This class will primarily study the mystical writings of Hildegard, found in her book Scivias ("Know the Ways"), and a review of historical environment will accompany that review, as well as recording of her music, her works in nature appreciation, and religion.
The fact that Hildegard was a woman achieving fame in a world dominated by men was never as critical a factor in her accomplishments as her pure genius, which we will explore.
February 22: Introduction: Hildegard of Bingen in her Environment
Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath. She is considered to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
Around 1150 Hildegard moved her growing convent from Disibodenberg, where the nuns lived alongside the monks, to Bingen about 30 km north, on the banks of the Rhine. She later founded another convent, Eibingen, across the river from Bingen.
The Rupertsberg Monastery was a female Benedictine monastery founded by Saint Hildegard of Bingen in Bingen am Rhein , Germany , in 1150 , on the ruins of a monastery built on the former site of the tomb of Saint Rupert of Bingen , which was destroyed in the 9th century . The monastery church was consecrated in 1152 . With the death of its founder, the monastery began to decline, and was destroyed in the Thirty Years' War , in the 17th century., but some ruins were preserved that were restored and reused until the 19th century . In 1857 what was left was demolished to make way for the construction of a railway . The monastery housed the saint's relics until 1632 , when they were transferred to the monastery she founded in Eibingen .
Bertha (late late 600's-754) was a descendant of the dukes of Lorraine, and had considerable property along the rivers Rhine and Nahe. She married Robolaus, a pagan, who died when their son Rupert (712-732) was three years old. Bertha then retired to today's Rupertsberg with her son and the priest Wigbert. She built a small church and led a secluded life with much vigilance and fasting, gave the needy some of her wealth and gradually gathered other people to follow her example.
Bertha devoted her energy to educating Rupert. Following a pilgrimage to Rome, she gave away the rest of her possessions and came to live near Bingen (called Rupertsberg after her son). Rupert died at age 20, but Bertha outlived him by 25 years spent in prayer, fasting, and good works.
At the age of fifteen, Rupert undertook a pilgrimage to Rome with his mother. After his return, he used his inherited wealth to found churches, living with his mother on a hill at the river Nahe, near Bingen that came to be called the "Rupertsberg". There they established several hospices for the poor and needy. Rupert died from a fever, aged 20. He is regarded as a patron saint of pilgrims.
Veneration
The little church on the Rupertsberg became a place of pilgrimage and was still standing when Hildegard founded a monastery there around 1150. Hildegard moved, with her nuns, from Disibodenberg to the Rupertsberg, a crag at the confluence of the Nahe and the Rhine, and established a monastery on the site of the ruined castle, where Bertha and Rupert were buried. The Vita Sancti Ruperti was written about this time, "...to revive the cult of St. Rupert and to legitimize the vision that called her to move there".
Hildegard's monastery at Rupertsberg was destroyed in 1632, during the Thirty Years' War. Their relics were transferred to Eibingen. Bertha's head is kept in the Hildegard Church; Rupert's arm is on display in a reliquary in Eibingen church. Other relics were brought back to Bingen in 1814, where they are venerated in the chapel on the Rochusberg.
Rupertsberg
Rupertsberg is a crag at the confluence of the Nahe and the Rhine, in Bingen am Rhein. Hildegard acquired the land from Hermann, dean of Mainz, and Count Bernhard of Hildesheim, plus various smaller gifts. The convent chapel was consecrated by Archbishop Henry of Mainz in 1152. The charters were drawn up in 1158 by Archbishop Arnold of Mainz. In 1171, Archbishop Christian of Mainz extended tax concessions to the convent.
The ruins of the monastery were destroyed to make way for a railway track in 1857.
