Mystical Writings

Mystical Writings
Mystical Writings
... ... ...
0dttul. �
Fiona Bowie and Oliver Davies
Robert Carver
A Crossroad Book
The Crossroad Publishing Company

This printing: 1999
The Crossroad Publishing Company

370 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017
Introduction and compilation© Fiona Bowie and O liver Davies 19

Robert Carver's translations© Robert Carver 1 990
All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
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Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hildegard, Saint, 1098-1179.

[Selections. English . 1 990)
Mystical writings I Hildegard of Bingen ; edited and introduced
Fiona Bowie and Oliver Davies ; with new translations by Robert
Carver.
p. cm. - (Spiritual classics)
Includes bibliographical references.
Includes discography.
ISBN 0-8245-1027-5
1 . Mysticism-Early works to 1800. 2. Hildegard, Saint,
1098-1 179. I . Bowie, Fiona . II. Davies, Oliver. III. Title.
IV. Series.
BV5080. H53213 1 990
248. 2'2-dc20 90-47
To the Benedictine community of St Matthias
-formerly St Eucharius-
in Trier
with thanks
for their hospitality
0 Euchari,
Valde beatus fuisti
cum Verbum Dei te in igne columba imbuit,
ubi tu quasi aurora illuminatus es,
et sic fundamentum ecclesie
edificasti.
0 Eucharius!
You were blessed
When the Word of God seized you
In the dove's fire,
When, brilliant as the dawn,
You estab,ished your church.
HILDEGARD OF BINGEN
A Moment of Vision
I feel the air of another planet.

All the faces which just now were smiling
Have grown pale in the dark.
The well-loved trees and paths are fading
So I no longer know them and you, light
Lover shadow - the cause of my suffering -
Are smothered now in deeper fires, and appear
After the storm of raging frenzy
As an inward thrill of sensation .
Dissolved in sound, I circle, I weave,
In gratitude without end, praise without name,
And yield, undesiring, to the immensity of breath.
I shudder at the tempestuous airs
In the rapture of rites and shrill cries
Of supplicating women grovelling in the dust.
Then I watch and see translucent mists
Which rise in the clear sun-shot sky
And reach to the furthest mountain lairs.
The ground trembles white and soft as whey . . .
I soar aloft over gaping ravines
And sense how over the last cloud I swim
In a sea of crystal brilliance:
A spark of the sacred fire
A sound of the sacred voice.
STEFAN GEORGE
Contents
Illustrations XI
Preface Xlll
Map: Hildegard's World xv
Abbreviations XVI
PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

A Time of Turmoil 3
Hildegard's Life and Works 8
The Living Light 19
Hildegard' s Theology 23
Hildegard the Woman 34
Hildegard Today 51
Notes 52
A Short Chronology of Hildega rd' s Life 56
PART TWO: SELECTIONS

Translator's Note 60
Edi tors' Note 62
Extracts from the Life of Sai11t Hildegard by Godfrey

and Theodoric 63
Sciz1ias 68
The Book of Life's Merits 85
The Book of Divine Works 90
Causes and Cures 108
Hildegard' s Songs 112
Hildegard' s Letters 127
Select Bibliography 152

Select Discography 157
Illustrations
cover, p. 95 The wheel of life (from the illustrated Lucca
manuscript of the Book of Divine Works, 4, 1) .
p. 13 Rupertsberg Abbey in around 1625 (drawing
taken from a lost oil painting, the Dr W. Lauter
Collection, Frankfurt).
p. 25 The Glory of God (from the illustrated Ruperts
berg codex of Scivias, I 1).
p. 69 Hildegard receives her visions (SC I 1).
p. 7 2 The Spirit of God gives life t o the soul and to
the body (SC I 4).
p. 74 The true unity of the Trinity (SC II 2) .
p. 100 The fountain of life (OW 8, 1).
Preface
This anthology is intended to provide a general introduction to
Hildegard of Bingen and her works for an English-speaking
audience . The great interest in this remarkable twelfth-century
prophet which has been manifest in Germany in recent years is
now gradually spreading to other countries. It is not difficult to
see why . First of all, Hildegard was a woman and, after
centuries of neglect, the place of women in the history of
spirituality and of the Church, as in all other areas of life, is
now being reassessed. Secondly, Hildegard's message echoes
many of our contemporary concerns. She has a holistic and
ecologically sympa thetic approach to life. She is interested in
the feminine aspects of God, and has a rationalistic 'objective'
view of human na ture which is both integrated into her
cosmology as a whole and modern in its approach and in many
of its insights . Hildegard was also prodigiously talented and
has attracted the attention of musicia ns, historians, theo
logia ns, literary critics and scientists, all of whom find much in
Hildegard which is original and challenging.
Anthologizing works as varied and voluminous as those of
Hildegard presents particular problems . Any selection in an
anthology of this size could give a distorted view of Hilde
gard's work as a whole. The form of her visionary works, in
which a vision is described and its significance developed over
several pages, does not always lend itself to a shorter forma t.
Then Hildegard's cosmological and medical schema per
meates her works as a whole, and may not be easily grasped by
looking a t isolated passages. Having said this, however, we
believe that the selection we have produced does succeed in
giving the reader a taste of Hildegard's message, her range of
interests, style, and personality. As the critical editions of
Preface I xiii
Hildegard's works appear, it is to be hoped that accurate
English translations of her complete works will increasingly
become available, following the lead of Barbara Newman's
excellent edition of Hildegard' s Symphonia .
In choosing passages we have been swayed by a number of
factors; their intrinsic beauty and immediacy, their historical
importance and their resonances for us today. Hildegard did
not make clear distinctions between her visionary and scien
tific works. The whole of her life was inspired by and dedicated
to God, and through her writings, Hildegard can remind us of
the sanctity of all life. We therefore find similar themes, such as
the importance of music to the spiritual life, appearing in her
visionary works, in songs and in her letters. The effects of
climate and of inheritance on personality may similarly be
discussed in her spiritual exegesis, as well as in her medical
and scientific works. The attempt to departmentalize and
isolate different areas of our experience is foreign to Hildegard,
and this comes through in her writings.
We would like to thank our translators, especially Robert
Carver, for their patient and skilled work, and Peter Dronke
and Cambridge University Press for permission to reprint
extracts from Women Writers of tile Middle Ages (1984) . Our
thanks too to Jean Williamson for drawing the map of
Hildegard's world, to Huw Pryce for his comments on the
manuscript, to Judith Longman of SPCK, to the sisters at St
Hildegard' s Abbey in Eibingen, and to all those who have ·
shared with us their enthusiasm for Hildegard of Bingen.
Fiona Bowie
Oliver Davies
Bethesda, March 1990
xiv I Hildegard of Bingen

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Schonau
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Hildegard's world
Abbreviations
SC Scivias. References are to book, vision and chapter; e. g.

SC I 4, 26 Scivins, book I, vision 4, chapter 26
=
LM Liber vitae 111eritonm1 (Book of Life's Merits)

OW Liber divi11oru111 opcrum (Book of Divi11c Works)
CC Cnusae et rnrae (Causes a11d Cures)
B Berlin Manuscript, Staatsbibl. Lat. Qu. 674
PL Pntrologin Lati11a, J. P. Migne
Pi J. B. Pitra, A11alectn sacra
PART 1
Introduction
A Time of Turmoil
Hildegard was born into a world in which everyone knew their
place. There were those who ruled and fought, the kings,
dukes, barons and their knights; those who prayed, the clergy,
monks and nuns, and the mass of ordinary people who
worked. Above all was God who had ordained this three-fold
structure of society, and who had an interest in its mainten
ance. It would be another hundred years before the great
movements for evangelical poverty swept across Western
Europe and turned young noblemen into beggars. The Rule of
St Benedict allowed for greater social equality, and the Cister
cians, in a renewal of the primitive Benedictine Rule, engaged
in manual labour, but on the whole religious communities
mirrored wider social conventions. Hildegard and Jutta would
have had a personal servant in their cell on the Disibodenberg,
and in their Rupertsberg convent the aristocratic and high
born nuns were kept socially distinct from the low-born
women who would have done much of the manual work in the
community.
However stable the social hierarchy may have seemed, the
political world was more uncertain. Although the danger of
outside attack which had threatened the German Lands for
centuries, with the Vikings to the north, the Saracens to the
south and the Magyars to the east, had waned by the eleventh
century, interna1 ly the country was torn by strife. Since
the time of the great ninth-century emperor, Charlemagne,
Germany had been ruled by semi-independent dukes, mar
graves and counts, often at war with one another and with the
king. The Church was closely tied into the feudal system, its
prelates receiving land and titles from secular rulers to whom
they owed allegiance. Bishops were soldiers as well as clerics
and both bishops and popes had their own armies which they
A Time of Turmoil I 3
would use to defend their titles and property, sometimes
taking part in the fighting themselves.
During the eleventh century conflicting notions of religious
and secular power began to develop. The monastic reform
movement which had started at the Benedictine abbey of
Cluny in Burgundy, and which led to the foundation of
Disibodenberg in around 1105, had a profound affect on the
Church as a whole. By the time Hildegard was born, in 1098,
the papacy was no longer at the mercy of rival Roman patrician
families, but it was locked in conflict with the German kings
and emperors over their respective powers. A system had
developed whereby the pope would anoint the German kings
as Holy Roman Emperors, and the kings had a hand in the
election of certain bishops anrl of the pope. To the reformers
this dependence on secular power was unacceptable and both
kings and popes fought for the right to invest bishops.
One of the best known of the eleventh-century reformist
popes was Gregory VII, known as Hildebrand (1073-85).
Before his election, Hildebrand had probably spent some time
as a monk, possibly in a Cluniac monastery, as well as pur
suing a distinguished career as a Vatican official. He sought to
increase the mystique of personal sanctity surrounding the
person of the pope as successor of Peter and as Christ' s
representative on earth. He claimed that all Christians were
subject to the pope, including emperors, and that supreme
judicial as well as spiritual power rightly belonged to the pope.
As had his predecessors, Gregory VII attempted to stamp out
clerical marriage and simony (the purchase of ecclesiastical
office) and, more divisively, he tried to abolish royal control of
bishops. This led him into direct conflict with the German
king, Henry IV (1056-1 106) . Bishops were forced to choose
between their feudal ioyalties to the king and their spiritual
loyalties to the pope, and in a series of shifting alliances
various dukes and bishops attempted to play both parties off
against one another to their own advantage. In 1076 Henry
deposed Gregory, and Gregory responded by excommunicat
ing Henry. As a political expedient Henry did penance to the
pope the following year and the excommunication was lifted,
but renewed in 1080 when Henry elected Archbishop Wibert
4 I Hildegard of Bi11gc11
(Guibert) of Ravenna as antipope at an imperial council in
Brixen. In 1084 Henry marched on Rome with his army in
order to install Wibert as Pope Clement III, and to be crowned
emperor by him. Pope Gregory VII took refuge in the St
Antonio fortress before fleeing to Salerno where he later died.
What became known as the 'investiture controversy' rum
bled on for many years under successive popes and German
kings. A temporary peace was achieved between Henry V and
Pope Callistus II at the Concordat of Worms in 1122. A formula
was agreed whereby the emperor renounced the right to invest
bishops with ring and crozier, the symbols of their spiritual
authority, and to allow for their free canonical election and
consecration. The emperor retained the right to be present at
the election of bishops and abbots in Germany, a gesture
towards their feudal allegiance to the crown. The uncompro
mising stance adopted by the only English pope, Hadrian IV
(1154-9), angered the German emperor Frederick I, known as
'Barbarossa' ('red beard') by the Italians, and led to a further
twenty years of strife and the election of a further three
antipopes. Popes were by no means secure in their position.
Innocent II (1130-42), who was elected on the same day as his
rival, the antipope Anacletus II, spent most of his pontificate in
France. Even the most saintly of the twelfth-century popes, the
Cistercian monk Eugenius III (1 145-53), who approved Hilde
gard's Scivias at the Synod of Trier, could not find a home in
Rome, which was in the hands of the antipapal Roman com
mune. During her lifetime Hildegard saw some dozen popes
and ten anti popes elected to the See of Peter. It was the age of
the Crusades, with their idealism and barbarity, and it was a
century marked by constant squabbles between local rulers
and the German crown, between the crown and the papacy
.
and between European royal families.
Hildegard's own sympathies would have been with the
reformers in the Church, allied as they were to the monastic
revival which gave life to her own community at Disi
bodenberg, and supported so strongly by her admired con_
temporary, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1 153). Her interests
were, however, by no means identical to that of the papacy
and of the Church politicians. In a letter to the Archbishop of
Canterbury in 1102, Pope Paschal II expressed his disapproval
of lay elections of bishops in the strongest possible terms:
The honour of the Church is torn in pieces, the bonds of discipline

are loosened and the Christian religion is dragged through the
mud, if we allow the presumption of laymen to stretch out their
hands to what we know to be the privilege of priests alone. It is not
for laymen to betray the Church, nor for sons to stain their Mother
1
with adultery.
Superficially this is the language used by Hildegard in her

frequently stated defence of the Church, but on closer inspec
tion we realize that it is not the legal matter of lay investiture
that occupied her mind, but the moral deportment of the
Church's members. It is not laymen who despoil the Church
through their election of bishops, but priests and bishops who
are more concerned with their estates, their privileges and
other secular matters than with ministering to their flocks.
Despite her respect for St Bernard, who was the driving
force behind the Second Crusade (1145-9), Hildegard did not
believe that those whose lives were dedicated to God should
play the part of secular knights. In a vision of the Church she
hears the common people complain, 'How can it be right that
the shaven-headed with their robes and chasubles should
have more soldiers and more weapons than we do? Surely too,
it is inappropriate for a cleric to be a soldier and a soldier a
cleric?' (DW 10, 16) . The cleric and monk should set an example
of piety, not of wealth, privilege and preoccupation with
worldly concerns.
In Hildegard's world the Church and the state need one
another. Spiritual power should suffice for the Church and
secular power for the state. She never endorsed the more
radical papal view of absolute supremacy, opting for the more
modern notion of a balance and interdependence in the shar
ing of power so as to avoid abuses on both sides. This is
perhaps why, although deploring his split with the papacy
and his election of three antipopes, Hildegard continued to
urge Frederick Barbarossa to fulfil his God-given mission as a
Christian ruler.
Hildegard may have been a cloistered anchoress and an
6 I Hildegard of Bingen
enclosed nun, but she was by no means cut off from this
turbulent world. Monasteries were part of the network of
feudal ties and obligations. They were endowed by wealthy
families who gave them land and goods in return for their
prayers and spiritual works. Abbots and abbesses of large
houses were powerful figures in their own right, commanding
large incomes from their various estates and becoming major
employers of labour. They were also respected figures, on an
equal footing with their lay brothers and sisters who had
remained 'in the world' . The heads of religious houses were
not so unworldly themselves. Bernard of Clairvaux travelled
widely and acted as advisor to several popes, while Hildegard
left her convent to teach and preach throughout the
Rhineland.
It is into this divided but vibrant world that Hildegard was
born, and in which she lived out her mission. It was an age of
expansion, geographically, with the Crusades pushing south
and east; demographically, with the development of agricul
ture, towns and guilds; architecturally, with the foundation of
numerous monasteries, great cathedral churches, castles and
civic buildings; and of the mind, with the growth of univer
sities, particularly the ancient medical school at Salerno, the
law faculty in Bologna and the theological centre in Paris. From
the lowliest to the most exalted in the land, Hildegard was in
touch with the people who shaped her century and, like all
great women and men, she both reflected and transcended her
age.
Hildegard's Life and Works
HILDEGARD'S LIFE
The woman we know as Hildegard of Bingen was born in

the year 1098 at a place called Bermersheim, near the town of
Alzey in the beautiful German province of Rheinhessen. 2 The
family appear to have been noble and well-connected. Hilde
gard's father, Hildebert, owned estates around Bermersheim
in Rheinhessen, and was known to Count Stephan
of Spanheim (or Sponheim) , whose daughter Jutta founded
the women's community at the Benedictine cloister of
Disibodenberg. Two of Hildegard' s brothers, Hugo and
Roricus, were priests and one of her elder sisters, Clementia,
became a nun at the Rupertsberg convent.
We possess little knowledge of Hildegard' s early years,
although she tells her biographer of an extraordinary gift
which she possessed from her very earliest days. When she
had scarcely learned to speak, Hildegard sought to convey to
those around her something of the remarkable visionary life
which was part of her nature and of which she wrote later that
it had been imprinted on her while still in her mother's womb.
It was this gift which was to shape her life dramatically from
within, and it must have been strongly influential in her
parents' decision to offer the eight-year-old Hildegard, their
tenth child, as an oblate to the nearby Benedictine monastery
of Disibodenberg.
Hildegard was put in the care of a young noblewoman, Jutta
of Spanheim, who had rejected offers of marriage in favour of
enclosure in an anchoress' cell (the life chosen by Julian of
Norwich nearly three hundred years later). Jutta and the
eight-year-old Hildegard, together with one or more servants,
would have been walled up in a couple of small, spartan
8 I Hildegard of Bi11ge11
rooms. The formal religious service which marked their en
closure echoed the rites of burial. The women were to be
hidden from the world, for the good of their souls and for the
greater glory of God. Their cell was adjacent to the abbey
church of Disibodenberg, the site of an earlier Celtic monastery
which was refounded by Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz in
around 1 105 in the wake of the Cluniac Benedictine reforms.
The first abbot was formally installed in 1 108, two years after
3
Hildegard' s arrival on the site. It is no wonder that Hilde
gard' s later visions are so full of images of buildings and
craftsmen, and that the construction of the Kingdom of heaven
was seen as analogous to a human building project. The
Disibodenberg monastery and its women's cloister were in a
state of continual development throughout her forty-four
years there.
Hildegard' s early education would have been based on the
liturgical requirements of a Benedictine abbey. She would
have learnt to pray the Psalter in Latin and have heard,
and later taken part in, the cycle of prayer and chanting
which comprises the monastic life. Handcrafts were also
recommended to keep the recluse from idleness, but more
academic studies seem to have had no place in the anchorage.
Hildegard later described Jutta as an unlearned woman, per
haps comparing her to the monks, who had greater access to
books and to formal education.
As other young women came to join Jutta and Hildegard, so
their accommodation expanded, and their life gradually
changed from that of anchoresses to members of a Benedictine
convent. When Hildegard was fifteen she took the habit of a
Benedictine nun, and when Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard was
elected as leader or magistra of the community. They remained
dependent upon the monks for the services of a priest and in
all financial and administrative matters. This restriction Hilde
gard came increasingly to resent, and as her reputation and
confidence increased, she sought to remedy the situation.
An important figure in Hildegard' s life was the provost of
the convent, Volmar, who could not have been much older
than Hildegard herself. Charged with special responsibility for
the nuns' spiritual welfare, Volmar became one of Hildegard' s
Hildegard's Life and Works I 9

closest friends and confidants, acting at times as a go-between
between Hildegard and the abbot, and helping in the
transcription of her visions. He continued in this role after
Hildegard's move to the Rupertsberg in 1 150, remaining with
her until his death in 1173.
It was to Volmar that Hildegard turned when, in 1 141, 4 she
received the divine command to disclose the content of her
visions. For many years Hildegard had told only Jutta of
her strange gift, and Jutta in turn had alerted Volmar to her
charge's secret. While Jutta was alive, however, Hildegard
seems to have regarded her visions as more of a disability than
a source of inspiration, accompanied as they were by debilitat
ing illness. Now, as leader of her own community, a qualita
tive change seems to have taken place in Hildegard's person
ality. Although reluctant to reveal what she had seen and
understood, the weakness of her youth was replaced by a new
strength, both physical and spiritual. Volmar asked Hildegard
to record her visions secretly so that he could assess their
source, and then, recognizing their supernatural origin,
he informed the abbot and began enthusiastically to assist
Hildegard with their transcription.
There followed several years in which Hildegard worked on
what became her first major visionary work, Scivias, a truly
remarkable work, in which the most profound areas of the
Christian revelation are represented in visionary form. She
was aided by Volmar and a nun to whom she was particularly
attached, Richardis of Stade (a cousin ofJutta's) . Hildegard felt
herself to have a new understanding of 'the writings of the
prophets, the Gospels, the works of other holy men, and those
of certain philosophers', based not on human learning but on
direct inspiration from 'the living light'. She also discovered
her great musical gifts and 'brought forth songs with their
melody, in praise of God and the saints, without being taught
by anyone', a talent which she put to good use in enriching the
liturgical life of her community.
The question of Hildegard's education and the source of her
wide and varied learning has generated much discussion,
particularly as Hildegard herself continually stressed the
divine source of all her knowledge. Barbara Newman is surely
right when she la� s stress not on what Hildegard knew, but
how she knew it. As her reputation grew, Hildegard' s con
fidence increased and she found that her mental capacities too
were illuminated by a divine light. The lessons she had
absorbed over the years took on a new and original meaning
and Hildegard' s creativity blossomed. Ironically, the lack of
formal instruction she had received may have shielded Hilde
gard from the more misogynistic elements of contemporary
literature. Heloise, a contemporary of Hildegard who entered
monastic life as an adult after a brilliant academic career under
the tutelage of her teacher and lover Peter Abelard, was far
more keenly aware than Hildegard of women' s supposed
inferiority. 6
It was not, however, without trepidation that Hildegard
embarked on her public ministry. The support and affirmation
of men whom she respected, and who held authority in the
Church, was vital to her. In 1 146 she wrote to Bernard of
Clairvaux, a leading monastic figure in the Cistercian (Benedic
tine) reform movement, asking for confirmation of her vo
cation. Bernard replied favourably, assuring Hildegard that
her visions were genuine. The support of so great a figure
would have helped to create a favourable atmosphere for the
reception of Hildegard' s work at the Trier synod of 1 147-8,
presided over by the Cistercian pope, Eugenius III. News of
this remarkable visionary had reached Eugenius both from
Bernard and from Heinrich, Archbishop of Mainz, and he sent
a delegation to the Disibodenberg in order to visit Hildegard
and to obtain a copy of her writings. Eugenius was favourably
impressed and authorized Hildegard 'in the name of Christ
and St Peter to publish all that she had learned from the Holy
Spirit' .
The monks on the Disibodenberg were, no doubt, proud of
their protegee. The enhanced reputation of the monastery, the
visitors, the prospect of endowments, new vocations to the
women' s cloister, and the dowries the women brought with
them, were all to be welcomed. Now a respected figure in her
own right, the cramped quarters and lack of independence
granted her cloister led Hildegard to take a difficult but decis
ive step. In a vision, which followed a period of illness,
Hildegard's Life and Works I 1 1

Hildegard was told to leave the Disibodenberg with her sisters
to found a new community . Despite her claim that the entire
proceedings were directed by God, Hildegard had also
enlisted the support of the Archbishop of Mainz and the
Marchioness of Stade, the mother of Richardis, who may have
had a hand in prospecting for a suitable site . Abbot Kuno was
at first unwilling to grant permission for the move, and neither
the nuns themselves, nor their families, could see the necessity
of leaving a place where they were comfortable, and which
they had generously endowed . Reacting to criticism from local
people that she was mad or possessed, Hildegard took to her
bed and lay there immobile. When Kuno failed to lift her he
became convinced that this was no ordinary illness, but a sign
of divine disapproval. As soon as he relented, Hildegard rose
from her bed, restored to health. Building work began on the
new site and in 1 150 Hildegard made the day' s journey down
the River Nahe to the Rupertsberg together with twenty of her
sisters . As Sabina Flanagan has it, 'she had emerged from the
shadow of the monastery of Disibodenberg into the sunligh t of
her own foundation' . 7
The journey to full independence was not yet complete. In
order to maintain a viable institution Hildegard needed to
wrest control of the women's finances from the monks on the
Disibodenberg, and she sought to establish a principle where
by the monks would supply the nuns with a provost of their
choice to oversee their spiritual welfare . The early years on the
Rupertsberg were ones of considerable hardship and poverty,
and it was not until 1 158 that Hildegard finally succeeded
in obtaining a charter regulating the distribution of assets
between the two houses. Her standing with the abbots of
Disibodenberg and in the eyes of local families was by no
means sufficient to ensure that she could get her own way,
even when appealing to the authority of 'the living light'.
It is to this period that Hildegard's two scientific works
belong: the Natural History (Physica) and the Causes and Cures
(Causae et curae) . The former is an ingenious study of the many
aspects of the natural world, while the latter, which concen
trates upon the working of the human body, is a medical
compendium. Hildegard also wrote a second visionary work,
Rupcrtsberg i11 1625
the Book of Life's Merits (Liber vitae meritorum), in these years

which, according to remarks in her biography, may well reflect
her concern with pastoral issues in the new convent. Here she
describes both the vices and the virtues in brilliantly colourful
and poetic imagery.
With the economic foundations and independence of her
community assured, Hildegard was able to turn her energies
in a new direction. In around 1 158 a prolonged illness, the
prelude to most of Hildegard's major decisions, was followed
by her first preaching tour. Already around 60 years of age, the
woman who had �een enclosed for life as a child, and who had
been cloistered for over fifty years, set out on a most unfemi
nine mission, to preach the Word of God in the towns and
villages along the River Main. The words of Scripture recorded
in 1 Timothy 2 . 1 2, which forbid a woman to teach in public,
might be thought to preclude such a step, but Hildegard felt
impelled by her inner voice and dared not refuse. Over the
next twelve years, despite long periods of ill health, Hildegard

made four such journeys within a radius of some 200
kilometres of Bingen, speaking both to clergy and to lay
people, sometimes in the chapter houses of religious com
munities, and sometimes in public . Although she described
herself as 'a simple creature' and as a 'poor little woman',
Hildegard' s writings and letters, some of which record the
texts of her public sermons, display a remarkable assurance
and originality . She felt confident enough to address the most
exalted lay and religious leaders of her day, whilst never losing
her interest in the ordinary workings of the human mind and
body, or of the natural world around her.
In 1 163, Hildegard began her third and final visionary work,
the Book of Divine Works (De operatione Dei), in which in a series
of visions she once again presents the theme of God and the
creation . This is Hildegard's most accomplished work . Two
years later she established a second foundation, at the former
Augustinian double monastery across the Rhine at Eibingen,
near Riidesheim. She visited this new community twice a
week, but experienced many pastoral problems with the nuns
there, some of whom eventually returned to secular life
At the very end of Hildegard's life there occurred an event
which throws a clear light on her uncompromising adherence
to the truth of the gospel. It appears that Hildegard permitted a
nobleman, who had been excommunicated, to be buried in
the convent cemetery after he had been reconciled with the
Church and had received the sacraments. Unaware of the
circumstances, or unwilling to explore them, the Church aut.h
orities at Mainz imposed an interdict upon the community at
Rupertsberg, which meant that Hildegard and her nuns were
denied the sacraments and were hindered in their rhythm of
praise. Despite Hildegard's carefully constructed protesta
tions and the intervention of witnesses, the authorities failed
to respond. It was only some while later, when Hildegard
appealed directly to Archbishop Christian of Mainz, who was
away in Rome, that the situation could be satisfactorily
resolved.
Some seven months later, on 1 7 September 1179, Hildegard
died peacefully and in the bosom of her community. Her
canonization process, which was initiated not long after her
death, was never formally completed due to administrative
difficulties. But in 1324 Pope John XXII gave permission for
her 'solemn and public cult', and Hildegard's status today is
that of a canonical saint. Her feast is celebrated in the German
calendar on the anniversary of her death.
HILDEGARD'S WORKS
Scivias, which means literally 'Know the Ways', is the first and
the longest of Hildegard's visionary works (1141-51). It is
divided into three sections or books, consisting of six, seven
and thirteen visions respectively. Hildegard first records each
vision in detail and then gives its theological explanation,
which is presented by a 'voice from heaven'.
Book One begins with the theme of wisdom, which is
human knowledge and inquiry illumined by faith, humility
and revelation, and it progresses to the theme of humanity in
the bondage of original sin. Then Hildegard turns to the
creation, at the heart of which there stands an unredeemed
humanity, to the old Covenant which anticipates the coming
of Christ and to the angelic order with its promise of fulfilment
to come.
Book Two presents the theme of the Saviour, the Church -
its hierarchy and sacraments, particularly baptism, confir
mation and the Eucharist - and the theme of continuing
temptation and evil.
Book Three explores the work of the Holy Spirit in building
up the Kingdom of God through the virtues, and the last
visions of this book are concerned with the Day of Judgement
and the New Earth. The final vision of all, the 'Play of Virtues'
(Ordo virtutum), is dominated by the theme of victory and
praise, and its blend of action and personification justify its
description as the first morality play. Hildegard herself later
developed the Ordo as an independent piece and set it to
music.
The Book of Life's Merits (Liber vitae meritor� m) is� ildeg?rd's

