Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/601

585 WESTERN CHURCH.] in 1735, although Cardinal Vintimille, in his preface, professed to have still admitted the old hymns, except when the new were better (&quot; veteribus hymnis locus datus est, nisi quibus, ob sententiarum vim, elegantiaiu verboruin, et teneriores pietatis sensus, recentiores anteponi satius visum est&quot;). The number of the new was, at the same time, very largely increased. Only twenty-one more ancient than the 16th century remained, of which those belonging to the primitive epoch were but eight, viz., four Ambrosian, two by Fortunatus, and one each by Prudentius and Gregory. The number of Jean Baptiste Santeul s hymns (who had died in 1697) rose to eighty-nine ; those byColfin, including some old hymns, e.g., &quot;Jam lucis orto sidere &quot; (&quot;Once more the sun is beaming bright&quot;), which he substantially re wrote, were eighty-three ; those of other modern French writers, ninety-seven. W hatever opinion may be entertained of the principles on which these Roman and Parisian revisions proceeded, it would be unjust to deny very high praise as hymn-writers to several of their poets, especially to Coffin and Jean Baptiste Santeul. The noble hymn by Coffin, beginning &quot; O luce qui mortalibus &quot; Thou who in the light dost dwell, Lutes itiaccessa, Pens, To mortals unapproachable, Praesente quo sancti tremunt Where angels veil them from Thy rays, Kubuntque vultus angeli,&quot; And tremble as they gaze,&quot; and several others of his works, breathe the true Ambrosian spirit ; and though Santeul (generally esteemed the better poet of the two) delighted in alcaics, and did riot greatly affect the primitive manner, there can be no question as to the excellence of such hymns as his &quot; Fumant Sabu- is templa yaporibus&quot; (&quot;Sweet incense breathes around&quot;), &quot; Stupete gentes, fit Deus hostia&quot; (&quot;Tremble, ye Gentile lands&quot;), &quot;Hymnis dum resonat curia ccelitmn&quot; (&quot;Ye in the house of heavenly morn &quot;), and &quot; Templi sacratas pancle, Sion, fores&quot; (&quot;0 Sion, open wide thy gates&quot;). It is a striking testimony to the merits of those writers that such accomplished translators as the Rev. Isaac Williams and the Rev. John Chandler appear (from the title page of the latter, and the prefaces of both) to have supposed their hymns to be &quot;ancient&quot; and &quot;primitive.&quot; Among the other authors associated with them, perhaps the first place is due to the Abbe Besnault, of Sens, who contributed to the book of 1735 the &quot; Urbs beata vera pacis Visio Jerusalem,&quot; in the opinion of Dr Neale &quot;much superior&quot; to the &quot; Coelestis urbs Jerusalem &quot; of the Roman Breviary. This stood side by side with the &quot; Urbs Jerusalem beata&quot; of 1527 (in the office for the dedication of churches) till 1822, when the older form was at last finally excluded by Archbishop de Quelen. The Parisian Breviary of 1735 remained in use till the national French service-books were superseded (as they have lately been, generally, if not universally) by the Roman. Almost all French dioceses followed, not indeed the Breviary, but the example, of Paris ; and before the end of the 18th century the ancient Latin hymnody was all but banished from France. idem In some parts of &quot;Germany, after the Reformation, Latin hymns tin continued to be used even by Protestants. This was the case at inns. Halberstadt until quite a recent date. In England, a few are still occasionally used in the older universities and colleges. Some, also, have been composed in both countries since the Reformation. The &quot;Carmina Lyrica &quot; of John Jacob Balde, a native of Alsace, and a Jesuit priest in Bavaria, have received high commendation from very eminent German critics, particularly Herder and Augustus Schlegel. Some of the Latin hymns of William Alard, a Protestant refugee from Belgium, and pastor in Holstein (1572-1645), have been th ought worthy of a place in Archbishop Trench s selec tion. Two by AV. Peterson (printed at the end of Haberkorn s supplement to Jacobi s Psalmodia Gcrmanica) are good in different ways, one, &quot; Jesu dulcis amor meus &quot; (&quot;Jesus, Thee my soul doth love &quot;), being a gentle melody of spiritual devotion, and the other, entitled Kpcs Sionis, violently controversial against Rome. An English hymn of the 17th century, in the Ambrosian style, &quot; Te Deum Patrem colimus &quot; (&quot;Almighty, Father, just and good &quot;), is sung on every May-Day morning by the choristers of Magdalen College, Oxford, from the top of the tower of their chapel ; and another in the style of the Renaissance, of about the same date, &quot; Te de profundis, summe Rex&quot; (&quot;Thee from the depths, Almighty King&quot;), is, or until lately was, sung as part of a grace by the scholars of Winchester College. ithori- The principal ancient authorities on Latin hymnody are the 25th chapter (&quot;De hymnis et cantilenis et incrernentis eorum &quot;) of the treatise of Walafridus Strabo, and a treatise of the 14th century (&quot;Do Psalterioobservando&quot;), by Radulphus, dean of Tongres