A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

268 debra l. stoudt
account of Christ’s baptism.90 Following all but the third incantation, Hildegard
reiterates that the remedy will be efffective, unless God forbids it
or does not wish the individual to be freed from the malady.91
Although the Physica and the Cause et cure customarily identify the
healer as the one who should prepare and employ the remedies, sometimes
the patient is also called upon to engage actively in the curative
process. One such example is found in the cure for epilepsy involving an
emerald. Hildegard recommends that the stone be placed in the mouth of
the affflicted person; this action itself will revive the person’s spirit, since
the emerald is fijilled with the “vitality of the air” (viriditate aeris). Once the
attack subsides, the epileptic should pray for God’s grace to fijill his body,
as God’s breath has fijilled the world.92 Here the sufffering individual takes
responsibility for his condition and acts to efffect his own recovery. The
negative behavior described above that may result in illness—consenting
to do evil, wallowing in vice, disobeying God’s will—may be counteracted
by positive actions, such as those recommended here, which bring about
healing.
Like other medieval religious women, Hildegard demonstrates her curative
abilities not only through remedies employing plants and other natural
materials but also through the use of the spoken and written word.93
Imbued with power, divinely bestowed and frequently borrowed from
Scripture or liturgy, the words empower the healer to enact God’s will—
if healing is indeed what God intends. The practitioner of the healing arts
is merely a conduit: the ability to cure is reserved for God alone.
The power of the spoken word and the curative power of certain gestures
and natural objects, such as plants and stones, are also chronicled
in the biography of Hildegard prepared by Gottfried and Theoderic. Titled
90 Ibid., 3.26, p. 210: “Per primam ostensionem qua deus hominem vidit in radice mambre,
frange undas veneni hominis absque morte illius,” and “Per primam ostensionem, qua Jesus
in Jordane baptizatus est, o unda pertransi venenum absque morte hominis istius N et aufer
ab eo omnem illusionem pestis huius, et fac eum ab ea purum, sicut et Jesus pura vita fuit,”
respectively.
91 It should be noted that this caveat is not unique to the incantations. It is found,
frequently as an explicit, in many other remedies.
92 Physica, 4.1, p. 231: “Sicut spiritus domini replevit orbem terrarum, sic domum corporis
mei sua gratia repleat, et dyabolum ab ea repellat, ne eam umquam movere possit.” The
phrase et dyabolum ab ea repellat is added in the Florence manuscript.
93 Debra L. Stoudt, “Medieval German Women and the Power of Healing,” in Women
Healers and Physicians. Climbing a Long Hill, ed. Lilian R. Furst (Lexington, Ky., 1997),
p. 22.