A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

the canonization and doctorization of hildegard 307
It seems that the Mainz clerics had paid much more attention to the
preparation of a suitable vita, the copying of Hildegard’s most renowned
theological compositions, and their examination, than they did to the
juridical examination of her actual deeds, and especially of her miracles.
Perhaps this was due to the comparative novelty of canonization processes,
and thus the lack of experience in efffecting this properly. Another
reason may be the consideration of the manner and content of the vita
accompanying the canonization dossier: after all, it was written by a man
with fijirsthand knowledge of Hildegard, and the third section of the tripartite
work dealt specifijically with miracles.
But whether or not the three inquisitors were in fact relying on the
vita to do their job efffectively with regard to proving the existence of miracles,
the judicial document they prepared in relation to Hildegard’s life
and miracles must surely be among the most meager and approximative
of such texts ever submitted to the papacy for its examination. Not only
was it very short, but it was almost wholly lacking in fundamental details,
such as the names of those cured, the names of those who witnessed the
miracles, and where and when the miracles occurred.
Due primarily to this comparative lack of detail, it came to pass that
on May 6, 1237, the Pope told the inquisitors of these shortcomings and
requested their adjustment. Nothing resulted from this papal knuckle rap,
and it is telling of the papal interest in fulfijilling a proper process, with the
aim of obtaining a papal canonization, that Pope Innocent IV (who succeeded
the successor of Gregory IX, Celestine IV), in his fijirst year as Pope,
wrote the inquisitors on November 24, 1243, and asked them to complete
their work. It is clear that some attempt was made to proceed, but at this
point the inquisitors were in a bind, as by this time an overwhelming
majority of witnesses had died. These judges could and did proceed to
fijill some of the lacunae, as evidenced in their additions to their original
copy of the initial process, but these additions could only be few and far
between. It appears that, perhaps out of a sense of embarrassment at having
failed to provide a substantially diffferent update, the inquisitors never
nos ipsos libros ad examinandum dedit ab octava Martini usque ad octavam Epiphanie.
Quibus examinatis episcopo restituerunt; qui magistro Wilhelmo Antisiodorensi, pro tempore
suo magistro, eos assignavit et sibi eos restituit afffijirmans, quod magistrorum esset
sententia non in eis esse verba humana, sed divina.”