March 7, 2016 • 26 mins
Hildegard was a Christian mystic of medieval Europe who was way, way ahead of her time. If she had lived a few hundred years later, and been male, people probably would have called her a renaissance man.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from works
dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Crazy
Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. We are headed to
medieval Germany today to talk about a woman who was way, way,
(00:21):
way ahead of her time. She was Hildegard of Bingen,
also known as Hildegard vomb Bingen and as symbol of
the rhyme so long time listeners. As we tell the story,
we'll probably notice some similarities between her and past podcast
subject Marjorie Kemp, who was another Christian mystic who lived
in medieval Europe. Back when we recorded that episode about
(00:44):
Marjorie Kemp, which was actually I think the first episode
that I researched for the show when Holly and I
came on, I really intended to do kind of a
mini mini series on women mystics in the medieval world
because a lot of their lives are really super interesting
and listening to or learning about them can really dispel
some of the misconceptions that a lot of folks have
(01:06):
about the medieval world and about women's place specifically in
the medieval world. Right that was three years ago. Um
our recent episode on the history of the English language
got me thinking about the medieval world again, though, so
it seemed like a good time to come back and
revisit this, uh, this world of women in the church
(01:30):
in medieval Europe. Hildegarde was born in ten ninety eight
in Franconia, which is now a region in Germany. Her
parents for Hildebert and Mctilde. Hildebert was a lesser noble
and Hildegard was their tenth count them ten tenth child.
Her health was fragile, and as early as age three,
Hildegard was experiencing religious visions. While Hildegarde was still very young,
(01:55):
her parents gave her to the church. According to some sources,
including medieval literature professor, this was meant to be part
of her parents tithe. Now, if you're not familiar with
that term, tithing is the practice of giving ten percent
of everything that you earn or produced to the church.
It's not totally clear whether Hildegarde, who by her own
(02:15):
account was only about eight years old when this when
she entered religious instruction, had to say in the matter,
she is technically one tenth of their produced children. I guess, yeah, well,
and it's one of those things where I don't think
there is a record of her parents saying this is
part of our tie. But the fact that she's reported
(02:35):
to be their tenth child, and she then entered religious instruction,
and apparently tithing children was a thing that people did.
It all kind of comes together to be Hildegard was
given to the church as part of her parents tied
and the next few years of her life are a
little bit fuzzy as well. At some point she meant
another religiously inclined young woman, Utah von Sponheim, who was
(02:59):
about six years her senior, and Utah was also of
noble birth and of a little higher station than Hildegarde.
Utah eventually became Hildegard's teacher and mentor. Eventually, Hildegard and
Utah wound up at the Benedictine monastery at Dissipbodenberg, which
is near the confluence of the Nea River and one
of its tributaries, is about sixty miles or a hundred
(03:21):
kilometers southwest of Frankfurt. Named after the seventh century Irish
monk Dissabad. Dissid Bodenberg had grown into a really important
center of religious life in the area, and it had
become home to a Benedictine monastery in eleven oh eight.
In eleven twelve, Utah was enclosed as an anchoress at
the monastery. Anchoresses were women who, for religious reasons, essentially
(03:45):
sealed themselves up in a very small cell for life.
Men who did this were called anchorites, although most people
who did it were women. Often and anchoress was literally
walled in, with a wall gradually being built around her.
It can had a small window that let food be
passed in and out, as well as a chamber pot,
and depending on the size and configuration of the cell,
(04:08):
it may have had additional windows as well to see
directly into the sanctuary if want to join the cell,
or just to let in light. Being an anchorus was
a lot like following the life of a religious hermit,
but instead of retreating to a remote place for a
life of solitude and prayer, an anchorus would be shut
into a wall of a comparatively populated place like a church,
(04:28):
a monastery, or occasionally a town. By the time Hildegard lived,
anchorus has had to get official permission from the church
to do this, and the ceremony for enclosing. An anchorus
had a lot in common with the funeral, including the
anchors receiving last rites. Basically, the anchoress was leaving her
worldly life behind for one that was supposed exclusively on
(04:50):
religious devotion and study. The life of anchorites and anchoresses
was meant to be one devoted strictly to reflection, penance,
d in prayer. Most of the time. It was also
a lifelong commitment, although there were some who eventually left
their selves and this a Bodenberg. Hildegard and a servant
lived with Utah in her hermitage. You two taught Hildegard
(05:14):
Latin along with the recitations and observations that were required
as part of their order. Hildegard's early musical education probably
came from Utah as well, and because Utah's hermitage was
physically connected to the monastery there, Hildegard would have also
been immersed in all of the spiritual and religious teachings
and practices that were conducted within it. Utah definitely took
(05:37):
a more ascetic and strict approach to her own spiritual
life than Hildegard did. Apart from committing to be an
anchorous for life. Utah also abstained from meat and periodically
abstained from all food entirely throughout her life. She continually
increased the number of hours a day she spent in study, penance,
in prayer, and she also practiced self flagellation and as penance. Hildegard,
(06:02):
while not taking quite the same approach in terms of
deprivation and self flagellation, did interpret illnesses as a punishment
from God for not following his instructions, and that's actually
a belief that would continue throughout her life. Gradually, other
young noble women were sent to Utah to study as well,
so the Benedictine monastery became home to a community of nuns,
(06:24):
and from within her cell, you too became its Magistra,
or its teacher and leader. When Youta died in eleven
thirty six at the age of forty four, she and
Hildegard had been at des at Vodinberg for twenty four years.
At least eight other women had come to the monastery
to live and study with them, and Hildegarde, who at
that point was thirty eight, was elected to take you
(06:44):
to place as the Magistra. About three years after you
Ta's death, Hildegarde, whose visions had continued since her childhood,
had a particularly powerful experience in the form of both
a vision and a voice from the heavens. In her
record of it, the voice said to her, Oh, fragile
human ashes of ashes and filth of filth, say and
(07:07):
write what you see in here. But since you are
timid in speaking, and simple and expounding, and untaught in writing,
speak and write these things not by a human mouth,
and not by the understanding of human invention, and not
by the requirements of human composition. But as you see
and hear them on high in the heavenly places, in
(07:28):
the wonders of God. Explain these things in such a
way that the hearer, receiving the words of his instructor,
may expound them in those words according to that will,
vision and instruction. Thus, therefore, oh humans, speak these things
that you see in here, and write them, not by
yourself or any other human being, but by the will
(07:48):
of Him who knows, sees, and disposes all things in
the secrets of his mysteries. Sort of, I'm going to
impart and dictate to you revelations that you're going to
write now on exactly as you experienced them, and in
the same experience, she also had a more revelatory experience,
and she wrote of that saying quote, immediately I knew
(08:11):
the meaning of the exposition of the scriptures, namely the Palter,
the Gospel, and other Catholic volumes of both the Old
and New Testaments, though I did not have the interpretation
of the words of their texts, or the division of
the syllables, or the knowledge of cases or tenses. At first,
Hildegard resisted this call. She didn't think she was up
(08:32):
to the task. She wasn't confident in her ability to
write or to speak. Soon, she became ill, something she
thought she brought on herself by not following God's command.
So eventually she embarked on just what the vision had
instructed her to do, and this would eventually turn her
into someone with a much broader influence than just the
religious community at Disabodinburg, which we'll talk about after a
(08:56):
sponsor break. For most of Hildegard's adult life, until she
reached her early forties, she had confided her visions and
only one person, which was Utah. Eventually, Uta had told
a monk named Balmar about the visions, and after a time,
Valmar basically became Hildegard's secretary and editor. She would write
her visions down on a wax tablet and hand them
(09:17):
off to Volmar, who would refine their spelling and their grammar.
Even though Hildegard was never confident in her writing skills,
her written works are actually full of really complex ideas
and thoughts. After the vision commanding her to write down
her visions, the Archbishop of Minds learned about Hildegard's visions
and prophecies and he convened a group of theologians to
(09:39):
determine whether they were legitimate or heretical, and ultimately they
decided that her visions were authentic and they allowed Volmar
to officially help her with her work. Hildegard really wanted
this work to be taken seriously. This is at a
time when various friends groups were kind of splintering off
from the Catholic Church, and all kinds of people with
all kinds of teaching as were attracting large followings. Hildegard
(10:02):
really didn't like this. She thought all of these schisms
and splinter groups were going to harm the church. So
she wrote to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in the hope
of getting her team teachings officially sanctioned by the church.
He eventually brought her to the attention of Pope Eugenius
also known as Pope Eugene the Third, who encouraged her
to continue on with what she was doing, and in
(10:24):
eleven forty seven he gave her the authority to speak
in public and to write on theological matters, which was
extremely rare for a woman. Hildegard's first book, finished following
this endorsement by the Pope, was called Skivius, taken from
the Latin phrase squito vias domini or no the ways
of the Lord. It was completed around eleven fifty one
(10:48):
and it describes many of her visions and also offers
apocalyptic prophecies, and perhaps in reference to her own young life,
it records one vision that makes it quite clear that
parents may only give their child up for a holy
life with that child's informed consent and some translations, that's
literally the title of that passage, like, you may only
(11:12):
give up your child to the Lord with the child's
informed consent. At about the same time as she finished Skivvyous,
Hildegard also moved her community. She and the nun left
des Bodenberg. They settled in a cloister that had been
built for them near Bingen, which is where her name
Hildegard of Bingen eventually came from. This wasn't a particularly
(11:32):
popular decision at the monastery at dessip Bodenberg. There are
a lot of likely reasons for why Hildegard decided to
do it. One was that she was really dissatisfied with
how the Benedicting community at and at De si Bonenberg
had been living. She thought their lifestyle was excessive, and
she was really concerned that schisms within and outside the community,
we're going to tear it apart. Another was that word
(11:56):
of Hildegard's visions and works had been spreading for a decade.
At this point, more and more noble women had come
to Disobodinburg to take holy orders and study with her.
The monks were not too happy about giving up progressively
more space and influence in favor of this influx of women.
And the third reason was that she had been directed
(12:16):
by God to move them, and when she didn't immediately
do it, she had fallen ill. She continued writing and
teaching extensively. Her other two major revelatory works are Liber
Vite Meritorum and libert Divinorum Operum or Book of Life's
s Merits and Book of Divine Works. She also wrote
extensively about medicine and nature, although unlike her other works,
(12:40):
these weren't based on religious revelations or visions. They were
based on her own study and reflection and on her
practice as a healer. These works include Physica cause at
Cure and Libre Subtillatum. That last one is the Book
of Subtleties of the diverse nature of Things. These medical
writings draw from the Greek ideas of elements and humors,
(13:03):
as well as the idea of innate healing powers found
within inanimate objects. Her medical writings, like her spiritual ones,
really stressed the need for humans to approach life through
a balance of science, religion, and art, with science and
art both like religion, coming from God. Hildegarde was no
stranger to writing history either. She actually wrote a biography
(13:26):
of Saint Dizabad that was the one that the religious
community had been named for that she had left previously.
Seventies seven lyric poems are attributed to her along with
their music, so essentially hymns that she wrote and composed.
There are definitely composers in the West who lived before
she did, but she's really the first one that we
(13:46):
also have biographical details on. Although she never seems to
have created artwork on her own, there are pieces of
visual art that exists today that are based on her descriptions.
And she wrote extensive lets. About a hundred and forty
five of them still exist today, and some of them
are to the most powerful religious and secular leaders who
(14:08):
were alive at the time. Many of them reveal themselves
to be part of an ongoing correspondence. This is not
like there were a hundred and forty five unanswered letters
of some kind of coop like. They were letters that
she wrote as part of guidance that she was giving
to people that the people were receiving. Uh. The recipients
of her letters include popes, kings, abbots, friars, and whole
(14:32):
communities of monks and nuns. There are also more than
fifty sermons that survive, and a lot of them follow
the same themes as the letters she was writing. It's
really clear from reading her letters and her sermons that
as she got older, a lot of the timidity and
uncertainty that she had carried about her abilities and her
use of language were replaced by a more calm, a
(14:52):
more confident, and assertive way of approaching things. She also
wrote repeated warnings to the monks of Disobodinburg, warning them
that their excesses and the schisms within the religious community
we're going to bring about their ruin. This turned out
to be quite prescient. Uh. Fractures in the religious community
actually led to armed struggles. In the thirteenth century, the
(15:14):
monastery was converted into a fortress, and by the end
of that century it lay in ruins, some of which
still exists today. Although many of Hildegarde's writings take a
distinctly innately feminine approach to their descriptions of her visions
and her relationship with God, some of these are actually
descriptions that border on coming off as sexual. Nothing was
(15:35):
ever considered to be heretical. Her descriptions are very rich
and vivid and very poetic, and Uh, as we talked
about it's been a while now, but as we talked
about in our episode of Marjorie Camp, a lot of
times writings of this sort were viewed as being heresy,
but hers are actually really well accepted. She was in
fact admired and respected all over Germany during her life.
(15:57):
The very first biography written of her were her tour
as a saint, and she was considered a local saint
in parts of Germany for centuries before being recognized as
a saint by the Catholic Church. In addition to all
her writings and teaching her community of nuns, Hildeguard also
traveled extensively around Germany preaching about the revelations from Provisions.
(16:18):
In eleven sixty three she founded a second convent and
all of this, the extensive writing and teaching, having her
teachings accepted by the church as a whole, her leaders,
her leadership, the medical writing, being allowed to go out
and speak in public about theology were extremely rare for
a woman living in the twelfth century in Europe. Basically,
(16:38):
if she had lived a few hundred years later and
been mail, people probably would have called her a renaissance man.
We will talk about more about her legacy after a
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And now we'll get back to our story. Hill, the
(17:43):
Guard of Being In died following an illness at her
monastery on September eleven, seventy nine. While she was extremely
prominent in her in her time, especially considering her gender,
and she was immediately revered as a local saint, academic
and greater public interest in her life have waxed and
waned over the centuries since then. Most recently, academic interest
(18:06):
in Hildegard started to revive in the nineteen sixties with
the publication of German language editions of her letters and songs.
This also ran parallel to the second wave of the
feminist movement in the United States. Hildegard's writings about women
and her being able to accomplish such a high degree
of renown and authority, especially in comparison to most women
(18:28):
of her time, made her a popular figure in the
feminist movement. A lot of the things she actually wrote
that wouldn't be considered particularly feminist today as we understand
the term. She definitely wrote about women as being the
weaker sex and about herself as being unqualified to do
a lot of what she was doing because she was
a woman. She also recorded visions that detailed why women,
(18:48):
for example, should be able to talk about God and
God's work, but should not be able to be priests.
So a lot of people sort of position her as
being a feminist for her time. Translations of large bodies
of her work into English didn't actually happen until nineteen two,
and her popularity really started to spike in the United
(19:08):
States in the nineteen nineties because her mysticism and the
elements of her life and work that could be considered
feminist fit in well with the New Age movement, which
was popular at the time. A big part of this
was her running theme that creation was the work of
God and so it is the work of humanity to
care for it. She also wrote a lot about things
being connected to God. From Stivious, she wrote, quote, all
(19:32):
living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God's brilliance.
