Mystical experiences proved to be a remarkable avenue for women in the Middle Ages to discover their own voice through relating what visions and revelations they had received. This dialectical move forced them, on the one hand, to give up oneself entirely to God, and then, on the other hand, afterwards to report either orally or in the written form what the meaning of this mystical encounter was. To be sure, these experiences provided women unique means to participate in the literary discourse of their time. Elisabeth of Schönau has long been recognized as one of the earliest and influential religious women who was closely connected with Hildegard of Bingen. Although she has previously been examined in many studies, Anne Clark here attempts a new approach to the life and writings of a remarkable twelf-century women, not only trying to fill gaps, but specifically endeavoring to reach a better understanding of the mystic's visions and the way how her texts were transmitted to posterity.
As in the case of many mystical writers, it is difficult to outline a precise biography, and most of the data available today had to be gleaned from autobiographical references spread throughout her work, her brother Ekbert's introductory comments to her visions, and from his letters to three relatives describing Elisabeth's death (De Obitu Elisabeth). In her first chapter Clark closely follows the available documents and is able to project not only the basic biographical information, but also to detail some of the major concerns which Elisabeth discussed in her accounts. She harbored strong objections to the Cathars, but also criticized the clergy which, through neglecting its pastoral duties, allowed this movement to spread.
Next follows a discussion of the visionary texts and collections, introduced by an examination of Elisabeth's linguistic abilities to read and write Latin. Although her brother asserted that she had never learned it, he expresses admiration for the bilingual nature of her visions. Other references demonstrate, however, that she knew Latin well enough to read the Bible and other texts. In other words, Ekbert's comments are not absolutely reliable, since we have to see in him an editor who felt compelled to intervene, to select, and to channel his sister's visions as to make them most effective for clergical purposes. The Liber Viarum Dei, often called a "visionary diary," closely follows the liturgy and the Church's kalendar and was soon accepted as a highly useful handbook for spiritual guidance (34). Moreover, its pragmatic sermons and didactic instructions made it more appealing than even Hildegard's Scivias. Elisabeth's visions of Saint Ursula and her companions, the eleven thousand virgins, are transmitted in seventy medieval manuscripts, thus by far topping the Liber Viarum Dei.
Clark then discusses the editorial role which Ekbert assumed, particularly after Elisabeth's death, although he refrained from intervening any further beyond the textual arrangement into the internal structure of the accounts. Although he claimed in the expanded introduction to the Liber Visionum Primus to have refrained from any major alterations, Clar observes that his presence at the Schönau community had a direct impact on the visions which Elisabeth received because of his concrete questions with which he directed his sister's visions to special subjects.=20 Obviously, the visions were not only considered to be God's messages to his daughter Elisabeth, and from her to the rest of the Christian community, but they were also seen as helpful channels into the world beyond through which direct instructions could be received. Clark attempts to rescue the mystic's role as an independent author, but admits that Elisabeth apparently incorporated her brother's concerns into her own visionary perspectives (66). But either way, the revelations emerge not as one-way messages, but as documents of a two-way communication process. Certainly, without Ekbert many of those visions would not have been copied down, or would have assumed a different appearance, yet this does not diminish the mystic's spiritual achievements. Perhaps it would be best to label the end-result a cooperative effort to convey transcendental experiences to the Christian believers. These conclusions basically confirm, however, what older and more recent scholarship has observed as well, which makes the reading somewhat tedious (cf. P. Dinzelbacher, "Die Offenbarungen der hl. Elisabeth von Schönau," Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktinerordens 97 [1986]: 462-482).
In the fifth chapter Clark discusses the changes of prophetic visions prevalent in the twelfth century. Revelations, such as in the case of Joachim of Fiore and Hildegard of Bingen, were understood as "expositio" of the Bible. Whereas in earlier times the mystics were taken on to otherworld journeys, now the visions are dominated by visits from the otherworld. Such a distinction, as valuable as it seems, does not necessarily constitute a paradigm shift and threatens to erect walls among the mystics where there were none. Clark does not produce enough evidence to support her thesis that Elisabeth, together with Hildegard of Bingen, forged "new literary genres to express her experience" (80). Moreover, many of the mystic's visions clearly take her into the otherworld where she meets angels and saints who interpret for her what she is seeing (e.g.: "Et vidi in loco valde remoto," Liber visionum, 2. 31).
The discussion about Elisabeth's visions lacks in clarity and confuses the reader. Instead of outlining what makes up the bulk of the mystic's account, Clark focuses again and again on individual aspects and forgets to reconnect them with the overall picture. The reason for this disorientation might rest in the problem of how to distinguish Elisabeth's own reports and Ekbert's editing efforts. And there is no denying that a rational approach to a mystical vision is difficult to achieve, and in this light the author's efforts are to be commended after all.
The last chapter focuses on Elisabeth's religious visions, which have, however, often been discussed in previous sections of this book. At any rate, here she highlights Elisabeth's relationship with God, Christ, and the Virgin Mary. Moreover, the mystic's strong believe in the power of the prayer to intervene on behalf of the sinners, her clear vision of the otherworld in geographic terms, and her conviction of her role as a critic of the Church and Christianity are important aspects of the visionary account.
In a way Elisabeth also resorted to the sermon to convey her messages, and frankly discussed the importance of self-control in marriage, to be continent, and to use sex only as a means to achieve progenity. Virginity here becomes a symbol not only of the "innocence of flesh (127), but also of monastic idealism centered on contemplation, the communal life of devotion and penance. But all this does not necessarily indicate that Elisabeth was a "harbinger of the new developments in visionary literature" (134).
As impressive as Clark's examination of the mystic's texts proves to be, she does not succeed in projecting a clear picture of what the distinguishing marks of this religious woman were. In comparison with Kurt Ruh's recent discussion of Elisabeth's work in his Geschichte der abendlaendischen Mystik, II (1993), it seems as if Clark has lost the critical distance to the mystic's writings, leading to a patchwork of certainly important, though not fully convincing or clarifying analyses. The relationship between Ekbert and his sister, the latter's self-consciousness, and the interpretation of her visions in feminist terms would require further investigation.
An appendix dealing with the extensive transmission of Elisabeth's work, the scholarly apparatus, and an index conclude this volume.