Introduction
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) was one of the most widely read apocalyptic prophets of the Middle Ages. In the post-1220 period, she was predominantly known through Gebeno of Eberbach's Pentachronon siue speculum futurorum temporum (Book of Five Times or Mirror of Future Times, ca.1220), an anthology of selections excerpted from her writings and recontextualized to focus on her apocalyptically charged teaching for monks and clerics.Footnote 1 The Pentachronon was repeatedly cited, annotated, and copied in the late-fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as scribes and readers sought to understand contemporary ecclesiastical and political crises within the larger historical narrative and apocalyptic framework for reform and renewal offered by the anthology. Hildegard's reception through the Pentachronon in the later-medieval period has received some attention, especially her readership in England, but the depth of her influence is still not fully understood.Footnote 2 Here I seek to further our understanding of Hildegard's continental reception and influence in the period from 1378 to 1455 by offering a study and critical edition of a little-known abridgment of the Pentachronon that was fashioned in France in reaction to the election of two popes in 1378, Urban VI in Rome and Clement VII in Avignon, and the beginning of the Great Western Schism. I refer to this abridgment as the “Schism Extracts.”
The Schism Extracts were popular only within territories belonging to the Avignon obedience during and after the Western Schism (1378–1417), and five of the seven extant witnesses are French prophecy collections, that is, they were created by and/or for French readers. These collections reveal a strong association between Hildegardian apocalyptic discourse and apocalyptic predictions concerning the German Empire, the French monarchy, and the papacy in the 1378–1455 period.Footnote 3 Similar to Hildegard's reception at Oxford, there is compelling evidence that the network of readers and scribes through which the Schism Extracts traveled and that produced the prophecy collections in which they are found involved members of the University of Paris with ties to French interests and the French monarchy during the Schism, including Simon du Bosc (d. 1418), Pierre d'Ailly (1351–1420), and members of religious houses in and around Paris.Footnote 4
Hildegard's Five Times and Schismatic Tribulation in the Pentachronon
The compiler of the Schism Extracts was drawing on a tradition of reading Hildegard as a prophet of schism and reform that began with Gebeno of Eberbach in the early thirteenth century. When Gebeno fashioned the Pentachronon around 1220, his primary concern was to bring about the emendation and correction of his fellow monks and the clergy in light of an imminent schismatic tribulation that Hildegard had prophesied.Footnote 5 To accomplish this task, Gebeno included in his anthology material from Hildegard's epistolary corpus and long excerpts from Book III of Scivias and Part III of the Liber divinorum operum (LDO). The latter two include Hildegard's visions of present and future history up to the death of the Antichrist, a period that she broke down into a succession of five times (from which Gebeno took Pentachronon for the first of his titles).Footnote 6 Each of the times is represented by an animal: the Fiery Dog, Tawny Lion, Pale Horse, Black Pig, and Grey Wolf (canis igneus, leo fuluus, equus pallidus, niger porcus, and lupus griseus).
In the Scivias, Hildegard briefly described the general character of each time, but in the LDO she provided an expanded description with specific details about the events to take place and the players that would be involved. During each time the church would suffer tribulation or spiritual decline brought about by both internal corruption and external forces, such as heretics, heathens, and, ultimately, the Antichrist. Yet Hildegard's narrative is not entirely one of increasing decline before the Last Judgment, for she also predicted two moments of dramatic renewal marked by increased prophetic illumination before the Last Judgment, one during the time of the Tawny Lion and another during the time of the Pale Horse, giving her apocalypticism a meliorist edge.Footnote 7 Each of these moments would come in the wake of tribulation and so reading across Hildegard's five times in the LDO there are three cycles of decline, tribulation, and renewal, with the final cycle encompassing the terror of the Antichrist and looking forward to ultimate renewal after his death and the Last Judgment. The compiler of the Schism Extracts was especially interested in two moments Hildegard described in the LDO, as we will see.
The schismatic tribulation that Gebeno considered imminent (he calculated a date of 1256 as the likely time of its occurrence)Footnote 8 was part of the first of Hildegard's cycles. It would mark the transition from the present time of the Fiery Dog to the subsequent time of the Tawny Lion and be immediately followed by widespread renewal. This tribulation would see heretical false religious, as precursors to the Antichrist, seducing lay lords and causing the true religious to be expelled from their monasteries, churches, and lands. One of the striking features of the Pentachronon is how Gebeno drew from Hildegard's letters to flesh out the LDO’s narrative; Hildegard's famous letter to the clergy of Cologne was central to his understanding of the first and fast-approaching tribulation.Footnote 9 In this epistolary prophecy Hildegard described a tribulation specific to the secular clergy, but, by inserting it into the LDO narrative along with descriptions of trials to befall monastic communities found in Hildegard's other letters, Gebeno was able to present the Cologne scenario as equally threatening to monks.Footnote 10
As a form of divine chastisement and correction, the tribulation would lead to the reform and renewal of monks, secular clergy and, indeed, the whole of Christian society; there would be “unheard of ordinations of justice and peace” causing people to wonder “because peace has been given to them before the day of judgment.”Footnote 11 According to the LDO narrative, the hallmark of this renewed society and the reason for its peace would be increased prophetic insight with the coming of “strong men in great prophecy”:
For that peace which preceded the arrival of the incarnation of My Son will be fully perfected in those days because strong men in great prophecy will then rise up so that indeed every seed of justice will then flower in the sons and in the daughters of humanity.
Pax enim illa que aduentum incarnationis filii mei precesserat illis diebus pleniter perficietur, quoniam fortes uiri in magna prophetia tunc surgent, ita ut etiam omne germen iusticie in filiis et in filiabus hominum tunc florebit.Footnote 12
While this first of Hildegard's predictions concerning future prophets in the LDO was not included in the Schism Extracts, her prediction for the time of the Pale Horse was; however, in this second instance the rise in prophetic insight is slightly different. It is not exclusive to certain “strong men” but, as a fulfillment of Joel 2:28 (“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy …”), includes “many prophets and many wise ones”:
Indeed, in those days there will be many prophets and many wise ones, thus so that even the hidden things of the prophets and of the other scriptures will be made fully plain and their sons and daughters will prophesy, just as it was predicted a long time ago. … Also, they will prophesy in the same spirit by which the prophets once announced the secrets of God and in the likeness of the teaching of the apostles whose teaching was beyond all human intellect.
