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White Rose, Getty Museum (Gardens), Malibu, California, USA (photo (c) Ulrike Boehm; all rights reserved)

Medieval and Renaissance Women's Voices

Hildegard of Bingen

(1098 – 1179)

Prioress of two Benedictine convents near Mainz, Germany, the "Sibyl of the Rhine" set down her visions and teachings in a treatise entitled "Scivias" ("Know the Ways of the Lord"), as well as several other works, such as the "Liber Vitae Meritorum" ("Book of the Rewards of Life"), "Liber Divinorum Operum Simplicis Hominis" ("Book of the Divine Works of a Simple Person"), two medical instruction books – "Physica: Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum" ("Physical Things: Of the Simplicities of Various Natural Causes") and "Causae et Curae" ("Causes and Cures") –, the "Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum" ("Symphony of Hymns of the Heavenly Revelations," the collection of her poetry set to music), and a morality play ("Ordo Vitutem"). In addition, she maintained an extended correspondence. Although emphasizing her humility and unschooledness and by all appearances endorsing the tenets of prevalent Catholic doctrine, Hildegard's writings subtly reinterpret these tenets in many respects. Throughout, they display a powerful and persistent undercurrent of a woman's equal claim to be heard – and not only for a nun but even compared to male writers of her time, a downright baffling sense of the practicalities of life (including and in particular human sexuality). Yet, she was careful to seek – and inofficially gain – papal approval of her teachings, and she also enjoyed the respect of several other leading European theologists of her age, first and foremost conservative powerhouse Bernard of Clairvaux.

Scivias (Know the Ways of the Lord)

Introductory Declaration

And behold, in the forty-third year of my passing course, while I was intent upon a heavenly vision with great fear and tremulous effort, I saw a great splendour, in which a voice came from heaven saying to me:

"O weak mortal, both ash of ash and rottenness of rottenness, say and write what you see and hear. But because you are fearful in speaking and simple in explaining and unlearned in writing these things, say and write them not according to human speech nor the understanding of human creativity nor according to the will of human composition, but according to this rule: that you reveal by interpreting the things you see and hear among heavenly matters from above, in the wonders of God, just as also a hearer receiving his teacher's words makes them known according to the tenor of his speech, as he wishes, shows, and teaches. So then you also, o mortal – speak the things you see and hear; and write them not according to yourself or any other person, but according to the will of the One Who knows, sees, and disposes all things in the hidden places of his mysteries."

And again I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: "Therefore speak these wonderful things and write and say them in the manner they were taught."

This happened in AD 1141 when I was 42 years and 7 months old: A fiery light, of the greatest flashing brightness, coming out of a cloudless sky, flooded my entire mind and so inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast like a flame – yet it was not blazing but glowing hot, as the sun makes anything on which its rays fall hot. And I suddenly experienced the understanding of the exposition of books, that is, of the Psalter, the Gospel, and of the other orthodox volumes of both the Old and the New Testaments, but nevertheless I did not thereby enjoy the interpretation of the words of their text, nor the division of syllables, nor a knowledge of cases and tenses.

But indeed I had already experienced (as I was still doing) in myself in a wondrous manner the power and mystery of hidden and wonderful visions from my girlhood, that is, from the time that I was five years old, right up until the present time. But I did not make that known to any person except to a certain few, also in the religious life, who were living the way of life as I was also myself. But in the meantime up to that time at which God desired this to be made manifest by His grace, I sank down beneath a quiet silence. But I have not received the visions that I saw in dreams, neither while I was sleeping nor in a frenzy; nor with bodily eyes nor with the ears of the outer person nor in hidden places. But I received them while waking and attentive, in a clear mind, with the eyes and ears of the inner person, in open places, according to God's will. It is difficult for any one of flesh and blood to find out how this comes about.

