Hymns of the Early Church

VEXILLA REGIS PRODEUNT

By Venantius Fortunatus. Born in the district of Treviso, Italy, about 530. In 565 he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Martin at Tours, and spent the remainder of his years in Gaul. Through the influence of his friend Queen Rhadegunda, Fortunatus became Bishop of Poitiers in 597. Some place his death in the year 609. Fortunatus must have been an author of great industry and versatility. He wrote the life of St. Martin in four books, containing 2245 hexameter lines; he threw off in profusion vers de societé when wandering from castle to cloister in Gaul; and he composed a volume of hymns for all the festivals of the Christian year, which is now unhappily lost. This is his best known hymn, Dr. Neale’s translation of which is inserted for the Fifth Sunday in Lent, otherwise called Palm Sunday, in “Hymns Ancient and Modern” (No. 84).

PANGE, LINGUA, GLORIOSI, PRŒLIUM CERTAMINIS

This, “one of the first of the Latin mediæval hymns,” has been credited to St. Hilary. It has also been ascribed to Claudianus Mamertus, who died in 474. But by the majority of authorities it is regarded as the composition of Fortunatus, and ranks next to the Vexilla Regis prodeunt in their estimate. A rendering of it by Keble will be found in his “Miscellaneous Poems,” beginning, “Sing, my tongue, of glorious warfare,” which is Dr. Neale’s “Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,” in a somewhat altered form.

LUSTRA SEX QUI JAM PEREGIT

By some attributed to St. Ambrose, but generally and with greater probability to Fortunatus. There is an imitation of this hymn in English by Bishop Mant, beginning, “See the destined day arise!” one of the Passion hymns in “Hymns Ancient and Modern” (No. 99).

CRUX AVE BENEDICTA

This little poem, which he pronounces “perfect in its kind,” is taken by Trench from Daniel’s Thesaurus, without any note of author or of date.

HORÆ DE PASSIONE D. N. JESU CHRISTI

From a fourteenth-century MS., where it bears the title, “Hours of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, compiled from the Prophets and the New Testament by the Blessed Pope Urban” (b. 1302, d. 1370).

FINITA JAM SUNT PRÆLIA

Of unknown date and authorship. It has not been traced further back than the Hymnodia Sacra, Munster, 1753.

PLAUDITE, CŒLI!

A Jesuit hymn, taken by Walraff, in 1806, out of the Psalteriolum Cantiorum Catholicarum a Patribus Societati Jesu.

MORTIS PORTIS FRACTIS

By Peter of St. Maurice, sometimes styled Peter of Cluny, but best known as Peter the Venerable. Born in Auvergne, 1092 or 1094; began life as a soldier; afterwards became a Benedictine monk; elected abbot of the monastery of his order at Cluny in Burgundy; died there in 1156 or 1157. The greater part of his literary activity was given to the controversy between the Clugnian and Cistercian, or “black” and “white” monks. This Resurrection hymn is taken from “Some Rhythms, Proses, Sequences, Verses, and Hymns,” contained in the Bibliotheca Cluniacencis, 1623.

ALLELUIA, DULCE CARMEN

Found in three MSS. of the eleventh century in the British Museum Library, and published by the Surtees Society in the “Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church,” from a MS. of the eleventh century, in Durham Library.

ÆTERNE REX ALTISSIME

A hymn of complex authorship and of frequently altered text.

POSTQUAM HOSTEM ET INFERNA

By Adam of St. Victor. (See p. 49.)

CŒLOS ASCENDIT HODIE

Of unknown date and authorship. The text is in Daniel’s Thesaurus, with “Alleluia” as a refrain. Dr. Neale gives it in his “Mediæval Hymns and Sequences” as “apparently of the twelfth century.”

O CHRISTE, QUI NOSTER POLI

Appeared in the Cluniac Breviary of 1686, and in that of Paris, 1736, as also in later French Breviaries. From his connection with the revised Paris Breviary, this hymn has been ascribed to Archbishop Charles de Vintimille, born 1655, died 1746; but in neither the Cluniac nor Paris Breviary is it marked as his. Chandler’s version of the hymn, beginning, “O Jesu, who art gone before, To Thy blest realms of light,” appears in Dr. Martineau’s “Hymns of Praise and Prayer,” with opening lines altered to, “The Crucified is gone before, To the blest realms of light,” and with other variations.

VENI, CREATOR SPIRITUS,

MENTES TUORUM VISITA

Of the authorship of this grand hymn nothing unquestioned is known. It has been ascribed to Ambrose, Gregory, Rhabanus Maurus (died 856), and Charlemagne. The most widely prevalent opinion ascribes it to the last-named person, but in the judgment of Dr. Julian’s assistant-editor “the hymn is clearly not the work of St. Ambrose nor of Charles the Great. Nor is there sufficient evidence to allow us to ascribe it either to Gregory the Great, to Rhabanus Maurus, or to any of the ecclesiastics connected with the court of Charles the Fat.” The hymn has not yet been found in any MS. earlier than the latter part of the tenth century.

VENI, SANCTE SPIRITUS ET EMITTE CŒLITUS

A sequence universally regarded as one of the masterpieces of sacred Latin poetry. As in the case of the Veni, Creator Spiritus, the authorship is matter of dispute. Robert II. of France, Hermannus Contractus (born 1013, died 1054), Stephen Langton the Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Innocent III. – these have all in turn been credited with its production. Dr. Julian, the greatest living authority, sums up the matter of authorship thus: “The sequence is clearly not earlier than about the beginning of the thirteenth century. It is certainly neither by Robert II. nor by Hermannus Contractus. The most probable author is Innocent III.”

O FONS AMORIS, SPIRITUS

By Charles Coffin. (See p. 3.) It is a recast of the Nunc nobis, Sancte Spiritus of St. Ambrose.

TU TRINITATIS UNITAS

A cento. Added to the Roman Breviary in 1568. In a subsequent edition it is the hymn for Lauds on Trinity Sunday. It is made up of the first stanza of a hymn with the same opening, and of the third stanza of the composition, Æterna cœli gloria, with a doxology added.

O PATER SANCTE, MITIS ATQUE PIE

Found in two MSS. of the eleventh century, and included in the York, Sarum, and Aberdeen Breviaries.

ADESTO, SANCTA TRINITAS

Authorship unknown. It first occurs in a MS. of the eleventh century in the British Museum Library, has a place in the English Breviaries of York, Hereford, and St. Albans, and is printed in the “Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church.”

PUGNATE, CHRISTE MILITES

Given in editions of the Paris Breviary subsequent to 1736, along with the hymn Cœlestis O Jerusalem, for the vigil of All Saints Day at Lauds. Author not traced.

AUDI NOS, REX CHRISTE

This pilgrim or processional hymn was first published from a MS. of the eleventh century by Du Mévil at Paris, 1847; reprinted by Neale in his Hymni Ecclesiæ, in 1851, as Cantus Peregrinatorum.

EJA O DULCIS ANIMA