3. Trochaici dimetri ("Pange, lingua, gloriosi corporis mysterium," a eucharistic hymn of Thomas Aquinas). 4. Sapphici, cum Adonico in fine (as: "Ut queant laxis resonare fibris"). 5. Trochaici (as: "Ave maris stella"). 6. Asclepiadici, cum Glyconico in fine (as: "Sacris solemniis juncta sint gaudia"). In the period before us the Iambic dimeter prevails; in Hilary and Ambrose without exception. § 116. The Latin Poets and Hymns. The poets of this period, Prudentius excepted, are all clergymen, and the best are eminent theologians whose lives and labors have their more appropriate place in other parts of this work. HILARY, bishop of Poitiers (hence Pictaviensis, † 368), the Athanasius of the West in the Arian controversies, is, according to the testimony of Jerome,' the first hymn writer of the Latin church. During his exile in Phrygia and in Constantinople, he became acquainted with the Arian hymns and was incited by them to compose, after his return, orthodox hymns for the use of the Western church. He thus laid the foundation of Latin hymnology. He composed the beautiful morning hymn: "Lucis largitor splendide;" the Pentecostal hymn: "Beata nobis gaudia;" and, perhaps, the Latin reproduction of the famous Gloria in excelsis. The authorship of many of the hymns ascribed to him is doubtful, especially those in which the regular rhyme already appears, as in the Epiphany hymn: "Jesus refulsit omnium Pius redemptor gentium." We give as a specimen a part of the first three stanzas of his 1 Catal. vir. illustr. c. 100. Comp. also Isidore of Seville, De offic. eccles. 1. i. and Overthür, in the preface to his edition of the works of Hilary. morning hymn, which has been often translated into German AMBROSE, the illustrious bishop of Milan, though somewhat younger († 397), is still considered, on account of the number and value of his hymns, the proper father of Latin church and became the model for all successors. song, Such was his fame as a hymnographer that the words Ambrosianus and hymnus were at one time nearly synonymous. His genuine hymns are distinguished for strong faith, elevated but rude simplicity, noble dignity, deep unction, and a genuine churchly and liturgical spirit. The rhythm is still irregular, and of rhyme only imperfect beginnings appear; and in this respect they certainly fall far below the softer and richer melodies of the middle age, which are more engaging to ear and heart. They are an altar of unpolished and unhewn stone. They set forth the great objects of faith with apparent coldness that stands aloof from them in distant adoration; but the passion is there, though latent, and the fire of an austere enthusiasm burns beneath the surface. Many of them have, in addition to their poetical value, a historical and theological value as testimonies of orthodoxy against Arianisın. The Latin has 8 stanzas. See Daniel, Thesaur. hymnol. tom. i. p. 1. 2 Trench sees in the Ambrosian hymns, not without reason (1. c. p. 86), “a rocklike firmness, the old Roman stoicism transmuted and glorified into that nobler Christian courage, which encountered and at length overcame the world." Fortlage judged the same way before in a brilliant description of Latin hymns, 1. c. p. 4 f.: comp. Daniel, Cod. lit. iii. p. 282 sq. Of the thirty to a hundred so-called Ambrosian hymns,' however, only twelve, in the view of the Benedictine editors of his works, are genuine; the rest being more or less successful imitations by unknown authors. Neale reduces the number of the genuine Ambrosian hymns to ten, and excludes all which rhyme regularly, and those which are not metrical. Among the genuine are the morning hymn: "Eterne rerum conditor;" the evening hymn: "Deus creator omnium; and the Advent or Christmas hymn: "Veni, Redemptor gentium." This last is justly considered his best. It has been frequently reproduced in modern languages, and we add this specimen of its matter and form with an English version: "Veni, Redemptor gentium, "Non ex virili semine, Sed mystico spiramine, "Alvus tumescit Virginis, 1 Daniel, ii. pp. 12-115. "Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth, "Begotten of no human will, But of the Spirit, mystic still, The Word of God, in flesh arrayed, "The Virgin womb that burden gained * The genuineness of this hymn is put beyond question by two quotations of the contemporary and friend of Ambrose, Augustine, Confess. ix. 12, and Retract. i. 12, and by the affinity of it with a passage in the Hexaemeron of Ambrose, xxiv. 88, where the same thoughts are expressed in prose. Not so certain is the genuineness of the other Ambrosian morning hymns: "Eterna coli gloria," and "Splendor paternæ gloriæ." The other