.
second visionary work (1158-63). It consists of six v1s1ons,

each of which describes the figure of a man who looks towards
different points of the compass, with a commentary. The first
five visions present thirty-five pairs of virtues and vices, the
latter of which are examined in fuller detail than the former,
together with penances for their expiation and removal. The
vices also appear in visible form (unlike the virtues), and
Hildegard manages to present a powerful and expressive
representation of purgatory and of hell. The final book turns to
more general themes such as judgement and the promise for
the blessed of glory in heaven.
The Book of Divine Works (De operatione Dei) is the third and final
of Hildegard's visionary works (1163-73/4) . This, too, is div
ided into three parts and, again like Scivias, it seeks to address
·:he Christian mystery in its full cosmological depth . The work
:onsists of ten visions of varying lengths, divided into three
books which are themselves of different lengths. The first
book, which consists of the first four visions, deals with God's
creation of the world from love and with the special place of
humanity within it. The second book, or fifth vision, develops
the idea of humanity as the moral centre of the world, faced
with ultimate divine judgement, while the third book, which
consists of the last five visions, is concerned with salvation
history, with the incarnation and the end of time. The central
part of the work is Hildegard' s long meditation on the opening
of St John's Gospel, which forms a considerable section of the
fourth vision.
·
The Book of Divine Works is a broad cosmological reflection on

the Christian revelation from a profoundly anthropocentric
point of view according to which men and women, who are
themselves the 'work' of God, are called to co-operate actively
with God in the perfection of his creation.
The Natural History (Physica) was written between 1 151 and

1 158 . It describes the healing powers of plants, elements,
trees, jewels, animals and metals, while giving an account of
their origin. Causes and Cures (Causae et curae), which dates from
the same period, is a medical compendium which addresses
the constitution of the human body, its illnesses and their
remedies. Both these books originally constituted a single
work with the title The Subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Created
Things (Liber subtilitatwn diversarum naturarum creaturarwn).
Hildegard was also the author of seventy-seven songs for
which she herself composed the music. The language of these
songs is particularly beautiful, and their accompaniment is
strikingly original. The themes which they address range from
the three Persons of the Trinity, to Mary, the angels, patriarchs
and prophets, the apostles and martyrs, as well as individual
saints . And some are songs written on the occasion of the
dedication of a church. Hildegard's corpus of songs is known
as the Symphonia, and it is believed that they were in greater
part complete by the year 1 158.
During her life time, Hildegard also wrote a good many
letters, of which some three hundred survive . These give
us valuable insight into her private thoughts and personal
struggles, as well as her public mission to advise and, when
necessary, to correct. Hildegard corresponded with a great
variety of people, including four popes (Eugenius III,
Anastasius IV, Hadrian IV, Alexander III), numerous local
rulers (including the King of England, Henry II) and even the
emperor (Barbarossa, or Frederick I, whom she actually met),
numerous archbishops and bishops, abbots and abbesses,
leading spiritual figures (Bernard of Clairvaux, Elisabeth of
Schonau), many priests and lay people .
Hildegard's other works, which generally date from a later
period, include a selection of readings from the Gospels, with
an allegorical commentary (the Expositio11es eva11gelion1111), com
mentaries on the Rule of St Benedict (Expla11atio Regulae S.
Benedicti) and on 'the Athanasian Creed (Explanatio Symboli S.
Atlzanasii), and two biographies: the Life of Sf Disibod (Vita Sa11cti
Disibodi) and the Life of Sf Rupert (Vita Sancfi Ruperti) . There is
also the Solutions to Thirty-Eight Questions (Solutio11es trigi11ta
ocfo quaestionum), in which Hildegard attempted to solve
theological problems put to her by the monks of Villers and
Guibert of Gembloux, and there are two short pieces entitled
the Unknown La11guage (Li11gua ig11ofa) and the U11k11mun Writing
(Litterae ignotae). The former is a glossary of some nine
hundred words which Hildegard herself created and which
are arranged in thematic groups.
1 8 I Hildegard of Bingen
The Living Light
The role of visions in the experience of medieval women is
analysed by Elizabeth Petroff in her perceptive introduction to
her book Medieval Women's Visionary Literature:
Visions led women to the acquisition of power in the world while

affirming their knowledge of themselves as women. Visions were a
socially sanctioned activity that freed a woman from conventional
female roles by identifying her as a genuine religious figure. They
brought her to the attention of others, giving her a public language
she could use to teach and learn. Her visions gave her the strength
to grow internally and to change the world, to build convents,
found hospitals, preach, attack injustice and greed, even within
the Church . Visions also provided her with the content for teaching
although education had been denied her. She could be an exemplar
for other women, and out of her own experience she could lead
them to fuller self-development. Finally, visions allowed the
medieval woman to be an artist, composing and refining her most
profound experiences into a form that she could create and recreate
for herself throughout her entire life. 8
These words could have been written with Hildegard in mind,

and they certainly apply to her. She founded two monasteries,
at Rupertsberg and Eibingen. She certainly preached, com
posed, taught, reflected upon and utilized her visions in her
work of healing artd in the working out of her theology. They
also gave rise to the extraordinary illustrations which accom
pany Scivias and The Book of Divine Works, the former almost
certainly completed in the Rupertsberg scriptorium during
Hildegard's lifetime, and the latter, utilizing a similar style,
undertaken in the thirteenth century . What then were these
visions? Their content is laid out and expounded in Hilde
gard's great visionary trilogy, but what interested so many of
The Living Light I 19

her contemporaries, as well as later inquirers, was the manner
in which they came to her.
From autobiographical extracts in her Vita we know that
Hildegard 'saw so great a brightness that my soul trembled'
when she was only three, that she discovered in herself the
ability to foretell future events {such as the colour of a calf in its
mother' s womb), and that her normal perceptions were un
affected by her inner vision. It is in a letter written in response
to the persistent requests of the Walloon monk, Guibert of
Gembloux, that Hildegard gives the fullest account of her
visions . It appears that the faculty to see things with her soul
was constantly present, both by day and by night, and that this
gift was immensely taxing to Hildegard's health. What she
sees, Hildegard describes as a non-spatial light, which she
termed 'the reflection (or shadow) of the living light' . This light
would produce images, sometimes accompanied by a voice
which addressed her in Latin, and which she claimed to record
faithfully. Only on one occasion does Hildegard describe a
vision which was accompanied by a loss of normal conscious
ness, and she interpreted this as a prelude to the writing of her
third and most accomplished visionary work 'in which many
investigations of the creations of the divine mystery would
have to be pursued' . 9 The illustrations accompanying Scivias
and The Book of Divine Works give us an inkling of what
Hildegard saw in her visions, although they remain static,
unable fully to portray the great dramas of colour, movement
and sound, resonant with symbolic significance, which her
writings describe.
Modern interest has followed the observations of Charles
Singer, a medical historian, who saw in Hildegard' s descrip
tion of her visions evidence of migraines. HJ But Hildegard too
was interested in the physiological basis of her visions. She
described her temperament as 'airy', easily affected by
changes in the weather and prone to infirmity. The four
humours were unbalanced in her, producing a permanent
vulnerability, but also enabling her to become the dwelling
place of the Holy Spirit, perceived as a spiritual wind to which
her soul was especially sensitive . Her visions, the presence of
the 'living light' and her poor health were therefore intimately
connected, and from an inherent weakness Hildegard learned
to draw her strength .
Unlike the visions of her younger contemporary and friend,
Elizabeth of Sch6nau, or those of other twelfth and thirteenth
century women mystics such as Marie of Oignies, Mechthild of
Magdeburg or Hadewijch of Brabant, Hildegard' s message
was prophetic and didactic. 11 She has little in common with the
intensely devotional, erotic and ecstatic mysticism of the be
guine writers mentioned above, and her theology is theo
centric or sapiential, rather than christocentric. It is the cosmic
dimension, the struggle between good and evil, an absorption
with the great work of redemption and the role of human
beings in that work, which preoccupy Hildegard . She does not
present herself as a role model or lay down a path of mystical
union for others to follow. Hildegard is, rather, a mouthpiece,
a 'small tru mpet', a 'feather on the breath of God' , whose task
it is to teach and correct her fellow men and women and to
glorify the Creator.
Hildegard claimed direct divine intervention as the source of
all her visionary works, her music and many of her letters and
pronouncements. One is, however, left with the impression
that Hildegard could overstate her case, and that some of her
contemporaries regarded her statements with a degree of
scepticis m. The claim that 'the divine light has spoken' and the
invocation of terrible curses for those who ignored it, might on
occasions have resembled the rantings of an old woman who
had been thwarted, rather than a mouthpiece of God . An
example of Hildegard's style can be seen in her Vita, in a
passage describing her efforts to obtain independence for her
convent from the monks at Disibodenberg. What Hildegard
describes as a 'petition' was, as Peter Dronke so rightly points
out, more of a 'furmination' .
And in accordance with what I perceived in my true vision, I said to
the Father Abbot: 'The serene light says: You shall be father to our
provost, and father of the salvation of the souls of the daughters of
my mystic garden. But their alms do not belong to you or to your
brother s -your cloister should be a refuge for these women. If you
are determined to go on with your proposals, raging against us,
you will be like the Amalekites, and like Antiochus, of whom it was
The Living Light I 21

wri tten that he despoiled the Temple of the Lord. If some of you,
unworthy ones, said to yourselves: Let's take some of their
freeholds away - then I WHO AM say: You are the worst of
robbers. And if you try to take away the shepherd of spiritual
medicine [i. e . Provost Volmar], then again I say, you are sons of
Belial, and in this you do not look to the j ustice of God. So that same
justice will destroy you. '12
In both her Vita, and at the ertd of each of her visionary
works, Hildegard emphasizes their divine origins and warns
against altering her words in any way, saying, for instance, in
the Book of Life's Merits, 'Wherefore if anyone, through an
overweening pride in his own writings and opinions, adds
anything to them in contradiction, he is worthy to suffer the
pains here described. Or if anyone removes anything from
them through perv�rsity, he is worthy to be removed from the
joys here revealed. ' 13 These protestations reveal the fragility of
Hildegard's authority. As a woman she had no right to teach
others, only as a mouthpiece of God could she appropriate this
mal e and priestly prerogative. As Barbara Newman put it:
In these brazen confrontations with her readers, daring them to
accep t all or nothing, Hildegard betrays both more and less than
total assurance. Texts such as these, interwoven as they are with
references to her own simplicity, frailty and femininity, insist on
her authority with a defiance proportional to her fear that her books
would indeed be concealed, altered, abridged, ridiculed or
ignored. 14
It is to Hildegard's relationship with the living light, her
extraordinary visionary gift, that we can attribute the trans
formation of 'a poor womanly creature' into the 'sybil of the
Rhine' .
Hildegard's Theology
One of the major achievements of Hildegard of Bingen is that

her work embraces the full breadth of the Christian revelation
in a fresh and original way; and this fact alone puts her in a
small group of outstanding doctors of the Church. Not content
with concentrating on one or two specific aspects of the
Christian life or revelation, Hildegard is concerned with the
whole of creation, with the place of humanity, of sin and
redemption. She thus creates a cosmology in the true sense
of the word: a system which represents and explores the
who IP
And yet, at the same time, Hildegard was a teacher and her
instincts were paramountly pastoral. This means to say that
the cosmology which Hildegard presents is not a dispassionate
attempt to investigate the origins of the universe; rather it is an
inspired (and passionate!) attempt to represent the world in
such a way that we, her audience, will better understand what
it is that we must do in order to fulfil the divine plan and to
express the fulness and the goodness of our own nature.15 In
other words, although many of the elements in Hildegard's
teaching derive from earlier treatises on the nature of the
universe, her handling of them is entirely new in that the very
structures of the universe are taken up into a vision of the great
cycle of creation, of sin and redemption, which has humanity
at its centre. Nothing in Hildegard's work, despite its immense
range, is untouched by her need to explore the primal drama of
God, humanity and the Redeemer. There is therefore a
dynamism, a brilliance and an urgency in her work which is all
her own.16
A brief look at the very first vision of her first work (Scivias)
can illustrate something of the way in which Hildegard pro
ceeds (see illustration on page 25). At the very centre of this
Hildegard's Theology I 23
v1s10n is the glory of God in his unapproachable and un
fathomable light; and yet this is not a remote glory but one
which engages with us, protecting us and revealing to us 'the
unutterable justice of final victory' . The remaining two figures
in the vision both represent our proper response to the light.
The first figure, which is covered with eyes, is the 'fear of God' .
This is the principle of ever-watching alertness, the constant
vigilance of the human spiri t as it strains always to receive the
energies and the light of God. The second figure is the necess
ary state of being which accompanies this tuning of the mind to
God. This is the figure of a small girl who is 'poverty of spirit',
and who reminds us that it is only deep humility and obedi
ence to God which support and sustain the vision of his
light. The vision concludes with the statement that all our
actions, both good and bad, lie open to God's view and, while
acknowledging that human action shows a mixture of 'luke
warmness and sincerity', Hildegard speaks of those who walk
the 'path of truth' and urges us to take her warning to heart.
Here, as elsewhere, the source of Hildegard' s inspiration is
light, sublime light whose origin is within the Godhead itself.
The radiance of the first vision tallies well with what Hildegard
tells us elsewhere about the living, divine light, which she
glimpses only upon occasion, and the 'reflection of the living
light' which seems to be the medium of the visions themselves.
I n Scivias, in the first vision, both forms of light are present,
one which is remote and impenetrable and the other which
communicates itself as revelation.
But with the presence of the small girl who, representing
poverty of spirit, stands before the throne of God and receives
the divine light, Hildegard shows us the centrality of the
human dimension in her vision. 17 The communication of the
divine light takes place within a human space, and at no point
does Hildegard wander from her primary intuition of the·
special and integral role of humanity within the creation. As
we will see, she believes tha t the creation itself is indelibly
marked with a human outline; just as humanity contains
within itself elements of the universe as a whole.
Finally, Hildegard's remarks at the end of the vision remind
us that her concern is paramountly didactic and pastoral. She
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The Glory of God

wishes to instruct us in the ways of God, to point out the evils
and dangers inherent in our fragile nature, and to urge us to
'walk the path of truth', which shall lead ultimately to bliss and
salvation. And so, despite the sublimity of her revelations,
Hildegard remains deeply orientated towards the needs and
situation of her fellow human-beings. 18
THE CREATION
The creation, for Hildegard, begins in the love of God, as this
passage from the Book of Divine Works shows:
The leaping fountain is clearly the purity of the living God. His
radiance is reflected in it, and in that splendour, God embraces in
his great love all things whose reflection appeared in the leaping
fountain before he ordered them to come forth in their own shape.
And in me, Love, all things are reflected and my splendour reveals
the design of things, j ust as the reflection indicates their form. In
Humility, who is my helper, creation has come forth at God's
command; and in that same Humility, God has inclined himself
towards me, to lift up again in that blessedness the withered leaves
that have fallen and through whom he can do all that he will. For he
fashioned, them out of the earth; and from the earth he freed them
after the fall. (DW 8, 2)
In this passage it is striking that this same love of God, which
contains all things in itself, contains humanity too, together
with our fall into sin and our redemption from sin through the
incarnation of his Son. Right from the very beginning there
fore, Hildegard's creation is one which not only contains a
foreknowledge of the great drama of the fall and our redemp
tion, but finds in this its own essential meaning. And it is also
significant that the 'voice' in this passage is that of the love of
God, which is personified as a young woman . As Barbara
Newman has shown, the 'eternal feminine, in her several
guises, links God's coming into the world with the world's
own coming to be' . 19 Hildegard' s vision of the creation is
profoundly christocentric therefore (with Christ at its centre)
in that it is so deeply anthropocentric (with humanity at its
centre) . This is confirmed by another important passage in
which the Love of God again speaks, which is the source of all
life, and which tells us how it has 'kindled every living spark'
and how it is aflame 'above the beauty of the fields', gleaming
'in the waters' and burning 'in the sun, the moon and the
stars' . Yet again Hildegard quickly asserts the primacy of the
human: 'For it was always the case throughout eternity that
God wanted to create his work - man. And when he had
finished this work, he gave all creatures to him so that with
them he might work, just as God himself had made his work,
which is man' (DW 1 , 2). Likewise, in her vision of the great
'cosmic wheel' which supports all creation, Hildegard tells us
that it is humanity which is at its centre: 'Humanity stands in
the midst of the structure of the world. For it is more important
than all other creatures which remain dependent on that
world. Although small in stature, humanity is powerful in the
power of its soul' (DW 2, 15). And, in another passage,
Hildegard makes it clear that the fall of Adam and Eve has
repercussions for the whole of the creation, for 'in their misfor
tune and their exile every creature in the world is shrouded in
cloud, as when a ray from the sun shines through dense cloud'
(DW 5, 15) .
For Hildegard, the creation itself takes place through the
Word of God . Here, of course, she is following the teaching at
the beginning of the Gospel of St John ('through whom all
things were made': John 1 . 3). Also, in a sense, created things
remain within the Word. 20 Thus we read:
The Word sounded and brought all creatures into being. In this
way the Word and God are one. As the Word sounded, he called to
himself all of creation which had been predestined and established
in eternity. His resonance awakened everything to life, just as God
had indicated within humanity. God secretly speaks the Word
within his heart ebefore God emits the Word. This is the Word
which still remains within God, even though it is sent forth. Thus
whatever is uttered by the Word remains in the Word. Now when
the Word of God sounded, this Word appeared in every creature,
and this sound was life in every creature. (DW 4, 105)
The dependence of the life of creation on the Word is an

important idea for Hildegard, as it reinforces the image of a
creation which is vibrant with divine life. Elsewhere, for
instance, Hildegard tells us that 'the Son exists in such glory
that every creature is illuminated by the brightness of the
Word's light' (SC I 3 , 4) .
But despite the centrality of humankind in the overall plan of
creation, Hildegard also has a vigorous sense of the transcen
dent otherness of creation. In a number of passages she speaks
of the way in which creation is brilliant with divine life, and she
states that it is creation which reveals to us the God who
cannot be seen: 'God cannot be seen but is known through the
divine creation, just as our body cannot be seen because of our
clothing' (DW 9, 14) . Creatures emerge from God as sparks: 'all
the living sparks are rays of his splendour, just as the rays of
the sun proceed from the sun itself. And how would God be
known to be Life except through the living things which glorify
him, since the things that praise his glory have proceeded from
him?' (OW 4, 1 1) . Above all, it is the sense of lzfe in creatures
which fascinates Hildegard, what she calls their 'radiance',
which may be their 'greenness or seeds or flowers or beauty'
(DW 4, 1 1 ) . And she roots this power fundamentally in the
dynamic, vibrant life of God himself, who is the 'Life of all life'
(OW 4, 105) . 2 1
HUMANITY
The core of Hildegard' s understanding of the role of men and
women within the creation can be found in a remark she makes
in her Life: 'Humanity too is God's creation. But humanity
alone is called to co-operate with God in the creation' ( Vita II,
35) . 22 That special role which we have within the created order
and which emerges so clearly from Hildegard's discussions of
the nature of the creation, is that we alone possess the power to
fashion according to our own will those things and creatures
which have been created by God. After all, we alone of all
creatures possess reason, the light of discrimination (cf. SC III
2, 9), and so we can choose either to co-operate with the
goodness of God, or to defy him and to oppose his order. This
is Hildegard's central perception concerning humankind, and
it is the one which gives such a keen edge to the didactic
character of her work.
Even a cursory view of her writings will persuade us how
intensely interested Hildegard is in the human phenomenon.
She writes at length of each part of the human body and never
tires of trying to explain its workings, according to her own
understanding of the structure of the world of which we are a
part. And indeed, she conceives of humanity very much as a
microcosm of the world's macrocosm; for 'God fashioned the
human form according to the constitution of the firmament
and of all the other creatures, as the founder has a certain form
according to which he makes his vessels' (OW 4, 97) . Human
beings are the 'complete creation of God' (plenum opus Oei) and
we contain both the things of the earth and those of heaven:
'Thus humankind is earthly according to its humble station in
the flesh and heavenly because of the heights of heaven which
it possesses in its soul' (OW 4, 99) . And Hildegard compares
the soul directly with the moisture which gives life to the earth:
'The soul is the green life-force of the flesh . For, indeed, the
body grows and progresses on account of the soul, just as the
earth becomes fruitful through moisture . And the soul is also
the moisture of the body because the soul moistens it so that it
does not dry out, just as rain flows down into the earth' (OW 4,
21 ) . In another example, she compares the proportions of the
human head (the seat of the soul) with the harmony of the
created world: 'The sphere of the human head indicates
the roundness of the firmament, and the right and balanced
measurements of our head reflect the right and balanced
measurement of the firmament' (OW 4, 16). And in a further
passage, Hildegard argues that we are ourselves constituted
by the very same elements which make up the external
world:
As has already b�en shown a number o f times, just as the four
elements hold the world together, they also form the structure for
the human body. Their distribution and function in the whole
human being are such that they constantly sustain the person, just
as they are spread throughout all the rest of the world and have
their effects. Fire, air, water and earth are in humankind, and
humans consist of them. From fire they have the warmth of their
bodies, from air they have their breath, from water they have their
blood and from earth their bodies. (CC 49, 29)
Hildegard' s Theology I 29
Indeed, in a sense human beings can be said even to contain the
world; for 'God imprinted every creature in humankind itself
according to its measure' (DW 1, 2).
Elsewhere Hildegard not only sees a parallel between the
'humours of the body' and the winds which sweep the earth's
surface, but she even suggests that the latter act directly upon
the former: 'Then I noticed how the humours in the human
organism are distributed and altered by various qualities of the
wind and air, as soon as such qualities come into conflict with
one another, because the humours themselves take on such
qualities' (DW 3, 1 ) .
For Hildegard, humanity, despite its special place i n cre
ation, is not distinct from the rest of creation. We are composed
of the same elements, and our nature is constructed along the
same principles, as the world in which we live. And, although
the creatures have been made in order to serve our needs (DW
2, 2), we too are answerable to them:
God has directed for humanity's benefit all of creation, which God
has formed both on the heights and in the dep ths. If we abuse our
position and commit evil deeds, God's judgement will permit other
creatures to punish us. And just as creatures have to serve our
bodily needs, it is also unders tood that they are intended for the
welfare of our souls. (DW 3, 2)
Elsewhere she tells us how the elements will 'hold their right
course' if our deeds are just, but will inflict suffering upon us if
we 'perform evil deeds' (DW 4, 104). Hildegard's view · of
humanity then is one which sugges ts that we express our true
nature when we are in harmony with creation, and she sug
gests that being sinful means that we are not in harmony with
the world around us (SC III 5, 1 7) .
A s befits a world-scheme i n which humankind has such a
central place, Hildegard has a very 'high' view of human
nature in that she believes that redeemed humanity is to take
the place of the fallen angels before the throne of God (DW 1 ,
10). This positive view of humanity is balanced however by a
keen sense of our sinfulness and our need for redemption
through the saving action of Christ, to which theme the whole
of the second part of Scivias is devoted. But what is character-
istic above all of Hildegard' s understanding of humanity is her
belief that we and the creation are intrinsically good. The
measure of our sinfulness is the measure of the distortion of
that essential goodness within us. And we are good, according
to Hildegard, because life itself is divinely given and is good.
There is nothing of an unwholesome depreciation of ourselves
or creation here, although Hildegard remains fully and realisti
cally aware of our many failings which constantly serve to
distort that image of goodness within us.
HILDEGARD'S IMAGERY
The whole of Hildegard's work is inspired by the spirit of
balance and moderation. 23 Within the cosmic order of things,
humankind (we who contain within ourselves the elements
both of heaven and earth) represent a central mediating point
located between the divine and the earthly. We are called
ourselves to live in harmony 'with the elements'; to maintain a
proper balance in all things so that the humours and the
system of dryness and moisture within the body will be kept in
ordered harmony. And the chief way in which this concern
with order and harmony is expressed is by Hildegard's under
standing of health. It is this motif which runs throughout the
whole of her work, both when she is talking of the essential
truths of the Christian revelation and of our moral life, as well
as when she reflects on our physical state in her medical
works. And the central, unifying image which she uses here in
order to connect the different levels of her reflection is that of
'greenness' (Latin: viriditas).
At one level, the origin of this image must lie in the subtle,
ever-changing anp deeply affecting green of the hills that
surround the Disibodenberg and Rupertsberg areas of the
German Rhineland, where Hildegard lived and worked. And,
in the first instance, greenness is the living life of the fruitful
earth (e.g . 'The rivers give rise to smaller streams that sustain
the earth by their greening power' (DW 4, 59)). The burgeoning
life of the earth is founded upon moisture (rainfall) and upon
the dynamic life-force which is ultimately the living energy of
God and which, for Hildegard, generally takes the form of
reproductive power. Although it sometimes has this sense
in us too, the 'greenness' of humanity lies principally in
our rational soul, which 'is the green life-force of the flesh'
(OW 4, 21).
But Hildegard uses this image of the 'green' life-force of the
world in order also to represe nt the spiritual life of grace and
virtue, and Peter Dronke is quite right when he says that
Hildegard's greenness 'is the earthly expression of the celestial
sunlight; greenness is the condition in which earthly beings
experience a fulfilment which is both physical and divine;
greenness is the blithe overcoming of the dualism between
earthly and heavenly' . 24 Viriditns in the natural order is linked
with the moisture which is essential to life, and so, in the
spiritual realm, moisture (rainfall, dewfall) is specifically
linked with the Holy Spirit, the giver of Life: 'Through the
Word, the sweet moisture of holiness fell from God and in the
Holy Spirit' (SC II 1, 8) . In another passage, the Holy Spirit
itself is 'green': 'She [blessedness] is also surrounded with
many gifts which are green with the greenness of the Holy
Spirit' (SC III 6, 33), for it is the Holy Spirit 'which poured out
this green freshness of life into the hearts of men and women
so that they might bear good fruit' (OW 10, 2) . Here Hildegard
is adapting the green fruitfulness of the earth in order to
express the virtues and good deeds of spiritual souls who are
'fecund' (OW 1, 16) :
If meanwhile, we give up the green vitality of these virtues and
surrender to the drou ght of o u r indolence, so that we do not have
the sap of life a nd the greeni n g power of good d eeds, then the
power of our very soul will begin to fade and d ry up . . . But if
we follow the right road, all our actions will give rise to good fruit.
(OW 2, 18)
There are other occasions too in which Hildegard uses the

