HILTON, WALTER. – English mystic, Augustinian canon of Thurgarton, in Nottinghamshire, d. 24 March 1396. His fame is associated with his treatise or guide to contemplation, The scale of perfection (Scala perfectionis).
He was an ardent admirer of the Carthusians, but never belonged to their Order, as J. Pitts (1619) and S. Cressy (1659) wrongly reported. Fr. Guy revived this hypothesis in 1869, but H. himself explicitly states that he was not a monk. Giuliana di Norwich (v.) must have known his work, because on a couple of occasions she echoes his words. From the beginning of the 15th century, some attributed to him the authorship of the De Imitatione Christi, but this hypothesis is very improbable.
His work was especially praised by St Thomas More. The Scale had the following editions: 1494, 1507, 1659 (ed. Cressy), 1869 and 1870; it was soon translated into Latin under the title Speculum or Baculus contemplationis by the Carmelite Thomas Fyslave and was highly esteemed by the Carthusians. H. also wrote To a devout man in temporal estate and The song of Angels, printed respectively in 1506 and 1521, and the former in 1909 by E. G. Gardner under the title The call of self-knowledge; as well as other works of lesser importance (cf. Minor works of W. H., edited by Dorothy Jones, London 1929). The Musica Ecclesiastica, initially attributed to him, consists of the first three books of the De Imitatione Christi. H. is also renowned as a writer. His English prose is admirable for its clear, simple, concise and elegant style.
His mystical-theological system is essentially that of Richard of St Victor, simplified. H. sets forth the purification of the soul, the mystical dark night, and the soul’s progress until it becomes perfect love of Jesus, «perfectly united to him in tenderness of love». The entire work is rich in beauty of thought, felicitous documentation and expression, and in that practical wisdom so evident in his To a devout man in temporal estate, which may be compared with the advice of St Francis de Sales to those who live in the world.