"FIRST EDITION. Very rare collection of the anti-Islamic works by Denis the Carthusian (1402-1471). His Contra Alchoranum was written around 1454 and contains numerous quotations from the Quran, using the first Latin translation by Robert of Ketton. It was first printed some eighty years later in this collection, preceding the earliest complete Latin edition of the Quran by a few years. In 1540, a paraphrased abridged German translation of Contra Alchoranum was published in Strasbourg under the title Alchoran.
In his Epistola, written soon after the fall of Constantinople (1453), Denis urging all the princes of Europe to amend their lives, to cease their dissensions, and to join in war against their common enemy, the Turks. A general council being in his opinion the only means of procuring serious reform." - "The anti-Islamic writings of Denis the Carthusian." Source: steffenvoelkel.com.
Denis the Carthusian (1402–1471) was a Roman Catholic theologian and mystic.
Believing that the most perfect life was a blend of contemplation and action, he divided his day into two, devoting the first part to prayer and the second to study and writing, and this remained his pattern for almost 50 years. He is said to have devoted eight hours a day to reciting prayer and receiving mass, while only allotting three hours each night for sleep.
Denis only twice left Roermond for a significant amount of time. For seven months in 1451 Denis accompanied Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa in an attempt to reform the Church in Germany and to preach a crusade against the Turks.
Posterity has surnamed him Doctor ecstaticus. Fundamental to Denis the Carthusian's teachings is his theory on contemplation. He proposes a division of life and wisdom into three parts. In the purgative stage the Christian is occupied with overcoming sin and growing in virtue. This stage is associated with what he calls natural wisdom, naturally acquired. In the illuminative stage the Christian's mind is occupied with the contemplation of divine things. The illuminative stage concerns what Denis calls supernatural wisdom, naturally acquired, also known as scholastic theology. In the Unitive stage he experiences a vehement love from his contemplation of the divine. This type of experience can only come from supernatural wisdom, supernaturally bestowed. Denis the Carthusian was said to have reached the Unitive stage, being privileged to divine ecstatic experiences lasting hours at a time. While still a novice he had ecstasies which lasted two or three hours, and later on they lasted sometimes seven hours and more. During his ecstasies many things were revealed to him which he made known only when it could profit others, and the same may be said of what he learnt from the souls in purgatory, who appeared to him very frequently. In physical austerities, he was assisted by a strong constitution, for he was a man of athletic build and had, as he said, "an iron head and a brazen stomach".
The main contribution of Denis the Carthusian was to synthesize all previous doctrine on the spiritual life and then to make an evaluation of the various conclusions. He wrote over 150 works, now presented as 43 volumes, which include commentaries on the entire Bible and over 900 sermons. He began by commenting on the Psalms in 1434 and then went on to comment on the whole of the Old and the New Testament. After seeing one of his commentaries Pope Eugene IV exclaimed: "Let Mother Church rejoice to have such a son!"
He has been called the last of the Schoolmen. He is so in the sense that he is the last important Scholastic writer, and that his works may be considered to form a vast encyclopedia, a complete summary of the Scholastic teaching of the Middle Ages; this is their primary characteristic and their chief merit.
He was consulted as an oracle by men of different social standing, from bishops and princes downwards; they flocked to his cell, and letters came to him from all parts of the Netherlands and Germany. The topic of such correspondence was often the grievous state of the Church in Europe, i.e. the evils ensuing from relaxed morals and discipline and from the invasion of Islam. Soon after the Fall of Constantinople (1453), impressed by revelations God made to him concerning the terrific woes threatening Christendom, he wrote a letter to all the princes of Europe, urging them to amend their lives, to cease their dissensions, and to join in war against their common enemy, the Turks. A general council being in his eyes the only means of procuring serious reform, he exhorted all prelates and others to unite their efforts to bring it about.
An excerpt from, "The Waning of The Middle Ages" by Johan Huizinga, St. Martin's Press, 1924, Pg. 171:
Denys le Chartreux, or of Rickel, is the most complete type of religious enthusiast at the end of the Middle Ages. His mental range and many-sided energy are hardly conceivable. To mystic transports, ferocious asceticism, continual visions and relevations he unites immense activity as a theological writer. His works fill forty-five quarto volumes. All medieval divinity meets in him as the rivers of a continent flow together in an estuary. Qui Dionysium legit nihil non legit (He who reads Denis reads everything) said sixteenth-century theology. He sums up, he concludes, but he does not create. All that his great predecessors have thought is reproduced by him in a simple and easy style. He wrote all his books himself, and revised, corrected, subdivided and illuminated them. At the end of his life, he deliberately laid down his pen. Ad securae taciturnitatis portum me transferre intendo (I am now going to enter the haven of secure taciturnity).
He never knew repose. Every day he recites the psalter almost entirely, and, at any rate, half. He prays continually, while dressing or while engaged in any other occupation. When others go to sleep again after matins, he remains awake. Big and strong, he exposes his body with impunity to all kinds of privations. I have a head of iron, he would say, and a stomach of brass. He feeds, for choice, on tainted victuals.
The enormous amount of theological meditation and speculation which he achieved was not the fruit of a peaceful and balanced life of study; it was carried out in the midst of intense emotions and violent shocks. Visions and revelations are with him ordinary experiences. Ecstasies come to him on all sorts of occasions, especially when he hears music, sometimes in the midst of noble company, who are listening to his wise advice.
Video Title: Carthusian Chant - Chartreux Chants Monastique. Source: Marcus Josephus. Date Published: July 11, 2014.
