The Column of Burning Spices

Book two in the Hildegard of Bingen duology was just as riveting as the first. I read both books in one day! The Column of Burning Spices opens in the year 1143 with Hildegard opening a letter from Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux. He has read a chapter on the trinity in a book that she penned and he approves of it.  At this point in her monastic life Hildegard is trying to find a way for her Order to leave St. Disibod's Monastery so that they can live independently from male rule over their lives.  Prior Helenger continues to interfere with her desire to work as a physician and as a writer and has acted more boldly since he expects to succeed the ailing Abbott Kuno. She has been saving money for years to start her own foundation and needs the approval of powerful men in the church such as Abbott Bernard in order to make that goal a reality.

What Hildegard doesn't know is that Abbott Kuno wrote the Pope to inquire whether it was appropriate for her to write on matters of faith since the Bible states that women should not be teachers. Before sending a group of messengers to St. Disibod to observe Hildegard, Pope Eugenius asks an assistant "Who is this woman who rises out of the wilderness like a column of smoke from burning spices?" He has also heard from his friend Abbott Bernard of Clairvaux that he has encouraged Hildegard to continue to write and does not know whose opinion to accept, Kuno's or Bernard's? What I would call an unstable part of church history begins here as popes, anti-popes, bishops, and archbishops rise and fall frequently enough to stall Hildegard's plans to obtain a charter for her foundation and convent.

I was enthralled with this series. I didn't know much about Hildegard or the time period before reading the duology. Fortunately the author is well versed in the Middle Ages. This duology may well be my favorite series of the year, such as the Empress of the Bright Moon duology was for me in 2017. It's a series that just grabs your attention from the first pages and while it is historical fiction, it is also written with suspense.  I highly recommend it.