A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

236 susanne ruge
In response, the virtue fijirst demonstrates that the Jestrix actually only
behaves in a fashion that serves her own desires.50 The virtues react to
the vices: they initially condemn the vices and their viewpoints with harsh
words. Following this, they promote God’s point of view. With shining
colors, they sketch out an alternate conception of life, in which joy in the
harmony of creation and heaven fijinds expression, as well as an emphasis
on correct moderation. Compassion (Misericordia) answers, e.g. Hard-
Heartedness (Obduratio), thusly:
O, you stony visage, what are you saying there? The herbs offfer the perfume
of their blossoms to each other, a stone reflects its glint at another, and every
creature has a drive to attain a loving embrace. Thus all of Nature stands
in service to humankind and in this service of love, she happily entrusts
humanity with all of her produce. . . . With a loving eye, I take note of all that
is necessary and feel myself connected with everything.51
In this case, the vice attempts to convince humans through logical arguments,
while the virtue employs images from the abundance of nature
to show the souls that a completely diffferent evaluation of the world is
possible. Nature offfers up her wealth, and humanity is mutually invited
to participate in this life of joy and harmony.
The virtues have no discernible forms: the reader only hears their voices
issuing from the fijiery cloud, the locus in which good deeds and the souls
of the blessed are found. This pairing is only logical, as the virtues served
as aides to the blessed and helped them achieve their good deeds.
Since both sides employ arguments that refer to God, his creation, and
the Bible, the reader is initially led into temptation to follow the vices. This
is an approach that clearly demonstrates the danger of the vices. However,
the Vite mer. also shows the reader in a multiplicity of ways that humans
should not follow the vices and their arguments. This occurs, on the one
hand, through an interpretation of the appearance and the words of the
vice, through the counterarguments from the virtues, through a fijinal section
on the general meaning of the vices, which concludes the respective
parts, and not least, in that each vice invokes Lucifer as its lord before
the appropriate penitential acts that purify the soul of that particular vice
50 Ibid., 1.6, p. 15, ll. 174–75: “Tu idolatrium es, que omnia secundum uoluntatem tuam
facis.”
51 Ibid., 1.8, p. 16, ll. 206–11, 219–20: “O lapidea, quid dicis? Herbe cum floribus suis aliis herbis
odorem prebent, ac lapis lapidi sudorem immittit, et omnis creatura noto suo amplexis
ostendit. Omnes quoque creature homini ministrant, ac in illa ministratione homini bonum
libenter inferunt. [. . .] Oculis enim meis omnia necessaria inspicio, et me illis coniungo.”