And these sparks emerge from God like the rays of
the sun. If God did not give off these sparks,
how would the divine flame become fully visible? It sounds
like something that would be on like a poster with
a beautiful sunset on it, in watercolors and watercolors in
(19:55):
a in a store that sells like New Age books
and supplies, and that my actually, there might actually be
such a poster like a lot of the things that
she wrote have that kind of like warm, feel good
kind of focus. Today, there have been editions of huge
chunks in her work, made available in multiple languages and
(20:17):
in addition to that, people have written novels about her
as a character, and there are numerous audio recordings of
her songs. Pope Benedict the sixteenth proclaimed her to be
a saint on May tenth, and proclaimed her as a
Doctor of the Universal Church on October seven. Doctor of
the Universal Church is a title given to saints whose
(20:38):
writings are significant and are useful to people in any
age of the church. This basically means her spiritual writings
are viewed as bearing the same importance as those of St.
Augustine and Thomas aquinas St. Be the Venerable and St.
John of the Cross, among others. Her feast day is
the seventeenth of September. I think she's one of only
(20:58):
four female Doctors of the Universal Church. There may actually
be one more that's been named since then, but I
think there's only been one, uh Doctor of the Universal
Church named at all since she was in UM. So, yeah,
she she's so interesting to me. One the whole idea
of anchors Is is really interesting to me, And there
are other more prominent anchors Is than you two. So
(21:23):
maybe another three more years from now in this mini
series that's going to play out over apparently I will
I will do an episode of one of the anchors
is because they are fascinating to me. I see the
appeal for you of anchorsses you're a woman who really
values moments of solitude, yep, I could see where you
(21:44):
would be very fascinated and charmed by thinking about that
whole concept. Yeah, they are very interesting, and a lot
of them. Like I read an article that was sort
of a It was not a scholarly article. It was
basically somebody meditating on how kind of cool, well and
interesting it is that during the medieval period, if you
(22:05):
were a weird person, especially a weird woman who just
wanted to be by yourself and never talked to anyone,
there was this option for you. And I don't know
that that's like actually an accurate reflection of what life
is an as an anchor, as was like, but I
was like, yeah, that I can see how that that
(22:26):
would appeal to some people. Um. And then of course
there are the people who would like try to figure
out a medical explanation for health to guard's visions. And
I read one article that was like, most historians today
agree that she was suffering from migraines, and I was like,
this is literally the only reference to migraines and everything
that I read. Hilding guard to research this. Most historians
(22:51):
that I think might think things. Yeah, do you also
have some listener mail for us? Did this is from uh?
This is from TW but not me. Those are my initials. Also,
I did not write this myself, and uh TW rights
with a correction to a listener mail we read previously.
(23:12):
He says, I just finished listening to Robert Small's part one,
and during your listener feedback you mentioned a civil engineering
student that stated that surveyors are not wrong. That statement
is not true. I am a surveyor and performing subpar
work is punishable by having your license revoked. I think
what he was referring to was when the Western Frontier
was open for settlement, all the land was owned by
(23:33):
the government. The General Land Office, underdirective from Congress, appointed
the surveyor to perform surveys of a territory prior to sale.
Many surveyors and deputy surveyors to outstanding work. However, many
did not. Land was sold from the g l O
to private citizens. Quote as is no warranty based on
a platte submitted by the surveyor or his deputy. So
(23:56):
to avoid land claims, the federal government stated that all
original government surveys are free of any and all errors,
whether it was true or not. Once a territory achieved statehood,
boundary disputes are a problem for the states to deal with.
That was why each state hired their own surveyor, and then,
after a lot of muscle flexing, they eventually chose the
line had laid out by the federal surveyor to put
(24:17):
an end to the dispute. This is the condensed version.
If you're interested in this facet of history, read the
Manual of Survey Instructions published by the Bureau of Land Management.
It describes in more detail the role of the government
land surveyor. Sorry for writing a small novel, but we
surveyors are sticklers for details. I enjoy the podcast tremendously
as it makes these sometimes long days go by just
(24:38):
a little faster. Thank you so much, t W for
writing that end. Um. I did not interpret the previous
UH listeners letter as meaning no matter how horrible your
work is, it's fine, right, um. But more that like
if the survey is slightly imprecise, that imprecision is regarded
(25:01):
as correct, that could also be totally wrong. So yeah,
I don't think that was meant to be like, you
can do the worst work ever and there will be
no consequence. Even though that did sort of come off
as the overall moral of the honey or boundary, It's cool.
We got letters from people saying they wanted that on
a shirt anyway. Uh. If you would like tor address,
(25:22):
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(25:43):
all kinds of awesome articles about everything under the sun.
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it how stuff works dot com.
Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from works
dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Crazy
Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. We are headed to
medieval Germany today to talk about a woman who was way, way,
(00:21):
way ahead of her time. She was Hildegard of Bingen,
also known as Hildegard vomb Bingen and as symbol of
the rhyme so long time listeners. As we tell the story,
we'll probably notice some similarities between her and past podcast
subject Marjorie Kemp, who was another Christian mystic who lived
in medieval Europe. Back when we recorded that episode about
(00:44):
Marjorie Kemp, which was actually I think the first episode
that I researched for the show when Holly and I
came on, I really intended to do kind of a
mini mini series on women mystics in the medieval world
because a lot of their lives are really super interesting
and listening to or learning about them can really dispel
some of the misconceptions that a lot of folks have
(01:06):
about the medieval world and about women's place specifically in
the medieval world. Right that was three years ago. Um
our recent episode on the history of the English language
got me thinking about the medieval world again, though, so
it seemed like a good time to come back and
revisit this, uh, this world of women in the church
(01:30):
in medieval Europe. Hildegarde was born in ten ninety eight
in Franconia, which is now a region in Germany. Her
parents for Hildebert and Mctilde. Hildebert was a lesser noble
and Hildegard was their tenth count them ten tenth child.
Her health was fragile, and as early as age three,
Hildegard was experiencing religious visions. While Hildegarde was still very young,
(01:55):
her parents gave her to the church. According to some sources,
including medieval literature professor, this was meant to be part
of her parents tithe. Now, if you're not familiar with
that term, tithing is the practice of giving ten percent
of everything that you earn or produced to the church.
It's not totally clear whether Hildegarde, who by her own
(02:15):
account was only about eight years old when this when
she entered religious instruction, had to say in the matter,
she is technically one tenth of their produced children. I guess, yeah, well,
and it's one of those things where I don't think
there is a record of her parents saying this is
part of our tie. But the fact that she's reported
(02:35):
to be their tenth child, and she then entered religious instruction,
and apparently tithing children was a thing that people did.
It all kind of comes together to be Hildegard was
given to the church as part of her parents tied
and the next few years of her life are a
little bit fuzzy as well. At some point she meant
another religiously inclined young woman, Utah von Sponheim, who was
(02:59):
about six years her senior, and Utah was also of
noble birth and of a little higher station than Hildegarde.
Utah eventually became Hildegard's teacher and mentor. Eventually, Hildegard and
Utah wound up at the Benedictine monastery at Dissipbodenberg, which
is near the confluence of the Nea River and one
of its tributaries, is about sixty miles or a hundred
(03:21):
kilometers southwest of Frankfurt. Named after the seventh century Irish
monk Dissabad. Dissid Bodenberg had grown into a really important
center of religious life in the area, and it had
become home to a Benedictine monastery in eleven oh eight.
In eleven twelve, Utah was enclosed as an anchoress at
the monastery. Anchoresses were women who, for religious reasons, essentially
(03:45):
sealed themselves up in a very small cell for life.
Men who did this were called anchorites, although most people
who did it were women. Often and anchoress was literally
walled in, with a wall gradually being built around her.
It can had a small window that let food be
passed in and out, as well as a chamber pot,
and depending on the size and configuration of the cell,
(04:08):
it may have had additional windows as well to see
directly into the sanctuary if want to join the cell,
or just to let in light. Being an anchorus was
a lot like following the life of a religious hermit,
but instead of retreating to a remote place for a
life of solitude and prayer, an anchorus would be shut
into a wall of a comparatively populated place like a church,
(04:28):
a monastery, or occasionally a town. By the time Hildegard lived,
anchorus has had to get official permission from the church
to do this, and the ceremony for enclosing. An anchorus
had a lot in common with the funeral, including the
anchors receiving last rites. Basically, the anchoress was leaving her
worldly life behind for one that was supposed exclusively on
(04:50):
religious devotion and study. The life of anchorites and anchoresses
was meant to be one devoted strictly to reflection, penance,
d in prayer. Most of the time. It was also
a lifelong commitment, although there were some who eventually left
their selves and this a Bodenberg. Hildegard and a servant
lived with Utah in her hermitage. You two taught Hildegard
(05:14):
Latin along with the recitations and observations that were required
as part of their order. Hildegard's early musical education probably
came from Utah as well, and because Utah's hermitage was
physically connected to the monastery there, Hildegard would have also
been immersed in all of the spiritual and religious teachings
and practices that were conducted within it. Utah definitely took
(05:37):
a more ascetic and strict approach to her own spiritual
life than Hildegard did. Apart from committing to be an
anchorous for life. Utah also abstained from meat and periodically
abstained from all food entirely throughout her life. She continually
increased the number of hours a day she spent in study, penance,
in prayer, and she also practiced self flagellation and as penance. Hildegard,
(06:02):
while not taking quite the same approach in terms of
deprivation and self flagellation, did interpret illnesses as a punishment
from God for not following his instructions, and that's actually
a belief that would continue throughout her life. Gradually, other
young noble women were sent to Utah to study as well,
so the Benedictine monastery became home to a community of nuns,
(06:24):
and from within her cell, you too became its Magistra,
or its teacher and leader. When Youta died in eleven
thirty six at the age of forty four, she and
Hildegard had been at des at Vodinberg for twenty four years.
