§ 116. THE LATLN POETS AND IITMNS. 5^5
Catliemermon^ and Peristejphanon? Extracts from the lattc! have passed into public nse. The best known hjnms of IVudentius are : " Salvete, flores martyrum," in memory of the massacred innocents at Bethleliem," and his grand bm-ial hymn : " Jam moesta quiesce querela," which brings before us the ancient worship in deserts and in catacombs, and of which Herder says tliat no one can read it without feeling his heart moved by its touching tones/
We must mention two more poets who form the transition from the ancient Catholic to mediasval church poetry.
Venantius Foetdnatus, an Italian by birth, a friend of queen Radegunde (who lived apart from her husband, and presided over a cloister), the fasliionable poet of France, and at the time of his death (about 600), bishop of Poitiers, wrote eleven books of poems on various subjects, an epic on the life of St. Martin of Tours, and a theological work in vindication of the Augustinian doctrine of divine grace. He was the first to use the rhyme with a certain degree of mastery and regularity, although with considerable license still, so that many of his rhymes are mere alliterations of consonants or repetitions of vowels.^ He first mastered the trochaic tetrameter, a meas-
' Y^a.^-r]^ipivSiv = Diurnorum (the Christian Dai/, as we might call it, after the analogy of Keble's Christian Year), hymns for the several hours of the day.
^ Hep! (m(pavuv, concerning the crowns, fourteen hymns on as many martyrs who have inherited the crown of eternal hfe. Many of them are intolerably tedious and in bad taste.
^ De 88. Innocentibtis, from the twelfth book of the Cathemerinon, in Prudentii Carmina, ed. Obbarius, Tub. 1845, p. 48, in Daniel, tom. i. p. 124, and in Trench, p. 121.
* It is the close of the tenth Cathemerinon, and was the usual burial hjran of the ancient church. It has been translated into German by Weiss, Knapp, Puchta^ Konigsfeld, Bassler, Schaff (in his Deutsches Gesangbuch, No. 468), and otheie- Trench, p. 281, calls it "the crowning glory of the poetry of Prudentius." He never attained this grandeur on any other occasion. Neale, in his treatise oi the Eccles. Latin Poetry, 1. c. p. 22, gives translations of several parts of it, ii tite metre of the original, but without rhyme, commencing thus : "Each sorrowful mourner be silent! Fond mothers, give over your weeping ! Notie grieve for those pledges as perished : This dying is life's reparation." Another translation by E. Caswall : " Cease, ye tearful mourners."
' Such as prodcunt — mysterium, viscera — vestigia, fulgida — ^purpura, et&
TULKD TERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
are which, with various modifications, subsequently became the glory of the mediaeval hymn. Priidentius had alread_y used it once or twice, but Fortuuatus first grouped it into stanzas. His best known compositions arc the pasisiou h^mns : •' Vexilla regis prodeunt," and "Pange, lingua, gloriosi proeliuiu (lauream) certaminis," which, though not without some alterations, have passed into the Itomau Breviary.' The " Vexilla regis " is sung on Good Friday during the procession in which the consecrated host is carried to the altar. Both are used on the festivals of the Invention and the Elevation of the Cross.* The favorite Catholic hymn to Mary : "Ave maris stella," ' ia sometimes ascribed to him, but is of a much later date.
We give as specimens his two famous passion hymns, which were composed about 580.
Vexilla Regis Prodeunt.*
" Vexilla regis prodeunt, Fulget crucis mysterium, Quo cariie oarnis oouditor Su8pen8us est patibulo.*
" Quo vulneratus insuper Mucrone diro lancese, Ut nos lavarct crimine Manavit unda et sanguine.
" Impleta sunt quae conciuit David fideli carmine Dicens: in natiouibus Regnavit a liguo Deus.
" The Royal Banners forward go : The Cross shines forth with mystic glow. Where He iu flesh, our flesh who made, Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.
" Where deep for us the spear was dyed, Life's torrent rushing from Ilis side: To wasli us in tlie precious flood. Where mingled water flowed, and blood.
"Fulfilled is all that David told In true prophetic song of old : Amidst the nations, God, saith he, Hath reigned and triumpiied from the Tree.
' Daniel, Thes. i. p. 160 sqq., gives both forms : the original, and that of the Brev. Romanum.
" Trench has omitted both in his Collection, and admitted instead of them some less valuable poems of FortLnatus, De cruce Ciu-isii, and De passione Domini, ia hexameters.
* Daniel, i. p. 204.
* The original text in Daniel, i. p. 160. The translation by Neah', from the Hymnal of the EngHsh Ecclesiological Society, and Neale's Mediaeval liymua, p. A It omits the second stanza, as does the Roman ISreviary.
' The Roman Broviary substitutes for the last two lines : " Qua vita mortem pertulit Et morte vitam protulit."