A Provost to Hildegard
The Letters
emulate the son in the Gospel, who, having come to his senses, ran to his father, and his father received him joyfully and kissed him in his humanity [cf. Luke
15.11 ff]. Plant the seed of fruitful virtue in your garden, and be like the woman who sought her lost drachma, so that heaven will rejoice over you [cf. Luke 15.8ff], and you will become a gem in celestial life. And you will live forever.
A Provost to Hildegard Before 1173 (1152-58?) After words of high praise for Hildegard, and a wish that it had been his lot to remain constantly by her side, the provost1 seeks a letter of advice from her on how to amend his life.
To Hildegard, lady worthy of all glory and honor, R, provost of the house in Mainz, though a filthy sinner, offers whatever a servant or son may to his beloved lady and mother.
My spirit burns and is awed. Burns to speak, but is awed by the magnitude of your wisdom and eloquence. With blessed felicity, it has been granted to you to perceive wisely, and to offer us the fruits of your wisdom. The authority of the abounding Scriptures has found an abode in you, and remains with you, making you its repository. Moreover, favored with the dowry of learning, you have become the adornment of the Church, and an example for the people.
I wish that it had been granted to me from above to cling to you constantly, to hear you always, to be restored by associating with you without interruption.
Then, I would not be cheated of my desire, for I have always longed to hear you.
Therefore, please deign, I beseech you, if the Lord our God so grants, to convey to me in a sealed letter whatever in me is displeasing to Him, and how I might rid myself of it.
Flourish forever, saintly lady, and may all your faithful daughters be well, and always remain my beloved sisters.
Note 1. The provost is variously identified in the MSS. Hence Van Acker's double set of dates. In agreement with H. Lindeman ("S. Hildegard en hare Nederlandsche vrienden," Ons Geestelijk Erf 2 [1928], 128–60), however, Van Acker thinks it most likely that the recipient was Baldwin of Utrecht, who was later to serve as bishop of Utrecht from 1178 to 1196.
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Mainz(?)
A Community of Brothers to Hildegard
The brothers have heard that Hildegard has written against the heresy of the Cathars, and they write to request a copy of her treatise.
To the dear lady and most holy mother, Hildegard, servant of Christ and mistress of the sisters in the monastery of the blessed Rupert in Bingen, from the whole community of the brothers of St. N., with a prayer that she be granted to walk with consent in the house of God [cf. Ps 54.15], and be pleasing to the Bridegroom of virgins in this valley of tears [cf. Ps 83.17].
Because it is proper that we look to God's will in matters that concern us, we flee to the refuge of your compassion, pious lady. For God has regarded you and has marvellously endowed you with a divine gift—a gift unheard of in our time—and, in accordance with God's bidding, you employ that gift not for yourself alone, but for the benefit of many others. Indeed, having seen and heard the miracles that the Lord works through you, we offer to God our resounding praise, unworthy as it is. But because we frequently neglect God, we are crushed by numerous tribulations, afflicted by countless disasters, and subjected to anxieties without number. And so lest despairing, we perish, it is proper—as it is necessary—for us to flee to those who devoutly love God, and who, with Mary, have chosen the best part [cf. Luke 10.42], so that we may seek their counsel and help.
We have heard from truthful persons that you have written against the heresy of the Cathars, just as you learned to do through a vision of the secrets of God. We devoutly ask that you send this writing to us, for we have greater faith in revelations and responses from God than from man. And so we commend ourselves to your saintly prayers, asking you to kindly send to us whatever your Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus, deigns to reveal to you concerning these matters.
Farewell.
The Letters
169r Hildegard on the Cathars
This is Hildegard's treatise against the Cathars,1 in which she cites liberally from the apocalyptic biblical books of Daniel, Isaiah, and Apocalypse.
In the month of july of the present year, which is one thousand one hundred and sixty-three from the Incarnation of our Lord, I looked from afar and, in the shadow of a true vision, I gazed under the altar [cf. Apoc 6.9] which is before the eyes of God [cf. Apoc 9.13], and I gazed also under the throne of God.
And I saw that the twenty-four elders, who sit around the throne [cf. Apoc 4.4ff], moved the glass sea, which is before the throne [cf. Apoc 4.6], and they said: Let us move the vain foundations of mockery laid down by those who seek to substitute their injustice for justice; and let us move the sparks of burning injustice kindled by those who say that they govern the people, but do not really govern them; and let us move the weeds of various squalid morals and the gilt cords of illusions and the schisms of schisms.
