Thomas Traherne 1638-74
Thomas was born in or near Hereford about 1638.
His father was a cobbler and a master-craftsman with two
apprentices in his employment. His home was quite simple and far from affluent
though it would be wrong to say that his childhood was one
of misery.
However, his mother died when he was small so Thomas and his brother Philip were
boarded out to a wet-nurse or a foster-parent
in Lugwardine for a short while. He then was returned to Hereford
and the care of his better-off uncle, an innkeeper and well respected citizen who
had been mayor of Hereford in 1622 from whom Thomas took his surname.
At the age of about fifteen he entered Brasenose College, Oxford, where he studied
a wide range of subjects: 'Logic, Ethics, Physics, Metaphysics,
Geometry, Astronomy, Poesi, Medicine, Grammar,
Music, Rhetoric, all kinds of Arts, Trades and Mechanisms that adorned the World'.
At Oxford he was said to be an eager but not brilliant student.
His quest for knowledge and spiritual certainty merged with his pursuit of natural philosophy which opened the 'riches of God's Kingdom and the Nature of his Territories, Works and Creatures in a wonderful manner clearing and preparing the eye of the enjoyer'
Having received his BA at Oxford, he was appointed rector a year later at St Mary's Church in Credenhill in 1657. In 1660 on the
restoration of the monarchy and of the episcopal order of the Church of England, Thomas was ordained and appointed once more to Credenhill. In those days the
Welsh speaking parts of Herefordshire were only a few miles from the city walls, so Thomas knew about this language, though there is no evidence
that he actually spoke it.
Thomas developed a friendship for Mrs Hopton of Kington, whom he considered to be wise, lovable and devout and so he composed his centuries mainly for her.
We should thank Mrs Hopton for the survival of Thomas' works since he left the drafts of his writings in her care and supported him during his Credenhill years, thanking God for the super-exalted love of a redeemed person'.
Thomas remained at Credenhill for about ten years then he went to become Minister in Teddington until his death in 1674.
before becoming the private chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgeman, the Lord Keeper of the Seals of Charles II.
Thomas' notebooks were not discovered until 1896 by W.T. Brooke.
In 1903 B Dobell edited and published Poetical Works followed five years later by the
Centuries of Meditations.
In 1910 H.I. Bell published more of Thomas' poetry as Poems of Felicity. In 1934 A Quiller-Couch edited his anthology, Felicities. In 1944 Gertrude Wade wrote her study, Thomas Traherne.
In 1958 H M Margoliouth edited and published his prose and poetry in two volumes as
Centuries, Poems and Thanksgivings. In 1966 there came out the Oxford Standard Edition of Collected Poems, edited by Anne Ridler.
In Thomas' Select Meditations, he seems to speak of the church at Credenhill.
The Church Hidden & Revealed
When I see a little church environed with trees how many things are there which mine eye
discerneth not. The labour of them which in ancient times builded it; the conversion to a kingdom
of God from paganism, its protected by laws, its subjection to kings, its relation to bishops,
its usefulness and convenience for the entertainment of Christians, the divine service, the office of ministry,
solemn assemblies, praises and thanksgivings, for the sake of which it was permitted, is governed, standeth and flourisheth.
Perhaps when I look upon it, it is desolate and empty almost like a heap of stones, none of
these things appeared to the eyes which nevertheless are the spiritual beauties which adorn and cloth it. The uses, relations, services and ends being the spiritual and invisible things that make any material to be of
worth.
He who cannot see the invisible cannot enjoy or value temples. But he that seeth them may esteem them all to be his own and wonder at the divine bounty for giving them so richly.
Thomas' work also reveals a great love of his native Hereford and the countryside of its hinterland. For example in The World Transfixed he wrote:
The corn was orient and immortal wheat, which never should be reaped, nor was ever sown. I thought it had stood from everlasting to
everlasting.
The dust and the stones of the street were as precious as gold. The gates were at first the end
of the world.
The green trees when I saw them first through one of the gates transported and ravished me. Their sweetness and unusual beauty
made my heart to leap, and almost mad with ectasy, there were such strange and wonderful things.
The men; O venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal cherubins! And young men
glittering and sparkling angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street
were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; but all things abided eternally
as they were in their proper places.
Eternity was manifest by the light of day,and some things infinite behind every thing, appeared
which talked of my expectation and moved my desire.
Thomas again talks about Hereford in his All Things Were Mine
The city seemed to stand in Eden,or to be built in heaven. The streets were mine, the temple
was mine, the people were mine, their clothes and gold and silver were mine as with their sparkling eyes, fair skins and ruddy
faces. The skies were mine, and so were the sun and moon and stars, and all the world was mine and I the only spectator and enjoyer of it.
I knew no churlish proprieties, nor bounds, nor divisions, but all properties and divisions were mine; all treasures and the possessors of them.
So that with much ado I was corrupted, and made to learn the dirty devices of this world,
which now I unclean and become as it were a child again, that I may enter into the Kingdom of God.
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