Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/668

 HYMNODY

602

HYMNODY

Secundinus or Sechnall (d. about 44S) to St. Patrick:

Audite, omnes amantes Deum, saneta merita. It is written in the rhythm of St. Hilary's" Hymnum dicat turba fratrum"; and the latter hymn maj' po.s- sibly have in.spired it. St. Hilary was very popular in Ireland as were his compositions, and many ancient Irish hymns show exactly the scheme of this poem. The next poet in point of time to be mentioned is St. Gildas (d. .569), with his singular song (Lorica) : Suffragare trinitatis unitas, Unitatis miserere trinitas, etc., which found wndespread popularity through Latha- canScotigena (Laidcenn). Other hymn writers are St. Cohimba (C'olum Cille, d. .597), five of whose hymns are e.xtant; St. Columbanus (d. 615), St. Ultan of Ardbreccan (d. 656), Colman Mac Murchon, Abbot of Maghbile (died about 7:'.l), CEngus Mac Tipraite (about 741), Cuchuimne (about 746) and Saint Maol- ruain, .\bbot of Tallaght (d. 792). In the begin- ning of the ninth century the productivity of ancient Irish hymnody seems to have ceased. An Irishman by birth, but not writing in the ancient Irish manner, was the Scholastic of Liege, Sedulius Scotus (d. after 874). Here the Venerable Bede, born in the British Isles, may be mentioned, though he exercised much less influence through his generally dry hymns than through his more important work " De arte metrica ".

It is remarkable at first sight that no Irish Latin hymn was adopted into the Liturgy or into the ancient Irish Church. In seeking an explanation of this fact we are led back to one of the most striking person- alities of the second half of the si.xth century. Pope Gregory the Great (d. 604). According to an old Irish legend, he sent about the year 592 a hymn book to St. Columba with the "hymns of the week", i. e. with the hymns for Matins, Lauds, and Vespers for the different days of the week. This hymn book, to which the hymns of the "Commune Sanctorum" were added before the ninth century, supplanted towards the end of that century the old Benedictine hymns in the Roman Breviary among the "hymni dominicales et feriales", and in the hymns used for the "Commune Sanctorum". Many of the.se hymns werewTitten by Gregory the Great himself, which shows that he merits an important place in a history of Latin hymnody. Lack of space forbids closer examination of this ques- tion, with which is connected the introduction of hymns into the Roman Liturgy during the ninth century.

(2) Period from the Carlovingians to the Crusades. — The impulse that letters received in the empire of the first Carlovingians benefited poetry also but it was not in every way ailvantageous for hymnody, as there was a return to artificial poetry and the old classical metre, whereby the development of accentual rhythm and folk-song was again somewhat hampered. Only by degrees the accentual folk-poetry ro.se again in the eleventh century to the surface, with renewed vigour owing largely to the impulse given it by the school of St. Gall. In this last stage of transition there are side by side with fine poems many clumsy efforts in barbaric language, especially in the hymns of un- known authors of the tenth century. The separate groups and schools of poets of this period can I)e sketched here only briefly. First we find the circle of poets from the palace school of Charlemagne: Paulus Diaconus (d. 798), Paulinus of Aquileia (d. 802), Alcuin, Abbot of St. Martin of Tours (d. 804), Theo- dulf. Bishop of Orleans (d. 821), and Rabanus (d. 856) who introduces us to the school of Fulda. All these contributed extensive poetical works to hymnody. Thus, Paulus Diaconus is the author of a celebrated hymn on St. John the Baptist: " Ut queant laxis resonare fibris", a masterpiece of .spiritual and har- monious lyricism in Sapphic strophes, but somewhat strained and bizarre; and a fervent and polished hymn on the Assumption of Our Lady: "Quis possit amplo famine praepotens". Paulinus of Aquileia is

known by his nine hymns, among them the splendid one on the chiefs of the Apostles: "Felix per omnes festum mundi cardines", with the division:

