Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/665

 HYMNODY

599

HYMNODY

word are found, as the glorious Ci/ims cis Xpiarhv be- ginning as follows:

A6s di'Vfxi'eTi', 56^ deidetVj Tdv dvaKTa, rbv deairSTTjy^ At' 6v V/J.VOS, 6i' 6p alpos.

These hymns in artistic form did not reach the people nor did they ever form part of the Liturgy. The same is true of the stirring songs of Synesius (d. 430), which were also WTitten in classical form. They are a rosary of twelve hymns of singular sublimity, delicacy, and polish, whose contents at times betray the neo-Platonist ; si.x of them, however, written prob- ably at a later period of the author's life, are distinctly Christian in tone. To all of them the term metrical prayer rather than hymn should be applied. "The easy metres that have something playful in them are unsuited to the dignity of the contents, while the failure to separate the verses into strophes antl their prominent subjective tone disqualified them for use in the Liturgy" (Baumgartner, " Gesch. der Weltlit. ", IV, 62).

We may look upon the inventive and stirring WTiter Romanos (d. proliably c. 560) as the real foimder of Greek hymnody. In his poems the quantitative prin- ciple has completely given way to the accentual, rhythmical principle; and with the triumph of this principle the great day of the Greek Christian hym- nody begins. About eighty hymns of Roamnos have come down to us; nearly all of them show the artistic form of the "contakia". These contakia consist of from twenty to thirty or even more strophes of uni- form structure to which is prefixed as a rule one, but occasionally two or three strophes of varying struc- ture; every strophe (Tpoiripiov or ofxos), the numerous verses of which are generally different, is followed by a refrain of one or two short lines. The most po|iular of his hymns was the Christmas hymn which was per- formed with great festal pomp at the imperial court every year, until the twelfth century, by a double choir from the St. Sophia and the Church of the Apostles. It may well be called a performance, for such a lengthy song, set to music, sung by choirs and counterchoirs, and supplied with proem and refrain, resembles rather a dramatic oratorio than what we are accustomed to call a hymn. It begins thus: 'H -jrapd^vos ffTjuepov rbv inrepovaiov tIktci. Kai ij yrj rb ffir-qKaLov rtp dirpoffiTtp irpoffdyet. ''A77eXoi perd iroipivwv 6o^oXo7oC<ri»', Md70t 5^ /xcTct dffrlpos b5oLwopov(Tiv.

Romanos deserves, as the greatest of the Byzantine poets, the surname 6 /i€X((56!. Clear and precise in theological language, he possesses in a high degree the depth and fire of a true lyric poet. He was unable, however, to avoid monotony antl repetition owing to the uncommon length of the hymns, and a comparison with the father of Latin hymnody, Saint Ambrose, must leave him at a disadvantage.

The Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople, a Mono- thelite (610— tl), followed as a poet very closely in the path of Romanos. It is, however, more than doubt- ful if the 'AraftffTos iipms (so called because the clergy and people were obliged to stand while intoning it) should be ascribed to him; it is also impossible to ascertain whether this lengthy song of thanksgiving to the Mother of God, inspired by the rescue of Constan- tinople and the empire from the Avars, was composed in the year 626 or 677 or 711. At all events it is still greatly reverenced in the Greek Church and is a shining witness of the poetical creative power of the seventh century. "Whatever enthusiasm for the Blessed Virgin, whatever knowledge of Biblical types and in general of religious objects and ideas was able to ac- complish, whatever ornament of speech, \'ersatility of expression, skill of rhythm and rhyme could add, all that is effected here in an unsurpassed degree " (" Zeit- schrift fiir Kirchengeschichte", V, 228 sq.). The Patriarch Sophronius of Jerusalem (629) devoted him-

self more to a learned, and often very arid, artificial form of poetry. To these chief representatives of the florescence of Greek hymnody may be added Andreas- Pyrrhos, eight of whose charming "idiomela " on the chiefs of the Apostles are preserved; and Byzantios and Cyprianos, of whom, however, only the names are known. At the opening of the eighth century St. Andrew, Archbishop of Crete (d. about 726), created the artistic measure of the "canons". A canon is a hymn composed of eight or, in remembrance of the nine Canticles of the Old Testament, of nine different songs, each of which has a peculiar construction and consists of three, four and, originally, more strophes. St. Andrew wrote one hymn of as many as 250 strophes that became proverbial on account of its length and is called b piya^ Kavwv. The influence of the great Romanos is unmistakable in the poems of St. Andrew: besides, the reflections antl great verbosity often give a jarring and tiring impression. The can- ons were particularly cultivated in the eighth cen- tury by St. John of Damascus and his half-brother St. Cosmas. Their model in language and metre was St. Gregory of Nazianzus, so they tried to revive the use of the old clas.sical quantitative principle. In this arti- ficial verse their description grew subtilized and often obscure, and genuine poetic feeling suffered from pedantry. These were not songs for the people. But however inferior they were to the natural stirring contakia, these canons were greatly admired and imi- tated by contemporary hymn writers.

Disastrous as was its effect on hymnody the icono- clasm of the eighth and ninth centuries called forth a spiritual reaction which was forcibly expressed in religious poetry and inspired many excellent songs. These songs in particular have been the longest re- tained in the Greek Liturgy. After the Syracusians, Gregory and Theodosius, St. Joseph the Hymno- grapher (d. about SS3) and the imposing succession of Studites are especially to be noted here. The great monastery of the Studium (Studion) at Constanti- nople became a nursery of hymnography. The heg- umen (or abbot) of the monastery, St. Theodore (d. 866), began with the triumphal canon for the great festival that commemorated the victory of the icons, with his canon on the Last Jutlgment which is de- scribed by Neale as " the grandest judgment-hymn of the Church ", and with numerous other hymns. After him come his brother Joseph, later Bishop of Thessa- lonica, who suffered martjTdom, the Studites, Theo- phanes, Antonios, Arsenios, Basilios, Nicolaos, and lastly George of Nicomedia and Theodoras of Smyrna. In the hjTnns of all these poets, along with some ex- cellent qualities, there is more or less Byzantine bombast or inflated exaggeration and heaping of epi- thets. A remarkable personality at this time is the talented poetess Kasia (iKacra-la) who about 830 was chosen as a bride for the future Emperor Theophilus on account of her beauty, but was rejected because of her too great frankness. She then founded a convent of nuns in which she devoted herself to profane and sacred poetrj'. as did thecelebrated nun Hroswitha von Gandersheim long after her. Her best known poems are the three idiomela on the birth of Christ, on the birth of St. John the Baptist, and on the Wednesday of Holy Week, all of which were incorporated in the Liturgy. A disastrous event for hymnody was the revision of the hvinnal undertaken m the ninth cen- tury. Many beautiful contakia were dropped from the" Liturgy in favour of the canons, and many of the old hymns were "improved", that is, mutilated. This kind of renovation showetl that poetic feeling was declining. Hymnody now gleaned only a scanty aftermath. In the eleventh century even the Greek Liturgy ceased to develop and there remained no soil in which Greek religious poetry could thrive. Only a few isolated hymn writers appeared in the Byzantine Empire after that time; such were Johannes Mauro'