In ipsis etiam diebus multi prophete ac plurimi sapientes erunt, ita ut etiam occulta prophetarum et aliarum scripturarum sapientibus tunc ad plenum pateant et filii et filie eorum prophetent, uelut ante multa tempora predictum est. … In eodem quoque spiritu illi prophetabunt quo prophete secreta Dei olim annuntiauerunt et in similitudine doctrine apostolorum, quorum doctrina supra omnem humanum intellectum fuit.Footnote 13
The spiritual leadership offered by Hildegard's future prophets stems from their exegetical prophetic gifting, as the “hidden things” of the scriptures are revealed through them.Footnote 14
Hildegard's idea that unmediated spiritual insight will increase in a future age after a tribulation and that it would be one of the hallmarks of that age has much in common with the better-known teachings of Joachim of Fiore (ca. 1135–1202).Footnote 15 Where Hildegard foresaw two stages of increase in prophetic insight over the course of five times, Joachim prophesied a dramatic increase during his third status or age when spiritual leadership would be provided by certain “spiritual men” (uiri spirituales) endowed with “spiritual understanding” (intellectus spiritualis). Like Hildegard's future prophets, Joachim's spiritual men would be given unmediated understanding of the meaning of the scriptures. Also similar to Hildegard's scenario, Joachim's third age would be one of widespread renewal and peace, would come after a great tribulation (for Joachim it would be at the hands of Antichrist), and would end with the advent of a final Antichrist.Footnote 16 Parallels between the teachings of the Pentachronon and Joachite works were recognized by medieval readers from as early as the 1240s when Hildegard and Joachim first began to be cited together as prophetic authorities; these parallels were also recognized by two of the fourteenth-century authors closely associated with the Schism Extracts, John of Rupescissa († ca. 1365) and Pierre d'Ailly, and are likely one of the reasons that the Pentachronon and Schism Extracts were copied alongside Joachite works in the prophecy collections discussed below.Footnote 17
By the late fourteenth century, the Pentachronon was available in numerous versions; the version used by the compiler of the Schism Extracts was one of the earliest and most popular adaptations, completed by 1250. The opening passage from Hildegard's writings in this version, a brief excerpt from LDO II.1.9, begins with “Cum peccata,” and so for ease of reference I will refer to this version as the PentachrononCp or PCp.Footnote 18 The editor of the PentachrononCp followed Gebeno's reading of Hildegard closely and used two short texts composed by Gebeno on the schismatic tribulation as the opening and closing texts of the anthology (something Gebeno himself had not done): Ista dabuntur and Item quando.Footnote 19 Ista dabuntur is a short piece comprising just a rubric, “These indications will be given before that schism in which bishops and the clergy will be expelled from their own places” (Ista dabuntur indicia ante scisma illud sub quo episcopi et clerici de locis propriis expellentur); and the brief excerpt from the LDO beginning with “Cum peccata” which further describes the disendowment and expulsion of ecclesiastical persons. Item quando provides Gebeno's calculation of 1256 for the start of the tribulation based on his interpretations of Hildegard's prophecies.Footnote 20 In addition to using Gebeno's short pieces on the schismatic tribulation as bookends for the PCp, the editor also divided the work into three books and included a complete copy of the Cologne letter where Gebeno had only included an excerpt. The popularity of the PCp among fourteenth- and fifteenth-century French readers is evidenced not only by the creation of the Schism Extracts from it but also by the fact that it was included in its entirety in three of the prophecy collections discussed below.
The texts chosen for the Schism Extracts reveal that the compiler followed Gebeno's and the PCp editor's interest in Hildegard's presentation of reform within the context of a schismatic tribulation. They also shared an interest in the promise of renewal associated with increased prophetic insight. However, the compiler of the Schism Extracts emphasized aspects of Hildegard's apocalyptic discourse specific to their late fourteenth-century concerns: the role of the laity in ecclesiastical reform, the breakdown of universalizing ecclesiastical and political hierarchies, namely, the papal church and the Holy Roman Empire, and the role of councils in bringing about reform. The Extracts represent a new chapter in the reception of Hildegard as an apocalyptic prophet, one in which Gebeno's presentation of her teachings was reshaped for French readers involved in Schism-era debates.
The Schism Extracts: Contents and Themes
The Schism Extracts include four excerpts from the PentachrononCp: Ista dabuntur, two excerpts from the LDO, and an excerpt from the Cologne letter.Footnote 21 Introducing these excerpts is a brief quotation from Gebeno's prologue indicating that Hildegard's prophecies received official papal and conciliar approval:
These things which follow were extracted from the books of Saint Hildegard the prophet whose books were received and canonized by Pope Eugene at the Council of Trier with many bishops and prelates presiding, as many Frankish as Teutonic, and Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux.
Hec que secuntur extracta sunt de libris Sancte Hildegardis prophetisse, qui libri recepti et canonizati sunt a Papa Eugenio in Concilio Treverensi, presentibus multis episcopis et prelatis, tam Francorum quam Theutonicorum, et Sancto Bernardo Clarevallensi Abbate.Footnote 22
With Hildegard's orthodoxy and papal approval thus announced, this abridgment continues with Ista dabuntur, which has not only Gebeno's original rubric but in the majority of witnesses is also annotated with “the division of the church and the destruction of the nobles” (diuisio ecclesie et destructio nobilium).Footnote 23
Displaced from their original context within the narrative of Hildegard's five animal times, the events described in the two excerpts from the LDO are presented as speaking to the same historical moment. The first excerpt is a passage that was often excerpted and copied on its own in the later Middle Ages, the “Iusticia prophecy.”Footnote 24 It is taken from Hildegard's description of her first time, that of the Fiery Dog, and it was already presented as part of the narrative of the proximate schismatic tribulation by Gebeno in his original Pentachronon and in the PCp.
The “Iusticia prophecy” begins by describing the avarice of the clergy and states that “the entire church grows dry through them” (omnis ecclesia per eos arescit).Footnote 25 This is corrected through the forced disendowment of the church at the hands of the laity who eventually, despite the resistance of the “pontifical dignitaries and all the monastic dignitaries in habit remaining under them” (pontificales dignitates et omnes spirituales habitu sub eis degentes), effect clerical humiliation and repentance.Footnote 26 The result is a properly governed clergy:
The greater as well as the lesser of both people [that is, of the laity and the clergy] will ordain a clergy and make sure they have the necessities and lack neither in food nor in clothing.
Tam maiores quam minores utriusque populi clerum ita ordinabunt et ea que illi sunt necessaria hoc modo disponent, ut nec in uictu nec in uestitu defectum habeant.Footnote 27
With material wealth properly allocated and superfluous temporal goods removed from the clergy, society flourishes and “each and every order stands in its rectitude” (quisque ordo in sua rectitudine consistat).Footnote 28 Annotations to this passage in the Schism Extracts draw the reader's attention to the role of the laity, pointing out how “the restricted church will be humbled before the laity” (ecclesia coram laicis coacta humiliabitur) and how “the laity will provide necessary, but not superfluous things for the church” (laici prouident ecclesie necessaria sed non superflua).Footnote 29 Where the “Iusticia prophecy” speaks of the lay aristocracy working on its own to bring about reform and renewal in the face of clerical resistance, the second passage taken from the LDO that immediately follows in the Extracts depicts the laity working in concert with the clergy.
The second passage from the LDO is taken from Hildegard's depiction of the time of the Pale Horse, that is, what was originally her third time. In the full text as found in the PCp, Hildegard had predicted that the disruptions of pagan invaders and subsequent ecclesiastical pollution at the hand of the clergy would instigate the need for further ecclesiastical reform. However, the passage included in the Extracts begins later in Hildegard's narrative where she speaks of the decline and dissolution of the Roman imperium and the papal church and the subsequent flourishing of prophets and prophecy cited above. The events described in this passage are presented as though occurring simultaneously with the events described in the previous passage in the Schism Extracts even though they were distanced from the near future in the PCp.
In this second passage from the LDO the downfall of papacy and empire lead to a reformed society arranged into radically different secular and ecclesiastical hierarchies — a society founded on ancient customs and guided by the spiritual leadership of Hildegard's future prophets. The secular organization that forms after the “kings and princes of many peoples who were at first subjected to the Roman imperium separate themselves from it” (reges et principes multorum populorum qui prius romano imperio subiecti erant se ab illo separabunt) is described as follows:
Each and every province and each people will then establish a king for themselves to whom they will be obedient, saying that the breadth of the Roman imperium was more burdensome to them than useful.
