There is something of a paradox here, with our authors claiming special access to God, yet speaking constantly of their utter estrangement from him. The paradox may be resolved by noting the fleeting nature of mystical experience and the inability of the mystics to enjoy that experience on command. When they sit down to write, they are recalling moments of exalted intimacy, having come back down to earth. It’s this that makes their use of the motifs of courtly love philosophical. The talk of minne is among other things a way of articulating the experience of the special kind of knowledge
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