A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hildegard of bingen: a history of reception 287
supposed to lay the foundation for the liturgical memoria Hildegardis at
the Rupertsberg.
Hildegard’s Letter to the Clerics of Cologne
Among Hildegard’s writings, her letter to the clerics of Cologne has its
own history of influence. This text concerns an ecclesiastical speech that
Hildegard gave during her preaching in that city (1161/1163).25 Whether
Hildegard offfered her sermons in Latin, as Loris Sturlese assumes, or in the
vernacular is a topic that requires further investigation.26 The letter to the
clerics of Cologne was included in the Pentachronon and also circulated
independently from this tradition. Konrad Bund lists a total of 37 extant
manuscripts and other textual witnesses.27 The text is a harangue directed
at the shepherds of the Church and structured as a sermon. According to
the letter, the clerics are menaced by severe punishments in the afterlife
due to their erroneous teachings to their congregations; at the end of the
text, however, the clergics appear reformed. In addition to criticism of the
clerics, the letter contains sections directed against the Cathar heresy and
about the end times.28 At the end of the 13th century, the letter was also
interpreted as a plea against the powerfully ambitious mendicant orders.
In these latter cases, the specifijic references to Cologne were suppressed,
which provided the text with a broader, more generalized validity. The
letter to the clerics of Cologne also developed its own influence, beginning
with its use in the vita of Engelbert of Berg, archbishop of Cologne,
which was composed by Caesarius of Heisterbach (c.1180–1240). Caesarius
performs a rededication of the letter, transforming it from an antiheretical
text to a tract directed against the mendicant orders. Hildegard’s
text, with this new emphasis, remained relevant into the 16th century.
An interesting trace left by its reception appears in a poetic version
composed by the English court poet Henry of Avranches (c.1191–1260). The
text remains extant in only one manuscript (Cambridge, Library of the
25 On the notion of Hildegard’s preaching tours, see Speaking New Mysteries,
pp. 47–55.
26 Loris Sturlese, Die deutsche Philosophie im Mittelalter. Von Bonifatius bis zu Albert
dem Großen 748–1280 (Munich, 1993), p. 207, footnote 65.
27 Konrad Bund, “Die ‘Prophetin’, ein Dichter und die Niederlassung der Bettelorden in
Köln. Der Brief der Hildegard von Bingen an den Kölner Klerus und das Gedicht ‘Prophetia
Sanctae Hyldegardis de Novis Fratribus’ des Magisters Heinrich von Avranches,” Mittellateinisches
Jahrbuch 23 (1988): 171–260.
28 Speaking New Mysteries, pp. 260–62.