Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/454

 VEXILLA

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VEXILLA

ifere et Bourdaloue" (1877); "CEiivres po^tiques" (1878); "Etudes sur Victor Hugo" (1886); "Cara" (posthumous poems); "Melanges" etc. (22 vols, in 4 series, 1856; 1859; 1876; 1909); "Correspondance" (7 vols. 1884; 1885; 1887; 1892).

VlLLEFRANCHE, Dix grands Chretiens du Steele (1892); Le- MAITRE, Les contemporains (Paris, 1896) ; Longhaye, Equisses lit- ieraires et morales (Paris, 1906) ; Albalat, Louis Veuillot, pages choises (Paris, 1906) with biographical and hterary introduction; CERcEAti, L'dme d'un grand chrHien (Paris, 1908); Eugene Veuillot, Louis Veuillot, (3 vols. Paris. 1899, 1901, 1904); Bei^ LEBSORT, Conference stir Louis Veuillot in Revue francaise (19 Feb., Paris, 19111.

Eugene Tavernier.

Vezilla Regis Prodeunt. — This "world-famous hymn, one of the grandest in the treasury of the Latin Church" (Neale), and "surely one of the most stirring strains in our hjinnology" (Duffield), was written by Venantius Fortunatus, and was first sung in the pro- cession (19 Nov., 569) when a relic of the True Cross, sent by the Emperor Justin II from the East at the request of St. Radegunda, was carried in great pomp from Tours to her monastery of Saint-Croix at Poi- tiers. Its original processional use is conmiemorated in the Roman Missal on Good Friday, when the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession from the Repository to the High Altar. Its principal use, however, is in the Divine Office, the Roman Breviary assigning it to Vespers from the Saturday before Pas- sion Sunday daily to Maundy Thursday, and to Ves- pers of feasts of the Holy Cross, such as the Finding (3 May), the E.xaltation (14 September), the Tri- umph (16 July, "pro aliquibus locis").

Originally the hymn comprised eight stanzas. In the tenth century, stanzas 7 and 8 were gradually re- placed by new ones ("O crux ave, spes unica", and the doxology, "Te summa Deus trinitas"), although they were still retained in some places. Stanza 2 survived the omission of the other two, and passed from the manuscripts into many printed breviaries. The cor- rectors of the Breviary under Urban VIII revised the whole hymn in the interest of classical prosody. They omitted stanzas 2, 7, and 8, which are as follows:

Confixa clavis viscera Tendens manus, vestigia Redemptionis gratia Hie immolata est hostia. Fundis aroma cortice, Vincis sapore nectare, lucunda fructu fertili Plaudis triumpho nobili.

Salve ara, salve victima De passionis gloria Qua vita mortem pertulit Et morte vitam reddidit.

Pimont thinks the hymn has lost nothing by the omi.ssions, and that "its movement is more active ;ind its imction more penetrating". The correctors also replaced the last two lines of the first stanza by those of the eighth, and changed "reddidit" into "protulit", giving us the stanza as now found in our breviaries:

Vexilla regis iirodetmt, Fulget crucis mysteriuni, Qua vita mortem pertulit Et morte vitam protulit.

[.■\broad the royal banners fly And bear the gleaming Cross on high^ — That Cross whereon Life suffered death And gave us life with dying breath.) It is unnecessary to indicate more in detail the changes wrought by the correctors, as our Breviaries give the revi.sed text, and the Vatican Graduate gives the ancient text. In general, the changes made by the cor- rectors in the Church hymns are not liked by hyni- nologists. Some exceptions taken by the Abb6 Pimont

to these made in the "Vexilla Regis" are noted in the appended bibliography. The \'atican Graduale gives plain evidence of the desire and purj'ose of the Com- mission on Plain Chant, established by Pius X, to restore the original texts. The Antiphonary (1912) gives equal evidence of an intention to retain the revised te.xts. Thus the Graduale (1908) gives only the ancient form of the hj-mn, while the Antiphonary gives only the revised form. Curiously, the Pro- cessionale (1911) gives both forms.