Nam unaqueque prouincia et quisque populus regem sibi tunc constituet cui obediat, dicens quod latitudo romani imperii magis sibi oneri fuit quam utilitati.Footnote 30
This decentralization of the secular hierarchy, annotated in the Extracts as the “destruction of the Roman Empire” (destructio romani imperii), is followed by the decentralization of the ecclesiastical hierarchy: “but after the imperial sceptre will have been divided in this way it will not be possible to repair it, then indeed the mitre of apostolic honor will be divided” (Sed postquam imperiale sceptrum hoc modo diuisum fuerit nec reparari poterit tunc etiam infula apostolici honoris diuidetur).Footnote 31 Just as people will choose more local lay rulers, so too, in place of the papacy “they will prefer for themselves other masters and archbishops under another name in diverse regions” (aliosque magistros et archiepiscopos sub alio nomine in diuersis regionibus sibi preferent).Footnote 32 This “destruction and annihilation of the papacy” (destructio et adnichilacio [adnihilacio] papatus), as some annotations in the Extracts put it, leaves the bishopric of Rome once more governing only Rome and “a few places adjacent to it” (pauca illi adiacentia loca).Footnote 33
By insisting that the papacy cannot survive as a universal institution without the corresponding secular institution of the Roman imperium, Hildegard suggests that a strong political presence is needed to ensure the unity of the papal church. This intimate relationship between secular and ecclesiastical institutions continues when both hierarchies are transformed into more localized arrangements that mirror one another as outlined above. It is also seen in Hildegard's prediction that the new social order results from cooperation between the laity and the clergy. She writes that it “comes about in part by the incursion of wars, in part by the common counsel and consent of both spiritual and secular peoples” (ex parte per bellorum incursionem euenient ex parte per commune consilium et consensum et spiritualium et secularium populorum).Footnote 34 In two manuscript witnesses of the Schism Extracts, including one of the earliest, this is annotated as referring to a general council (consilium generale) and in a third manuscript as a description of secular and ecclesiastical leaders together deciding the fate of the papacy (clerus et populus utriusque hierarchie destructioni iuste consentiet).Footnote 35 The inclusion of this passage from the LDO and the annotations added to it point to a preoccupation with the reforming potential of councils and of cooperation between the lay aristocracy and ecclesiastical leaders on the part of the compiler and subsequent scribes of the Extracts.
This second excerpt from the LDO continues with Hildegard's further description of the reformed society flourishing under proper secular and ecclesiastical government and concludes with the passage describing the advent of “many prophets and wise ones” (multi prophete et sapientes) providing spiritual leadership quoted above.Footnote 36 This, too, was of interest to the scribes of the Extracts who drew their readers' attention to Hildegard's prediction of widespread and unmediated spiritual insight with annotations; three scribes annotated the passage with “there will be prophets and wise ones in the restored church” (prophetes et sapientes erunt in ecclesia renouata) and a fourth with “prophets in the Roman church” (prophete in ecclesia romana).Footnote 37 The final excerpt included in the Extracts from the Cologne letter does not mention the rise of prophecy, but it nevertheless shares the same melioristic movement and is presented as speaking to the same historical moment.
The passage selected from the Cologne letter begins with a description of the clergy's failure to carry out their pastoral duties. Their failure allows for a heretical sect, sent by the Devil, to rise up and seduce the lay princes (maioribus principibus secularibus se coniunget) into following them.Footnote 38 Thus allied with the laity, this group, who are identified as the forerunners of Antichrist, force the correction of the clergy. The success of the seducing heretics, moreover, leads those “who at that time are erring in the catholic faith to fear those men [that is, the seducers] … and as much as they are able they will imitate them” (qui eo tempore in fide catholica errant istos homines timebunt … et quantum poterunt eos imitabuntur).Footnote 39 The prophecy concludes with the deceivers (deceptores) revealed for what they are, hunted down and killed by the “princes and others of high rank … just like rabid wolves” (principes et alii maiores … uelut rabidos lupos).Footnote 40 Although at first deceived, the laity retain the positive role in reform seen in the LDO passages by recognizing their error and suppressing the heretics. The excerpt ends on a hopeful note for a fully reformed clergy: “then will be the dawn of justice, and your last things will be better than your former things … and as the purest gold you will shine and thus you will remain for a long time” (tunc aurora iusticie et nouissima uestra meliora prioribus erunt … et quasi purissimum aurum fulgebitis et sic per longa tempora permanebitis).Footnote 41
The Schism Extracts conclude with a postscript:
These few things from the books of Saint Hildegard which are recounted above as a warning are descriptions of evils already threatening so that the things that are coming might be less troubling in that they have been foreknown. For, just as blessed Gregory says, “the spears that are seen in advance harm less. For we bear the evils of this world more tolerably, if we are armed against them by the shield of foreknowledge.”
Hec pauca que de libris Sancte Hildegardis supra memorantur ad cautelam iam imminentium malorum descripta sunt ut eo minus perturbent uenientia quo fuerint prescita. Nam sicut dicit Beatus Gregorius: Iacula que preuidentur minus feriunt. Quia mala mundi huius tolerabilius suscipimus, si contra hec per prescientie clipeum munimur.Footnote 42
The compiler of the Schism Extracts believed that the early signs of the tribulation prophesied by Hildegard were already visible and that she had provided guidance as to what was to come.
The texts selected for the Schism Extracts demonstrate a strong interest in Hildegard's prophecies concerning the role of the laity, councils, heretics, and prophecy. In the Extracts Hildegard is presented as a prophet not only of schism and reform but also of the fate of the Holy Roman Empire and the papacy. This inflection of Hildegard's prophetic persona was further emphasized by French readers in the later-medieval period by her association in prophecy collections with other writers and works concerned with similar ideas. Where Hildegard looked to an end of empire and papacy, however, the collections look to France, the French monarchy, and a future holy pope.
Circulation of the Schism Extracts
The Schism Extracts circulated exclusively among French readers — ecclesiastical, monastic, and lay. Of the Extracts' seven known witnesses, dating from ca. 1379/80 to 1455, six are of certain French provenance while the seventh (and latest) is catalogued as Northern European and could also be French.Footnote 43 Five of the witness, moreover, are prophecy collections and the compilers of these collections were clearly preoccupied with the fate of the papacy and the possibilites for lay aristocratic participation in ecclesiastical reform and renewal. Works included in these collections promote the idea of a holy reforming pope, the pastor angelicus, and the political triumph of the French monarchy, including its role in the reform of the Church and the events of the Last Days.Footnote 44 These include prophetic works such as the Oraculum Cyrilli, the Liber secretorum eventuum (hereafter LSE) by John of Rupescissa, the Libellus of Telesphorus of Cosenza (fl. 1350–1400), and the “Second Charlemagne prophecy.”Footnote 45 The Extracts were also copied alongside Joachite prophecies (including the Super Hieremiam, De oneribus prophetarum, and the Expositio super Sibillis et Merlino), the prophecies of Merlin, and those of the Sibyls — works associated with the Pentachronon since the thirteenth century.Footnote 46 A closer look at the circulation of the Extracts points to their origin and circulation among masters at the University of Paris who had close ties to the French monarchy and were heavily involved in the Schism-era councils and debate, particularly Simon du Bosc and Pierre d'Ailly. They also circulated among religious houses in and around Paris, many of which had members at the university, and one copy eventually found its way into the library of Charles of Orleans.
Simon du Bosc and Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, cod. 1355
One of the earliest dated witnesses of the Schism Extracts is a prophecy collection found in Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, cod. 1355 (R). The Rouen manuscript contains one of the first prophecy collections compiled in France in the wake of the Schism; it has been dated to ca. 1379–1380 and is from the Abbey of Jumièges.Footnote 47 Hélène Millet has shown that this collection belonged to Simon du Bosc (d.1418), abbot of Jumièges from 1391 and member of the law faculty at the University of Paris.Footnote 48 Simon participated in a number of councils held during the Schism, including those called by the king of France in 1395, 1396, and 1398 and the church councils of Pisa (1409), Rome (1416–1413), and Constance (1414–1418). At Constance, Simon acted as one of the judges in the trial of Jan Hus, dying shortly thereafter in 1418.
Among the prophetic writings contained in R is a collection found on folios 87v to 93v that was copied by three different scribes; the Schism Extracts (fols. 92v–93v) were copied by a single scribe, very likely Simon himself, who also copied a summary of John of Rupescissa's LSE (fols. 90r–92r) and annotated the prophecies on the preceding folios.Footnote 49 These preceding folios contain a group of prophecies copied by another scribe under the running title Alique prophetiae seu prenosticationes de rege Francie (fols. 87v–89v), some of which, the scribe claims, were found in a book composed by the Catalan physician and author, Arnold of Villanova (d. 1311); a manuscript that belonged to Simon's uncle, Nicolas du Bosc, who was the bishop of Bayeux from 1395 to 1408.Footnote 50 Among the contents listed in Nicolas du Bosc's library is a manuscript containing Prophetia sancte Hildegardis which was likely a copy of the Pentachronon.Footnote 51 This raises the possibility that Simon du Bosc was the compiler of the Schism Extracts, perhaps working from his uncle's copy of the Pentachronon and adding the postscript with which they conclude.Footnote 52 It is also possible, however, that Simon was copying from an earlier exemplar. In either case, the association between the Hildegardian Extracts, pro-French apocalyptic texts, and the prophetic writings of John of Rupescissa seen in Simon du Bosc's collection is also found in other prophecy collections containing the Extracts.Footnote 53 A closer look at the thematic continuities between the Rouen summary of John of Rupescissa's LSE and the Schism Extracts, as well as John's own use of Hildegardian prophecy, reveals more about the association between Hildegard and apocalyptic expectations for the papacy and France in the fourteenth century.