image of green-life to refer to different aspects of the divine
order. Thus she says of the Church that it spreads 'like
bursting buds and blessed greenness' (SC II 5, 26); the 'moist
greenness' of a stone 'signifies God, who never becomes dry
nor is limited in virtue' (SC II 2, 5); the 'greenness of life-giving
breath' is 'brought forth from the mouth' of a priest who
32 I Hildegard of Bi11ge11
officiates at the Eucharist (SC II 6, 1 1); from 'tears and si ghs the
greening life-force of repentance arises' (DW 4, 32); in number
nineteen of her Songs, the Virgin Mary is the 'greenest branch'
and, in the Book of Divine Works, Jesus himself is 'the green
wood because he caused all the greening power of the virtues'
(OW 1 0, 19) .
Behind Hildegard's image of 'greenness' (and indeed the
rest of her colour imagery) is the central concept of light. 25
After all, the source of her visions is precisely the 'living light'
together with the 'reflection of the living light', 26 and her
writings abound in imagery which conveys this sense of
radiance . Above all, the universe itself becomes a mirror which
captures and throws back the divine light in a symphony of
brilliance and grandeur. At the top of the hierarchy of creation
are the angels, which are like 'the brilliance of many reflections
in a mirror' (DW 1, 6) . Men and women possess the power of
reason, which is the noblest element in the soul and which
Hildegard describes in terms of light so that 'we are flooded
with light itself in the same way as the light of day illumines the
world' (OW 4, 105) . Similarly, Hildegard speaks of the 'daz
zlingly fair wings of reason' on which we can 'soar upward in
true faith and hope to God' (OW 7, 5). And finally, in one of
Hildegard's most powerful images of all, the whole of creation
is radiant with the divine light: 'all living creatures are, so to
speak, sparks from the radiation of God's brilliance, and these
sparks emerge from God like the rays of the sun' (DW 4, 1 1) .
Hildcgard's Theology I 33
Hildegard the Won1an
What kind of person was this extraordinary, enigmatic woman
who made such an impact on her own times, only to disappear
from view for nearly eight hundred years before being 'redis
covered' in our own century? By the end of her life Hildegard's
fame had spread half way across Europe . People of all ranks
visited her convent on the Rupertsberg to seek her advice in
both spiritual and practical matters . Her fame as a counsellor
equalled her reputation for healing and exorcism and her
prophetic gifts led to comparisons with the Old Testament
figures of Miriam, Deborah and Judith, whom she was said to
excel. Hildegard inspired admiration and devotion from many
of those around her, but like all powerful and forceful person
alities, she also had her share of detractors.
Although Hildegard's writings sometimes appear contradic
tory and unsystematic, an examination of her works does give
us some clues as to the kind of person we are dealing with . The
picture of a highly intelligent, sensitive, forceful, artistic and
well-integrated woman emerges. Hildegard is no pious inno
cent, despite her oblation (her dedication to monastic life as a
child) and her relatively restricted experience of the world
from within a Benedictine cloister. She can write with a de
tached enthusiasm about matters such as the pleasures of
sexual intercourse, while at the same time developing a rich
theology of the celibate life, which was celebrated with great
splendour in her convent on the Rupertsberg. If Hildegard was
your friend, she would stand by you, although never being
afraid to correct where she thought necessary, but she was not
a woman one would want as an enemy. Scathing and relent
less in her criticism of those she thought were despoiling the
Church of God , and determined in getting her own way,
Hildegard was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with. While
we may not agree with all that Hildegard says and does -
indeed much of her thinking and her behaviour bears a medi
eval stamp which can seem alien to our own concerns - one
cannot help but respect her. There is a zest for life, a respect for
individuals and for the created world, an irrepressible energy,
an imaginative power and a yearning for the good and the
beautiful which attract and fascinate those who come into
contact with this remarkable woman. As a leading twentieth
century poet Stephan George, himself a native of Bingen, put
it, 'Here is someone with whom one could have talked!'
HILDEGARD'S PERSONALITY
One way of learning more about Hildegard' s personality is by
examining some of her relationships as revealed in her letters.
One of the most important people in Hildegard' s life was
undoubtedly Richardis of Stade, the nun who had been her
confidante during their years at Disibodenberg. From the
correspondence concerning Richardis's removal to a convent
in the north of Germany, and her subsequent tragic death, we
obtain a picture of an intimate, but perhaps overly dependent
relationship, which Hildegard was loath to relinquish . From
letters to Hazzecha of Krauftal, the abbess of a community in
the diocese of Strasburg, we learn something of Hildegard's
wisdom, compassion and common sense. Her key word in
giving pastoral advice is 'discretion', and she displays a keen
and sympathetic understanding of human frailty. A third
significant relationship, of a different tenor altogether, was
with the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, one of the
most powerful men of his age. Thanks perhaps to her own
noble background and to the aristocratic circles in which she
moved, Hildegard felt herself competent to approach this
maverick international statesman. They met personally on a t
least one occasion, and conducted a correspondence over
many years .
HILDEGARD AND RICHARDIS OF STADE

An illustration from the Lucca manuscript of The Book of Divine
Works shows Hildegard receiving her visions in a stream of
Hildegard the Woman I 35
heavenly light and writing them onto a tablet. Behind her
stands a nun, presumed to be Richardis, and on the other side
of a grille Volmar takes down and edits Hildegard' s words.
Richardis is represented as a collaborator, along with Volmar,
in Hildegard's mission to 'write and tell' what she has seen and
heard in her visions. But it is only when shortly after the move
to the Rupertsberg Richardis threatens to leave Hildegard,
that we learn just how much she ·meant to the abbess. Both
Richardis and her niece Adelheid (the daughter of Liutgart,
Richardis's younger sister) who was also a nun in Hildegard's
convent, were elected abbesses of more prestigious
foundations. Richardis was destined for the Benedictine abbey
of Bassum in the diocese of Bremen, where her brother
Hartwig was archbishop, and Adelheid for Gandersheim (and
later Quedlinburg), despite the fact that she can have been
little more than a child at the time of the appointment. The von
Stades were numerous and well-placed, one of the leading
families of their time. Liutgart had married well three
times, her second husband being the King of Denmark. It is
possible that the abbeys which elected the two women hoped
to attract the family's support and endowments. It is also
possible that the women themselves, with the help of
their relatives, wished to obtain positions more in keeping
with their status. While Hildegard was alive, no one
else could play anything other than second fiddle on the
Rupertsberg.
Whatever the circumstances, Hildegard was devastated at
the prospect of losing Richardis. She was not, she argued,
against Richardis's election in principle, if this were the will of
God, but for the sake of her soul felt obliged to oppose a move
undertaken solely on worldly grounds. Richardis herself
seems to have been in favour of the move and Hildegard felt
betrayed, coming as the move did amidst the hardships
and criticisms which accompanied their first years on the
Rupertsberg, a time when Hildegard most needed her friend's
support. Hildegard appealed to Richardis's mother, the
Marchioness of Stade, to the Archbishop of Mainz and even to
Pope Eugenius III in an effort to block the appointment.
Having failed in this, Hildegard directed her efforts towards
Richardis's brother, Hartwig, entreating him to persuade
Richardis to return to Rupertsberg.
Hildegard's efforts were almost repaid, but Richardis died
before she could make the journey . In the letter bearing the sad
news, Hartwig assured Hildegard that Richardis had longed to
return, and took the blame for her removal upon himself. In
her answer Hildegard is able to express the love she felt for
Richardis, and to forgive all those she had thought were
scheming against her, but at the same time justifies her own
position:
Full divine love was in my soul towards her, for in the mightiest
vision the living light tau ght me to love her. Listen: God kept her so
jealously that worldly delight could not embrace her: she fought
against it, even though she rose like a flower in the beauty and
glory and symphony of this world . . .
So my soul has great confidence in her, though the world loved
her beautiful looks and her prudence, while she lived in the body.
But God loved her more. Thus God did not wish to give her to a
rival lover, that is, to the world . . . So I also expel from my heart
that pain you caused me re garding this my daughter. 27
Close monastic friendships were not frowned upon in the

twelfth century as they came to be later. Both Bernard of
Clairvaux and Aelred of Rievaulx, among others, had written
treatises on the importance of friendship in community life . 28
There is, however, a possessiveness in Hildegard's attitude to
Richardis which enables us to sympathize with the younger
woman's desire for more autonomy, while feeling torn by her
loyalty to her friend and mentor. This all too human rela
tionship reveals Hildegard to be a woman of strong emotions,
fierce in her attachments, but able to give in gracefully when all
seems lost. The hprts inflicted by this experience, however,
were not forgotten, and Hildegard returned to the incident at
the end of her life when helping with the compilation of her
Vita .
HILDEGARD AND ABBESS HAZZECHA OF KRAUFT AL

In her relationship with Hazzecha, abbess of Krauftal, Hilde
gard reveals a very different aspect of her character. Hildegard

had visited the abbey in 1160 and found the community in
disorder, the abbess unable to cope with her responsibilities.
Hildegard's presence and words of advice seem to have struck
the abbess forcefully, and Hazzecha continued to write to
Hildegard after her return. She looked up to the seer and
appeared to be dependent on her support in a way which
Hildegard considered excessive, having perhaps learnt the
lesson of so great a dependence in· her own life . Hazzecha had
conceived the idea of leaving her post for the life of a hermit,
and sought Hildegard's approval. Recognizing that the abbess
was prompted by a desire to escape her responsibilities rather
than a genuine calling to the eremitical life, Hildegard coun
selled perseverance . If she failed as abbess, she would surely
fail as an anchoress as well, leaving her worse off than before .
In the letter to Hazzecha printed in this anthology, we can see
that she has returned to her scheme . Hazzecha plans either to
go on a pilgrimage to Rome, or to establish a hermitage with
some chosen companions . Hildegard once more urges her to
act with discretion, and not to ignore the advice of others out of
pride or self-will. She tells Hazzecha frankly that her plans will
do her no good, and promises to pray so that she may have the
strength to persevere in her duties as abbess.
Here we have the mature Hildegard speaking with a ssur
ance, clarity and sympathetic good sense. She knows that
what appears as piety can be a trap or an escape from reality,
and that the hardest course, but also the truest, is to shoulder
gracefully the burdens life gives us. 29
HILDEGARD AND FREDERICK BARBAROSSA

Hildegard wrote letters of 'correction and advice' to numerous
leading men and women of her day, including the German
king, Conrad III, and his famous son, Emperor Frederick I
(1152-90) . We have the texts of three letters from Hildegard to
Frederick and one reply, referring to a meeting they had at
Ingelheim. The first letter from Hildegard was to congratulate
Frederick on his election in 1152. She presented a most exalted
view of leadership and of courtly values and invoked God's
blessing upon him . In 1 159 Alexander III was elected pope, but
a minority of cardinals nominated an alternative candidate,
Victor IV . Alexander III laid down a challenge to Frederick by
claiming that the German crown was a 'benefice' bestowed by
the pope. The theological argument for this was that the pope,
as representative of Christ, was sovereign over all earthly
rulers. Frederick, not surprisingly, supported the antipope,
and was excommunicated by Alexander.
Hildegard sought a charter of protection from Frederick,
which confirmed the Rupertsberg convent's possessions and
rights as set out in the 1 158 documents. Presumably the
abbey's independence was still threatened by some of Hilde
gard' s opponents. In a second letter, dated 18 April 1163,
Hildegard thanks the Emperor for this charter but, addressing
Frederick as 'Servant of God', reminds him that his worldly
powers should serve a higher purpose than his own ambition.
Only when he seeks God's Kingdom will Frederick, like King
David in the Bible, be delivered from the hands of his enemies.
On a more personal note, Hildegard undertakes to pray for the
son and heir for which Frederick and his second wife, Beatrice,
so long. Her prayers were answered for in July 1164 they had a
boy, Frederick, followed in November 1 165 by a second son,
Henry.
The third of Hildegard' s letters to Barbarossa is short and
curt. In 1 164 Victor IV died and Frederick elected a second
antipope, Paschalis III. Hildegard accused Frederick of behav
ing childishly, like one who is insane, and warned him that the
grace of God in his life was in danger of being extinguished.
The fourth and final letter is even more terse, a series of biblical
quotations warning of divine retribution for the wicked, sent
after the election of a third antipope, Callistus III, in 1 1 68.
From this corre�pondence, spanning two decades, we can
glimpse something of Hildegard' s sense of responsibility in
her role as a prophet, exhorting, cajoling and, when necessary,
condemning. It was not Frederick's expansionist ambitions so
much as his opposition to the papacy which angered Hilde
gard, but she was tenacious in her determination to get the
emperor to amend his ways. Her influence may not have been
as great as she could have wished, but Hildegard continued to
regard the affairs of state as part of her legitimate concerns.

That friendly relations were maintained between Frederick's
family and the Rupertsberg cloister is attested by an entry in
the abbey's record of the deceased of Empress Beatrice's death
in 1 184.
LIFE ON THE RUPERTSBERG

Life in the Rupertsberg convent contrasted starkly with Hilde
gard's early years as a hermit. Although they continued to
follow the Benedictine Rule, the Rupertsberg nuns developed
their own unusual and elaborate forms of dress and of
worship. One of the rumours concerning the community,
which had reached Guibert at Gembloux, was that Hildegard
and her nuns wore tiaras or crowns. Was this, he wanted to
know, due to divine revelation or merely indulging a taste for
finery? (a weakness thought to be particularly feminine) . In a
long letter in which she attempts to answer his many ques
tions, Hildegard reveals the extent to which daily life in her
convent had become resonant with symbolic and visionary
significance:
As for tiaras: I saw that all the ranks of the Church have bright
emblems in accord with the heavenly brightness, yet virginity has
no bright emblem - nothing but a black veil and an ima ge of the
cross. So I saw tha t this would be the emblem of virginity: tha t a
virgin's head would be covered with a white veil, beca use of the
radiant-white robe that human beings had in paradise, and lost.
On her head would be a circlet with three colours conjoined into
one - an image of the Trinity - and four roundels attached: the one
on the forehead showing the lamb of God, that on the right a
cherub, tha t on the left an angel, and on the back a hum a n being
all these inclining towards the Trinity. This emblem, granted to me,
will proclaim blessings to God, because he had clothed the first
man in radiant bri ghtness.10
It is possible, as A. M. Allchin suggests, that these tiaras or

crowns were like the simple cloth circlets worn by Bridgettine
nuns today, 3 1 but, whatever their appearance, their purpose
was clear. The consecrated virgin could reclaim a paradisal
state, uncontaminated by the fall, and while still on earth
should celebrate the Kingdom of heaven in all its beauty and
extravagance .
The costumes devised by Hildegard for her nuns are clearly
inspired by her visions . In her Book of Life's Merits (6.43 and 44),
Hildegard sees the blessed virgins in paradise 'clothed in
gowns of purest gold and decked with precious jewels' , and
'on their heads they wore golden crowns studded with gems
and interwoven with roses and lilies' . Only those privileged to
wear the crowns could hear the wonderful and harmonious
music of heaven and take pleasure in it.
Rumours of unusual practices on the Rupertsberg had also
reached Tengswindis (Tengswich), the leader of a foundation
of canonesses at St Marien near Andernach. In a polite but
guardedly critical letter Tengswindis asked Hildegard about
the costumes worn by her nuns, and sought clarification
concerning her community's practice of admitting only
women of noble birth. This was perhaps a somewhat disingen
uous question as the canoness orders were normally open only
to aristocratic women. The Benedictine houses, on the other
hand, were divided as to whether their members should be
recruited from all classes, as the Rule of St Benedict rec
ommended, or restricted to noble men and women only. The
Rupertsberg, it would appear, followed the latter line,
although the earliest monastery book of remembrance records
the presence of 'nuns', who were nobly born, of 'sisters', who
were presumably from more humble backgrounds, and of 'lay
women', all of whom would have formed part of the
community . 32 Hildegard, however, defends a degree of ex
clusivity, claiming authority for her words from 'the living
fountain' . Her thinking follows the social mores of her day,
rather than the more revolutionary gospel (or Benedictine)
notions of equality . What farmer, she asks, would put oxen,
asses, sheep and goats in a single field? They would all scatter,
and so would different classes of human beings. They would
tear one another apart in hate, those of higher rank setting
themselves above the lower, and those of lower rank seeking
to rise above the higher. For Hildegard, human hierarchies are
ordained by God, people are ranked like the angels; equally
loved, bu t not to be confused.
Hildegard tlze Wonza11 I 41
In practical terms Hildegard may have had a point. No doubt
it was easier to rule over a community in which each knew
their place, and in which the noble women in her charge had
no excuse to lord it over others. It is only in the last few decades
that many of the present religious orders have done away with
the divisions between choir and lay brothers or sisters, or have
admitted African, Asian or South American religious on an
equal footing. Hildegard may nofhave been right in Christian
terms, but she was not the first or the last person to confuse the
divine order with human social constructs.
The importance of music in the Rupertsberg convent is also
well attested. Hildegard had begun composing her own litur
gical songs and music, based on monastic plainsong, during
her years on the Disibodenberg, and under the inspiration of
her visions she continued with this work at Ru perts berg. Some
of Hildegard's music has recently been recorded and per
formed, and, as with so much of her work, appears startlingly
modern and original. For Hildegard, music was more than a
way of praising God, it was a way of sharing in the life of
heaven itself. Through music, human beings are reminded of
the harmonies of the heavenly spheres, indeed, the soul itself
is symphonic.
When, in the last years of her life, Hildegard's community
was placed under an interdict by the prelates of Mainz for
allowing the burial in consecrated ground of a man who had
been excommunicated, the greatest hardship they endured
was the absence of music. Hildegard never tired in her efforts
to have the interdict lifted and it is in her letters to these priests
that we learn of the central �lace music played in the life of
the Rupertsberg community. 3 In obeying the Mainz prelates,
Hildegard felt that she was disobeying God, and she struggled
to reconcile her duty to her inner voice and to the Church.
When, after her death, a commission was set up to seek
witnesses for Hildegard' s canonization, three of her sisters
swore that they had seen Hildegard illuminated by the Holy
Spirit as she walked through the cloisters chanting one of her
favourite compositions. 34 It was above all through music that
the unity of the human and divine could be realized and the
Rupertsberg convent appears to have been a place where the
harmonies of heaven were celebrated on earth in all their
fullness.
Hildegard held extremely exalted views of the monastic
vocation, placing monks and nuns above priests and bishops,
who were in turn ranked higher than ordinary lay people.
While it was possible to aspire to a higher order, to descend
from a higher to a lower state was not to be countenanced
(SC II 5, 35). The monastic vocation should not, according to
Hildegard, be adopted hastily or for impure motives, as once
an individual had made their vows there was no turning back.
Hildegard even suggested that those wishing to leave the
monastic life should be confined and kept on bread and water.
She therefore warns against sending children to a monastery
against their will and condemns the use of religious life as an
escape from poverty, bodily weakness or personal troubles.
The atmosphere in the Rupertsberg convent can only be
surmised . From her extensive writings on human physiology,
on medicine, psychology, and what we would today term
psychotherapy, it is clear that not only the spiritual aspect of
the nuns' lives received attention. What does seem clear is that
life on the Rupertsberg had an intensely mystical flavour. This
can be glimpsed not only from their clothes and music, but also
from a puzzle that has intrigued students of Hildegard for
many years . Among Hildegard's works is an 'unknown lan
guage' (Lingua ignota) with its own 'unknown alphabet'. It
survives in a glossary of some nine hundred words which refer
to items of everyday use, such as the clothes worn by the nuns
and the herbs in the garden, as well as to all manner of natural
and heavenly beings. A few words of her secret language find
their way into some of Hildegard's songs, particularly the
antiphon 'O orzchis Ecclesia' .
This language was evidently important to Hildegard and,
like her music and the designs for the nuns' liturgical habits,
was an attempt to imitate what she saw and heard in her
visions. Hildegard wrote to Pope Anastasius IV in 1 153/4 that
she had been inspired by God to 'form unknown letters, and
utter an unknown language, and to resound with melody in
many tones' . Her Vita also records that she 'composed chant
of surpassingly sweet melody with amazing harmony, and
invented letters never seen before, with a language hi therto
unheard' . 35 The purpose of the language and its twenty-three
letter alphabet is not entirely clear. It has been dismissed as a
mental exercise, and hailed as an early insight into the genetic
code! Barbara Newman is probably on the right track, how
ever, when she links it to Hildegard's music and to the mystical
life of the community. 36 We should not be surprised that an
imagination as creative and an intelligence as keen as
Hildegard's delighted in such invention, a delight shared,
incidentally, by her compatriot and admirer, Stephan George,
some eight hundred years later.
AN EFFEMINATE AGE
Reading Hildegard we sense that we are in the presence of a
woman who was at peace with herself and who had made
sense of her place in the great scheme of creation. Hildegard
sought constantly to integrate all aspects of life . The super
natural realm, the natural world around her, human beings
with their corporeal existence; all were intimately related and
subject to the same laws. There is no aspect of life which did
not interest Hildegard and which did not come under the
scrutiny of her inner light . There are however contradictions
within Hildegard's writings and she adopts a somewhat dif
ferent style when speaking as a theologian and when speaking
as a medical practitioner or natural scientist. It is not surpris
ing, given the scope of her works and the attitudes of the time,
that she did not always achieve the synthesis which she had
intended.
Hildegard held certain traditional views of gender relations.
Women were seen as frailer than men, more diffuse in their
energies, more passive and (unusually for the period) were
thought to be weaker in their sexual appetites . Both male and
female visionary writers of the twelfth century referred to
themselves as 'weak women', a term which had become a
topos of humility, but which, when directed at women by
others, was used to disparage their works and to u ndermine
their authority . Her behaviour, however, departed from con
ventional female stereotypes and Hildegard succeeded in
turning prevailing categories on their head. She referred to
hers as an 'effemina te age' . Because men had become 'woman
ish' , God would make women virile . Traditional sex roles were
reversed; female authority was presented as a restitution of the
natural order, not as a threat or challenge to it. In a letter to a
negligent bishop Hildegard described a vision of Pure Knowl
edge as a female figure dressed in a bishop's pallium . This
female role model might well have been intended as a rep
resentation of Hildegard herself in her role as prophet. 37 In her
visions Hildegard saw the Church, the Synagogue and the
virtues as female figures, but certainly not as weak ones. Her
'living light' was none other than Wisdom, the female aspect of
the Godhead .
It is as though conventional sexual stereotypes never tell
the whole story, and Hildegard is continually modifying and
subverting them . She has strong intuitions about the inter
dependence and complementarity of all aspects of the world,
including men and women. In an exegesis of the scriptural
passage on the capable woman (Proverbs 31 . 10-1 1), Hildegard
describes strength and weakness as common to both men and
women . Woman's strength is seen as more supple and flexible
than man's (LM 28, 36) . In another passage (OW 5, 43) Hilde
gard explains how a man has greater strength and a woman
softer energy . The incarnation itself is seen as a coming
together of the strength of God and the frailty of humanity:
'And the divinity is strong while the flesh of the Son of God is
frail, that flesh by which the world is restored to its original life'
(LM 4, 36) . 38
Hildegard's belief in the complementarity of the sexes also
emerges in her interpretation of the passage from 1 Cor. 11 . 9,
'For the man was not created for the woman but the woman for
the man', which Hildegard modifies according to her own
philosophy:
Thus it is written:Woman is created for the 111a11

and the man is made
for woman, since as she is made from man a nd man from her,
neither is sepa rated from the other in the uni ty of producing
offspring, because they produce one thing in a si ngle work just as
air a nd wind are each involved in the work of the other . 39
Hildegard the Womall I 45

Her notion of the complementarity of the sexes led Hilde
gard to reject homosexuality, which was seen as not only
against biblical injunction, but also in contravention of the
natural order. Of male homosexuality Hildegard wrote: 'But
these perverse adulterers, when they change their manly
strength into the contrary weakness, casting aside the true
nature of male and female, most foully imitate Satan in their
perversity who wished to destrby and divide Him who is
indivisible, in his pride' (SC II 6, 78). 40 Similarly with lesbian
sexuality, it was the assumption of another's role and the
consequent disruption of God's intention to unite man and
woman which worried Hildegard .
THE GARDEN OF EDEN

One would not expect a cloistered nun to have a wide experi
ence of human sexuality, but through her contact with ordi
nary lay people, with whom she must have talked intimately
and at great length, Hildegard displayed a remarkable sym
pathy for and knowledge of this aspect of human behaviour.
She was also, as A. M. Allchin has remarked, virtually alone
among the writers of the Middle Ages in treating medical and
psychological problems from a woman's point of view. 41 In a
passage from her scientific and medical book, Causes and Cures,
for example, Hildegard writes the following about the erotic
delight of sexual intercourse:
When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her

brain, which brings with it sensual delight, communicates the taste
of that delight during the act and summons forth the emission of
the man's seed. And when the seed has fallen into its place, that
vehement heat descending from her brain draws the seed to itself
and holds it, and soon the woman's sexual organs contract, and all
the parts that are ready to open up during the time of menstruation
now close, in the same way as a strong man can hold something
enclosed in his fist. 42
When writing as a theologian, rather than as a physiologist,

Hildegard follows more traditional Chu rch teachings on the
impurity of sex. Although never quite adopting the dualist
position of the Cathars, who saw all bodily functions as
inimical to the spiritual life, Hildegard nevertheless regards
sexuality as a result of humanity's fallen state.
It is quite clear from Hildegard's descriptions of paradise
that human sexuality as we know it had no place. The love of
Adam and Eve for one another before the fall is contrasted with
the lust of man in his fallen state:
When man transgressed God's command, he was changed both in
body and min d . For the purity of his blood was turned into another
mode, so that, instead of purity, he now ejects the spume of semen.
If man had remained in paradise, he would have stayed in an
immutable and perfect state. But all these things, after his trans
gression, were turned into another and bitter mode. For man's
blood, burning in the ardour and heat of lust, ejects a spume from
itself that we call semen, as a pot placed on the fire brings up foam
from the water beca use of the flame's heat.
43
Hildegard likewise believed that in paradise children were

conceived without intercourse and delivered, as Mary gave
birth to Jesus, through the woman's side. It is in the renunci
ation of sexual relations that the consecrated virgin can recap
ture the lost delights of paradise, and enjoy the heavenly
music which Adam lost through his fall into concupiscence.
HILDEGARD THE HEALER

