R20: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Arnold II. von Wied
A Vision in the Valley of a Great Mountain
Hildegard introduces a vision of a man in a mountain valley whose soul's choice is sent upward and transformed into fiery color like burning oil.
Hildegard's reply. I saw these things in a true vision. So listen. I see a certain man standing in the valley of a great mountain! He has the choice in the tasting of his own soul. And the same man sends the choice he has into the height of that same mountain! And the air of that mountain receives it. So that from there it takes on a fiery color.
Clean Birds Made Swift by the Wind of the Heights
Clean birds receive the fiery air, become swift in flight, and are questioned by a noble householder about their origin.
It's like oil catching fire. But clean birds, separated from unclean ones, come. And they take up that air into their wings. And from there they become swift in their flight. When the most noble head of the household sees this, he says. Where do you come from? They answer. A certain foreign man standing in the valley of a mountain.
The Householder's Loving Response
The birds explain their swift flight comes from the man's gentle wind, and the householder declares he wishes to love that distant man, while affirming God's power to transform wolves into lambs.
He has sent a most gentle wind into the heights of himself, to us! And from there we have been made swift to fly to you. And the same householder says to them: That person, though he stands far from me! Yet because of the course by which he sent you to me, I wish to love him. But whoever wishes to watch well! May he perceive this understanding. God often makes lambs out of wolves because of the prayers of the saints.
Warning Against Hollow Worship
God warns against loving Him in the caves of robbers or among vanities, declaring He answers those who speak to Him in deed, not in word alone.
Just as from tax collectors, he makes righteous people.✦ And so, the one who knows all things says. Be careful not to love God in the caves of robbers.✦ And do not name him among vanities. So that you would call upon God in words only, and not in deeds.✦ Whoever speaks to me in word alone — to that one I will answer!
Judgment on the Wicked and the Shepherd's Commission
God declares He destroys stubbornness and crushes those who despise Him, warns the shepherd of the people, and Hildegard identifies herself as a poor woman sending true visionary writings.
But whoever speaks to me in proverbs — to that person I'm a stranger. For I destroy stubbornness. And I crush the contradiction of those who despise me, through my own power. Woe, woe to the evil of the wicked who despise me. Hear this, O man, if you wish to live! Otherwise my sword will strike you. But now, O shepherd of your people — I, a poor woman, have sent you the true writings of these visions, just as you asked.
Composed by Heavenly Revelation, Not Human Genius
Hildegard insists her writing comes not from human genius or her own will but from unfailing heavenly light and revelation.
Nothing of human genius. And the restraint of my own will. But that unfailing light wanted to manifest, through its own composition and in the very same words, how it pleased itself! Since neither what I now write to you by my own genius nor by any human judgment but composed by heavenly revelation.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. In uera uisione hęc uidi. Audi ergo. Quendam hominem in ualle cuiusdam magni montis uideo stantem! qui optionem in gustu animę suę habet. Et idem homo mittit optionem quam habet in altitudinem eiusdem montis! et aer ipsius montis illam suscipit. ita quod inde igneum colorem accipit.
sicut oleum quod ab igne accenditur. Sed mundę aues quę ab immundis separatę sunt ueniunt. et aerem illum in alas suas suscipiunt! et inde celeres in uolatu suo fiunt. Quod nobilissimus pater familias uidens dicit. Vnde uenitis? Quę respondent. Quidam alienus homo in ualle montis stans.
suauissimum uentum in altitudinem ipsius ad nos misit! et inde ueloces factę sumus ad uolandum ad te. Et idem pater familias ad eas dicit. Iste homo quamuis a longe stet a me! tamen propter cursum quo uos ad me misit uolo illum amare. Qui autem bene uult uigilare! hunc intellectum percipiat. Deus multociens propter orationes sanctorum de lupis agnos facit.
sicut etiam de publicanis iustos. Vnde et qui omnia nouit. dicit. Uide ne deum in speluncis latronum ames. et ne ipsum in uanitatibus nomines. ita quod deum tantum in uerbis inuoces et non in operibus. Qui mihi in uerbo loquitur. illi respondebo!
qui autem in prouerbiis mihi loquitur illi alienus sum. Nam contumaciam deleo. et contradictionem illorum qui me contempnunt per memetipsum contero. Ve ue malo iniquorum spernentium me. Hoc audi o homo si uiuere uis! alioquin gladius meus percutiet te. Nunc autem o pastor populi tui. ego paupercula scripta ueracium uisionum istarum tibi misi sicut petisti.
nichil humani ingenij. et proprię uoluntatis meę continentia. sed quę indeficiens lumen compositione sua et eisdem uerbis manifestare uoluit quomodo sibi placuit! cum nec ipsum quod tibi nunc scribo ingenio meo nec ullo humano arbitrio. sed superna ostensione compositum sit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.9.13;Luke.18.10-Luke.18.14 — But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners. Luke.18.10 — Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. Luke.18.11 — The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed these things toward himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.' Luke.18.12 — I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all that I get. Luke.18.13 — But the tax collector, standing far off, was not even willing to lift his eyes to heaven, but kept beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner.' Luke.18.14 — I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than that one; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.
- ↩Matt.21.13;Mark.11.17;Luke.19.46;Jer.7.11 — And he said to them, "It is written, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers." Mark.11.17 — And he taught them, saying, "Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of robbers." Luke.19.46 — But He said to them, "It is written, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers." Jer.7.11 — Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD.
- ↩Matt.7.21 — Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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