O Roma felix, quae tantorum principum Es purpurata pretio.so .sanguine. Of Theodulf we have among others the once wide- spread processional hymn for Palm Sunday: "Gloria laus et honor tibi sit, rex Christe, redemptor." Alcuin in the great bulk of his poems has only left two real hymns. With Rabanus, afterwanw Archbishop of Mainz, we reach the poetic school of I'"ulda, the importance and influence of which require closer examination. It is remarkable that Rabanus, who in other writings and poems adhered closely to his predecessors, is much more original in his hymns which show no small poetical power. His Ascension hymn was widely known: "Festum nunc celebre magnaque gaudia ", and the Liturgy still re- tains the hymn of the martyrs "Sanctonmi mer- itis inclita gaudia ", the two hymns to St. Michael: "Christe, sanctorum decus angelorura " and "Tibi, Christe, splendor patris" (now transposed: "Te splendor et virtus patris") and above all the cele- brated hymn: "Veni, creator spiritus". Among the pupils of Rabanus the following excelled as hymn writers: Walafridus Strabo (d.S49), Gottschalk of Or- bais (d. 869), and Hermanric of Ellwangen (d. 874).

Of great importance for hymnody was that district in which lay the old Abbeys of St-.\mand, Landeven- nec, St-Omer and Priim. There arose in this district on the eve of the tenth century an altogether new kind of poetry that subsequently flourished brilliantly, namely that of the metrical and rhythmical Offices. The chief w-riter of the school of St-Amand {Schola Elnonensis) is Hucbald (d. 930), the inventor of the "ars organizandi ". He was preceded by the produc- tive poet Milo (d. 872). The Landc'-vennec monastery hatl among its writers the monk Clemens (about 870) and the abbot Gurdestin (d. 8S4). Prum was repre- sented by its hagiographist and poet Wandalbert (d. about 870). St. C!all, however, surpassed all the schools of poets and singers of that time in fame and influence. The poetry of the sequences, though not invented here, was cultivated antl encouraged. This kind of poetry freed hj'ninody from the classical re- straints and the scanty rhythmical garment of the Carlovingian time (see SF.gUENCEs). In St. Gall were w-ritten a considerable number of beautiful processional hymns, and religious songs of welcome to distinguished visitors to the abbey. The notable lyric poet Ratpert (d. after 884), Waldrammus (d. towards the end of the ninth century), Tutilo (d. 898), the prince of sequence poetry Xotker Balbulus (d. 912), Abbot Hartmann (d. 925), Ekkehard I (973), Notker Physicus (d. 975), and Hermann Contractus (d. 10.54) sang and wrote in St. Gall. This same period witnessed the origin of the tropes of which the motets and cantiones were developments (see Tropes).

In France the Abbey of Cluny contributed to hym- nody by the WTitings of her abbots Odo (d. 943) and Odilo (d. 1048). Other talented French poets of this period aro: Fulliert of Chartres (d. 1029), Adi'Mnar of Chabannes (d. 1034), Odorannus of Sens (d. 1045), Rainald of St. Maurice at Angers (d. about 1074), Eusebius Bnmo of .\ngers (d. 1081) and Berengarius of Tours (d. 1088). Germany pro- duced the poets Arnold of Vohburg (d. about 1035), Heribert of Eichstadt (d. 1042), Berne of Reichenau (d. 1048), Othloof St. Emmeram in Ratisbon (d. 1072), Gottschalk of Limburg (d. 1098), and Bruno, Count of Egisheim, later Pope Leo IX (d. 1054). We owe to this pope, of whom Anonymus Mellicensis speaks as " in musica subtilissimum ", a Christmas hymn " Egre- dere, Emanuel, Quem nuntiavit Gabriel ", a rhythmus "O pater, Deus seterne, de c;elis altissime" and a rhythmical OflBce of St. Gregory, in a somewhat