"Origo autem huius antiquissimi hymni S. Bernhardo tribuenda sit necne certo evinci haud potuerit." Schlosser (i. 431) quotes G. Fabricius: "Auctoris incerti;" Bonsi: "D'incerto autore;" Signoretti: "Quest'inno trovasi nelle opere di S. Bernardo, a cui per altro, per giudizio del P. Mabillone, non deve attribuirsi." Nevertheless, these opinions carry little weight to-day. It was certainly attractive to the older hymnologists to dispute learnedly the ascription of a hymn they could not trace back to MSS. of an earlier date than the fourteenth century. Dom Guéranger, who wrote before the first volume even of Daniel had appeared, found ample field for his contention. I do not happen to have access to the French original of the Année Liturgique; but it is clear from the Preface to the first volume of the same writer's Institutions Liturgiques, that he was then engaged on his after great work. That volume appeared in 1840, and in its Preface promised the first instalment of the Année in the autumn of the following year. The second volume of the Institutions (1841) contains an advertisement of the Deuxième Division of the Année as already issued. It was in this same year that the first volume of Daniel's epoch-making work came out, giving the "Jesu dulcis " in forty-eight stanzas, with many critical readings noted. In the fourth volume of his Thesaurus, published fourteen years later, he uses the splendid labors of Mone, whose three volumes had meanwhile appeared, to further illustrate and amend his treatment of the Hymn. Guéranger was, therefore, justified in his contention by his incontestable manuscripts "—justified, that is to say, subjectively, however much subsequent finds should have rendered his view untenable. Hymnologists of the present day, while they fail to prove that St. Bernard wrote the hymn, seem to be unanimous in ascribing it to him. They have reason for maintaining the older tradition, as the grounds on which it was assailed, or at least questioned, were found (by the discovery of very early MSS.) to have been so insecure. Thus Trench still asserts in his third edition (1874) the Bernardine authorship ascribed in the first (1849). He says: "This poem, among those of St. Bernard the most eminently characteristic, consists of nearly fifty quatrains, and, unabridged, would have been too long for insertion here; not to say that, with all the beauty of the stanzas in particular, as a whole it lies under the defect of a certain monotony and lack of progress. Where all was beautiful the task of selection was a hard one; but only so could the poem have found place in this volume; while, for the reasons just stated, there is gain as well as loss in presenting it in this briefer form' (p. 251). He prints a cento of fifteen stanzas. Schlosser (1863) ascribes it to the Saint. Schaff, in Christ in Song (1869), also ascribes it to St. Bernard: "Jubilus rhythmicus de nomine Jesu, the sweetest and most evangelical (as the Dies Irae is the grandest, and the Stabat Mater the most pathetic) hymn of the Middle Ages . . . by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (called Doctor mellifluus ...)." So, too, March, in his Latin Hymns (1875); and Duffield, in Latin Hymns (1889), who, in a sketch of the Saint's life, says: "The Church universal has made Bernard her own; and the very translations of his verses are half-inspired. And while we sing Jesus, the very thought of thee With sweetness fills my breast, we shall sing with the spirit and with the understanding, the very strain that the Abbot of Clairvaux was sent on earth to teach!" Finally, the Dictionary of Hymnology (1892) says: "This hymn has been generally (and there seems little reason to doubt, correctly) ascribed to St. Bernard; and there are many parallels to it in his genuine prose works, especially that on the Canticles. It has been variously dated 1130, 1140, or 1153; but as positive proof is lacking that it is unquestionably the work of St. Bernard it is manifestly impossible to fix a date for its composition." In ascribing the great hymn to the great Saint, I have followed both an early and a late tradition. 1 The hymns have been translated many times into English, but I do not recall any version which preserves the rhymic scheme of the Latin. The Primer of 1685 begins its translation thus: Jesu, the only thought of thee Fills with delight my memory; But when thou dost thy presence show, Heaven seems into my breast to flow. The version of the Evening Office, 1725, is possibly by If Jesus called to mind imparts 1 The 2nd edition (1907) of the Dictionary has not discovered, in the interim, any additional reason of sufficient weight to disturb its previous view that the traditional ascription is probably correct. Dom Pothier, however, has found the hymn in a MS. of the eleventh century, ascribed to a Benedictine abbess; and this would refute the ascription to St. Bernard (b. 1090, d. 1153). Prior J. D. Aylward translates: The memory sweet of Jesus' name R. Campbell begins: Thy sweet remembrance, Lord, imparts The sweetness that thy presence brings. A PRAYER AFTER MASS. Some editions of the Missal and of the Breviary place the "Prayer of St. Augustine" among the devotions appropriate for the "thanksgiving" after Mass. In a certain parish of the Diocese of Philadelphia the practice of daily or frequent Communion has become so general that the pastor has organized a public "thanksgiving", with stated prayers (printed in leaflets for distribution) recited aloud for or by the whole congregation, and has included the "Prayer of St. Augustine". So far as the translator knows, it has not appeared in any other English form; and he therefore ventures to place it here: PRAYER OF ST. AUGUSTINE. Before thine eyes, Lord, we carry our iniquities, and compare them with our punishments. If we weigh the evil we have wrought, we find that we suffer less than we deserve. Heavy is that which we have done : light is that which we suffer. We feel the punishment of sin; and yet we continue to sin. Our weakness is bruised by Thy scourges; yet is not our iniquity lessened. The sick mind is tormented; but the proud neck does not bend. Our life sighs forth its sorrow; but amends not its evil-doing. If Thou hold back Thine hand, we fail to correct our faults; if Thou strike us, we do not bear it patiently. Under Thy lash, we confess our wrong-doing; yet after the visitation, we forget the cause of our tears. When Thou threatenest, we promise amendment; when thou holdest back the blow, we break the promise. Thou strikest, and we cry for mercy; Thou sparest, and again we provoke Thee to strike. We confess our guilt, Lord; and we know that unless Thou absolve us, justly mayest Thou destroy us. Grant, Almighty Father, that which we, without any deserving, ask of Thee; for Thou didst create out of nothing them who would thus supplicate Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen. V.-Deal not Thou with us, O Lord, according to our sins. Let us pray. O God, who art offended by sin and appeased by repentance, look down graciously upon the supplications of Thy people praying to Thee, and turn away the scourges of Thy wrath, which for our sins we justly deserve, through Christ our Lord. Amen. THE BLESSING OF VESTMENTS. The prayers found in the Pontificale and the Rituale for the Blessing of the Priestly Vestments, Altar-Cloths, and Corporals, were translated into English at the request of the Tabernacle Society of Philadelphia, and appeared in the Annals of that Society with the following interesting and informing comment: "The custom of blessing vestments has existed since the eighth century; that is, from that time prayers have been recited over these articles, which are thus set apart |