and Christ, meaning all humanity to be saved. The basic
parable weaves into other metaphors: for example, the
sinful Adam fell in misery to the earth, but likewise the
divine Adam falls on the earth—into human nature in
Mary’s womb—and makes the garden of the earth spring
forth with food and drink for which the Father thirsts and
longs, in his unending love for the treasure which was
hidden in the earth” (Bradley, 1984: 209). The Trinity
is revealed in Christ. God is active as “maker, preserver,
and lover,” an insight Julian ex perienced when she saw
creation in the likeness of a hazelnut. Since God is the
ground of the soul, the desire for God is natural, and
sin (all chat is not good) is unnatural. Prayer unites
the soul to God, the foundation from which the prayer
arises. In the depths or core of the believer, the being
of God intersects with the being of the creature and is
the root of a “godly will” that always inclines toward
the good. Nonetheless, humanity continues to sin, for
evil was permitted to arise con trary to goodness, which
will triumph in the end in the form of a good greater
than what would otherwise have been. How “all things
shall be well,” as Christ promised Julian, will remain
hidden until a great deed is accomplished on the Last
Day (Long Text, ch. 32).
Literary and linguistic critics contribute to the
explica tion of this mystical core, Reynolds explores the
key images of Christ as courteous and “homely,” in its
medieval sense. Courtesy signifi es that Christ possesses
without limit the largesse and fi delity attributed to the
medieval knight. Courtesy fuses with “homeliness,”
the familiar manner used at home, among equals, and
implies nearness, so that “we are clothed and enclosed
in the goodness of God” (Long Text, ch. 6). In his
familiar aspect Christ is mother, an image rooted in
scrip ture and in biblical exegesis but developed with
originality by Julian. As the archetypal mother Christ
bears his children not to pain and dying but to joy and
endless living. His Passion is a birthing, which entailed
the sharpest throes that ever were, and was undertaken to
satisfy his love. The maternal image further signifi es that
humanity dwells in Christ, as in a mo ther’s womb, and
is also fed, nurtured, chastised, and tenderly cared for,
as a child. The sensual nature of humanity (that which
is born into time) is in the second person, Jesus Christ,
and is knit—as in fabric making—to its ground in God.
This motherhood metaphor has attracted the attention of
feminist criticism, adding to Julian’s popularity today.
The overall les son of the revelations is love in three
meanings: uncreated love, or God; created love—the
human soul in God; and a love that is bestowed as vir-
tue, enabling believers to love God, them selves, and all
creation, especially their “even-Christians.”
See also Kempe, Margery
Further Reading
Primary Sources
Colledge, Edmund, and James Walsh, eds. A Book of Show ings
to the Anchoress Julian of Norwich. 2 vols. Toronto: Pontifi -
cal Institute, 1978
Colledge, Edmund, and James Walsh, trans. Showings. New York:
Paulist Press, 1978
del Mastro, M.L., trans. Revelation of Divine Love in Sixteen
Showings. Liguori, Mo.: Triumph Books, 1994
Glasscoe, Marion, ed. A Revelation of Love. 2d ed. Exeter: Uni-
versity of Exeter, 1986.
Secondary Sources
New CBEL 1:522–24
Manual 9:3082–84, 3438–44
Bradley, Ritamary. “Julian of Norwich: Writer and Mystic.” In
An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe, ed. Paul
E. Szarmach. Albany: SUNY Press, 1984, pp. 195–216
Bradley, Ritamary. Julian’s Way: A Practical Commentary on
Julian of Norwich. London: HarperCollins, 1992
Glasscoe, Marion. “Visions and Revisions: A Further Look at the
Manuscripts of Julian of Norwich.” SB 42 (1989): 103–20
Lagorio, Valerie Marie, and Ritamary Bradley. “Julian of Nor-
wich.” In The 14th-Century English Mystics: A Comprehensive
Annotated Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1981, pp. 105–26
Llewelyn, Robert, ed. Julian: Woman of Our Day. Mystic:
Twenty-Third Publica tions, 1987
Molinari, Paolo. Julian of Norwich: The Teaching of a 14th Cen-
tury English Mystic. London: Longmans, Green, 1958
Nuth, Joan. Wisdom’s Daugh ter. New York: Crossroad, 1991
Pelphrey, Brant. Love Was His Meaning: The Theology and Mysti-
cism of Julian of Norwich. Salzburg: Institut fur Anglistik und
Amerikanistik, 1982
Reynolds, Anna Maria. “‘Courtesy’ and ‘Homeliness’ in the Rev-
elations of Julian of Norwich.” 14th-Century English Mystics
Newsletter (Mystics Quarterly) 5/2 (1979): 12–20
von Nolcken, Christina. “Julian of Norwich.” In Middle English
Prose: A Critical Guide to Major Genres and Authors, ed.
A.S.G. Edwards. New Brunswick: Rutgers Univer sity Press,
1984, pp. 97–108.
Ritamary BradleyJULIAN OF TOLEDO (b. ca. 640)
Born around 640, Julian was of partly Jewish descent.
Knowledge of his career comes primarily from the brief
“Eulogy” of him written by Bishop Felix of Toledo
(693–ca. 700). He was a pupil of Bishop Eugenius 11
(647–657), and subsequently became a member of the
clergy of the church in Toledo while following a rigorous
ascetic regime. Following the death of Bishop Quiricus
(667–680) he was chosen by King Wamba to take over
the see. The choice may have been infl uenced by Julian’s
eulogistic Historia Wambae, an account of the opening
events of that king’s reign. However, before the end
of 680 Julian had been caught up in, or even had initi-
ated, the chain of events leading to Wamba’s enforced
abdication and retirement to a monastery. With the new
king, Ervig (680–687), to whom he had previously
dedicated a now lost work on divine judgment, JulianJULIAN OF TOLEDO