Hildegard's remaining years, after 1150, were very productive. In addition to Scivias she wrote two other major works of visionary writing Liber vitae meritorum (1150-63) (Book of Life's Merits) and Liber divinorum operum (1163) ("Book of Divine Works"), in which she further expounded on her theology of microcosm and macrocosm--man being the peak of god's creation, man as a mirror through which the splendor of the macrocosm was reflected. Hildegard also authored Physica and Causae et Curae (1150), both works on natural history and curative powers of various natural objects, which are together known as Liber subtilatum ("The book of subtleties of the Diverse Nature of Things"). These works were uncharacteristic of Hildegard's writings, including her correspondences, in that they were not presented in a visionary form and don't contain any references to divine source or revelation. However, like her religious writings they reflected her religious philosophy--that the man was the peak of god's creation and everything was put in the world for man to use.
Her scientific views were derived from the ancient Greek cosmology of the four elements--fire, air, water, and earth--with their complementary qualities of heat, dryness, moisture, and cold, and the corresponding four humours in the body-choler (yellow bile), blood, phlegm, and melancholy (black bile). Human constitution was based on the preponderance of one or two of the humors. Indeed, we still use words "choleric", "sanguine", "phlegmatic" and "melancholy" to describe personalities. Sickness upset the delicate balance of the humours, and only consuming the right plant or animal which had that quality you were missing, could restore the healthy balance to the body. That is why in giving descriptions of plants, trees, birds, animals, stones, Hildegard is mostly concerned in describing that object's quality and giving its medicinal use. Thus, "Reyan (tansy) is hot and a little damp and is good against all superfluous flowing humours and whoever suffers from catarrh and has a cough, let him eat tansy. It will bind humors so that they do not overflow, and thus will lessen."
In the late 11th and early 12th centuries, all convents (the traditional name for female monastic institutions) followed the Rule of Saint Benedict (see below), with a abbess (the female form of "abbot," from "abba," Aramaic for "father") in charge, supported by a prioress, who also had authority. The abbess was elected by the community, and retained the right to make decisions, though the community met every day in a common room to discuss matters of importance and to advise the abbess. Benedict insured that the newest member (often the youngest) be given an opportunity to speak, on the grounds that the young could be wiser than the elders.
Prayer was organized around "hours," spread out through the day at regular intervals. These prayers were always sung, in chant, and consisted of scripture (so that all hundred and fifty biblical psalms would be covered in a week) and various passages. While chant could be uniform, there was greater and greater opportunity starting in the ninth and tenth centuries for original melodies to be composed, and Hildegard took up this invitation brilliantly.
Monasticism or monachism, literally the act of "dwelling alone" (Greek monos, monazein, monachos), has come to denote the mode of life pertaining to persons living in seclusion from the world, under religious vows and subject to a fixed rule, as monks, friars, nuns, or in general as religious. The basic idea of monasticism in all its varieties is seclusion or withdrawal from the world or society. The object of this is to achieve a life whose ideal is different from and largely at variance with that pursued by the majority of humankind; and the method adopted, no matter what its precise details may be, is always self-abnegation or organized asceticism. Taken in this broad sense monachism may be found in every religious system which has attained to a high degree of ethical development, such as Brahmin, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths, and even in the system of those modern communistic societies, often anti-theological in theory, which are a special feature of recent social development especially in America. Hence it is claimed that a form of life which flourishes in environments so diverse must be the expression of a principle inherent in human nature and rooted therein no less deeply than the principle of domesticity, though obviously limited to a far smaller portion of humankind.
New Advent. (https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10459a.htm)
My Note: The most interesting aspect of monasticism is not the sequestration of its adherents, but the way those belonging to the group set apart are in fact very much involved with the larger community. Even hermits are visited for their wisdom, monks wander the streets of Nepal blessing those they meet, cloistered convents are constantly in prayer for the benefit of the human race, and they are honored for it. Personal solitude, just in removal from the complications and obligations of modern life, is a great gift; with contemplation (single, focused attention to a specific object) and meditation (allowing the mind to range over many sources, in order to apply them to life) both enhance the experience of solitude.
