A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

the theology of repentance 231
How is penance thus integrated into this system? It is connected with
cosmology and the necessity of purifijication, as is explained in the following
section.
The Relationship Between the Disturbances to the Good Order,
Purifijication, and Penance—The Zelus Dei
A cosmological representation of sin serves as the background of the Vite
mer. Sin acts as a disturbance to the good order in which God had created
the cosmos in the beginning. Every sin, whether an actual human action
or merely a thought, has consequences that can be traced through the
entire cosmic creation.
Purifijication serves to renew this good order. Within the context of the
Vite mer., purifijication is primarily understood as various forms of sufffering.
This sufffering can occur during a mortal lifetime, in that a person
can be tested by illness, war, or natural catastrophe. Earthly sufffering can
also include self-imposed penance, which is considered voluntary sufffering.
This second type of sufffering also occurs in the postmortem loci of
purifijication. In these places, the souls endure various forms of primarily
physical torments.
Refijinement and testing are caused by God, who in his zeal (zelus) cannot
allow sins to remain unatoned for. The concept of zelus has a multivalent
spectrum of meaning. It can mean “emulation,” “fervor,” and “zeal,”
yet also “jealousy” and “passionate anger.”33 The full spectrum of meaning
appears in the Vite mer. when the zelus Dei is the subject of explication:
God’s passion for his creation and his created beings, as well as his anger
about the disturbance to his good order. However, fervor generally prevails,
which cannot eschew purifijication. Anger is directed at the devil and
his machinations, and subsequently at the vices and the sins which these
generate. The strength and power of God is emphasized at these points,
because a powerful action on the part of God is required in order to protect
humanity from the pursuit of the vices.34
Those who are not ready to turn away from the devil and his seductive arts
are shackled by the very power of God just as the devil is punished.
33 See Albert Sleumer, Kirchenlateinisches Wörterbuch (1926; repr. Hildesheim, 1990),
p. 839.
34 Vite mer., 4.39, p. 200.