When the body has thus taken shape there enters into it the soul which, though at first shapeless, gradually assumes the form of its host, the earthly tabernacle; and at death the soul departs through the mouth with the last breath, as a fully developed naked human shape, to be received by devils or angels as the case may be (Plate XX). [Illustration: From WIESBADEN CODEX B. fo. 47 r Plate XXIII. THE VISION OF THE TRINITY] During its residence in the body the soul plays the part usually assigned to it in the earlier mediaeval psychology, before the ideas of Nemesius and Ibn Ghazali had been elaborated and systematized by Albert and Aquinas. Hildegard regards the brain as having three chambers or divisions, corresponding to the three parts of man’s nature, an idea encountered in the writings of St. Augustine. Parallel to these there are, she tells us, ‘three elements in man by which he shows life; to wit, soul (_anima_), body (_corpus_), and sense (_sensus_). The soul vivifies the body and inspires the senses; the body attracts the soul and reveals the senses; the senses affect the soul and allure the body. For the soul rules the body as a flame throws light into darkness, and it has two principal powers or limbs, the intellect (_intellectus_) and the will (_voluntas_); not indeed that the soul has limbs to move itself, but that it manifests itself thereby as the sun declares himself by his brightness.... For the intellect is attached to the soul as the arms to the body: for as the body is prolonged into arms with fingers and hands attached, so the intellect is produced from the soul by the operation of its various powers.’[112] We need follow Hildegard no further into her maze of micro-cosmology, in which an essential similarity and relationship is discovered between the qualities of the soul, the constitution of the external cosmos, and the structure of the body, a thought which appears as the culmination of her entire system and provides the clue to the otherwise incomprehensible whole.[113] X. THE VISIONS AND THEIR PATHOLOGICAL BASIS For the physical accompaniments and phenomena of Hildegard’s visions we have three separate lines of evidence: her own account; the statements of her contemporary biographers, Theodoric and Godefrid; and the miniatures of the Wiesbaden Codex B, probably prepared under her supervision. It is clear that despite the length and activity of her life, Hildegard did not enjoy normal health. From a very early age she was the subject of trances and visions, and from time to time she was prostrated with protracted illness.