But to resume, when my girlhood was past, after I had come to the aforesaid age of full physical strength, I heard a voice from heaven saying:

"I am the living yet obscure Light, enlightening the person whom I wish and whom I have searched out wonderfully according to My pleasure and placed among many wonders beyond the limit of the people of old, who saw so many hidden things in Me. But I have overthrown that one upon the ground that he may not rise up in any mental self-exaltation. Indeed the world does not have in him any joy or pleasure nor any activity in matters that belong to the world because I have drawn that one away from stubborn boldness, to be one who is fearful and trembling in his labours. For that person sorrows in the marrow and veins of his flesh, having soul and senses constrained and enduring great bodily suffering, so that no conflicting sense of peace may lie concealed in him but rather that that person may judge himself guilty in all his causes. For I have hedged about the clefts of his heart, lest his mind raise itself up in pride or glory but rather that in all these things it would have fear and sorrow rather than joy or exuberance. Therefore in my love this one searched in his soul for where to find the one who runs in the way of salvation. And he finds the other and loves him, recognising that that one too is a faithful person and like himself in any part of that labour that leads to Me. And holding one another fast, they strive together in all these things with the eagerness from above so that My hidden wonders may be revealed. And that same person does not rely upon himself but turns with many sighs toward the one that he found in the approach to humility and the intention of good will. You therefore, o mortal, who receive this, not in the disquiet of deceit but in the purity of simplicity, having been directed toward the revealing of hidden things – write what you see and hear."

But I, although I did see and hear this, nevertheless because of doubt and a bad opinion and the diversity of men's words refused to write for a long time – not out of obstinacy but as an office of humility – until I lay on a bed of sickness, struck down by God's lash so that finally, compelled by many infirmities – as a certain noble young woman of good morals and that person whom I had sought secretly and found, as is explained above, can testify – I set my hand to write. While I was doing this, even while experiencing the deep profundity of the books' exposition, as I said before, and receiving the strength to lift myself out of my illness, I scarcely closed this work, taking 10 years to do so.

In the days of Henry, archbishop of Mainz and Conrad, king of the Romans, and Cuno, abbot of Disibodenberg, under Pope Eugenius, these visions and works took place.

And I have spoken and written them not according to the imagination of my heart nor that of any mortal but just as I have seen, heard, and received them among heavenly things by the hidden mysteries of God.

And again I heard the voice from heaven saying to me: "Cry out therefore and write this!"

Vision 2: On Creation

Eve – whose soul was innocent, for she had been raised out of innocent Adam ... shining with God's preordination – was invaded by the devil through the seduction of the serpent for her own downfall. Why was this? Because the devil knew that the tenderness of a woman was more easily conquered than the strength of a man. The devil also saw that Adam's love for Eve was burning so strongly that if the devil was able to conquer Eve, whatever she might say to Adam, Adam would do the same. ... [But] humanity, having been freed [by Christ's death on the cross], shines in God and God in humanity, humanity having a partnership in God, having – of course – the very great brightness which humanity had previously in heaven. This might not have come about if the same Word of God had not put on flesh, because if humanity had remained in paradise, the Word of God might not have died on the cross. But when humanity was deceived through the cunning serpent, God was touched with true compassion, so that God caused the Only-Begotten to become flesh in the purest Virgin. And so after the fall of humanity, more virtues were lifted up – shining in heaven – just as humility is lifted up as the queen of virtues. ... In the beginning of creation, the ... devil was lifted up with the haughtiness of pride and thereby cast down in death, causing humanity to be expelled from the glory of paradise. At the time, God did not resist the devil with divine power, but God eventually conquered the devil with the humility of the Word ... O rebellious people, why are you so harsh? God did not forsake people, but God instead sent the Word for their salvation, thereby crushing the head of pride in the serpent. ... As a result, humanity was lifted up above the heavens, because God appeared in the form of a person and person appeared in the form of God through the Word of God. ... For God had created humanity, but humanity fell into death through the persuasion of the devil. The Word of God snatched humanity from the devil through the shedding of blood, and the Word lead humanity back to heavenly glory.

