R198: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Äbtissin A. von St. Glossinde in Metz
The Mountain of Zion
Hildegard introduces the image of Zion's mountain casting its shadow over the valleys and the related mountains that strengthen it, linking this to the prelates and teachers who serve as the firmament of the Church.
A reply from Hildegard. The mountain of Zion is high, and its shadow stretches out into the valleys, thus revealing its height. There are also other mountains in this foreign land, through which it is made firm. and they are beautiful for the peoples to gaze upon. In the height of Zion. And the prelates and teachers of other mountains, who are designated as the firmament of the Church.
The Danger of Falling
Hildegard warns that the fall or destruction of Zion's mountain would be a great wrong, and calls teachers to lay themselves low, since mountains stand as a defense and teachers protect through teaching and obedience.
And they are called disciples of the daughter of Zion. But if that mountain were to fall, or if others were to destroy it! it would be a great wrong.1 For this reason, let each one who holds the office of teacher rightly take care how to lay down himself!✦2 and how he may be brought low through others.3 For just as mountains stand as a defense for very many against their enemies,✦ so also do those who stand in the office of teacher.
The Rod of Correction
Teachers must not cast away the rod of correction received from God, for just as a teacher is cleansed through disciples and disciples through a teacher, doctrine purifies both.
Through teaching and obedience, which are shown to them in God. A defense of many. They are a protection from the snares of their own enemies. So let every teacher, as long as he can bring forth words of doctrine, not cast away the rod of correction that he has received from the hand of God.4 because often mud is thrown out with mud.5 just as a teacher is cleansed through disciples, and disciples are washed clean through a teacher.
Imitating the Supreme Master
Out of fear for his disciples, a teacher torments himself and is punished by restless disciples, yet he imitates the supreme Master, showing them God's precepts and calling all who have ears to hear.
Out of fear for his disciples, he will torment himself. And he's punished by the tormentors who are his restless disciples. And let him imitate the supreme Master who went before him in just this way. And he'll say: I've shown your precepts to them.6 And so on. And he'll also say: Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.
Do Not Flee
Hildegard urges the abbess not to flee because of fickleness or weariness, reminding her that Adam had bright joy before the fall, which the deceiver darkened through his suggestion.
Learn from this, then: don't run away because of the fickleness of your women disciples, and don't run away because of the weariness of your work either.7 Many have fled more because of weariness at work than out of the need that they cannot overcome their own disciples.8 It is a bright day that no storm can darken. It possesses joy in its fullness. Adam had that joy before the fall! but the first deceitful deceiver darkened that very day for him through his own suggestion.
The First Wound: Vanity
In the contemplative vision, the first wound is vanity, which gathers what it did not earn, does not keep God's gifts, and does not seek God, because the first deceiver taught it this.
In which there are seven wounds that wound souls. The first wound is vanity. It gathers to itself what it neither earned nor sowed! And what was given to it by God it does not keep for itself. The first deceiver taught this, because he himself had done the same thing! And so vanity does not seek God. The second is that a person feels capable of sinning. And from that it stores up fleshly pleasure for itself.
The Second and Third Wounds
The second wound is the felt capacity for sin and the storing up of fleshly pleasure through taste and delight, and the third is a ruin built in squalid habits so that a person lives as though dead to God, scarcely hoping God knows him.
And through the taste itself, embracing the delight, he is kissed. The third ruin he builds up with great suffering in squalid habits. So that a person lives as though dead to God. And he scarcely even hopes that God knows him. But the fourth deceit is this: Through which a person excuses and defends himself for the sins mentioned above. Namely, that these dangers aren't so serious that they should be pointed out to him! And so he becomes so hateful toward people that he trusts no one.
The Fourth and Fifth Wounds
The fourth wound is self-excuse and defense of sin, making a person hateful and distrustful, and the fifth is pride that claims one cannot avoid sin and therefore need not withdraw from carnal desires, setting a law of recklessness with no regard for God.
The fifth kind of pride is the one that says, because a person, on account of the flesh of their own humanity, cannot keep themselves from sins! and so it would be unfitting for them to turn away from carnal desires. This is the law that pride sets for itself in its recklessness. And so it has no regard for God at all. And the sixth plague is that a person seeks their salvation from the creature. and demands from it that it reveal every single thing to them. And so they hold their Creator in derision and seek nothing from Him, as if He were unable to help.
