R46: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Arnold I. von Valcourt
A Tree Planted by God
Hildegard greets Arnold as a tree planted by God, warns against pride and the seizure of divine honor, and urges detachment from worldly vanity.
Hildegard's reply. You are a tree planted by God! As Paul says.✦ All authority comes from God, because according to the highest Master, through the invocation of his name all authority is named.✦ And so in that tree it has the greenness of the honor of its name. But let what is without God and what the left hand works not be present in you, lest you fall with the first angel — namely Satan — into the falling sickness of pride.✦ May you fall — you who wished to seize honor from God by stealth, against God. Many seize him according to their own will.
Nothing Without God
Hildegard counsels Arnold not to worry about how honor is conferred on others, since nothing exists apart from God, and encourages faithful obedience amid tribulation and poverty.
Do not worry about how that honor is conferred on them in any way at all. That is nothing before God. Because without him nothing was made.✦ And so God destroys whatever he does not touch. Be diligent about this, therefore. So that through the commandments of God — which have multiplied like the leaves of a tree — you may bear witness to the people as far as you are able through his grace. For many tribulations of your burden press in on you just like poverty.
The Poor and the Rich
Hildegard teaches that God draws away the will from earthly wealth so that the poor love the poor and the rich recognize the rich, and notes that wisdom gives honor to the poor but denies ornament to the rich.
Because riches and much heavenly wealth don't love what is heavenly! Therefore God draws a person's own will away from them. so that they may long for the heavenly homeland. So it's fitting that the poor person love the poor person. and that the rich person recognize the rich person. Because wisdom gives a ring to the poor person, and denies an earring to the rich person. On account of your priestly office, indeed.
The Justice of God
Hildegard declares that God's justice does not hide itself but spreads its paths openly, placing evil before good as though injustice and Gehenna were life itself.
This gift is present to you. I haven't hidden your justice in my heart. I have spoken your truth and your salvation.✦ As it's said. God's justice doesn't hide itself. But it spreads wide its paths and is not ashamed to have them run. It doesn't hide its wounds either. It sets evil before good, as though injustice and Gehenna were life itself.
Armed with Justice and Truth
Hildegard exhorts Arnold to let justice and truth be his shield and breastplate, trampling injustice underfoot and opposing contradiction like an upright soldier.
And she says that in each of the two sides there must be running. In this deception justice does not torment itself. Nor does it kiss injustice with many words! But it tramples her entirely underfoot. Truth too does not praise works that are done without God. But in battle it prepares to oppose contradiction, like an upright soldier. May the justice of God be a shield to you. And put on her truth as if it were a breastplate.
The Blessed Man and the Impious Devil
Hildegard urges Arnold to learn from Christ the supreme physician, to heal sinners with penitence and mercy, and not to boast in the treasures of money, for he is placed in the freshness of the blessed man.
So that, well armed before God and not fleeing through fellowship with vanity, you may appear. And learn to suck the breasts of justice.1 Learn also to heal the wounds of sinners with penitence and mercy! Just as the supreme physician left you a wholesome example for saving the people.2 For you, who are placed in the freshness of the blessed man through the instruction of his name.3 You are the one who does not pay attention to the impious devil. Who on that account is called impious, because he loved no good. See that you do not boast in the treasures of money, which in the end is wicked.4
The Ivory Mountain
Hildegard calls Arnold to be an ivory mountain sending righteous judgment against adversaries, to run like a mountain goat to the height of God's law, and to teach so that his sons may be filled with justice.
Because after the thirtieth year, it falls short just as it does after the first. But rejoice on Mount Zion, where the eternal help of the Most High is in eternity. And every spirit praises the Lord. You too must be an ivory mountain, from which the windows send darts of righteous judgment against your adversaries who fly about. Run also to the height of the law and justice of God like a mountain goat. Lest through instability you fall unarmed! And may your sons rise up from the side of the church and ask you for the food of justice! And so learn good teaching!
A Gaze Toward the True Light
Hildegard confesses she has looked toward the true light but could barely begin to see good works, and urges Arnold to work more zealously so that she may write more, and to be a faithful friend to his soul.
so that through you they may be filled. And so, as you commanded, I have looked toward the true light. but I could barely begin to see the start of good works. Do you, then, work good works more zealously, so that afterward, through God's grace, I may write more! And be a faithful friend to your soul. so that you may live in eternity. In that woman, then, who was besieged — the one you ask about — we have seen many wonderful things.
Deliverance from the Devil
Hildegard reports that the devil's oppression of the besieged woman has faded, she has been set free from demonic torment, and after an unfamiliar illness she has regained full health in body and soul.
—things we can't put into writing right now! But we've learned that the devil's puffing has faded from day to day, dwindling down to its final end. And that same woman has been set free from the torment of the devil. And she was then seized by an illness she had never before experienced within herself. But now she's regained the strength of both body and soul in full health.