Hildegard was widely sought by all manner of people as a
healer, exorcist and psychotherapist. Women in general, and
nuns in particular, were regarded as knowledgeable in medical
matters, and monastic gardens grew a range of therapeutic
plants. Some women, such as Trotula, an eleventh-century
woman who taught at Europe's most distinguished medical
school at Salerno in Italy and who wrote a book on women's
diseases, were famed as surgeons and doctors. Other women
practised midwifery or herbalism locally, and passed on their
knowledge to their daughters. It was not until the thirteenth
century that concerted efforts to exclude women from the
practice of medicine gathered pace . Hildegard had not made a
forrna� study of medicine and presumably garnered much of

her knowledge of disease and of healing plants and other
treatments from the traditional folk wisdom of her locality .
With her acute sense of observation, and guided by her own
perceptive imagination and intuitions, Hildegard built up a
vast store of medical knowledge.
It is for her dietary and medical writings that Hildegard has
attracted most popular attention in her native Germany,
thanks mainly to the dedicated ·work of a small number of
practitioners of Hildegard medicine who have sought to test
and to put into practice the cures suggested by the seer. Most
of Hildegard's medical writings are to be found in two books,
Physica and Causae et curae. Hildegard does not present these
scientific and medical writings in the form of visions, nor are
they claimed as a direct transmission from the living light
(unless a general introduction, similar to that in her visionary
works, has been lost) .
Much of Hildegard's advice seems eminently sensible and
was no doubt put into practice in her convent and elsewhere.
She recommends a balanced diet, sufficient rest, the allevi
ation of stress and a wholesome moral life . Some of her more
exotic trea tments must have been more difficult to put into
effect. Ostriches, whales, vultures, lions and leopards are all
listed with their healing properties. The use of various rare
precious stones and metals recommended by Hildegard also
sounds unlikely in practice .
All diseases and cures were linked to Hildegard's under
standing of the four qualities of heat, dryness, moistness, and
cold; the corresponding elements - fire, air, water and earth;
and the humours and personality types to which the elements
give rise. The aim of medical practice was to achieve a balance
in these elements, which had been upset through an inherited
disposition or because of sickness. Astrological influences and
the moon were also thought to affect personality and phys
ique, but whatever the predetermined disposition of a person,
they could allow God to use them for the furtherance of his
work.
We have little information concerning actual occurrences of
physical healing but there is an account in Hildegard' s Life of a
lengthy exorcism performed on a woman called Sigewize . 44 In
1 167, during a period of sickness, Hildegard was told that a
young noblewoman from the lower Rhine was being tor
mented by a demon . According to Hildegard, demons could
not enter or possess people but they could envelop and obsess
them. The demon troubling Sigewize had declared that only
Hildegard (referred to irreverently as 'Scrumpilgardis' or
'Wrinklegard') could help. Because of her infirmity Hildegard
did not want to treat Sigewize in person, but she wrote a
therapeutic drama for her which was to be performed with
great ceremony and seriousness (reminiscent of a shamanic
journey in which the sick person takes part with their imagin
ation) . A temporary improvement followed its performance,
but in the end Hildegard acceded to Sigewize's pleadings to be
treated in person and took her into the Rupertsberg convent.
Hildegard and the nuns were terrified at the prospect and
endured with difficulty the young woman's wild and frighten
ing behaviour. Their method of treatment was communal
prayer and ascetic practices. In this secure and supportive
environment the demon was allowed full expression and
gradually Sigewize's mental instability subsided and her
health returned. Hildegard claimed no miraculous powers,
but displayed sound psychotherapeutic judgement, com
passion and common sense, a combination which achieved the
desired result.
Hildegard' s extensive works are so varied in their style and

content that some commentators have doubted that they could
all come from the same pen . Hildegard was an extraordinarily
gifted individual with talents and interests in many different
directions. We can be thankful that she overcame the limi
tations of her gender, her infirmities and her background and
that she was able to exercise her abilities and to leave a record
of her achievements for posterity. Hildegard is not an easy
figure to assimilate . The volume of her writing, the obscurity of
much of her thinking, the idiosyncrasies of her Latin, all
conspire to reduce her accessibility to the modern reader.
Much remains to be done in the field of Hildegard scholarship,
in particular in the critical editing of her works. There is no

doubt, however, that engaging with Hildegard is a rewarding
experience . She has the ability to speak to us powerfully across
the centuries, illuminating other minds with her living light.
Hildegard Today
The rapid growth of interest in Hildegard over the last two

decades, both among the circles of the learned and in the
populace at large, is a powerful testimony to her relevance for
us today. And the reasons for this are perhaps not difficult to
fathom. We find in Hildegard a brilliantly original and remark
ably balanced view of the universe. And while humanity stands
at the centre of creation according to her system, we are
meshed into it at all points. Our own nature, the rhythms of
our minds and bodies, are an echo of the greater rhythms of
the natural world; we do not exist in isolation, then, but are
parts of an encompassing whole. And so it would not be
appropriate to think of humankind as standing imperially
outside the world; rather we are answerable to it in that the
source of our life is the same as the life-source of all things:
namely, the divine ebullience, the overflow of divine light and
love. And just like the creation itself, we capture and reflect
something of that primal light. Hence we are fundamentally
good, and the state of sin in which we find ourselves is to be
understood as a distortion of that goodness, which serves to
'cloud' that original light.
Secondly, Hildegard was an immensely gifted woman
whose capacity to clothe ancient, resonant truths in language
which was itself transfigured and transfiguring was truly
remarkable. We Have seen the extraordinary suppleness and
power of her imagery of greenness, living and moist, which
seems to capture the very essence of a natural and a divine
fecundity. Her images of 'light' and 'reflection' ('clarity',
'radiance', 'brilliance', 'luminosity', 'fire' and 'flame'); her
world of flashing gems (sapphires, onyx, rubies, diamond);
her world of shining colours all conspire to convey to us a
sense of the radiance of her own visions: of her own 'living
Hildegard Today I 51
light' . To spend time with Hildegard then purifies and uplifts
the senses, so that we feel as we do when we walk out into the
brilliant, blinding freshness of the first snow and are filled with
wonder at the glory of God's creation and at the mystery of his
incarnate Son .
Notes
1 . Historia Novorum, p. 150. Quoted in Southern (1967), p. 129.

2. The major sources for Hildegard's life are the biography by
Godfrey and Theodoric (which dates from the final quarter of the
twelfth century and which includes much autobiographical ma
terial) and a fragmentary biography by Guibert of Gembloux. See
bibliography for details. See Newman (1987), p. 5 for additional
sources relevant to the reconstruction of Hildegard's life. There is
an important summary of Hildegard's life by Adelgundis
Fiihrkotter in the Hildegard Festschrift ed . Bruck (1979), pp.
31-55, and there are two fine full-scale biographies of Hildegard,
by Eduard Gronau (1985) in German, and Sabina Flanagan (1989)
in English.
3. Information concerning Disibodenberg is contained in the
Annales Sancti Disibodi, Monumenta Germanica Historica SS.
XVII, and in Bruck (1979). There is also a booklet, Der Disi
bodenberg, tracing the history of the mona stery, which contains a
further bibliography (available from St Hildegardis Abbey,
Eibingen).
4. According to her Vita, the vision which initiated the writing 'of
Scivias came to her 'in her fortieth year' . Hildegard seems here to
have reckoned her birth as in 1 100.
5. Newman (1985), pp. 169-70.
6. A point made by Caroline Walker Bynum (1984), p. 185, who
compares the writings of the beguine mystic, Mechthild of
Magdeburg, with those of her younger monastic contemporaries,
Gertrude the Great and Mechthild of Hackebom .
7. Flanagan (1989), p. 6.
8. Petroff (1986), p. 6.
9. Dronke (1984), p p . 162-3.
10. Singer (1917, reprinted 1958). The migraine theory has been
popularized by Clifford Rose and Gawel (1981), and Sacks (1986) .
The question is treated at length in Flanagan (1989), ch. 10.
1 1 . The visionary experiences of these women are described in the
introduction to Beguine Spirituality, ed. Bowie (1989).
12. Dronke (1984), p. 153-4.
13. Newman (1985), p. 171.
14. ibid .
15. This is well expressed in the prologue to the Book of Divine Works,
where the 'voice from heaven' says: 'Commit to writing for the
benefit of humankind and in enduring form what you see with
your inner eyes and perceive with the inner ears of your soul so
that, through these things, people may come to know their
Crea tor and not recoil from worshipping him with the reverence
due to him. '
1 6 . Hildegard's work is not easily summarized, but one o f the best
attempts to do so is that by Heinrich Schipperges in Fiihrkotter
(1987) .
17. It is interesting that Hildegard seems to be giving pride of place
among the virtues here to poverty of spirit. In this she would
seem to anticipate later developments in the Rhineland (Meister
Eckhart and Johannes Tauler) in which this is emphatically the
case.
18. It is this orientation also which distinguishes Hildegard from
some of the later women visionary mystics. Unlike her great
compatriots, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Gertrude the Great for
instance, Hildegard is concerned primarily to instruct her audi
ence in the mysteries of the Christian revelation, and not to
express in a poetic voice the deepest stirrings of her spirit. It is this
fact which led some to speak of Hildegard as a 'prophetess' in her
own lifetime and to compare her with Deborah (e.g. Vita, II,
Prologue and ch. 6) . Cf. Margot Schmidt's excellent article on this
theme, 'Hildegard von Bingen als Lehrerin des Glaubens', in
Fiihrkotter (1972), pp. 95-157.
19. Newman (1987), p. 64.
20. This is, of course, the doctrine of exemplarism, which is given an
important impetus in the Middle Ages by Augustine.
21 . Hildegard has fnuch in common, therefore, with a later 'vitalism'.
There are key differences, however, in that for Hildegard, the life
of nature, while truly existing in itself, is transparent to i ts source,
which is the divine life. Hildegard also has a strong sense of the
order of things and of the necessarily harmonious proportions and
relations of all that exists. In Nietzsche's terms, the Dionysian is
well balanced by the Apollonian, therefore.
22. Unde et homo opus Dei cum omni creatura est. Sed et homo operarius
divinitatis esse dicitur (PL 197, 1 16C) .
Notes I 53
23. It is worth recalling that a primary source for Hildegard's inspi
ration must have been the Benedictine Rule, by which she lived,
and which is justly famed for its wise sense of moderation and the
avoidance of extremes.
24. 'Tradition and Innovation in Medieval Western Colour-Imagery'
in Dronke (1 984), p. 84 (first published in Eranos Jahrbuch XLI
(1 972), pp . 51-106). See also 'Die Bedeutung der Farben im Werk
Hildegards von Bingen' by Christel Maier in Fruhmittelalterliche
Studien, 6 (1972), especially pp. 280ff. and 285, in which Maier
establishes the relation in Hildegard's work between the colours
and the virtues.
25. It is important to see Hildegard within the tradition of those major
theologians, such as Pseudo-Denys and Scotus Eriugena, who
make extensive use of light imagery. Joseph Koch has wri tten an
interesting article on this theme, 'Uber die Lichtsymbolik im
Bereich der Philosophie', in Kleine Schriften, I, Rome (1973), pp.
27-67 (first published in Studium Generale 13 (1960), pp. 653-70) .
26. I am translating umbra here as 'reflection' rather than 'shadow',
which appears to make more sense in the context of Hildegard's
water imagery. Umbra is a word which suggests 'reflection', the
communication of a quality from one subject to another, but also
suggests 'shadow' or 'shade', which may signify the darkness
which is absence of light, or indeed, the darkness which is excess
of light. In Hildegard the secondary word obumbratio is also vitally
important, and it has the added association of being the Vulgate
translation for the 'overshadowing' of Mary by the Holy Spirit
(Luke 1 .35). There is an interesting article on the word umbra by
Peter Dronke in his The Medieval Poet and his World (Rome 1984),
'Theologia veluti quaedam poetria: Quelques observations sur la
fonction des images poetiques chez Jean Scot' (pp . 39-53; first
published in Jean Scot Erigene et l'histoire de la pl1ilosopl1ie, ed.
R. Roques, Colloques Intemationaux du CRNS No. 561 , Paris
(1977), pp . 243-52) . Image and reflection, and the theme of the
mirror, is the subject of Margot Schmidt's penetrating article in
Filhrkotter (1972) . Reflected radiance, as the communication of
faith, grace, love and glory, is shown to be central to Hildegard's
work.
27. Dronke (1984), p. 159.
28. See Bynum (1984), pp. 64-5.
29. For the texts of Hildegard's letters see PL 197; Dronke (1 984),
pp. 186-7 and Fi.ihrkotter (1965), pp. 207ff.
30. Dronke (1984), p. 169.
31 . Allchin (1 989), p. 134. Hildegard's descriptions of the garments
worn by the blessed in heaven, and emulated by her own nuns,
are strongly reminiscent of the prophet Ezekiel's account of
Jerusalem, decked as God's bride (16, 8-14).
32. Fiihrkotter (1965), p . 204. For the details of the correspondence
between Hildegard and Tengswindis and for some discussion
on it see Fiihrkotter (1965), pp. 204-5, and Dronke (1984), pp. 165
-71 .
33. Hildegard' s correspondence with the Mainz prelates i s discussed
in Fiihrkotter (1965), pp. 235-46, and Dronke (1984), pp. 196-9.
34. Newman (1988), p. 277.
35. Newman (1988), p . 316. See also Fiihrkotter (1965), pp . 8-41, PL
197: 1 52d; Vita, PL 197: lOlb.
36. Newman (1988), p . 18.
37. Newman (1985), p. 174.
38. Cited in Zurn Brunn and Epiney-Burgard (1989), p . 14.
39. Cited in Bynum (1984), pp. 93-4.
40. Cited in Flanagan (1989), p. 69.
41. Allchin (1989), p. 137.
42. Cited in Dronke (1984), p. 175.
43. Cited in Dronke (1984), pp. 176-7.
44. An account of this exorcism is to be found in Dronke (1984),
pp. 163-5.
Notes I 55
A Short Chronology of
Hildegard's Life
1098 Hildegard's birth at Bermersheim near Alzey in

Rheinhessen. She is the tenth and last child of
Hildebert of Bermersheim and his wife Mechthild.
1106 Hildegard enters an enclosure, with Jutta of
Spanheim, which is attached to the recently
founded Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg.
Jutta becomes her teacher.
1 1 12-15 Hildegard takes her vows and receives the veil from
Bishop Otto of Bamberg. The enclosure grows and
becomes a convent.
1 136 Death of Jutta of Spanheim. The nuns elect Hilde
gard as their leader.
1141 Hildegard begins .to write Scivias. Her friend, the
monk Volmar, and the nun Richardis of Stade act as
her secretaries .
1 146/47 Hildegard exchanges letters with Bernard of
Clairvaux .
1 147/48 Pope Eugenius III reads from Scivias at the Synod of
Trier. He authorizes Hildegard to continue her
work. Hildegard begins to correspond with many
distinguished people .
Hildegard is inspired by God to move from
Disibodenberg to Rupertsberg, which she
successfully initiates against the wishes of the
monks.
1148 A letter from Master Odo of Paris reveals that
Hildegard's songs are already well known .
1 150 Hildegard moves to Rupertsberg with some eight
een or twenty nuns.
1 151-58 Composition of the Natural History and of Causes and
Cures.
1 151 Finishes Scivias. Richardis accepts election as
abbess of a convent at Bassum, near Bremen,
against Hildegard' s wishes.
1 152 Frederick I (Barbarossa) is elected King. Hildegard
writes him a letter in tribute.
Richardis dies .
After
1 154 Hildegard meets Frederick I at Ingelheim .
1 1 55 Hildegard persuades the monks of Disibodenberg
to relinquish the lands given as part of the nuns'
dowry.
1 1 58-61 Hildegard falls ill . She undertakes her first
preaching tour, which takes her along the River
Main as far as Bamberg.
1 1 58-63 Composition of the Book of Life's Merits.
1 1 59 Beginning of the eighteen-year long schism be
tween the papacy and Frederick I. First antipope is
Victor IV .
1 160 Hildegard' s second preaching tour. She preaches
publicly in Trier, and then proceeds by way of Metz
and Krauftal to Hordt.
1 161-63 Hildegard' s third preaching tour, following the
Rhine northwards to Cologne, and then on to
Werden.
1 1 63 She begins to write the Book of Divine Works. She
writes again to Frederick I, and appears to adopt a
neutral position in the schism.
1 164 Second antipope, Paschal III. Hildegard writes for a
third tnne to Frederick, this time adopting a critical
tone .
Around
1 1 65 Hildegard founds the community at Eibingen,
overlooking Rudesheim, on the east bank on the
Rhine, which she visits twice a week. She writes
to Henry II of England and to his wife, Queen
Eleanor.
A Short Chronology of Hildegard's Life I 57
1 1 67-70 Hildegard fall� ill again .
1 1 68 Third antipope, Callistus lll . Hildegard writes to
Frederick I, warning him of divine judgement.
1169 Hildegard heals the possessed woman, Sigewize,
and receives her into her community at Ruperts
berg.
1 1 70 Composition of the Life of St Disibod at request of
Abbot Helenger of Disibodenberg.
1 1 70(71) Hildegard's fourth preaching tour, which takes her
south to Zwiefalten .
1 1 73 Volmar, her secretary, dies.
1 1 73/74 She completes the Book of Divine Works. A conflict
arises regarding the appointment of Volmar's
successor.
1 1 74(75) The monk Gottfried arrives from Disibodenberg.
He begins to write the Life of Hildegard and com
pletes Book One.
1 1 75 Guibert of Gembloux begins a correspondence with
Hildegard. She sends him her Book of Life's Merits
and her Songs.
1 1 76 Gottfried dies.
1 1 77 Guibert of Gembloux becomes Hildegard' s sec
retary.
1 1 78 Interdict imposed on Rupertsberg by diocese of
Mainz.
1 1 79 Interdict lifted by Archbishop Christian of Mainz.
Hildegard dies on 17 September.
1 180-90 Theodoric of Echternach completes Books Two and
Three of the Life of Hildegard.
PART 2
Selections
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
No translator of Hildegard can be unmoved by the injunction she

appends to the Book of Divine Works: 'Let no one . . . be so presump
tuous as to add anything to the words of wha t is written here or take
anything away, on pain of being erased from the Book of Life and
from all the blessedness under the sun . . . Whoever presumes to do
otherwise, sins against the Holy Spirit and will not be forgiven in this
world or the next.'
Hildegard's claim to have set down words 'brought forth directly
through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit' imposes a heavy task upon
anyone attempting to transmute celestial Latin into mundane ver
nacular. By presenting a selection from her writings, divested of all
that is repellent to modem sensibilities, we are, doubtless, already
damned.
Hildegard never pretends to be a great Latin stylist, repeatedly
emphasizing her own ignorance (homo indocta sum) and informing
Guibert of Gembloux that she has not been 'taught in this vision to
write as the philosophers wri te' . The stylistic shortcomings of her
visionary works might be attributable to the pressure of divine
inspiration; though no such excuse is available for her letters. Hilde
gard is capable of writing with a simplicity and grace that are truly
moving. Yet the beauty of what she is describing is often marred
by the ineptitude of her expression. At such times, it is difficult, at
least for the jaundiced litterateur, to reconcile the rankness of the Latin
with the divinity of its source. She heaps sentence upon sen tence,
loosely joined by conjunctions, with scant regard for the niceties of
style or syntax, offending as much through pleonasmus as ellipsis. I
have made no attempt to reproduce such vagaries in English. In the
interest of intelligibility, long sentences have been divided up. In a
few passages (most notably the opening of the letter to Bernard of
Clairvaux) I have resorted to paraphrase.
It has not proved easy to adapt Hildegard to meet the editorial
requirements of inclusive language. In translating homo and homines, I
have adopted the practice of Barbara Newman, as outlined in her
preface to Sister of Wisdom (1987) . The plural presents few difficulties. I
have rendered homines as 'people', 'humans' or 'mortals' except
where it is clear from the context that the homines referred to are
exclusively male. The singular is much more problematic. For Hilde
gard, homo is almost always an inclusive term, conveying the same
range of meaning that has, traditionally, been provided in English by
'man' . It is a source of regret that there is no real English equivalent to
the German, Mensch. The semantic field of 'Man' has contracted in
recen t years and terms like 'humankind' and 'humanity' have become
curren t in its s tead.
Previous . translators of Hildegard (Ronald Miller in the Letters,
Robert Cunnin gham in the Book of Divine Works and Bruce Hozes ki in
Scivias) have been rigorous, to the poin t of travesty, in their use of
inclusive language, removing personal pronouns for God, translating
homo as 'we' when the voice of the Living Light is speaking, and even,
1
in Hozes ki's case, rendering 'Son of God' as 'Word of God' . Neither
Hildegard nor feminism seems to be well served by such mendacities .
Hildegard pays lip service to the prevailing medieval order, de
preciating her role as a 'poor lit tle figure of a woman' even as she
berates wayward kings and corrupt popes. Paradoxically, in order to
see, in relief, the true originality of H ildegard's vision of the feminine
in God, we need to preserve her differentiation of gender, resis ting
the temptation to rewrite a twelfth-cen tury mystic as a twentieth
century feminist . Newman retains 'the singular collective man for a
very frequent medieval usage in which homo simultaneously
designates the human race and the unique individual Adam, in
whom the whole race is seminally presen t. '2 I have followed
Newman's example .
The choice of Latin texts has been necessarily eclectic. Until the
es tablishment of critical editions of all Hildegard's works, any transla
tion mus t be considered an in terim measure. For the Letters and the
Book of Divine Works, we are still largely reliant on J . P . Migne's edition
of H ildegard (PL, 197, 1855), although Pitra supplies the text for my
translation of the letter of Henry II of England and both Pitra and
Dronke provide separate texts for the letter to Guibert of Gembloux.
3
Heinrich Schipperges' Welt u nd Mensch: Das Buch 'De operatione Dei', is
based on the unpublished Ghent manuscript and I have been able to
supplemen t Migne's text from the lis t of variants appended to the
German translation. 4 For the Scivias, we are fortunate in having the
critical edition by Adelgundis Fiihrkotter and Angela Carlevaris
published in Corpus Christianorum: Co11 tinuatio Mediaeualis, Vols. 43
and 43A (Turnhout: Brepols, 1978) .
I have, in all cas�, translated directly from the Latin, s ubsequen tly
revising my version in response to divergent readings noted by Oliver
Davies in the German text.
Robert Carver
Worcester College, Oxford
Translator's Note I 61
1 . Cunningham and Miller's translations appear in Hildegard of Bingen's Book of
Divine Works, ed . Matthew Fox (Santa Fe: Bear & Company, 1987). Bruce
Hozeski, tr. , Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen (Santa Fe: Bear & Company,
1986).
2. Barbara Newman, Sister of Wisdom: St Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine
(Aldershot: Scalar Press, 1987), p. xix.
3. J. B. Pitra, ed., Analecta Sacra Spicilegio Solesmensi Tom. VIII (Paris: Jouby &
Roger, 1 882), pp. 556 and 33lff. Peter Dronke, Women Writers of the Middle
Ages (Cambridge: CUP, 1984), pp. 250ff. I have collated the two editions of
the Guibert letter and moved rather freely between them.
4 . Salzburg: Otto Muller Verlag (1965).
EDITORS' NOTE
The Extracts from the Life of Saint Hildegard by Godfrey and Theodoric,
the passages from Causes and Cures and the following letters:
Richardis von Stade, Abbess Hazzecha of Krauftal, Letter to an
Abbot, Abbot Ludwig of St Eucharius, and the Mainz Prelates, are
translated by Peter Dronke and are reprinted from Women Writers of
the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1984. We would like to
thank Professor Dronke and Cambridge University Press for their
kind permission to reprint these extracts. The references following
the passages from Hildegard's Life refer to the Berlin Manuscript,
Staatsbibl. Lat. Qu . 674, fols. lra-24vb (see Dronke (1984), pp.
240-1) .
The selections from The Book of Life's Merits were translated by Mark
Atherton and Oliver Davies, using Pitra but also with reference to
Schipperges' modern German translation. The Songs were translated
by Oliver Davies from Barbara Newman's critical edition of the
Symphonia (1988). The references are to Newman's edition. The
remaining passages (Scivias, The Book of Divine Works and the rest of
the Letters) were translated by Robert Carver (SC 1 14, 16 and DW 4, 78
have been slightly adapted by the editors). We are most grateful to all
the translators for their efforts to render Hildegard's powerful but
erratic Latin into modern English .
FB and OD
EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF
SAINT HILDEGARD
by Godfrey and Theodoric
Hildegard' s childhood and the

discovery of her visionary gifts
Wisdom teaches in the light of love, and bids me tell how I was
brought into this my gift of vision . . . 'Hear these words,
human creature, and tell them not according to yourself but
according to me, and, taught by me, speak of yourself like this.
- In my first formation, when in my mother's womb God
raised me up with the breath of life, he fixed this vision in my
soul. For, in the eleven hundredth year after Christ's incar
nation, the teaching of the apostles and the burning justice
which he had set in Christians and spiritual people began to
grow sluggish and irresolute. In that period I was born, and
my parents, amid sighs, vowed me to God. And in the third
year of my life I saw so great a brightness that my soul
trembled; yet because of my infant condition I could express
nothing of it. But in my eighth year I was offered to God, given
over to a spiritual way of life, and till my fifteenth I saw many
things, speaking of a number of them in a simple way, so that
those who heard me wondered from where they might have
come or from wht>m they might be.
Then I too grew amazed at myself, that whenever I saw
these things deep in my soul I still retained outer sight, and
that I heard this said of no other human being. And, as best I
could, I concealed the vision I saw in my soul. I was ignorant of
much in the outer world, because of the frequent illness that I
suffered, from the time of my mother's milk right up to now: it
wore my body out and made my powers fail.
Extracts from the Life of Saint Hildegard I 63

Exhausted by all this, I asked a nurse of mine if she saw
anything save external objects . 'Nothing', she answered, for
she saw none of those others. Then, seized with great fear, I
did not dare reveal it to anyone; yet nonetheless, speaking or
composing, I used to make many affirmations about future
events, and when I was fully perfused by this vision I would
say many things that were unfathomable (aliena) to whose who
listened . But if the force of the vision - in which I made an
exhibition of myself more childish than befitted my age -
subsided a little, I blushed profusely and often wept, and
many times I should gladly have kept silent, had I been
allowed . And still, because of the fear I had of other people, I
did not tell anyone how I saw . But a certain high-born woman,
to whom I had been entrusted for education, noted this and
disclosed it to a monk whom she knew .
. . . After her death, I kept seeing in this way till my fortieth
year. Then in that same vision I was forced by a great pressure
(pressura) of pains to manifest what I had seen and heard . But I
was very much afraid, and blushed to utter what I had so long
kept silent . However, at that time my veins and marrow
became full of that strength which I had always lacked in my
infancy and you th .
I intimated this to a monk who was my magister . . . Aston
ished, he bade me write these things down secretly, till he
could see what they were and what their source might be .
Then, realizing that they came from God, he indicated this to
his abbot, and from that time on he worked at this [writin.g
down] with me, with great eagerness .
In that same [experience of ] vision I understood the writings
of the prophets, the Gospels, the works of other holy men, and
those of certain philosophers, without any human instruction,
and I expounded certain things based on these, though I
scarcely had literary understanding, inasmuch as a woman
who was not learned had been my teacher. But I also brought
forth songs with their melody, in praise of God and the saints,
without being taught by anyone, and I sang them too, even
though I had never learnt either musical notation or any kind
of singing.
When these occurrences were brought up and discussed at
an audience in Mainz Cathedral, everyone said they stemmed
from God, and from that gift of prophecy which the prophets
of old had proclaimed . Then my writings were brought to Pope
Eugene, when he was in Trier. With joy he had them read out
in the presence of many people, and read them for himself,
and, with great trust in God's grace, sending me his blessing
with a letter, he bade me commit whatever I saw or heard in
my vision to writing, more comprehensively than hitherto.'
B 6vb-7va
Dronke 145-6
Hildegard's move from Disibodenberg

to Rupertsberg
At one time, because of a dimming of my eyes, I could see no
light; I was weighed down in body by such a weight that I could
not get up, but lay there assailed by the most intense pains. I
suffered in this way because I had not divulged the vision I had
been shown, that with my girls (cum puellis meis) I should move
from the Disibodenberg, where I had been vowed to God, to
another place. I was afflicted till I named the place where I am
now. At once I regained my sight and had things easier,
though I still did not recover fully from my sickness. But my
abbot, and the monks and the populace in that province, when
they realized what the move implied - that we wanted to go
from fertile fields and vineyards and the loveliness of that spot
to parched places where there were no amenities - were all
amazed. And they intrigued so that this should not come
about: they were determined to oppose us. What is more, they
said I was deluded by some vain fantasy. When I heard this,
my heart was crushed, and my body and veins dried up . Then,
lying in bed for many days, I heard a mighty voice forbidding
me to utter or to write anything more in that place about my
vision.
Then a noble marchioness, who was known to us,

approached the archbishop of Mainz and laid all this before
him and before other wise counsellors . They said that no place
could be hallowed except through good deeds, so that it
seemed right that we should go ahead. And thus, by the
archbishop's permission, with a vast escort of our kinsfolk and
of other men, in reverence of God we came to the Rupertsberg .
Then the ancient deceiver put me to the ordeal of great
mockery, in that many people said: 'What's all this - so many
hidden truths revealed to this foolish, unlearned woman, even
though there are many brave and wise men around? Surely
this will come to nothing!' For many people wondered
whether my revelation stemmed from God , or from the
parchedness (inaquositas) of aerial spirits, that often seduced
human beings.
So I stayed in that place with twenty girls of noble and
wealthy parentage, and we found no habitation or inhabitant
there, save for one old man and his wife and children. Such
great misfortunes and such pressure of toil befell me, it was as
if a stormcloud covered the sun - so that, sighing and weeping
copiously, I said: 'Oh, oh, God confounds no one who trusts in
him!' Then God showed me his grace again, as when the
clouds recede and the sun bursts forth, or when a mother
offers her weeping child milk, restoring its joy after tears.
Then in true vision I saw that these tribulations had come to
me according to the exemplar of Moses, for when he led the
children of Israel from Egypt through the Red Sea into the
desert, they, murmuring against God, caused great affliction
to Moses too, even though God lit them on their way with
wondrous signs. So God let me be oppressed in some measure
by the common people, by my relatives, and by some of the
women who had remained with me, when they lacked essen
tial things (except inasmuch as, through God's grace, they
were given to us as alms). For just as the children of Israel
plagued Moses, so these people, shaking their heads over me,
said: 'What good is it for well-born and wealthy girls to pass
from a place where they lacked nothing into such penury?' But
we were waiting for the grace of God, who had shown us this
spot, to come to our aid .
After the pressure of such grief, he rained that bounty upon
us. For many, who had previously despised us and called us a
parched useless thing, came from every side to help us, filling
us with blessings. And many rich people buried their dead on
our land, with due honour . . .
Nonetheless, God did not want me to remain steadily in
complete security: this he had shown me since infancy in all
my concerns, sending me no carefree joy as regards this life,
through which my mind could become overbearing. For when
I was writing my book Scivias, I deeply cherished a nobly-born
young girl, daughter of the marchioness I mentioned, just as
Paul cherished Timothy. She had bound herself to me in loving
friendship in every way, and showed compassion for my
illnesses, till I had finished the book. But then, because of her
family's distinction, she hankered after an appointment of
more repute: she wanted to be named abbess of some splendid
church. She pursued this not for the sake of God but for wordly
honour. When she had left me, going to another region far
away from us, she soon afterwards lost her life and the renown
of her appointment.
Some other noble girls, too, acted in similar fashion, separat
ing themselves from me. Some of them later lived such ir
responsible lives that many people said, their actions showed
that they sinned against the Holy Spirit, and against the
person who spoke from out of the Spirit. But I and those who
loved me wondered why such great persecution came upon
me, and why God did not bring me comfort, since I did not
wish to persevere in sins but longed to perfect good works
with his help . Amid all this I completed my book Scivias, as
God willed.
B 8va-9vb
Dronke 150-1

