A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

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University, Ms. Dd. XI. 78, fols 51r–57v), and it has been assumed that it
was added to the work by the English Benedictine Matthew Paris sometime
between 1245 and 1250. The composition dates, the client who commissioned
the work, and the occasion for its creation are unknown. Due
to the previously noted interpolations by others, Hildegard’s text retains
its anti-mendicant focus within Henry of Avranches’s poem.
It should also be noted at this point that William of St Amour (d. 1272),
the leader of anti-mendicant sentiment in Paris, refers back to Hildegard’s
letter to the clergy of Cologne in his Tractatus brevis de periculis novissorum
temporum in order to vilify the friars. However, the Tractatus brevis
itself was condemned by a papal bull, Romanus Pontifex, promulgated by
Pope Alexander IV on October 5, 1256. The chronicles written by John of
Oxnead, near the Benedictine abbey St Bent’s at Holme in Norfolk (around
1255), and by Richer of Sens (around 1270) follow the same path. Richer’s
chronicle is of particular interest, because Richer also learned about Hildegard’s
prophetic and medical texts while in Strasbourg.
The mendicant side of the argument was represented by John Peckham
(c.1230–1291), a Franciscan who took literary action against Hildegard and
her ostensible criticism of the friars in his tract, Pro paupertate contra Willelmum
de St. Amore, composed around 1270. He disqualifijies Hildegard
ipso facto from making such statements, and he further determines (in
a singular estimation in the reception history) that her text was inspired
by the devil (ex diaboli astutia processisse, pp. 76–77). Peckham, who was
elevated to archbishop of Canterbury and primate of England, profffers the
single example of a negative reception of Hildegard within the context
of the Mendicant Controversy. Peckham’s statements must be placed in
context with the rebuttal of various anti-Franciscan writings that, for their
part, reference Hildegard.
Insurgent gentes
An independent influence exerted by Hildegard’s letter to the clerics of
Cologne is confijirmed by the anonymous poem Insurgent gentes. This
pseudo-Hildegardian text was composed in the middle of the 13th century,
probably by someone associated with William of St Amour. The text
can be read as one of an entire series of anti-mendicant statements that
endeavored to denigrate the friars and defame them as instruments of
the devil. Writings of this type became common in the second half of the
13th century and circulated well into the 15th century, primarily in England
and France. Authors in this tradition, who referenced Hildegard of Bingen