The Sixth and Seventh Wounds
The sixth wound is seeking salvation from creatures rather than the Creator, holding Him in derision, and the seventh is idolatry, a slavery that worships the devil and despises God, with all seven vices arrayed like branches from Adam's transgression.
The seventh plague is indeed idolatry — a slavery that worships the devil and despises God. And these seven vices have, as it were, an army of their own making arrayed against them in their affairs, beyond counting, like the branches of trees.9 because all these things lay hidden in the transgression of the eating — in the fruit that Adam ate.✦10 And so God said to him: In the hour you eat of it, you will surely die.✦ For this reason God established this commandment for him, so that he would not do anything similar for the devil.11 namely that without the commandment he would not have been the one he was meant to be.12
Armor Against the Ancient Temptation
Because no one is secure against the devil's first temptation that Adam underwent, Hildegard calls the abbess to gird herself with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, subdue the seven vices as a good soldier, and live forever, praying God may see her in the mirror of salvation.
Because of this, no human being can be secure in this life against the devil's first temptation, which Adam underwent. Therefore, O daughter of God, strongest armor of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, gird yourself with them. with which you are to subdue these seven vices. so that you may not be wounded by lamenting over them, but may rise up as a good soldier, overcoming them through the fiercest battles. so that you may live forever. May God see you, O daughter, in the mirror of salvation.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Mons syon altus est. et umbra ipsius in ualles extenditur! altitudinem ipsius sic ostendens. Alii etiam montes in hac peregrina terra sunt per quos ipsa firmatur! et qui etiam populis ad intuendum pulcri sunt. In altitudine syon. et aliorum montium prelati et magistri qui firmamentum ęcclesię sunt designantur!
et discipuli filię syon nominantur. Sed si mons iste caderet. uel si eum alij destruerent! magna iniuria esset. Hinc enim quisque qui in magisterio est recte prouideat quomodo seipsum deponat! et quomodo per alios deiciatur. Nam sicut montes plurimis ad defensionem inimicorum suorum sunt. sic etiam qui in magisterio stant.
per doctrinam et obedientiam quę eis in deo exhibetur. defensio multorum. ab insidijs inimicorum suorum sunt. Unde unusquisque magister quamdiu uerba doctrinę proferre potest. uirgam correctionis quam de manu dei accepit non abiciat. quia sepe lutum luto abicitur. sicut magister per discipulos. et discipuli per magistrum abluuntur.
Propter metum enim discipulorum se affliget. et a tortoribus inquietorum discipulorum punitur. et summum magistrum qui eum sic precessit imitetur. Et dicet. Precepta tua eis ostendi. Et cetera. Et etiam dicet. Qui habet aures audiendi audiat.
In his enim disce. ne propter nebulam uicissitudinis discipularum tuarum nec etiam propter tedium laboris tui fugias. Nam multi plus propter tedium laboris. quam propter necessitatem illam quod discipulos suos uincere non possint fugiunt. Clara autem dies quam tempestas non obnubilat. gaudium pleniter habet. Illam adam ante casum habuit! sed primus fallax deceptor ipsam diem ei per suggestionem suam obnubilauit.
in qua septem plagę sunt quę animas uulnerant. Prima plaga uana gloria est. quę hoc ad se colligit quod nec meruit nec seminauit! et quod ei a deo donatum non est sibi constituit. Hoc primus deceptor docuit quia ipse idem fecerat! et ideo uana gloria deum non querit. Secunda autem est quod homo sentit quia peccare potest. et inde delectationem carnis sibi thesaurizat.
et de gustu ipsam delectationem amplectendo osculatur. Terciam ruinam cum magnis doloribus in squalidis moribus edificat. ita quod homo uiuit quasi deo mortuus sit. et quod etiam uix sperat quod deus eum sciat. Sed quarta fallacia est. per quam homo de predictis peccatis se excusat et defendit. ita scilicet quod tam periculosa non sint ut ei ostendantur! atque ideo ita odiosus ad homines fit quod nemini confidit.