"Vexilla" has been interpreted sj-mbolicaUy to rep- resent baptism, the Eucharist, and the other sacra- ments. Clichtoveus explains that as vexilla are the military standards of kings and princes, so the vexilla of Christ are the cross, the scourge, the lance, and the other instruments of the Passion "with which He fought against the old enemy and cast forth the prince of this world". Kayser (p. 397) dissents from both, and shows that the vexillum is the cross which (in- stead of the eagle) surmounted, under Constantine, the old Roman cavalry standard. This standard became in Christian hands a square piece of cloth hanging from a bar placed across a gilt pole, and having embroidered on it Christian symbols instead of the old Roman devices. The splendour and triumph sug- gested by the first stanza can be appreciated fully only by recaUing the occasion when the hymn was first sung — the triumphant procession from the walls of Poitiers to the monastery, with bishops and princes in attendance and with all the pomp and pageantrj- of a great ecclesiastical function. "And still, after thir- teen centuries, how great is our emotion as these im- perishable accents come to our ears!" (Pimont). Goimod took a very plain melody based on the chant as the subject of his "March to Calvary" in the "Re- demption", in which the chorus sings the text at first very slowly and then, after an interval, forlissimo. There are about forty translations into English verse.

Mearns AND Julian in Diet, of Hymnology (2nd ed., London, 1907), 1219-22, 1721, first lines etc. of thirty-five translations, to which list should be added: Bagshawe, Breviary Hymns and Missal Sequences (p. 53; "Behold the Royal Standard raised"); DoNAHOE, Early Christian Hymns (p. 82; "Behold the Standard of the King"); Henrv, The Poet of Passionlide in American Ec- clesiastical Review (March, 1891), 179-192 ("Behold the banners of the King"), togetherwith Latin text and liistorical and exegeti- cal comment. Duffield, The Latin Hymn-Writers and Their Hymm (New York, 18S9), 88-95. Neale, Medimal Hymns and Sequences (3rd ed.. London, IStiTl. ti-S: thr version of thisfelici- tous Anglican h^-mnologist iiml t r iti-iir. .r i^ also given in the ^Baltimore) Mamial of Prayer .i 'U [\ \\i^Y.v., Geschichte und Erklarung der dltesten Kirchc'J, I ; -l-rborn, 1881), 395-

411. Pimont, Les Hymnes <h< A - ;• h'mnain. Ill (Paris, 1884), 30-^6, thinks the correctors irn-d in transfemng the last two lines of the eighth stanza to the first stanza (footnote, pp. 36- 38), and also in changing "reddidit" to "protulit", since "red- didit" is the more exact and theologically appropriate word (footnote, p. 34), and dislikes the "Dicendo nationious" of the third stanza as a correction of the original "Dicens; in nationi- l3us ", this latter being the reading of ail the old manuscripts and an exact reproduction of the \ ulpiilr rt-iiding. Psalm xcv, 10 (except that "gentibus" is u-.d i..i nii i. nibus"): "Can it be believed that the presence ol :> hr third foot, surely

inoffensive enough, would mi'' ■ j^ction?" Holding

that Justin Martyr's charge tli:u iIm ,) v\ - l.aii suppressed the "a ligno" is now untenable, Pimont thinks that Fortunatus may have borrowed it from some of the Latin Fathers who maintained its correctness, or perhaps from a copy of the Psalms in which a gloss had crept into the text, .\propos of this stanza, Julian (loc. cit. supra) thinks its best English translation is that of Blount iu The Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in English (1687). which first appeared in Blount's Office of Holy Week (Paris, 1070), "Abroad the regal banners fly ";

"That which the Prophet-King of old Hath in mysterious Verse foretold. Is now accoinplisht, whilst wc see God ruling nations from a Tree". Shiplet, Annus Sanclus (London, 1874), 94-100. gives trs. of Ke.nt, Avlwabd, Campbell, A'i'fnini;Q/ficf (1710); and in the ap- pendix, trs. of Primers of 1004. 1619. 16S5, 1706. Marbach. Cor- minaScripturarum (Strasburg, 1907). p. 197 for various liturgical uses of " Regnavit a ligno Deus". Hymns Ancient and Modern, historical edition (London. 1909), xx. xxi. xxii. xxxiv and pp. 148-9 for harmonized plainsong, modern setting, comment. Dreves, Lateinische Hymnendiehter des Mittelaltrrs in vol. L of .4n<i(<-r(a Hymnira (Leipzig. 1907). pp. 74-75, for manuscript readings and brief sketch of Forttmatus. Church Music (\Iarcn, 1908), p. 140. for answers to questions arising out of the different