A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

the theology of repentance 233
. . . already a fijire and a torment. Therefore, the zeal of God does not test that
which penance has already purifijied. However, that which penance has not
burned away, that is consumed in God’s passionate anger.40
It is signifijicant that several orientations towards penance appear here.
On the one hand, penance has a purifying function, which is unavoidable
within the context of cosmological order. However, penance also
efffects an alteration in the sinner’s attitude, a reorientation and a (re)turn
towards God. Penance is supposed to lead to a new life here on earth and
in the afterlife, to a life that is determined according to the models of the
virtues and not by the whisperings of the vices. For this reason, pedagogical
and pastoral aspects can be constantly observed in the explications
about the penitential acts (see below, “The Path to Life—The Catalogues
of Penance”).
The images linked to the zelus Dei always have a punishing or powerful
character: a lion, an all-cutting sword, a truncheon ready for beating.
Accordingly, the interpretations include many statements on the power
and strength of God, and also on his desire to punish and purify. This also
simultaneously concerns, as demonstrated above, the aiding and salvifijic
function of penance for mankind. Thus, the end of the explanations about
the zelus Dei in part fijive concludes with God’s mercy and his promise of
a new life.
Thus God embraces the penitent sinners who are beginning to live again
after they have abandoned sin, when, having dried up in sin, they prudently
perform the shipwreck of their sins through tears of contrition.41
The Devil’s Weapons and God’s Assistants—Vices and Virtues
Representations of virtues and vices have been beloved by authors since at
least the time of Prudentius’s Psychomachia. There are indeed numerous
visual presentations of the battle between the virtues and vices, which,
40 Vite mer., 4.37, p. 199, ll. 909–11: “Nam quod penitentia purgat, zelus Dei non examinat,
quoniam penitentia ignis et flagellum ipsius est; quod uero penitentia non excoquit,
idem zelus consumit.”
41 Ibid., 5.39, p. 245, ll. 903–05: “Deus quippe peccatores penitentes suscipit, qui uiuere
incipiunt, cum peccata deserendo in peccatis arescunt, et cum naufragium peccatis suis
in lacrimis penitentie prudenter faciunt.”