A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

what do we know about the life of jutta and hildegard 25
ters was respected by all (not only by women) at Disibodenberg. Visitors
of every rank from the surrounding area sought her counsel and revered
her like a heavenly oracle for the wisdom that was granted to her by God
and that proved itself to all through her great power of discernment (discretione
maxima).50 Contrary to Guibert’s suggestions, Jutta did not seek
to shut herself offf in solitude; rather, in her words, prayers, and deeds, she
took care of the needs and requests of many, demonstrating herself to be a
clever judge of character and becoming renowned throughout the region.
When we read that people sent her letters and messengers, and that she
was actively concerned for her good reputation and the far-reaching efffect
of her work,51 she appears to be fully exercising the role in which Hildegard
would become famous a few years later;52 although Hildegard, at
Rupertsberg, had better opportunities to receive guests (of which, Guibert
says, there was never a lack).53
Such activity was also possible from a monastery—even the rules for
cloistered women provide for regular conversation at the window and,
indeed, warn that such intercourse can become all too lively.54 The Cistercian
abbot Aelred of Rievaulx (d. 1167), in his book on the life of recluses
that he wrote for his sister, drew a very negative portrait of “the recluses of
today.” Among these, he wrote, no fault was lacking—from women spending
the day chatting at the window to visitors coming in the night (with
the corresponding implications)—a dark foil, as it were, against which the
detailed rules for a virtuous life in the monastery shone all the brighter.55
In this, the warning against conversation, and indeed any contact with the
outside world, played a large role. Aelred explicitly warns against noble
visitors, particularly abbots. He recommends a facial veil and advises cloistered
women to avoid all young men; they should neither communicate
through messengers nor send or receive letters or presents.56 Both Jutta
and Hildegard were clearly involved in all of these activities. To combat
such possible actions, Aelred, ever the Cistercian, recommends a healthy
variety of prayer, spiritual reading, and physical labor, the last more to
fend offf idleness (the root of all vice) than to earn a proper livelihood, but
also in order to provide variation and rest from prayer, which should not
50 Vita Juttae, 5.1–3, p. 178.
51 Ibid., 5.9–12, p. 179.
52 V. Hild., 2.4, pp. 25–27.
53 Epistolae, I, 38, p. 369, l. 72.
54 See Grimlaicus, Regula Solitariorum, p. 16.
55 Aelred of Rievaulx, La Vie de Recluse, ed. C. Dumont, SC 76 (Paris, 1961), pp. 44–48.
56 Ibid., pp. 56–60.