A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

48 franz j. felten
conveys the sense that he failed to restore religious life on the mountain
to its previous level when he settled canons in the monastery. The number
of canons is not mentioned in this text. In spite of his condemnation
of the canons, Ruthard emphasizes that he compensated them with an
appropriate church and other buildings. This was to forestall any future
“just” quarrels (iusta querela, . . . benigne collocavit), and corresponds with
Hildegard’s description of him, as she called him world-wise. Ruthard’s
charter circumvents the possibility, as it appears in the annals and in Hildegard’s
text, that the archbishop of Mainz participated in the demise of
the monastery. Instead, the charter employs vague language about God’s
wrath, fijires, and the dispersal of lands, all of which would have led to
devastation in the locale by the time of Willigis.
Gaps are notable in the charter’s historical narrative as well as in the
subsequent section: there is no word, for example, about the material goods
granted or the tasks assigned to the canons by Willigis. Only Ruthard’s
donations to the new monastery, now populated by monks instead of canons,
are listed, consisting primarily of tithes in Sobernheim, but also of
villae, mansi, and vineyards along the Rhine, in the area around Mainz,
in Hessen, and in Thüringen. No mention is made about contributions by
other archbishops. Neither is the appointment of an abbot mentioned—
an unusual omission; the stewardship or the pastoral rights of the canons,
like those of the monks, are passed over.
Adalbert’s 1128 charter34 discusses all of these points, and therefore is
also more problematic, even though it has been considered up to the present
day to be a reliable source for the early history of the Disibodenberg.
The text begins with praise for the archbishops who followed Willigis in
offfijice and who, with their donations (and those of other faithful Christians),
enriched the saint’s church. Adalbert confijirms these grants (there
is no mention of any made by him) and augments the statement of rightful
ownership (in an unconventional confijiguration) with narrative sections
and legal provisions. It is here that we fijirst learn that Willigis was
unable to fijind pious monks willing to take on the site; therefore, he had
to “settle” for the 12 canons. According to the introduction, “These are the
lands, which the Hero benevolently granted to Saint Disibod,”35 the fijirst of
these gifts was the church in Sobernheim, consecrated by Willigis himself,
which was donated to the monastery along with two hides of lands and
34 Ibid., 553.
35 “Hero” is Adalbert’s idiosyncratic designation for Willigis.