At least eight other women had come to the monastery
to live and study with them, and Hildegarde, who at
that point was thirty eight, was elected to take you
(06:44):
to place as the Magistra. About three years after you
Ta's death, Hildegarde, whose visions had continued since her childhood,
had a particularly powerful experience in the form of both
a vision and a voice from the heavens. In her
record of it, the voice said to her, Oh, fragile
human ashes of ashes and filth of filth, say and
(07:07):
write what you see in here. But since you are
timid in speaking, and simple and expounding, and untaught in writing,
speak and write these things not by a human mouth,
and not by the understanding of human invention, and not
by the requirements of human composition. But as you see
and hear them on high in the heavenly places, in
(07:28):
the wonders of God. Explain these things in such a
way that the hearer, receiving the words of his instructor,
may expound them in those words according to that will,
vision and instruction. Thus, therefore, oh humans, speak these things
that you see in here, and write them, not by
yourself or any other human being, but by the will
(07:48):
of Him who knows, sees, and disposes all things in
the secrets of his mysteries. Sort of, I'm going to
impart and dictate to you revelations that you're going to
write now on exactly as you experienced them, and in
the same experience, she also had a more revelatory experience,
and she wrote of that saying quote, immediately I knew
(08:11):
the meaning of the exposition of the scriptures, namely the Palter,
the Gospel, and other Catholic volumes of both the Old
and New Testaments, though I did not have the interpretation
of the words of their texts, or the division of
the syllables, or the knowledge of cases or tenses. At first,
Hildegard resisted this call. She didn't think she was up
(08:32):
to the task. She wasn't confident in her ability to
write or to speak. Soon, she became ill, something she
thought she brought on herself by not following God's command.
So eventually she embarked on just what the vision had
instructed her to do, and this would eventually turn her
into someone with a much broader influence than just the
religious community at Disabodinburg, which we'll talk about after a
(08:56):
sponsor break. For most of Hildegard's adult life, until she
reached her early forties, she had confided her visions and
only one person, which was Utah. Eventually, Uta had told
a monk named Balmar about the visions, and after a time,
Valmar basically became Hildegard's secretary and editor. She would write
her visions down on a wax tablet and hand them
(09:17):
off to Volmar, who would refine their spelling and their grammar.
Even though Hildegard was never confident in her writing skills,
her written works are actually full of really complex ideas
and thoughts. After the vision commanding her to write down
her visions, the Archbishop of Minds learned about Hildegard's visions
and prophecies and he convened a group of theologians to
(09:39):
determine whether they were legitimate or heretical, and ultimately they
decided that her visions were authentic and they allowed Volmar
to officially help her with her work. Hildegard really wanted
this work to be taken seriously. This is at a
time when various friends groups were kind of splintering off
from the Catholic Church, and all kinds of people with
all kinds of teaching as were attracting large followings. Hildegard
(10:02):
really didn't like this. She thought all of these schisms
and splinter groups were going to harm the church. So
she wrote to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux in the hope
of getting her team teachings officially sanctioned by the church.
He eventually brought her to the attention of Pope Eugenius
also known as Pope Eugene the Third, who encouraged her
to continue on with what she was doing, and in
(10:24):
eleven forty seven he gave her the authority to speak
in public and to write on theological matters, which was
extremely rare for a woman. Hildegard's first book, finished following
this endorsement by the Pope, was called Skivius, taken from
the Latin phrase squito vias domini or no the ways
of the Lord. It was completed around eleven fifty one
(10:48):
and it describes many of her visions and also offers
apocalyptic prophecies, and perhaps in reference to her own young life,
it records one vision that makes it quite clear that
parents may only give their child up for a holy
life with that child's informed consent and some translations, that's
literally the title of that passage, like, you may only
(11:12):
give up your child to the Lord with the child's
informed consent. At about the same time as she finished Skivvyous,
Hildegard also moved her community. She and the nun left
des Bodenberg. They settled in a cloister that had been
built for them near Bingen, which is where her name
Hildegard of Bingen eventually came from. This wasn't a particularly
(11:32):
popular decision at the monastery at dessip Bodenberg. There are
a lot of likely reasons for why Hildegard decided to
do it. One was that she was really dissatisfied with
how the Benedicting community at and at De si Bonenberg
had been living. She thought their lifestyle was excessive, and
she was really concerned that schisms within and outside the community,
we're going to tear it apart. Another was that word
(11:56):
of Hildegard's visions and works had been spreading for a decade.
At this point, more and more noble women had come
to Disobodinburg to take holy orders and study with her.
The monks were not too happy about giving up progressively
more space and influence in favor of this influx of women.
And the third reason was that she had been directed
(12:16):
by God to move them, and when she didn't immediately
do it, she had fallen ill. She continued writing and
teaching extensively. Her other two major revelatory works are Liber
Vite Meritorum and libert Divinorum Operum or Book of Life's
s Merits and Book of Divine Works. She also wrote
extensively about medicine and nature, although unlike her other works,
(12:40):
these weren't based on religious revelations or visions. They were
based on her own study and reflection and on her
practice as a healer. These works include Physica cause at
Cure and Libre Subtillatum. That last one is the Book
of Subtleties of the diverse nature of Things. These medical
writings draw from the Greek ideas of elements and humors,
(13:03):
as well as the idea of innate healing powers found
within inanimate objects. Her medical writings, like her spiritual ones,
really stressed the need for humans to approach life through
a balance of science, religion, and art, with science and
art both like religion, coming from God. Hildegarde was no
stranger to writing history either. She actually wrote a biography
(13:26):
of Saint Dizabad that was the one that the religious
community had been named for that she had left previously.