Because a mature woman was given ... to a mature man, namely Adam, so now a mature woman must be married to a man when he has reached the full age of fertility. ... For Eve was formed from a rib by Adam's ingrafted heat and vigour, and therefore now it is by the stregth and heat of a man that a woman receives the semen to bring a child into the world. ... But the first woman's being formed from man means the joining of wife to husband. And thus it is to be understood: This union must not be vain or done in forgetfulness of God, because He Who brought fourth the woman from the man instituted this union honourably and virtuously, forging flesh from flesh. Wherefore, as Adam and Eve were one flesh, so now also a man and woman become one flesh in a union of holy love for the multiplication of the human race. And therefore there should be perfect love in these two as there was in those first two. For Adam could have blamed his wife because by her advice she brought him death, but nonetheless he did not dismiss her as long as he lived in this world, because he knew she had been given to him by divine power. Therefore, because of perfect love, let a man not leave his wife except for the reason the faithful church allows. ... But if either husband or wife breaks the law by fornication ... they shall undergo the just censure of the spritual magisterium ... but not so that the husband or wife can seek another marriage, either they shall stay together in righteous union, or they shall both abstain from such unions ... And they shall not tear each other to pieces by viperous rending, but they shall love with pure love, since both man and woman could not exist without having been conceived in such a bond.

But I do not wish [that there be any sexual intercourse] during the wife's menses, when she is already suffering the flow of her blood, the opening of the hidden parts of her womb, lest the flow of her blood carry with it the mature seed after its reception, and the seed, thus carried forth, perish; at this time the woman is in pain and in prison, suffering a small portion of the pain of childbirth. I do not remit this time of pain for women, becasue I gave it to Eve when she conceived sin in the taste of the fruit; but therefore the woman should be cherished in this time with a great and healing tenderness. ... Likewise, I do not want this act to be performed between man and woman if she is already carrying the seed of a child in her womb.

Vision 3: Man as the Ruler of the World

Mankind draws its life force from all beings of the cosmos ... Man is so envelopped by the other beings that he cannot be separated from them; for the elements of the world have been created for man and serve him. Man is elevated on a throne in the centre and reigns over them pursuant to the will of God. ... Because before all other beings, You have given mankind a high and admirable dignity.

Vision 5: Body, Soul and Senses

[The Lord says:] For I have united body and soul in one man. ... Three ways man carries within himself. Which are these? Soul, body and senses. Through them, human life takes its course. How does this happen? The soul invigorates the body and breathes the senses into it. The body draws the soul towards itself and opens the senses; but the senses touch the soul and draw the body towards themselves.

Vision 13: The Devil

Then I saw a burning light, as large and as high as a mountain, divided at its summit as if into many tongues. And there stood in the presence of this light a multitude of white-clad people, before whom what seemed like a screen of translucent crystal had been placed, reaching from their breasts to their feet. And before that multitude, as if in a road, there lay on its back a monster shaped like a worm, wondrously large and long, which aroused an indescribable sense of horror and rage. On its left stood a kind of market-place, which displayed human wealth and worldly delights and various sorts of merchandise; and some people were running through it very fast and not buying anything, while others were walking slowly and stopping both to sell and to buy. Now that worm was black and bristly, covered with ulcers and pustules, and it was divided into five regions from the head down through the belly to its feet, like stripes. One was green, one white, one red, one yellow and one black; and they were full of deadly poison. But its head had been so crushed that the left side of its jawbone was dislocated. Its eyes were bloody on the surface and burning within; its ears were round and bristly: its nose and mouth were those of a viper, its hands human, its feet a viper's feet, and its tail short and horrible.

And around its neck a chain was riveted, which also bound its hands and feet and this chain was firmly fastened to a rock in the abyss, confining it so that it could not move about as its wicked will desired. Many flames came forth from its mouth, dividing into four parts: One part ascended to the clouds, another breathed forth among secular people, another among spiritual people, and the last descended into the abyss. And the flame that sought the clouds was opposing the people who wanted to get to Heaven And I saw three groups of these. One was close to the clouds, one in the middle space between the clouds and the earth, and one moved along near the earth; and all were shouting repeatedly, "Let us get to Heaven!" But they were whirled hither and thither by that flame; some did not waver, some barely kept their balance and some fell to the earth but then rose again and started toward Heaven. The flame that breathed forth among secular people burned some of them so that they were hideously blackened and others it transfixed so that it could move them anywhere it wanted. Some escaped from the flame and moved toward those who sought Heaven, reiterating shouts of "O you faithful, give us help!" But others remained transfixed. Meanwhile, the flame that breathed forth among spiritual people concealed them in obscurity; but I saw them in six categories. For some of them were cruelly injured by the flame's fury; but when it could not injure one of them, it burningly breathed on them the deadly poison that flowed from the worm's head to its feet, either green or white or red or yellow or black. But the flame that sought the abyss contained in itself diverse torments for those who had worshipped Satan in place of God, not washed by the font of baptism or knowing the light of truth and faith. And I saw sharp arrows whistling loudly from its mouth, and black smoke exhaling from its breast, and a burning fluid boiling up from its loins, and a hot whirlwind blowing from its navel, and the uncleanness of frogs issuing from its bowels; all of which affected human beings with grave disquiet. And the hideous and foul-smelling vapor that came out of it infected many people with its own perversity. But behold, a great multitude of people came, shining brightly; they forcefully trod the worm underfoot and severely tormented it, but could not be injured by its flames or its poison.

Liber Vitae Meritorum

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Virtues: Gluttony and Abstinence

This image said: "God created all things. How then can I be spoiled by all these things? If God did not think these things were necessary, he would not have made them. Therefore, I would be a fool if I did not want these things, especially since God does not want man's flesh to fail."

Again I heard a voice responding to these words from the cloud. ... It said: "No one should play a lyre in such a way that its strings are damaged. If its strings have been damaged, what sound will it make? None. You, gluttony, fill your belly so much that all your veins are bloated and are turned into a frenzy. Where then is the sweet sound of wisdom that God gave man?"

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Virtues: Sloth and Strength

This image said: "Why should I suffer a narrow and laborious life? Why should I suffer from so many tribulations when I have not committed very many sins? Each and every creature is allowed to be itself. Many, however, weep and howl and make their bodies so thin that they live only with difficulty. They live depraved lives and add sin to sin. What does all this bring them? I, however, live a soft life and avoid hard work; I do not even want any work. If I flee work and other harmful things, God will not destroy me, will he?"

I heard a voice from the storm cloud give an answer to this image: "... You are not like the serpents that work in their caves and drag in food to feed themselves, nor are you like birds that build their nests and then seek food to restore their bodies again. For what is alive and can give life in this life that can live without care? Nothing, for this life is removed from the anxiously awaited life in paradise where eyes living in blessedness are never darkened. You, however, O wretched one, living without God's wisdom and rejected by God's mercy, desire things that no one can give you since you want to have these things without working for them in your numb sluggishness."

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Virtues: Sorrow and Joy

I saw a fifth image that had the form of a woman. ... She said: "Alas that I was ever created! Alas that I am alive! Who will help me? Who will free me? If God knew me, I would not be in such danger. Although I trust in God, he does not give me any good things; although I rejoice in him, he does not take evil away from me. I listen to a lot of things from philosophers who teach that there is much good in God, but God does not do any good for me. If he is my God, why does he hide all his grace from me? If he were to bring something good to me, I might know him. I, however, do not know what I am. I was created for unhappiness, I was born into unhappiness, and I live without any consolation. Ah! What use is life without joy? Why was I ever created when there is no good for me?"

I again heard a voice from the storm respond to this image: "O blind and deaf one, you do not know what you have said. ... Behold the sun, moon, stars and all the embellishments of the earth's greenness, and consider what great prosperity God gives to man in those things. ... Who gives you these bright and good things unless it is God? When the day rushes up to you, you call it the night; when salvation is present to you, you say that it is a curse, and when good things come to you, you say they are evil."

Liber Divinorum Operum

Vision 4

Zeal for goodness is like a day when we can ponder everything in our mind, while laziness is like a night where we can no longer see anything at all. Just as the night is often moonlit and then later overshadowed if the moon goes under, our deeds are all mixed up. Sometimes they are luminous and at other times they are dark.

If our soul, under the body's urging, does evil with the body. the power of our soul will be darkened, because the light of the truth is missing. But if later the soul feels humiliated by sin and rises up again in opposition to the desires of the flesh, it will henceforth harry that flesh and hinder its evil deeds. ...

Indeed, the soul sustains the flesh, just as the flesh sustains the soul. For, after all, every deed is accomplished by the soul and the flesh. And, therefore, the soul can achieve with the body good and holy things and be be revived as a result.

In this connection, it often happens that our flesh may feel bored when it cooperates with the soul. In such a case, therefore, the soul may give in to its fleshly partner and let the flesh take delight in earthly things. Similarly, a mother knows how to get her crying child to laugh again. Thus the soul accomplishes good deeds with the body. even though there may be some evil mixed up with them. The soul lets this happen so as not to overburden the flesh too much.