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Tu arbor es a deo constitutus! quemadmodum paulus dicit. Omnis potestas a deo est quia secundum summum magistrum per inuocationem nominis sui omnis potestas nominata est. unde in illa arbor uiriditatem honoris nominis sui habet. Quod autem absque deo est et quod sinistra operatur tibi non assit ne in cadente morbo superbię cum primo angelo scilicet satana. qui contra deum honorem furtim rapere uoluit cadas. quem multi secundum uoluntatem suam rapiunt.
non curantes quoquo modo eis ille conferatur. Istud coram deo nichil est. quoniam sine ipso factum est nichil. et sic deus occidit quicquid ipsum non tangit. Ob hoc ergo sollicitus esto. ut per precepta dei quę sicut folia arboris multiplicata sunt. populo testimonium quantum per gratiam ipsius potueris perhibeas. Multę etenim tribulationes oneris tui uelut paupertas te constringunt.
quia diuicię et multa pecunia celestia non amant! ideo propriam uoluntatem homini deus abstrahit. quatenus ad celestem patriam suspiret. Vnde decet ut pauper pauperem diligat. et diues diuitem cognoscat. quia sapientia pauperi anulum dat. et diuiti inaurem negat. Propter sacerdotale enim officium tuum.
tibi istud adest. Iusticiam tuam non abscondi in corde meo! ueritatem tuam et salutare tuum dixi. Quod dicitur. Iusticia dei se non abscondit. sed itinera sua dilatat nec ea currere erubescit. Uulnera quoque non abscondit. malum bono preponendo uelut iniusticia uitam et gehennam esse.
et in utraque parte currendum esse dicit. In hac fallacia iusticia se non macerat. nec multiplicibus uerbis iniusticiam osculatur! sed ipsam totam conculcat. Veritas quoque opera quę sine deo operantur non laudat. sed in pugnam contradicere illa ut probus miles se preparat. Iusticia dei scutum tibi sit. et ueritate ipsius quasi lorica induere.
ita ut coram deo bene armatus et non fugitiuus per societatem uanitatis appareas. et disce ut ubera iusticię sugas. Disce quoque uulnera peccatorum cum penitentia et misericordia curare! quemadmodum summus medicus salutare exemplum uobis ad saluandum populum reliquit. Tu namque qui in uiriditate beati uiri per instructionem nominis sui positus. es qui impium diabolum non adtendit. qui ideo impius nominatus est quia nullum bonum amauit. uide ne in thesauris pecunię glorieris quę in fine maliciosa est.
quia post tricesimum annum uelut post annum unum deficit. sed exulta in monte syon ubi adiutorium altissimi eternale in eternitate est. et omnis spiritus laudat dominum. Tu etiam eburneus mons esto de quo fenestralia iacula in recto iudicio iusticię dei contra aduersarios tuos uolitant. Curre quoque in altitudinem legis et iusticię dei sicut capricornus. ne per instabilitatem inermis cadas! et filij tui de latere ęcclesię surgant et postulent a te cibum iusticię! et ideo bonam doctrinam disce!
quatenus per te saturentur. Ego autem ut iussisti ad uerum lumen aspexi. et uix inceptionem bonorum operum aspicere potui. Tu quidem bona opera studiosius operare ut postea per gratiam dei plura scribam! et fidelis amicus animę tuę esto. ita ut in eternitate uiuas. In illa autem quę obsessa fuit de qua queritis. multa mirabilia uidimus.
quę modo per scripta proferre non possumus! sed cognouimus quod diabolicus sufflatus de die in diem usque ad recessum suum defecit. et eadem mulier a fatigatione diaboli liberata est. et etiam infirmitate quam ante in se non cognouit tunc occupata est. sed nunc uires tam corporis quam animę plena sanitate recepit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.13.1 — Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God.
- ↩Rom.13.1 — Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God.
- ↩Isa.14.12-Isa.14.15 — How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, you who laid low the nations! Isa.14.13 — And you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens; above the stars of God I will raise my throne, and I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north." Keep the quotation open into v.14 for continuity. Isa.14.14 — I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" Close the quotation here so the transition to v.15 lands clearly. Isa.14.15 — But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the pit.
- ↩John.1.3 — All things came into being through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.
- ↩Ps.39.11 — Remove your scourge from me; I am fading under the assault of your hand.
Notes
- 1 ↩The image of 'sucking the breasts of justice' draws on the nursing metaphor common in monastic and prophetic literature for receiving divine teaching; 'justice' here carries the sense of God's righteous order and doctrine to be internalized.
- 2 ↩'Summus medicus' refers to Christ as the supreme healer; 'salutare exemplum' is a saving wholesome example, with the gerundive 'saluandum' expressing purpose ('for saving').
- 3 ↩'In uiriditate beati uiri' — 'in the freshness/vigor of the blessed man' — likely alludes to the blessed state of a righteous person (possibly with Psalm 1 resonance: the tree planted by streams of water, ever fresh/green). 'Per instructionem nominis sui' means through the teaching or instruction of his (Christ's) name.
- 4 ↩'Quę in fine maliciosa est' — 'which in the end is wicked' — the antecedent is ambiguous: it could refer to 'pecunia' (money itself) or to the treasures. Rendered with the relative clause attached to 'treasures of money' as the nearest natural English reading.
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