A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

242 susanne ruge
the murder of a child.69 In these cases, the very act of being alone and
apart from society should be understood as part of the punishment. In
particular, a mother who murders her child “should surrender herself for
punishment in fear of solitude.”70
At other points, the Vite mer. suggests that the penitent embark on a
cloistered life in a monastery or nunnery. Thus, “people, whom the most
wicked spirits want to banish into inconstancy, . . . if they currently lead
a secular life, they should embark on a monastic life; if they currently
lead a monastic life, they should withdraw to a more stringent solitude to
cultivate truth through this conversion.”71 This clearly demonstrates the
pedagogical aspect of penitential acts, as, in the ordered course of monastic
life, an inconstant life would be scarcely possible.
The hermitage is also suggested as a penitential act for those sufffering
from melancholy (Desperatio), which is represented as one of the most
serious of sins. In this case, however, the confessor also has the possibility
of intervening and disposing the suffferer in a monastic setting.72 In this
case, the pastoral evaluation on the part of the confessor carries more
weight. For those affflicted by the related vice of World-weariness (Tristitia
seculi), the Vite mer. mandates that the penitents “should immerse themselves
with unceasing zeal in those Scriptures which bring them closer
to heavenly joy,”73 a punishment designed to prevent them from sinking
deeper into doubt. This case clearly demonstrates that penance is supposed
to be useful to the person, not injurious.
The Vite mer. also considers the intention74 of the sinner during the commission
of the sin when determining the penitential acts imposed, a development
in penitential theory spread primarily during the 12th century.75
69 This stands in contrast to the apparently less severe sins of murder through negligence,
murder in self-defense, and murder in the heat of passion.
70 Vite mer., 1.115, p. 62, ll. 1790–94: “Ille quoque que infantes de se natos morti subiecerint,
et ita plus quam bestialiter peccauerint, ut damnationem mortis euadant, acerrimis
ieiuniis et diris uerberibus ac asperitate uestium in solitudinis angustia se puniant,
quatinus in futura uita remedium saluationis inueniant.”
71 Ibid., 4.55, p. 207, ll. 1166–70: “Homines autem qui pessimos spiritus ad inconstantiam
eos exhortantes de se uoluerint fugare . . . si seculares sunt, ad spiritalem uitam se colligant;
uel si spiritales sunt, in eadem conuersatione sua cum omni disciplina ueritatis acrius se
solito coerceant.”
72 Ibid., 2.77, p. 115, ll. 1508–10: “aut solitariam uitam arripiant, aut obedientie monasterialis
conuersationis se subiciant.”
73 Ibid., 5.63, p. 254, ll. 1205–06: “ac Scripturas illas, que celeste gaudium eis inferant,
frequenti studio ruminent.”
74 Ibid., 5.69, p. 255, l. 1251: “qua intentione peracta sint.”
75 See Angenendt, Religiosität, pp. 644–46.