Hildegard’s visions, perhaps without exception, contain this element of
a blinding or glittering light, which she interprets in a more or less
spiritual manner. We terminate our account with the passage in which
she sums up her experiences of it.
‘From my infancy’, she says, ‘up to the present time, I being now
more than seventy years of age, I have always seen this light in
my spirit and not with external eyes, nor with any thoughts of my
heart nor with help from the senses. But my outward eyes remain
open and the other corporeal senses retain their activity. The
light which I see is not located but yet is more brilliant than the
sun, nor can I examine its height, length, or breadth, and I name
it the “cloud of the living light”. And as sun, moon, and stars are
reflected in water, so the writings, sayings, virtues, and works
of men shine in it before me. And whatever I thus see in vision
the memory thereof remains long with me. Likewise I see, hear, and
understand almost in a moment and I set down what I thus learn....
‘But sometimes I behold within this light another light which I
name “the Living Light itself”.... And when I look upon it every
sadness and pain vanishes from my memory, so that I am again as a
simple maid and not as an old woman....[119]
‘And now that I am over seventy years old my spirit according
to the will of God soars upward in vision to the highest heaven
and to the farthest stretch of the air and spreads itself among
different peoples to regions exceeding far from me here, and thence
I can behold the changing clouds and the mutations of all created
things; for all these I see not with the outward eye or ear, nor
do I create them from the cogitations of my heart ... but within
my spirit, my eyes being open, so that I have never suffered any
terror when they left me.’[120]
NOTE.--The author’s thanks are due to the Rev. H. A. Wilson, Mr.
C. C. J. Webb, and Mr. R. R. Steele, who have read the proofs of this
article and have made valuable suggestions; to Mr. J. A. Herbert of
the MS. Department of the British Museum, who drew his attention to
the work of Herrade de Landsberg; and to Mr. M. H. Spielmann, who
brought to his notice the crucifix figured in Plate X. He owes a
special debt of gratitude to the late Dom Louis Baillet of Oosterhoot
for his courtesy and generosity in lending him reproductions of the
illuminations of the Wiesbaden Codex. Baillet was a young scholar of
great promise, whose early death is a severe loss to the knowledge of
mediaeval science.
The author has also to thank Professor Henrici of the Nassauische
Landesbibliothek at Wiesbaden, Professor Wille and Professor Sillib
of the Universitätsbibliothek at Heidelberg, and Signor Boselli
of the R. Bibliotica Governativa at Lucca, who have all given him
exceptional facilities for the study of the treasures under their
charge.
[Illustration: Signed photograph of John Wilfred Jenkinson]