in the Netherlands. Next to those are the first book of Clichtoveus s Elucidatorium Ecclcsiasticum (Paris, 1556) ; the chapter on Ambrosian and other hymns in the works of George Cassander (Paris, 1016) ; the PsaUrrium, &c., in the second volume of the works of Cardinal J. M. Thomasius (Rome, 1747) ; and the treatise &quot;De Hymnis Ecclesiastinis,&quot; prefixed to the Hymnodia, Hispanica of Faustinus Arevalus (Rome, 1786). The present century, more specially within the last fifty years, has added much to the stores of learning accessible on this subject. In Germany, Rambach s Christian Anthology ; Monc s Ilymni Latini msdii Jftvi; Daniel s 585 Thesaurus Hymnologicus ; and Molinike s Hymnologische Forsch- uiKjcn ; and in England, Archbishop Trench s Sacred Latin Poetry ; Dr Neale s two collections of Latin Hymns and Sequences (Oxford, 1851 and 1852), and his Essays an Liturgioluyy and Church His tory ; the Oxford collection of Hymns from the Roman, Saruni, York, and other Breviaries (1838) ; the Psalter, &c., according to Sarum use, of Mr J. D. Chambers (1852) ; and the two volumes already referred to of Anglo-Saxon and Irish hymns, published in 1851 and 1865 by the Surtees Society and the Irish Archaeological Society, have left little to be added by any future labourers in this field. The same period has also produced numerous English translations of Latin hymns, many of which are good and interesting, though perhaps few of the translators have overcome the inherent difficulties of their task sufficiently either to represent the char acteristic merits of the originals, or to add to our vernacular hymns many adaptations really well-suited for popular use. The most- important are Mr Isaac Williams s Hymns from the Parisian Breviary (1839), and Mr Chandler s Hymns of the Primitive Church (1837) ; Bishop Mant s volume of 1837, and the Rev. Edward Caswall s Lyra Catholica (1849), both from the Roman Breviary ; the versions of Mr Chambers, in his Saruni Psalter, &c.; Dr Neale s Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1862), with his versions, separ ately published, of some other works ; and Hymns of the Latin Church, translated by David T. Morgan, with the originals appended (privately printed in 1871). The first lines, in English, given in this article, are generally adopted from some of these. 5. German Hymnody. Luther was a proficient in and a lover of music. He Luther, desired (as he says in the preface to his hymn-book of 1545) that this &quot; beautiful ornament &quot; might &quot; in a right manner serve the great Creator and His Christian people.&quot; The per secuted Bohemian or Hussite Church, then settled on the borders of Moravia under the name of &quot;United Brethren&quot; (which their descendants still retain), had sent to him, on a mission in 1522, Michael Weiss, who not long after wards published a number of German translations from old Bohemian hymns (known as those of the &quot; Bohemian Brethren &quot;), with some of his own. These Luther highly approved and recommended. He himself, in 1522, pub lished a small volume of eight hymns, which was enlarged to 63 in 1527, and to 125 in 1545. He had formed what he called a &quot; house choir &quot; of musical friends, to select such old and popular tunes (whether secular or ecclesiastical) as might be found suitable, and to compose new melodies, for church use. His fellow labourers in this field (besides Weiss) were Justus Jonas, his own especial colleague ; Paul Eber, the disciple and friend of Melanchthon ; John Walther, choirmaster successively to several German princes, and professor of arts, &c., at Wittenberg ; Nicholas Decius, who from a monk became a Protestant teacher in Brunswick, and translated the &quot;Gloria in Excelsis,&quot; &c.; and Paul Speratus, chaplain to Duke Albert of Prussia in 1525. Some of their works are still popular in Germany. Weiss s &quot; Funeral Hymn,&quot; &quot; Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben &quot; (&quot; Now lay we calmly in the grave &quot;) ; Eber s &quot; Herr Jesu Christ, wahr Mensch und Gott&quot; (&quot;Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God &quot;), and &quot; Wenn wir in hochsten Nothen sein &quot; (&quot; When in the hour of utmost need &quot;) ; Walther s 1 New Heavens and new Earth &quot; (&quot; Now fain my joyous heart would sing&quot;) ; Decius s &quot;To God on high be thanks and praise;&quot; and Speratus s &quot;Salvation now has come for all,&quot; are among those which at the time produced the greatest effect, and arc still best remembered. Luther s own hymns, thirty-seven in number (of which about twelve are translations or adaptations from Latin originals), are for the principal Christian seasons ; on the sacraments, the church, grace, death, &amp;lt;tc ; and paraphrases of seven psalms, of a passage in Isaiah, and of the Lord s Prayer, Ten Commandments, Creed, Litany, and &quot;Te Deum.&quot; There is also a very touching and stirring song on the martyrdom of two youths by fire at Brussels, in 1523-24. Homely and sometimes rugged in form, and for the most part objective in tone, they are full of fire, manly simplicity, and strong faith. Three rise above tho XII. 74