R14: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Christian I. von Buch
The Voice of the Living Light
Hildegard introduces her message as a mystical vision and reminds the prelate that his authority comes from God alone, who is Father over all.
Hildegard's response: A mystical vision speaks to you. O you, a person of prelacy! You are established in the place of Christ, by his own authority! Just as all power is from God, yet no one has been found equal to God. He himself is the Father of all. Because from him all things proceed, and for this reason he rules them!
The Priesthood of Christ and Melchizedek
Hildegard explains that the priest stands in Christ's place through a pure, sinless sacrifice, fulfilling the eternal priesthood prefigured in Melchizedek.
And a priest stands in priestly office because through a pure sacrifice — the one by which the human being was made — he freed the human being. For in that oath, he is a priest! What is written — The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. For God had predestined in himself that the human being would be made without any stain of sin. And without any need of amending penance, and without any mixture and division that in the human being exists alongside sins! So that evil might thus be overcome, as was prefigured in Melchizedek.
A Call to Faithful Pastoral Rule
Urging the ruler to teach and govern with justice and mercy while the day of grace still lasts, Hildegard reminds him that God himself has freed his people.
But you, O man, are now in the day. Before night comes, when you can no longer work. Strive to teach your people God's precepts with true authority. Govern them with right justice, just as God governs them. Hold them with great zeal in mercy. For God freed them through himself. For in such a way! O magistrate.
Mercy, Humility, and Eternal Joy
Hildegard closes by affirming divine authority, urging the ruler to use wealth mercifully, and praying that he may be received into eternal joy.
Dominion. And authority is from God. But also from the mammon of wickedness make friends for yourself through mercy!✦1 So that when you have passed on, they may welcome you into eternal dwellings.✦2 Now, O father and master, hear me — a poor little creature writing to you after Christ, from true light.3 So that you will extend aid to all who are placed in necessity and flee to you for refuge! So that because of the joy which you bestow on them, you may be received into the joy of eternal dwellings. And in the eternal blessedness for which God created you, may you live forever.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Mistica uisio tibi dicit. O tu persona prelationis. in uice christi ab ipso constitutus es! quemadmodum omnis potestas a deo est. Deo autem nullus similis inuentus est. Ipse pater omnium est. quoniam ab ipso omnia procedunt et ob hoc ea regit!
et sacerdos in sacerdotali officio est quia per purum sacrificium quod homo factus est hominem liberauit. In iuramento namque illo sacerdos est! quod scriptum est. Iurauit dominus et non penitebit eum! tu es sacerdos in eternum secundum ordinem melchisedech. Deus quippe in semetipso predestinauerat homo fieri sine omni maculositate peccati. et sine omni indigentia emendantis penitentię et sine omni conmixtione et diuisione quę in homine cum peccatis sunt! quatenus ita malum uinceret ut in melchisedech prefiguratum est.
Tu autem o homo qui nunc in die es. antequam nox adueniat cum plus operari non possis. stude ut in uera potestate populum tuum precepta dei doceas. et in recta iusticia eum regas sicut deus eum regit. et per magnum studium in misericordia eum habeas. quoniam deus per semetipsum eum liberauit. Tali enim modo! magistratus.
dominatio. et potestas a deo est. Sed et de mammona iniquitatis amicos per misericordiam tibi fac! quatenus cum defeceris in eterna tabernacula te suscipiant. Nunc o pater et magister post christum pauperculam formam de uero lumine tibi hęc scribentem audi. ut omnibus in necessitate positis qui ad te confugiunt auxilium porriges! quatenus propter gaudium illud quod eis impendis in gaudium eternorum tabernaculorum suscipiaris. et in eterna beatitudine ad quam deus te creauit in eternum uiuas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Luke.16.9 — And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it runs out, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
- ↩Luke.16.9 — And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it runs out, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
Notes
- 1 ↩Mammona iniquitatis echoes Luke 16:9 (Vulgate). The phrase 'make friends through mercy' blends the scriptural injunction to make friends with worldly wealth and the exhortation to exercise mercy.
- 2 ↩Defeceris can mean 'you fail' or 'you die/come to an end.' The eschatological context favors 'passed on' or 'died.' Eterna tabernacula echoes Luke 16:9 (in aeterna tabernacula).
- 3 ↩Pauperculam formam is a humble self-designation: 'a poor little form/creature.' De uero lumine ('from true light') claims divine illumination as the source of what is written.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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