evening hymn: "O lux beata Trinitas," ascribed to him (in the Roman Breviary and in Daniel's Thesaur. i. 36), is scarcely from Ambrose: it has already the rhyme in the form as we find it in the hymns of Fortunatus. Especially in the beautiful German by John Frank: "Komm, Heidenheiland, Lösegeld," which is a free recomposition rather than a translation. For another English version (abridged), see "The Voice of Christian Life in Song," p. 97: "Redeemer of the nations, come; "Procedit e thalamo suo, "Egressus ejus a Patre, "Equalis æterno Patri, "Præsepe jam fulget tuum, "Proceeding from His chamber free, "O equal to the Father, Thou! Gird on Thy fleshly trophy (mantle) now 'Thy cradle here shall glitter bright, By far the most celebrated hymn of the Milanese bishop, which alone would have made his name immortal, is the Ambrosian doxology, Te Deum laudamus. This, with the Gloria in excelsis, is, as already remarked, by far the most valuable legacy of the old Catholic church poetry; and will be prayed and sung with devotion in all parts of Christendom to the end of time. According to an old legend, Ambrose composed it on the baptism of St. Augustine, and conjointly with him; the two, without preconcert, as if from divine inspiration, alternately singing the words of it before the congregation. But his biographer Paulinus says nothing of this, and, according to later investigations, this sublime Christian psalm is, like the Gloria in excelsis, but a free reproduction and expan sion of an older Greek hymn in prose, of which some constituents appear in the Apostolic Constitutions, and elsewhere.' 1 This is an allusion to the "giants" of Gen. vi. 4, who, in the early church, were supposed to have been of a double substance, being the offspring of the "sons of God," or angels, and the "daughters of men," and who furnished a forced resemblance to the twofold nature of Christ, according to the mystical interpretation of Ps. xix. 5. Comp. Ambr. De incarnat. Domini, c. 5. 2 On the difference of reading, tropao, trophao, and stropheo or strophio (stro phium "cincugulum aureum cum gemmis "), see Daniel, tom. i. p. 14. For instance, the beginning of a morning hymn, in the Codex Alexandrinus of the Bible, has been literally incorporated into the Te Deum: Ambrose introduced also an improved mode of singing in Milan, making wise use of the Greek symphonies and antiphonies, and popular melodies. This Cantus Ambrosianus, or figural song, soon supplanted the former mode of reciting the Psalms and prayers in monotone with musical accent and little modulation of the voice, and spread into most of the Western churches as a congregational song. It afterwards degenerated, and was improved and simplified by Gregory the Great, and gave place to the so-called Cantus Romanus, or choralis. AUGUSTINE, the greatest theologian among the church fathers († 430), whose soul was filled with the genuine essence of poetry, is said to have composed the resurrection hymn: "Cum rex gloriæ Christus;" the hymn on the glory of paradise: "Ad perennis vitæ fontem mens sitivit arida;" and others. But he probably only furnished in the lofty poetical intuitions and thoughts which are scattered through his prose works, especially in the Confessions, the materia carminis for later poets, like Peter Damiani, bishop of Ostia, in the eleventh century, who put into flowing verse Augustine's meditations on the blessedness of heaven.1 Καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν εὐλογήσω σε, Per singulos dies benedicimus te, investigation of Daniel, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 289 'This beautiful hymn, "De gloria et gaudiis Paradisi," is found in the appendix to the 6th volume of the Benedictine edition of the Opera Augustini, in Daniel's Thesaurus, tom. i. p. 116, and in Trench's Collection, p. 315 sqq., and elsewhere. Like all the new Jerusalem hymns it derives its inspiration from St. John's description in the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse. There is an excellent German translation of it by Königsfeld and an English translation by Wackerbarth, given in part by Neale in his Medieval Hymns and Sequences, p. 59. The whole hymn is very fine, but not quite equal to the long poem of Bernard of Cluny (in the twelfth century), on the contempt of the world, which breathes the same sweet home-sickness to heaven, and which Neale (p. 58) justly regards as the most lovely, in the same way that the Dies ira is the most sublime, and the Stabat Mater the most pathetic, of medieval hymns. The original has not less than 3,000 lines; Neale gives an admirable translation of the concluding part, commencing "Hic breve VOL. II.-38 |