§ 96. Latin Hymns and Hymnists.
The Latin church poetry of the middle ages is much better known than the Greek, and remains to this day a rich source of devotion in the Roman church and as far as poetic genius and religious fervor are appreciated. The best Latin hymns have passed into the Breviary and Missal (some with misimprovements), and have been often reproduced in modern languages. The number of truly classical hymns, however, which were inspired by pure love to Christ and can be -used with profit by Christians of every name, is comparatively small. The poetry of the Latin church is as full of Mariolatry and hagiolatry as the poetry of the Greek church. It is astonishing what an amount of chivalrous and enthusiastic devotion the blessed Mother of our Lord absorbed in the middle ages. In Mone's collection the hymns to the Virgin fill a whole volume of 457 pages, the hymns to saints another volume of 579 pages, while the first volume of only 461 pages is divided between hymns to
I 96. LATIN HYMNS AND HYMNISTS. 421
God and to the angels. The poets intended to glorify Christ through his mother, but the mother overshadows the child, as in the pictures of the Madonna. She was made the mediatrix of all divine grace, and was almost substituted for Christ, who was thought to occupy a throne of majesty too high for sinful man to reach without the aid of his mother and her tender human sympathies. She is addressed with every epithet of praise, as Mater Dei, Dei Gcnitrix, Mater summi Domini, Mater misericordicc, Mater bonitatis, Mater dolorosa, Mater jucundosay Mater spcciosa, Marls stclla, Mundi domina, Mundi spcs, Porta paradisif Rcgina cceli, Radix gratice, Virgo virginum, Virgo regia Dei. Even the Te Deum was adapted to her by the distinguished St. Bonaventura so as to read " Te Matrem laudamus, Te Virginem confttemur."1
The Latin, as the Greek, hymnists were nearly all monks ; but an emperor (Charlemagne ?) and a king (Robert of France) claim a place of honor among them.
The sacred poetry of the Latin church may be divided into three periods: 1, The patristic period from Hilary (d. 368) and Ambrose (d. 397) to Yenantius Fortunatus (d. about 609) and Gregory I. (d. 604) ; 2, the early mediaeval period to Peter Daralani (d. 1072) ; 3, the classical period to the thirteenth century. The first period we have considered in a previous volume. Its most precious legacy to the church universal is the Te Deum laudamus. It is popularly ascribed to Am brose of Milan (or Ambrose and Augustin jointly), but in its present completed form does not appear before the first half of the sixth century, although portions of it may be traced to earlier Greek origin; it is, like the Apostles' Creed, and the Greek Gloria in ExceMs, a gradual growth of the church rather than the pro duction of any individual.2 The third period embraces the
1 See the Marianic Tc Deum in Daniel, IT. 293 ; and in Mone, II. 229 sq.
2 A curious mediaeval legend makes the Te Denm the joint product of St. Ambrose and St. Augustin, which was alternately uttered by both, as by inspira tion, while Augustin ascended from the baptismal font; Ambrose beginning: Te Deum laudamus, Augustin responding ; '* Te Duminum confitemur.'' But neither
422 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
greatest Latin hymnists, as Bernard of Morlaix (monk of Cluny about 1150), Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), Adam of St. Victor (d. 1192), Bonaventura (d. 1274), Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), Thomas a Celano (about 1250), Jacopone (d. 1306), and pro duced the last and the best Catholic hymns which can never die, as Hora Novissima ; Jesu dulcis memoria; Salve caput cruentatum ; Stabat Mater ; and Dies Irce. In this volume we are concerned with the second period.
Yenantius Fortunatus, of Poitiers, and his cotemporary, Pope Gregory I., form the transition from the patristic poetry of Sedulius and Prudentius to the classic poetry of the middle ages.
FORTUNATUS (about 600) l was the fashionable poet of his day. A native Italian, he emigrated to Gaul, travelled ex tensively, became intimate with St. Gregory of Tours, and the widowed queen Radegund when she lived in ascetic retirement, and died as bishop of Poitiers. He was the first master of the trochaic tetrameter, and author of three hundred poems, chief among which are the two famous passion hymns :
" Vexilla regis prodeunt," " The Eoyal Banners forward go ; " and
" Pange, lingua, gloriosi prcelium certaminis" "Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle."
Both have a place in the Roman Breviary.2
the writings of one or the other contain the slightest trace of the hymn and its origin. The first historic testimony of its existence and use is the eleventh rule of St. Benedict of Nursia, A. D. 529, which prescribes to the monks of Monte Casino : u Post quartum autem responsorium incipiat Abbas hymnum, Te Deum laudamus." But five or eight lines of the hymn are found in Greek as a part of the Gloria in Excelsis (Ad£a kv inpiaroic, etc.) in the Alexandrian Codex of the Bible which dates from the fifth century. See Daniel, II. 289 sqq. ; Christ, p. 39 (from *a#' rj^pav to elf rouf aitivac), and Kayser, 437 sqq. Daniel traces the whole Te Deum to a lost Greek original (of which the lines in the Cod. Alex, are a fragment), Kayser to an unknown Latin author in the second half of the fifth century, i. e. about one hundred years after the death of St. Ambrose.
1 The dates of his birth and death are quite uncertain, and variously stated from 530 or 550 to 600 or 609.
2 See two Latin texts with critical notes in Daniel, I. 160 sqq., rhymed English Versions by Mant, Caswall, and Neale. The originals are not