From the book
Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici
Clovis Hesteau de Nuysement · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordMortification has several subjects and valuations.
- In Sal LumenII.2.18 asks how a constantly renewing first matter could mortify, diminish, destroy or weaken.
- In this editionThe English at II.3.13 follows the explicit equation “mortification, that is, putrefaction and dissolution.”
- A place to readNegative alternatives are denied of the intrinsic renewing principle, not denied of all compounded bodies.
Meaning
Mortification has several subjects and valuations. It can mean a harmful killing or weakening denied of an inward life-giving principle; the putrefaction and dissolution required before separation; or the dying of moral corruption. The term's relation to death does not make these three statements equivalent.
Use in the book
II.2.18 asks how a constantly renewing first matter could mortify, diminish, destroy or weaken. These are denied alternatives within an argument about its intrinsic powers. The author does not thereby deny mortality of mixed bodies or harmful accidental influences. II.3.13 instead positively requires mortification as the beginning of operative renewal and immediately glosses it as putrefaction and dissolution.
The next passage controls the Christian comparison. Bodily death itself cannot confer incorruptible life, since that would grant the wicked the just person's advantage. The old man must die in the sense that inherited corruption and excess are mortified and separated. This is a theological and ethical claim, not an account of psychological self-improvement alone and not an injunction to destroy the body.
II.4.10–11 compares the seed's passage through earth and blackness with the natural subject's acquisition of life through death. The fixed grain must be putrefied and blackened, but its underlying body or proper natures are not simply abolished. The text insists that the natures do not forsake one another even in putrefaction. Blackness names a condition along the argued passage, while resurrection names the later removal of corruption and renewed stable power. Reading the word locally prevents a harmful-death statement, an operative transition and a spiritual renunciation from being compressed into a single maxim.
Places to read
- Book Two · Chapter 2 · Unit 18Negative alternatives are denied of the intrinsic renewing principle, not denied of all compounded bodies.
- Book Two · Chapter 3 · Unit 13Expressly glossed as putrefaction and dissolution, the required prior step to separation.
- Book Two · Chapter 3 · Unit 14If physical death sufficed, wicked and virtuous would gain alike; the author rejects that reading.
- Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 10Seeds, grain, Christ, and the prepared subject organize a necessary transition through death toward renewed life.
- Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 11Seeds, grain, Christ, and the prepared subject organize a necessary transition through death toward renewed life.
- Book Two · Chapter 4 · Unit 21The vessel’s sepulchre and resurrection are decoded as material putrefaction, purification and fixation.
Translation
The English at II.3.13 follows the explicit equation “mortification, that is, putrefaction and dissolution.” At II.3.14 it equally preserves “He does not mean” and “bodily death.” Those negatives are as important to the entry as the grain analogy and should accompany any quotation of the apparently general requirement to die.
Attested forms
mortifie; diminue, destruise, & affoiblisse; mortification; putrefaction & dissolution; Non pas; mort corporelle; acquisition de vie par la mort; pourry & noircy; ny par la pourriture; putrefaction; dissolution; mort; pourriture