[...]

When God looked upon the human countenance, God was exceedingly pleased. For had not God created humanity according to the divine image and likeness? Human beings were to announce all God's wondrous works by means of their tongues that were endowed with reason. For humanity is God's complete work. ...

But the human species still needed a support that was a match for it. So God gave the first man a helper in the form of woman, who was man's mirror image, and in her the whole human race was present in a latent way. God did this with manifold creative power, just as God had produced in great power the first man.

Man and woman are in this way so involved with each other that one of them is the work of the other. Without woman, man could not be called man; without man, woman could not be named woman. Thus woman is the work of man, while man is a sight full of consolation for woman. Neither of them could henceforth live without the other. Man is in this connection an indication of the Godhead while woman is an indication of the humanity of God's Son.

And thus the human race sits on the judgement seat of the world. It rules over all creation.

Physica

On Male Sexuality:

Now, there are men with a particularly strong male sexual power. They much enjoy intercourse with women. ... For all their desire is so focused on females and their relationships with these that they are incapable to abstain. ... But the sexual wind residing in these men's loins is of a fiery rather than a windy nature. And annexed to it are two tent-like forms into which it blows like into a furnace. These two organs surround the stem of all male forces and are given as an aid to it, in the same way as smaller buildings are built around a tower to fortify it. And therefore there are two of them, so that they can all the better surround, fortify and erect the said male stem. ... Thus this stem is able to glow in the creation of children. ... Due to the powerful fiery sexual force residing in these men, they are like arrows. If they have intercourse with women, they are healthy and happy, if they have to go without it, they dry out and slink about like dying men.

On Female Sexuality and Procreation:

[When a woman is making love with a man,] a sense of heat in her brain, which brings with it sensual delight, communicates the taste of that delight during the act and summons forth the emission of the man's seed. And when the seed has fallen into its place, the female blood takes it in with all the vehement heat of love it is capable of, in the same way as when a person sucks in breath. In this way, the female blood and the male semen mingle.

On the Effects of the Fall:

When Adam recognised the good and, by eating the fruit, nevertheless did the evil thing, a black gall rose in this transformation of his organism, which without the devil's seduction would not be present in the human body. ... Sadness and despair, however, only arise from this melancholy that Adam felt during his transgression. ... [And] when the stream of desire washed over Eve, all her vessels opened up and let flow her blood. Thus, every woman still feels the rage of her blood in such a manner that, similar to the way the moon contracts and sheds again, she retains and sheds the drops of her blood. ... All of the woman's vessels would have remained whole and pure if Eve in the fullness of her time had remained in paradise.

On Choleric Women:

[Fiery (i.e., choleric) women] are charming and amiable in the embrace of love; they are also knowledgeable in the finer arts, and this way, they are content. During their menses they suffer only little flow of blood. Their uterus is strong and well able to bear children. ... If they have to remain without men and cannot bear children, they suffer from manifold physical ailments. If they are with men, they are healthy.

From a letter to the monk Guibert:

A human being is both heavenly and earthly: heavenly, through the good understanding of the rational soul, but weak and shadowy through its evil understanding. ... [I]f a person sees his face in a mirror, dirty and spotted with dust, he is eager to clean and scrub it. So also, if he understands that he has sinned and was embroiled in a variety of vanities, he weeps, because he knows through his good understanding that he has been made unclean and with the Psalmist he laments, saying, "O daughter of Babylon, mourn!" Why is this? Human desire has been disordered by the Serpent's venom. For of itself it is poor and needy, since it lacks an honourable reputation through contemplative knowledge. This is because human desire does not long, by seeking God, for the glory of the eternal life that it tastes through the soul's good understanding.

However, blessed is the man who holds fast to this, that he lives by God, and whose understanding teaches him that God has created and redeemed him and that on account of this liberation whereby God has freed him he obliterates every evil practice of his sins and casts all the misery and poverty he has even among the riches of heaven upon that Rock that is the foundation of blessedness. ... And so, how wonderful and yet lamentable is speech, since God makes such earthenware vessels, sometimes glittering with his wondrous deeds, although in fact they are not able to desert their very sins unless to some extent the grace of God keeps them from them. For Peter, who promised the Son of God fervently that he would not ever deny him, was not secure. Neither were many other saints so, who fell into sin, who nevertheless afterwards were made more useful and more perfect than they would have been if they had not fallen.

