HILTON, WALTER

born c. 1340 died March 24, 1396, Thurgarton Priory, Nottinghamshire, Eng. devotional writer, one of the greatest English mystics of the 14th century. Hilton studied at the University of Cambridge before becoming a hermit and later joined the Augustinians at Thurgarton Priory, where he remained for the rest of his life. His major work was The Scale [or Ladder] of Perfection, written separately in two books. The first teaches the means by which a soul may advance toward perfection by destroying the image of sin and forming the image of Christ through the practice of virtue. The second distinguishes between the active, ascetic life and the contemplative, mystical life and describes the early stages of mystical contemplation, apparently from Hilton's own experience. Because of its sober and methodical character, The Scale became and remained a popular devotional classic through the 15th and early 16th centuries and is regarded as the finest treatise on contemplation written in the late European Middle Ages.