588 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
rea^ Jules and vldes^ ieiu and plene^ oritur and moritur Daniasus of Rome introduced it into sacred poetry,' But il \V518 in the sacred Latin poetry of the middle age that rhyme first assumed a regular form, and in Adam of St. Victor, Hildebert, St. Bernard, Bernard of Clugny, Tliomas Aquinas, Bonaventwra, Thomas a Celano, and Jacobus de Benedictis (author of the Stabat mater), it reached its perfection in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; above all, in that incomparable giant hymn on the judgment, the tremendous power of which resides, first indeed in its earnest matter, but next in its inimitable mastery of the nmsical treatment of vowels. I mean, of course, the Dies irce of the Franciscan monk Thomas a Celano (about 1250), which excites new wonder on every reading, and to which no translation in any modern language can do full justice. In Adam of St. Victor, too, of the twelfth century, occur unsurpassable rhymes ; e. g., the picture of the Evangelist John (in the poem : De S. Joanne evangelista), which Olshausen has chosen for the motto of his commentary on the fourth Gospel, and which Trench declares the most beautifuj stanza in the Latin church poetry :
" Volat avis sine meta Quo nee vates nee propheta
Evolavit altius : Tarn implenda,' quam impleta,* Nunquam vidit tot secreta Purus homo purius."
The metre of the Latin hymns is various, and often hard to be defined. Gavanti* supposes six principal kinds of verse :
1. lambici dimetri (as : "Vexilla regis prodeunt").
2. lambici trimetri (ternarii vel senarii, as: " Antra deserti teneris sub annis").
' In his Hymnus de S. Agatha, sefc Daniel, Thcs. hymnol. torn. L p^. 9, and Fort lage, Gesange christl. Vorzeit, p. 866. ' The Apocalypse.
* The Gospel history.
* Thcsaur. rit sacr., cited in the above-named hymnological work of Fonigsfelc ftnd k. W. Schlegcl, p. xxi., first collection.
§ 116. THE LATIN POETS AND HYMNS. 589
3. Trochaici dimetri (" PangGy lingua, gloriosi corporis mysteriuni," a eucliaristic hymn of Thomas Aquinas),
4. Sapphici, cum Adonico in fine (as : " Ut queant laxia resonare fibris").
5. Trochaici (as : " Ave maris stella ").
6. Asclepiadici, cum Glyconico in fine (as : " Sacris solemniis juncta sint gaudia ").
In the period before us the Iambic dimeter prevails ; in Hilary and Ambrose without exception.
§ 116. The Latin Poets and Hymns.
The poets of this period, Prudentius excepted, are all clergymen, and the best are eminent theologians whose lives and labors have their more appropriate place in other parts of this work.
Hilary, bishop of Poitiers (hence Pictaviensis, f 368), the Athanasius of the West in the Arian controversies, is, according to the testimony of Jerome,' the first hymn writer of the Latin church. During his exile in Phrygia and in Constantinople, he became acquainted with the Arian hymns and was incited by them to compose, after his return, orthodox hymns for the use of the Western church. He thus laid the fonndation of Latin hymnology. He composed the beautiful morning hymn : " Lucis largitor splendide ; " the Pentecostal hymn : " Beata nobis gaudia ; " and, perhaps, the Latin reproduction of the famous Gloria in excelsis. The authorship of many of the hymns ascribed to him is doubtful, especially those in which the regular rhyme already appears, as in th« Epiphany hymn :
" Jesus refulsit omnium Pius redempto: gentium."
We give as a specimen a part of the first three stanzas of hia
* Catal. vir. illustr. c. 100. Comp. also Isidore of Seville, De oflic. eccles. 1. i, and Overthiir, in the preface to his edition of the works of Hilary.
ft90 THIRD PERIOD. A.T). 311-590.
morning hymn, \vLich has been often translated into German and English : '
" Lucis largitor splcndide, "0 glorious Father of the light,
Cuius screiio luminc From whose effulgence, calm and bright,
Post la|)i5a noctis tempora Soon as the hours of night are fled,
Dies refusus pandiiur : The brilliance of the dawn is shed :
" Tu vcrus mundi Lucifer, " Tliou art the dark world's truer ray : Non is, qui parri sideris. No radiance of that lesser day.
Venture lucis nuntius That heralds, in the mom begun,
August© fulget lumine: The advent of our darker sun :
" Sed toto sole clarior, " But, brighter than its noontide gleam, Lux ipse totus et dies, Thyself full daylight's fullest beam,
Interna nostri pectoris The inmost mansions of our breast
Dluminans prxcordia." Thou by Thy grace illuiuincst."
Ambrose, the illustrious bishop of Milan, thougli somewhat younger (f 397), is still considered, on account of the number and value of his hymns, the proper father of Latin church song, and became the model for all successors. Such was his fame as a hymnographer that the M'ords Amhrosianus and hymnus were at one time nearly synonymous. His genuine hymns are distinguislied for strong faith, elevated but rude simplicity, noble dignity, deep unction, and a genuine churchly and liturgical spirit. The rhythm is still irregular, and of rhyme only imperfect beginnings appear ; and in this respect they certainly full far below the softer and richer melodies of the middle age, which are more engaging to ear and heart. They are an altar of unpolished and unhewn stone. They set forth the great objects of faith with ajiparent cohiness that stands aloof from them in distant adoration ; but tlie passion is there, though latent, and the fire of an austere enthusiasm burns beneath the surface. Many of them have, in addition to their poetical value, a historical and theological value afi testimonies of orthodoxy against Arianisin,^
' The Latin has 8 stanzas. See Daniel, Thesaur. hymnol. torn. i. p. 1.
' Trench sees in the Ambrosian hymns, not without reason (1. c. p. RG), "a rocklike firmnciss, the old Roman stoicism transmuted and glorified into that nobler Christian courage, which encoimtered and at lengtii overcame the world." Fortlag« judged the same way before in a brilliant description of Latin hynm.s, 1. c. p. 4 1.comp. Daniel, Cod. lit. iii. p. 282 sq.