Seventies seven lyric poems are attributed to her along with
their music, so essentially hymns that she wrote and composed.
There are definitely composers in the West who lived before
she did, but she's really the first one that we
(13:46):
also have biographical details on. Although she never seems to
have created artwork on her own, there are pieces of
visual art that exists today that are based on her descriptions.
And she wrote extensive lets. About a hundred and forty
five of them still exist today, and some of them
are to the most powerful religious and secular leaders who
(14:08):
were alive at the time. Many of them reveal themselves
to be part of an ongoing correspondence. This is not
like there were a hundred and forty five unanswered letters
of some kind of coop like. They were letters that
she wrote as part of guidance that she was giving
to people that the people were receiving. Uh. The recipients
of her letters include popes, kings, abbots, friars, and whole
(14:32):
communities of monks and nuns. There are also more than
fifty sermons that survive, and a lot of them follow
the same themes as the letters she was writing. It's
really clear from reading her letters and her sermons that
as she got older, a lot of the timidity and
uncertainty that she had carried about her abilities and her
use of language were replaced by a more calm, a
(14:52):
more confident, and assertive way of approaching things. She also
wrote repeated warnings to the monks of Disobodinburg, warning them
that their excesses and the schisms within the religious community
we're going to bring about their ruin. This turned out
to be quite prescient. Uh. Fractures in the religious community
actually led to armed struggles. In the thirteenth century, the
(15:14):
monastery was converted into a fortress, and by the end
of that century it lay in ruins, some of which
still exists today. Although many of Hildegarde's writings take a
distinctly innately feminine approach to their descriptions of her visions
and her relationship with God, some of these are actually
descriptions that border on coming off as sexual. Nothing was
(15:35):
ever considered to be heretical. Her descriptions are very rich
and vivid and very poetic, and Uh, as we talked
about it's been a while now, but as we talked
about in our episode of Marjorie Camp, a lot of
times writings of this sort were viewed as being heresy,
but hers are actually really well accepted. She was in
fact admired and respected all over Germany during her life.
(15:57):
The very first biography written of her were her tour
as a saint, and she was considered a local saint
in parts of Germany for centuries before being recognized as
a saint by the Catholic Church. In addition to all
her writings and teaching her community of nuns, Hildeguard also
traveled extensively around Germany preaching about the revelations from Provisions.
(16:18):
In eleven sixty three she founded a second convent and
all of this, the extensive writing and teaching, having her
teachings accepted by the church as a whole, her leaders,
her leadership, the medical writing, being allowed to go out
and speak in public about theology were extremely rare for
a woman living in the twelfth century in Europe. Basically,
(16:38):
if she had lived a few hundred years later and
been mail, people probably would have called her a renaissance man.
We will talk about more about her legacy after a
quick break from a sponsor. So we've been talking about
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all the potential places they can be coming from to
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offer code history for ten percent off your first purchase.
And now we'll get back to our story. Hill, the
(17:43):
Guard of Being In died following an illness at her
monastery on September eleven, seventy nine. While she was extremely
prominent in her in her time, especially considering her gender,
and she was immediately revered as a local saint, academic
and greater public interest in her life have waxed and
waned over the centuries since then. Most recently, academic interest
(18:06):
in Hildegard started to revive in the nineteen sixties with
the publication of German language editions of her letters and songs.
This also ran parallel to the second wave of the
feminist movement in the United States. Hildegard's writings about women
and her being able to accomplish such a high degree
of renown and authority, especially in comparison to most women
(18:28):
of her time, made her a popular figure in the
feminist movement. A lot of the things she actually wrote
that wouldn't be considered particularly feminist today as we understand
the term. She definitely wrote about women as being the
weaker sex and about herself as being unqualified to do
a lot of what she was doing because she was
a woman. She also recorded visions that detailed why women,
(18:48):
for example, should be able to talk about God and
God's work, but should not be able to be priests.
So a lot of people sort of position her as
being a feminist for her time. Translations of large bodies
of her work into English didn't actually happen until nineteen two,
and her popularity really started to spike in the United
(19:08):
States in the nineteen nineties because her mysticism and the
elements of her life and work that could be considered
feminist fit in well with the New Age movement, which
was popular at the time. A big part of this
was her running theme that creation was the work of
God and so it is the work of humanity to
care for it. She also wrote a lot about things
being connected to God. From Stivious, she wrote, quote, all
(19:32):
living creatures are sparks from the radiation of God's brilliance.
