Hildebert of Manz

Hildebert, who sprang from a family of no great position, was born at Laverdin, near Montoire, in France, 1057. Brought up at the feet of Berengarius of Tours (a pupil of Erigena) he so profited by the opportunities thus afforded him of acquiring learning, as to become one of the most cultivated scholars of his age. Having for some years been a Professor of Theology at Mans, he became at the age of forty (1097) Bishop of that see. He was translated, in 1125, to the Archbishopric of Tours, and died 1134.

Hildebert's character as an individual has been very differently drawn by different writers, for while Trench describes him as " a wise and gentle prelate, although not wanting in courage to dare and fortitude to endure, when the cause of truth required it," who " must ever be esteemed one of the fairest ornaments of the French Church," Bayle, in his Hist. & Crit. Diet, represents him as having “led a very scandalous life," even after his promotion to an archdeaconry. As to his character as a writer of Latin verse, the evidence is clearer and less contradictory. He is said, by the Benedictine editors of his works, to have written more than ten thousand Latin lines (as various in merit as voluminous in amount), sometimes in rhyme, more generally in heroic or elegiac metre, and upon subjects ranging from "An Address to the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity," to a legendary "Life of Mahomet." The large majority of his verses are of little value, while some rise to such a height of energy and grandeur as to induce Trench to prefer him to a higher place in sacred Latin poetry than any other writer except Adam of St. Victor, and almost to allow him to "dispute the palm" even with the latter. The first complete collection of his writings was made by the Benedictines, who edited them in conjunction with those of Marbod, bishop of Rennes, his contemporary, and published them at Paris, in 1708 (for specimens of the best work of Hildebert see Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, 1849 and 1873). The most striking of his pieces will probably be allowed to be (1) The "noble vision," " Somnium de Lamentatione Pictavensis Ecclesiae," of which Trench says, "I know no nobler piece of versification, nor more skilful management of rhyme, in the whole circle of sacred Latin poetry;" and (2) the Oratio Devotissima ad Tres Personas SS. Trinitatis," which is thus characterised by the same high authority: " A poem... which gradually rises in poetical animation until towards the end it equals the very best productions which Latin Christian poetry anywhere can boast." The following graceful lines of Hildebert's “De Nativitate Christi" form part of a longer poem, and exhibit, not unfairly, the beauties and faults alike of their author's style. For the attempted translation of them which follows the present writer is responsible.

“Nectareum rorem terris distillat Olympus,
Totam respergunt fiumina mellis humum.
Aurea sanctorum rosa de prato Parajtiisi
Virginia in gremium lapsa quievit ibi.
Intra virgineum decus, intra claustra pudoris,
Golligit angelicam Virginis aula rosam.
Flos roseus, flos angelicus, flos iste beatus
Vertitur in foenum, fit caro nostra Deus.
Vertitur in carnem Verbum Patris, at sine damno
Vertitur in matrem virgo, sed absque viro.
Lumine plena suo manet in nascente potestas,
Virgineum florens in pariente decus,
Sol tegttur nube, foeno flos, cortice granum,
Mel cera, sacco purpura, carne Deus.
Aetheris ac terrae sunt haec quasi fibula, sancto
Foederis amplexu dissona regna ligans."

“Dew-dropping nectar on earth pours down from the heights of Olympus,
Rivers of honey are shed over the face of the ground;
Out of the Garden of Eden a bright golden Rose of the blessed
Into a Virgin's breast falls and reposes in peace.
Hid 'neath its virginal glory, behind maiden chastity's portal,
Hid in a Virgin's womb, lies an angelical Rose:
Bloom of a Rose, of a Rose angelic, this bloom ever-blessed
Turns to a weed, and God puts on the flesh of a man.
Turned into flesh is the Word of the Father, tho' shorn not of glory,
And to a Mother a Maid, though she hath known not a man.
In the newborn is His power still filled with the light of His Godhead,
And in His Mother remains virginal honour undimmed.
Clouds the sun veil, the bloom d ry leaves, and the ear the grain covers,
Wax hides the honey, sackcloth purple, humanity God.
These are the clasps that connect this earth with high heaven above it
Blending in holiest league kingdoms so widely apart.”
[Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology