des seligen Heinrich
Suso" (1st vol., Munich, 1880; 2nd not published).
The latest edition, which is by K. Bihlmeyer (Stutt-
gart, 1907), preserves the old German. Besides the
above-mentioned writings we have also five sermons
by Suso and a collection of twenty-eight of his letters
(Grosses Brief buch), which may be found in Bihl-
meyer's edition. A good French translation of Suso's
works is "(Euvres mj'Stiques du B. Henri Suso", by
G. Thiriot, O.P. (2 vols., Paris, 1S99). Suso is called
by Wackernagel (Geschichte der deutschen Liter., I,
429) and others a " Minnesinger in prose and in the
spiritual order". The mutual love of God and man
which is his principal theme gives warmth and colour to
his style. He used the full and flexible Alamannian
idiom with rare skill, and contributed much to the
formation of good German prose, especially by giving
new shades of meaning to words employed to describe
inner sensations. His intellectual equipment was
characteristic of the schoolmen of his age. In his
doctrine there was never the least trace of an unor-
thodox tendency. For centuries he exercised an in-
fluence upon spiritual writers. Among his readers
and admirers were Thomas a Kempis and Bl. Peter
Canisius.
QuF.TiF AND EcHARD, 5crtp(ores Ord. Prced., I, G5Z; Gorres in the introduction to the edition of Suso's works by Diepen- brock; Denifle and Bihlmeyer in the introdurtions to their editions: Bohringer, Die deutschen Mystiker (Zurich. 1877); Vetter, Bin Myslikerpnar: Seuse u. Slaael (B,isle. 1882); See- berg, Ein Kampf um jenseiliges Leben (Dorpat, 1889).
A. L. McMahon.
Henry the Navigator, Prince, b. 4 March, 1394; d. 13 November, 1460; he was the fourth son of John I, King of Portugal, by tjueen Philippa, a ilaughter of John of Gaunt. In 141.5 he commanded the expedi- tion which captured Ceuta, Portugal's first oversea conquest, and there won his knightly spurs. Three years later he went to the assistance of the town, when it was besieged by a Moorish army, and twice after- wards fought in Africa. He was responsible for a dis- astrous attack on Tangier in 1437, which caused the captivity and death of his brother Fernando (Blessed Ferdinand), " the Constant Prince", while at the end of his life, in 1458, he took part in the capture of Alcacer. On the death of his brother. King Duarte, Henry acted as intermediaiy between his brother Pedro, who claimed the regency, and Queen Leonor. to whom it had been left by her husband, and he greatly promoted the success of Pedro's claim. But when, later on, Pedro's vaulting ambition led him into conflict with King Affonso V, Henry was unable to save him from defeat and death at the battle of .\lfarrobeira. It is not, however, as a man of war or of politics that Henry has won fame, but as the initiator of continuous mari- time exploration.
Fulfilling the mission of the Military Order of Christ, of which he was Grand Master, his ships carried on a constant war against the infidels, and in one of the voyages (1418) Zarco by chance discovered the Ma- deira Islands. Henry had entered on his career of dis- covery immediately after the fall of Cent a, anrl his objects were: (1) to know the country beyond Cape Bojador, the furthest limit of the known world on the west side of Africa; (2) to open up trade relations; (3) to learn the extent of the Mohammedan power; (4) to
