Diabolus
False Praise
Diabolus opens with mocking applause, luring the soul with flattery.
Bravo! Well done!
Taunting Questions
Diabolus mocks the soul by contrasting fear and love, then questions the reality of the struggle and its reward.
What fear is this, so great? And what love is this, so great? Where is the one who fights, and where is the one who rewards?
Blind Cultivation
Diabolus ends by accusing the soul of not even knowing what it is cultivating.
You don't even know what you're cultivating.
Read the original Latin
Euge! euge! quis est tantus timor? et quis est tantus amor? Ubi est pugnator, et ubi est remunerator? Vos nescitis quid colitis.
Ordo Virtutum (Order of the Virtues) companion
Let a different Virtue meet you each morning
Chosen Portion walks you through the whole Ordo Virtutum — and Hildegard's Scivias — as free daily devotionals.
The Ordo was performed scene by scene by Hildegard's nuns, and Chosen Portion restores that rhythm — one scene of the Virtues' drama as each day's devotional.
- The complete 84-scene drama, one short scene per day, in modern readable English
- Each portion pairs the scene with its Scripture echoes — 26 references resolved across the play
- Finish Hildegard, then continue with 70+ other works from Europe's royal devotional archive