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 HYMNODY

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HYMNODY

tion and form they stood in complete contrast to the hymns of his great predecessor. The Muse indeed that speaks in the songs of the Spaniard is quite differ- ent from the Muse of the hymns of the Milanese; Dreves has termed it the romantic Muse. The highly poetic songs which compose the two books ' ' Kathc- merinon " and " I'eristephanon " of Prudentius should not be compared with St. Ambrose's hymns; the former as well as the latter are masterpieces of their kind. St. Ambrose's hymns, like the old Roman dome, impress us by their classical dignity and weight, while Prudentius, like the Gothic cathedral, elevates our souls by the richness of his form and the bold flights of his fancy. The exquisite beauty of the hymns of Prudentius induced the Mozarabians to in- corporate in their Liturgy some of the martyr hymns from the " Peristephanon " notwithstanding their great length and their private devotional character. In the Roman service as well, several beautiful ex- tracts or centos were used in the Liturgy. Such are those hymns which were used for Lauds on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and are still retained in the Roman Breviary, namely: "Ales diei nuntius"; " Nox et tenebra; et nubila " ; "Lux ecce surgit aurea " and the charming hymn to the Holy Innocents: "Salvete floras martyrum". It is regrettable that others have been given up, for instance, the Christmas hymn which was widely known in the Middle Ages, the first strophe of which is as follows:

Corde natus ex parentis | ante mundi exordium, Alpha et O cognominatus, | ipse fons et clausula Omnium, qua; sunt, fuerimt, | quseque post futura sunt

Saeculorum saculis. Prudentius had apparently no followers, but St. Ambrose, as soon as the desire and courage awoke to introduce other hymns than his into the Liturgy, was the permanent model and pattern. These additions were made in the fifth century and were occasioned by the increased number of festivals. The so-called hymni Ambrosiani bear witness to this fact, as they are identical in outer form with the hymns of St. Am- brose; while each strophe consists of four iambic di- meters, as a rule, eight strophes form a hymn. The authors are mostly unknown. It cannot be deter- mined whether the Bishop Paulinus of Nola (d. 431) is the first among tliem. According to Gennadius he is said to have written among other works a book of hymns; but it cannot be a.scertained what they were, as among the extant lyrical poems of Paulinus there is no hymn proper to be found, though there are three poetical paraphrases of the Psalms and a morning prayer written in hexameters:

Omnipotens genitor, rerum cui summa potestas, etc. Pope Gelasius I (d. 496) wrote genuine Ambrosian hymns as Gennadius tells us; but no single hymn can be ascribed with certainty to this pope. Of the poet Ciplius Sedulius (about 450) we have two hymni so entitled by him, besides a great "Carmen et opus paschale" (a kind of harmonized Gospel). Of these hymni, one, in spite of the refrain, is really a didactic poem; the other is still preserved in the Liturgy. The latter is the abecedary:

A solis ortus cardine Ad usque terra; iimitem, Christum canamus principem Natum Maria virgine, etc. The metre and form of these strophes are those fa- voured by St. Ambrose while the number of strophes corresponding to the letters of the alphabet is much greater. From the "Carmen paschale" were taken later several hexameter verses which now form the Introit of the votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin: "Salve, sancta parens, enixa puerpera regem", etc. The most faithful, one might almost say slavish, imi- tator of St. Ambrose was Magnus Felix Ennodius, Bishop of Pavia (d. 521) who, while archdeacon of

Milan, wrote twelve hymns which correspond in outer structure with those of St. Ambrose; but they were not incorporated in the Liturgy.

In the empire of the Prankish dynasty of the Mero- vingians Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers (d. about 605), is the most prominent poet. He was chiefly a non-liturgical poet; but he left a lasting monument in the Liturgy in the two fine hymns on the Crucifixion:

Pange lingua gloriosi Prcelium certaminis, etc., and

Vexilla regis prodeunt,

Fulget crucis mysterium, etc., and in the one to Our Lady:

Quem terra, pontus, sethera,

Cohmt, adorant, praedicant. The two last-mentioneil hymns are Ambrosian in metre, structure, and number of strophes. The Pro- cessional hymn formerly sung at Easter, "Salve festa dies toto venerabilis sevo ", is especially to be noted; it was taken from his soaring Easter song:

Tempora florigero riitilant distincta sereno Et maiore poll lumine porta patet, etc. Many of Fortimatus's hymns have been lost. The "Hymnus ad Mandatum" on Holy Thursday was a very popular and widely known composition written in the Ambrosian style by the Bishop Flavius of Chalon-sur-Saone (d. 591). It begins: Tellus ac jethra lubilent In magni cena principis. No other hymns by this bishop are known. As curiosities from this age two hymns are to be men- tioned in honour of St. Medardus by one of the Me- rovingians, namely the highly gifted but notorious profligate King Chilperic I (d. 5S4). They are bad verses but the contents are profound and the imagery is striking. These hymns never found a place in the Liturgy.

As in Italy, the cradle of hymnody, and in the Merovingian Empire, hymnody flourished more and more after the seventh century in Spain, whose great writer Prudentius we have already noticed. The ob- ject of the writers to supply the Mozarabian Liturgy with hymns was carried out so well that we can speak of a particular Mozarabian hymnody consisting of over 200 hymns independent of the songs adopted from the hymnal works of St. Ambrose, Prudentius, and Seduhus or borrowed from the Roman Liturgy. The writers of these hymns were without exception bishops, as Isidore of Seville (d. 636), Braulio of Sara- gossa (d. 651), Eugenius II of Toledo (d. 657), Quiri- cus of Barcelona (d. 666) and Cyxilla of Toledo (d. about 783). With few exceptions it remains doubtful which Mozarabic hymns should be attributed to each of these poets. Most of these productions are in the metre of St. Ambrose, and as all the hymns of that saint, except the one in honour of the Milanese saints, were used in the Mozarabic service, his influence is unquestionable. The poetic value of the Mozarabic poems is far from being uniform; the greater part have only historico-literary interest.

Of a quite different order are the Latin poems of the ancient Irish Church. They are all intended for pri- vate devotion or non-liturgucal uses. Not only the quantitative, but also the accentual principle is re- jected. The number of syllables forms the verse but m union with rhyme and alliteration. Rhyme is used there as early as the sixth century; it develops steadily and appears in the seventh and especially in the eighth century in its richest and purest form. The progress in rhyme is so constant that it may be taken as a cri- terion of date. Singular, too, is the taste for allitera- tion as expressed in venses like "O rex o rector regi- minis" or "Patrem precor potentiae". The oldest hymn written in Ireland, and at the same time the oldest purely rhythmical Latin hymn, is that of St.