Quinta superbia est quę dicit. quia homo propter carnem humanitatis suę de peccatis se abstinere non possit! et ideo inconueniens esset quod a carnalibus desideriis secederet. Hanc legem superbia in temeritate sibi ponit. unde et nullum respectum ad deum habet. Et sexta plaga est quod homo salutem suam a creatura querit. et ab ea postulat ut ipsi unamquamque rem ostendat. et ita creatorem suum in irrisione habet et nichil ab eo querit uelut ipsum adiuuare non possit.
Septima uero plaga est idolatria seruitus quę diabolum adorat et deum contempnit. Et ista septem uicia quasi miliciam sibi subditam in negocijs suis super numerum ramorum arborum habent. quia omnia hęc in transgressione commestionis quod adam comedit latuerunt. ideoque deus ad eum dixit. in qua hora comederis morte morieris. Idcirco deus hoc preceptum ei constituit. ne diabolo quid simile faceret. scilicet quod sine precepto non esset sicut ille esse uoluit.
unde nullus homo propter primam suggestionem diaboli quam adam suscepit in hac uita securus esse potest. Unde o tu filia dei fortissima armatura septem donorum spiritus sancti te circumcinge. cum quibus hęc septem uicia tibi subicias. ne de ipsis plangens uulnereris et ut probus miles per fortissima bella ea superando surge! quatenus in eternum uiuas. Deus in speculo saluationis te o filia uideat.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.10.11;John.15.13 — I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. John.15.13 — No one has greater love than this: that someone lay down his life for his friends.
- ↩Ps.125.2 — As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forever.
- ↩Gen.2.17 — but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it you shall surely die.
- ↩Gen.2.17 — but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day you eat from it you shall surely die.
Notes
- 1 ↩Latin iniuria can mean injury, injustice, or wrong. 'Wrong' captures the moral weight here without over-specifying.
- 2 ↩The jussive subjunctive prouideat ('let him take care') carries exhortatory force. The reflexive seipsum deponat ('lay down himself') echoes the Gospel call to self-denial (cf. John 15:13, laying down one's life), applied here to the teacher's humility and self-emptying in service.
- 3 ↩The passive subjunctive deiciatur ('may be cast down / brought low') suggests a process of humbling, whether through correction, trial, or the ministry of others. The passive voice preserves the ambiguity of agency.
- 4 ↩Virga correctionis (rod of correction) echoes biblical language of discipline (cf. Prov. 13:24, 23:13–14); the metaphor is rendered literally to preserve the scriptural resonance.
- 5 ↩The proverbial sense appears to be that in the process of correcting others, the teacher's own faults may be exposed or discarded — or conversely, that one flawed thing is used to clear away another. The exact proverbial logic is ambiguous.
- 6 ↩Ostendi could be read as infinitive ('to show') depending on the governing verb supplied from context; here taken as perfect indicative 'I have shown' as the most natural reading of the reported speech.
- 7 ↩nebulam (cloud) with vicissitudinis suggests a 'cloud of changeableness' — the shifting, unstable moods of the disciples. Rendered as 'fickleness' to capture the sense of inconstancy.
- 8 ↩The sentence is elliptical — completing the comparison from s3 ('more... than'). The sense is that they flee from the practical necessity of not being able to gain mastery over their disciples.
- 9 ↩The Latin is compressed and somewhat elliptical; 'super numerum ramorum arborum' is rendered with 'beyond counting, like the branches of trees' to capture the sense of an overwhelming, uncountable force.
- 10 ↩'omnia haec' as subject of 'latuerunt' is somewhat compressed; the sense is that all these vices were latent/concealed within the original act of transgression (eating the forbidden fruit).
- 11 ↩'ne diabolo quid simile faceret' — the sense is that the commandment was given as a safeguard so that Adam would not, by sinning, hand over authority or likeness to the devil. Rendered to preserve the purpose-clause force.
- 12 ↩'sicut ille esse uoluit' — 'ille' likely refers to God; the sense is that without the commandment (and its consequence), Adam would not have fulfilled the role God intended for him. Rendered as 'the one he was meant to be' to capture the divine intention.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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