During this experience, she realized that she understood the significance of all the books in the Bible--an intuitive empowerment that is a frequent aspect of this sort of ecstatic experience (ThiTbaux 322).
She resisted the command to write as long as she could, but when she became ill, she discovered that she began to recover at exactly the rate at which she began to record her visions, which she proceeded to do for the next decade. Pope Eugenius III read parts of her first book on her visions, Scivias (Know the Ways), to the Synod of Trier, and personally examined her to ascertain the "authenticity" of her visions. As ThiTbaux (317) says, "She answered his interrogations with truth and simplicity. Once she gained papal approval, she began to be famous."
One may wonder exactly what Eugenius was looking for in order to "ascertain authenticity." It is virtually certain that one of his major concerns would have been whether Hildegard intended her visions to challenge the authority of the church, that is, his authority. Convinced that she was conten
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