Hildegard to the Abbess
The Letters of Hildegard of Bingen Because we greatly presume on your grace and your benevolence, we do not wish to hide from you that we are placed in great danger, since we are forced to govern the souls of many although we are not sufficient to the task. Thus we ask you, saintly lady, and earnestly beseech you by our Lord Jesus to strengthen our shaky ignorance, and take care to advise us in a letter what we ought to do: whether we should remain in our office or cede our place to another who might do better. Please inform us if the Lord Jesus deigns to reveal something to you about this matter.
Farewell, and for God's sake pray to God for me, and, if it please you, write back again to me quickly.
174r Hildegard to the Abbess Before 1173 Predictably, Hildegard argues that an administrator should not lightly set aside the duties of office, and continues to discuss the "plagues" of sin that mankind inherited from Adam.
Mt. Sion is high, and its shadow, stretching into the valleys, shows its great height
There are other mountains in the pilgrimage of this world, through which Mt Sion is made strong, and which are beautiful for the people to look upon. Prelates and teachers, who are the firmament of the Church, are signified by the height of Sion and the other mountains, and their disciples are called the "daughters of Sion" [Cant 3.11; Is 3.16]. It would be a great shame if this mountain should fall, or if the others destroyed it.
Therefore, let anyone who holds the reins of governance beware of casting off his yoke, or allowing others to depose him. For just as the mountains serve as a defense for many against their enemies, so also administrators, through their learning and the power to command obedience that God grants them, defend many from the treachery of their enemies. Therefore, as long as he can offer words of doctrine, let no administrator cast aside the rod of correction that he has received from the hand of God, for often mud is cast off by mud, just as an administrator is cleansed by his subordinates, and the subordinates by the administrator.' For out of fear for his subordinates, he will afflict himself, and he is punished by the tormentors of his unruly subordinates, and in this way he imitates the Great Master who preceded him.b Then, he will say, I showed them your precepts, et cetera [Ex 18.16], and also:
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" [Matt 11.15]. Therefore, learn from these things lest you flee because of the cloud of instability among your subordinates,1 or because of the tedium of your labor. For many flee from the tedium of the labor, more than from the fact that they cannot control their subordinates.
TbeLetters
A clear day that is not overshadowed by a storm is full of joy. That is what Adam had before the Fall, but the first great deceiver overshadowed that day of his through temptation. From this come the seven plagues [cf. Apoc 15.1ff] that wound the spirit.
The first plague is vainglory, which gathers to itself what it neither sowed nor merited, and takes to itself what was never granted to it by God. The first deceiver taught this, for he acted in just this way. And so vainglory does not seek God.
The second plague is a person's awareness that he has the power to sin, and thus treasures the delight of the flesh, and, once he has tasted it, embraces and kisses it.
The third plague brings on great disaster2 and grief through filthy morals, so that a person lives as if he were dead to God and scarcely hopes that God knows him.
The fourth plague is that deceit through which a person excuses himself of the aforementioned sins, and defends himself, saying that those sins are not so perilous as he has been told. Thus he becomes so hateful toward his fellow man that he trusts no one.
The fifth plague is pride, which says that since a person cannot abstain from sin because of the flesh of his humanity, he should not have to deny his carnal desires. In its temerity, this is the law that pride adopts for itself, and so shows no respect to God.
The sixth plague manifests itself when a person seeks his salvation from another created thing, and demands it to show him everything, despising his
Creator and seeking nothing from Him, as if He were unable to help him.
The seventh plague is enslavement to idolatry, which worships the devil and despises God.
These seven plagues have, as it were, an army under their control more numerous than the branches on a tree, because they all lay hidden in the transgression of the bite that Adam took. For God said to him: In the hour that "thou shah eat of it, thou shalt die the death" [Gen 2.17]. God set this precept for him lest he should do as the devil did, that is, that he should not be free from His precepts, as the devil wanted to be. Thus no person can be secure in this life on account of the first temptation of the devil to which Adam succumbed.
Therefore, O daughter of God, gird yourself with the mighty armor of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, through which you can conquer these seven vices.
Gird yourself lest, bewailing, you are wounded by them; and rise up and conquer them by strenuous war like a stalwart knight, so that you may live in eternity.
And so, O daughter, may God see you in the mirror of salvation.
Notes \. Here Hildegard uses the feminine form discipularam, unlike the masculine discipulorum that she uses a number of times above.
2. Reading tertia ruinam with the Patrologia, rather than Van Acker's tertiam ruinam, which makes nonsense of the passage. Van Acker does indicate in the textual notes that the Patrologia reading is "perhaps correct"