O faithful servant, I, poor as I am in womanly form, am speaking these words to you again in true vision. If it pleased God to console my body as He does my soul in this vision, the fear would still not recede from my mind and heart, because I know that I am still a mere mortal, although from my infancy I have been in enclosure. Moreover many wise men have been so infused with wondrous deeds that they opened many hidden things but, as a result of vainglory, they attributed those deeds to themselves and so they fell. But those who draw off wisdom from God in the lifting up of their soul and account themselves as nothing become the columns of heaven, just as happened in Paul's case. He preceded the rest of the disciples in preaching and nevertheless regarded himself as of no value. John the Evangelist also was full of gentle humility and therefore he drew forth many things from divinity. ...

[T]he light that I see is not local but far brighter than a cloud that bears the sunlight nor can I regard in it depth nor breadth nor width. And I call it the semblance of the living Light and just as the sun, moon, and stars appeared reflected in water, so the Scriptures, sermons, virtues, and some works formed by men shine in it for me.

Moreover whatever I shall have seen or learned in this vision, I retain a memory of it for a long time, so that I recollect that I saw and heard it at one time. And at the same time I see and hear and also know and as it were in a moment I learn what I know. For what I do not see, that I do not know, since I am not learned. And the things that I write I see and hear in that vision. Nor do I put down words other than the ones that I hear and I reveal them in unpolished Latin words just as I heard them in that vision, since I am not taught in this vision to write as philosophers write. And the words that I see and hear in that vision are not like the words that sound from human lips at all but like flickering flame and as a cloud moved in the clear air. Also I cannot understand the form of this light in any way, just as I cannot perfectly see the sphere of the sun.

And in the same light I perceive, sometimes and not frequently, another light that I call the living Light, which I am surely much less capable of revealing as I see than the former light. And in the meantime, while I am contemplating it, all my sadness and every pain are taken from my memory so that then I act like an unaffected girl and not an old woman. ...

Also I saw in a vision that the first book of my visions should be called Scivias, since it was revealed by the way of the living Light, not from another teaching. ... And so I wrote the book Scivias and others in true vision and I am still labouring in the same work. ...

But also, o son of God, who is seeking Him in faith and who asks Him to save you – consider the eagle flying upon its two wings to a cloud: she still rests upon the ground and cannot lift herself if she is hurt in one wing, even though she would willingly lift herself to fly. So also a human being flies with the two wings of reason, that is, with the knowledge of good and of evil. The right wing is the knowledge of good and the left is the knowledge of evil. And the knowledge of evil serves that of good and the knowledge of good is sharpened and ruled by that of the evil, and is made wise in all things by it.

Now then, o dear son of God, may God raise the wings of your understanding to the right paths so that – although you may sometimes lay hold on sin through the senses since you are so born that you cannot exist free from sin – you may yet never commit it by consent. The heavenly harmony sings well to God of the person who does so. It praises him because the person of ash loves God so much that, wholly condemning himself because of Him, he does not spare himself and forces himself away from the work of sin. Be such a one in this battle, o faithful warrior, so that you might be part of the heavenly harmony and it may be said to you by God: You are among the sons of Israel because you have gazed upon the high mountain through the eyes of the mind and the zeal of heavenly desire. Yet may all who are mentioned in the letters you have sent me be ruled by the Holy Spirit and be written in the Book of Life. ...

[W]hen the first man obeyed the voice of his wife rather than the voice of God he perished in his presumption because he consented to her. ... [I]f the manner of [a couple's] tribulation is so great that it seems to surpass their strength, they should remember what is written: "God is faithful Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength but with the temptation will also give you a way out that you may be able to bear it." [The couple], strengthened by the swift expectation of His kind promise, should agree together with one assent. And the advice that is most useful – whether the husband or the wife gave it – should be followed. And they should provide against the first deception in them, that is, the man should not accuse his wife nor the woman her husband but they should accomplish all these things according to God's will.

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