SCIVIAS
(Know the Ways of the Lord)
The receiving of the visions

In the year 1 1 41 of the incarnation of Jesus Christ the Son of
God, when I was forty two years and seven months of age, a
fiery light, flashing intensely, came from the open vault of
heaven and poured through my whole brain . Like a flame that
is hot without burning it kindled all my heart and all my breast,
just as the sun warms anything on which its rays fall. And
suddenly I could understand what such books as the Psalter,
the Gospel and the other catholic volumes both of the Old and
New Testament actually set forth; but I could not interpret the
words of the text; nor could I divide up the syllables; nor did I
have any notion of the cases or tenses.
Ever since I was a girl - certainly from the time I was five
years old right up to the present - in a wonderful way I had felt
in myself (as I do even now) the strength and mystery of these
secret and marvellous visions. Yet I revealed this to no one
except for a very few people and the religious who lived in the
same community as I; but right up until the time when God in
his grace wished it to be revealed, I suppressed it beneath strict
silence . The visions which I saw I did not perceive in dreams
nor when asleep nor in a delirium nor with the eyes or ears of
the body. I received them when I was awake and looking
around with a clear mind, with the inner eyes and ears, in open
places according to the will of God . But how this could be, it is
difficult for us mortals to seek to know.
SC Introduction
..
Hildegard receives Iler visions

The writing of 'Scivias'
..
Although I saw and heard these things, nonetheless, because

of doubt and mischievous rumour and the various things
people said, for a long time (not out of obstinacy but through a
sense of humility) I refused to write them until I fell upon my
sick-bed, pressed down by the scourge of God . So at last,
compelled by manifold infirmities, I set my hands to writing,
having, as witnesses, a certain girl who was nobly-born and of
good character and that man whom, as has been said before, I
had sought out and found in secret.
While I was doing this, I sensed, as I said before, the deep
profundity of what was being set forth in these books. Re
covering my strength, I raised myself up from sickness and
brought that work with difficulty to an end, devouring ten
years in the process.
SC In troduction
The Spirit of God
gives life to the soul and
to the body
You see, as it were, a woman, who has in her womb the complete figure
ofa human being. This means that after the woman has received
human seed a child is formed, perfect in all its parts, in the
hidden chamber of her belly. And behold, through the secret
plan of the supreme Creator, the same figure displays animated
motion. For when, in accordance with the secret and hidden
order and will of God, at an appropriate time rightly deter
mined by divine providence, the child in its mother's womb
has received the spirit, it shows by the movement of its body
that it is alive. In the same way, the earth reveals itself and
brings forth its crop of flowers when the dew has fallen upon
it, just as the fiery sphere (having none of the features of the human
body) takes possession of that same figure's heart. For the soul,
blazing in the fire of profound knowledge, discerns various
things in the orbit of its understanding. And, not having the
form of human parts (since it is itself neither corporeal nor
fallen like the human body), it greatly strengthens our heart
because, being the foundation of the body, it rules the whole,
just as the firmament of heaven contains the things below and
protects the things above . The soul also affects the brain
because, in its powers, it understands the things not only of
earth but of heaven, when it knows God wisely. And it pours
itself through all pf our parts, since it has bestowed on the
whole body the vigour of the marrow and of the veins and of all
the limbs, just as the tree gives sap and greenness from the root
to all its branches .
As it emerges from its mother, this same figure of a human being
(which has been given life in this way) also changes colour, according
to the motions which the sphere itself makes within it. For after we
have received the life-giving spirit in our mother's womb, once
Scivias I 71
The Spirit of God gives life to the soul and to the body
we have been born in this way and begun to express ourselves
in action, our own worth is apparent in terms of the works
which the soul performs with the body. For we clothe
ourselves with brightness from good things and with darkness
from bad.
SC I 4, 16
The likeness of the soul to a tree

The soul is in the body as the sap is in the tree; and the powers
of the soul are like the figure of the tree. How is this so?
Understanding in the soul is like the green vigour of the
branches and the leaves of the tree. Will is like the flowers on
the tree; mind like the first fruit bursting forth. But reason is
like the fruit in the fullness of maturity; while sense is like the
height and spread of the tree. And in the same way, the human
body is strengthened and supported by the soul .
SC I 4, 26
The Trinity
Just as the flame contains three essences in the one fire, so too,
there is one God in three persons. How is this so? The flame
consists of shining.brightness, purple vigour and fiery glow. It
has shining brightness so that it may give light; purple vigour
so that it may flourish; and a fiery glow so that it may burn.
In the shin ing brightness, observe the Father who, in his
fatherly devotion, reveals his brightness to the faithful. In the
purple vigour contained within it (whereby this same flame
manifests its power), understand the Son who, from the
Virgin, assumed a body in which Godhead demonstrated its
Scivias I 73
The true unity of the Trinity
miracles. And in the fiery glow, perceive the Holy Spirit which
pours glowingly into the minds of believers .
But where there is neither shining brightness, nor purple
vigour, nor fiery glow, there no flame is seen. So too, where
neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit is honoured,
there God is not worthily revered.
And so, just as these three essences are discerned in the one
fla me, so too, three Persons are to be understood in the unity
of Godhead.
SC II 2, 6
On baptism
He who has believed and been baptized will be saved; but he who has
not believed will be damned. What does this mean? That man who
has seen through his understanding (which is the inner eye)
what is hidden to external sight, and does not waver in this -
he most certainly believes. This is faith. For what we perceive
externally, we also know externally; and what we see internal
ly, we also contemplate internally. So it is that when our
understanding, looking ardently through the mirror of life,
perceives the incomprehensible Godhead which the outer eye
is unable to see, then the desires of the flesh are laid low and
crushed to the ground.
Therefore, the spirit of that man sighs towards the true
height. It feels the regeneration which was brought by the Son
of Man. The Son of Man was conceived of the Holy Spirit. His
Mother did not receive him in lust from the flesh of a sweating
male, but from the secret part of the Father of all things.
Coming in sweetness, he shows in the water the most pure
and living mirror, so that through it man lives in regeneration .
For just as man is born from flesh, created by the divine
power in the form of Adam, so the Holy Spirit restores the life
of the soul through the pouring over of water. The water
Scivias I 75
receives into itself the spirit of man as it rouses it to life, just as
his spirit was revived previously in the wave of blood, when it
was· revealed in a vessel of flesh. For just as the form of man is
fashioned through love, so that it is called 'man', so too, the
spirit of man is given life in the water before the eyes of God, so
that God acknowledges him in the inheritance of life .
So it is that he who accepts the fountain of deliverance with
the covenant of Justice finds life in salvation because he
faithfully believes . But he who does not wish to believe is
dead, since he does not have the breath of the Holy Spirit on
which to fly to the heights of heaven. Feeling his way with
blind eyes, he trembles in the clouded understanding of the
flesh, without being alive. For he lacks the life-enabling disci
pline which God has breathed into mankind to counteract the
mounting will of the flesh.
SC I I 3, 30
Against child oblates

'I have the green land under my control . Did I give that to you,
man, so that you could make whatever crop you wanted
germinate? And if you sow seed upon it surely you cannot
induce it to fruit? No. For you can neither provide dew, nor
produce rain, nor bestow moisture in greenness, nor draw
heat with the glow of the sun - all of which are required for
producing a crop.
'So, too, you can sow a word in a person's ear . But in the
heart, which is my field, you can pour neither the dew of
remorse, nor the rain of tears, nor the moistness of devotions,
nor the warmth of the Holy Spirit - all of which are needed for
the crop of holiness to germinate .
'And how did you dare so rashly to take hold of one
dedicated and sanctified to me in baptism that you would hand
him over against his will, to be bound in the most confining
76 \ Hildegard of Bingen
captivity to bear my yoke - when the result is neither parched
nor green, so that he is neither dead to the world nor alive in it?
And why have you oppressed him to such an extent that he is
capable of neither? But that miracle of mine by which he must
be strengthened in order to remain in the spiritual life is not to
be examined by mortals. For I do not want the parents to sin in
his consecration by offering him up to me against his will.
'But should some mother or father wish to offer their boy to
my service, before presenting him, let that parent say: "I
promise God that I shall protect my boy with expert care until
he reaches the age of reason, by imploring, beseeching, ex
horting him to remain devotedly in the service of God. And if
he is in agreement with me, I shall immediately offer his
service to God; or if he does not give me his assent, I may be
innocent in the eyes of God's majesty . "
'But i f the parents o f the boy have attended him i n these
ways until he has reached the age of reason; and if, at that
stage, the same boy, turning away from them, does not wish to
give his consent, then the parents themselves, since they have
shown in him the strength of their devotion, should not offer
him up against his will; nor should they force the boy into
that service which they themselves are unwilling to bear or
perform. '
SC II 5, 46
On the Eucharist
'
'Eat, my friends, drink and get drunk, my dearest ones. What does
this mean? Eat in faith, you who have come to my friendship
through holy baptism . For the pouring out of my Son's blood
has wiped from you Adam's fall . Think upon the true remedy
in the body of my Only-Begotten, so that the crimes you
frequently repeat when you commit injustice in your works
may be wiped mercifully from you . Drink in hope from this
Scivias I 77
vine which has led you from eternal punishment. Take up the
cup of salvation, so that you may believe firmly and
courageously in that grace by which you have been redeemed.
For you too will be drenched in that blood which was poured
out for you. Become drunk with love, you who are most
beloved of me. Be overflowing in the rivulets of the Scriptures,
so that you tear yourselves away with the highest zeal from the
·
desires of the flesh . Then I may kindle in you the dazzling
virtues that are so lovely to me, as I hand over to you the body
and blood of my Only-Begotten, just as he himself gave the
same sacrament to his disciples, as is written in the Gospel . '
S C II 6, 21
The cup of life

'I want to declare marvellous things also in the wine which
flows from the vine, by the same invocation through the
sacrament of his blood.
'The blood of my Son flowed from his side, just as the grape
drips from the vine . But just as the grape is trodden by feet and
crushed in the press, with the sweetest and strongest wine
flowing out to strengthen the blood in man, so too, in my
Only-Begotten, in the sweat of his distress, as he was bruised
by blows and scourges, crushed by the timber of the cross, the
excellent and most precious blood flowed from his wounds,
drenching in salvific deliverance the people who believed . . .
' . . . For just as the wine drips from the vine, so too, my Son
issued from my heart. My Only-Begotten is the true vine - with
shoots issuing from him in different directions. For the faithful
have been planted in him and through his incarnation they
abound in the fruit of good works.
'And as that juice flows from the sweetest and strongest fruit
of the vine, so too all justice appears in mercy and truth
through the incarnation of my Son. All those who faithfully
seek these virtues, discover them in him. How is this so? Those
who faithfully cling fo him are made green and fruitful by him
so that in these virtues they bear excellent fruit. In the same
way, being sweet and gentle, he brought forth the most
precious buds in holiness and justice and those who believed
in him, he cleansed of all the dirt of unfaithfulness. '
S C II 6, 28
A call for renewal

'Those who willingly endure poverty in my name are truly
worthy of my love; while those who through their greed would
gladly have worldly riches, but are not able to have them, lose
the profit of their labour. Yet he who seeks riches to satisfy in
them my will and not his greed, will have in my house the
reward of glory for his good will.
'So too, he who seeks the power of glory because of his
bragging arrogance and not for the glory of my name - seems
to me like a stinking corpse. But he who seeks glory for the
sake not of his own arrogance but of my renown, will appear
full of glory in my Kingdom.
'For this reason, priests ought to submit to the teaching of
their spiritual office's rule not for themselves but for me, so
that they may be able to preside over my people so much more
steadfastly and devoutly . '
S C I I 6 , 92
•
The two paths

'Man has within him two callings - a desire for success and a
longing for failure. How is this so? Through the desire for
success, he is called to life. Through the longing for failure he is
Scivias I 79
called to death . When, in the longing for success, man desire�
to do good, saying to himself, "Perform good works", this is a
response against evil - to avoid it and produce useful fruit. But
when, in the longing for failure, he desires to commit evil,
urging himself on in this way: "Do whatever gives you
pleasure", this is a response against good, since he does not
wish to resist his own iniquity, but delights in achieving
failure. He shows his contempt for me in this response and
reckons me a trickster by not bestowing the honour due to me. '
S C III 5, 6
Chastity
The seventh figure represents Chastity. For once people have
placed their hope fully in God, the work grows to perfection
within them, so that they begin in chastity to restrain them
selves from fleshly desires. Chastity, in the flower of the flesh,
feels abstinence most keenly, just as a young maiden feels the
glow of desire, yet does not attempt to look back at a man .
In this way, Chastity casts aside all that is unclean, panting
with glorious desires towards her delightful lover. He is the
sweetest and loveliest essence of all good things amongst the
delights of all the powers which stem from constancy; and he
can be perceived by his lovers only with the inner beauty of the
soul.
For this reason, Chastity is clothed in a tunic, purer, more
full of light than crystal. It shines with a brilliance like the ·
glittering of water drenched with sun. For she is dazzling in
her single purpose, and utterly clean of any of the dust of
concupiscence's burning lust. She is wonderfully strength
ened through the Holy Spirit and has been clothed in the robe
of innocence. Her robe shines in the dazzling whiteness of the
fountain of living water which is the brilliant sun of eternal
brightness.
Above her head, turned towards her face, stands a dove, its
wings stretched as though for flight. This signifies that, from
the outset, Chastity was cherished by the expanse and shading
of the wings - that is, by the protection of the Holy Spirit -
which enabled her to fly through the twists and turns of the
devil's snares. She sees her way by means of the fiery love of
holy inspiration, guiding herself towards the place where she
reveals the countenance of her sweetness.
SC III 8, 24
Divine Wisdom
You see a figure of great beauty standing on the top of this fl.oor. This
means that this virtue was in the Father on high 'before all
creation', arranging in his judgement all the materials of cre
ation established in heaven and on earth. She herself, it is
clear, shines in him as a great adornment, being the broadest
step amongst the steps of the other virtues in him. She is joined
to him in a dance, in the sweetest embrace of blazing love.
Wisdom looks towards the people on the earth. For she always
rules and defends with her protection those who try to follow
her, loving them greatly because they are steadfast in her. For
that same figure signifies the Wisdom of God: since, through
her, all things were created and are ruled by God. Her head
shines like lightn ing: with such brightness that you cannot have your
fill of gazing upon it. For the Godhead is both terrible and
enticing to all creption, seeing and contemplating all things,
just as the human eye discerns what is placed before it. Yet no
mortal can ultimately comprehend the Godhead, in all the
profundity of its mystery.
Wisdom arranges her hands reverently upon her breast. This
signifies the power of Wisdom which she wisely restrains, so
that she directs every work of hers in such a way that no one
can resist her, either in prudence or power.
Scivias I 81
Her feet on the same floor, are hidden from your sight. For her
way, concealed in the heart of the Father, lies open to no
mortal. Her secrets are naked and manifest to God alone . She
has on her head a ring in the form of a crown, shining with great
brilliance. This signifies that the majesty of God, being without
beginning or end, shines with an incomparable glory, God
head radiating with such splendour that mortal minds are
overwhelmed. As for her being clothed in a tunic the colour of
gold; this signifies that the work of Wisdom is frequently
considered as though it were the purest gold. For this reason,
she is adorned with a belt that descends from her breast right down to
her feet, decorated with most precious jewels and glittering in a
brilliant play of green and white and red and sky-blue. For, from
the beginning of the world, when Wisdom first displayed her
work openly, she already extended as far as the end of the
world, like a single path, adorned with holy and just com
mands, that is to say, with the first planting of the green seed
of the patriarchs and of the prophets who, in wretched lam
entation for their suffering, entreated with such great desire
for the Son of God to be made flesh. Then she was graced with
the dazzling virginity of the Virgin Mary; next, with the solid
and ruddy faith of the martyrs; and finally with the brilliant
and light-filled love of contemplation, by which God and
neighbour ought to be loved through the heat of the Holy
Spirit.
She will go on in this way until the end of the world, and her
warning will not cease but will flow out always, as long as the
world endures.
SC III 9, 25
Spiritual music
Just as the power of God, extending everywhere, surrounds
all things without encountering any resistance, so too, the
rationality of man has the great ability to sound through living
voices and to rouse listless souls to wakefulness in music.
Even David demonstrates this in the music of his prophecy
and Jeremiah shows it in the sorrowful voice of his lamen
tation. So it is that even you - a poor, weak-natured little woman -
hear, in music, the sound of fiery ardour in the virgin's blush, in the
embracing words of the budding twig; the sound of keenness from the
living lights tlzat shine in the celestial city; the sound of prophecy in
deep sermons; tlze sound of marvellous words from the enlarging of the
apostleship; the sound of blood being poured ou t by those wlzo offer
themselves up in faith; the sound of the priestly mysteries being
observed; and the sound of the virgin 's step on the lzeavenly greenness
of flowering tlzings. For faithful creation echoes back to the
heavenly Creator with its voice of exultation and joy, returning
frequent thanks. But you also hear a sound like the voice of a great
tl1rong, resounding in harmony in the complaints of those recalled to
tlie same steps. For music not only rejoices in the unanimity of
exultation of those who bravely persevere along the path of
righteousness . It also exults in the concord of reviving those
who have fallen away from the path of justice and are lifted up
at last to blessedness. For even the good shepherd joyfully led
back to the flock the sheep that had been lost.
SC III 13, 13
Musical harmony softens hard hearts

Musical harmony .softens hard hearts, inducing in them the
moisture of contrition and summoning the Holy Spirit. So it is
that those voices that you hear are like the voice of the
multitude when they lift up their voices on high . For the
faithful carry their jubilant praises in the singleness of una
nimity and revealed love, towards that unity of mind where
there is no discord, when they make those on earth sigh with
hearts and mouths for their heavenly reward .
Scivias I 83
And the sound of those voices passes through you in such a
way that you understand them without being hindered by
dullness. For whatever divine grace has been at work, it
removes all shadow of obscurity, making those things pure
and full of light that had been concealed by the carnal senses in
the weakness of the flesh.
SC III 13, 14
THE BOOK OF LIFE'S MERITS
Hardness of heart and mercy

The fourth vision gathered like a cloud of thick smoke and took
on human form, but without arms or legs - only huge black
eyes that stared unblinking. Perfectly still, it remained out
there in the dark, motionless. It spoke:
HARDNESS OF HEART: I have produced nothing and
brought no one into existence. So why should I bother about
anything? I intend to leave things as they are and only help
people when they are useful to me. God created everything; let
him take care of it all! If I became involved, even just a little, in
other people's affairs, what use would it do me? And even if I
did, I would do them neither good nor harm . I could go around
feeling pity for everyone and everything, but I wouldn't get a
moment's peace; and what would become of me? What kind of
life would I lead if I had to find an answer for every voice of joy
or sadness? I know only that I myself exist; and everyone else
should do the same.
Again I heard a voice from the cloud . It spoke:
MERCY'S REPLY: What are you saying, you creature of
stone? The plants give off the fragrance of their flowers. The
precious stones reflect their brilliance to others. Every creature
yearns for a loving embrace. The whole of nature serves
humanity, and in this service offers all her bounty. But you
have not even m�rited full human form. All you are is a pitiless
stare, an evil cloud of smoke in the darkness!
But I am soothing herb. I dwell in the dew and in the air and
in all greenness. My heart fills to overflowing and I give help to
others. I was there when the first words resounded: 'Let there
The Book of Life's Merits I 85

be' . From these words the whole of creation issued forth which
stands today at the disposal of humanity . But you are ex
cluded. With a loving eye, I observe the demands of life and
feel myself a part of all. I lift up the broken-hearted and lead
them to wholeness, since I am the balm for every pain, and
since my words ring true while you remain what you are: a
bitter cloud of smoke!
LM 1, 1 6-17
The sin of those who think they were born

to be unhappy
As soon as some people find themselves faced with the vicissi
tudes of everyday life, they start to mistrust God . They decide
that they must be fated to be unhappy .
'God does not want to help us', they claim, 'and he can't do
so either. We are stuck with the life of misery we were born
into, and there is no escape. '
People who say such things in their hearts should turn and
place all their trust in God's mercy. In their longing for higher
things, they should confess their failure so that they can still
merit God's grace. For human beings are by nature good. It- is
their own fault if they pervert their true natures and give full
rein to their arbitrary desires.
These words concern penitent people, whose souls can still
be purified and saved; and they are true. Let the faithful take
care to keep this firmly fixed in the memory of their good
conscience.
LM 2, 93
The vice of forgetting about God
Forgetting about God leads to harmful thoughts and idle
chatter such as: 'How can we know about God if we have never
seen him? And why should we have any regard for him if we
have never set eyes on him?' People who talk like that are no
longer mindful of their Creator, and their minds are smothered
in the darkness of unbelief. For when man fell, darkness fell on
the whole of creation. But God had created human beings to be
full of light so that they could see the radiance of pure ether
and hear the songs of angels. He had clothed them in such
radiance that they shone with the splendour of it. But all this
was lost when man disobeyed God's commandment and so
caused nature to fall with him. Yet the natural elements
retained a glimmering of their former pristine position, which
human sin could not destroy completely . For which reason
people should retain a glimmering of their knowledge of God .
They should allow God to return t o the centre o f their lives,
recognizing that they owe their very existence to no one else
save God alone, who is the Creator of all .
LM 4, 67
The heavenly joy of the virgins

Again in that light, as in a mirror, I saw a layer of air, pure
beyond the clarity of the purest water. It shone with light,
stronger than the rays of the sun. It had life and it contained
the vital force of all the herbs and flowers of earth and
paradise, filled with the fragrance of life-giving power, just as
the summer is filled with the scent of green plants and flowers.
As though in a mirror, I saw in that layer of air those blessed
women, clothed in gowns of purest gold. From the chest to the
feet they were adorned with precious jewels, in the manner of

a woman's hanging girdle . They too were as fragrant as
sweet-smelling herbs. And their belts were decorated with
gold and pearls and delicate workmanship beyond the limits of
human conception.
On their heads they wore golden crowns studded with gems
and interwoven with roses and lilies. Whenever the voice of
the Lamb resounded, a breath of wind sprang up from the
depths of the Godhead which stirred the sterns of the roses and
lilies till they rang out like the strings of harps; a wonderful
music was heard, in perfect harmony with the voice of the
Lamb. Only they who wore the crowns could sing this music,
and only they could hear the song, rejoicing in it, as they
delight who first set their eyes on the sun's unimagined
splendour.
Their shoes shone with light like a spring of living water. At
times they seemed to hover, as on golden wheels. Again they
took up their harps and again that wonderful music rang out.
They began to speak a strange unearthly language that no one
else could speak or understand. As to the rest of their radiance
- that was beyond the power of my eyes to see .
Because during their bodily existence these women had
achieved a real faith in God their Creator, and had performed
good works, they found themselves in the joy and serenity of
that glorious splendour I have just described. By their purity of
purpose, they have overcome their vain, empty, unpredictable
desires. Through their passionate love for the true sun, they
had ascended to that level beyond the confines of prescribed
laws and now they could breathe a new air, an air pure beyond
the clarity of the purest water; and they shone with a radiance
beyond the radiant glory of the sun . In the green life of their
virginity and in the blossoming of body and spirit, these
women had revealed the sweetest longings . Inspired by the
Holy Spirit, they had been filled with the fragrance and power
of many virtues. And now they could feel the breath of a new
air, air that breathes the fresh green force of all the herbs and
flowers of earth and paradise; air that is filled with the frag-
ranee of life-giving power, just as the summer is filled with the
scent of green plants and flowers.
They followed the way of life of God's incarnate Son and
their hearts soared to great heights. They vowed to God to
preserve their virginity in awe and sacred worship . So now,
rejoicing with them, the Lamb of God lifts up his voice. A
sweet breath of wind, rising from the depths of God, touches
these emblems of their crowned virginity so that they start to
join in the song of the Lamb, a music unknown to those who
do not possess such emblems but who are overjoyed when
they finally hear it. And because they trod the path taken by
God when he became man by ancient design, their shoes
shone with such a light so that it was as if they had been taken
from a spring of living water.
LM 6, 43-6, 48

THE BOOK OF DIVINE WORKS
Hildegard' s commission
For five years I had been troubled by true and wonderful
visions. For a true vision of the unfailing light had shown me
(in my great ignorance) the diversity of various ways of life . In
the sixth year (which marked the beginning of the present
visions), when I was sixty-five years of age, I saw a vision of
such mystery and power that I trembled all over and - because
of the frailty of my body - began to sicken. It was only
after seven years that I finally finished writing down this
vision. And so, in the year of our Lord's incarnation, 1 1 63,
when the apostolic throne was still being oppressed by the
Roman Emperor, Frederick, a voice came to me from heaven,
saying:
0 poor little figure of a woman; you, who are the daughter of

many troubles, plagued by a grave multitude of bodily
infirmities, yet steeped, nonetheless, in the vastness of
God's mysteries - commit to permanent record for the
benefit of humankind, what you see with your inner eyes
and perceive with the inner ears of your soul so that,
through these things, people may come to know their
Creator and not recoil from worshipping him with the
reverence due to him. And so, write these things, not
according to your heart but according to my witness - for I
am Life without beginning or end . These things were not
devised by you, nor were they previously considered by
anyone else; but they were pre-ordained by me before the
beginning of the world. For just as I had foreknowledge of
man before he was made, so too I foresaw all that he would
need .
90 J Hildegard of Bingen
And so I, a poor and feeble little figure of a woman, set my
hands to the task of writing - though I was worn down by so
many illnesses, and trembling. All this was witnessed by that
man [Volmar] whom (as I explained in my earlier visions) I had
sought and found in secret, as well as by that girl [Richardis]
whom I mentioned in the same context.
While I was doing this, I looked up at the true and living light
to see what I ought to write. For everything which I had
written since the beginning of my visions (or which I came to
understand afterwards) I saw with the inner eyes of my spirit
and heard with my inner ears, in heavenly mysteries, fully
awake in body and mind - and not in dreams, nor in ecstasy, as
I explained in my previous visions. Nor (as truth is my
witness) did I produce anything from the faculty of the human
sense, but only set down those things which I perceived in
heavenly mysteries.
And again I heard a voice from heaven instructing me thus;
and it said: 'Write in this way, just as I tell you.'
OW Foreword
The source of all being

