A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hildegard of bingen: a history of reception 289
as an authority, include, among others: William Langland (c.1325–1388),
Geofffrey Chaucer (c.1340–1400), John Gower (c.1330–1408), the anonymous
author of the Lollard texts Jack Upland and Pierce the Ploughman’s
Crede, Henry of Kirkstede, Thomas Wimbledon (wrote around 1380), Peter
Pateshull (active around 1387), Peter Partridge, William Taylor (composed
texts around 1406), William Dunbar (c.1460–1520), Robert Henryson (wrote
around 1470), Reginald Pecock (15th century), Richard Fitzralph, and John
Wyclif (c.1320–1384). They all cite either Hildegard as known from the Pentachronon,
the great historiographical work of that time, or from her original
texts themselves. Of the authors who wrote in the vernacular, William
Langland evinces a more in-depth interest in Hildegard.
In addition, in the period around the turn of the 15th century, Hildegard’s
reception was able to develop an independent tradition of socially
reforming apocalyptic thought that did not owe its existence to Joachim
of Fiore. Wyclif, for example, employs multiple citations in reference to
Insurgent gentes. In this case, I am referring specifijically to De fundatione
sectarum, yet one also fijinds critical statements in his other writings. The
enduring character of the history of influence exerted by Insurgent gentes
can be seen in the works by Thomas More (1478–1535): More makes
Hildegard into the ship’s fijigurehead, who indicates the direction of antiheretical
belief in his work The Supplication of Souls.
The Baroque author Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) copied Insurgent
gentes, evidence of further influence in the Dutch-speaking areas.
A translation of Insurgent gentes into the vernacular serves as evidence
that the text continued to exercise influence in Germany. Count Wilhelm
of Isenburg (c.1470–1532), a Teutonic Knight, translated the text, which
was published in 1532 in Cologne under the title Widerlegung der falschen
beschuldigung . . . Item ein prophecey S. Hildegardis von dem Bettelorden.
Following a personal encounter with Martin Luther, Isenburg harbored
a great deal of sympathy for the Reform. Even though he did not convert
to the new teachings, he was fijiercely attacked by the Dominicans and the
Discalced Friars in Cologne. Isenburg deployed Hildegard’s alleged prophecy
in a type of prototypical balancing of spiritual accounts with the hated
mendicants.
Other Pseudepigraphical and Polemical Literature
Scholarship up until now has almost completely ignored several texts that
were composed between the 16th and 18th centuries and based on the
Scivias or one of Hildegard’s other visionary texts, primarily because they