A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

146 kienzle and stevens
Hildegard’s protestations of weakness ironically underscore the boldness
of a nun teaching a Cistercian prior about Scripture and admonishing him
to take a harder line against any insubordination by lay brothers.
In summary, Hildegard’s Letter 84R takes as its structure and point of
departure the exegesis of the four animals that appear in Ezekiel, chapters 1
and 10, and Revelation 4:6. The magistra then glides into her interpretation
of the wheels in Ezekiel’s vision as a symbol of the virginity embodied
in the Virgin Mary, which she both praises and urges upon nuns. The
interpretation of the animals grounds the moral instruction that she aims
at monks, nuns, priests, the conversi, and the laity. The conversi occupy an
intermediate space that Hildegard fijinds disturbing in its dissonance with
a hierarchical view of society.
The letter, like the magistra’s visionary works, asserts her claim to prophetic
authority. Hildegard’s teaching pauses to focus on her nuns at the
same time that it addresses the Cistercian community of Eberbach. It also
demonstrates her concern for a broad audience, all of whom she calls to
reform and penitence, in accordance with their status. This may indicate
the wider circulation and reading of the letter, as well as its possible use
as a source for preaching material.51 Indeed, the core of the letter reads
like a sermon to various orders of society.
Hildegard turns to the four animals in the Liber vite meritorum 1.17 as
well.52 There, in contrast, she links the faces of each animal to a quality of
God. The human face designates God’s goodness (pietatem), through which
humanity receives perception (sensibilitatem); the lion’s face represents the
strength of God (uirtutem), by which God grants humankind rationality;
the ox’s face denotes God’s sacrifijice (sacrifijicium), which teaches humanity
to sacrifijice to God; the eagle’s face prefijigures God’s knowledge (scientiam),
through which God offfers humankind the possibility of knowledge. Her
reading here is allegorical. Hence, she interprets the four faces in two senses
of Scripture, tropologically as four orders of society, and allegorically as four
divine qualities that illustrate the power of God’s innumerable works.
A Trinity of Motion: Creation, Incarnation, and the Holy Spirit
The wheels in Letter 84R establish a framework for exploring the Ezekelian
imagery in the magistra’s other works. A multivalent symbol, the wheel
51 See Speaking New Mysteries, p. 260, on the Mainz treatise Hildegard intended for
preaching.
52 Vite mer., 1.17, pp. 20–21, ll. 338–60.