ROBERTUS, REX GALLIAE Robert II, son of Hugh Capet, was born at Orleans in the year 971 and died in 1031. He succeeded to the throne of France in 997. Archbishop Trench says, "The loveliest of all the hymns in the whole circle of Latin sacred poetry has a king for its author." "Sismondi," he continues, " brings him very vividly before us in all the beauty of his character, and also in all his evident unfitness, a man of gentleness and peace, for grappling with the men of iron by whom he was surrounded." This praise must be taken with large allowance. Robert was weak, to put it mildly. He repudiated his first wife, on the plea that she was too old for him, and incurred the displeasure of Pope Gregory V by marrying a distant cousin, Bertha, whom he put away and married for his third wife Constance, reputed to have been a shrew. His natural son, Amauri, was the ancestor of the notorious Simon de Montfort. His long reign of thirty-four years was troubled above measure. He is said to have "supported three hundred paupers entirely and one thousand in part,” and to have "founded four monasteries and built seven churches." He composed both music and hymns. ROBERTUS, REX GALLIAE AD SANCTUM SPIRITUM Veni, Sancte Spiritus, Veni, pater pauperum, Veni, dator munerum, Consolator optime, O lux beatissima, ROBERT, KING OF FRANCE TO THE HOLY SPIRIT O Thou Holy Spirit, come, The radiance of Thy heavenly light impart. Giver of all increase, come, Come, Thou the light of every human heart. O Thou consolation best, Sweet Visitor and Solace of the soul; In all labor Thou art rest, In the heat Thou shelterest, Our stay when waves of sorrow o'er us roll. O most beatific light, The inmost deeps of faithful hearts fulfill! Naught in man dispels the night, Nor is there aught that doth not work him ill. 84623 A |