Learning is critical for all monks, and communities in solitude concentrate especially on obtaining, maintaining, translating, and studying ancient texts, writing commentaries on those texts, and making them available for the purposes of explanation and meditation. Female communities and male communities differ not at all in these practices. During the Middle Ages (and the Renaissance), in Europe, Western Christian and Orthodox monasteries had the largest libraries available, preserving not only sacred but secular texts. Much Classic literature would not have survived without these libraries.
Anselm of Canterbury, Cur Deus Homo
Boso. Do I not honor God, when, for his love and fear, in heartfelt contrition I give up worldly joy, and despise, amid abstinence and toils, the delights and ease of this life, and submit obediently to him, freely bestowing my possessions in giving to and releasing others?
Anselm. When you render anything to God which you owe him, irrespective of your past sin, you should not reckon this as the debt which you owe for sin. But you owe God every one of those things which you have mentioned. For, in this mortal state, there should be such love and such desire of attaining the true end of your being, which is the meaning of prayer, and such grief that you have not yet reached this object, and such fear lest you fail of it, that you should find joy in nothing which does not help you or give encouragement of your success. For you do not deserve to have a thing which you do not love and desire for its own sake, and the want of which at present, together with the great danger of never getting it, causes you no grief. This also requires one to avoid ease and worldly pleasures such as seduce the mind from real rest and pleasure, except so far as you think suffices for the accomplishment of that object. But you ought to view the gifts which you bestow as a part of your debt, since you know that what you give comes not from yourself, but from him whose servant both you are and he also to whom you give. And nature herself teaches you to do to your fellow servant, man to man, as you would be done by; and that he who will not bestow what he has ought not to receive what he has not. Of forgiveness, indeed, I speak briefly, for, as we said above, vengeance in no sense belongs to you, since you are not your own, nor is he who injures you yours or his, but you are both the servants of one Lord, made by him out of nothing. And if you avenge yourself upon your fellow servant, you proudly assume judgment over him when it is the peculiar right of God, the judge of all. But what do you give to God by your obedience, which is not owed him already, since he demands from you all that you are and have and can become?
March 1: Hildegard's Mystical Vision
March 8: Relations with Outside World
March 15: Music, Drama, Poetry
In addition to the Ordo Virtutum Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum. The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard’s own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences, to responsories. Her music is described as monophonic, that is, consisting of exactly one melodic line. Its style is characterized by soaring melodies that can push the boundaries of the more staid ranges of traditional Gregorian chant. Though Hildegard’s music is often thought to stand outside the normal practices of monophonic monastic chant, current researchers are also exploring ways in which it may be viewed in comparison with her contemporaries, such as Hermannus Contractus. Another feature of Hildegard’s music that both reflects twelfth-century evolutions of chant and pushes those evolutions further is that it is highly melismatic, often with recurrent melodic units. Scholars such as Margot Fassler, Marianne Richert Pfau, and Beverly Lomer also note the intimate relationship between music and text in Hildegard’s compositions, whose rhetorical features are often more distinct than is common in twelfth-century chant. As with all medieval chant notation, Hildegard's music lacks any indication of tempo or rhythm; the surviving manuscripts employ late German style notation, which uses very ornamental neumes. The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.
The definition of viriditas or “greenness” is an earthly expression of the heavenly in an integrity that overcomes dualisms. This greenness or power of life appears frequently in Hildegard’s works.
One of Hildegard's better known works, Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), is a morality play. It is uncertain when some of Hildegard’s compositions were composed, though the Ordo Virtutum is thought to have been composed as early as 1151. The morality play consists of monophonic melodies for the Anima (human soul) and 16 Virtues. There is also one speaking part for the Devil. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima and the Virtues.
