Feminism Before There Was Feminism – Hildegard of Bingen

Many people think that feminism is very much in its nascent stages or, at the very least, has not really been around for more than a few centuries and in full force over the last century and a half. Indeed, there is even pushback in the modern-day women's rights era, a lot of it coming from women, who say that the feminism of yesteryear has lost its focus and has denigrated into anti-men invective and other hurtful endeavors. Regardless, the early days of feminism are really a lot earlier than some people may think, even if it did not have a name or a catchphrase at the time. Hildegard von Bingen espoused, wrote and did many things that would be considered feminism in a modern context but she lived in a world and a time that was very masculine and man-controlled in nature. Despite this, she shines bright as a pioneer of what is now known as the feminist movement.

Biography

As intimated in the introduction, it has been nearly a millennium since Hildegard von Bingen roamed the earth. She was born in 1098 AD and lived until 1179 AD. A nun who was elected as a magistra by her fellow nuns, she eventually founded monasteries in Rupertsburg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. She was also a visionary, a poet, a composer, a naturalist, a healer, and a theologian. She founded covenants and conversed with the secular and religious leaders of her day. She had no hesitation to interact and speak with people well below her in caste level and import and she was an avid troubleshooter, consultant, and preacher. Her writings related to many things such as natural history, medicine, cosmology, music, poetry, and theology. She conducted herself at a skill level that far surpassed many to most of her male counterparts in much the same way Madame Curie and other feminist luminaries to follow her centuries down the road (Hildegard.org).

Her three main (and longest) divine works were the Scivias, the Vitae Meritorium (Book of Life’s Merits) and Liber Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) followed each other as a bit of a trilogy even if Hildegard did not construct them with that progression in mind. In these three books, she describes visions that she had and then goes on to explain each of the visions and what they mean to her and perhaps what they should mean to others as well. She also is attributed with writing Ordo virtutum, which is considered by many to be one of the early (if not the first) morality plays ever concocted. A “tortured soul” is portrayed in this work and that soul must choose between a life of temptation and a life of virtue (Hildegard.org).

However, some people notably misappropriate and misquote her intentions and her thoughts in modern times. Of course, the life and times of people in 1000-1100 AD were much different than they are today and the blind comparison and application of Hildegard’s words and thoughts to a context that is a millennium removed from her days should be done carefully and delicately. Even so, her words can and should be applied to modern times, especially in the context of the fact that Hildegard in many ways portrayed the thought patterns and scholarship of a feminist in many forms and functions even if it was not called or consider that at the time. Her prominent stature as a scholar and mind of her day set her apart from the usual patterns that women held to in society at that time. Women, for much of their existence, have been held subservient and inferior to men in one or more ways and this even includes their position in the church and how they must submit and react towards their husbands and family (Hildegard.org).

Modern Applications & Events

As noted prior in this report, feminism is mostly and primarily a modern phenomenon around the world and in the United States. Even since the inception of the United States in the late 1700s, women have to claw and scratch to be treated on par with men in many regards including the option/ability to work outside the home, what role/prominence they play when making family decisions, whether they can join the military and in what roles, the general habit of being strong-minded and outspoken and so forth. As recently as the 1950s, it was commonly held that men in the home would be the breadwinner and the head of the household while women would stay at home and raise the children and keep the house. Starting in the 1960s, that prism has been turned on its head and many households have become two-income, whether it be out of preference or necessity. Despite how long ago Hildegard of Bingen lived, she is sited quite often by people living in the here and now. One notable example of this in action was the citation of Hildegard by the recent Pope Benedict, who recently left his post before passing away in favor of the current Pope Francis. Indeed, Benedict bestowed sainthood to Hildegard after four stalled attempts in prior years and decades that all got muddled down due to controversy. She is only the fourth woman to be added in such a manner and all four of those women have been added since 1970, the others being Saint Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena and Therese de Lisieux (Patheos).

Hildegard was a pioneer in the respect that she actively and unapologetically challenged a Catholic church that she found to be increasingly corrupt and amoral. However, she was backed up and supported by her very powerful friends which included King Henry II of England, the King’s very powerful wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and Saint Bernard of Clarivaux. She used her standing to take on her abbot, several different archbishops and the Holy Roman Emperor. She said and did things that would be questionable to unthinkable out of the mouth of just about any other woman, especially a non-noble woman, so this made her a trailblazer in many respects. Another way she bucked the system, and in a way almost cost her very dearly, was her allowance of an excommunicated person to be buried on her land. The church recoiled about this to the point that they wanted to ban her from taking Communion and from singing, fairly harsh punishments. She eventually relented and abided by what the church demanded but only because of the extremely harsh and improper consequences she would have faced if she did not back off her stand. Her assertion was that the man had repented and thus deserved forgiveness and mercy but she did not have the power of the church to make such a stance so she had to back down. However, her resistance was public and spirited even if the church won in the end. This is yet another example of a woman going far above and beyond the scope of what would normally be accepted from anyone, and especially from a woman. She was very much a feminist in that regard because she actively and publicly resisted a male-dominated clergy in a very confronting and morally indignant way. Her behavior was especially controversial and off-putting to Christians/Catholics of that day given her level of power and standing in the church. After all, nuns and priests are held to a higher standard than laypeople but Hildegard clearly felt that the church was enforcing the standard unfairly or otherwise incorrectly (Patheos).

