A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

306 george ferzoco
ignored. Thus, through our apostolic letter we charge you to undertake on
our behalf a diligent enquiry into the truth from witnesses worthy of credence,
concerning her life, her way of living, her reputation, her merits, her
miracles, and in general all her circumstances, and that what you shall learn,
you shall set forth faithfully under your seals, and dispatch to us, together
with the above-mentioned books, by means of a faithful messenger.1
In delivering such precise instructions, Gregory was demonstrating his
tenacity in clinging to and developing an attitude toward the declaration
of sanctity that had fijirst been established by his predecessor Alexander III
(d. 1181) in expressing the notion that “Sine papae licentia non licet aliquem
venerari pro sancto”—the phrase that serves as a heading in the Decretals
issued in September 1234 by Gregory himself.2
These three clerics in Mainz prepared materials in response to the
Pope’s letter, and these were delivered to Rome in late 1233. With these
were a vita of Hildegard (almost surely that of Theodoric of Echternach)
and exemplars (copied in Bingen) of some of Hildegard’s own writings
(Scivias, Liber vite meritorum, Liber diuinorum operum). Accompanying
these Hildegardian texts was a judgement based on the opinions of all of
the theology masters of Paris and written by William of Auxerre, concluding
that Hildegard’s writings contained words that were not human, but
divine.3
1 “Nos inclinati supplicationibus predictarum, que negligendum non credunt, quod
tanto est indicio manifestum, per apostolica vobis scripta mandamus, quatenus de ipsius
vita, conversatione, fama, meritis et miraculis et generaliter de omnibus circumstantiis
per testes fijidei dignos inquiratis vice nostra diligentius veritatem, quod inveneritis nobis
sub sigillis vestris fijideliter exponentes et predictos libros nobis sub sigillis eisdem per
fijidelem nuntium destinantes,” in Vita Sanctae Hildegardis: Leben der Heiligen Hildegard
von Bingen = Canonizatio Sanctae Hildegardis: Kanonisation der Heiligen Hildegard, ed.
Monika Klaes, Fontes Christiani. Zweisprachige Neuausgabe christlicher Quellentexte aus
Altertum und Mittelalter 29 (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1998), p. 246. The Pope goes on to
instruct the recipients that if all of them together fijind it impossible to be involved in carrying
out this task, then no fewer than two of them must do so.
2 Corpus Iuris Canonici, Pars Secunda: Decretalium Collectiones. Decretales Gregorii IX,
eds. Emil Ludwig Richter and Emil Friedberg (Leipzig, 1881), vol. 2, book 3, title 45 (De
reliquiis et veneratione sanctorum), ch. 1 (Sine Papae licentia non licet aliquem venerari pro
sancto), col. 650. For a study of this, see Roberto Paciocco, “‘Sine papae licentia non licet
aliquem venerari pro sancto.’ La santità medievale tra processo romano-canonico e diplomatica
pontifijicia,” Collectanea franciscana 77 (2007): 265–311.
3 Vita Sanctae Hildegardis, p. 270: “De circumstantiis dicit quod, cum libros eius, scilicet
librum Scivias, librum Vite meritorum, librum Divinorum operum, secundum monasterii
sui exemplaria conscripsisset, et cum in peregrinatione ad beatum Martinum ire disposuisset,
libros iam dictos secum Parisius detulit; et ut securius in eis studere posset, ab
episcopo loci tunc presidente per multos labores et magnas tribulationes obtinuit, quod
omnes in theologia tunc magistros legentes convocavit, et cuilibet eorum per tres quater-