John of Rupescissa, a Franciscan Spiritual, developed a detailed apocalyptic program while imprisoned at the papal palace in Avignon from 1349 until his death around 1365.Footnote 54 What distinguished the Franciscan Spirituals from the more conservative Conventual wing of the order was their strict interpretation of the Rule of Francis, principally with respect to poverty, and their apocalyptic spirituality.Footnote 55 They saw in their order the realization of Joachim's uiri spirituales; adapting Joachite discourse, they presented St. Francis as a key figure in ecclesiastical history and a “precursor of the coming age,” that is, Joachim's third status, and believed that the radical evangelical poverty they saw espoused in the Rule of Francis was “the distinctive mark of the true uiri spirituales.”Footnote 56 John's indebtedness to Joachite prophetic discourse is well documented, but he was also a close reader of Hildegard, and many of John's ideas expressed in the LSE summary found in the Rouen collection align with the passages selected for the Schism Extracts.
Like the Extracts, the Rouen summary of the LSE argues for clerical and ecclesiastical reform, particularly a return to evangelical poverty, and speaks of an alliance of secular powers with false Christians (comprising German rulers allied with heretical Franciscans and unreformed prelates in John's work). It also includes an unfavorable prognosis for the German Empire but a positive role for secular ruling authorities, specifically French authorities. The pro-French stance of the Rouen collection is reflected in the number of positive references included in the LSE summary to the role of the French kingdom (imperium Gallicorum), king (rex Francorum), and Maccabean-like soldiers (milites strenui ex semine Gallicorum figurati in fortissimis Machebeis) in the fight against the Antichrist and his allies.Footnote 57 Robert Lerner has even noted that John of Rupescissa's “allusion to a general council comes out more clearly in the Rouen résumé of the LSE than in any of the complete copies,” something that can also be said of Hildegard's obscure reference in the LDO to reforming councils highlighted in the Extracts and annotated in the Rouen collection with “consilium generale.”Footnote 58 A final point of continuity is the belief in an increase in prophetic insight in the post-tribulation reformed church.
As noted earlier, both Hildegardian and Joachite prophecies look forward to a flourishing of spiritual illumination in a future age after a time of tribulation, an idea highlighted in the Schism Extracts. Prophetic insight plays a key role in the renewed church in the LSE summary where a future pope is divinely illuminated. According to John's narrative, after the death of the Antichrist the papal seat will move to Jerusalem and from there a holy pope will hold a series of seven councils.Footnote 59 This holy pope, moreover, will be given the same exegetical gifting as Hildegard's future prophets and Joachim's spiritual men: “God will open [his] understanding so that he comprehends the closed mysteries of the prophets.”Footnote 60 The continuities that the Schism Extracts share with the LSE summary suggest that the Extracts were compiled by someone well versed in John of Rupescissa's apocalyptic program.
This is further supported by John's use of Hildegardian prophecies in his Liber Ostensor, completed in 1356. The tenth tractatus of the Liber Ostensor is entirely devoted to the interpretation of a number of Hildegard's prophecies from the Pentachronon, and the passages that John cites closely align with those found in the Extracts.Footnote 61 John begins by noting the approval of Hildegard's works at the Council of Trier and her association with Bernard of Clairvaux. This demonstrates his familiarity with the passage from Gebeno's prologue that opens the Schism Extracts. The next citation from the Pentachronon is the same text that opens the Schism Extracts: Ista dabuntur (without the rubric). While John discusses material from the Pentachronon beyond what is included in the Schism Extracts (most notably Hildegard's vita of the Antichrist), he does include the two excerpts from the LDO, that is, the “Iusticia prophecy” and the passage describing the dissolution of the German Empire and papacy, leaving out only the last sentence as it is found in the Schism Extracts. Both excerpts from the LDO included by John in the Liber Ostensor, moreover, predict the coming of Hildegard's future prophets during a time of radical renewal and peace. What is more, these three passages occur in the Liber Ostensor in the same order as they are found in the Extracts. John does not, however, discuss or cite the Cologne letter that comprises a major portion of the Extracts.
As José Carlos Santos Paz has shown, there is a fourteenth-century French prophecy collection in a Parisian manuscript that contains works by John copied alongside an abbreviated version of the Pentachronon — one that aligns almost exactly with the passages he cites in the Liber Ostensor and that has the same unique rubrics he reproduces.Footnote 62 Furthermore, this collection contains two works also found in the collections containing the Extracts: the Oraculum Cyrilli with the commentaries of John of Rupescissa and pseudo-Joachim of Fiore and a set of Merline prophecies also with glosses attributed to John of Rupescissa. Despite these similarities, the abbreviated Pentachronon found in this Paris manuscript could not have been the exemplar for the Schism Extracts because it lacks the rubric to Ista dabuntur that the Extracts carry and the excerpt from the Cologne letter.Footnote 63 John of Rupescissa's interest in nearly all of the passages included in the Schism Extracts and the latter's association with his writings in so many manuscripts, including the earliest datable witness, strongly suggests that the compiler of the Extracts was familiar with John's works.
Simon du Bosc clearly fits this profile; however, there were others within the network of French bishops, university masters, and ecclesiastical prelates with a keen interest in the writings of John of Rupescissa.Footnote 64 Whoever produced the Schism Extracts was very likely among the circle of high-ranking churchmen involved in Schism-era politics with connections to the University of Paris and the French royal house. Pierre d'Ailly was one such person and there is evidence that he or someone within his circle produced three of the prophecy collections in which the Extracts were copied.
Pierre d'Ailly and Three French Prophecy Collections
Pierre d'Ailly is a well-known figure of the late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth centuries; he had close ties to the French throne, held a number of bishoprics, and served as chancelor at the University of Paris, eventually becoming cardinal of San Chrysogono in 1411.Footnote 65 Together with Simon du Bosc, Pierre was present at the king's councils of 1395 and 1398, as well as the Council of Pisa, and was a key figure at the Council of Constance, including the trial of Jan Hus. Throughout his career Pierre promoted clerical and ecclesiastical reform and he frequently drew from the Pentachronon and other medieval apocalyptic works in his treatises and sermons.Footnote 66 It is not surprising, then, that the manuscript evidence points to the influence of Pierre d'Ailly in the circulation of the Schism Extracts and the production of three prophecy collections in which they are found.
While the stemma offered below does not give a complete picture of how the Extracts were transmitted and suggests that there were more copies in circulation than are now known, it does show that four of the seven extant witnesses descend from a common ancestor (α). All four of these manuscripts can be connected to Pierre d'Ailly. The first, Angers, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 320 (311) (A), contains an incomplete copy of Pierre's De falsis prophetis II (likely written between 1378 and 1381) which is the only fourteenth-century work in the manuscript except for the Schism Extracts.Footnote 67 As I have discussed elsewhere, this copy of the Extracts has unique annotations that align with Pierre's reading of Hildegardian prophecies, particularly the Cologne letter, in the early 1380s, and the exemplar from which this manuscript was copied could very well go back to a manuscript compiled by him during his final years as a student.Footnote 68 The fact that the Schism Extracts as found in A are closely related to the copies found in three prophecy collections is the first piece of evidence linking Pierre d'Ailly and his circle to the circulation of the Extracts and the compilation of these collections.