Modern peer-reviewed journals and similar scholarly literature is bereft with allusions, analyses and so forth relating to Hildegard and how she perhaps unwittingly set the tone for modern feminism long before most women had the standing and/or the bravery to take the arrows from men, powerful and weak, who felt that they were talking out of place and turn. One such source was written not quite a generation ago. It recounts the work of noted author Gerda Lerner who set out to make a “long view” assessment of feminism and its history. The time horizon she focused on spanned from the Middle Ages to the present and she even invoked the word of Galileo when she drew the comparison between real-life “flat-earthers” before the earth was indeed discovered to be round and the people that hold the view that only men can and should be the focal point of all thought, decisions, and societal progress. Indeed, Lerner perhaps said it best when she said that “once the basic fallacy of patriarchal thought – the assumption that a half of humankind can adequately represent the whole – has been exposed and explained, it can no more be undone than was the insight that the earth is round, not flat” (McFadden). She also notes that women have never been inferior to men in terms of intellectual power and prowess but instead were hampered by lack of opportunities to access the career field and the proper educational frameworks that lead to such work opportunities being possible and fruitful. In this way as well, Hildegard (who was researched by Lerner) bucked the trend usually held to by most women as enforced by the men of mostly yesteryear but still in limited pockets around the world today (McFadden).

Another scholarly work that covered the pursuits and accomplishments of Hildegard is mentioned by Flanagan (1998) when it is noted that the aforementioned actions and outcomes were not really covered with any great fervor until about 1980. Since then, the analysis and opinion about Hildegard and her work have expanded exponentially in size and scope and has become richer and fuller than it has ever been in the history of mankind. The article notes, however, that not all of Hildegard’s views are held in high esteem by all people. For example, Hildegard at several points clearly espoused and advocated for a caste- and noble-based system as opposed to a more egalitarian one. This is viewed by many, mostly liberals and other left-leaning political minds of all stripes, as an affront to common decency (for that time or even in a modern context) as equality and fairness are ostensibly supposed to be the coin of the realm for any fair-minded and ethical person (Flanagan).

One scholar of Hildegard’s day lambasted her for not allowing people below a certain social or nobility level to join her convent and contrasted that practice with the habit of Jesus Christ to actively embrace people of all levels and types up to and including his own disciples, among them lowly fisherman and other working-class people of that day. However, Hildegard apparently did not flinch from those facts and in fact stipulates and contends that some people should not try or be allowed to progress beyond their means using Adam of the Garden of Eden and Satan himself as examples what can go wrong if/when that occurs. Adam and Eve were given one rule while in the garden, to not eat from one of the trees, and they both broke that rule. Satan, of course, was formerly an angel and obviously betrayed God and was thus cast asunder by Christ. Hildegard asserted that there is a natural order of things in terms of stature and level in society but she clearly did not use a person’s gender alone to justify any of this, so she was very much a feminist of her day for that reason as well. She easily could have used the society’s standard of men being superior to justify her thoughts and actions including those related to her belief in God but she did not do that (Flanagan).

However, one way in which she was able to be so confronting and even sometimes assaultive on the church came in the way in which she clearly identified her gender as the “weaker” one and she often belittled herself personally on many levels. Perhaps this was her being honest about herself but perhaps it was a way to give the visions she had more credence and religious authority because the words she was sharing were ostensibly bestowed to her by divinity rather than simply of her own mind and opinion. Flanagan notes that the concepts of “class” as we know them today did not exist at that time because the number of common people and nobility was much more one-sided and based on such a narrow set of traits as compared to the concepts of wealth and power in a more modern perspective. Indeed, it is clear from looking at history that even the word “nobility” was not coherently and specifically defined in that day. Hildegard offered her own examples of how disparate and wide a chasm those definitions can be as she used a farmer and his flock as well as God and his angels as examples of this. Rather than focus on gender or royalty, Hildegard took a perspective that was more related to religion and divinity rather than focusing on the clearly held standard of that day that women were not in usually in a position nor did they have the right to voice disdain or displeasure with the fact that most men held the power while women where to be subservient and inferior to men. Again, Hildegard clearly knew what was going on in terms of women and their power (or lack thereof) but she obviously and distinctly avoided falling into the pattern and custom that surrounded her. Her assertions and actions regarding class and nobility are perhaps a bit vexing to some but she clearly avoided labeling women at large as being deserving of their fate in that day and time. However, it is clear that she had feminist overtones in her thought pattern and presentation given that she focused on Adam, and not Eve, even though Eve was the first to eat the fateful apple. She was not obviously being anti-man or anything of that sort, but her choice of Adam was probably not an accident but still made the point fairly and without obviously injecting gender into a discussion that really did not involve it (Flanagan)(Holy Bible).

