Hildegard of Bingen
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Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was one of the most unusual people of the twelfth century. She was the first of the long tradition of female visionary mystics who constituted one of the most singular phenomena of the Middle Ages. And, at a time when women had almost no access to public life, Hildegard was famous for her writings, corresponded with the pope and many of the most important men in Europe, headed her own convent, traveled and preached orthodox Christianity against various heresies, and composed liturgical music. From a twentieth-century point of view Hildegard might seem like a distant predecessor of the fully enfranchised woman who is today's ideal. But in order to understand her life and works it is necessary to view them in the context of her own times. For, in spite of the unusual nature of her gifts of vision and prophecy, Hildegard was a staunch supporter of the status quo who viewed women's position in religious life, in society, and in nature in much the same way as the rest of her Church. Yet Hildegard's life was also a specific response to the peculiar condition of the women of her time who, while they were human beings with souls subject to damnation or redemption, were also unable to take part fully in the spiritual life of the Church. Hildegard was born at Bermersheim in Reinhessen in 1098. She was a "consecrated child," the last of ten children of a noble family who was offered "as a kind of tithe to God" when, at the age of eight, she was
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eral tenor of religion in the middle of the twelfth century that had particular relevance for women. Bernard of Clairvaux was one of the leading figures in the raising of new spiritual expectations among the people. He taught that God was not merely a terrible, majestic power distant from the temporal world but an active presence in human life. People's notions of religious experience were modified by this "narrowing of the perceived distance between the divine and human" and this new conception, which was particularly relevant to women who felt excluded from spiritual life, also "gave sustenance to the desire for a mystical knowledge of God" (Weeks 40).
This explains the popularity of Hildegard's writings. But most later visionaries did not become as active in the world as she did. Hildegard arrived, however, at one of the most urgent moments in the Church's history, a time when "the unity of Christendom appeared to be threatened with impending disaster" (Weeks 45). Increasing urbanization and commerce (with their relative independence from the feudal hierarchy), ongoing conflicts between temporal rulers and the popes, Peter Abelard's skeptical criticism of authority in theological and intellectual matters, and the rise o
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1981
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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