A second piece of evidence is the presence of Pierre's Invectiva Ezechielis prophete contra pseudo pastores (Invectiva) in the prophecy collections.Footnote 69 In the Invectiva Pierre adopts the first-person voice of the prophet to explicate Ezekiel 34 and uses this as an occasion to launch a harsh criticism against the “evil pastors” (malos pastores) whom he deems responsible for the Schism and to warn of the consequences that they will suffer in the form of a tribulation. Throughout the work Pierre clearly points to those pastors holding the highest offices of the church, prelates and bishops. In the apocalyptic scenario of the Invectiva, as in the Schism Extracts, the failings of prelates lead to a purifying tribulation that results in ecclesiastical renewal. The work concludes on a hopeful note of expectation for many “good pastors” (boni pastores), particularly for one among them to take over the care of the entire flock. Like John of Rupescissa in the LSE, Pierre looks forward to a future holy, reforming pope. His use of prophecy to argue for the role that such a pope would play in the future reform of the Church shows that he was familiar with the tradition of pastor angelicus prophecies when composing the Invectiva.
Pierre d'Ailly wrote the Invectiva in 1381–82, around the same time that the Extracts were created, and, outside of two fifteenth-century manuscripts devoted to his writings, the only other known witnesses of the Invectiva are prophecy collections containing both the Extracts and the PentachrononCp.Footnote 70 These collections also contain pastor angelicus prophecies, including the Oraculum Cyrilli and the Libellus of Telesphorus of Cosenza. It is worth noting that the Invectiva is not attributed to Pierre in the prophecy collections; no authorial attribution is given. This could well be due to the ban imposed around 1381 (and lasting until the early 1390s) by the French monarchy against any discussion on the part of university masters of how to end the Schism.Footnote 71 The first of the collections dates to precisely this period (fourth quarter of the fourteenth century) and is found in Paris, BNF, lat. 3319 (P); P is one of the earliest witnesses of both the Extracts and the Invectiva.
The collection contained in P is actually the second half of what was originally a larger single-volume collection copied in Paris by a single scribe. This collection is now found in two manuscripts: P and Paris, BNF, lat. 13428, which at one time belonged to the Benedictine monastery of St. Germain-des-Prés in Paris. At some point, P came to the library of Charles of Orleans.Footnote 72 From 1387 until 1411, the abbot of this monastery was one Guillelmus. Guillelmus received his doctorate in theology just a few years after Pierre d'Ailly and there is little doubt that they knew each other. Guillelmus and Pierre participated in the Blanchard affair in the 1380s and were both present, together with Simon du Bosc, at the council of French clergy in 1398.Footnote 73
The collection found in P is closely related to prophecy collections found in two Italian manuscripts dated to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries but with three significant additions: P also contains a copy of the PentachrononCp, the Schism Extracts, and, copied directly after it, Pierre's Invectiva.Footnote 74 These three works are appended to the end of the collection as it is found in the Italian manuscripts, suggesting that whoever compiled the collection of P added these three works to an already extant collection. We know that this collection was copied around the time that Pierre composed the Invectiva; however, around this same time he delivered a sermon in Paris, his Sermo de sancto Francisco (1380), in which he drew heavily from the writings of Hildegard and Gebeno found in the Pentachronon as well as from one of the Joachite works found in P, the Super Hieremiam.Footnote 75 The fact that Pierre d'Ailly had access to these works and that he likely already had access to a copy of the Schism Extracts, as evidenced by A, suggests that someone close to Pierre (Guillelmus?) or he himself was responsible for the prophecy collection found in P/lat. 13428. Similar evidence connects Pierre to two other prophecy collections.
The collections found in S'Gravenhage, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, cod 71.E.44 (H), dated to 1455, and Paris, BNF, lat. 14726 (Pv), dated more generally to the fifteenth century, are nearly identical and derive from the same prophecy collection. The core of the collection contained in both manuscripts comprises the Oraculum Cyrilli with a commentary attributed to Joachim of Fiore, excerpts from ps-Joachim's De oneribus prophetarum and the Expositio super Sibillis et Merlino, passages from the Eritrean and Tiburtine Sibyls, both glossed, selections from the prophecies of Merlin with a commentary attributed to John of Rupescissa, the Libellus of Telesphorus of Cosenza,Footnote 76 a long excerpt from Arnold of Villanova's Tractatus de tempore aduentus Antichristi (inc. Determinationes profundae de fine seculi), and the Schism Extracts. Among these larger works are found a number of short verse prophecies.Footnote 77
In H, the larger of the two collections, this core is supplemented with a copy of the complete PentachrononCp added to the beginning of the collection (fols. 6r–69v), and appended at the end, directly following the Schism Extracts, two excerpts from ps-Joachim's De oneribus prophetarum (fols. 142v–144r) together with Pierre d'Ailly's Invectiva (fols. 144r–147r). The excerpts from De oneribus prophetarum and the Expositio super Sibillis et Merlino in both H and Pv, as well as the supplementary excerpts from the De oneribus prophetarum found only in H, speak of the fate of France.Footnote 78 Reminiscent of P, the collection found in H was likely formed by adding the PentachrononCp and Invectiva to a previously extant collection, in this case along with the further excerpts from the De oneribus prophetarum. The later addition is in keeping with the French readership of the Schism Extracts and strongly suggests that H is of French provenance like all of the other witnesses. Moreover, many of the works contained in H and Pv were familiar to Pierre d'Ailly as evidenced by his Sermo tercio de adventu domini of 1385.
In this sermon, Pierre refers to Cyril, Hildegard, and Joachim, along with a number of other medieval prophets and prophetic works, as he discusses whether or not one can have “knowledge about the determined time of the persecution of Antichrist or the consummation of the age” (scientia de tempore determinato persecutionis antichristi uel consumationis seculi).Footnote 79 These references show his familiarity with many of the works contained in H and Pv, including sibylline prophecy and a short verse prophecy.Footnote 80 Moreover, he specifically mentions the commentary on the Oraculum Cyrilli attributed to Joachim: “According to the prophecy of blessed Cyril and the opinion of abbot Joachim in [his] commentary of the same” (iuxta prophetiam beati Cyrilli et sententiam abbatis Ioachim in commento eiusdem).Footnote 81 Finally, he speaks of Arnold of Villanova and lists the Tractatus de tempore aduentus antichristi as one of two works by Arnold that he is familiar with: “that man most skilled in the medical art, Arnold of Villanova, who in two tractates of which one is called De tempore aduentus Christi et Antichristi and the other De mysterio cymbalorum ecclesie” (ille artis medice peritissimus Arnaldus de Villa Noua qui in duobus tractatibus quorum unus intitulatur De tempore aduentus Christi et Antichristi alius uero De mysterio cymbalorum ecclesie).Footnote 82 In this sermon, moreover, Pierre argues that Arnold's calculation for the date of the Antichrist's arrival in the mid-1370s is wrong.Footnote 83 Comparison of the version of Arnold of Villanova's Tractatus published by Josep Perarnau and that found in H and Pv reveals that precisely that section of the work where Arnold computes the date of the Antichrist's arrival has been omitted from the text found in H and Pv, thus providing a version that aligns with Pierre's reading of the work.Footnote 84 All of the medieval prophets and prophetic works referenced by Pierre in this sermon of 1385 are found in H and Pv.
Given that H and Pv have the same core collection and that they postdate the Sermo tercius de adventu domini, it is probable that Pierre d'Ailly or someone close to him had access to a copy of this same core collection in 1385 or that they compiled such a collection themselves, omitting the offending passages from Arnold of Villanova's Tractatus in the process. Whether or not this core collection originally contained the Schism Extracts (such as represented by Pv) at some point the PentachrononCp, the Invectiva, and the supplementary passages from the De oneribus prophetarum were added to create the collection found in H. The fact that the text of the Schism Extracts found in the prophecy collections of H, Pv, and P share a common ancestor not only with each other, but also with the text found in A, a manuscript that can likewise be connected to Pierre, is compelling evidence that all of these collections emanated from Pierre d'Ailly's circle of associates, if not from Pierre himself.
