Who are the virtues?

In class yesterday we spoke of Hildegard’s Heavenly Jerusalem as a kind of image of the soul, populated by mysterious female virtues. I am very interested in these virtues and their role in the temple. I have never seen virtue personified in this manner; most of my exposure to virtue has been in Greek philosophy classes or in quotidian discussions of how to be a “good person.” Understanding these virtues is thus not just important for understanding Scivias by itself, it is a necessary step one must take when situating Scivias in the modern world and when comparing Medieval Christian thought to other intellectual traditions. 

The virtues first appear in Book III of Scivias, and are prefaced by the following “The tower is four cubits wide; for these virtues, boy God’s will, are brought about in people by placing them in the world of the four elements, from which, while they are in the body, they get physical nourishment” (345). There’s a lot to unpack here, and it is not made any easier by all of the “thems” and “theys” that Hildegard throws around; it is not clear if these pronouns refer to virtues or to humans. While there are many possible permutations of who each pronoun refers to, I think the best one comes from mapping the first “they” to humans and the second two pronouns to the virtues. This gives rise to the following reading: People need to be in the physical world to manifest the virtues within themselves, and by doing this, humans physically sustain the virtues. It is not clear still who the virtues are, but they are alive to the extent that they need sustenance, and they are deeply tied to the actions of humans in the real world. 

Interestingly, Hildegard then immediately makes it abundantly clear that the virtues are not alive, while continuing to use the language of personification: “not that any virtue is a living form in itself, but  brilliant star given by God that shines forth in human deeds. For humanity is perfected by virtues, which are the deeds of people working in God” (345). After making this point, that virtues are not alive but instead the actions of people working in God, indeed a gift from God, she continues then: “they do not work in a person by themselves, for the person works with them and they with the person; just as the person’s five senses do not work by themselves, but the person with them and they with the person, to bear fruit together. And so each of them works hard, as much as it can” (345-346). The virtues, thus, are good deeds done in the name of God by humans that, when brought into world, continue to work with and support humans and, while they are not alive, they seem to possess an agency of their own. What emerges then is a kind of positive feedback loop for the doing of good deeds: conditional upon doing good in the past, a person is more likely to do more good, for he is aided by the virtue that is his past good work. However, the motive power still must ultimately come from the human.

Why then are the virtues personified? Hildegard later states the reason: “For God in the power of His goodness profoundly imbued Man with reason and knowledge and intellect, that he might dearly love Him and devotedly worship Him and spurn the illusions of demons” (364). The virtues look like man, and thus like God, because God wants man to recognize Him in the virtues. Ultimately, the personification of the virtues reminds me of a logo on a piece of clothing: God gives man virtue as a tool, but He must remind man from where that tool comes, so man can use virtue to honor God in similar way to how I honor Nike when I wear their basketball shoes.

The first five virtues are Celestial Love, Discipline, Modesty, Mercy, and Victory. Hildegard personifies each one, ultimately chaining them together so that each precludes the next: “Among the five virtues the first is celestial love, which consists in a person knowing and loving God above all things. Then the person, because of his faith, is bound by the law of discipline; and from there he goes on to repress his tendency to sin through good and righteous modesty. And so by these three powers the person will attain a just heart, and be able to see the next thing, the suffering of his neighbor; and then he will provide all necessities for him as for himself. And with these powers the person soon becomes a strong soldier, perfected in mind by imitating My son” (350). Thus, the virtues exist almost as a kind of template to help people imitate Christ - simply by loving God, an individual sets off a chain reaction of virtue that propels him closer to Christ. Not only is this a fairly simple model for moving towards Christ, something that we’ve seen time and time again that Medieval Christians were fascinated with, but the virtues necessitate the ultimate engagement with God’s creation: helping your fellow man, another of God’s creatures.  

It is interesting, then, that Hildegard sets Patience and Longing off to the side, but she does this because they are newer virtues, “springing up” out of the actions of Christ. It is thus not enough to love God and act virtuously, a virtuous person must both acknowledge Christ’s life and actively follow in its example and also eagerly anticipate leaving this world behind to meet Christ in heaven. 

Of course, these are not the only virtues that appear in Book III of Svivias; there is also the knowledge of God, humility, charity, fear of the Lord, obedience, faith, virginity, hope, chastity, and the Grace of God. I wish I had the time and the space to delve into each one of these, but I think the following quote suffices to summarize them and their importance: “In the incarnate Son of God all the virtues work fully, and that He left in Himself the way of salvation; so that faithful people…can find in Him the right step on which to place their foot in order to ascend to virtue, so that they can reach the best place to exercise all the virtues…[The virtues] descend through Him to the hearts of the faithful, who with good heart and eagerness leave their own will and betake themselves to righteous deeds…And they ascend through Him when they offer to God the heavenly works that people have done with rejoicing” (435-436). As has already been stated, the virtues are a way to become more like Christ, for Christ possessed all of them, but most importantly, there are steeped in action. It is not enough to love God; the faithful must preform “righteous deeds” done through love of God in order to attain salvation. This is why it was so important to first establish the connection of virtue to the real world: action requires a world to act in, and virtue is a way of acting that allows man to escape that same world and orient himself towards the Kingdom of God by mimicking Christ.

 It is ultimately extraordinarily empowering that Hildegard believes that, along with our reason, we innately possess virtue, a tool given by God to facilitate good deeds and the attainment of salvation. This is also where I think Hildegard’s conception of virtue differs fundamentally with the conception of virtue I’ve seen in the ancient Greeks. Plato and Socrates believed virtue was something that man should strive towards, but Hildegard believes that virtue is something that man uses in his quest to strive towards God. 

JW

Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias, trans. Mother Columba Hart (New York: Paulist Press, 1990)