R261: Priester von Amorbach an Hildegard von Rupertsberg
Greeting and Salutation
The priests of Amorbach greet Hildegard, naming themselves as sinners and the whole congregation of brothers.
Certain priests. To Hildegard. Hildegard, to the mistress, concerning Saint Robert in Pingis. O. C. V. Sinners and, by name, priests. And the whole congregation of brothers living in Amerbach!
The Living Light and Angelic Illumination
The living light of God is shared unequally: the higher angels burn more brightly near its source, while lower angels and embodied spirits participate in it more weakly and diversely.
When you enter with a brightly shining lamp to enter into eternal wedding feasts. The living light, the worker of all that is good. To which every living soul, and those chosen for the tenth number, are joined as co-workers. Although it remains the same in its own purity. Still, it is shared differently by the blessed according to the capacity of those who receive it. For just as those highest instruments of the royal court burn the more ardently the nearer they are, and the more they are, as it were, in the midst of the fountain of brightness, the more they are contemplated. But the lower the rank of an angel, the further it is from that first source, the more differently they participate in it, and the more weakly. They shine back from that principal light. So too embodied spirits, though they are ordained to life, some share in it more abundantly, others more thinly. They are always illuminated by the force of clarity streaming from the majesty.
Souls Absorbed in Divine Clarity
Some souls are so absorbed in God's clarity that they perceive nothing else, while others, still burdened by earthly darkness, are gradually fitted as vessels of that same light.
And they are raised to attain that beatific beginning by a most distant mobility. For there are certain souls so absorbed into that sea of clarity that they see nothing else at all. They seem to feel nothing other than the presence of that light which gives life to all things.✦ By the radiance of which the other souls, still heavy with earthly darkness. are often reflected while they are. They are fitted to become a receptacle of that clarity,✦ By which they are made known to themselves more subtly from it.
Appeal for Admonition amid Ecclesial Darkness
The priests ask Hildegard's radiance to dispel their darkness, lamenting that the Roman schism has caused love to grow cold and the Church to stray from its order.
Because you, most reverend mother, have climbed closer to that brightness, may the splendor bursting from your heart illuminate our consciences! so that through the rays of admonition, then of exhortation, then of rebuke, our darknesses are diminished. For because wickedness has abounded and love has grown cold through the Roman schism, we suffer the darknesses of error.✦ And since the clouds of wickedness stand in the way, the sun of justice has been darkened. The moon, which is the church, has deviated in many ways from the order of religious life.
Christ's Promise and the Ruin of Religious Orders
Christ's promise to be with His Church endures, and the ray of ancient grace has shone in Hildegard, even as the monastic order falls into ruin.
And yet, because Christ's words do not pass away, if they hold firm. and he himself testifies to this. Look, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.✦ even though nearly the whole world is now enveloped by the darkness of error. a ray of ancient grace, so that the whole people might not perish. It has shone out in you. For the order of monks is falling into ruin.1
Widespread Moral Collapse
Monks, clerics, and nuns all stagger from their vocations, while secular people abandon lawful marriages, commit adultery, and murder.
The order of clerics limps along. The order of nuns staggers too! And when those who are spiritual depart from religious life in this way, secular people completely neglect the law established for them by the Lord. For among the other sins by which they hand God over to oblivion, they abandon lawful marriages. and they join themselves to others' partners according to their own pleasure. They commit murders.
Silent Priests and the Call to Rebuke
Sinners consider themselves righteous, forcing priests to remain silent when they should rebuke; the priests beg Hildegard to direct her exhortations also to secular people.
And because of this they consider themselves to be great. And each one says he's inactive if he's found to be free from these stains. That's why priests, who should be crying out and speaking the truth with rebuke, are now compelled to keep silent. Now they're forced to stay silent. Now you, O venerable mother, since we read in your writings that you've often directed exhortations to spiritual people, we beg you just as earnestly to direct them also to secular people. because it's necessary that they be called out with harsh and frequent rebukes. who scarcely deign to endure any rebukes at all.
Trust in Hildegard's Vision and Farewell
The priests express hope that secular people will heed Hildegard's words, knowing they come from divine vision, and close with a farewell.