Conclusion
The redeployment of Hildegardian prophecy seen in the Schism Extracts reflects the concerns of the circle of French clerics, abbots, and monks connected to the University of Paris who were involved in Schism-era debates and participated in the councils called by the French king in the 1390s. This circle includes not only Pierre d'Ailly, Simon du Bosc, and Guillelmus of St. Germain-des-Prés but also members of religious houses in and around Paris. The St. Germain-des-Prés and Rouen collections are two of the three earliest witnesses of the Extracts; the third is a manuscript (Charleville, Bibliothèque municipale, 100, Ch) belonging to the Carthusian monastery just north of Paris, De Mont-Dieu. The connections between the Carthusians and the University of Paris are well known and they participated in the French council of 1395, advising on solutions to the Schism alongside Simon du Bosc and Pierre d'Ailly.Footnote 85 The Carthusian copy, along with the fifteenth-century copies from the library of St. Victor in Paris (Paris, BNF, lat. 14726, Pv) and from the abbey of Marmoutier (Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, cod. 520, T) which had a number of monks at the university, all point to Paris as the origin and locus of dissemination of the Extracts.Footnote 86
The interest in Hildegardian prophecy on the part of French members of the University of Paris and within the Avignon obedience from the onset of the Western Schism through the mid-fifteenth century is deserving of further study. The earliest witnesses of the Extracts place their creation during the period when members of the university were banned from discussing solutions to the Schism, the same period during which d'Ailly composed the Invectiva and began to circulate it anonymously. This suggests that the prophetic writings of Hildegard and John of Rupescissa as well as the other works contained in the collections provided alternative and anonymous means to continue discussing the Schism. By editing and abridging certain works and by copying selected works together in collections, the publicists of these prophecies could effectively present their own arguments through the prophetic voice of their sources, just as Pierre d'Ailly adopted the voice of the prophet Ezekiel in the Invectiva. The prophetic authority enjoyed by Hildegard's prophetic writings in the Pentachronon (and reiterated in the opening passage of the Extracts) made them an ideal source for such a project.
The Manuscripts
The following descriptions of the manuscript witnesses of the Schism Extracts are meant to provide basic details but are not exhaustive descriptions.Footnote 87
Relationships Between the Witnesses
While there is no evidence that any one manuscript served as another's exemplar, there are a number of significant errors by which we can conjecture the relationship between the witnesses. The first set of errors are shared by A, H, P, and Pv against the rest of the witnesses and show that they descend from a common ancestor (α):
p. 2 ista ChRT : om. AHPPv
p. 3 genti iudeorum precepit ChRT : precepit genti iudeorum AHPPv
p. 3 eius ChRT : dei AHPPv
p. 5 qui ChRT : om. AHPPv
p. 6 maioribus ChRT : om. AHPPv
There are also three errors shared by H, P, and Pv against the rest of the witnesses suggesting that they, too, descend from a common ancestor (β):
p. 2 conceditur : concedetur HPPv
p. 3 inimici eorum : inimicorum HPPv
p. 5 dicit : dixit HPPv
Moreover, there are three errors common to only H and P (γ):
p. 4 consueuerant : consueuerunt HP
p. 6 occultis : oculis HP
p. 6 helye : hodie HP
These errors suggest the following stemma:
There are a few places where it is not clear what reading the archetype carried, but at no time was it necessary to use conjecture. For example:
p. 5 uiciis R P p.c. A : deuitus Ch Pv : de intus H : uirus T
p. 5 adeo Ch H A : a deo R T Pv : ab eo P (a diabolo PCp)
p. 6 polluunt T : polluuntur R : pollunt Ch A Pv P H
There are also three instances where the archetype was in error. For one, editorial intervention was necessary, but in the remaining two instances corrections were made by one or more scribes and so the readings of those manuscripts were used for the edition:
p. 3 indixit Pv H : induxit Ch R T A P
p. 4 ubicumque et : ubicumque MSS
p. 4 magister P : prelatus T : om. Ch R A Pv H
MARGINAL ANNOTATIONS
The distribution of marginal annotations suggests that the original text was itself annotated. The only witness completely lacking annotations is Pv; however, the text in this manuscript was not completed with empty spaces left for all of the rubrics and capital initials. It is impossible to know with certainty whether or not the exemplar used by the scribe of Pv was annotated, but, given the fact that the other members of β (H and P) are annotated, it is likely that Pv would have carried some annotations had it been completed. P has no marginal annotations, but there is evidence that it was copied from an annotated exemplar: the addition of Diuisio ecclesie after the first rubric (interlinear, below, 1), an addition it has in common with H as a rubric and with A and Ch as an annotation (marginal).
R and H have the most complete set of annotations which they share in common and with which Ch, A, and T agree at times. The annotations common to R and H likely extend back to the original text.
The annotations of A at times diverge from those of R and H and bear the marks of scribal intervention.
In the case of T, the scribe clearly had their own interests when annotating. It should be noted that T does have an annotation similar to that in R and H in one instance: “nota seductores per quos afflictetur clerus” (below, 5) where RH reads “De seductoribus et seductis per quos affligetur ecclesia.”
Note on the Presentation of the Edition
In the edition below, rubrics are reproduced in the same size text but italicized and centered. I have chosen to put the annotations within the body of the text and not within the apparatus below because they are an integral part of the text. The annotations were intended to provide a guide for the late-medieval readers of Hildegard's prophecies, and, if they were relegated to the apparatus below, this important aspect of the textual history of the Extracts would not be as immediately available. Moreover, seeing where the annotations agree and disagree among the witnesses without having to refer to an apparatus at the bottom of the page allows modern readers more readily to assess what aspects of Hildegard's prophetic discourse were of interest to the various scribes.
THE SCHISM EXTRACTS CRITICAL EDITION
a Hec que secuntur extracta sunt de libris Sancte Hildegardis prophetisse, qui libri recepti et canonizati sunt a Papa Eugenio in Concilio Treverensi, presentibus multis episcopis et prelatis, tam Francorum quam Theutonicorum, et Sancto Bernardo Clarevallensi Abbate.
b Ista dabuntur indicia ante scisma illud sub quo
episcopi et clerici de locis propriis expellentur] om. Pv
Diuisio ecclesie et destructio nobilium add. T
Diuisio ecclesie add. H P
c Cum peccata hec in populis se invicem coniunxerint, scilicet odium, homicidium, sodomiticum peccatum, tunc constitutio legis Dei diuidetur et ecclesia quasi uidua concucietur. d Et principes, nobiles et diuites per consimiles suos atque minores de locis suis expellentur et de ciuitate in ciuitatem fugabuntur. Nobilitasque generis eorum ad nichilum deducetur et de diuiciis in paupertatem redigentur. Ista omnia fient tunc, cum antiquus serpens uarietatem morum et uarietatem uestimentorum in populis sibilabit, quem ipsi imitabunturFootnote 1 et uariabunt.
Item ex eisdem libris] de persecutione graui ecclesie add. A
Sequitur de criminibus ecclesie T
e Iusticia postquam ad supernum iudicem querelam suam dixit iusto iudicio suo super preuaricatores rectitudinis inducet tirrannidem inimicorum eorum et illos super eos grassariFootnote 2 permittet, sic ad inuicem dicentes: “Quamdiu rapaces lupos istos patiemur et tolerabimus qui medici esse deberent et non sunt? Sed quoniam potestatem loquendi, ligandi et soluendi habent, idcirco ferocissime nos capiunt f sceleraque eorum super nos cadunt et omnis ecclesia per eos arescit quia quod iustum est non clamant et legem destruunt et quasi lupi agnos nos deuorant atque in crapula uoraces sunt et adulteria quam plurima perpetrant et per talia peccata absque misericordia nos iudicant. Raptores etiam ecclesiarum sunt et per auariciam queque possunt deglutiunt atque cum officiis suis nos pauperes et egenos faciunt ac seipsos et nos contaminant. g Quapropter iusto iudicio diiudicemus et diuidamusFootnote 3 eos quia seductores magis quam doctores existunt et hoc idcirco eis faciamus ne pereamus, quoniam si sic perseuerauerint totam regionem sibi subiciendo disturbabunt. h Nunc autem dicamus eis quod ipsi iustam religionem, habitum et officium suum compleant, quemadmodum antiqui patres illa constituerunt, uel a nobis recedant et ea que habent relinquant.”
