R86: Hildegard von Rupertsberg an Berthold von Zwiefalten
The Vision of a Fallen Shepherd
Hildegard introduces her reply and recounts how the Living Light showed her a man whom she regarded as weak and defective in his office.
Hildegard's reply. The Living Light says: I saw a certain man. I let him go as though he were weak and defective in the excellence of his office.
Shipwreck of the Flesh
Hildegard explains that the man's frailty left his followers like shipwrecked rebels, and that he fled out of fear.
How so? Because in the frailty of his own flesh they were like shipwrecked men — stripped bare and rebellious! He himself fled from them out of fear of war.
A Pilgrim Restored
Hildegard now sees the same man humbled like a tearful pilgrim, and she resolves to restore him to the Church as a joyful son.
But now I see him. Like a humble, tearful pilgrim. So I look at him, like a son of the inheritance beaten with a rod.1 Because of the restlessness of his character and mind. But I want to restore him to the original church as a happy man!2
Living into Eternity
Hildegard closes with apocalyptic imagery and a declaration that she will now live into eternity.
When the mountain in Taurus is submerged.3 Now I will live into eternity.4
Read the original Latin
Responsum hildegardis. Lux uiuens dicit. Quendam hominem uidi. quem quasi debilem et claudum in precellentia magisterij dimisi. Quomodo? Qui inbecillitate carnis suę uelut naufragi nudi rebelles erant! hos ipse fugit propter timorem belli. Sed illum nunc uideo.
sicut humilem et flebilem peregrinum. Vnde illum inspicio uelut filium hereditatis uirga uerberatum. propter inquietudinem morum mentis suę. Uolo autem illum in primitiuam ęcclesiam restituere quasi felicem hominem! cum mons in tauro dimergitur. Nunc in eternum uiuę.
Notes
- 1 ↩'filium hereditatis' echoes language for the heir of God's inheritance; 'uirga uerberatum' evokes the beaten son / rod discipline motif (cf. Prov 13:24; Heb 12:6).
- 2 ↩'primitiuam ecclesiam' likely means the primitive / early church or the church in its original purity; 'quasi felicem hominem' is exclamatory.
- 3 ↩'mons in tauro' may refer to a mountain in the Taurus range or an astrological image (Taurus as constellation); 'dimergitur' = sinks, is submerged.
- 4 ↩'Nunc in eternum uiuę' is a variant reading (ms. variant of uiuo); sense: 'Now I live forever / into eternity.'
Epistolae: Letters to Frederick Barbarossa and Henry II of England companion
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