Sabina Flanagan - Hildegard of Bingen

The relics of one of the most remarkable women of the Middle Ages now lie in Rdesheim, a town on the picturesque middle reaches of the River Rhine, well known for its proximity to the Rock of the Lorelei and its extensive vineyards. Yet pilgrims do not continually flock to the parish church in Eibingerstrasse where the heart and tongue of St Hildegard of Bingen ( 1179) are preserved in a golden reliquary. Unlike the patient and self-effacing St Bernadette of Lourdes, or the surpassingly meek and ordinary St Theresa of Lisieux, Hildegard has not attracted a large popular following. Her virtues were indeed of a different order. There were limits to her patience, and her humility, though real enough, was of the paradoxical kind which gives authority and assurance. Meek and ordinary are the last words to describe her, as even slight acquaintance with her story will show.

Hildegard was born into a noble family in Germany in 1098. Although destined from an early age to live a life of total enclosure, literally walled up in her cell, she left its shelter to found her own convents at Rupertsberg, on the Rhine near Bingen, and later at Eibingen on the opposite side of the river. From Rupertsberg she corresponded with secular and ecclesiastical leaders, as well as a vast range of people of lesser rank and standing, and went forth as monastic troubleshooter, consultant exorcist, and visiting preacher. Had Hildegard confined herself to these activities she would have been unusual enough among the women of her day. But Hildegard was even more remarkable in producing an extensive body of writings. At a time when few women wrote as much as the occasional letter, Hildegards written works not only surpassed those of most of her male contemporaries in the range of their subject matter (from natural history, medicine, and cosmology, to music, poetry, and theology), but also outshone them in visionary beauty and intellectual power.

Hildegards achievements are thrown into prominence by the fact that, as an author, she stood virtually alone among the women of her time. Why do we have almost no other writings by women from this period? Even allowing for the ravages of time, deliberate suppression, or mere negligence, it seems that women were responsible for only a tiny proportion of the entire twelfth-century literary output. What were the factors, internal or external, overt or covert, which militated against women writers? How did Hildegard overcome them, and if she could, what prevented her female contemporaries from doing likewise? I hope some answers to these questions will emerge in the course of this book.

My own interest in Hildegard was first kindled over a decade ago by reading Peter Dronkes account of one of her poems. When I tried to find out more I discovered both that the field of her activities was much wider than I had imagined and that it had been only patchily cultivated. Although different aspects of her work had received varying amounts of attention there was nothing which gave a satisfactory overview of Hildegards life and work. I decided then that some day I should make a study of Hildegard for myself. Several years later I wrote a PhD thesis about some aspects of Hildegards prophetic persona. By the time this was complete, my own need for a general introduction to Hildegard had passed. Nevertheless there still seems to be some need for such a work, especially for those who are making their first acquaintance with Hildegard.

While microfilm and jet aircraft have facilitated antipodean study of medieval history, I have often felt disadvantaged by my geographical remoteness, not only from the subject of my study, but from others engaged in the same field. If we add to this the chronological and cultural distances, not to mention the religious distance between Hildegard and myself, the whole undertaking seems somewhat presumptuous. Yet in seeking to describe and understand what Hildegard was doing, being so far removed from the scene may have had some benefits. At least it means that there are no easy explanations waiting to be assumed, such as came so readily to some of her nineteenthcentury hagiographers. It may also make an overview easier to achieve, where those closer to the subject, in both senses of the word, may fail to see the wood for the trees.

A further objection to such an enterprise as mine might be raisedthat Hildegards writings have not yet been studied in sufficient depth to make a proper assessment of her place in medieval life and thought possible. Indeed, most of her writings still lack modern critical editions, the prerequisite for any such detailed study. Some of these are expected to appear in the next few years, but others are still so far from publication that they have not been assigned even a tentative date. Yet to put off writing about Hildegard for another decade at least would disappoint those who, having come in contact with this remarkable figure through her music, poetry, theology, writings on women or the natural world, now wish to find out something more. My intention, then, is to provide a comprehensive introduction to Hildegard, in the light of current scholarship, from which readers may be inspired to read, or even to produce, more specialized studies.

While Hildegards writings are remarkable in themselves, the question of how she came to produce her works and have them accepted by her contemporaries is almost more intriguing. I have tried in this book to give an account of both what she wrote and how she did it. Since even Hildegards major works are not well known or readily accessible, I have described them at some length. These descriptions form the central chapters of the book (chs 47). Here I have been more concerned to indicate the interrelations of her ideas and theories within the total body of her work, than to identify their possible sources or compare them with those of her contemporaries. To provide a general account of twelfth-century natural history, cosmology, or theology is beyond the scope of my book. The chapters on Hildegards writings are contained within an argument about how Hildegard was able to enter domains generally seen as the preserve of men, such literary activity being the major one. Those readers wishing to follow the sociological argument may thus go from chapter 4 to chapter 8 and then turn back to complete the picture with the account of Hildegards later writings. Those wanting to get an idea of the nature and range of Hildegards work could start with the central chapters. On the other hand, since the descriptions and the argument proceed more or less chronologically, the book can be read with profit straight through.