And these sparks emerge from God like the rays of
the sun. If God did not give off these sparks,
how would the divine flame become fully visible? It sounds
like something that would be on like a poster with
a beautiful sunset on it, in watercolors and watercolors in
(19:55):
a in a store that sells like New Age books
and supplies, and that my actually, there might actually be
such a poster like a lot of the things that
she wrote have that kind of like warm, feel good
kind of focus. Today, there have been editions of huge
chunks in her work, made available in multiple languages and
(20:17):
in addition to that, people have written novels about her
as a character, and there are numerous audio recordings of
her songs. Pope Benedict the sixteenth proclaimed her to be
a saint on May tenth, and proclaimed her as a
Doctor of the Universal Church on October seven. Doctor of
the Universal Church is a title given to saints whose
(20:38):
writings are significant and are useful to people in any
age of the church. This basically means her spiritual writings
are viewed as bearing the same importance as those of St.
Augustine and Thomas aquinas St. Be the Venerable and St.
John of the Cross, among others. Her feast day is
the seventeenth of September. I think she's one of only
(20:58):
four female Doctors of the Universal Church. There may actually
be one more that's been named since then, but I
think there's only been one, uh Doctor of the Universal
Church named at all since she was in UM. So, yeah,
she she's so interesting to me. One the whole idea
of anchors Is is really interesting to me, And there
are other more prominent anchors Is than you two. So
(21:23):
maybe another three more years from now in this mini
series that's going to play out over apparently I will
I will do an episode of one of the anchors
is because they are fascinating to me. I see the
appeal for you of anchorsses you're a woman who really
values moments of solitude, yep, I could see where you
(21:44):
would be very fascinated and charmed by thinking about that
whole concept. Yeah, they are very interesting, and a lot
of them. Like I read an article that was sort
of a It was not a scholarly article. It was
basically somebody meditating on how kind of cool, well and
interesting it is that during the medieval period, if you
(22:05):
were a weird person, especially a weird woman who just
wanted to be by yourself and never talked to anyone,
there was this option for you. And I don't know
that that's like actually an accurate reflection of what life
is an as an anchor, as was like, but I
was like, yeah, that I can see how that that
(22:26):
would appeal to some people. Um. And then of course
there are the people who would like try to figure
out a medical explanation for health to guard's visions. And
I read one article that was like, most historians today
agree that she was suffering from migraines, and I was like,
this is literally the only reference to migraines and everything
that I read. Hilding guard to research this. Most historians
(22:51):
that I think might think things. Yeah, do you also
have some listener mail for us? Did this is from uh?
This is from TW but not me. Those are my initials. Also,
I did not write this myself, and uh TW rights
with a correction to a listener mail we read previously.
(23:12):
He says, I just finished listening to Robert Small's part one,
and during your listener feedback you mentioned a civil engineering
student that stated that surveyors are not wrong. That statement
is not true. I am a surveyor and performing subpar
work is punishable by having your license revoked. I think
what he was referring to was when the Western Frontier
was open for settlement, all the land was owned by
(23:33):
the government. The General Land Office, underdirective from Congress, appointed
the surveyor to perform surveys of a territory prior to sale.
Many surveyors and deputy surveyors to outstanding work. However, many
did not. Land was sold from the g l O
to private citizens. Quote as is no warranty based on
a platte submitted by the surveyor or his deputy. So
(23:56):
to avoid land claims, the federal government stated that all
original government surveys are free of any and all errors,
whether it was true or not. Once a territory achieved statehood,
boundary disputes are a problem for the states to deal with.
That was why each state hired their own surveyor, and then,
after a lot of muscle flexing, they eventually chose the
line had laid out by the federal surveyor to put
(24:17):
an end to the dispute. This is the condensed version.
If you're interested in this facet of history, read the
Manual of Survey Instructions published by the Bureau of Land Management.
It describes in more detail the role of the government
land surveyor. Sorry for writing a small novel, but we
surveyors are sticklers for details. I enjoy the podcast tremendously
as it makes these sometimes long days go by just
(24:38):
a little faster. Thank you so much, t W for
writing that end. Um. I did not interpret the previous
UH listeners letter as meaning no matter how horrible your
work is, it's fine, right, um. But more that like
if the survey is slightly imprecise, that imprecision is regarded
(25:01):
as correct, that could also be totally wrong. So yeah,
I don't think that was meant to be like, you
can do the worst work ever and there will be
no consequence. Even though that did sort of come off
as the overall moral of the honey or boundary, It's cool.
We got letters from people saying they wanted that on
a shirt anyway. Uh. If you would like tor address,
(25:22):
we're a history podcast at how stuff works dot com.
We're also on Facebook at facebook dot com slash miss
in history and on Twitter at miss in History. We're
on tumbler. It's missing history dot tumbler dot com. We're
also on Pinterest at priest dot com slash miss in history.
If you would like to learn about just about anything
you can imagine, come to our parent company's website, which
is how stuff works dot com, which is full of
(25:43):
all kinds of awesome articles about everything under the sun.
We also have a new series of articles that are
rolling out there every week called Ridiculous History. Sometimes these
are things we've talked about this on the show. Sometimes not.
You can come to our website, which is missing history
dot com, and you will find an archive of every
episode we have ever ever done. You will find show
notes for all the episodes but Holly and I have done.
(26:05):
You will find a newly written list of answers to
our most frequently asked questions, and for exlable tips about
how to find old episodes in the archive. You can
do all that and a whole lot more at how
stuff works dot com or missed in history dot com.
For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
(26:25):
it how stuff works dot com.
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