On that note, Hildegard also made it a point to focus on flawed women but in a way that redeemed them and showed that recovery from misdeeds is possible. This was done quite clearly from a philosophical standpoint when Eve and Mary were shown as “archetypes of fallen and redeemed humanity” and she also made heavy use of Christian symbolism and mysticism to make her points emphatically but in a way that would be consumable and accepted to the readers of her works. One example of her toeing the line regarding many aspects of Christianity was her clear embracing, not rejection, of the masculine portrayal of both God and Jesus Christ. Her works are pervasively filled with the words “God”, “Father”, “Son”, “King” and “Judge” and she, as alluded to before, was embracing rather than rejecting of her ostensible weaker status as a woman as a way for God to manifest and work through her words and her life’s journey. Hildegard clearly held herself as a “mouthpiece” of the Lord rather than a powerful woman in a sea of powerful men. Perhaps this is why the word “feminism” or any its precursors never emerged because Hildegard seemed to be focused more on divinity and morality than bringing attention to the fact that she, a woman, was saying things that most women would never dream of being able to say in public without harsh repercussions or even banishment/ex-communication. It is clear that while she was a woman acting in a way that mostly (but not all) men engaged in, it is also clear that feminism might have been what she was technically engaged in but she did not use that as her motivation (John).

However, despite the fact that she was both a feminist and an anti-feminist in many different ways, her actions and history clearly support the former more than the latter. Indeed, she is considered by historians to be the very first woman to be the least bit of an established authority regarding church doctrine and practice. She was the only medieval women to preach openly before crowds without being condemned or even imprisoned by the clergy and the papacy of that day. However, she and some of her fellow nuns (women, of course) did butt heads very much on a male versus female level when she established the aforementioned Rupertsville Monastery. Hildegard and her ilk wanted a locus of control on the resources and monies that were to be used to establish the new monastery and this was viewed as improper and affront to the male powers that be that thought that this control should reside only or at least mainly with them. The males who rose against her even went so far to call her visions potential instances of hallucination but stopped short of calling her a heretic. She was called to account for her misdeeds against church leadership by Kuno, the Abbot of Saint Disibod. Rather than concede to Kuno, Hildegard took to a bed in the infirmary and refused to speak or write until Kuno relented, which he eventually did. In a subsequent letter to her “spiritual daughters”, she asserted that Kuno was clearly working against the word and authority of God and that God’s vengeance against Kuno and his ilk would be swift and unrelenting and she compared his actions and assertions to that of the Amalekites, Antiochus and the Belial people in the Bible who, each in their own way, attacked or were otherwise an affront to the word of God. For a woman, let alone a man, to levy such an attack had to have been disconcerting to the powerful men of the church

Conclusion

While Hildegard was clearly not a feminist in many respects, she also filled the bill for feminism in a lot of ways. She did not use her status as a woman to justify or assert her equality (let alone dominance) but she was also not afraid to make assertions and claims that clearly would have (and did) put her at odds with the patriarchal mindset and power structure of that day. She was able to toe a rather thin line by doing and saying things that a women would normally never dare say in that day and age while at the same time not going so far to assert her femininity and/or just now far out of phase she was with the common woman or even her fellow nuns of that day. If she had been more incendiary and matriarchal in her message, it would have diminished what she would have said and lessened the possibility that she would be taken seriously. However, she conducted herself perfectly given the effect she wanted to give and she was absolutely the equivalent of a feminist given the class and power system she faced (Fordham).

Works Cited

Flanagan, S. (1998). 'For God Distinguishes the People of Earth as in Heaven': Hildegard of Bingen's Social Ideas. Journal Of Religious History, 22(1), 14.

Fordham. "The Life and Works of Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)." Internet History Sourcebooks Project. N.p., 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013. <http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.asp>.

Hildegard.org. "Sabina Flanagan: Hildegard von Bingen." Sabina Flanagan: Hildegard von Bingen. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.hildegard.org/documents/flanagan.html>.

Holy Bible. The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments translated out of the original tongues and with the former translations diligently compared and revised by His Majesty's special command.. Standard text ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.

John, H. J. (1992). Hildegard of Bingen: A New Twelfth-century Woman Philosopher?. Hypatia,7(1), 115-123.

Jones, Sharon, and Diana Neal. "Negotiable Currencies: Hildegard Of Bingen, Mysticism And The Vagaries Of The Theoretical." Feminist Theology: The Journal Of The Britain &

Ireland School Of Feminist Theology 11.3 (2003): 375. Academic Search Premier. Web.26 Nov. 2013.

McFadden, M. (1994). The Creation of Feminist Consciousness. Magill’S Literary Annual 1994,1-3.

Patheos. "Hildegard of Bingen: Loved by Pope Benedict and feminist scholars." On the Way. N.p., 7 Oct. 2012. Web. 26 Nov. 2013. <http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philfoxrose/2012/10/hildegard-of-bingen-catholic-saint-and-new-age-hero/>.