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Chapter 54HildE.1.54

R54: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Graf Philipp von Flandern

Salutation and Vision

Hildegard greets Count Philip and introduces her visionary witness prompted by his anxious inquiry.

To Philip, count of Flanders. Hildegard. O son of God, because he himself formed you in the first man. Hear the words that I saw and heard with a watchful mind and body in my soul. Since I looked toward the true light because of your anxious inquiry.

Judgments of God in History

Hildegard recounts God's just judgments from Adam through the flood, culminating in the redemptive sacrifice of Christ.

God gave a commandment to Adam in paradise. And after the transgression of that same commandment, he expelled the one who had consented to the serpent's counsel by a just judgment from paradise. With just judgment also, he submerged in a flood those men who had entirely given him over to oblivion, so that they neither desired nor sought him. where he saved those who loved and sought him from the flood through the ark. But the gentlest lamb—namely the Son of God—poured out in his own blood, which he shed hanging on the cross, every crime and sin that through true penance a person acknowledges and is saved from.✦1

Admonition to Right Judgment

Hildegard warns Philip to judge justly, avoiding unjust harm to neighbors and the curse of Cain.

Now then, pay attention, O Son of God, so that with the pure eye of justice you may look upon God as the eagle looks at the sun, in such a way that without ownership of your will your judgments may be just.2 lest by the supreme Judge who gave the commandment to man—whom he also in mercy through penance calls to himself—it be said to you.3 Why have you destroyed your neighbor without justice in mine?4 Those who are guilty according to judgment. Bind those who according to the scriptures of the saints who were pillars of the church were with the law and with the fear of death.5 In all things nevertheless, paying attention to the curse of that man who committed murder in his anger.✦6

Call to Penitence and Perseverance

Hildegard calls Philip to flee to God in penitence, resist attacks on faith, and be transformed by the Holy Spirit into eternal blessedness.

You too, for all your negligence and sins, and for all your unjust judgments, flee for refuge to the living God with the seal of the cross, who is the way and the truth.✦ And who also says: I do not want the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live.✦ And if the time should come when unbelievers are laboring to destroy the fount of faith,7 then resist them, as much as you can through the help of God's grace.8 For in my soul I see that the anxiety which you have about the distresses of your soul is like the dawn that rises in the morning.9 Therefore may the Holy Spirit make you a burning sun in pure and true penitence. so that you may seek him and serve him alone. so that you may live in the highest blessedness forever.

Read the original Latin

Philippo comiti flandrię. hildegardis. O fili dei quia ipse in primo homine te plasmauit. audi uerba quę uigili mente et corpore in anima mea uidi et audiui. cum propter sollicitam inquisitionem tuam ad uerum lumen aspexi. Deus preceptum adę in paradyso dedit. et post preuaricationem eiusdem precepti eum qui consilio serpentis consenserat iusto iudicio de paradyso expulit. Cum iusto quoque iudicio homines qui eum omnino obliuioni tradiderant ita quod eum nec desiderabant nec querebant per diluuium dimersit.

ubi illos qui eum amabant et querebant a diluuio per archam saluauit. Sed mitissimus agnus scilicet filius dei in sanguine suo quem in cruce pendens effudit omnia crimina et peccata quę homo per ueram penitentiam cognoscit et saluat. Nunc autem adtende o fili dei ut puro oculo iusticię in deum uelut aquila in solem aspicias ita ut absque proprietate uoluntatis tuę iudicia tua iusta sint. ne a summo iudice qui preceptum homini dedit quem etiam in misericordia per penitentiam ad se uocat tibi dicatur. Quare proximum tuum sine iusticia mea interemisti? Homines quoque qui iudicio rei sunt. illos secundum scripturas sanctorum qui columpnę ęcclesię erant cum lege et cum timore mortis constringe. in omnibus tamen adtendens maledictionem hominis illius qui homicidium in ira sua perpetrauit.

Tu etiam pro omnibus neglegentijs et peccatis ac pro omnibus iniustis iudicijs tuis cum signaculo crucis ad deum uiuum confuge qui uia et ueritas est. et qui etiam dicit. nolo mortem peccatoris sed ut magis conuertatur et uiuat. Et si tempus aduenerit quod infideles fontem fidei destruere laborant. tunc eis quantum per adiutorium gratię dei potueris eis resiste. Ego enim in anima mea uideo quod sollicitudo quam de angustijs animę tuę habes aurorę quę in mane oritur similis est. Unde spiritus sanctus te in pura et uera penitentia ardentem solem efficiat. ut eum queras et ipsi soli seruias.

ita ut in summa beatitudine in eternum uiuas.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩John.1.29;Isa.53.7 — The next day he sees Jesus coming toward him and says, "Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Isa.53.7 — He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter, and like a sheep silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.
  2. ↩Gen.4.11 — And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
  3. ↩John.14.6 — Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'
  4. ↩Ezek.33.11 — Say to them, 'As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩The clause 'quem...effudit' is attached to 'sanguine' and rendered as a relative clause describing the blood shed on the cross; the final 'et saluat' is taken as a divine passive ('is saved') rather than a continuation of the Son's action, preserving the penitential context.
  2. 2 ↩'proprietate uoluntatis tuę' rendered as 'ownership of your will'—i.e., possessive attachment to one's own will; alternative 'self-will' considered but rejected as less concrete.
  3. 3 ↩The sentence is left incomplete in the Latin; 'dicatur' lacks a complement. The translation preserves the open construction, implying a rebuke or warning (cf. the preceding 'ne' clause).
  4. 4 ↩'mea' is ambiguous: it could mean 'by my [justice/standard]' or 'in my [sight/presence]'. Rendered as 'in mine' to preserve the ambiguity; alternative 'by my justice' would require emendation.
  5. 5 ↩The Latin is syntactically dense: 'secundum scripturas sanctorum qui columpnę ęcclesię erant cum lege et cum timore mortis' — the relationship between 'scripturas sanctorum' and 'columpnę ęcclesię' is compressed. Rendered as 'according to the scriptures of the saints who were pillars of the church'; alternative: 'bind those who, according to the scriptures, were pillars of the church, with the law and with the fear of death.'
  6. 6 ↩'maledictionem hominis illius qui homicidium in ira sua perpetrauit' — likely an allusion to Cain (Genesis 4); rendered as 'that man who committed murder in his anger' to preserve the typological reference without resolving it definitively.
  7. 7 ↩aduenerit is ambiguous between future perfect indicative and perfect subjunctive; the conditional si-clause favors a subjunctive reading ('should come'), which is reflected here.
  8. 8 ↩potueris is formally ambiguous between future perfect ('you will have been able') and a general ability ('you can'). The quantum...potueris construction favors 'as much as you can,' rendered here as a general capacity.
  9. 9 ↩The comparison is compressed: the anxiety (sollicitudo) is likened to the dawn (aurora) that rises in the morning. The image likely conveys that the count's spiritual distress, like the dawn, is a harbinger of coming light — a movement toward God rather than mere worry.

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