We hope, you see, that they will turn their hearts more attentively to your words. For they believe and know that it is through a divine vision and command that you speak. more than they see them waver in many failings through our words, Farewell.
Read the original Latin
Quidam sacerdotes. hildegardi. Hildigardi magistrę de sancto Roberto in pingis. O. C. V. peccatores nominetenusque sacerdotes. et tota congregatio fratrum in Amerbach degentium!
cum fulgentissima lampade. ad eternas nuptias intrare. Lux uiuens omnis boni operatrix. cui omnis anima uitalis et ad decimum numerum preelecta sit cooperatrix. etsi eadem in sua puritate inueniatur. tamen iuxta sensum accipientium a beatis differenter participatur. Nam sicut illa suprema regalis aulę organa eo ardentius inflammantur. quo uicinius et quasi in medietate fontem claritatis contemplantur.
inferiora uero angelorum agmina quanto ab ipsa origine sunt remotiora. tanto differentius. tanto debilius. ab illo principali lumine relucent. sic et spiritus incorporati licet ad uitam sint preordinati. alij habundantius. alij tenuius. impetu claritatis a maiestate semper discurrentes irradiantur.
et ad illud beatificum principium consequendum distantissima mobilitate eleuantur. Sunt enim quędam animę in illud pelagus claritatis sic absortę. ut aliud nichil uidere. aliud nichil sentire quam presentiam illius luminis omnia uiuificantis sibi uideantur. Quarum fulgore et ceterę animę adhuc terrestri graues obscuritate. dum sepius reuerberantur. ad receptaculum ipsius claritatis aptificantur. quo sibi ex ea subtilius notificantur.
Quia ergo tu mater reuerentissima ad claritatem illam uicinius ascendisti. splendor a corde tuo erumpens conscientias nostras illuminet! ita ut per radios tum ammonitionis. tum exhortationis. tum correptionis tenebrę nostrę imminuantur. Nam quia habundauit iniquitas et refriguit caritas per scisma romanum tenebras erroris patimur. et quoniam nubibus iniquitatis obstantibus sol iusticię obscuratus est. luna quę est ęcclesia ab ordine religionis multimodis exorbitauit.
Verumtamen quia uerba christi non transeunt. si permanent. et idem ipse testatur. ecce ego uobiscum sum usque ad consummationem seculi. quamuis totus iam pene orbis tenebris erroris inuolutus sit. radius quidam antiquę gratię ne tota gens pereat. in uobis resplenduit. Ordo enim monachorum orbitat.
ordo clericorum claudicat. ordo quoque sanctimonialium titubat! et cum spiritales religione hoc modo excedunt. seculares institutam sibi a domino legem omnino negligunt. Nam inter cetera facinora quibus deum obliuioni tradunt. legitima coniugia derelinqunt. et aliena pro libitu suo sibi copulant. homicidia perpetrant.
et inde magnos se fore existimant. ac quisque uelut inertem se esse dicit si his maculis immunis inuenitur. Quapropter sacerdotes qui clamare et ueritatem cum correptione loqui deberent. iam silere coguntur. Nunc tu o mater ueneranda. quoniam ut in scripturis tuis legimus commonitiones spiritalibus multociens direxisti eas etiam secularibus quam intime rogamus ut dirigas. quia necesse est ut duris et crebris correptionibus inclamentur. qui correptiones aliquas uix sustinere dignantur.
Speramus enim quod animos suos uerbis tuis adtentius inclinent. quoniam per diuinam uisionem et iussionem te loqui credunt et sciunt! quam uerbis nostris quos in multis transgressionibus uacillare uident. Vale.
Scripture echoes
- ↩John.1.3-John.1.4 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. John.1.4 — In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
- ↩2Cor.4.7 — But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that the surpassing power belongs to God and not from us.
- ↩Matt.24.12 — And because lawlessness is multiplied, the love of the many will grow cold.
- ↩Matt.28.20 — teaching them to observe everything I commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Notes
- 1 ↩The verb orbito (from orbitas, loss of a child) carries the sense of bereavement or childlessness; here applied to monastic order, suggesting it is losing its offspring / vitality, falling into desolation. Rendered 'falling into ruin' to capture the concrete devotional force.
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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