VISIO QUARTA, cap. LVI
The Crosswise Measure of the Body and the Earth
The crosswise measure from thigh to thigh equals the length from navel to excretion, mirroring the earth's breadth and depth.
The crosswise measure that runs in front, from thigh to thigh, is as great in length as the one that runs from the navel down to the place of excretion; for the breadth of the earth extends crosswise just as far in length as its own depth.
The Weary Soul Between Good and Sin
A sinner who begins good work rejoices yet fears incompletion, and the saints bore Christ's banner amid the flesh-soul conflict, where sin starves the soul and virtue feeds it.
Take a person who often sins: if the soul sometimes consents to a good work, that person rejoices — yet even in that rejoicing there is the pain of fear, because they fear they may not be able to complete the work they've begun. And carrying that fear, which they hold within the soul's own strength, they keep working at the good until the soul draws them back through weariness of sin. So it is that everyone placed in this life consents now to the soul's will, now to the flesh's pleasure. And so too all the saints and chosen martyrs of God, while they still lived in this world, carried the banner of Christ's passion and bore it forward. For when the flesh sins, the soul feels hunger, just as a fasting person feels hunger. And when the flesh hungers — that is, when it ceases from sin — the soul rejoices in good works, just as someone who is restored by food rejoices.
Flesh as Servant, Abstinence as Mistress
The navel-to-excretion measure signifies fleshly wantonness, while the earth's thickness, length, and breadth reveal the flesh as servant and abstinence as mistress.
The measure that runs from the navel to the place of excretion signifies the flesh's wantonness, to which a person sometimes consents and sometimes resists — just as a servant's service sometimes pleases and sometimes displeases his master. And just as the earth is sustained through its own thickness, so too, in its own length and breadth, it now brings forth things both useful and useless. For the thickness of the earth — which is compared to a servant — designates the flesh's desire. But its length and breadth show forth abstinence, which is reckoned here as a mistress.
The Soul as Life-Giving Air
The space from throat to navel signifies air, which tempers the earth for fruitfulness, just as the soul gives life and motion to the whole body.
Because through the space that extends from the end of the throat to the navel air is designated, and to that same air — which penetrates all empty spaces and tempers the earth to bear fruit in diverse ways — the soul, giving life to the whole body and moving it to act, may be compared.1
Read the original Latin
Mensura quoque quae est in ante in transversum a femore usque ad femur tantae longitudinis est quanta illa existit quae ab umbilico usque ad locum egestionis est, quoniam latitudo terrae tantae longitudinis in transversum existit, quanta spissitudo profunditatis ipsius est. Homo quippe qui frequenter peccat, si aliquando animae in bono opere consenserit, laetatur, in qua tamen laetitia dolorem timoris habet, quia timet quod incoeptum opus forte non possit perficere, et cum timore isto quem per vires animae in se retinet, bonum opus tandiu operatur, quousque hominem taedio peccandi anima sibi attrahat. Sic igitur omnis homo in hac vita positus modo voluntati animae, modo voluptati carnis consentit; sic quoque omnes sancti et electi martyres Dei, dum adhuc in saeculo viverent facientes vexillum passionis Christi portabant. Carne enim peccante anima, sicut, homo jejunans, esuriem habet; et carne esuriente, id est a peccatis cessante, anima, sicut qui cibis reficitur, in bonis operibus gaudet. Mensura etiam quae ab umbilico usque ad locum egestionis est, petulantiam carnis significat, cui homo interdum consentit, interdum resistit, velut cuique domino obsequium servi sui modo placet, modo displicet, et sicut terra per spissitudinem suam sustentatur, ita et jam in longitudine et latitudine sua utilia et inutilia procreat. Spissitudo enim terrae, quae servo comparatur, desiderium carnis designat; longitudo autem et latitudo ipsius abstinentiam ostendit quae pro domina hic computatur.
Quia per spatium quod est a fine gutturis usque ad umbilicum aer designetur, ipsique aeri omnia vacua penetranti, et terram ad ferendos fructus diversis modis temperanti, anima totum corpus vivificans, et ad operandum movens comparetur.
Notes
- 1 ↩The subjunctives designetur and comparetur likely signal a relative clause of characteristic or a final/purpose clause within Hildegard's visionary exposition. Rendered as indicative-equivalent to preserve the analogical claim without over-determining the grammar.
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