Matelda and the cloister of Hellfde

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MATELDA AND THE CLOISTER OF HELLFDE

EXTRACTS FROM THE BOOK OF MATILDA OF MAGDEBURG

SELECTED AND TRANSLATED BY FRANCES BEVAN

AUTHOR OF "THREE FRIENDS OF GOD," "TREES PLANTED BY THE RIVER," "HYMNS OF TER STEEGEN, SUSO, AND OTHERS," ETC.

_London_ JAMES NISBET & CO. 21 BERNERS STREET 1896

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. At the Ballantyne Press

PREFACE

To most of us the Matelda of Dante has been scarcely more than a shape existing in the mind of a poet. It may be that she now stands before us not only as a woman of flesh and blood, but as one who has for us in these days a marvellous message. One of the great cloud of witnesses to the love and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, speaks to us in a German Beguine, who is now recognised by many as the original of her who conducted Dante into "the terrestrial Paradise."

Whether or no we regard her as the guide of Dante, may she be to us a means whereby we "forget the things that are behind, and press forward to those that are before." May she yet be to some sorrowful souls the guide into the blessed Garden of God--the garden no longer guarded by a flaming sword, but opened to the sinner who "has washed his robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb." May some to whom the future is dark and fearful, and who carry as a heavy burden the sin of past years, be led on across the river into the light, the sweetness, and the rest of the green pastures of Christ--the sin and sorrow left behind, remembered no more, for the Lord remembers them not. And in His Presence, where there is the fulness of joy, the sufferings of this present time can also be forgotten, for sorrow rejoiceth before Him.

Six persons have up to this time been regarded as the original of the Matelda of Dante. The Countess Matilda of Tuscany most commonly till modern times; Matilda, mother of Otto the Great; the nun of Hellfde, Matilda of Hackeborn; the "gentle lady" of the Vita Nuova, and of the Convito; Vanna, the lover of Guido Cavalcanti; and finally, the Beguine, also of Hellfde, known as Matilda of Magdeburg.