'I, the highest and fiery power, have kindled every living spark
and I have breathed out nothing that can die. But I determine
how things are - I have regulated the circuit of the heavens by
flying around its revolving track with my upper wings - that is
to say, with Wisdom. But I am also the fiery life of the divine
essence - I flame above the beauty of the fields; I shine in the
waters; in the sun, the moon and the stars, I bum. And by
means of the airy wind, I stir everything into quickness with a
certain invisible life which sustains all. For the air lives in its
green power and its blossoming; the waters flow as if they
were alive. Even the sun is alive in its own light; and when the
The Book of Divine Works I 91
moon is on the point of disappearing, it is kindled by the sun,
so that it lives, as it were, afresh. I have also set up the pillars
that sustain the orb of the earth, as well as those winds which
have subordinate wings (that is to say, gentler winds) which,
through their mildness, hold the stronger winds in check, so
that they do not prove a danger. 'In the same way, the body
covers and encloses the soul so that it does not rush out.
For just as the breathing of the soul holds the body together
by supporting it, so that it does not fail, so too the strong winds
animate the subordinate winds so that they function as they
should . And so I, the fiery power, lie hidden in these things
and they blaze from me, just as man is continually moved by
his breath, and as the fire contains the nimble flame. All these
things live in their own essence and are without death, since I
am Life . I am also ra tionality, having the wind of the resound
ing Word (through which all creation was made) and I have
breathed into all these things, so that there is nothing mortal in
their natures, because I am Life itself. For I am the whole of life
life was not torn from stones; it did not bud from branches; nor
is it rooted in the generative power of the male. Rather, every
living thing is rooted in me. For rationality is the root, but the
resounding Word flowers in it.
Hence, since God is rational, how could he not be at wo)"k,
since all his work blossoms in man whom he made in his own
image and likeness and in whom he expressed all creation
according to fixed measure . For it was always the case
throughout eternity that God wanted his work, man, to come
into being. And when he finished the task, he gave man all the
creatures so that he might work with them, just as God had
made man as his own work.
But I am also of service since all living things take their
radiance from me; and I am the life which remains the same
through eternity, having neither beginning nor end; and the
same life, working and moving itself is God and yet this life is
one in three powers . And so Eternity is called the Father, the
Word is called the Son and the breath that connects these two
is called the Holy Spirit; just as God marked it in man in whom
there are body, soul and rationality.
But the fact that I flame above the beauty of the fields
signifies the earth, which is the stuff from which God made
man . And my shining in the waters accords with the soul;
because just as the water pours over the whole earth, so the
soul pervades the whole body. That I glow in the sun and the
moon, signifies rationality; but the stars are the countless
words of rationality . And the fact that by means of the airy
wind I stir everything into quickness with a certain invisible
life which sustains all, signifies this: those things which ad
vance in growth are animated and sustained by the air and
wind and remain quite unchanged in their essence . '
DW l , 2
The love of the righteous

The King has brought me into his store-rooms. We shall exult and
rejoice in you , mindful of your richness beyond the wine. The
righteous love you (Song of Sol. 1).
This may be understood as follows: Because I , the soul of a
faithful individual, have followed the Son of God (who has
redeemed mankind through his humanity) along the path of
truth, he, who is the ruler of all things, has brought me into the
fulness of his gifts . There I find every abundance of virtues . I
climb in faith from one virtue to the next. So it is that all of us
who have been re<jeemed through the Son of God's blood will
exult with our whole body and rejoice with our whole soul in
you, 0 holy Godhead. Through you we exist, and we call to
mind the sweetness of heavenly rewards more than all the
agonies and trials which we have suffered at the hands of the
enemies of truth, so that we reckon them as nothing, while we
taste the delights which you extend in the display of your
commandments. And so those who are righteous in the works
of holiness love you with a true and perfect love, because you
grant all good things to those who love you, even, in the end,
bestowing upon them eternal life .
But Wisdom also pours into the store-rooms (that is, into the
minds of mortals), and deposits the justice of true faith
through which the true God is known. There, the same faith so
checks the winter and damp of vices that they have no means
of further bloom or growth; and it draws and unites with itself
all the virtues, just as wine is poured into a vessel and given to
people to drink. For this reason, the faithful, exulting and
rejoicing in true confidence in their eternal reward, carry the
bundles of good works they have performed. They thirst for
God' s Justice and they suck holiness from her breasts. Nor can
they be satiated in any way, since they always delight in
contemplation of the divine; for holiness passes all human
understanding. For when man receives righteousness, he
surrenders himself and tastes and drinks virtues, and through
these he is strengthened, just as the veins of someone drinking
are filled with wine. Yet he is neither unbridled in the vices of
unfaithfulness nor a servant to them - unlike the drunkard
who is beyond himself on account of the wine and pays no
heed to what he is doing.
So the righteous love God, because they find in him no
source of weariness, only an enduring blessedness.
DW 2, 19
The wheel of life

The firmament has a revolving orbit in imitation of the power
of God which has neither beginning nor end - just as no one
can see where the encircling wheel begins or ends. For the
throne of God is his eternity in which he alone sits, and all
the living sparks are rays of his splendour, just as the rays of
the sun proceed from the sun itself.
94 I Hildegard of Binge11
The wheel of life
And how could God be known to be life, except through the
living things which glorify him, since the things that praise his
glory have proceeded from him? For this reason, he placed the
living and burning sparks to brighten his face . These sparks
see that he has neither beginning nor end and (unable to have
their fill of gazing at him), they look eagerly upon him without
satiety, with a zeal that can never diminish . But how could he,
who is alone immortal, be known if the angels did not gaze
upon him in this way? If he did not have those sparks, how
could his full glory be apparent? And how could he be
known to be eternal, if no brightness proceeded from him? For
there is nothing in creation that does not have some radiance -
either greenness or seeds or flowers, or beauty - otherwise it
would not be part of creation. For if God were not able to make
all things, where would be his power?
DW 4, 1 1
The work of the soul in the body

The soul assists the flesh and the flesh, the soul . For every
single work is perfected through soul as well as flesh, so that
the soul is revived by doing good and holy works with the
flesh . But the flesh is often irked when co-operating with the
soul, and so the soul stoops to the level of the flesh and allows
it to take delight in some deed, just as a mother causes her
weeping child to laugh. And in this way, the flesh performs
som� good works with the soul, but mixed together with
certain sins which the soul tolerates so that the flesh is not
oppressed . For just as the flesh lives through the soul, so too,
the soul is revived by doing good works with the flesh, because
the soul has been stationed inside the work of the Lord's
hands. In the same way that the sun, overcoming night, climbs
until the middle of the day, so man, too, rises up, by avoiding
corrupt deeds . And just as the sun declines in the afternoon,
so too, the soul makes accord with the flesh . And as the moon
is rekindled by the sun so that it does not disappear, so the
flesh of man is sustained by the powers of the soul, so that it
does not go to ruin.
DW 4, 24
The stages of life are like the seasons

of the earth
Human beings reach perfection in the flowering of childhood
and early adulthood. Then in old age they go into withered
decline, just as in summer the earth is adorned as it blossoms
in greenness, and then in winter turns pale with the cold. For
when the soul has so overcome the body that it accords with it
in simple heart and good will, and is delighted with good
works as though with some delicious food, that person says in
heavenly desire, 'How sweet are the declarations of your
justice in my throat. To my mouth, too, they are far sweeter
than honey. ' And so with a child's simplicity, that person
lives in innocence, without fleshly desire. But the soul so
steeps that one in these desires that he grows green as he
climbs from virtue to virtue, and blossoms in the good works
and examples that the Son of God has left us. For being
untainted by the malice of sins, that person rejoices within and
is adorned. And just as in the cold of winter, the greenness,
blossoming and maturing of all the fruits fail, so in death
human beings fail in all their works, both good and bad . But
the person who, in infancy, childhood and old age has com
pleted good works happily - his soul, shining with these
same works and, as it were, adorned with precious stones .
climbs into the presence of God; and the body, which

performed these works through the soul, can scarcely wait
until they abide together in the mansion of joy.
DW 4, 78
The life which endures .

My days have declined away like a shadow and I am like the grass in
the field (Psalm 102 . 1 1 ) . This can be understood in the following
way: Because of original sin, man is blind to what has passed
and what is to come, so that his understanding of these things
is like a shadow. On this account too, he lacks stability, just as
the grass withers, since all that he does is unclear to him . For all
of man's days are led into oblivion by this decline; but the life
that is eternal is unchanging yet ever-fresh, just as the summer
brings forth new fruits each year.
ow 4, 89
God is life in its fullness

And so God, who made all the things which have been
mentioned previously, is the unique life from which all life
takes its breath, just as a ray comes from the sun; and he is the
fire from which every fire that looks towards blessedness is
kindled, just as sparks emerge from fire. And how could it be
appropriate if no living thing clung to this life and no fire
warmed or illuminated any life? And how could it be fitting if
no life or brightness proceeded from the Godhead, which was
life before time? And what good would it do if the light kindled
from this fire shone on no one, since the fire does not hide its
light, nor the sun its ray? For God is that life through which the
host of angels was kindled, like sparks leaping from a fire . So it
would be inappropriate if this life did not shine forth . And that
brightness is unfailing since in it there can be no death. How is
this so? God alone exists through and in himself and did not
receive his being from anyone else . But everything else in
creation takes its beginning from him.
DW 5, 14
The fountain of life

I also saw, as if in the middle of the southern region I men
tioned, three figures, two of whom were standing in a fountain
of great purity, which was surrounded by a round stone,
pierced with holes. They seemed to be rooted in it, just as trees
sometimes appear to be growing in water. One was clad in
purple, the other in white, but of such a brightness that I could
not look at them directly. The third, however, was standing
out of the fountain, on the stone. She was clad in a white robe,
and her face shone with such radiance that my face flinched
from it. And the blessed ranks of saints appeared like clouds
before them and they gazed intently upon them.
DW B, 1
Love speaks
But now the first figure began to speak: 'I am Love - the
radiance of the livip.g God. Wisdom has performed her work
with me, and Humility (who is rooted in the living fountain) is
my helper. To her, Peace clings. And through the brightness
that I am, the living light of the blessed angels blazes. For, just
as a ray flashes from a lamp, so this brightness shines in the
blessed angels - nor could it do otherwise, since a light cannot
help but shine . For I designed man, who was rooted in me like
a reflected image, just as the semblance of each thing is seen in

The fo11ntai11 of life
the wa ter. So too, I am the living fountain because all the
things that have been made were like a reflection in me . Man
was made with fire and water according to this reflection, just
as I am the fire and the living water. For this reason, man has it
in his soul to arrange everything according to his will . '
OW 8, 2
Wisdom reveals her works through

Hildegard
Wisdom contemplated her own work, which she had arranged
in proper order in the reflection of the living water, when she
revealed through that aforementioned unlearned figure of a
woman, certain natural virtues of various things and certain
writings about the life of merits, and certain other deep mys
teries which that same woman saw in a true vision and which
exhausted her.
OW 8, 2
The purity of the living God

'The leaping fountain is clearly the purity of the living God . His
radiance is reflected in it, and in that splendour, God embraces
in his great love all things whose reflection appeared in the
leaping fountain 1'efore he ordered them to come forth in their
own shape. And in me, Love, all things are reflected and my
splendour reveals the design of things, just as the reflection
indicates their form. In Humility, who is my helper, creation
came forth at God's command; and in that same Humility, God
inclined himself towards me, to lift up again through that
blessedness (through which he can do all tha t he will) the

withered leaves that had fallen. For he fashioned them out of
the earth; and from the earth he freed them after the fall. '
DW 8, 2
Love, Humility and Peace

Everything that God has effected, he has perfected in Love,
Humility and Peace . So it is, that man, too, should esteem
Love, embrace Humility and grasp Peace, lest he rush into
destruction along with the one who has been mocking those
virtues from the moment of his birth .
DW 8, 3
Love leads humanity to the marriage

of the King
For man is the work of the right hand of God. Through God he
was clothed and called to the royal marriage which Humility
made when God looked down from his lofty height into the
depths of the earth and assembled his Church from the whole
people. So it was that man, who had fallen, could climb again
through repentance and renew himself in the ways of holiness
and the differe n t virtues, as though adorned with the green
ness of flowers. But Arrogance is always corrupt - for she
oppresses, divides and alienates every single thing, while
Humility does not steal from anyone and alienates nothing.
Rather, she maintains everything in Love . In her, God stoops
towards the earth . Through her, he gathers together all the
virtues . For the virtues stretch towards the Son of God, just as
a virgin, disdaining a husband of flesh, calls Christ her

bridegroom. And these . virtues are joined to Humility when
she leads them to the marriage of the King.
DW B, 4
The goodness of all created things

God's works are so secured by an all-encompassing plenitude,
that no created thing is imperfect. It lacks nothing in its nature,
possessing in itself the fullness of all perfection and utility.
And so all things which came forth through Wisdom, re
main in her like a most pure and elegant adornment, and they
shine with the most splendid radiance of their individual
essence .
And when fulfilling the precepts of God's commandments,
man, too, is the sweet and dazzling robe of Wisdom. He serves
as her green garment through his good intentions and the
green vigour of works adorned with virtues of many kinds. He
is an ornament to her ears when he turns away from hearing
evil whispers; a protection for her breast, when he rejects
forbidden desires . His bravery gives glory to her arms, too,
when he defends himself against sin. For all of these things
arise from the purity of faith, adorned with the profound gifts
of the Holy Spirit and the most just writings of the Doctors of
the Church, when man has perfected them in faith through
good works .
DW 9, 2

God's judgement will fall upon priests
who despoil the Church
After Justice has brought her accusation before the Supreme
Judge, hearing her cries of complaint, he will, by his just
judgement, allow his vengeance to rage against the transgres
sors of righteousness; and the enemies of God and Justice will
have their tyranny turned upon themselves, while God and
Justice say in turn: 'How long will we suffer and endure these
ravening wolves, who ought to be physicians and are not?'
But because they have the power of preaching, imposing
penance and granting absolution, for that reason, they hold us
in their grasp like ferocious beasts. Their crimes fall upon us
and through them the whole Church withers, because they do
not proclaim what is just; and they destroy the law like wolves
devouring sheep . They are voracious in their drunkenness and
they commit copious adulteries, and because of such sins, they
judge us without mercy.
For they are also plunderers of their congregations, through
their avarice, devouring whatever they can; and with their
offices they reduce us to poverty and indigence, contaminat
ing both themselves and us. For this reason, let us judge and
single them out in a fair trial, because they lead us astray rather
than teaching us what is right. We should do this so that we are
not destroyed, since if they persevere in this way, they will
throw the whole land into confusion by bringing it under their
sway. But now, let us tell them to fulfil the obligations of their
priestly habit and office according to true religion, as the
ancient Fathers established them, or depart from us and leave
us what they have.
Spurred on by the divine decree, the people will angrily
propose to them these and similar things, and overwhelming
them will say, 'We do not want them to rule over us along with
the estates and fields and other secular concerns over which
we have been established as princes' .
And how can it be right that the shaven-headed with their
robes and chasubles should have more soldiers and more
weapons than we do? Surely too, it is inappropriate for a cleric
to be a soldier or a soldier a cleric? So let us take away from
them what is not fairly but unjustly theirs. But we should give
careful consideration to what was offered up with great dis
cernment for the souls of the departed, and leave that to them
since it does not constitute plunder.
For the Almighty Father has rightly divided all things -
heaven for heavenly things, earth for earthly things . In this way
there is a just division among the sons of men, that the
religious have those things which relate to them, while the
laity have their own portion, so that neither party should
oppress the other through acts of plundering. God indeed has
not decreed that the tunic and cloak should be given to one son
while the other remains naked, but has ordered that the cloak
should be given to one, the tunic to the other. And so let the
laity have the cloak, because of the bulk of their worldly
concerns and on account of their offspring who are always
growing and multiplying. But let the tunic be given to the
religious population, so that they lack neither food nor
clothing, but do not posS'""ess more than they need.
ow 10, 16
Epilogue: through her infirmities,

Hildegard be,comes the dwelling-place
of the Holy-Spirit
And again I heard a voice from heaven teaching me these
words:
Now, praise be to God in his work, man. For his restoration,
God caused mighty battles on the earth and he deigned to raise
him above the heavens so that, with the angels, he praises his
face in that unity in which there is true God and true man . May
Almighty God himself deign to anoint with the oil of his pity
this poor little figure of a woman through whom he produced
what is written here. For she lives devoid of all security,
lacking even a knowledge of the structure of the Scriptures
which the Holy Spirit set up for the instruction of the Church
the Scriptures which are like the wall of a great city.
Since the day of her birth, she has been entangled, as though
in a net, in the afflictions of her infirmities, so that she is
troubled by continual pains in all her veins, marrow and flesh.
It has not, however, been God's will that she be released since,
through the cavern of the rational soul, she sees, in a spiritual
sense, some of the mysteries of God. But this vision so courses
through her veins that frequently she is affected by great
fatigue. Sometimes she is affected quite mildly; at other times,
more seriously, when she is brought to exhaustion by her
illness. For this reason, she maintains a way of life far removed
from the various lifestyles of others; like a child whose veins
are not yet full enough to enable it to discern the way people
live .
For with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she lives in
service, and she takes her physical constitution from the air.
This infirmity is so impressed on her - from the air itself, from
the rain, from the wind, from every sort of weather - that she
can place no reliance on her flesh. Yet were it otherwise, the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit would be unable to dwell within
her.
But from time to time, the Spirit of God, in the mighty power
of his holiness, revives her from the deathly extremes of this
sickness with, as it were, the cool dew of consolation, so that
she can live in service in the world with the inspiration of the
Holy Spirit. But may Almighty God, who knows in truth all the
weariness of this person's suffering, so deign to perfect his
grace in her that his holiness may be glorified in this; and when
her soul has migrated from this world to the eternal glory, it
may rejoice at being received mercifully and being crowned.
But the Book of Life (which is the written expression of the
Word of God - the Word through which all creation appeared;
the Word which breathed forth the life of all things according
to the will of the Eternal Father as he had pre-ordained them in
himself ) miraculously produced what is written here - not
through any teaching of human knowledge, but through the
simple and untaught figure of a woman.
Let no one, therefore, be so presumptuous as to add any
thing to the words of what is written here or take anything
away, on pain of being erased from the Book of Life and from
all the blessedness under the sun, unless this be done as a
result of the copying of the letters and words which were
brought forth directly through the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit. Whoever presumes to do otherwise, sins against the
Holy Spirit and will not be forgiven in this world or the next.
Now again, praise be to Almighty God in all his works before
time and in time, since he is the First and the Last. But may the
faithful regard these words with devout affection of heart since
they were produced through him who is the First and Last for
the benefit of believers.
OW Epilogue, 38

CAUSES AND CURES
The four elements

That there are only four elements: There cannot be more than
four, or fewer. They consist of two kinds: upper and lower.
The upper are celestial, the lower terrestrial. The things that
live in the upper ones are impalpable and are made of fire and
air; those that move in the lower are palpable, formed bodies,
and consist of water and mud .
For spirits are fiery and airy, but man is watery and muddy.
When God created man, the mud from which he was formed
was stuck together with water, and God put a fiery and airy
breath of life into that form.
Dronke 174, 242-3; Kaiser 41-5
Adam and Eve

When God created Adam, Adam experienced a sense of great
love in the sleep that God instilled in him . And God gave a
form to that love of the man, and so woman is the man's love.
And as soon as woman was formed God gave man the power
of creating, that through his love - which is woman - he might
procreate children. When Adam gazed at Eve, he was entirely
filled with wisdom, for he saw in her the mother of the children
to come. And when she gazed at Adam, it was as if she were
gazing into heaven, or as the human soul strives upwards,
longing for heavenly things - for her hope was fixed in him .
And s o there will be and must b e one and the same love i n man
and woman, and no other.
The man's love, compared with the woman's, is a heat of
108 \ Hildegard of Bingen

ardour like a fire on blazing mountains, which can hardly be
put out, whilst hers is a wood-fire that is easily quenched; but
the woman' s love, compared with the man's, is like a sweet
warmth proceeding from the sun, which brings forth fruits.
But the great love that was in Adam when Eve came forth
from him, and the sweetness of the sleep with which he then
slept, were turned in his transgression into a contrary mode
of sweetness. And so, because a man still feels this great
sweetness in himself, and is like a stag thirsting for the
fountain, he races swiftly to the woman and she to him - she
like a threshing-floor pounded by his many strokes and
brought to heat when the grains are threshed inside her.
Dronke 1 76, 244; Kaiser 136-7
The four temperaments of woman

(De sa11g ui11ea) Some women are inclined to plumpness, and
have soft and delectable flesh and slender veins, and well
constituted blood free of impurities . . . And these have a clear
and light colouring, and in love's embraces are themselves
lovable; they are subtle in arts, and show self-restraint in their
disposition . At menstruation they suffer only a moderate loss
of blood, and their womb is well developed for childbearing,
so they are fertile and can take in the man's seed. Yet they do
not bear many children, and if they are without husbands, so
that they remain childless, they easily have physical pains; but
if they have husbands, they are well.
(De fl.ecmatica) There are other women whose flesh does not
develop as much, because they have thick veins and healthy,
whitish blood (though it does contain a little impurity, which is
the source of its light colour) . They have severe features, and
are darkish in colouring; they are vigorous and practical, and
have a somewhat mannish d isposition. At menstruation their
menstrual blood flows neither too little nor too abundantly.
Causes and Cures I 109
And because they have thick veins they are very fertile and
conceive easily, for their womb and all their inner organs, too,
are well developed . They attract men and make men pursue
them, and so men love them well. If they want to stay away
from men, they can do so without being affected by it badly,
though they are slightly affected. However, if they do avoid
making love with men they will become difficult and un
pleasant in their behaviour. But if they go with men and do not
wish to avoid men's love-making, they will be unbridled and
over-lascivious, according to men's report. And because they
are to some extent mannish on account of vital force [viriditas,
lit. 'greenness' ] within them, a little down sometimes grows
on their chin . . .
(De colerica) There are other women who have slender flesh
but big bones, moderately sized veins and dense red blood.
They are pallid in colouring, prudent and benevolent, and
men show them reverence and are afraid of them. They suffer
much loss of blood in menstruation; their womb is well de
veloped and they are fertile . And men like their conduct, yet
flee from them and avoid them to some extent, for they can
interest men but not make men desire them. If they do get
married, they are chaste, they remain loyal wives and live
healthily with their husband; and if they are unmarried, they
tend to be ailing - as much because they do not know to what
man they might pledge their womanly loyalty as because they
lack a husband . . .
(De melancolica) But there are other women who have gaunt
flesh and thick veins and moderately sized bones; their blood
is more lead-coloured than sanguine, and their colouring is as
it were blended with grey and black. They are changeable and
free-roaming in their thoughts, and wearisomely wasted away
in affliction; they also have little power of resistance, so that at
times they are worn out by melancholy. They suffer much loss
of blood in menstruation, and they are sterile, because they
have a weak and fragile womb. So they cannot lodge or retain
or warm a man's seed, and thus they are also healthier,
stronger and happier without husbands than with them -
especially because, if they lie with their husbands, they will
tend to feel weak afterwards . But men turn away from them
and shun them, because they do not speak to men affectionate
ly, and love them only a Ii ttle . If for some hour they experience
sexual joy, it quickly passes in them. Yet some such women, if
they unite with robust and sanguine husbands, can at times,
when they reach a fair age, such as fifty, bear at least one child
. . . If their menopause comes before the just age, they will
sometimes suffer gout or swellings of the legs, or will incur an
insanity which their melancholy arouses, or else back-ache or a
kidney-ailment . . . If they are not helped in their illness, so
that they are not freed from it either by God's help or by
medicine, they will quickly die.
Dronke 180-1 , 247-9; Kaiser 879
Causes and Cures I 1 1 1

HILDEGARD'S SONGS
Antiphon for God the Father I

0 great Father,
Great is our need,
And so we beseech you now
By your Word
Through which you filled us
With what we lacked;
Let it please you now, Father,
- for it is fitting -
To look upon us
In case we fail
And your name is darkened within us,
Which is our help in need .
(6)

Antiphon for God the Father II
0 eternal God,
Now let it please you
To burn in that love
So that we become those limbs
Which you made in that same love
When you gave birth to your Son
In the first dawn
Before all creatures,
And look on this need
Which falls upon us.
Take it from us
For the sake of your Son
And lead us into the bliss of salvation.
(7)
Hildegard's Songs \ 1 13
Antiphon for the Virgin I
Today, there opens for us
A door once closed,
Which a serpent barred in a woman:
And so there gleams the flower of our Lady,
Brilliant in the dawn.
(11)

Antiphon for the Virgin II
You who are a branch
Thick with leaves,
Who stand in your nobility,
As the dawn breaks,
Rejoice now and be glad,
And deign to free us,
Who are weak,
From evil ways.
Stretch forth your hand,
And raise us on high.
(15)
Hildegard's Songs I 1 15
Alleluia for the Virgin
Alleluia!
0 branch Mediatrix,
Your sacred womb
Overcame death
And illumined
All creatures
In the fair flower
Born of the sweetest integrity
Of your sealed chastity.
( 18 )

Responsory for the Virgin
Sweet branch,
From the stock of Jesse,
How magnificent
That God saw the girl's beauty,
Like an eagle,
Fixing its eye on the sun:
When the highest Father saw
The girl's radiance
And desired his Word
To take flesh in her.
For in the hidden mystery of God,
Her mind was filled with light,
And there emerged from the Virgin
A bright flower,
Wonderfully:
When the highest Father saw
The girl's radiance
And desired his Word
To take flesh in her.
(21)
Hildegard's Songs I 1 17
Antiphon for the Holy Spirit I
The Holy Spirit is life that gives life,
Moving all things.
It is the root in every creature
And purifies all things,
Wiping away sins, ·
Anointing wounds.
It is radiant life, worthy of praise,
Awakening and enlivening
All things.
(24)
Antiphon for divine love
Love
Gives herself to all things,
Most excellent in the depths,
And above the stars
Cherishing all:
For the High King
She has given
The kiss of peace.
(25)
Hildegard's Songs I 119

Antiphon for Saint John the Evangelist
0 mirror of the dove
Of form most chaste,
Who saw the hidden wealth
In the spring most pure.
0 wonderful flowering
Who never withered and fell:
The All-highest planted you .
0 sweet repose
Of the sun's embraces.
You are the Lamb's special child
In the chosen friendship
Of a new race .
(35)

Responso ry for Martyrs
You, flowers of the rose,
You are blessed
In the shedding of your blood,
Fragrant in your supreme joy
And moist in the purchase
Which flowed
From the inner mind of the design
Which endures from before
All time:
In him who has no beginning.
Let there be honour in your company,
Who are a channel for the Church,
borne on the tide of your wounds' blood:
In him who has no beginning.
(38)

