R17: Hartwig I. von Bremen an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
Salutation and Shared Bond
Hartwig, Archbishop of Bremen, greets Hildegard and notes the special bond of obedience he shares with her and his sister Richardis.
Hartwig, Archbishop of Bremen. To Hildegard. Hildegard, mistress of Saint Robert's in Christ. Hartwig, Archbishop of Bremen and brother of Abbess Richardis. I want you to know that she holds the place of a sister to me, and more than a sister in obedience. I'm notifying you, sister, about that woman of mine who is also ours— or rather, your own.
Richardis’s Holy Departure
Hartwig describes how Richardis left earthly honor, confessed devoutly, received anointing, and died in Christian faith and hope.
my body. your soul. to have entered the way of all flesh.✦ and to have despised the honor which I had conferred upon her. while I was going to an earthly king. to have obeyed the King of heaven, her Lord. and to have confessed holily and devoutly. and anointed with holy oil after confession. and filled with full Christian faith, and that I have tearfully longed for your cloister with my whole heart! and entrusting herself to the Lord through his mother and John. and with the sign of the cross having been made three times, confessing the Trinity and the unity and the unity. in the perfect faith of God and hope and love. We are certain. 4. She died on the Kalends of November.
Petition for Loving Judgment
Hartwig asks Hildegard to love and forgive Richardis, attributing fault to himself and recalling her grief at leaving the cloister.
So I ask you — as worthy as I am, as much as I can be. Love her as much as He loved you, and if she seems to have failed in anything, since the source of it was not from her but from me.1 At least consider her tears, which she poured out because of the departure from that cloister. Many witnesses to these tears should be taken into account. and unless death had prevented her, once permission to come to you had been obtained — she would have come! and because she has been held back by death.
Promise of Return and Blessing
Hartwig promises to come on Richardis’s behalf if God wills, blesses Hildegard, and asks that thanks be given to her sisters.
If it pleases God, you should know that I am coming on her behalf. But God, who repays every good, will repay you — alone, before and above all others, as much your relatives as your friends — for the good things you have shown only to him. For these things, thanks were being given — to God and to me! May he, in the time to come, reward you according to your every desire. Render thanks to your sisters for all their good deeds.
Read the original Latin
Hertvvigus bremensis archiepiscopus. hildegardi. Hildigardi magistrę sancti roberti in christo. hertvvigus. bremensis archiepiscopus et richardis abbatissę frater. id quod est loco sororis et plus quam sororis obedientiam. Notifico tibi sororem nostram illam meam. immo tuam.
meam corpore. tuam anima. uniuersę carnis uiam intrasse. et honorem quam ei contuleram paruipendisse. dum ad regem terrenum irem. regi celorum domino suo obedisse. et sancte et pie confessam fuisse. et inunctam oleo sancto post confessionem.
et habita plena christianitate. et claustrum tuum ex toto corde lacrimabiliter desiderasse! seque domino per matrem eius et johannem committens. et signo crucis tercio signato trinitatem et unitatem et unitatem confitens. in perfecta fide dei et spe et caritate. certi sumus. iiii. kalendas Nouembris obiit.
Rogo ergo te si dignus sum quantum possum. quantum te dilexit eam diligas et si in aliquo deliquisse uidetur. cum ex ea non fuerit sed ex me. saltem lacrimas eius quas pro recessu claustri istius effudit. quarum multi testes sunt adtendas. et nisi mors impediuisset. uix habita licentia ad te uenisset! et quia morte detenta est.
me pro ea uenturum si deo placet scias. Sed deus qui remunerator omnium bonorum est de bonis quę sibi exhibuisti sola inter omnes et super omnes tam cognatos quam amicos. de quibus deo et mihi gratulabatur! hic et in futuro ad omnem uoluntatem tuam te remuneret. Sororibus tuis de omnibus benefactis suis gratias referas.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.6.12 — And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth.
Notes
- 1 ↩cum is ambiguous between temporal, causal, and concessive readings; causal chosen as most natural in context.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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