ABSTRACT
The reason why so many late medieval manuscripts with a mystical content have been preserved, both on the continent and in England, lies, in the religious change which took place in the High and Late Middle Ages. The mystical literature read in the monasteries was largely in Latin. What social classes did the readers of mystical texts come from? Religious and especially mystical literature was to be found in private libraries as well as in religious houses, these being usually nunneries or Augustinian and especially Carthusian monasteries. The tract Pistle of Discrecioun of Stirings, which was almost certtainly written by the author of the Cloud, gives an interesting addition to picture of the readership of the mystical texts. Walter Hilton wrote mystical texts for religious as well as for the laity, his Scale is addressed to a monastic public, whilst the Epistle on Mixed Life is a document reflecting his pastoral concern for the laity.
