The Provost Frederick to Hildegard
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Gottestbal
The Provost Frederick to Hildegard Before 1173 The provost commends himself to Hildegard's prayers and asks her to send answers to the questions he had asked her—in a letter that has not come down to us?—earlier.
Frederick, by grace of God provost in the Valley of God,1 although unworthy, to Hildegard, Christ's devoted servant, with a prayer that she receive "a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God the Saviour" [Ps 23.5].
We give thanks from the bottom of our heart to God, because you are strong in Him, because you flourish in the beauty of virtues, and because with the entire affection of your heart you—along with the sisters committed to you—are bound to your Beloved through love [cf. Cant 5.9]. Therefore, we have confidence in the Lord that you will keep us in memory before the Lord.
Weighed down as I have been by the great press of business, I have been unable, as much as I had wished, to send a messenger to you. Yet I ask you not to delay, beloved lady, to send an answer through the present messenger to the questions I had asked you previously. Then you will receive a reward from God.
I implore that you, along with all your sisters, remember me to Christ Note 1. A literal translation, of course, of Gottestbal. lllr Hildegard to the Provost Frederick Before 1173 In her reply, Hildegard apparently addresses one of the questions the provost says that he had asked her earlier. As so frequently in Hildegard's correspondence, this writer too had apparently sought her advice about resigning his position to return to a more individual moral life. Hildegard gives her usual advice: stay the course.
Now I say to you: A man who has a vineyard or a rocky field says to himself. It is too difficult to work here. And so he leaves, for he is weary. But when harvest time