Hildegard corresponded with four popes over the course of her public life: Eugenius III, Anastasius IV, Hadrian IV, and Alexander III. The exchanges between Hildegard and Eugenius III are the most numerous of these. In her first letter to him (Letter 2, ca. 1148), Hildegard expresses a desire that the pope validate her visions, and she pleads with Eugenius to support her writings. Letter 3, written in 1153, exhorts the pope (represented as an eagle) to protect ecclesiastical powers from being usurped by the emperor (allegorically a bear), and probably referred to the German secular leadership in general. Conrad III died in 1152, and Frederick was too new in the position for Hildegard to determine his policies (see below, Letter 312, Hildegard’s first communication with Frederick).Letter 4, written in 1151, forms a part of the sad Richardis tale. In it, Eugenius rejects Hildegard’s plea to keep Richardis in the Rupertsberg community. In Letter 5 (1153), Hildegard writes to Eugenius in support of Henry archbishop of Mainz, one of Hildegard’s proponents, who had been removed from office by Frederick Barbarossa. Finally Hildegard writes to Eugenius in 1153 (Letter 6) regarding a vision she had experienced and exhorts the pope to bring Christians back into the fold.
The pontificate of Anastasius IV was very brief (1153-54), and only one letter from Hildegard to Anastasius survives (Letter 8). The topic of the letter seems to concern the appointment of the archbishop of Magdeburg made by Frederick Barbarossa that Eugenius had refused to ratify before his death. When Anastasius’s envoys could not reach an agreement with Frederick, An-astasius reversed Eugenius’s decision and allowed the appointment to proceed. Hildegard wrote to Anastasius in her prophetic voice, criticizing him harshly for giving in to the demands of Frederick and his supporters at the expense of the papacy.
Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman to hold the position of pope, became Hadrian IV upon the death of Anastasius IV. Hildegard’s single letter to him (Letter 9) seems to have been written shortly after he was elected. Hildegard introduces herself to him and encourages him to withstand the political pressures he will face. She is referring to the ongoing problems between the papacy and Frederick Barbarossa. Hadrian crowned Frederick emperor in 1155, but the relationship between the two was generally fractious.
Alexander III was the pope around whom the “papal schism” raged, yet Hildegard seems never to have written him on the subject. Instead, the one letter to Alexander (Letter 10, 1173) concerns an internal dispute between the abbot of Disibodenberg, Helengerus, and Rupertsberg. Hildegard’s longtime secretary Volmar had died in 1173, and Helengerus refused to replace him. Alexander intervened (Letter 11), resulting in the election of Gottfried of Disibodenberg as her secretary. Gottfried began a Vita sanctae Hildegardis in the hopes that it would be a first step toward her canonization, but he died in 1176 without having completed it. Hildegard then chose Guibert of Gembloux to succeed him, and there seems to have been no disagreement about his election. He served as her secretary until her death in 1179.
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