³ HILDEGARD'S MEDICINE • MEDICAL BOOKS

 HILDEGARD'S MEDICAL BOOKS 

In 1959, the Benedictine nuns Marianna Schrader and Adelgundis Führkötter, working together with historians and paleographers and with the support of the German society for research, proved the authenticity of the visionary trilogy mentioned below, and of more than 300 letters, compositions, and songs. 

1. Book of Faith (Scivias) 

2. Book of Life's Merits (Liber Vitae Meritorum) 

3. Book of Divine Works (Liber Divinorum Operum) 

Do the medical books belong to Hildegard's complete works? 

The visionary phase involving medicine and natural science falls between the first and second works of Hildegard's trilogy. It was then that the medical book, Subtilitates Diversarum Natura-rum Creaturarum (the explanation of the natural powers of the various creatures), was written. The work in its original form has not yet been found, but there are several copies of the following parts of the work. 

1. Liber Simplicis Medicinae (the so-called book of healing methods or Physica): There are manuscripts of the first part of the work dating from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries located in Wolfenbüttel, Paris and Brussels, and an early printed copy published by J. Scott in Strasbourg in 1533. The Patrologia Latina edition (Vol. 197, CPL, J.P. Migne, Paris, 1882) is based on this 1533 edition. A comparison of the various manuscripts shows that the integrity of the text has been carefully preserved (Heil-mittel, Basel Hildegard Society, 1982). 

2. Liber Compositae Medicinae (the book of composed medicine): The second part, with the title Causae et Curme (the causes and treatments of illness), was wonderfully preserved in a thirteenth (13th) century manuscript first discovered by Carl Jensen in 1859 in the Royal Library in Copenhagen. Cardinal J. Pitra published an excerpt in his Analecta Sacra (Vol.8, Paris, 1881), and Karl Kai-ser transcribed the complete text, printed with the title Causae et Curae in Berlin, 1903. 

This book is important for the understanding of Hildegard's whole healing method and has come under careful critical scrutiny. The experts agree on the authenticity of the medical books ascribed to Hildegard; there has been no conclusive proof that they are spurious. 

Hildegard's medical textbook is, in a sense, a summary of her last great theological medical book, Liber Divinorum Operum. It anticipates the later book, which elaborates the medical and cosmic interrelationship of humanity and the world in much greater detail. 

FROM WHAT SOURCE DID HILDEGARD TAKE HER MEDICINE (Studies)? 

The question of sources is very difficult in the case of Hildegard. As a prophet she refers only to the Bible. In a letter to Bernhard of Clairvaux dating from 1146 she says,"...I am an uneducated mortal and am in no way learned in things concerning the external world, but taught from within by means of my soul."(PL 189 C) 

HILDEGARD HAS HER OWN LANGUAGE 

Hildegard herself writes in Latin, but many ordinary Latin words have a special meaning when she uses them-for example viriditas, the greening power. The word does not occur in any other treatise on healing. Hildegard uses the word viriditas to refer to all living things, the energy of life which comes from God, the power of youth and of sexuality, the power in seeds, the reproduction of cells, the power of regeneration, freshness, and creativity. 

Weakness and loss of life-energy are the result of the tragedy of the loss of faith — the sin of allowing faith to dry out. A person who seems dried up has lost the power of creativity; the salva-tion from this desert, spiritual healing, comes as a gift of faith through Jesus Christ. For this reason, Hildegard refers to Mary as viridissima virga, the greenest virgin. 

Another concept which Hildegard uses is that of black bile, melanche, which is the cause of melancholy. The medicine of Hildegard is based upon the principle that all internal processes in people can be traced back to biochemical origin. The substance which makes one sad and which plays a role in every serious ill-ness, she calls black bile, which develops in humanity through the fall into sin. 

With the fall into sin, the crystal-clear gallstone of Adam dis-integrated into the black bile which is melanche proper, and into the gallic acids which are chemically related to the steroids, cholesterol, and sexual hormones. This melanche is always pre-sent in the blood, but at a higher level during illness. Many bodily and spiritual functions are influenced by the presence of these toxic substances which the body itself produces, and it is one of the greatest accomplishments of Hildegard medicine to eliminate these substances which cause illness and spiritual dysfunction. Antimelancholic remedies are based on this same prin-ciple of melanche neutralization. On the other hand, many improper life habits, such as the unaesthetic gulping of fast foods, can increase the levels of these depressive substances. 

WHAT DOES HILDEGARD KNOW ABOUT THE PSYCHE OR SOUL? 

Hildegard's medicine is a psychological or spiritual medi-cine. Hildegard not only wrote her own book on psychotherapy (Liber Vitae Meritorum), but also described common everyday aspects of psychological or spiritual functioning and how they affect the body. She compiled a list of 35 avoidable risk-factors, from nerve-wracking anger, and lust which ends in despair, to world weariness coming from a greed for possessions. Lack of faith is the cause of all evil, and faith increases the success of every cure. 

Hildegard's healing art has one or more remedies for every ailment, but this does not mean that every person is curable by means of Hildegard's medicine. Even though most patients react positively to her remedies, Hildegard writes the following remarkable formulation in her textbook: 

These remedies come from God and will either heal people or they must die, or God does not wish them to be healed. (CC 165,21) 

That is not a Solomon-like excuse for any possible failure. It has to do with only about one percent of her remedies, but they happen to be the most important cures. Certainly God wishes to heal everyone. Christ always healed those who pleaded for his aid. 

The same is true of Hildegard, yet there are a certain few cases where God in divine wisdom realizes that curing the sick person will not help. It is obvious that Hildegard promotes Christian goals in the world and among humanity. We are reminded of the words of St. Augustine, "Omnia anima naturaliter christiana." (English translation: Every soul is naturally Christian) The design of every soul is based on a Christian model. It is in this sense that all of Hildegard's books are to be understood, including her medical books.

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