ABSTRACT
In his history of mysticism in France, which began to appear in 1916, Henri Bremond accorded Francis de Sales a place of honour. He described the Traité de l’amour de Dieu (Lyon, 1616) as a masterpiece of writing, 1 and he saw in its teaching on mystical prayer a ‘charter’ for French mysticism in the seventeenth century. 2 One hundred years later Bremond’s view of the stature of Francis and his work is not in dispute, but questions remain about the saint’s teaching on mysticism that he did not address. One of them concerns its originality. To what degree did Francis break with the tradition before him, particularly in his definition of ‘mystical theology’? The concept, which had a long history, was invoked also by Teresa of Avila, whose writings Francis knew well, and whom he often cites in the Traité as an authority on mystical prayer. Does he use it in a sense different from hers? 3 A further question has to do with his literary style. Francis affirms that the experience of mystical prayer cannot be expressed in words. How then did he express it? On what resources of rhetoric (of tone, syntax, imagery and structure) did he draw in order to convey it? 4 The pages that follow examine each of these questions in turn and consider some of the ways in which they are connected, for to grasp what Francis wished to say we must consider how he says it: in his case style and meaning are one.
