One can only understand the attitude of medieval man to the world if one keeps in mind the principle of the religious people of that time: credo ut intellegam. Delving into the mysteries of religion guarantees all knowledge in the field of natural science, shows the paths of research and enables believers to avoid the wrong paths. The emotional security of medieval religious man is not only the basis of his intellectual culture, but also intuitively comes into its own where today only the paths of experimental research are conceivable. We must not lose sight of this if we want to critically examine Hildegard's attitude to the things of the animate and inanimate world. She herself pursues natural sciences only intuitively. But her strong intellect enables her to recognize scientific facts even where in the Middle Ages there was no experimental experience at all; her clairvoyant powers recognize laws that were only rediscovered in the age of natural sciences. In the sphere of the magical effects of natural forces, Hildegard shows an astonishing power of insight. But there are also things whose nature can only be fathomed by experimental science using special tools. This is where the scientifically untrained nun naturally fails. She has only been able to gather experience in very limited areas of the realm of animate and inanimate nature, for example about the healing properties of herbs, about fish and other animals in the vicinity of her monastery. Hildegard herself never had any doubts about the correctness of her findings. She considered what the true light, her intuition, had revealed to her to be an irrefutable truth. - [Author]

Language: German