Miraculous Literacy and Textual Communities in Hildegard of Bingen's Scivias Author(s): Anne Clark Bartlett Source: Mystics Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 2 (June 1992), pp. 43-55 Published by: Penn State University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20717112 Accessed: 21-01-2019 19:49 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Penn State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Mystics Quarterly This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Miraculous Literacy and Textual Communities in Hildegard of Bingerts Scivias1 In the Scivias, Hildegard of Bingen introduces the reader to a vast intellec tual cosmos; her expertise ranges widely through theology, philosophy, music, and a variety of other fields of knowledge. In her other works, treat ing subjects from medicine to poetry, Hildegard also displays a breadth of erudition that both rivals and resembles that of her contemporaries.2 None theless, the only sources Hildegard cites in the Scivias are scriptural and divine, and she often prefaces her sophisticated works with repeated and vehement claims of illiteracy. Modern scholarship has generated various culturally specific explanations for this paradoxical blend of erudition and ignorance, beginning with the topos of authorial modesty. Barbara Newman discusses Hildegard's "illiter acy" in light of the seer's contention that God had raised up a female prophet in order to expose the immorality of an "effeminate" age (Newman 34-41). Sabina Flanigan explains it as the response of a "frustrated writer" in a soci ety that systematically silenced the public voices of women (Flanagan 44). Peter Dronke has linked Hildegard's characterization of her learning to a lit erary tradition perpetuated by Augustine, who attributes his erudition to an ability to comprehend philosophical texts intuitively, rather than through formal training (Dronke 107). While the linkage between Hildegard's "illiteracy" and medieval percep tions of gender should not be underestimated,3 this essay approaches the issue from a different perspective, arguing that her deference can also be attributed to her membership, advocacy, and even leadership in the diffuse but coherent twelfth-century monastic "textual community."4 This com munity defined itself by its distinctive reading and writing practices, inter pretive authorities, and shared behavioral codes. Hildegard's particular gifts exploit this body of practices in a way that establishes a functionally homolo gous "visionary community," but which is broadly inclusive. Its member ship could include monastics and scholastics, females and males: all readers who esteemed her visions as oracular revelations and accepted the inter pretation of divine and earthly signification which her works offer.5 43 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Contemplation and Controversy in the Twelfth Century Such extra-institutional authority must have seemed attractive during a time in which traditional practices of reading and interpretation were com ing under attack from many directions.6 Sweeping social, religious, and edu cational changes triggered polemical competition between groups that resisted or embraced these changes. Advocates of the methods of the cloister and the classroom defended their beliefs about how texts ought to be read, written, and taught. New audiences and concerns for preaching also demanded alternative methods of reading and commentary, as evangelists needed quick reference to doctrinal proofs, supporting authorities, and hor tatory maxims (Rouse 201-28). Changes in institutional settings for learn ing accompanied these transitions, as the intimacy of the claustral mentor/ novice relationship gave way to the contentious discussion of the urban cathedral schools, where increasing numbers of students sought to acquire skills that the traditional monastic education could not or would not pro vide. A brief review of these traditional conventions of reading and interpreta tion will demonstrate how Hildegard employs them in her visions. Tradi tional lectio involves a slow process of internalization, in which the words of the sacred page are internalized, or "eaten," through ruminative reading and then "inscribed" on the body through the reader's conformity to their didac tic content.7 William of St. Thierry explains this notion to the brothers at Mont Dieu in The Golden Epistle: "Some part of your daily reading should also each day be committed to memory, taken as it were into the stomach, to be more carefully digested and brought up again for frequent rumination..." (52). His Meditations demonstrates the function of rumination in his own devotional reading, as he likens the internalization of the written word to the consumption of the body and blood of Christ (as the unwritten Word) in the sacrament of the Eucharist: [a]s your clean beasts, we there regurgitate the sweet things stored within our memory, and chew them in our mouths like cud for the renewed and ceaseless work of our salvation. That done, we put away again in that same memory what you have done, what you have suffered for our sake. When you say to the longing soul: 'Open your mouth wide and I will fill it,' and she tastes and sees your sweetness in the great Sacrament that surpasses understanding, then she is made that which she eats, bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh. (142) Bernard's Sermons on the Song of Songs similarly illustrates the contempla tive orientation of monastic lectio divina. Preaching on the Canticle's alle gorical representation of the soul's relationship to Christ, he demonstrates a 44 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms preference for the spiritual senses of sacred writings over their literal sense, and communicates his desire for an experience of a text's meanings unmediated by the vicissitudes of human language: I have no desire that [Christ] should approach me in [the Old Testament prophets], or address me in their words, for they are 'a watery darkness, a dense cloud'; rather in his own person, let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth'; let him whose presence is full of love, from whom exquisite doctrines flow in streams, let him become *a spring inside me, welling up to eternal life.' (I, p. 9) Perhaps the most well-known of Bernard's devotional constructs, "the kiss" exemplifies the intimate relationship between reader, text, and divine author, which practitioners of lectio typically advocate. It also reveals the monastic tendency to express theological concepts in affective images and scriptural allusions, rather than in the philosophical language favored by the schools. Examples of Reading in the "Declaration" These textual transformations and the polemic that accompanied them have often seemed at a far remove from Hildegard's visionary writing. Her insistent claims that she is "untaught," and her avowed reliance upon her scribes for grammatical advice and rhetorical flourish have often been understood to have insulated her from the tumultuous controversies occur ring in the cloisters and classrooms of Europe. Nevertheless, Hildegard's correspondence reveals the many instances in which both scholastic theolo gians and monastic exegetes called upon Hildegard's prophetic authority in order to resolve their theological disputes. One of Hildegard's monastic cor respondents contrasts her teaching with that offered in the schools by "those [who are] chattering, stuffed with air, [who] make great noise, exhausting themselves over questions and contentions about which they rise up in bat tle, not understanding the things they say ... they ensnare themselves and others ... in the frayed cords of contention" (Guiberti XVIII: 139-59). Rather, he observes, Hildegard, "not knowing the literal senses of texts, namely, the differences or agreements of cases, figures, genera, numbers, grades, or other things ... shines forth... understanding of the scriptures" (XVIII:215-9). In contrast is a letter from a certain Master of Theology at Paris, who calls upon her to address a vexing question raised by Gilbert de la Poirree "whether God is both paternity and divinity" (Epistola 352-3). Although Hildegard responds in a manner familiar to readers of her visionary works, invoking the authority of the "living light" and casting herself in the role of 45 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms the prophet "untaught by human teaching" (and indeed, the theologian addresses her thus), her treatment of his question shows at least an awareness of the language and methodology of twelfth-century theological disputa tions. After distinguishing briefly between names and substance, temporal ity and eternity, and division and wholeness, Hildegard concludes that God is in fact both divinity and paternity. Moreover, Hildegard was not a neutral observer of the classroom versus cloister controversies, nor was she an unwilling victim of her correspon dents' manipulation. Close attention to the autobiographical elements in the Declaration of her Scivias reveals their exemplary, even polemical function to readers, instructing and exhorting both theologians and exegetes alike in the meditative disciplines of monastic reading, inviting their participation in the monastic textual community in which she participated and the vision ary community of which she was the undisputed leader. The remainder of this essay will treat the three central dimensions of lectio which Hildegard develops in the Declaration. These include the notions that humility and spiritual illumination are prerequisite to a correct interpretation of a sacred text, that a right application of the physical senses can assist and deepen the reader's acquisition of wisdom, and that a leisurely and meditative experi ence of the text allows a reader to internalize fully and then act upon its con tents. The dramatizations of these readerly virtues and interpretive strate gies in the Scivias allow Hildegard to prepare her audience both intellec tually and morally for the complex body of material that follows. The commission that Hildegard receives to record her visions provides an initial link between monastic humility and visionary interpretation. The Heavenly Voice addresses her: O fragile human, ashes of ashes and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear. But since you are timid in speaking, and simple in expounding, and untaught in writing, speak and write these things not by a human mouth, not by the understand ing of human invention, not by the requirements of human composition, but as you see and hear them on high in the wonders of God. Explain these things in such a way that the hearer, receiving the words of his instructor, may expound them in those words, according to that will, vision, and instruction.8 As I have suggested, when understood literally, this disclaimer is difficult to reconcile with the intellectual achievements represented by the Scivias and Hildegard's other work. Labeled "fragile," "simple," "timid," and "untaught," Hildegard is warned not to rely on her natural powers of apprehension, but rather to record what she sees and hears "in the wonders of God." 46 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Hildegard's humility is readily understandable if situated in the context of cloistered spirituality in general. The importance of humility as a prepara tion for sacra studia can be illustrated in the writing of both medieval and twentieth-century monastic authors. Bernard of Clairvaux insists that a humble self-evaluation must precede any attempt to gain spiritual knowl edge: "[whoever] wants to know the full truth about himself, he will have to get rid of the beam of pride which blocks out the light of the eye, and then set up in his heart a ladder of humility so that he can search into himself" (43). Ambrose Wathen advises, "the Word builds, but only if it is read properly as the Word_The reader is to read with humility, [and] gravity... having a listening heart" (Wathen 211). Paradoxically, this humility bestows upon the reader a radical proximity to the presence of superhuman power. It is this logic, of course, that leads Hildegard to figure herself as paupercula femina forma and then to chastise her ecclesiastic superiors regularly with bruising authority. The double nature of this traditionally monastic virtue receives further elaboration throughout the Scivias. Hildegard positions humility as "the queen of the virtues" (88)9 and explains that Satan is defeated by God's humility rather than by a display of divine force (89). Hildegard also asserts that "humility always groans, weeps, and destroys all offenses, for this is its work" (89). For Hildegard, pride possesses opposing intellectual qualities. Satan's arrogance is figured as an incomprehension that causes damnation: "for [Lucifer]. . . raised himself up in the haughtiness of pride, throwing himself into death and expelling Man from the glory of paradise" (89). Simi larly, the rebellious angels "not wishing to know God, embraced the torpor of dullness" (73). This context explains the monastic logic of Hildegard's protestations of illiteracy. Carefully distinguishing her intelligence from the fallen and empty intellects of the proud-the rebellious and disputatious she assures her audience that she is able to read and interpret the visions cor rectly. The self-descriptive terms "simple," and "untaught" affirm, rather than deny, Hildegard's intellectual practices, legitimating her as a monastic expositor spiritually qualified to speak authoritatively on sacred matters. As a preface to the Scivias, her modeling of this virtue also offers her audience moral and intellectual preparation for their own experience of her text. The miraculous "fiery light" recorded in the "Declaration" further reveals Hildegard's use of interpretive practices associated with traditional monasti cism. She recalls an experience that occurred before the writing of her work: [hjeaven was opened and a fiery light of exceeding brilliance came and permeated my whole brain, and inflamed my whole heart and my whole breast, not like a burning 47 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms but like a warming flame, as the sun warms everything its rays touch. And immediately I knew the meaning of the exposition of the Scriptures, namely the Psalter, the Gospel, arid the other catholic volumes of the Old and New Testaments, although I did not have the interpretations of the words of their texts or the division of the syl lables nor the knowledge of cases and tenses. (59) When seen as a further example of Hildegard's deference, this miracle allows her to separate completely her natural (and thus limited) reading capacity from the visions and interpretations miraculously bestowed upon her. The "fiery light" reveals to Hildegard the meaning of the page without enabling her to understand the written words themselves, a textual version of the gift of tongues, a re-enactment of Pentecost. Yet, once again, the Declaration resists a solely literal reading. An abbess by the time of this experience, Hildegard has probably learned to read long before the "warm ing flame." During this time, as well, she must have been steadily accumu lating, necessarily from written sources, the knowledge revealed in her later medical, musical, and theological works. Her prodigious correspondence with theologians on a variety of difficult questions was also already well underway. Benedicta Ward has described how many monastic accounts of miracles function as polemic and exempla (Ward 196). In a similar fashion, Hilde gard's "instantaneous literacy" both legitimates