Part 4

Intimately bound up not only with her theory of the nature and structure of the universe but also with her eschatological beliefs is Hildegard’s doctrine of the elements. Before the fall of man these were arranged in a harmony,[61] which was disturbed by that catastrophe (Plate XII _a_),[62] so that they have since remained in the state of mingled confusion in which we always encounter them on the terrestrial globe. This _mistio_, to use the mediaeval Aristotelian term, is symbolized by the irregular manner in which the elements are represented in the central sphere of the diagram of the universe (Fig. 2). Thus mingled they will remain until subjected to the melting-pot of the Last Judgement (Plate XIII),[63] when they will emerge in a new and eternal harmony, no longer mixed as matter, but separate and pure, parts of the new heaven and the new earth (Plate XII _b_).[64]

‘But the heavens and the earth, which are now,... are kept in store and reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.... But the day of the Lord will come ... in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.... Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness’ (2 Peter iii. 7, 10, and 13).

So Hildegard, acting on a scriptural hint, is enabled to dematerialize her doctrine of the after-things.

But although since man’s fall the elements have lost their order and their harmony on this terrestrial orb, yet is that harmony still in part preserved in the celestial spheres that encircle and surround our globe; and water, air, earth, and fire have each their respective representatives in the four concentric zones, the _aer aquosus_, the _purus aether_, the _umbrosa pellis_, and the _lucidus ignis_ (Fig. 2). These are the ‘superior elements’ which still retain some at least of their individuality and primal purity. From each of their spheres blows, as we have seen, one of the cardinal winds, and each wind partakes of the elemental character of the zone whence it issues, and has a corresponding influence on man’s body, since each of the four humours is specifically affected by the element to which it corresponds.

‘Then I saw that by the diverse quality of the winds, and of the atmosphere as they in turn sweep through it, the humours in man are agitated and altered. For in each of the superior elements there is a breath of corresponding quality by which, through the power of the winds, the corresponding element [below] is forced to revolve in the atmosphere, and in no other way is it moved. And by one of those winds, with the agency of sun, moon, and stars, the atmosphere which tempers the world is breathed forth’[65] (Plate VII).

This doctrine of the relation of the various winds to the four elements and through them to the four humours is found in the _De Rerum Natura_ of Isidore of Seville, and is occasionally illustrated in European MSS. from the ninth century onward,[66] but we meet it set forth with special definiteness in the twelfth century in the translations from Messahalah. It is encountered also in the work of Herrade de Landsberg. In and after the thirteenth century it had become a commonplace.

The description we have given of the universe was in the main set forth by Hildegard in her first work, the _Scivias_ (1141-50).[67] Subsequently she became dissatisfied with the account she had given, and while not withdrawing it, she sought in the _Liber Divinorum Operum_ (1163-70) so to modify the original presentment as to bring it more into line with accepted views. Thus she writes: ‘There appeared to me in vision a _disk_ very like that object which I saw twenty-eight years ago of the form of an _egg_, in the third vision of my book _Scivias_. In the outer part of the disk there was as it were the _lucidus ignis_, and beneath it the circle of the _ignis niger_ was portrayed ... and these two circles were so joined as to be one circle.’ There was thus one outer zone representing the fire. ‘Under the circle of the _ignis niger_ there was another circle in the likeness of the _purus aether_ which was of the same width as the two conjoined [outer] fiery circles. And below this circle again was the circle of the _aer aquosus_ as wide as the _lucidus ignis_. And below this circle was yet another circle, the _fortis et albus lucidusque aer_ ... the width whereof was as the width of the _ignis niger_, and these circles were joined to make one circle which was thus again of width equal to the outer two. Again, under this last circle yet another circle, the _aer tenuis_, was distinguishable, which could be seen to raise itself as a cloud, sometimes high and light, sometimes depressed and dark, and to diffuse itself as it were throughout the whole disk.... The outermost fiery circle perfuses the other circles with its fire, while the watery circle saturates them with its moisture, [cp. Wisdom of Solomon, xix. 18-20]. And from the extreme eastern part of the disk to the extreme west a line is stretched out [i.e. the equator] which separates the northern zones from the others’[68] (see Fig. 3 and Plates VII and VIII).

The earth lies concentrically with the _aer tenuis_, and its measurements are given thus: ‘In the midst of the _aer tenuis_ a globe was indicated, the circumference of which was everywhere equidistant from the _fortis et albus lucidusque aer_, and it was as far across as the depth of the space from the top of the highest circle to the extremity of the clouds, or from the extremity of the clouds to the circumference of the inner globe’[68] (Fig. 3).

