R126: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Propst C. in Indersdorf
The Vision of the Two Images
Hildegard introduces her reply and describes a vision of the recipient as a wooden tabernacle with two images knocking at its door, one of which is the fear of the Lord.
Hildegard's reply. The One who is shows me these things, saying: Say to that man: O man, I see you as if a wooden tabernacle made by craftsmen's hands. At its door two images are knocking. The other, full of eyes and with black hair. by name, the fear of the Lord. And it says to you:
The Fear of the Lord Calls You to Be a Sanctuary
The fear of the Lord calls the recipient to become a sanctuary filled with sacrifices, sweetness, and spices, and urges him as a soldier to lead his flock with the living eye.
I want to make you into a sanctuary, with sacrifices. So yield to me. And I will enter your chamber. And I will create in you a fine taste, with musk and spices. O soldier, Be careful not to be slow when you should be running to your sheepfold. And to lead it, with the living eye, toward uprightness.
The Trumpet of Strength Rebukes Sloth
The second image, shaped like a trumpet and named Strength, rebukes the recipient for sleeping in his knowledge and failing to take up spiritual armor like a soldier.
But the other image is like a trumpet singing in a white cloud, and it has what seems to be the shape of a person. And his name is strength. And it says this to you: Ah! Ah! Ah! Why do you sleep in your knowledge? Like a peasant in his own ways, who gladly keeps silent and has no desire to soldier in a breastplate. A helmet.
Strength Commands a Fearless Watchman
Strength commands the recipient to sound out like a trumpet, to stand as a watchman on the temple wall without fear of turbulent winds, to be a pillar in God's palace, and to flee the double tongue.
With sword and spear? Then sound out like a trumpet across many waters.1 Don't be silent. I'll help you with my companions.2 And stand on the wall of the temple. And do not be fearful because of the restlessness of the winds. But learn to be a pillar in the king's palace. Flee the double tongue as well.3
A Call to Truthful Speech and Divine Indwelling
The letter closes by identifying the double tongue as wounds of the soul, calling the recipient to speak truth like the sun, and promising that God will gladly prepare dwelling-places in him.
which are wounds of the soul. But speak everywhere in truth, after the likeness of the sun! And we will gladly prepare our dwelling-places in you.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Qui est ostendit mihi hęc dicens. Dic homini isti. O homo uideo te quasi ligneum tabernaculum de manibus artificum factum. Ad cuius ianuam duę imagines pulsant. Altera plena oculis et nigros capillos habens. nomine timor domini. Et tibi dicit.
Uolo te cum hostijs in sanctificationem facere. Cede ergo mihi. et cubiculum tuum intrabo. atque bonum gustum musco et aromatibus in te faciam. O miles. caue ne sis tardus cum ouile tuo currere. et id uiuente oculo ad rectitudinem ducere. Sed altera imago quasi tuba canens in candida nube uelut circulum hominis habet.
et nomen eius fortitudo. Et ad te sic dicit. He. he. he. quare dormis in scientia tua. quasi rusticus in moribus suis qui libenter tacet nec militare uult in lorica. galea.
gladio et hasta? Resona ergo quasi tuba per multas aquas. et non sile. et adiuuabo te cum sodalibus meis. et sta in pariete templi. nec sis formidolosus propter inquietudinem uentorum. sed disce ut sis columpna in palacio regis. Fuge quoque duas linguas.
quę sunt uulnera anime. sed loquere ubique in ueritate secundum similitudinem solis! et habitacula nostra libenter in te parabimus.
Notes
- 1 ↩quasi rendered as 'like' for the simile; 'many waters' may carry scriptural resonance (cf. Ezekiel 43:2, Revelation 1:15) but is treated here as Hildegard's own prophetic imagery.
- 2 ↩cum + abl taken as prepositional 'with' rather than conjunction; sodalibus likely refers to fellow servants or saints in Hildegard's prophetic framework.
- 3 ↩duas linguas rendered idiomatically as 'double tongue' (i.e., duplicity, gossip, slander); quoque ('also') links this command to the preceding exhortations.
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