her own spiritual authority and offers her experience as a model for monastic readers. For many medieval writers, stretching from Augustine to Hildegard's older contempo rary, Hugh of Saint Victor, a divine illumination is required for any full understanding of a sacred text. Her miracle alludes to this conventional doc trine, signaling a transformation from the activity of the natural intellect, unable to understand the full significance of signs, to that of the regenerated mind, capable of grasping and acting on a more complete knowledge of God. James Orthmann demonstrates how Hildegard's use of light imagery draws on the traditions established by earlier monastic theologians who use it to convey similar intellectual awakenings. Gregory the Great offers a striking depiction of St. Benedict's illumination: "in beholding God's light, [Saint] Benedict's mind is expanded in God so that the soul is lifted beyond crea tion, even beyond herself... the light not only effects an interior illumina tion, but is the vehicle for God's self-revelation in the cosmos" (Orthmann 61). Likewise, in the Declaration this experience testifies to the fullness of Hildegard's ability to grasp the spiritual sense in the material text. The illu mination allows her to pass beyond a literal understanding of the signs - the "division of syllables... [and] the knowledge of cases and tenses." Affirming Hildegard's ability to grasp the visions through "inner sight" and "inner 48 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms hearing," it also encourages her readers to seek divine illumination in order to comprehend "the deep profundity of scriptural [and visionary] exposition" (61). As Hildegard insists, "every creature is illumined by the brightness of [God's] light" (94). Reading the Visions After demonstrating these spiritual qualities associated with monastic reading, the Declaration also provides a key to the structure of the subse quent allegoresis. Hildegard characterizes her deepening experience of spiritual mysteries by establishing a three-stage process familiar to practi tioners of lectio: "I wrote these things ... as I saw, heard and understood them" (vidi, audivi, et percepi).10 This sequence both orders the physical senses engaged in monastic reading and establishes a hierarchy for the literal and spiritual meanings that are the result of sacra studia. Hildegard's exposi tions typically begin with descriptions of the images that she sees. These cor respond to the "letter," "sign," or literal stage of allegoresis. By a process of association, Hildegard then amplifies the visual material, adding references to scriptural passages and commenting on natural phenomena and Church doctrine. These references often function on a typological or anagogical level. Finally, Hildegard closes her expositions with the moral conclusions that she draws, which are for her, as for many monastic interpreters, the goal of interpretation. For example, Vision II of Book I begins with explanation of its images (the fiery lamps and the brilliant splendor). Her explication then glosses the biblical account of the Fall, reiterates Ezekiel's prophetic exhortation to penance, and ends by urging her audience to "pursue humility and charity, [since] armed with them, you shall not fear the Devil's snares but shall have everlasting life" (90). Descriptions of individual images within the larger visions also typically follow this threefold pattern. Glossing the "pit of great breadth and depth" (75), Hildegard identifies it as Hell, digresses to discuss the fall of Satan, predicts that "Gehenna is ready for those who have impeni tently forgotten God in their hearts" (76), and then exhorts "let the faithful flee from the Devil and love God, casting away evil works and adorning good works with the beauty of penitence" (76). These exegetical levels function similarly in Hildegard's description of the Synagogue, in Vision V of Book I. First the image is described: "I saw the image of a woman, pale from her head to her navel and black from her navel to her feet; her feet were red, and around her feet was a cloud of purest white ness" (133). The clarifying allegorical sense follows, as the Heavenly Voice 49 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms distinguishes between the Old Law and the New Law: "On the people of the Old Testament God placed the austerity of the Law in enjoining the circum cision of Abraham; which He then turned into sweet Grace when He gave His Son to those who believed in the truth of the Gospel, and anointed with the oil of mercy those who had been wounded by the yoke of the Law" (133). Finally, Hildegard reveals the moral application: "For I have taken from you the harshness of the exterior Law and given you the sweetness of spiritual doctrine and in it shown you all My mysteries in Myself; but you have deserted Me" (136). Nonetheless, although Hildegard's work usually moves from the literal image to biblical associations and then to moral exhortation, this pattern is neither mechanical nor formulaic. She seems to follow Hugh of Saint Victor on this point, as he insists in Didascalicon that various texts emphasize one or another of the allegorical senses: "even if a triple meaning