The Monk Guibert to Hildegard
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen With all the affectionate veneration due you, we have received the Book of Life's Rewards, which your holy mother wrote and which you sent, out of your love for us. We consider it worthy of the greatest admiration. The brothers at Villers first feasted well on its marvelous doctrine at their table, and now we too are taking delectable sips from reading the collection.3
May God Almighty keep you from all evil and always grant you the aid of His protection. Amen. Farewell.
Notes 1. Since it is not addressed to Hildegard herself, Van Acker does not include a space for this letter in his edition. Because of its striking content, however, we felt compelled to include it here.
2. Guibert employs the same phrases used in 107.
3. There seems to be a play on words here. Collatio has two meanings: "a meal in the monastery," at which the work would have been read to the brothers, and "collection," as in a collection of visions.
The Monk Guibert to Hildegard
Guibert expresses his great joy that Hildegard is still alive, and, inevitably, asks her to continue working on the answers to the questions while she is still among the living. He also expresses his desire to gather all the letters that have passed between the two of them into a single volume.
Guibert to his most holy mother, Hildegard, with his prayer that she gain eternal salvation in the Lord.
The sword of grief that pierced my soul when the news of your death was spread among us was at last, after some long delays, removed when sister Mathilde returned from your presence, blessed lady. After long delays, I say, because when she left us to seek you out before the Festival of All Saints, we thought that she would return no later than the Octave of St. Martin. Yet, impeded by some misfortune, she was delayed until the Octave of Epiphany.1 Because of so long a delay, therefore, we thought that she had either fallen ill or had died on her journey.
Then, returning unexpectedly and reporting that you had recovered from a serious illness, she poured joy and happiness into my ears, rejoiced my spirit, and opened my mouth to give thanks after such great grief. For, although I do not deserve it, I earnestly hope and desire, God willing, to be nourished by the breasts of your maternal consolation [cf. Is 66.11] for a long time still.
The Letters
And so, O mother and lady, while you have life and wisdom, I beseech you to press on with the work you have undertaken of answering those questions, and never cease to pray continually to our Lord for my innumerable sins. He knows how far short I have fallen, and how much I need His great mercy and aid.
Once again I commend that young man to you whom I commended to you in my first letter, saintly lady, this time even more earnestly, because Satan has sought him out for special temptation, and he has been sifted in the sieve of temptation for a long time. And, alas, he has yielded to the tempter in many things, fearlessly pursuing a young man's desires. Be mindful of that young man whom the blessed evangelist John mercifully restored to the Church, and even put him in high office, after he had been drawn away from his lawlessness and absolved by his subsequent penitence and many good works.2 Just so, please pray constantly for this young man that God, "Who commanded the light to shine out of darkness" [II Cor 4.6], will take back that lost vessel, wash it of its pollution, and make it a vessel of election and grace in His house [cf. Acts 9.15], for God patiently suffers vessels of wrath and disgrace, even vessels deserving death [cf. II Tim 2.20]. Pray also that God will grant that young man the strength to avoid deadly delights. And if God chooses to reveal it to you, I would like to know what I myself should do in his case. For if it is foreknown that he will continue in the hardness of heart [cf Ecclus 16.11] that now holds him down, I would neither throw a saint to the dogs, nor cast the pearls of Christ's word before swine
[cf. Matt 7.6], in my fear to counter God's judgment And I would not want to cultivate barren soil that has been cursed, though God forbid that this be true in his case! But if I knew that he was to share in the inheritance of the saints [cf. Col
1.12], I would more frequently salve his many festering wounds with the tough medicine of exhortation, so that he could be brought back to health. Moreover, through my spiritual friends I would bring about a continual outpouring of prayers to God for him, so that with that balm poured around his wounds, his yoke would be broken [cf. Is 10.27], and he would shatter those fetters of impiety that now hold him tightly bound. Thus called back to the liberty of the glory of God's sons, he will be able to sing in exultation [cf Ps 115.16]. O Lord, "thou hast broken my bonds: I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise" [Ps 115.16],
Moreover, there are two clerics that I love very much. One is William of Namur, a man of ethical life, gracious and highly honored, not just by me (lest I seem to be deceived from some personal interest) but also by everyone who makes his acquaintance. For he is a man of solid integrity, one truly to be venerated.
The other, Bovo by name, is a very mild-tempered young man among the community here at Gembloux. I beseech you to pray to God that, in His benevolence, He may deign to so mold them that they will illumine and aid either our monastery or some other.
I pray also that you not cease to pour out your prayers for my beloved Robert, the scribe of the present letter. For recently by God's grace and our admonition he has turned from the vanity of the world and now labors under the banner of Christ's army. Thus your prayers may call forth the mercy of the Eternal
King, Who may look upon the first service of His future soldier with kindly favor. Then he will be protected from all the weapons that the malicious dis-