A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

34 franz j. felten
We have only occasional hints about the nuns’ daily life, even after the
move to Bingen: for the magnifijicent worship and social exclusivity of the
convent, we have Tenxwind’s letter; regarding the comfort of the convent
(its size, imposing and luxurious buildings with running water, and suffijicient
servants), we have Guibert’s letter to Bovo.97 Fasts, continuous
prayer in difffijicult conditions, vigils, and enforced silence clearly played no
role.98 In her letters, especially to other religious, and in her commentary
on the Benedictine rule, Hildegard resolutely promotes the Benedictine
ideal of the middle path between hardship and restraint.99 Compassion,
gentleness, patience, and moderation dominate her advice; she praises
discretio as the mother of all virtues and resolutely warns against too
much abstinence and asceticism (one thinks of Jutta!); proper moderation
is to be maintained everywhere.100
Hildegard clearly distances herself (as did the conservative Benedictines
of her time) from the ideal of manual labor, which, in the outbreak
of the new religious movements, had recovered its former high standing
even among women.101 Physical labor, according to Hildegard, should be
the task of another kind of people (genus hominum), the conversi, and the
peasants.102 Guibert himself only mentions more delicate forms of work,
such as copying books and weaving stoles—effforts to satisfy the precept
of the Apostle and to avert idleness. In addition, the nuns at Rupertsberg
had a large number of servants;103 in fact, according to Guibert, someone
had given Jutta and Hildegard a girl of low social rank to be their servant
when they entered the cloister at Disibodenberg.104
Similarly, and in contrast to the Vita Juttae, poverty and care for the
poor were not an important theme for Hildegard and her biographers;
Hildegard, in fact, aggressively defended her convent’s wealth and exclu-
97 Epistolae, I, 38, pp. 368–69, ll. 70–74.
98 The exceptions to be found in V. Hild., 3.21–26, pp. 57–69, confijirm the rule.
99 Angela Carlevaris, “Hildegard von Bingen. Urbild einer Benediktinerin?” in Hildegard
von Bingen. Prophetin durch die Zeiten, pp. 87–108; Giles Constable, “Hildegard’s
Explanation on the Rule of Benedict,” in Umfeld, pp. 163–87; Felten, “ ‘Novi esse uolunt,”
pp. 64–76.
100 For further examples, see Felten, “ ‘Novi esse uolunt,” pp. 55–59, with notes on problems
of evaluation.
101 Epistolae, II, 198, pp. 450–51. See Kurze, “Die Bedeutung der Arbeit.”
102 Ibid., I, 84, pp. 188–89.
103 Guibert of Gembloux, Epistolae, 38, pp. 368–69, ll. 55–74.
104 Epistolae, I, 38, p. 372, l. 207: “alia Christi famula sibi equiuoca inferioris generis,
nepte tamen sua, que eis ministraret.” Vita Juttae, 3.10, p. 176, does not make this social
distinction: “cum duabus sororibus ipsa tertia Kalendis Nouembris est inclusa.”