can appropriately be assigned in many passages... it is either difficult or impossible to see it every where ..." (151). Her work resembles most twelfth-century exegesis, in which the literal and moral senses are sometimes mingled and the three- or four-part movement frequently operates within the pattern it establishes. As a result, the reader's prolonged exposure to the difficulties of the text allows for, or demands, a recreation of the vision, while the complex components are sorted and assimilated. As Brian Stock observes, "the monastic reader engaged his mind and his senses, he rehearsed, revivified, and ultimately relived the expe rience which created the mystical state" (Stock, Implications 409). It is this sensory aspect of Hildegard's interpretive model that suggests most overtly her employment of monastic practices of reading. As her Ber nardine references to "the kiss" and her repeated appeals to the "watchful eyes and attentive ears" of her readers demonstrate, Hildegard recommends an experience of the visions as text that closely resembles monastic lectio. Leclerq reminds us that "in the Middle Ages... [the monks] read... not as today, principally with the eyes, but with the lips, pronouncing what they saw, and with the ears, listening to the words pronounced, hearing what is called the Voice of the pages.'" (Leclerq 15). Like the practitioners of monastic lectio which Leclerq describes, Hildegard frequently urges her audience to engage the physical senses in their efforts to "know the ways." She repeatedly maintains the mystical possibilities of devoutly internalized human language: [i]n a word there is sound, force, and breath. It has sound that it may be heard, mean ing that it may be understood, and breath that it may be pronounced. In the sound, then, observe the Father, Who manifests all things with ineffable power; in the mean ing, the Son, Who was miraculously begotten of the Father; and in the breath, the 50 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Holy Spirit, Who sweetly burns in Them. But where no sound is heard, no meaning used and no breath is lifted, there no word will be understood; so also the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not divided from one another, but do Their works together (164). This observation, which poses a conjunction between the divine Word and human words, offers a clear example of how the physical senses can alert the reader to the spiritual truths inhabiting the material text.11 To this end, she reports the heavenly voice's urging: "let the one who has ears sharp to hear inner meanings ardently love My reflection and pant after My words, and inscribe them in his soul and conscience" (339). She also says, "whoever has knowledge in the Holy Spirit and wings of faith, let this one not ignore My admonition but taste it, embrace it, and receive it in his soul" (69) and "let the one who sees with watchful eyes and hears with attentive ears welcome with a kiss My mystical words, which proceed from Me Who am life" (165). Ending her explications of each vision with these exhortations to sacra studio, Hildegard provides a closure that (paradoxically) also prompts them to begin imaginatively recreating and assimilating the teachings that she conveys. Finally, Hildegard envisions the result of monastic lectio as not only her readers' discernment of God's truth, but also their action in accordance with it. In the Scivias, she urges her readers to engage the "watchful eyes" and "attentive ears" and to inscribe her visionary words in their souls. The result ing interaction of senses, intellect, and text produces an "incarnational" expe rience: inscribed in the memory through oral and aural repetition, the words become flesh. Ideally, they then express themselves in virtuous acts. As Hildegard insists, "he who strongly does the good he ardently desires shall dance in the true exultation of the joy of salvation, for while in the body he yet loves the mansion of those who run in the way of truth and turn aside from lying error" (143). For her, as well as for other monastic readers, cor rect interpretation of a text is inseparable from physical conformity to its content. Consequently, Hildegard's characterizations of herself as illiterate and uneducated can only be properly understood within the broader context of monastic readerly values and even polemical strategies. Contextualizing her Scivias in the cloister versus classroom controversies of the twelfth-century provides a fresh perspective on Hildegard's oft-cited protestation: but what I see in a vision, I do not know, since I am uneducated and have been taught only to read out letters in all simplicity. That which I write I see and hear, and I do not set down any words other than those that I hear... for in this vision, I am not taught to write as the philosophers write.. . . (Kraft 123) 51 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Using the medieval commonplace "teaching by word and example," the Declaration of the Scivias shows its author's reformist rejection of the newer methods of textual analysis taught in the schools, advocating instead the pur suit of humility, divine illumination, and meditation. Newman has argued that "Hildegard's