Antiphon for Saint Disibod
0 blessed childhood
Of Disibod the chosen,
So filled with God's Spirit
That you later shed
In the midst of God's marvels,
Holy works,
Like the sweet scent
Of balsam.
(44)

Antiphon for Saint Boniface
0 Boniface,
The living light looked upon you,
As on a wise man, who returned
To God the pure streams
That flowed from him,
When you watered the flowers' green.
And so you are a friend of the living God,
A luminous crystal
In the benign intent
Of the righteous ways
In which,
Wise,
You ran.
(51)

Antiphon for Virgins
Faces of beauty,
Beholding God,
Building in the dawn.
Blessed virgins,
How noble you are,
In whom God saw himself
When in you
He gave first sign
Of Heaven's beauty.
You are a most exquisite garden,
Scented with all splendour.
(55)

Responsory for Virgins
Green life, most noble,
Rooted in the sun,
Bright and serene,
You shine in a sphere
Beyond all earthly excellence.
You are enfolded
In the embrace of
Divine ministries.
You blush like the dawn,
And like the sun's flame,
You burn.
(56)

Antiphon for St Ursula
Blood's crimson
Flowing from a height
Touched by God:
You are a blossom
Which the winter
Of the serpent's breath
Did not harm.
(61 )

HILDEGARD' S LETTERS
Letter to Bernard of Clairvaux

This is the earliest of Hildegard's letters which we possess, and it was
sent in 1 1 47. Since receiving God's command in 1 1 41 to write her
visions down, Hildegard had suffered from acute uncertainty . She
t u rned therefore for confirmation of her calling to Bernard, wlzo was
currently preaching the Second Crusade and who was one of the most
a u thoritative men in Eu rope. In his reply to her, Bernard would offer
Hildegard support and encouragement.
Reverend Father Bernard, the great honours you have

attained through the power of God are a source of wonder;
you are truly to be feared by the lawless folly of this
world. Under the banner of the Holy Cross, you draw men in
exalted devotion, burning with love for the Son of God, to do
battle in Christ's army against the savagery of the heathens. I
beg you, Father, through the living God, to listen to me as I
question you . I am greatly troubled by this vision which has
appeared to me through the inspiration of divine mystery. I
have never seen it with the outer eyes of the flesh. Wretched as
I am (and more than wretched in bearing the name of woman) I
have seen, ever since I was a child, great miracles, which my
tongue could not utter had the Spirit of God not shown me
them so that I miqht believe. Most true and gentle Father,
answer in your goodness, your unworthy maidservant. For
never, since I was a child, have I lived an hour free from care.
Provide your servant-girl with comfort from your heart.
For in the text, I understand the inner meaning of the
exposition of the Psalms and Gospels and the other books
which are shown to me by this vision. The vision touches my
heart and soul like a burning flame, showing me these depths
Hildegard's Letters I 127

of interpretation. Yet it does not show me writings in the
German tongue - these I do not understand . I only know how
to read the words as a single unit I cannot pull the text apart
-
for analysis.
So tell me please what all of this seems to you to signify - for I
am someone untaught by any schooling in external matters
(though I have been taught within, in my soul), so that I speak,
as though in doubt. But having heard of your wisdom and
your holiness, I know that I will be comforted. For I have not
dared to tell these things to anyone (since I have heard that
there are many schisms in the world) except to a certain monk
whose conduct in the community won my approval. To him I
revealed all my secrets and he did indeed reassure me that
these were great and worthy of reverence . Father, for the love
of God, I want you to comfort me, and I will be certain.
Two years ago, I saw you in this vision as one who looked
into the sun without being frightened - a truly brave man. And
I wept because I blush so deeply and am so timorous.
Noble and most gentle Father, I depend upon your soul.
Make it clear to me, if you will, through this exchange,
whether I should say these things in the open or maintain my
silence . For it costs me great pains to say what I have seen and
heard in this vision . Yet, because I have kept silent, I have been
laid out by this vision all this time on my bed, in great sickness,
unable even to lift myself up. And so I wail before you,. in
sorrow. For I am prone to the motion of the wine-press lever in
my nature - the nature sprung from the root that rose from the
Devil's promptings, which entered into Adam, and made him
an outcast in an alien world. But now, rising up, I run to you . I
tell you: You are not moved by that lever but are always lifting
it up. You are a vanquisher in your soul, raising not just
yourself, but the world as well, towards salvation.
You are also the eagle looking at the sun. I beg you, through
the serenity of the Father and through his wondrous Word,
through the sweet tears of remorse, the Spirit of truthfulness,
the holy sound with which all creation echoes, and that very
Word from which the world was born, and through the
loftiness of the Father who, in sweet greening, sent the Word
into the Virgin's womb, from which it sucked flesh, just as
honey is walled around by the comb. And may that very
sound, the power of the Father, fall into your heart, and lift up
your mind so that you are not numbed when you receive my
words, so long as you seek all things from God, or from man,
or from the mystery itself, until you pass through the opening
in your soul, to know all these things in God .
Farewell. Be strong in your soul and firm in God's struggle .
Amen.
Letter to Richardis of Stade

Richardis was a nun in the women's cloister at Disibodenberg and
then at Rupertsberg. She collaborated closely with Hildegard in the
production of her visionary writings. In 1 151 , shortly after their
arrival at Rupertsberg, Richardis was appointed abbess of a Benedict
ine community at Bassum in the north of Germany. Hildegard
opposed her appointment but was unable to prevent Richardis from
leaving. Richardis died shortly after receiving Hildegard's letter.
Daughter, hear me, your mother in the spirit, saying to you:

My grief rises up. Grief kills the great trust and solace that I
found in a human being . From now on I shall say: 'It is good to
set one's hope in the Lord, better than to set it in the world's
mighty ones . ' That is, man ought to look to the one on high,
the living one, quite unshaded by any love or feeble trust such
as the dark sublu nary air offers for a brief time. One who
beholds God thus raises the eyes like an eagle to the sun. And
because of this one should not look to a high personage, who
fails as flowers fall.
I fell short of this, because of love for a noble person. Now I
tell you, whenever I have sinned in this way, God has made
that sin clear to me in some experiences of anguish or of pain -
Hildegard's Letters J 129
and this has now happened on account of you, as you yourself
know.
Now, again, I say: Woe is me, your mother, woe is me,
daughter - why have you abandoned me like an orphan? I
loved the nobility of your conduct, your wisdom and chastity,
your soul and the whole of your life, so much that many said:
What are you doing?
Now let all who have a sorrow like my sorrow mourn with
me - all who have ever, in the love of God, had such high love
in heart and mind for a human being as I for you - for one
snatched away from them in a single moment, as you were
from me.
But may the angel of God precede you, and the Son of God
protect you, and his mother guard you. Be mindful of your
poor mother Hildegard, that your happiness may not fail .
Letter to Elisabeth of Schonau

Elisabeth was a Benedictine nun at the convent of Schonau near St
Goarshausen on the Rhine. She was a younger woman than Hildegard
but similarly gifted as a visionary, although her visions differ in kind.
On the advice of her brother, she committed them to writing (three
books still survive), becoming both famous and the object of un
welcome rumour. She wrote to Hildegard, describing the manner. of
her visions in full and seeking to redress the unfounded rumours
against her. This is Hildegard's reply.
I am a mere poor woman; a vessel of clay. What I say comes not

from me but from the clear light: man is a vessel which God
fashioned for himself, and filled with his inspiration, so that,
in him, he could bring his works to perfection. For God does
not work as man does, but all things were perfected in obedi
ence to his command. Vegetation, woods and trees appeared;
the sun, the moon and the stars came forth to render service;
the waters produced fish and birds of the air; and cattle and
wild beasts sprang up; and they all serve man, just as God
intended them to. But man alone did not recognize him. For
when God provided man with great knowledge, man puffed
himself up in his mind and thus alienated himself from God.
God had considered that in man, of all creatures, he would
perfect his works . But the old deceiver tricked him with the
seductive whisper of subversion and infected him with the
vice of disobedience, so that he sought more than was right.
Ah! What woe! Then all the elements entangled themselves
in an alternation of light and darkness, just as man did in
transgressing God's precepts. But God nurtured some mor
tals, so that man should not be held in universal derision. Abel
was a good man; but Cain was a murderer. And many saw in
light the mysteries of God; but others committed many sins
until the coming of the time when the Word of God began to
shine, as was said: 'More beautiful than the sons of men' .
Then the sun of Justice came out and illuminated mortals in
faith and action with good works, just as the dawn appears
first and the hours of the day follow until the approach of
night. So, daughter Elisabeth, the world is changed. For now
the world has exhausted all the greenness of virtues - at dawn,
at the first, the third, and, above all, the sixth hour of the day.
And so, in this time, it is necessary for God to bedew some
mortals, lest his instruments fall idle. Listen, my troubled
daughter, for the ambitious promptings of the old serpent
cause some vexation even to those whom God's inspiration
has filled in this way. For when the serpent sees a pretty jewel,
he hisses, at once, and says, 'What is this?' And he torments it
with the many a fflictions of a mind that burns with desire to fly
above the clouds (just as he himself has done) as though
mortals were gods.
Now listen again: Those who desire to bring the works of
God to perfection should pay attention; for, being mortals,
th'ey are vessels of clay. And let them always have regard to
what they are, and what they will be, and leave the things of
heaven to him who is heavenly. For they themselves are
outcasts, knowing nothing of the things of heaven, but merely
hymning the mysteries of God, just as a trumpet emits sounds
but does not make them; for someone else breathes into it to
produce the sound.
But let them, too, put on the armour of faith, since they are
gentle and mild, poor and wretched (just as that lamb was,
whose trumpet-sound they are) and since they have the inno
cent natures of children. For God always scourges those who
play upon his trumpet, while seeing to it that the vessel of clay
does not break, but gives him pleasure .
0 daughter, may God make you a mirror of life . As for me, I
lie in the faint-heartedness of fear, from time to time sounding
a little, from the living light, like the small sound of the
trumpet. And so may God help me to remain in his service .
Letter to Bishop Eberhard II of Bamberg

Eberhard was consecrated bishop by Pope Eugenius Ill in 1 146. He
proved himself an excellent bishop, mediating between the interests of
Pope and Emperor in troubled times. He was a man of holy reputation,
and a fine theologian. He wrote to Hildegard, reminding her of the
theological task which he had set her when they met regarding the
proposition that 'Eternity lives in the Father; identity in the Son
and the unity of eternity and identity in the Holy Spirit'. This is
Hildegard's reply.
The Father is brightness, and that brightness has brilliance and

that brilliance has fire, and they are one . Those who do not
grasp this in faith do not see God because they try to separate
from him what he is - for God is not to be divided . Even the
works which God has fashioned lose the original signification
that is proper to their names, when man divides them. This
brightness is the Father's love. All things are born from it and it
surrounds all things, because they derive from its power.

The Father arranges, but the Son performs. For the Father has
ordained all things in himself, and the Son has carried them
out. The light is part of the light which was there in the
beginning, before time and in eternity, and this is the Son who
shines from the Father - the Son through whom all creatures
were made. And the Son, who had never before appeared in
bodily form, even put on the outer form of man, whom he had
fashioned from mud. In this way, God saw all the works before
him as light, and when he said, 'Let there be', each thing took
on an outer form according to its type.
In the Holy Spirit there is the union of eternity and identity.

The Holy Spirit is like a fire - but not an extinguishable fire, at
one moment visibly ablaze, at another, quenched. For the
Holy Spirit produces eternity and identity, and joins them so
that they are one, just as someone binds together a bundle . For
if a bundle were not bound together, it would not be a bundle
but would be scattered. In the same way, too, a blacksmith
joins two pieces of metal into one by means of fire . So it is that
the Holy Spirit is like a whirling sword being brandished on all
sides . It reveals eternity, it makes identity bum bright, so that
they are one. The Holy Spirit is the fire and life in that eternity
and identity, because God is alive . For the sun is bright and its
light blazes and in it bums:-the fire that illuminates all the
world; and yet it appears as a single entity.
Anything in which there is no force is dead, just as the wood
torn from the tree is dry because it has no power of greening.
For the Holy Spirit is the strengthener and the quickener.
Eternity would qot be eternity without the Holy Spirit. And
identity would not be identity without the Holy Spirit. For the
Holy Spirit is in them both and together with them in Godhead
is the one God.

Letter to Pope A11astasius J\I
Fl1lfo•t'i11s E11st'11i11::: , A 1111sta;:;i11::: IV rt'is11t'd lirz't11.v ,1;:; PLl} 'r.' l\'f<Ct't"11

1 2 ]11/v, 1 1 53, amt 3 Dccmil1r:r, 1 1 5-1. Altl1Ll11slz 1111 11prislzt Jis u rt'
j'
lz imsd , lzf m.m a n·p11 t11t itm fl1r fl1/a11t i11s lt-:-sa mm in F "-1sith111::: d
ir1Jl11t'11ct'. Hilcfrsa rd slwa•s 1w 111t·rcy fLl lzim 011 aCL\111 11 t of lzis lzisl:
}Jc.i::: ititm a;:; it't11frr of tlzt' Clwn·lz .
So it i s, 0 man, that you who s i t in tht:' chid St.' .l t l) f t ht.' Lord,

hold him in contempt wht:'n you t:'mbr.1 ct.' t:'\'iL si1Kt.' )'l)ll d o not
reject it but kiss it, by silently toler.1ting it in dt.'pr.l\'t.'d mt.' n .
And s o t h e whole earth i s disordert-d lw
.
.1 ...�re.1 t smYt.' ssion of
heresies; for man Im·es what God has dt.' Stniyt.' d. And )'l)U,
Rome, like a man lying ,1 t tht- point of dt:'.1 t h , will bt.' so
con founded that till' strength of your foe t, on which up till miw
you have stood, will ebb aw.1y . For you kwe the Kin�' s
daugh ter J u stice, not with a burning h.1\'t.' , but .1s th ou�h i n tht.'
numbness of sleep; so th,1t you dri\'e her from you. But sill'
herself will flee from you if you do not t:'<lll ht.' r b.1ck.
But the high mountains will s till hold out to you thl' j.1 w
bone of assistance . They will lift you up, support ing you with
the massi\'e timbt.'rs ot tall trees, so tho.1 t )'l,U will not bt..'
despoiled completely of ,111 your honour - the glory of your
betrothal to Christ . You will keep some wings to .lliorn you,
until the snow of manifold mockt:'rit:'s .1 rri\'l'S, produci ng much
folly . Beware, therefore, ot W•m t in g to .1 ssoci.1tl' yourself with
the ways of the pagans, lest you fall.
Now l isten to him who li\'es .1 nd will not be destnwed . The
world a t this time is steept.'d in wantonness; a fter this, it will �'
in sadness; then in terror, so that peoplt:' will not bt.' Cl)nC't..'rnt.' d
if they are killed. In between these ph.1 st-s, then' will be
periods of impudence, pt:'riods of I\.' morst:', and timt.'S wlwn
various injustices will thunder and bl.1 ze likt.' lightning. For tht.'
eye steals, the nose ravishes, t he mouth kill s . B u t tht:' h t:'.1 rt w ill
save, when thl' dawn will appear with tht.' splt.' ndour o f tht.'
134 I Hil1kg11rd of Bi11gm

first sunrise . But what follows in the new desire, in the new
zeal, is beyond utterance .
Letter to her Community

Here Hildegard is writing to her nuns at R upertsberg shortly after the
resolution of difficulties concerning the establishment of the convent.
But 0, what mighty sorrow these daughters of mine will feel

after the death of their mother, since her words will rise no
longer. And so in their grief and mourning, through the many
seasons of their tears, they will cry, 'Alas! alas! how happily we
would suck at our mother's breasts if only we had her with us
now!' For this reason, Daughters of God, I urge you as your
mother, (as I have urged you from my youth) to keep love
amongst you, so that you may be a light renowned with the
angels, for your kindness, and mighty in your powers, just
as your Father Benedict taught you. The Holy Spirit urges its
gifts upon you; for after my death, you will hear my voice no
longer.
Yet never let my voice, which has sounded so often amongst
you in love, be drawn into oblivion . My daughters now are
glowing red in their hearts because of the sorrow they feel for
their mother. They are panting and sighing for the things of
heaven. Afterwards, they will shine, through the grace of
God, with a daz�ling red light. They will become the bravest
soldiers in his house . If anyone should wish to incite, in this
throng of my daughters, dissension from the spiritual rule or
schism in this community, may the gift of the Holy Spirit
remove such a wish from that person's heart. But if, in con
tempt of God, they should commit this deed, may the hand of
the Lord strike them down in front of all the people, because
they deserve to be confounded.

For this reason, my daughters, dwell in tha t place, where
you have chosen to be soldiers of God, with all your steadfast
ness and devotion, so that in it you may obtain the rewards of
heaven.
Letter to the monks of St Eucharius

This is one of many letters Hildegard wrote in which she exhorts male
religious to higher spiritual standards . The community concerned was
an importa11 t and ancien t foundation in Trier with which she was
connected. The community s till exists today and is known as the
Abbey of St Matthias.
But now the living light says to the sons of that throng: You are
the walls of the Temple; for the primitive Church set you in
place. So shun vanity and pride and avoid the whirlwind of
unrest. Look at these things now with living eyes; and hear
these words by listening with your inner ears. I do not see yorn
community being scattered, although it will feel the smart o
many whips. Live therefore and be vigilant in God. For in tht
true vision, I saw some in that congregation who have the rec
glow of the dawn, who glitter like sapphire, who shine like tht
light of the stars . For those who glow red like the dawn, hole
God in fear and willingly observe, on his account, the precept�
of the community Rule; although, due to the flesh, they seem
now and then to stray from the path, like a sacrificial beast
being led to the slaughter .
But those who shine like the sapphire, love God, and hence
do not commit grave sins, although they do sin; and it is their
custom to chastise themselves readily for their transgressions.
But those who shine like the light of the stars are full of
good-will and consequently do not quarrel with others, but
they hold in check the petulance of childish na tures and
willingly abstain from serious sins, considering them hateful.
And I have seen others enveloped in the blackness of acrid
136 I Hildegard of Bi11gen
smoke, because of their habitually foul behaviour. Some of
the se are acrid because of the peculiar nature of their minds.
For they love riches, and consequently do not love the spiritual
way of life.
Letter to Abbess Hazzecha of Krauftal

Hildegard had visited the Benedictine community at Krauftal in 1 1 60
and had con tinued to correspond with Hazzecha, who sought to escape
from her responsibilities as abbess by becoming a hermit, or by going
on pilgrimage. Hildegard advised Hazzecha to persevere in the task
allotted to her. The 'lady abbess H' addressed in this letter is almost
certainly Hazzecha.
To the lady abbess H, Hildegard. In true vision I saw and heard

these words:
Daughter of God, you that in God's love call me - poor little
creature - mother, learn to have discretion, which, in heavenly
things and earthly, is the mother of us all, since by this the soul
is directed, and the body nurtured in appropriate restraint. A
person who, amid sighs of repentance, remembers sins com
mitted - thinking, speaking, acting at the devil's prompting
should embrace her mother, discretion, and be submissive to
her, and in true humility and obedience should correct her
sins, in the way that her teachers advise . Indeed, as the fruit of
the earth is harmed by a freak rainstorm, and as from untilled
earth sprout no true fruits, but useless weeds, so a person who
toils more than her body can bear is rendered useless in her
spirit by ill-judged toil and ill-judged abstinence .
When the blackest of birds - the devil - senses that someone
wants to banish illicit longings and cease from sins, it curls
itself into the fasting, prayers and abstinence of that person,
like a viper into its den; suggestively it says to her: 'Your sins
can't be wiped out unless you trample down your body with
tears and grief, and with such immense labours that it withers
totally. ' So, living hopeless and joyless, that person's senses
often fail, she is fettered by grievous sickness, and thus,
despoiled of the quality of holiness by the devil's deceit, she
leaves what she began without discretion unfinished, and in
this way her last condition will be worse than the earlier one.
Also, let one who is bound in obedience, in accord with
Christ's example, take utmost care not to choose something in
a self-willed way, trusting more in herself than in the good
advice of others - lest she be overcome by the pride that
tumbled from heaven, by wanting to be better than others who
are good, reckoning that to be good and holy which is decided
by herself. For of herself she can know this, that she should not
acquiesce in her own will, since she exists in two natures -
body and soul - and these discord, as what pleases the one
displeases the other. This being so in human beings, how can
they, their soul unharmed, consent to their own will, which
belongs to the body? But the person who, for fear and love of
God, devises her own will, and submits herself to the precepts,
instruction and rule of her teachers, offering example to others
in true humility of good works - she makes herself a living
tabernacle in the heavenly Jerusalem; the Holy Spirit rests on
her.
Dearest daughter, I cannot see that it will help you and your
two dependants to seek a forest or a recluse's cell or a pilgrimage
to Rome, since you are already marked with the seal of Christ,
with which you journey to the heavenly Jerusalem. For if you
embark on a greater effort than you can endure, through the
devil's deceit - as I said - you will fall.
In the love of Christ, too, I tell you that it is not my wont to
speak of the end or the achievements of people, or of what will
befall them; but the things I am taught by the Holy Spirit in the
vision of my soul - though I am untaught - these I speak and
write. As for the men whom you commended to me, in my
prayers I gladly commend them to the grace of God. I'll also
gladly pray to God for you, that he free you from everything
that is ill-suited to you, and that he guard you from future ills.
And may you perfect the efforts of holy works with such
blessed discretion that, strengthened by the radiance of pure
holiness and kindled by the ardour of true love of God, you
may attain the supreme bliss . May you live in it forever.
Letter to an abbot
Hildegard uses her medical analysis of people's characters to console a
friend, an unknown abbot who is evidently experiencing some diffi
culties with his community.
The secret mysteries of God cannot be comprehended or

known by anything that has its source through the Beginning.
And yet all his judgements are just, because there is no
emptiness in him: he is as he was and is. But even as man
consists of elements, and the elements are conjoined, and
none is of any avail of itself without another, so too the modes
of behaviour of men are unequal, even though they arise from
one and the same breath of life.
There are four modes of behaviour among men: some are
hard, some airy, some stormy, some fiery.
One who has the hard mode is sharp in everything, and in
none of his affairs does he heed anyone else, but reckons all
that is his for himself alone, and takes pleasure in that.
And as for one who has the airy mode, his mind is always
wavering; and yet he fears God and restrains himself as
regards sinning, because he is not pleased with what he dt>es.
Those who hel¥e the stormy mode are not wise, but com
pound all they do with foolishness; they are not improved by
words of wisdom, but shudder at them indignantly.
And those who have the fiery mode aspire to everything
worldly and alienate themselves from spiritual people; they
shun peace and, wherever they see it, strike at it with some
worldly ambition . . .
But God gathers to himself some of all those who have such
modes of behaviour - when, growing aware, they turn what
goes against their souls' salvation back towards God: those
who at last fear him, as happened in the case of Saul and many
others .
Letter to King Henry II of England

Henry I I was crow11ed Ki11g of Engla11d in 1 1 54 . He greatly admired
the Emperor, Barbarossa, and a marriage was planned betwee11 tlze
babies of the two royal houses, which Henry cancelled wizen his future
son-in-law was passed over in the imperial succession . King Henry
supported the antipope, while the Englislz bishops, Thomas a Becket
among them, supported Pope Alexander. Henry became Tlwmas's
enemy, but did penance after his murder at Canterbury in 1 1 70 . The
Archbishop was canonized three years later.
To a certain man who holds a certain office, the Lord says:

'Yours are the gifts of giving: it is by ruling and defending,
protecting and providing, that you may reach heaven .' But a
bird, as black as can be, comes to you from the North and says:
'You have the power to do whatever you want. So do this and
do that; make this excuse and that excuse . It does not profit
you to have regard for Justice; for if you are always attentive to
her, you will not be a master but a slave . '
Yet you should not listen to the thief who gives you this
advice; the thief who, in your infancy, when you had become,
from ashes, a thing of beauty, after receiving the breath of life,
stripped you of great glory . Look, instead, more attentively
upon your Father who made you. For your mind is well
disposed, so that you readily do good, except when the foul
habits of others overwhelm you and you become entangled i n
them for a time . Shun this, with all your might, beloved son of
God, and call upon your Father, since willingly h e stretches
out his hand to help you. Now live forever and remain in
eternal happiness.

