However, this prompts the larger question of who influenced Hall in
developing his popular approach. He indicates his inspiration was drawn from an
unknown monk who wrote 112 years before him.^50 Scholars have identified him as
John Mombaer, author of the Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium et sacrarum
meditationum who in turn was influenced by Johan Wessel Gansfort. Hall is not shy
about his distaste for Jesuit spirituality and therefore, attempts to find Ignatian
influence are not likely to yield any results.^51 However, the irony of history is that
both Gansfort and Mombaer, members of the Brethren of the Common Life, not only
inspired Hall but through Garcia de Cisneros provided significant inspiration for
Ignatius as well.^52 Therefore, both Hall and the Puritan method of meditation, and
Ignatius and the Roman Catholic method, share a common root. In addition, Hall
made trips to Belgium, France, and the Netherlands and would have been exposed to
other Continental mystical writers. One person in particular that he cites frequently in
The Arte of Divine Meditation is Jean Gerson^53 who was influential in the
development of devotio moderna.^54 This awareness has led a recent biographer of Hall
to assert that he “served to introduce continental contemplative methods to an English
protestant readership.”^55 Therefore, Lovelace’s assessment of the Puritans is
incorrect, “[o]f mystical writers (save for Bernard and Augustine) there is no
mention.”^56
50
51 Joseph Hall, Arte of Divine Meditation, Epistle Dedication, [4].^
52 Booty, “Joseph Hall, Arte Divine Meditation,” 203. Melloni, Exercises of St. Ignatius, esp. 1-2, 22; McGuire,^ Companion to Jean
Gerson, 375-82; and Martz, Poetry of Meditation, 5, 331. On Cisneros see Pourrat,
Christian Spirituality 53 , 3:18-22.
Joseph Hall, Arte of Divine Meditation, 25-6, 46, 62, 85. cf. Stoeffler, Rise of
Evangelical Pietism, 84. Gerson is also a favorite of Baxter, Saints’ Everlasting Rest,
263, 280, 282, 287, 296, 302, 304, 311. 54
55 McGuire, Companion to Jean Gerson, 371-5.^
56 McCabe, “Joseph Hall.” Lovelace, “Anatomy Puritan Piety,” 296.ODNB, 24:635.^