is a world in which neither the distinctions of the school men, nor the negations of the apophatic doctors, nor the raptures of the nup tial mystics have any place..." (Newman 15). Yet, given the atmosphere of intellectual and institutional transformation that contextualizes the Scivias, as well as the public roles of its author, the overt absence of such counter discourses is conspicuous. Clearly, in both substance and method, Hildegard's allegoresis teaches the reader to experience the text and the world through sacra studio, in the same way that she experiences her visions. She advocates a reading of the text that engages the senses, resulting in an "incarnational" experience in which the sacred text becomes inscribed in the reader and expresses itself in outer actions. The unitive state (of divine wisdom, human intellect, and virtuous action) initiated by this experience forms the basis of Hildegard's institutional agenda, as well as her visionary poetics. Anne Clark Bartlett The University of Iowa Notes 1. This essay expands a paper presented at a session sponsored by the International Hildegard von Bingen Society, at the 23th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, May 1988. The author gratefully acknowl edges the support and suggestions of Valerie Lagorio during its preparation. 2. Numerous studies have examined the relationships between Hildegard's thought and the work of other medieval theologians. For varying opinions see Barbara New man, Sister of Wisdom (Berkeley, 1987); Hans Liebeschutz, Das allegorische Weltbild der Heiligen Hildegard von Bingen (Berlin, 1934); Christel Meier, "Zwei Modelle von Allegorie im 12 Jahrhundert: das allegorische Verfahren Hildegards von Bingen und Alans von Lille," in Formen und Funktionen der Allegorie, ed. W. Haug (Stuttgardt, 1979), 70-89). 3. "Miraculous literacy" is a phenomenon often associated with holy women. Chris tina Mirabilis, for example, "... had been completely illiterate from birth, yet she understood all Latin and fully knew the meaning of Holy Scripture." Thomas of Can timpre, The Life of Christina Mirabilis, trans. Margot H. King (Toronto, 1986) 31. However, her biographer is careful to note that this experience does not establish Christina as the leader of a textual or visionary community, as it does Hildegard: "When she was asked very obscure questions by certain spiritual friends, she would explain them very openly, but she did this most unwillingly and rarely for she said that to expound Holy Scriptures belonged to the clergy and not to her" (31). On gen 52 This content downloaded from 132.174.251.250 on Mon, 21 Jan 2019 19:49:14 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms eral questions of literacy and cultural authority, see Lynn Staley Johnson, "The Trope of the Scribe and the Question of Literary Authority in the Works of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe," Speculum 66 (1991): 820-38. 4. I am using Brian Stock's definition of a "textual community" as "simply a text, an interpreter, and a public." See "Medieval Literacy, Linguistic Theory, and Social Organization," New Literary History 16 (1984-5) 13-29. Newman also points out that "much of Hildegard's activity was directed toward monastic reform." Sister of Wisdom, 30. 5. I discuss this issue at length in "Commentary, Polemic, and Prophecy in Hilde gard of Bingen's Solutiones Triginta Octo Quaestionum," Viator 23 (1992), forth coming. See also Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, Reformist Apocalypticism and Tiers Plozv man/ Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature VII (Cambridge, 1900), 26-75. 6. See From Cloister to Classroom: Monastic and Scholastic Approaches to Truth, ed. E. Rozanne Elder. The Spirituality of Western Christendom III (Kalamazoo, 1986); Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, 1964); G. R. Evans, Old Arts and New Theology: the Beginnings of Theology as an Academic Discip line (Oxford, 1980); and Stephen Ferruolo, The Origins of the University: The Schools of Paris and Their Critics 1100-1215 (Princeton, 1985). 7. Stock, The Implications of Literacy, 405. See also Leclerq, 71-88. 8. Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, trans. Mother Columba Hart Miraculous Literacy and Textual Communities, page 21 and Jane Bishop (New York: Paulist Press, 1990), 59.1 have used Hart's and Bishop's translation of the Scivias, except when (as indicated) my argument demands a literal rendering of the Latin text. For the critical edition of Scivias, see Adelgundis Fuhrkotter and Angela Carleveris, eds. Corpus Christianorum: Continuatio Mediaevalis, XLIII-XLIIIA (Turnholt, 1978). 9. This paradox helps explain Hildegard's insistence that she and her nuns wear sumptuous wedding apparel at convent masses, a luxury for which she received some criticism. 10. Hart and Bishop translate this "as I heard and received them" (p. 61), which misses the three-stage process that is characteristic of Hildegard's understanding of spiritual cognition. Cf. CCCM XLIII.6.95-6. 11. Hildegard's Lingua ignota further demonstrates her desire for what Jeffrey T. Schnapp calls "a state of absolute linguistic plenitude." 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