For the ancient lion roars, longing to fly into the midst of the aforesaid sparks of burning injustice. But the time has not come for this. Let us call upon the Ancient One, in Whom all species of growing things and all creatures are enumerated; and let us look upon the sword that appeared in the mouth of the speaker
[cf. Apoc 1.16; 19.15]; and let us consider the cost of two pounds of wheat and barley [cf. Apoc 6.6]; and let us contemplate the trumpet that sounds before the first woe; and through the oath of those and through the power of the One Who sits on the throne [cf. Apoc 7.10; 21.5], let us bind the neck of the ancient lion, and restrain him with the bridle, lest before the time of times and the half time
[cf. Apoc 12.14], and before the forty months, he send the sea forth after the woman fleeing in the desert [cf Apoc 12.6].
For it has now been twenty-three years and four months since the four winds brought about great ruin through the permission of the four angels at the corners of the earth, and this came about because of the perverse works of mankind, which are blown forth from the mouth of the black beast. For their own works rose up over them so that the instability of filthy morals was blown forth in the East, and in the West blasphemy and forgetfulness of God came upon His saints through the ill-repute of the calf and through the worship of idols which perverts the holy sacrifice [cf. Ex 32.4ff], and in the South the filth of hateful vices, and in the North widened phylacteries of vestments [cf. Matt 23.5] in accordance with the will of the coiled serpent, and these are contaminated by the sudden arrival of all the aforementioned evils.
Yet it has been sixty years and twenty-four months since the ancient serpent began to delude the people with the phylacteries of vestments. Now, however, the innumerable saints of God, who are under the altar, lift up their voices,
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen crying out that the sprinkling of their corporal ashes is violated by the iniquity of the people [cf. Apoc 6.9f], Thus from the sound of these saints, a wind is beginning to blow, which is now working miracles. Still, the one who sits upon the black horse [cf. Apoc 6.5] is sending forth the noise of a contrary wind to dissipate those miracles. But it will not prevail.
And, again, the ancient dragon roars in anger against the saints of God, and lifting himself up on the wings of the winds [cf. Ps 103.3], says: What is this? I will destroy what these, and those like them, have established. And they answer him: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? Who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance" [Is 40.12]? For we have weighed by God's scales, by Whom we do all things through the fiery spark that blazes before His face. You, however, have eyes that flash forth a destructive fire, and you will send forth a flame almost to the place where you were first established, and you will do this against God and against the heavens and against all those who are in heaven. But you will not be able to accomplish that For when God has weighed the heavens in his palm, then a burning mountain will fall upon your neck, and all your strength will be utterly destroyed. But at that time a new canticle [cf. Ps 39.4] will be given to us from the throne, and to us also will be given eyes that look around on all sides, seeing and understanding all things. You, however, no longer have the time for devouring with your voracious throat. Therefore, in the name of God's throne and all His garments, give up this madness!
But, O you people, hear the Spirit of God saying to you: Within your midst, the ancient serpent is building towers in their ears, that is, those who are like the Sadducees and like those who call Baal God, and do not know the just God, so that by the cunning of a deceitful spirit, he sometimes appears to them like a spark, either black or stormy, or bright and local, and which soon vanishes. And this is a diabolical and deceptive thing, for deceptive spirits sometimes disguise themselves as the four elements and all their powers, because they conquered the first man. This, however, is by the permission of God, the source of wisdom and prophecy, but the revelation of matters that do not pertain to man remain hidden, because God is incomprehensible.
These men in whose ears the devil is building towers are like a crab, which moves forward and backward, and they are like scorpions, which furtively sting you with fiery tails and kill you with the terrible poison of cruel unbelief. These men the devil at times inspires with seemingly divine precepts, which they themselves seek by their own will, since they are, after all, the image of God. And the devil does this so that he may the more easily deceive them.