Hildegard reserved a special devotion for the martyrs of the faith such as Ursula, killed with her many companions at Cologne by the Huns during the Early Middle Ages, and she wrote two songs to be sung in her honour in church. The sequence as a type of song was intended to be inserted into the liturgy of the mass; divided into stanzas, its form gave scope for longer meditations on a particular theme. The exact date when the following sequence was composed is not known, but the lines spoken by Ursula’s detractors (‘In the innocence of her girlish ignorance, she does not know what she is saying’) have an obvious application to Hildegard and the opposition she experienced in the early years of her life and work. Whether consciously or unconsciously, Hildegard may have identified with the pilgrim Ursula in her own plans for departure to a new community at the Rupertsberg.
O Ecclesia oculi tui. Sequence
Anonymous 4, "Hildegard of Bingen: Eleven Thousand Virgins"
Mar 27, 2020 Provided to YouTube by harmonia mundi
O Church, your eyes are like sapphire, [1]
and your ears like Mount Bethel, [2]
your nose is like a mountain of myrrh and incense, [3]
your mouth the sound of many waters.
O Ecclesia,
oculi tui similes saphiro sunt,
et aures tue monti Bethel,
et nasus tuus est sicut mons mirre et thuris,
et os tuum quasi sonus
aquarum multarum.
In a vision of true faith,
Ursula loved the Son of God,
she refused husband in this worldly
and gazed at the sun,
and He called to the most beautiful youth, saying:
In visione vere fidei
Ursula Filium Dei amavit
et Virum cum hoc seculo reliquit
et in solem aspexit
atque pulcherrimum iuvenem vocavit, dicens:
‘I have eagerly desired
to come to you at the heavenly nuptials
and sit with you,
running to you on the unknown way like a cloud
racing through the purest air like a sapphire.’
'In multo desiderio
desideravi ad te venire
et in celestibus nuptiis tecum sedere,
per alienam viam ad te currens
velut nubes que in purissimo aere
currit similis saphiro.'
And after Ursula had spoken this,
a murmer went through the people.
Et postquam Ursula sic dixerat,
rumor iste per omnes populos exiit.
And they said: ‘In the innocence of her girlish ignorance,
she does not know what she is saying.’
Et dixerunt:
"Innocentia puellaris ignorantie
nescit quid dicit."
And the holy women with her began to play
In magnificent songs ["symphonia"],
up to when heavy fire fell on her.
Et ceperunt ludere cum illa
in magna symphonia,
usque cum ignea sarcina super eam cecidit.
Then they all acknowledged her,
for rejection of the world is like Mount Bethel.
And they acknowledged also
the pleasant fragrance of myrrh and incense,
since rejection of the world had descended upon all.
Unde omnes cognoscebant
quia contemptus mundi
est sicut mons Bethel.
Et cognoverunt etiam
suavissimum odorem mirre et thuris,
quoniam contemptus mundi super omnia ascendit.
Then the devil
entered into the bodies of his allies,
and these women,
in whom the most virtues had been incarnated,
were slaughtered.
Tunc diabolus
membra sua invasit,
que nobilissimos mores
in corporibus istis
occiderunt.
Their voices were heard by all the Elements,
who came before the throne of God, saying:
"Ah! the ruby blood of each innocent lamb
is poured out in marriage to Heaven."
Et hoc in alto voce omnia elementa audierunt
et ante thronum Dei dixerunt::
"Wach! rubicundus sanguis innocentis agni
in desponsatione sua effusus est."
Let all heavens hear,
and in the greatest of symphonies
give praise to the Lamb of God.
Because the ancient serpent
is choked
by these pearls,
made from the Word of God.
Hoc audiant omnes celi
et in summa symphonia
laudent Agnum Dei,
quia guttur serpentis antique
in istis margaritis
materie Verbi Dei
suffocatum est.
(http://faculty.las.illinois.edu/rrushing/241/ewExternalFiles/Hildegard.pdf)
GENERAL GUIDES TO MEDIEVAL MATERIAL ON LINE
USEFUL SEARCH ENGINES
GENERAL MEDIEVAL STUDIES RESOURCES
(Peter Baker's font for medievalists)
released; download it at
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
General Art
Architectural Sites
Art Styles
Manuscripts
Language Assistance