Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/281

 n] EARLY LATIN CHRISTLA.N POETRY 263 number of syllables ; there was no such tendency in Greek accentual verse, derived from the freer and more diversified periods of rhythmic prose. Besides preserving the general forms of certain of the old verses, mediaeval Latin poetry developed new- forms of verse, characterized by novel and effective rhymes. The origin of these rhymes is not clear. We know merely that assonance turning to rhyme gradually became a marked feature of Latin verse during the period from the fifth to the ninth cen- turies, while the cognate change from quantity to accent was in progress. In contents, also, and in form as affected by the contents, Latin Christian poetry differed from the Greek.^ Beginning with Hilary and Ambrose, there 1 With the exception of some Latin adaptations of early Greek hymns {e.g., the Gloria in excelsis), the Greek accentual hymns do not appear to have exerted direct influence upon the development of Latin Christian poetry. It was otherwise with regard to the music and the manner of singing the antiphonal psalms and anthems. Antiphonal psalmody originated in the church of Antioch in the middle of the fourth century. The church of Milan under St. Ambrose first adopted it in the "West. See Paulinus, Vita S. Ambrosii, 13; Augustine, Con/., IX, 7; G^vaert, La M^lopie an- tique dans le chant de V^glise latine, p. 82 et seq. ; Ebert, op. cit., I, pp. 178, 179. The melodies and chants of the liturgy, commonly known as the Gregorian Chants and attributed to Gregory the Great (590-604), were chiefly due to popes of the seventh and early part of the eighth century who were Greek by race or education (G^vsert, Les Originea du chant liturgique de V4glise latine ; ib., La iUlopie antique, etc.. Introduction, and Chaps. IV and V). This view, however, is contested ; see G^v»rt, Introduction to M^lopie an- tique, for a list of his opponents and their arguments. Also, W. Brambach, Gregorianisch. Bibliograph. Liitung der Streitfrage Hber den Ur$prung det gregorianischen Gesangea. Also regarding the infloence of Greek hjrmns upon Latin leqaences, see W. Meyer,