In her earlier work, the _Scivias_, Hildegard had not apparently realized the need of accounting for the independent movements of the planets other than the sun and moon. She had thus placed the moon and two of the moving stars in the _purus aether_, and the sun and the three remaining moving stars in the _lucidus ignis_. Since these spheres were moved by the winds, their contained planets would be subject to the same influences. In the _Liber Divinorum Operum_, however, she has come to realize how independent the movements of the planets really are, and she invokes a special cause for their vagaries. ‘I looked and behold in the outer fire (_lucidus ignis_) there appeared a circle which girt about the whole firmament from the east westward. From it a blast produced a movement from west to east in the opposite direction to the movement of the firmament. But this blast did not give forth his breath earthward as did the other winds, but instead thereof it governed the course of the planets.’[69] The source of the blast is represented in the Lucca MS. as the head of a supernatural being with a human face (Plate VIII).

These curious passages were written at some date after 1163, when Hildegard was at least 65 years old. They reveal our prophetess attempting to revise much of her earlier theory of the universe, and while seeking to justify her earlier views, endeavouring also to bring them into line with the new science that was now just beginning to reach her world. Note that (_a_) the universe has become round; (_b_) there is an attempt to arrange the zones according to their density, i.e. from without inwards, fire, air (ether), water, earth; (_c_) exact measurements are given; (_d_) the watery zone is continued earthward so as to mingle with the central circle. In all these and other respects she is joining the general current of mediaeval science then beginning to be moulded by works translated from the Arabic. Her knowledge of the movements of the heavenly bodies is entirely innocent of the doctrine of epicycles, but in other respects her views have come to resemble those, for instance, of Messahalah, one of the simplest and easiest writers on the sphere available in her day. Furthermore, her conceptions have developed so as to fit in with the macrocosm-microcosm scheme which she grasped about the year 1158. Even in her latest work, however, her theory of the universe exhibits differences from that adopted by the schoolmen, as may be seen by comparing her diagram with, for example, the scheme of Dante (Fig. 4).

Like many mediaeval writers, Hildegard would have liked to imagine an ideal state of the elemental spheres in which the rarest, fire, was uppermost, and the densest, earth, undermost. Such a scheme was, in fact, purveyed by Bernard Sylvestris and by Messahalah. Her conceptions were however disturbed by the awkward facts that water penetrated below the earth, and indeed sought the lowest level, while air and not water lay immediately above the earth’s surface. Mediaeval writers adopted various devices and expended a great amount of ingenuity in dealing with this discrepancy, which was a constant source of obscurity and confusion. Hildegard devotes much space and some highly involved allegory both in the _Scivias_ and in the _Liber Divinorum Operum_ to the explanation of the difficulty, while Dante himself wrote a treatise in high scholastic style on this very subject.[70]

VII. MACROCOSM AND MICROCOSM

The winds and elements of the outer universe, the macrocosm, become in Hildegard’s later schemes intimately related to structures and events within the body of man himself, the microcosm, the being around whom the universe centres. The terms _macrocosm_ and _microcosm_ are not employed by her, but in her last great work, the _Liber Divinorum Operum_, she succeeds in most eloquent and able fashion in synthesizing into one great whole, centred around this doctrine, her theological beliefs and her physiological knowledge, together with her conceptions of the working of the human mind and of the structure of the universe. The work is thus an epitome of the science of the time viewed through the distorting medium of this theory. In studying it the modern reader is necessarily hampered by the bizarre and visionary form into which the whole subject is cast. Nevertheless the scheme, though complex and difficult, is neither incoherent nor insane, as at first sight it may seem. On the contrary, it is a highly systematic and skilful presentment of a cosmic theory which for centuries dominated scientific thought.

As an explanation of the complexity of existence which thinkers of all ages have sought to bring within the range of some simple formula, this theory of the essential similarity of macrocosm and microcosm held in the Middle Ages, during the Renaissance, and even into quite modern times, a position comparable to that of the theory of evolution in our own age. If at times it passed into folly and fantasy, it should be remembered that it also fulfilled a high purpose. It gave a meaning to the facts of nature and a formula to the naturalist, it unified philosophic systems, it exercised the ingenuity of theologians, and gave a convenient framework to prophecy, while it seemed to illumine history and to provide a key and meaning to life itself. Even now it is not perhaps wholly devoid of message, but as a phenomenon in the history of human thought, a theory which appealed to such diverse scientific writers as Seneca, Albertus Magnus, Paracelsus, Gilbert, Harvey, Boyle, and Leibnitz, is surely worthy of attention.

