H ilton, W alter

Walter Hilton was a writer on the contemplative life who died on March 24, 1396, at the priory of Augustinian canons at Thurgarton, in Nottinghamshire. His best‐known work, The Scale of Perfection , comprises two parts, probably written several years apart. Scale I is a guide to introspective meditation on the corruption of the image of God in the sinful soul, written for a woman recently enclosed as an anchoress. This work has similarities to other of Hilton's English and Latin letters of spiritual guidance. Scale II addresses itself to the same reader, but also has a larger, more theologically sophisticated audience in mind. The Scale became a spiritual classic in England in the century before the Reformation, and was known on the European Continent in a contemporary Latin translation.