Letter to Werner of Kirchheim
Hildegard's last preaching tour took her to Swabia in 1 1 70 or 1 1 71 ,
where she visited Kirchheim and spoke to a community of priests.
Their leader, Werner of Kirchheim, wrote to Hildegard requesting a
copy of her address. This is part of her reply.
In the year of our Lord's incarnation, 1170, I had been lying on

my sick-bed for a long time, when I saw (fully conscious in
body and in mind) a most beautiful image. It took the form of a
woman, and so exceptional was her sweetness and so rich in
delights her beauty, that the human mind was powerless to
comprehend her. She stretched in height from earth to
heaven. Her face shone with exceeding brightness and her
gaze was fixed on heaven. She was dressed in a dazzling robe
of white silk and draped in a cloak, adorned with stones of
great price - with emerald, with sapphire and with pearls,
having about her feet shoes of onyx .
But her face was stained with dust and her robe was ripped
down the right side and her cloak had lost its sheen of beauty
and her shoes had been blackened. And she herself, in a voice
loud with sorrow, was calling to the heights of heaven, saying,
'Hear, heaven, how my face is sullied; mourn, earth, that my
robe is torn; tremble, abyss, because my shoes are blackened .
"Foxes have lairs and the birds of the air have nests", but I
have no helper and no comforter, no staff to lean on for
support.' And again she began to speak:
'I lay hidden in. the heart of the Father until the Son of Man,
who was conceived and born in virginity, poured out his
blood. With that same blood, he made me his betrothed and
furnished me with a dowry, so that, in a pure and simple
regeneration of spirit and water, I might give new life to those
constrained and tainted by the serpent's venom.
'But my nurturers, the priests - who ought to make my face
glow red like the dawn, my robe gleam like lightning, my cloak

sparkle like precious stones and my shoes glisten like white
ness itself - have strewn my face with dust, and torn my robe,
and made my cloak a thing of shadows; my shoes they have
blackened utterly. The very people who ought to adorn me in
every part, have left me destitute in all these respects.
'For they sully my face by handling and receiving the body
and blood of my Bridegroom, despite the impurity of their
lascivious habits, the vast filth of their fornications and adul
teries and the wicked plunder of their avarice, in which they
sell and buy all manner of improper things; and they roll
around in such a quantity of muck, that it is as if a little child
were placed in the mire at the feet of pigs.
'For just as man became flesh and blood, when God made
him from the earth' s mud and breathed into his face the breath
of life; so too, while the priest's words are invoking divinity,
that same power of God changes the offering of bread and
wine and water on the altar into the true flesh and true blood of
Christ, my Bridegroom. But because of the blindness which
afflicted man at Adam's fall, man is unable to see with the eyes
of the flesh. For my Bridegroom's wounds, where the nails
were driven in, remain fresh and open as long as the wounds
of men's sins continue to gape. The priests (who ought to
make me radiantly pure, by serving me in radiant purity) infect
these same wounds of Christ's, as they scurry from church to
church in their excessive avarice .
'They also tear my robe, since they are violators of the law,
the gospel and their own priesthood; and they darken my
cloak by neglecting, in every way, the rules which they are
meant to uphold; nor do they fulfil them (in good intentions or
in actual practice) through abstinence (as symbolized by the
emerald) or in the distribution of alms (as symbolized by the
sapphire), nor through the other good and just works with
which God is honoured (as symbolized by the other types of
jewels) .
'But my shoes, too, are blackened on the tops, since the
priests do not keep to the straight paths of justice, which are
hard and rugged, or set good examples to those beneath them;
although, on the underside of my shoes (as in my inner self ), I
find, in some, the radiance of truth. '
Letter to Guibert of Gembloux

Here Hildegard is writing to the man who was to become her secretary
in reply to his request for a detailed description of how she came to
receive her visions. This letter gives us the most profound insight into
the nature of Hildegard's visions and of her calling.
These words come not from me nor from any other mortal: but
I present them as I received them in a vision from above. 0
servant of God, through the mirror of faith in which you look
in order to know God; 0 son of God, through the fashioning of
man in whom God wrought and expressed his miracles (for
just as a mirror - in which all manner of things are seen - is
placed in its frame, so too, the rational soul is inserted in the
body, as though in a vessel of clay; so that, through it, the body
may be guided in its mode of living and the heavenly soul may
be contemplated through faith), listen to what the unfailing
light says:
Man is both of heaven and of earth - through the good
understanding of his rational soul, he is heavenly; and
through his evil understanding, he is frail and full of shadows;
and the more he identifies himself with good things, the more
completely he loves God. For if he saw his face in the mirror,
befouled and sp1inkled with dust, he would be anxious to
wipe it clean. So that even if he understands that he has sinned
and been entangled in a variety of vanities, let him sigh; since
he knows, in his good understanding, that he has been defiled;
and let him lament with the psalmist, saying, 'O wretched
daughter of Babylon, blessed is the man who will pay you back
the retribution you have bestowed on us; blessed he, who will
seize your children and dash them against the rock' .
Which is to say: man's desire was confounded through the
serpent's venom. For in itself it is poor and destitute, since in
speculative knowledge it lacks an honourable reputation, for it
does not desire to seek the glory of eternal life, of which it has a
foretaste through its good knowledge. But blessed is he who
will grasp the fact that he lives from God, and whose under
standing shows him that God made him and redeemed him
and who, because of this freedom which God gave him,
obliterates the evil habit of his sins, and hurls against that rock
(which is the chief support of blessedness), all the misery and
poverty he has in heavenly riches. For when man recognizes
the foul rottenness in himself, and cannot restrain himself by
any means from tasting sin, then the pitch-black birds defile
him utterly .
And although man knows that he exists in this way and that
he lives in the infinite life, he is nevertheless unable to prevent
himself from sinning frequently . And so, how full of wonder
and of sorrow is the cry, that God made such vessels of clay, all
starry with his miracles, when the vessels themselves could
not forsake sin, unless through the grace of God it was
forbidden them. Not even Peter was immune; Peter who
fervently vowed that he would never deny the Son of God .
Nor were many other holy men, who fell in their sins, but
afterwards became more useful and more excellent than they
would have been had they not fallen.
0 faithful servant, I, a poor little figure of a woman, tell you
these words again in a true vision. Even if it pleased God to lift
up my body in this vision in the same way as my soul, fear
would still not retreat from my mind and heart, because,
although I have been enclosed since I was a child, I know that I
am human. Many wise men have been so inspired by miracles
that they have revealed a great many mysteries, but because of
vanity they have credited these to themselves and so have
fallen. But those who, in the soaring of their souls, have drunk
their wisdom from God and reckoned themselves as nothing,
these have become the pillars of heaven. Such was the case
with Paul who surpassed the other disciples in his preaching
and yet reckoned himself as nothing. John the Evangelist, too,
was full of gentle humility, so that he drank deeply of the
Godhead .
And how could I, a poor little woman, not know what I am?
God works where he wills, for the glory of his name, and not
for that of mortals. Indeed, I have always trembled with fear,
since I am not confident of any ability in myself; but I hold out
my hands to God, so that I might be supported by him, like a
feather which has no weight or strength and which flies on the
wind. And I cannot fully understand what I see while I remain
in the service of the body and the invisible soul, since human
beings are deficient in both these respects.
But ever since I was a child (when I was not yet strengthened
in my bones and nerves and veins) I have always seen this
vision in my soul, right up to the present time, when I am over
seventy, and my soul, just as God willed, climbs in this vision,
through the changes of atmosphere, to the top of the firma
ment and spreads itself out amongst different peoples,
although they are a long way away from me in distant regions
and places. And since I see these things in this way in my soul,
I therefore also see them according to the changing of the
clouds and of other creatures. But I do not hear these things
with my outer ears, nor do I perceive them with the rational
parts of my mind, nor with any combination of my five senses;
but only in my soul, with my outer eyes open, so that I never
suffer in them any unconsciousness induced by ecstasy, but I
see them when I am awake, by day and by night. And I am
constantly constrained by my infirmities, and many times I
have been so enveloped by grave afflictions that they
threatened to set death upon me, but up till now, God has
sustained me.
The light which I see is not confined to one place, but it is far,
far brighter than a cloud which carries the sun; nor can I gauge
its height or length or breadth, and it is known to me by the
name of the 'reflection of the living light'. And just as the sun,
the moon and the stars appear in the waters, so the Scriptures,
sermons and virtues and certain works that humans have
wrought, shine on me brightly in this light.
Whatever I see or learn in this vision, I hold in my memory
for a long time; so that when I recall what I have seen and
heard, I simultaneously see and hear and understand and, as it
were, learn in this moment, what I understand . But wha t I do
not see, I do not understand, because I am unlearned. And
what I write in the vision, I see and hear; nor do I put down
words other than those I hear in the vision, and I present them
in Latin, unpolished, just as I hear them in the vision. For I am
not taught in this vision to write as the philosophers write; and
the words in this vision are not like those which sound from
the mouth of man, but like a trembling flame, or like a cloud
stirred by the clear air.
I also have no means of knowing the form of this light, in the
same way that I cannot look directly at the ball of the sun. In
the same light I sometimes (b ut infrequently) see another light
which is known to me by the name of the living light - but
when and how I see it, I cannot tell. And while I am looking at
it, all sorrow and all perplexity are drained from me, so that I
seem then to have the character of an innocent girl and not that
of a little old woman.
Yet besides the chronic sickness which I suffer, I find it
wearying sometimes to relate the words and visions which are
shown to me there . But when my soul experiences the sight of
these things, I am transformed into another character, be
cause, as I said, I consign to oblivion all sadness and distress.
And wha t I see and hear in this same vision, my soul drinks as
though from a spring; but the spring remains full and un
depleted . But at no hour is my soul without the light I spoke of,
which is called 'the reflection of the living ligh t'. I see it as
though I were in a shining cloud, looking at a firmament
withou t stars; and in it I see the things of which I often speak
and which I give in answer to those who ask abou t the shining
of the living light.
But in these two respects - in my body and my soul I do not-
know myself and I reckon myself as nothing: and I rely on the

living God and I leave all these things to him, so that he who
has no beginning and no end may, in all these things, keep me
safe from evil . So you who seek these words, and all of those
who desire to hear these things in faith, pray for me, that I may
continue in the service of God.
Letter to Abbot Ludwig of St Eucharius

Ludwig became abbot of the Benedictine monastery of St Eucharius
in Trier (which later changed its name to St Matthias) in 1 1 68 .
Hildegard had visited the monastery in 1 1 60 and had maintained close
links with the community. When her secretary Volmar died in 1 1 73 it
was to Ludwig that Hildegard entrusted the text of her greatest
visionary work, The Book of Divine Works. The following letter
was probably a covering note sent with the manuscript.
The sun arises at dawn and, from the place where it is set,
perfuses all the clouds with its brightness by beholding them,
and rules and lights up all creatures by its ardour, running its
course to twilight: in the same way God has made the whole of
creation - which is man - and then has vivified and lit it with
the breath of life .
For as the earliest dawn rises with damp cold and changing
cloud-shapes, so man in his childhood has damp coldness,
since his flesh is still growing and his bones are not yet filled
with marrow, nor is his blood yet sparkling in full redness .
But, as the third hour of the day begins to grow hot in the sun's
course, so he too, chewing different foods, acquires their taste,
and at the same time learns to walk. When childhood is over,
man in youth becomes daring, joyful and serene, making his
own plans for what he would like to begin, so that if, turning to
the right side, he chooses the good in the sun's light, he will
become fruitful in good deeds; but if, pursuing evil, he inclines
down to the left side, he will grow black and most foul in sin .
But when, accomplishing his course of action, he arrives at the
ninth hour, he will falter and dry up in flesh and marrow, and
in the other forces with which he advanced as he grew. So too
the highest craftsman has drawn up the ages of the world,
ordered in time from dawn to twilight.
But you, father, who are so named after the Father, reflect on
how you began, and how you proceeded in life: for in your
childhood you were foolish, and in youth you were filled with
joyous assurance . Meanwhile you have embarked on an
adventure of the unicorn - unknown to you in your youth -
and this indeed was my writing, which often carries echoes of
the mortal dress of the Son of God, who, loving a maidenly
nature, resting in it like the unicorn in the maiden's lap,
gathered the whole Church to himself with the sweetest sound
of fairest believing.
Remember too, loyal father, what you often used to hear for
a poor little womanly creature soft in form, about that dress of
the Son of God; and, because my helper has been taken away
by the highest Judge, I now am entrusting what I have written
to you, asking imploringly that you preserve it carefully, and
look over it, correcting it lovingly, that your name too may be
written in the book of life, imitating the blessed Gregory in
this, who, despite the burden of his Roman episcopate, never
ceased composing, impelled by the lute-like sound of the
infusion of the Holy Spirit.
Put on celestial armour like a noble knight, washing away
the deeds of foolishness of your youth, and toil strenuously in
the noonday in the angelic robe of your monk's habit, before
the day declines, so that you may be welcomed joyously in the
heavenly tents into the angels' company.

Letter to the Mainz prelates
In 1 1 78 Hildegard agreed to allow a nobleman who had been excom
municated, but subsequently reconciled to the Church, to be buried on
consecrated ground at the Rupertsberg. The Mainz clergy disputed the
fact that the man had made his peace with the Church and ordered that
his body be exhumed. When Hildegard refused to comply with their
request she and her community were placed under an interdict. They
were forbidden to hear the Mass, receive the Eucharist or sing the divine
office. In the following letter Hildegard explains her actions and
indicates her belief that the prelates are wrong in their judgement,
particularly in forbidding the nuns to use music in their worship.
In the vision that was fixed within my soul, by God the

craftsman, before I came forth in my birth, I was compelled to
write this, on account of the fetter by which we have been
bound by our superiors, because of a dead man who, at the
direction of his priest, was buried without calumny in our
midst. When, a few days after his burial, we were ordered by
our superiors to fling him out of the cemetery, I, seized with no
little terror at this order, looked to the true light, as is my wont.
And, my eyes wakeful, I saw in my soul that, if we followed
their command and exposed the corpse, such an expulsion
would threaten our home with great danger, like a vast black
ness - it would envelop us like a dark cloud that looms before
tempests and thunderstorms . . .
So we did not dare expose him . . . not at all because we
make light of the advice of honourable men or of our prelates'
command, but lest we seem to injure Christ's sacraments -
with which the man was blessed while still alive - by women's
savagery . Yet, so as not to be wholly disobedient, we have till
now ceased singing the songs of divine praises, in accordance
with the interdict, and have abstained from partaking of the
body of the Lord . . .
While I and all my sisters were afflicted with great bitterness
through this, and oppressed by a huge sadness . . . I heard in
my vision that I was guilty in that I had not come with all
humility and devotion before my superiors, to ask their leave
to receive communion, most of all since we were not at fault in
accepting the body of that man .
I also beheld something about the fact that, obeying you, we

have till now ceased to celebrate the divine office in song,
reading it only in a low voice: I heard a voice from the living
light tell of the diverse kinds of praises, of which David says in
the Psalms: 'Praise him in the call of the trumpet, praise him on
psaltery and lute, praise him on the tambour and in dancing,
praise him on strings and on organ, praise him on resonant
cymbals, praise him on cymbals of jubilation - let every spirit
praise the Lord !'
In these words outer realities teach us about inner ones -
namely how, in accordance with the material composition and
quality of instruments, we can best transform and shape the
performance of our inner being towards praises of the Crea tor.
If we strive for this lovingly, we recall how man sought the
voice of the living spirit, which Adam lost through disobedi
ence - he who, still innocent before his fault, had no little
kinship with the sounds of the angels' praises . . .
But in order that mankind should recall that divine sweet
ness and praise by which, with the angels, Adam was made
jubilant in God before he fell, instead of recalling Adam in his
banishment, and that mankind too might be stirred to that
sweet praise, the holy prophets - taught by the same spirit,
which they had received - not only composed psalms and
canticles, to be sung to kindle the devotion of listeners; but also
they invented musical instruments of diverse kinds with this
in view, by which the songs could be expressed in multi
tudinous sounds, so that listeners, aroused and made adept
outwardly, might be nurtured within by the forms and
qualities of the instruments, as by the meaning of the words
performed with them.

Eager and wise men imitated the holy prophets, inventing
human kinds of harmonized melody (organa) by their art, so
that they could sing in the delight of their soul; and they
adapted their singing to [the notation indicated by] the bend
ing of the finger-joints, as it were recalling that Adam was
formed by the finger of God, which is the Holy Spirit, and that
in Adam's voice before he fell there was the sound of every
harmony and the sweetness of the whole art of music. And if
Adam had remained in the condition in which he was formed,
human frailty could never endure the power and the reson
ance of that voice. But when his deceiver, the devil, heard that
man had begun to sing through divine inspiration, and that he
would be transformed through this to remembering the sweet
ness of the songs in the heavenly land - seeing the machina
tions of his cunning going awry, he became so terrified that
. . . he has not ceased to trouble or destroy the affirmation and
beauty and sweetness of divine praise and of the hymns of the
spirit. So you and all prelates must use the greatest vigilance
before stopping, by a decree, the mouth of any assembly of
people singing to God . . . you must always beware lest in
your judgement you are ensnared by Satan, who drew man
out of the celestial harmony and the delights of paradise . . .
And because at times, when hearing some melody, a human
being often sighs and moans, recalling the nature of the
heavenly harmony, the prophet David, subtly contemplating
the profound nature of the spirit, and knowing that the human
soul is symphonic (symphonialis), exhorts us in his psalm to
proclaim the Lord on the lute and play for him on the ten
stringed psaltery:• he wants to refer his lute, which sounds
lower, to the body's control; the psaltery, which sounds
higher, to the spirit's striving; its ten chords, to the fulfilment
of the Law.

Select Bibliography
HILDEGARD'S WORKS
Scivias
Migne J . P., ed., Patrologia Latina, vol. 197 (PL) .
Fuhrkotter A . , and Carlevaris, A . , (modern critical edition) Hilde
gardis - Scivias. Corpus Clzristianorum: co11 ti11uatio 111ediae11alis,
Brepols, Turnhout, Belgium, vols. 43 & 43A, 1978.
Bockeler, M . , (German translation), Wisse die Wege - Scivias . St Augus
tinus Verlag, Berlin, 1 928; Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg, 1 954, repr.
1987. Includes colour plates of the illustrated Rupertsberg manu
script of Scivias.
Hart, C., and Bishop, T., (Engtish translation), Hildegard of Bi11gen:
Scivias. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Paulist Press, New
York, 1 990. Introduction by Barbara Newman, Preface by Caroline
Walker Bynum. Includes black and white illustrations from the
Rupertsberg manuscript.
Hozeski, B. (abridged English translation), Hildegard of Bingen's
'Scivias'. Bear & Company, Santa Fe, 1986.
Uber vitae meritorum ('The Book of Life's Merits')
Pitra, J . P., Analecta sacra, vol . VIII, (Pi).
Schipperges, H . , (German translation), Der Mensch in der Verant
wortung - Uber vitae meritorum . Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg, 1 972.
Uber divinoru m operum ('The Book of Divine Works'), (PL) .
Schipperges, H . , (German translation), Welt und Mensch - Das Buch:
De operatione Dei. Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg, 1 965. Includes
colour plates from the illuminated Lucca manuscript of The Bouk of
Divine Works.
Fox, M . , (ed . ), (abridged English translation, including some of
Hildegard's letters and songs), Hildegard of Bingen's Book of Divi11e
Works, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, 1987.

Liber subtilitarum diversarum naturarum creaturarum:
Liber simplicis medicinae/Physica ('Book of Simple Medicine or Natural
History'), (PL) .
Riether, P., (German translation), Naturkunde: Das Buch vo11 dem
inneren Wesen der verschiedenen Naturen in der SchOpfung - Physica,
Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg, 1959.
Liber compositae medicinae/Causae et curae ('Book of Compound Medi
cine or Causes and Cures')
Kaiser, P . , Hildegardis Causae et curae, Leipzig, 1903.
Schipperges, H . , Heilkunde: Das Buch von dem Grund u nd Wesen und
der Heilung der Krankheiten - Causae et curae. Otto Muller Verlag,
Salzburg, 1957.
Symphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum ('Symphony of the

Harmony of Celestial Revelations'), (Pi) .
Barth, P., Ritscher, I . , and Schmidt-Garg, J . , Hildegard von Bingen:
Lieder. Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg, 1 969.
Newman, B . , (English/Latin critical edition), Saint Hildegard of
Bingen: Symphonia. Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London,
1988.
Ordo virtutum ('Play of the Virtues'), (Pi) .
Dronke, P., (Critical edition) in Poetic Individuality in the Middle Ages.
Oxford 1970.
Expositio eva�geliorum ('Commentary on the Gospels'), (Pi).

Lingua ignota ('Unknown Language'), (PL) .
Roth, F. W. E . , Die Lieder und die u nbekannte Spracl1e der hi . Hildegardis.
Wiesbaden 1860.
Litterae ignotae ('Unknown Writing'), (Pi) .

Explanatio Regulae !J. Benedicti ('Commentary on the Rule of St
Benedict'), (PL) .
Explanatio Symboli S. Athanasii ('Commentary on the Athanasian

Creed'), (PL) .
Vita S. Ruperti ('Life of St Rupert'), (PL).

Vita S. Disibodi ('Life of St Disibod'), (PL).
Select Bibliograplzy I 153

Epistolae ('Letters'), (Pi, PL, Berlin Manuscript Lat. Qu. 674) .
Fiihrkotter, A . , (German selection with excellent introduction and
historical notes), Hildegard von Bingen: Briefwechsel. Otto Muller
Verlag, Salzburg, 1965.
Dronke, P . , (Latin text and English tr. of some letters from the Berlin
Manuscript), Women Writers of the Middle Ages . Cambridge 1984.
Fox, M . , (ed . ) (Selected letters in English), Hildegard of Bingen's Book of
Divine Works, with Letters and Songs . Bear & Company, Santa Fe,
1987.
Solutiones triginta octo quaestionum ('Solutions to Thirty-eight
Questions'), (PL).
Vita sanctae Hildegardis ('Life of St. Hildegard') by Godfrey and

Theodoric, (PL).
Fiihrkotter, A . , (German translation), Das Leben der hi. Hildegard von
Bingen - Vita S. Hildegardis . Diisseldorf 1968.
Silvas, A . , (English translation), 'Saint Hildegard of Bingen and the
Vita Sanctae Hildegardis', Tjurunga: An Australian Benedictine Review
29 (1985), pp. 4-25; 30 (1986), pp. 63-73; 31 (1986), pp. 32-41; 32
(1987), pp. 46-59.
Vita sanctae Hildegardis by Guibert of Gembloux, (Pi).
Acta Inquisitionis ('Proceedings of the Inquisition'), also called Proto
collu m canonisationis.
Bruder, P., Analecta Bollandiana, 2, 1883.
'3ECONDARY WORKS
Allchin, A. M . , 'Julian of Norwich and Hildegard of Bingen', Mount
Carmel, vol . 37, no. 3, Autumn 1989, Oxford, pp. 1 28-43.
Bonn, C . , Der Mensch in der Entscheidu ng: Gedanken zur ganzheitlichen
Schau Hildegards von Bingen . Abtei St Hildegard, Eibingen, 1986.
Briick, Anton, ed . , Hildegard von Bingen, 1 1 79-1 979 . Festscl1rift zum 800
Todestag der Heiligen. Mainz 1979.
Clifford Rose, F . , and Gawel, M . , Migraine: The Facts . Oxford 1981 .
Dronke, P., 'The Composition of Hildegard of Bingen's Symphonia',
Sacris Erudiri 19, 1969-70, pp. 381-93.
Dronke, P . , Poetic Individuality in the Middle Ages . Clarendon Press,
Oxford, 1970.

Dronke, P. , 'Tradition and Innovation in Medieval Western Colour
Imagery', Eranos fahrbuch, vol. 41, 1972, pp. 51-106.
Dronke, P., 'Problemata Hildegardiana', Mittellateinisches fahrbuch 1 6,
1981 , pp. 97-131 .
Dronke, P., Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts
from Perpetua ( + 203) to Marguerite Porete ( + 1310). Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 1984.
Epiney-Burgard, G . , and Zurn Brunn, E., Femmes Troubadours de Dieu .
Brepols, Belgium, 1988. English translation, Women Mystics in
Medieval Europe. Paragon House, New York, 1989.
Flanagan, S . , Hildegard of Bingen: A Visionary Life. Routledge, London
and New York, 1989.
Fiihrkotter, A . , Hildegard von Bingen . Otto Muller Verlag, Salzburg,
1972.
Fiihrkotter, A . , Hildegard von Bingen: Ruf in die Zeit. Rheinland Verlag,
Cologne, 1985.
Fiihrkotter, A . , Kosmos und Mensch aus der Sicht Hildegards von Bingen.
Gesellschaft fiir Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, Mainz, 1987.
Gronau, E., Hildegard von Bingen 1 098-1 1 79: Prophetische Lehrerin der
Kirche an der Schwelle und am Ende der Neuzeit. Christiana Verlag,
Stein am Rhein, 1985.
Cumley, F . , and Redhead, B . , The Christian Centuries. BBC Books,
1989.
Kraft, K . , 'The German Visionary: Hildegard of Bingen', Medieval
Women Writers, ed. Wilson, K., pp. 109-30. Athens, Georgia,
1984.
Lauter, W. , Hildegard-Bibliographie 1, Alzey 1970, and 2, Alzey 1984.
Mason-Hill, E . , (ed . ) Trotula, Diseases of Women. Ward Richie Press,
1940.
Newman, B . , 'Hildegard of Bingen: Visions and Validation', Church
History 54, 1985, pf'. 163-75.
'Newman, B . , Sister of Wisdom: St Hildegard's Theology of the Feminine.
Scolar Press, Berkeley, 1987.
Newman, B . , Saint Hildegard of Bingen Symphonia: A Critical Edition of
the 'Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum' [Symphony of the
Harmony of Celestial Revelations]. Cornell University Press, Ithaca
and London, 1988.
Select Bibliography I 155

Pereira, M . , 'Maternita e Sessualita femminile in Ildegarda di Bingen:
Proposte de Lettura', Quaderni Storici 44, 1980, pp. 564-79.
Petroff, E . , Medieval Women 's Visionary Literature. Oxford University
Press, Oxford, 1986.
Sacks, 0 . , 'The Visions of Hildegard', The Man who Mistook lzis Wife for
a Hat. Picador/Pan, London, 1986.
Schipperges, H., Hildegard van Bingen : Ein Zeichen fiir unsere Zeit. Josef
Knecht, Frankfurt, 1 981 . ·
Schipperges, H . and Bonn, C . , Hildegard van Bingen wzd ihre Impulse

fiir die moderne Welt. Abtei S t Hildegard, Eibingen, 1984.
Scholz, B. , 'Hildegard von Bingen on the Nature of Woman',
American Benedictine Review 31, 1984, pp. 361-83.
Schrader, M . , and Fuhrkotter, A . , Die Eclz tlzeit des Schrifttums der lzl.
Hildegard van Bingen . Quellenkritische Untersuchungen, Cologne
and Graz, 1956.
Schrader, M . , Die Herku nft der Heiligen Hildegard. Gesellschaft for
Mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, Mainz, 1981 .
Southern, R. W . , The Making of the Middle Ages . Century Hu tchinson,
London, 1 967.
Steele, F . , The Life and Visions of St. Hildegarde. London 1 914.
Strehlow, W., and Hertzka, G., Hildegard of Bingen's Medicine. Bear &
Company, Santa Fe, 1988.
Wolff, R., 'Herrschaft und Dienst in Sprache und Natur' in Bruck,
ed., (1979), pp . 239-62 .

Select Discogra phy
A feather on the breath of God: Sequences and hymns by Abbess

Hildegard of Bingen . Gothic Voices, directed by Christopher Page,
with Emma Kirkby, Margaret Philpot, and Emily Van Evera.
Hyperion A66039, recorded London, September 1981 .
Geistliche M usik des M ittelalters und der Renaissance. Instrumentalkreise
Helga Weber, directed by Helga Weber, with Almut Teichert
Hailperin . TELDEC 66. 22387, recorded in Hamburg, May 1980.
Gesiinge der hl. Hildegard von Bingen . Schola der Benediktinerin
nenabtei St Hildegard in Eibingen, directed by M. I. Ritscher, osB.
Psallite 242/040 479 PET, recorded in Eibingen, April 1979.
Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo virtutum. Sequentia, directed by Klaus
Neumann. Harmonia mundi 20395/96, recorded in France, June
1982.
Hildegard von Bingen: Symphoniae (Geistliche Gesiinge). Sequentia,
directed by Barbara Thornton. Harmonia mundi IC 067-19 9976 I,
recorded in Germany, June 1983.
Select Discography I 1 57

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The Crossroad Publishing Company

The Crossroad Publishing Company

Introduction and compilation© Fiona Bowie and O liver Davies 19

All rights reserved . No part of this book may be reproduced,

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hildegard, Saint, 1098-1179.

I feel the air of another planet.

Map: Hildegard's World xv

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

A Short Chronology of Hildega rd' s Life 56

PART TWO: SELECTIONS

Edi tors' Note 62

Extracts from the Life of Sai11t Hildegard by Godfrey

Select Bibliography 152

shared with us their enthusiasm for Hildegard of Bingen.

xiv I Hildegard of Bingen

SC Scivias. References are to book, vision and chapter; e. g.

LM Liber vitae 111eritonm1 (Book of Life's Merits)

The honour of the Church is torn in pieces, the bonds of discipline

Superficially this is the language used by Hildegard in her

The woman we know as Hildegard of Bingen was born in

Hildegard's Life and Works I 9

Hildegard's Life and Works I 1 1

the Book of Life's Merits (Liber vitae meritorum), in these years

Hildegard's Life and Works I 13

The Book of Life's Merits (Liber vitae meritor� m) is� ildeg?rd's

Hildegard's Life and Works I 15

The Book of Divine Works is a broad cosmological reflection on

The Natural History (Physica) was written between 1 151 and

Visions led women to the acquisition of power in the world while

These words could have been written with Hildegard in mind,

The Living Light I 19

The Living Light I 21

One of the major achievements of Hildegard of Bingen is that

pa. tv�mc bf U1tWtU$ un-ba ,

Ltnt" fr J! fqi1 h,et tl (�

tin.onf (O'..th( mlt aur u.lhu( ho /

� fecm::i m0tma di- fr ttttUH! /

The Glory of God

The dependence of the life of creation on the Word is an

There are other occasions too in which Hildegard uses the

HILDEGARD AND RICHARDIS OF STADE

Close monastic friendships were not frowned upon in the

HILDEGARD AND ABBESS HAZZECHA OF KRAUFT AL

Hildegard the Woman I 37

HILDEGARD AND FREDERICK BARBAROSSA

Hildegard the Woman I 39

LIFE ON THE RUPERTSBERG

It is possible, as A. M. Allchin suggests, that these tiaras or

Thus it is written:Woman is created for the 111a11

Hildegard the Womall I 45

THE GARDEN OF EDEN

When a woman is making love with a man, a sense of heat in her

When writing as a theologian, rather than as a physiologist,

Hildegard likewise believed that in paradise children were

HILDEGARD THE HEALER

Hildegard the Woman I 47