The letters to the Holy Roman Emperors are part of Volume 3 of Baird and Ehrman’s complete correspondence. When Hildegard was recognized as a prophetess at the Synod of Trier, she became a person of importance to the German sovereigns. Correspondence begins sometime between 1150 and 1152 with a letter from Conrad, “King of the Romans” (Letter 311). In it, Conrad introduces himself to Hildegard, asks for her prayers (“for we have lived far otherwise than we ought”), promises her any aid she might need, and commends his son to her. In her response, she gives a detailed prophecy of difficult times ahead for the church and admonishes Conrad to restrain his pleasures and return to God. There are the only two letters between Conrad and Hildegard. Conrad died in 1152 and was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick of Swabia, known as Barbarossa.
Frederick Barbarossa became king of Germany in 1152, and Hadrian IV crowned him Holy Roman Emperor in 1155. Perhaps mindful of the aid Conrad had promised, Frederick issued a letter of protection for the Rupertsberg in 1163, ensuring its political and physical safety, including free elections for the community and freedom from external advocates.
Hildegard begins the exchange of letters in 1152 (Letter 312), urging the king to beware of deceitful advisors, not to misuse his office, to rule justly, and to be abstemious. However, in 1159, Frederick began to support a series of antipopes, and the tone of Hildegard’s letters changes. In Letter 313 (written perhaps in 1153 but also perhaps as late as 1164) Hildegard criticizes Frederick for improper governance and warns him that he may lose the grace of God. She tells him that he appeared to her in a vision as a little boy or a madman and that he should change his ways.
A letter from Frederick to Hildegard of circa 1156-58 refers to a visit Hil-degard had made to his court at Ingelheim, and he tells her that what she had predicted had come true (though we have no idea what that was), that he will strive for the honor of the kingdom, and that he will rule justly, being swayed in his judgments neither by friendship nor by hatred.
The final two letters from Hildegard to Frederick are harsh criticisms and probably refer to Frederick’s continued support of antipopes against Alexander III. The first (Letter 315), very short and very harsh, warns that God will do away with obstinacy and rebellion, by the sword if necessary. Perhaps this refers to the events of the Diet of Wurzburg in 1165, at which Frederick advanced the antipope Paschal III. The second (Letter 316), longer and milder in tone, urges him to rule justly and righteously. This may have been written before the crisis point occurred at Wurzburg. No letters survive that refer to the Peace of Vienna in 1177, when Frederick made peace with Alexander III.
Musician
Hildegard’s musical output has been described above. She was known as a composer in her day, and her reputation continued until at least 1487, when Johannes Trithemius ordered that the Ordo virtutum be copied for use at his monastery at Sponheim. There are two other records of her musical influences that should be mentioned, however.
Letter from Abbot Kuno to Hildegard. Sometime shortly before his death in 1155, Abbot Kuno wrote to Hildegard (Letter 74), asking for whatever information she had on Saint Disibod, so that he and the brothers might honor Disibod appropriately. He also mentions his age and his sins and asks for Hildegard’s prayers.
Hildegard responds to Kuno (Letter 74r) with a modest reprimand referring to the foolishness of one who cannot amend his own life yet interferes in the lives of others. Nonetheless, she says, she has received revelations about Disibod in a vision, and understood them by way of poetry and music. She then includes three works, the antiphon “O mirum admiran-dum,” the responsory “O viriditas digiti Dei,” and the sequence “O presul vere civitas.”
These works would have allowed the monks of Disibodenberg to perform an office hour, presumably First Vespers on September 7, with an antiphon specific to Disibod to surround the psalms. The responsory would also have been included in the same office hour (vespers often had responsories as part of their liturgies), while the sequence could have been used at Mass on the feast day (September 8). Because Abbot Kuno died in 1155, we know these works were composed before that date.
The texts15 for “O viriditas digiti Dei” and “O presul vere civitas” show the nature of the vision Hildegard had received:
“O viriditas digiti Dei” Responsory
O invigorating power of the finger of God in which God planted a garden which shimmers on the heights like a steadfast column:
You are glorious in the eternal garden of God.
And you, O lofty mountain, you will never be brought low by God’s judgment. And yet you stand afar like an exile; still, you stand not in the power of the armed man who would carry you off /
You are glorious in the eternal garden of God.
Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. You are glorious in the eternal garden of God.
“O presul vere civitatis” Sequence
O prelate of the true city, you who ascend to heaven in the temple of the cornerstone; you were laid low on earth through God’s will.
You, O pilgrim, set apart from worldly seed, you desired to be an exile for the love of Christ. O mountain of the cloister of the mind,
You diligently disclosed your beautiful face in the mirror of the dove.
You hid yourself in a secret place, inebriated by the fragrance of flowers, shining for God through a lattice of saints.
O pinnacle in the cloisters of heaven, you sold this world for the resplendent life: this prize, O sustaining confessor, you have always in the Lord.
In your mind the living fountain poured forth the purest rivers in blazing light through the way to salvation.
You are a mighty tower before the altar of the most high God, and you have covered the summit of the tower with the smoke of aromatic herbs.
O Disibod, through your light with patterns of pure sound you have built a body of wondrous praise in two choirs through the Son of man.
You stand on the heights, unashamed before the living God, and with life-sustaining dew you protect those who glorify God in this song.
O sweet life and O blessed perseverance, which brought forth, ever, in celestial Jerusalem the glorious light in this blessed Disibod.
Now, praise be to God for the manly work in the form of a beautiful tonsure.
And let the heavenly citizens rejoice over those who emulate them in this manner.
“O mirum admirandum” is by far the shortest of the three compositions. The work is an antiphon, a type of piece that surrounded the recitation of the psalms at the office hours. Although it could be used at any office hour, it probably was intended for First Vespers for the feast of Saint Disibod, the evening office preceding the feast day itself.
Letter from Hildegard to the prelates at Mainz. It is not often that we have the opportunity to read a medieval description of the effect of chant on those who performed it and listened to it, but this is exactly what we have in Hildegard’s Letter 23 of 1178-79 to the Mainz prelates. Because she refused the order to disinter the body of someone they thought had been excommunicated, the Mainz prelates banned the Rupertsberg community from singing the divine services (see above). The immediate goal of Hildegard’s letter was to convince the prelates to lift this ban, but she took the opportunity to express her ideas about the nature of sacred music in general, both vocal and instrumental.
She begins factually. Since the interdict was imposed, her nuns had been reading the office, not singing it, but she has had visions telling her that this was an incorrect way to perform the office and that she must seek permission to resume singing. She then explains the allegorical and tropological (or moral) meaning that music conveys. Music recalls the divine melody of praise Adam experienced in paradise before the fall. Through music, those who hear it might be taught about inward things. Instrumental performance that requires flexing of the fingers recalls Adam himself, who was formed by God’s finger, the Holy Spirit. Some persons sigh and groan at the sound of singing, remembering the nature of celestial harmony. Then a warning: those who impose silence on a church (i. e., the Mainz prelates) will lose their place in the choir of angels. As was seen above, this argument held no water with the clerics, and the ban was not lifted until Archbishop Christian received evidence that the person buried had indeed been reconciled to the church.
Scientist
In her own day, Hildegard was famed as a scientist and healer. Many of the miracles recounted in her Vita have a medical component—for example, her cure of the blind boy using Rhine water. Moreover, they remained important sources for over 400 years. But as medical and scientific knowledge increased, her writings became less important as reliable reference works and more important as a record of her time. They are no less valuable for that, but valuable in a different way.
World History