Sequitur de recto regimine et uita honesta clericorum et prelatorum in ecclesia et expulsione eorum de suis prediis T
i Hec et hiis similia diuino iudicio excitati illis acriter opponent atque super illos irruentes dicent: “Nolumus hos regnare super nos cum prediis et agris acFootnote 4 aliis secularibus rebus super quas principes constituti sumus. Et quomodo decet ut tonsi cum stolis et casulis suis plures milites et plura arma quam nos habeant? Sed et nobis conueniens non est ut clericus miles sit et miles clericus. j Unde abstrahamus eis quod non recte sed iniuste habent. Diligenter autem consideremus quid cum magna discretione pro animabus defunctorum oblatum sit et illud eis relinquamus, quoniam hoc eis rapina non est. k Omnipotens enim spiritus recte diuisit omnia, celum scilicet celestibus, et terram terrestribus, atque hoc modo iusta diuisio inter filios hominum sit, uidelicet quod spiritales homines ea habeant que ad ipsos respiciunt, seculares autem ea que eis conueniunt, ita ut neutra pars istorum aliam per rapinam opprimat. Deus quidem non precepit ut tunica uel pallium alteri filio daretur et alter nudus remaneret, sed iussit ut illi pallium, illi tu nica tribueretur. Pallium itaque seculares propter amplitudinem secularis cure et propter filios suos, qui semper crescunt et multiplicantur, habeant, tunica uero spirituali populo conceditur,Footnote 5 ne in uestitu deficiat et ne plus quam necesse sit possideat. l Quapropter iudicamus et eligimus ut omnia, que predicta sunt, recte diuidantur atque ubicumque pallium cum tunica in spiritualibus inuenitur, ibi pallium subtrahaturFootnote 6 et indigentibus detur, ne per inopiam consumantur.” Et sic tandem per hanc iudicialem sententiam omnia istaFootnote 7 secundum uoluntates suas perficere conabuntur. m Sed pontificales dignitates et omnes spirituales habitu sub eis degentes illis cum clausura celi primitus resistere multum laborabunt. Sed cum tandem persenserint quod non potestate ligandi et soluendi nec confirmatione oblationum suarum nec strepitu armorum nec blanditiis nec minis ipsis resistere poterunt, diuino iudicio territi, inanem et superbam fiduciam quam prius in semetipsis semper habuerant deponentes n et in se redeuntes, coram illis humiliabuntur atque ululando clamabunt et dicent: “Quia omnipotentem Deum in ordine officii nostri abiecimus, idcirco super nos confusio hec inducta est, uidelicet ut ab illis opprimamur et humiliemur quos opprimere et humiliare debueramus. Nam illis super quos principes constituti eramus et hiis qui nobis per disciplinam subiciebantur Deus funem subiectionis abstraxit et nobis eos dominari permittit. o Quapropter consideremus quod iusta Dei iudicia patimur, quoniam regna mundi nobis subiugare uoluimus, sicut et nos sub iugo Dei esse debebamus et quia uoluntatem cuiusque carnis et concupiscentie fecimus, nec ob hoc ullus arguere nos audebat. Deus p enim genti Iudeorum precepitFootnote 8 ut sacrificia de animalibus creatori suo offerent sed illi iussa eiusFootnote 9 contempnentes in omnes carnales sensus se conuertebant, unde et gentes alienigenarum super eos inducte sunt. Nobis autem uiuum etFootnote 10 spirituale sacrificium ut offeramus indixit,Footnote 11 sed nos illud pollutis manibus tractare non pertimuimus et, cum diademate sceptri sui nos coronaret, super omnia nos exaltauimus atque concupiscentias carnis nostre omnibus modis compleuimus et ideo inimici nostri super nos grassantur quemadmodum prioribus preuaricatoribus inimici eorumFootnote 12 dominati sunt.” q Et tunc tam maiores quam minores utriusque populi clerum ita ordinabunt et ea que illi sunt necessaria hoc modo disponent, ut nec in uictu nec in uestitu defectum habeant et a secularibus huiusmodi opprobria deinceps non sustineant. Hec autem tam in spiritali quam in seculari populo quasi in prima hora diei incipientur et deinde uelut in tercia in plenum opus perducentur et tandem quemadmodumFootnote 13 r in sexta ex toto perficientur et omnes gradus hominumFootnote 14 quasi post sextam considerabuntur. Et in alium modum quam modo sint disponentur ita, scilicet, ut quisque ordo in sua rectitudine consistat et etiam liberi ad honorem libertatis sue et famuli ad debitam seruitutem subiectionis sue redeant.
Item ex eisdem libris] scilicet Diuinorum Operum add. R Sancte Hildegardis add. A om. Pv
Habentur ista que sequuntur et sunt de destructione principum et romani imperii add. T
s In diebus autem illis imperatores Romane dignitatis a fortitudine, qua prius romanum imperium strenue tenuerant descendentes, in gloria sua imbecilles fient, ita ut imperium in manibus eorum diuino iudicio paulatim decrescat et deficiat, quoniam ipsi inualidi et trepidi et seruiles et turpes in moribus existentes in omnibus inutiles erunt. Et a populo quidem honorari uellent, sed prosperitatem populi non querent et ideo etiam uenerari et honorari non poterunt. t Quapropter etiam reges et principes multorum populorum, qui prius romano imperio subiecti erant, se ab illo separabunt nec ulterius ei subicientur et sic romanum imperium in defectum dispergetur. u Nam unaqueque prouincia et quisqueFootnote 15 populus regem sibi tunc constituet cui obediat, dicens quod latitudo romani imperii magis sibi oneri fuit quam utilitati. v Sed postquam imperiale sceptrum hoc modo diuisum fuerit nec reparari poterit, tunc etiam infula apostolici honoris diuidetur. Cum enim nec principes nec reliqui homines, tam spiritualis quam secularis ordinis, in apostolico nomine nullam [sic] inuenient cum religione dignitatem, honorem nominis illius inminuent. w Aliosque magistros et archiepiscopos sub alio nomine in diuersis regionibus sibi preferent, ita etiam ut apostolicus eo tempore, dilacione honoris pristine dignitatis attenuatus, romam et pauca illi adiacentia loca uix etiam tunc infulam suam obtineat. x Hec autem ex parte per bellorum incursionemFootnote 16 euenient, ex parte quoque per commune consilium et consensum et spiritualium et secularium populorum perficientur, illis hortantibus ut quisquis secularis princeps regnum et populum suum muniat et regat ubicumque y etFootnote 17 quilibet archiepiscopus seu alius spiritualis magister subditos suos ad rectitudinem discipline constringat, ne deinceps malis illis quibus diuino nutu prius afflicti sunt iterum affligantur et tunc iniquitas iterum aliquantulum debilis iacebit.Footnote 18 z Interdum quoque surgere attemptabit, sed iusticia in rectitudine sua in terra stabit, ita ut homines illorum dierum ad antiquas consuetudines et disciplinas antiquorum hominum in honestate se conuertant et eas teneant et obseruent sicut antiqui illas tenere et obseruare consueuerant.Footnote 19 a Sed etiam tunc unusquisque rex et principes ac ecclesiastice dignitatis magisterFootnote 20 seipsum in alio castigabit, cum alium iusticiam obseruare et honeste uiuere uidebit atque unaqueque gens correctionem sub alia sumet, cum illam ad bonum proficere et ad rectitudinem surgere uidebit. Aer quoque tunc iterum suauis erit et fructus terre utiles et homines suaues et fortes erunt. b In ipsis etiam diebus multi prophete et sapientes erunt. Ita etiam ut occulta prophetarum et aliarum scripturarum sapientibus tunc ad plenum pateant et filii et filie eorum prophetent, uelut ante multa tempora dictum est, c et hoc in tali puritate ueritatis fiet ut aerei spiritus irrisionem illis tunc facere non possint. In eodem quoque spiritu illi prophetabunt quo prophete secreta Dei annunciaverunt et in similitudinem doctrine quorum doctrina super omnem doctrinam humanam fuit.
