A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

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but, having thoroughly examined them, understood what they were and
from whom they came. While dwelling with the sisters, he gained such
esteem that all of them called him their father.16 The actual identity of this
man remains unknown, and it is unclear what Hildegard means precisely
when she calls him a philosophus. Most likely, however, he was a wealthy
man of noble birth who had the opportunity to study the arts in the
schools at Paris or elsewhere, and whose training in logic, cosmology, and
academic theology led him to dismiss Hildegard’s visionary experiences
as fanciful.
Not all masters had such a negative appraisal of Hildegard’s visions.
Some of them wrote to her requesting prayers and advice. In her replies,
she lays out her own view of the masters’ role, with the limits of human
reason and the danger of excessive argumentation as constant themes.
She exhorts a certain Master Radulph, “Take care that, on account of the
great prudence of your learning and the many arguments of this world,
you do not abandon the fijiery gifts of the Holy Spirit, and you will live unto
eternity.”17 In a letter to another unknown master, who had requested
to share in the prayers of her nuns, she cautions that no rational soul is
able to comprehend God, “for whatever has a beginning and is changed
is not able to comprehend the fullness of the knowledge of God.”18 Masters
ought to respect the limits of their profession, and when they do
not, they fail to perform good works. Addressing the provost and clergy
of St Peter’s at Trier, around 1160, Hildegard repeats her conviction that,
16 V. Hild., pp. 2, 12, 37. This event occurred before 1158, as Hildegard goes on to relate
how she composed the Vite mer. after this event.
17 Epistolarium, III, 279, p. 33: “Caue ne propter multam prudentiam doctrine nec
propter multa argumenta huius seculi ignea dona Spiritus Sancti derelinquas, et in eternum
uiues.” This Radulph has not been identifijied; chronologically, the master Radulphus
Ardens, once a student of Gilbert of Poitiers, is a good possibility.
18 Ibid., 281, p. 36: “Nulla enim rationalis in ulla eum ascensione comprehendere
ualet. Vnde et Paulus dicit: O altitudo diuitiarum sapientie et scientie Dei. Quod sic
intelligendum est: Diuitie sapientie et scientie Dei in tanta plenitudine sunt, quod nulla
incipiens scientia eam terminare ualet, nec in ipsis uacuitas uel detrimentum est, sed in
fortissima ui et in altissimo studio semper florent et uirent, unde nec angeli nec homines
earum delectatione ad plenum saturari ualent. Talis enim est sapientia et scientia Dei,
quia sancta Diuinitas omni inceptione carens equali sapientia absque uanitate mendacii
consistit. Sapientia enim Dei sapit hanc scientiam, quod ipse possibilitatem habet omnia
facere et regere, quod nulla creaturarum, quia mutabiles sunt, facere potest. Sic enim
scientie Dei plenitudinem quicquid initium habet et mutatur comprehendere non ualet,
et ideo etiam iudicia eius incomprehensibilia sunt et inuestigabiles uie eius, quia nemo
dinumerare nec, quales sint, dinoscere potest.”