Letter 39: Odo of Soissons to Hildegard
The Letters
39r Hildegard to Odo of Soissons 1148-49(?) Hildegard counsels Odo to keep his mind concentrated on God and to keep out of matters that do not concern him.
Because I see and hear and know all to the same effect, I write these things according to a true vision of the mysteries of God: O man, you are like a cloud that shifts back and forth and, no matter where it is, has very little light. And indeed it frequently blocks out the sun, so that its light is cut off for a long time. Thus it is written: "For behold they that go far from thee shall perish"
[Ps 72.27]. The point of this verse is that those who have the day of good knowledge wither up when they turn away from it to bring forth useless things.
They focus instead on the inconstancy of that darkness which, empty and barren, does not seek aid in reason. Such people are lacking in the vitality that comes from God. For Adam shone brightly in the innocence of his sanctity, but he was caught in his sin so that, turning aside from God's commandments, he perished. Then the crown of innocence, the beautiful daughter of the King, was taken from him.
Turn your mind back again to wholesome things, and look into the fountain of dancing water [cf. John 4.14]. Keep out of matters that do not concern you, for every useless thing will wither, since it has not been planted by God.
Let your mind be pure in God, keep the hunger for God's justice, stay in the straight path, and God will receive you.
Be content with the labor which you have done for God, and are still doing. But as far as you can, direct your mind and thoughts toward God. As for me, I will constantly pour out my prayers to God for you.
Odo of Soissons to Hildegard 1148-49(?) The master of the University of Paris seeks an answer from Hildegard on a question debated in scholastic philosophy.
Odo of Paris,1 humble and unworthy master—master by title and position only—sends his prayers and whatever else may be considered worthy of such
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen saintliness and nobility of person to the lady Hildegard, the remarkable virgin of Christ.
Because, lady, you have made yourself the handmaiden of Christ, He has exalted you beyond yourself. Thus it is believed that He has revealed some of the secrets of the virginal bridal chamber to you, even while you are still clothed in the flesh, so that you are believed to be one of those about whom it is sung: the king has brought me into his chamber [cf. Cant 2.4, 3.4]." But the prophetic and faithful soul says repeatedly :"My secret to myself, my secret to myself"
[Isa 24.16], and King Hezekiah grievously offended God by opening up the storerooms of spices and the treasuries of the temple to the Babylonian messengers [cf. Isa 39.2-8]. Therefore, blessed are those who are so exalted above us sinners that they attain sight of heavenly things, for on their paths they await the spirit of discernment among those who, by God's grace, have acquired treasures for themselves more by overcoming temptation than by receiving revelation, and blessed are those who here below among mankind learn from their visions what they are to reveal and what they are to keep hidden.2 For since God distributes His gifts to each according to his humility, certain things which might distress the apostolic and ecclesiastical institution are kept under seal and not made known.
Hear these things, O wise woman, for "the woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised" [Prov 31.30]. It is reported that, exalted, you see many things in the heavens and record them in your writing, and that you bring forth the melody of a new song,3 although you have studied nothing of such things.
But this does not surprise us at all, because it does not exceed your purity and saintliness, without which no one can attain to such things. But we can know that whatever is revealed to you there about things holy signifies your glory; whatever is hidden here requires a kind of humiliation.4
Despite the fact that we live far away, we have the utmost confidence in you, and, therefore, we would like for you to resolve a certain problem for us.
Many contend that God is not both paternity and divinity.1' Would you please explain to us in a letter what you perceive in the heavens about this matter.5
Farewell, beloved lady.
Notes 1. Odo took the title of Odo of Paris after he became teacher at the University of Paris.
2. The syntax of the Latin lends some clarity to this messy passage. In the original, the "My secret to myself passage and the King Hezekiah anecdote are dependent because clauses qualifying this long, complicated sentence. The general sense seems to be that not all revelations from heaven should be noised abroad, lest one offend God as Hezekiah did.
3. atque modus noui carminis edas. This remark is very significant, for it indicates that Hildegard had acquired some little fame for her musical compositions quite early, even before she finished the Scivias in 1151. P'.lsewhere, in the Liber vitae meritorum,
Hildegard lists the Symphonia as one of the works she had completed between the completion of the Scivias and the beginning of this new Liber in the year 1158.
The Letters
4. This passage seems hopelessly corrupt. The PL rendering of the MS is quidquid hie abest iigitur, where abest agitnr makes no sense. Van Acker has emended to ab eis agitur, which scarcely gives better sense, given the entire context of the passage. We have chosen to adopt PL's conjecture absconditur, which contrasts nicely with the revelatur of the preceding clause, and is also paleographically acceptable.
5. This is one of the semi-heretical theses of Gilbert de la Porree, bishop of Poitiers, who was soon to be brought: up to a hearing at the Council of Rheims. At this
Council, held in 1148, Pope Eugenius forbade the reading of his work until "corrected."
As Peter Dronke remarks (Women Writers, p. 149), "Odo credited Hildegard with a means of judging different from and superior to normal methods of metaphysical enquiry."
40r Hildegard to Odo of Paris 1148-49 In answer to Odo, Hildegard speaks briefly on the nature of divinity.
I, poor little woman that I am, say this in the smoke of spices on the lofty mountain: the sun sends down its rays and illumines the trivial and unstable affairs of many places. And you also, O master, open up many inroads into the Scripture, and spread your teaching abroad among both the high and the low like streams of water." I, on the other hand, tremble greatly because of my humble condition.
Listen now: a king sat on his throne, surrounded by lofty columns bedecked with fine ornaments and set on bases of ivory. And these columns displayed the king's vestments proudly to all. Then it pleased the king to lift up a small feather from the ground, and command it to fly, as he himself wished. Yet a feather does not fly of its own accord, but the air bears it along.
And I, like the feather, am not endowed with great powers or human education, nor do I even have good health, but I rely wholly on God's help.1
And I say to you: From a certain very learned man who inquired of me, I heard that the fatherhood of the supreme Father and the divinity of God were not themselves God. And he asked me, a puny little woman, to look very carefully to the the true Light concerning this matter.21 looked and I learned, seeing in the true Light—certainly not through my own cogitation—that God is indeed both paternity and divinity, for man does not have the capacity to speak of God in the same way that he would speak of the humanness of a human being or the defining characteristic of a work made by human hands.b
The Living Light, therefore, says in the secret word of wisdom: God is complete and whole, and has no beginning in time, and so lie cannot be divided by a word as man can, for God is nothing other than entirety, and for