In the following introduction to his English Mystics of the Middle Ages, Windeatt touches on why medieval mystics wrote and how they referenced each other in their works.
For sith in the first biginnyng of holy chirche in the
tyme of persecucion, dyverse soules and many weren
so merveylously touchid in sodeynte of grace that sodenly,
withoutyn menes of other werkes comyng before,
thei kasten here instrumentes, men of craftes,
of here hondes, children here tables in the scole, and
ronnen withoutyn ransakyng of reson to the martirdom
with seintes: whi schul men not trowe now, in
the tyme of pees, that God may, kan and wile and
doth—ye! touche diverse soules as sodenly with the
grace of contemplacion?
(The Book of Privy Counselling)
The later Middle Ages in England were indeed to.....
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