In essaying to interpret the views of our authoress on this difficult subject, we rely mainly on the text of the _Liber Divinorum Operum_, supplemented by the beautiful illuminations of that work which adorn the Lucca MS. The book opens with a truly remarkable vision (Plate VI):

‘I saw a fair human form and the countenance thereof was of such beauty and brightness that it had been easier to gaze upon the sun. The head thereof was girt with a golden circlet through which appeared another face as of an aged man. From the neck of the figure on either side sprang a pinion which swept upward above the circlet and joined its fellow on high. And where on the right the wing turned upward, was portrayed an eagle’s head with eyes of flame, wherein appeared as in a mirror the lightning of the angels, while from a man’s head in the other wing the lightning of the stars did radiate. From either shoulder another wing reached to the knees. The figure was robed in brightness as of the sun, while the hands held a lamb shining with light. Beneath, the feet trampled a horrible black monster of revolting shape, upon the right ear of which a writhing serpent fixed itself.’[71]

The image declares its identity in words reminiscent of the Wisdom literature or of passages in the hermetic writings, but which seem in fact to be partly borrowed from Bernard Sylvestris.

‘I am that supreme and fiery force that sends forth all the sparks of life. Death hath no part in me, yet do I allot it, wherefore I am girt about with wisdom as with wings. I am that living and fiery essence of the divine substance that glows in the beauty of the fields. I shine in the water, I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars. Mine is that mysterious force of the invisible wind. I sustain the breath of all living. I breathe in the verdure and in the flowers, and when the waters flow like living things, it is I. I formed those columns that support the whole earth.... I am the force that lies hid in the winds, from me they take their source, and as a man may move because he breathes so doth a fire burn but by my blast. All these live because I am in them and am of their life. I am wisdom. Mine is the blast of the thundered word by which all things were made. I permeate all things that they may not die. I am life.’[72]

Hildegard thus supposes that the whole universe is permeated by a single living spirit, the figure of the vision. This spirit of the macrocosm, the _Nous_ or ‘world spirit’ of the hermetic and Neoplatonic literature, the impersonated _Nature_, as we may perhaps render it, is in its turn controlled by the Godhead that pervades the form and is represented rising from its vertex as a second human face. Nature, the spirit of the cosmic order, controls and holds in subjection the hideous monster, the principle of death and dissolution, the _Hyle_ or primordial matter of the Neoplatonists, whose chaotic and anarchic force would shatter and destroy this fair world unless fettered by a higher power.

With the details of the visionary figure we need not delay,[73] but we pass to the description of the structure of the macrocosm itself, to which the second vision is devoted (Plate VII). Here appears the same figure of the macrocosmic spirit. But now the head and feet only are visible, and the arms are outstretched to enclose the disk of the universe which conceals the body. Although the macrocosm now described is considerably altered from Hildegard’s original scheme of the universe, she yet declares, ‘I saw in the bosom of the form the appearance of a disk of like sort to that which twenty-eight years before I had seen in the third vision, set forth in my book of _Scivias_’.[74] The zones of this disk are then described (Plates VII, VIII, and XI and Fig. 2). They are from without inwards:

(_a_) The _lucidus ignis_, containing the three outer planets, the sixteen principal fixed stars, and the south wind.

(_b_) The _ignis niger_, containing the sun, the north wind, and the materials of thunder, lightning, and hail.

(_c_) The _purus aether_, containing the west wind, the moon, the two inner planets, and certain fixed stars.

(_d_) The _aer aquosus_, containing the east wind.

(_e_) The _fortis et albus lucidusque aer_, where certain other fixed stars are placed.

(_f_) The _aer tenuis_, or atmosphere, in the outer part of which is the zone of the clouds.

From all these objects, from the spheres of the elements, from the sun, moon, and other planets, from the four winds each with their two collaterals, from the fixed stars, and from the clouds, descend influences, indicated by lines, towards the figure of the macrocosm.

The microcosm is then introduced.

‘And again I heard the voice from heaven saying, “God, who created all things, wrought also man in his own image and similitude, and in him he traced [_signavit_] all created things, and he held him in such love that he destined him for the place from which the fallen angel had been cast.”’[75]

The various characters of the winds are expounded in a set of curious passages in which the doctrine of the macrocosm and microcosm is further mystically elaborated. An endeavour is made to attribute to the winds derived from the different quarters of heaven qualities associated with a number of animals.[76] The conception is illustrated and made comprehensible by the miniatures in the Lucca MS. (Plates VII and VIII).