Item ex epistola Sancte Hyldegardis ad Colonenses] Item ex epistola Hildegardis ad Colonenses Ch Item ex epistola ipsius Sancte Hildegardis ad Colonenses A om. Pv
d Audiui uocem de uiuente luce dicentem: “O Filia Syon, corona honoris capitis filiorum tuorum inclinabitur et pallium dilatacionis diuitiarum eorum minuetur quod eis ad uiuendum et subditos suos ad docendum dedi! Nam et uerba ad nutriendum paruulos meos eis data sunt que ipsis recto et confruenti tempore non prebent, unde sicut peregrini filii fame multi defecerunt, quoniam recta doctrina non reficiuntur, uocemque habet et non clamant. Opera etiam eis data sunt et non operantur. e Gloriam absque merito habere uolunt et meritum absque opere. Qui gloriam habere cum Deo uult, proprietatem suam abscindat et qui meritum apud Deum habere desiderat, opus adhoc exhibeat. Sed quia hoc non facitis, et ad seruos seruorum computabimini et ipsi iudices uestri erunt ac libertas uestra a uobis declinabit sicut benedictio a Chanaam. f Ista flagella precurrent alia autemFootnote 21 et postea alia et peiora uenient. Nam diabolus in semetipso dicit de uobis: ‘Escas epulantium et conuiuia omnis uoluntatis mee in istis inuenio. Sed et oculi et aures et uenter meus ac uene mee de spumis istorum plene sunt et ubera mea plena sunt de uiciisFootnote 22 eorum. Nam ipsi laborare in Deo suo nolunt, sed eum quasi nichilum computant. Quapropter incipiam cum eis militare et iocando cum eis ludere, quoniam ego eos in agro Domini sui laborantes non inuenio quemadmodum Dominus eorum ipsis iubet. g Sed o uos, discipuli et subditi mei, multo plus eis coram populo disciplinati estis! Et quia sic estis, erigite uos super illos et omnes diuitias et omnem honorem eorum abstrahite ab eis ac omnino dispoliantes suffocate eos!’ Hec diabolus in semetipso dicitFootnote 23 et etiam in multis iudicio dei complebit. h Sed ego qui sum audientibus me dico in tempore illo istud fiet quemdam errantem populum peiorem erranti populo, i qui nunc est super uos preuaricantes, preuaricatoris ruina cadet, quia ubique uos persequetur et j qui opera uestra non celabit, sed qui ea denudabit et quiFootnote 24 de uobis dicet: ‘IstiFootnote 25 scorpiones sunt in moribus et in operibus serpentinis.’ Sed et quasi zelo Domini de uobis imprecabitur: iter impiorum peribit. [Ps. 1.6] Nam uias uestras in iniquitate uestra ad interemptionem deridebunt et subsannabunt. k Sed populus iste qui hec faciet adeoFootnote 26 seductus est et missus qui pallida facie ueniet et in omni sanctitate se componet et maioribusFootnote 27 principibus secularibus se coniunget. Quibus de uobis sic dicet: l ‘Quare hos uobiscum tenetis et quare hos uobiscum patimini qui totam terram in maculosis iniquitatibus suisFootnote 28 polluunt?Footnote 29 Isti enim ebriosi et luxuriosi sunt et nisi eos a uobis abiciatis, tota ecclesia destruetur.’ m Populus autem qui hec de uobis dicet uilibus capis,Footnote 30 que alieni coloris sunt, induitur et recto modo tonsus incedet atque omnibus moribus suis placidum et quietum se ostendet hominibus. Auariciam quoque non amat, pecuniam non habet ac in occultisFootnote 31 suis tantam abstinenciam imitatur quod etiam uix ullus ex eis reprehendi poterit. Diabolus enim homines istos hoc modo infudit quod castitatem eis non aufert et quod castos eos esse permittit, cum castitatem eos habere uoluerint.Footnote 32 Et iterum ita de se dicit: ‘Castitatem et continentiam Deus diligit, quod et ego in istis imitabor.’ n Et sic idem antiquus hostis per aereos spiritus eosdem homines inflat ita quod ab incestis peccatis se abstinent. Unde mulieres non amant, sed eas fugiunt et ita in omni sanctitate hominibus se ostendent ac illudentibus uerbis dicent: o ‘Ceteri homines qui ante nos castitatem habere uolebant ut assum piscem se torrebant. Nulla autem pollutio carnis et concupiscencie nos tangere audet, quia sancti sumus et spiritu sancto infundimur. VahFootnote 33 errantes homines qui nunc sunt! Nesciunt quid faciunt, sicut et illi qui nos in prioribus temporibus precesserunt.’ p Nam alii homines, qui eo tempore in fide catholica errant, istos homines timebunt et seruili officio eis ministrabunt et quantum poterunt eos imitabuntur. Tunc de conuersatione istorum populus gaudebit, quoniam eis iusti uidebuntur. q Cumque isti cursum erroris sui hoc modo confirmauerint doctores et sapientes qui tunc in fide catholica fideliter persistunt undique persequentes expellent, sed tamen non omnes, quoniam aliqui illorum fortissimi milites in iusticia Dei sunt, r sed et quasdam congregationes sanctorum quorum congregatio sancta est mouere non poterunt. s Quapropter diuitibus et principibus consilium dant ut eosdem ecclesiarum magistros ac reliquos spirituales homines, scilicet subditos eorum, t fustibus et lignis coherceant quatinus iusti fiant. Et in aliquibus hoc complebitur unde alii territi contremiscent. u Sed tamen sicut HelyeFootnote 34 dictum est, multi iustorum seruabuntur qui in errore isto non confundentur nec a fundamentis suis destruentur. v Seductores autem isti in conceptione erroris sui mulieribus dicent: ‘Licitum non est nos uobiscum esse, sed quia rectos doctores non habetis, nobis obedite et quecumqueFootnote 35 uobis dicimus aut precipimus facite et salue eritis.’ Et hoc modo feminas in errorem suum ducunt et eas sibi contrahunt. Unde et ipsi in superbia animi sui dicent: ‘Omnes superauimus.’ Qui tamen postea eisdem feminis secreta luxuriaFootnote 36 commiscebuntur et tota iniquitas et secta eorum denudabitur. w Infideles autem homines isti et a diabolo seducti scopa uestra erunt ad castigandum uos, quoniam Deum non pure colitis et tamdiu cruciabunt uos quousque iniusticie et iniquitates uestre purgentur. x Isti autem illi deceptores non sunt illi qui ante nouissimum diem uenturi sunt, cum diabolus in altum uolauerit et ipse sicut in initio contra Deum pugnare ceperit, sed ipsi precurrens germen eorum sunt. y Sed tamen postquam in peruersitatibus Baal et in aliis prauis operibus sic inuenti fuerint, principes et alii maiores in eos irruent et uelut rabidos luposFootnote 37 eos occident ubi eos inuenerint. z Tunc aurora iusticie et nouissima uestra meliora prioribus erunt ac de omnibus preteritis timorati eritis et quasi purissimum aurum fulgebitis et sic per longa tempora permanebitis.”
Hec pauca que de libris Sancte Hildegardis supra memorantur ad cautelam iam imminentium malorum descripta sunt ut eo minus perturbent uenientia quo fuerint prescita. Nam sicut dicit Beatus Gregorius: Iacula que preuidentur minus feriunt. Quia mala mundi huius tolerabilius suscipimus si contra hec per prescientie clipeum munimur. Footnote 38