They are also like those large birds that cast aside their own eggs. And they say: Let us get rid of this, because it is poisonous. These are the people who deny first principles, that is, that God created all things, and commanded them to wax and multiply. These are the people who deny the sovereign principle, that is, that it was clear even before the ancient days that the Word of God was bound to become man. These people should be considered worse than the Jews, who
The Letters
are too blind to see the fiery form that now shines as man in holy divinity. After a long time, thesejews will think that they have seen the just one, until God strikes the one that they believe in with a fiery scourge.
These Cathars are also fiery, sulfurous mountains, along with that evil beast who will open his mouth against God, and against heaven, and against all those who are in heaven [cf. Apoc 13.6]. And they are the very bowels of that unnatural beast, which coughs up and spits out the most disgusting impurity. And just as the prophets preceded the Lord and prophesied the way of salvation, demonstrating that He was filled with all the virtues of justice, so too do these precede the beast, embracing the filth and wickedness of all evils, going the way of the errant. For these prophets were inspired and taught by the finger of God, just as the devil fills these people with blasphemy, wickedness, and the falseness of all evil. For in the beginning of his ruin, the ancient serpent lost the key that he thought he had, but now he thinks in himself that this wicked beast is his key, and that he will be able to fulfill all his will through him. But in that beast, all his strength will be utterly destroyed.
Now, you, O people who hold the purest faith, looking to God, hear the voice of the one "who was and who is and who is about to come" [Apoc 1.4]: Hear the words of the priests who hold and preserve My justice. For these My words will sound in their ears, and they will speak these words to you in My name. Then with clamoring voices cast this impure and profane people out of your midst, and torment them with harsh and cruel words. Send them into exile, and put them to flight into the unhappy caverns and caves, for they want to seduce you. And do this immediately, lest you be cursed by God and peace flee from you. For you cannot be called teachers, and priests, kings, leaders, and princes of the people before God while you allow these people to live among you, for your cities and villas will be destroyed, and your estates will be plundered while these wicked people remain among you.
Now, praise be to God, Who sits on the throne and looks into the abyss [cf. Dan 3.55], and Who governs all of heaven. And the Spirit of God says:
Whoever will neglect to hear and understand these words, and refuses to believe them—this one the sword of God's word [cf. Eph 6.17] will strike with great tribulation.
And soon in that same vision, I heard a resounding voice saying to me: Write these things which you have seen and heard, and send them quickly to those priests of the Church [cf. Apoc 1.11] who worship God with the purest faith, so that they may preach them everywhere to the people in their parish, and thus protect them from these devilish treacheries, lest those evil people put down roots among them, and they perish.
I, a poor little form of a woman, languished for many days oppressed by sickness so that I could scarcely walk until I had committed these things to writing.
Note 1. On the Cathars, see Introduction, Vol. 1, pp. 11-14. See also Letter 15r.
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen
Certain Priests to Hildegard Before 1153 The priests ask for a letter of general admonition and advice because they feel that they fall short in their duty and their lives.
To Hildegard, venerable and beloved lady and mother of the monastery of the blessed Rupert, the priests (alas, in name only) N., A., H., and £., along with other brothers of their community under the protection of St. Martin, with a devout prayer that she receive the blessing of both saints.
O elect and beloved servant of sanctity and dearest mother of many who follow sanctity, because we have heard many things about you that bring the "odour of life" [II Cor 2.16] to many people, we flee to your protection, seeking with thirsty hearts those things which are of God. For we were consecrated to the service of God from childhood so that we might faithfully serve our Creator in the holy orders of divine office. Yet although we have achieved the priesthood, and therefore ought to live worthily and irreproachably, we nevertheless frequently neglect the things that are of the spirit and do the things that are of the flesh [cf. Rom 8.5]. For although we ought to be the eye of contemplation, the ear of obedience, the nose of discernment, the mouth of truth, the hand of just work, the foot of the way of righteousness, and an example of virtue for God's people, we are more the "odour of death" [II Cor 2.16] and a stumbling block than a true rock of solidity. Therefore, we are guilty of many evils, for we have, so to speak, fallen from the sanctuary of the Lord to the filth of the slime.
Now, you, O pious mother, knowledgeable of the secrets of God, hear us earnestly and humbly beseeching you to offer us words of divine admonition, and to correct and advise us, because, although we have a modest knowledge of Scripture, we greatly desire to hear you who have received true and marvellous knowledge from the great Teacher Himself, and not from man. Now, may God pour into you that which you can then pour out to us who thirst.
Farewell.