Letter 2: Hildegard to Pope Eugenius
The Letters of Hildegard ofBingen part, pray for you constantly, so that you may be strengthened for good, instructed about the interior, and directed to the permanent. So, in this way, those who have put their hope in God will not limp in despair for you, but will progress to better and better things, well strengthened in the blessing which you, as we all know, have received from God."
Hildegard to Pope Eugenius
Hildegard writes to Pope Eugenius asking him to look with favor upon her writing. Eugenius, a Cistercian monk before becoming pope, occupied the papal seat from 1145 to 11 S3. Events might well have been vastly different for Hildegard if this remarkable man had not been sitting on the papal throne at this particular time. In that same year of 1147, Eugenius had given his approval to Bernard
Silvestris's Cosmograpbia, a work, like Hildegard's, deeply, disturbingly original.
As Peter Dronke remarks {Women Writers, p. 148), "That both the Cosmographia and Scivias (the second still 'work in progress,' not completed till 1151) were given the blessing of this pope is of special importance in terms of twelfth-century intellectual history. Two writers who showed such daring in their cosmological conceptions and formulations could so easily, had it not been for Pope Eugene, have been persecuted, the works called in question and condemned by council or synod, as happened with Abelard, William of Conches, or Gilbert of Poitiers."
O gentle father, poor little woman" though I am, I have written those things to you which God saw fit to teach me in a true vision, by mystic inspiration.
O radiant father, through your representatives1 you have come to us, just as God foreordained, and you have seen some of the writings of truthful visions, which I received from the Living Light,'1 and you have listened to these visions in the embraces of your heart. A part of this writing has now been completed.2
But still that same Light has not left me, but it blazes in my soul, just as it has from my childhood. Therefore, I send this letter to you now, as God has instructed me. And my spirit desires that the Light of Light shine in you and purify your eyes and arouse your spirit to your duty concerning my writings, so that your soul may be crowned, which will be pleasing to God. In their instability, many people, those wise in worldly things, disparage these writings of mine, criticizing me, a poor creature formed from a rib, ignorant of philosophical matters.''
Therefore, father of pilgrims, hear Him Who Is: A mighty king sat in his palace, surrounded by great columns girt with golden bands and beautifully adorned with many pearls and precious stones. It pleased this king to touch a
The Letters
small feather3 so that it flew miraculously, and a powerful wind sustained it so that it would not fall.
Now, He who is the Living Light shining in the heavens and in the abyss and Who lies hidden in the hearts of those who hear Him says again to you:
Prepare this writing for the hearing of those who receive me and make it fruitful4 with the juice of sweet savor; make it a root of the branches and a leaf flying in the face of the devil, and you will have eternal life. Do not spurn these mysteries of God, because they have a necessity which lies hidden and has not yet been revealed. May the odor [cf. II Cor 2.15] be sweet in you and may you not grow weary on the strait way.
Notes 1. While at the synod of Trier, the pope learned of Hildegard's visions through Heinrich, archbishop of Mainz, and he sent two papal legates to St. Disibod to obtain a copy of Hildegard's writing. What they returned with was the portion of the Scivias that had been completed at that time, from which the pope himself read before the prelates assembled at Trier. This reading made a deep impression on the audience, and from that followed the pope's letter to Hildegard granting apostolic license to continue with her writing.
2. It is hard to know just how much of the Scivias the pope saw at this time (that is, during the synod of Trier), certainly not the whole, we know with some assurance.
For, a full ten years in the writing, the work was not completed until 1151.
3. This happy image of herself as prophet/writer sustained like a feather (penna) by a powerful wind (the Holy Spirit) is used frequently in the letters. Cf. also Scivias
I.iv.l96ff: "O daughter, flee, for the Mighty Giver, against whom no one can prevail, has given you wings (pennae) to fly. Fly quickly, therefore, over all these impediments.
And, greatly comforted, I accepted those wings and flew swiftly over all things poisonous and deadly."
4. The word here is viridem. See Letter 1, note 9 above.
Hildegard to Pope Eugenius 1148-53 Note the difference in tone in this second letter to Pope Eugenius. Van Acker dates this letter between 1148 and 1153. From Hildegard's assured—even blunt and severe—attitude, an early date is not, one would think, very likely. Here,
I lildcgard is in full stride as the harsh, acrimonious prophet who has received the word from on high. It is one thing to adopt such a tone in a visionary, allegorical work like the Sc/vias, which was certainly being written in 1148; it is quite another to do so in a personal letter. The letter was likely written closer to 1153 than to