The Library
1693 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
401–500
2 works
c. 426–429
Latin
Collationes
John Cassian · c. 360–435
Twenty-four conversations with the elders of Egypt on the goal of monastic life, discernment, unceasing prayer, and the way the mind wanders even at prayer.
c. 450–460
Greek
Diadochus of Photike · c. 400 – c. 486
A hundred chapters on how to tell the movements of grace from the movements of delusion, and the first text to prescribe the continuous repetition of the name of Jesus as the way to occupy a mind that will otherwise wander.
1301–1400
1 work
c. 1382–1408
Middle English
Anonymous
Counsel for religious women on temptations, the withdrawal of consolation, and how to tell genuine revelations from delusion or illness.
1401–1500
1 work
1401
Latin
Jean Gerson · 1363–1429
Tests for visionary claims — the visionary's humility, obedience, physical health, and whether the revelation serves anything beyond the visionary's own standing.
1501–1600
1 work
1522–1524; published 1548
Spanish
Exercitia Spiritualia
Ignatius of Loyola · 1491–1556
Not a book to read but a thirty-day programme to be led through: structured meditations on sin, the life of Christ, the passion and the resurrection, with rules for telling which interior movements come from God.
5 of 1693 works