‘In the middle of the disk [of the universe] there appeared the form of a man, the crown of whose head and the soles of whose feet extended to the _fortis et albus lucidusque aer_, and his hands were outstretched right and left to the same circle.... Towards these parts was an appearance as of four heads; a leopard, a wolf, a lion, and a bear. Above the head of the figure in the zone of the _purus aether_, I saw the head of the leopard emitting a blast from its mouth, and on the right side of the mouth the blast, curving itself somewhat backwards, was formed into a crab’s head ... with two chelae; while on the left side of the mouth a blast similarly curved ended in a stag’s head. From the mouth of the crab’s head, another blast went to the middle of the space between the leopard and the lion; and from the stag’s head a similar blast to the middle of the space between the leopard and the bear ... and all the heads were breathing towards the figure of the man. Under his feet in the _aer aquosus_ there appeared as it were the head of a wolf, sending forth to the right a blast extending to the middle of the half space between its head and that of the bear, where it assumed the form of the stag’s head; and from the stag’s mouth there came, as it were, another breath which ended in the middle line. From the left of the wolf’s mouth arose a breath which went to the midst of the half space between the wolf and the lion, where was depicted another crab’s head ... from whose mouth another breath ended in the same middle line.... And the breath of all the heads extended sideways from one to another.... Moreover on the right hand of the figure in the _lucidus ignis_, from the head of the lion, issued a breath which passed laterally on the right into a serpent’s head and on the left into a lamb’s head ... similarly on the figure’s left in the _ignis niger_ there issued a breath from the bear’s head ending on its right in the head of [another] lamb, and on its left in another serpent’s head.... And above the head of the figure the seven planets were ranged in order, three in the _lucidus ignis_, one projecting into the _ignis niger_ and three into the _purus aether_.... And in the circumference of the circle of the _lucidus ignis_ there appeared the sixteen principal stars, four in each quadrant between the heads.... Also the _purus aether_ and _the fortis et albus lucidusque aer_ seemed to be full of stars which sent forth their rays towards the clouds, whence ... tongues like rivers descended to the disk and towards the figure, which was thus surrounded and influenced by these signs.’[77]

The third vision is devoted to an account of the human body, the microcosm (Plate VIII), with a comparison of its organs to the parts of the macrocosmic scheme, together with a detailed account of the effects of the heavenly bodies on the humours in man, the whole brought into a strongly theological setting. Some of these views are set forth below in the chapter on anatomy and physiology.

The fourth vision explains the influence of the heavenly bodies and of the superior elements on the power of nature as exhibited on the surface of the earth. It is illustrated by a charming miniature in the Lucca MS. (Plate IX).

‘I saw that the upper fiery firmament was stirred, so that as it were ashes were cast therefrom to earth, and they produced rashes and ulcers in men and animals and fruits.’ These effects are shown in the left upper quadrant of Plate IX, where the ashes are seen proceeding from the _lucidus ignis_, the ‘upper fiery firmament’. Two figures are seen, a female semi-recumbent, who lifts a fruit to her mouth, and a male figure fully recumbent, on whose legs a rash is displayed. The trees also in this quadrant show the effects of the ashes, two of them being denuded of fruit and foliage.

‘Then I saw that from the _ignis niger_ certain vapours (_nebulae_) descended, which withered the verdure and dried up the moisture of the fields. The _purus aether_, however, resisted these ashes and vapours, seeking to hold back these plagues.’ These vapours may be seen in the right upper quadrant of Plate IX. They descend from the _ignis niger_, attenuate for a space in the _purus aether_, and then descend through the other zones on to an arid and parched land. Here are two husbandmen; one sits forlornly clasping his axe, while the other leans disconsolately upon his hoe. On the legs of the latter a rash may be distinguished.

‘And looking again I saw that from the _fortis et albus lucidusque aer_ certain other clouds reached the earth and infected men and beasts with sore pestilence, so that they were subjected to many ills even to the death, but the _aer aquosus_ opposed that influence so that they were not hurt beyond measure.’ This scene is portrayed in the right lower quadrant of Plate IX. Here is a husbandman in mortal anguish. He has gathered his basket of fruit and now lies stricken with the pestilence. His left hand is laid on his heart, while his right hangs listless on his thigh, pointing to tokens of plague upon his legs. Beyond lies the dead body of a beast on which a carrion bird has settled.

‘Again I saw that the moisture in the _aer tenuis_ was as it were boiling above the surface of the earth, awakening the force of the earth and making fruits to grow.’[78] This happier scene is represented in the left lower quadrant of Plate IX. Here the beneficent fertilizing influence is falling on trees and herbs and the happy husbandmen are reaping its results.