R150: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Propst G.
The Vision and the Plow
Hildegard introduces her visionary authority and describes the provost's mind as a plow meant to overturn and divide hard and soft things.
Hildegard's response. In a vision I saw with the waking eye of my spirit from my childhood, by a different path than the one I was born into in this age. I looked up on high! And I saw and heard these words addressed to you. Your mind is like a plow that turns up what is hard. It overturns and divides what is rough from what is soft. For you are meant to know— to overturn.
The Hardness That Limps from the Sun
The provost struggles against hardness, harshness, and softness in his duties, as a spiritual hardness born from the sun of justice now besets the church.
And you try to divide the things you attend to, which are in such great hardness that you cannot break through them! And those that are in such great harshness that they would wound you if you were to touch them. And those that are in such great softness that you would crush them. If you had wished to touch them harshly and roughly. For the hardness that has limped from the sun of justice1 has now surrounded the church. Which you are not strong enough to pierce through. From where, say to God in your heart:2
Obedience, Authority, and the Harshness of the World
Hildegard exhorts the provost to obey God within the bounds of faith, while lamenting that apostolic authority is divided and worldly rulers and students have grown harsh and soft.
Lord, you know everything! I want to obey you in my teachers. as long as they don't force me to resist the catholic faith. For apostolic authority, which is now divided into two parts, refuses to bind its own property. And the rulers of the world are in such a state of harshness that they wouldn't listen to you if you told them that justice is found in your knowledge. And the students of the masters now pursue such great softness. that you would hesitate as though you didn't know what you ought to do with them.
Hold Fast to the Faithful, Release the Rest
The provost is urged to teach holiness like Christ, hold fast to those who embrace him in obedience and love, release others to God, and place his hope in the one God.
A teacher should teach what is holy and just, and hold up good examples. Just as Christ himself did — the one to whom many ran and from whom many fled. Yet he gathers his own beloved and chosen ones. So hold fast to those who embrace you through obedience and through love.3 Hold them with the highest zeal, and don't abandon them! But release the others to God, so that you can say with the prophet: "I have spoken your truth and your salvation."✦4 You, therefore, stretch out with your hope toward the one God!
The Hope of the Church and the Dawn in You
The church's sure hope will be fulfilled despite suffering and destruction among spiritual congregations, and Hildegard sees a dawn of good zeal rising in the provost.
because he himself will not abandon his own church. For this is the hope of the church: that she herself, once she is seen, will come to be.5 And this hope is sure. However long the pain may last. in which very many congregations of spiritual people will be stirred up. Very many will also be destroyed. But I see the dawn in you like a radiance. because zeal for good works in good will is in you.
The Whirlwind and Confidence in God
A whirlwind of trial and change threatens to obscure the provost's inner light, but he is urged to trust that his end is in God and he will live forever.
I see a whirlwind rushing at you, and other shifts and changes too, because of these things. It sometimes obscures the brightness in you.6 Lessen this, and have confidence, because you will find your end in God.7 And you will live forever.
Read the original Latin
Responsvm hildegardis. In uisione quam ab infantia mea uigilanti oculo in spiritu meo uidi per aliam uiam quam in hoc seculo nata sim. in altum aspexi! et hec uerba ad te dicere uidi et audiui. Mens tua aratro similis est quod dura. aspera et mollia euertit et diuidit. Tu enim cognoscere. euertere.
et diuidere illa adtendis quę in tanta duricia sunt quod ea perfringere non potes! et quę in tanta asperitate sunt quod te uulnerarent si ea tangeres. et quę in tanta mollicię sunt quod ea contereres. si illa dire et aspere tangere uoluisses. Duricia namque que a sole iusticię claudicauit. ęcclesiam nunc circumdedit. quam tu perforare non preuales. unde ad deum in corde tuo dic.
Domine qui omnia nosti! in magistris meis tibi obedire uolo. quamdiu catholicę fidei me resistere non cogunt. Apostolica etenim potestas quę nunc in duas partes diuisa est. proprietatem suam ligare recusat. et principes seculi in tanta asperitate sunt quod te non audirent si eis diceres quod in scientia tua iustum habes. et discipuli magistrationum tantam molliciem nunc sectantur. quod dubitares uelut ignorares quid cum ipsis facere deberes.
Magister namque sancta et iusta docere et bona exempla ostendere debet. quemadmodum etiam christus fecit ad quem multi currebant et a quo multi fugiebant. Ipse tamen dilectos et electos suos colligit. Vnde qui te per obedientiam osculantur et per caritatem amplexantur. in summo studio tene nec eos relinque! alios autem deo dimitte quatenus cum propheta dicas. Ueritatem tuam et salutare tuum dixi. Tu ergo spe tua ad unum deum tende!
quia ipse ęcclesiam suam non derelinquet. Hęc namque spes ęcclesię est quod ipsa oculata fiet. et spes ista secura est. quamuis dolor diu maneat. in quo plurimę congregationes spiritalium commouebuntur. plurimę quoque destruentur. Ego uero auroram sicut splendorem in te uideo. quod studium in bona uoluntate bonorum operum in te est.
turbinem quoque propter has et alias uicissitudines in te discurrentem! qui aliquando splendorem in te obnubilat. hoc minue et fiduciam habe quod in deo finiaris. et in eternum uiues.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.40.11 — Your righteousness I have not hidden within my heart; your faithfulness and your salvation I have spoken of; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your truth from the great assembly.
Notes
- 1 ↩'Duricia' is personified as a feminine subject that 'has limped' (claudicavit) from the sun of justice. The image suggests a distortion or failing that originates from divine justice itself — a striking metaphor. The abbreviated form 'que' = 'quae'.
- 2 ↩'unde' here likely means 'from that place/state' — i.e., from the recognition of your inability — turn to God in your heart. The imperative 'dic' introduces direct speech to God that follows in the next section.
- 3 ↩Vnde rendered as 'so' rather than literally 'whence' to capture the connective force naturally in English.
- 4 ↩The Latin 'Ueritatem tuam et salutare tuum dixi' echoes Psalm 39:11 (Vulgate) / Psalm 40:10 (Hebrew). Final resolution deferred to Moses stage.
- 5 ↩oculata fiet: the form is unusual; likely 'will be seen / will appear visibly,' playing on the image of the church revealed or made manifest.
- 6 ↩obnubilat is a rare verb; sense 'obscures/overclouds' is candidate. Refers to the whirlwind (turbinem) dimming the recipient's spiritual brightness.
- 7 ↩finiaris: form and lemma uncertain; possibly a medieval/deponent form. Rendered as 'you will find your end' (i.e., reach completion/fulfillment in God).
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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