I 96. LATIN HYMNS AND HYMNISTS. 423
GREGORY I. (d. 604), though far inferior to Fortunatus in poetic genius, occupies a prominent rank both in church poetry and church music. He followed Ambrose in the metrical form, the prayer-like tone, and the churchly spirit, and wrote for practical use. He composed about a dozen hymns, several of which have found a place in the llomau Breviary.1 The best is his Sunday hymn :
" Primo dierum omnium" " On this first day when heaven on earth," or, as it has been changed in the Breviary, " Primo die quo Trinitas" lt To-day the Blessed Three in One
Began the earth and skies j To-day a Conqueror, God the Son,
Did from the grave arise ; We too will wake, and, in despite Of sloth and languor, all unite, As Psalmists bid, through the dim night
Waiting with wistful eyes." 2
The Venerable BEDE (d. 735) wrote a beautiful ascension hymn : " Hymnum canamus glorias" " A hymn of glory let us sing ; " and a hymn for the Holy innocents,
" Hymnum canentes Marti/rum" " The hymn of conquering martyrs raise." 8
rhymed, but very melodious. See vol. III. 597. The Opera of Fortunatus were edited by Luchi, Horn. 1786, and Migne in "Patrol. Lat." vol. 88 (Paris 1850). Cornp. Ampere, Hist, litter. II. 275 sqq. ; Ebert, /. c. I. 494 sqq. For tunatus is a very interesting character, and deserves a special monograph. Kayser devotes to him three chapters (p. 386-434).
1 Daniel, I. 175-183, gives ten hymns of Gregory, and an additional one (Laudes canamus} in vol. V. 248. Mone adds some more of doubtful author ship, I. 370, 376 sqq. ; III. 325 sqq., and includes hymns in praise of Gregory, as " 0 decus sacerdotum, flosque sanctorum." English translations of his Brevi ary hymns in Mant, Chambers, Caswall, Newman. On his merits as a poet, see Ebert, I. 827 sqq. Luther, in his Tischreden (which are a strange mixture of truth and fiction), declared the passion hymn Rex Christe, factor omnium, to be the best of all hymns (" der allerbeste Hijmnus"), but this extravagant praise is inconsistent with the poetic taste of Luther and the fact that he did not reproduce it in German.
1 From Newman's free reproduction (in Verses on Various Occasions). See the Latin text in both recensions in Daniel, I. 175.
3 Daniel, I. 206 sq. ; Mbne, I. 1 (" Primo Deus cadi globum ") and 284 (Ave sacer Christi sanguis). The hymn for the infant martyrs at Bethlehem is far
424 FOUKTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
RABANUS MAURUS, a native of Mainz (Mayence) on the Rhine, a pupil of Alcuin, monk and abbot in the convent of Fulda, archbishop of Mainz from 847 to 856, was the chief poet of the Carolingian age, and the first German who wrote Latin hymns. Some of them have passed into the Bre viary.1
He is probably the author of the pentecostal Veni, Creator Spiritus.2 It outweighs all his other poems. It is one of the classical Latin hymns, and still used in the Catholic church -on the most solemn occasions, as the opening of Synods, the creat ing of popes and the crowning of kings. It was invested with a superstitious charm. It is the only Breviary hymn which passed into the Anglican liturgy as part of the office for ordain ing priests and consecrating bishops.3 The authorship has been
inferior to the Salvete flore* Martyrum of Prudentius. The first of the hymns quoted in the text is translated by Mrs. Charles and by Neale. German ver sions by Konigsfeld (Ihr Siegeshymnen schcdlet laut, and Unschidd'ger Kinder Martyrschaar), Knapp, and others. Bede composed also a metrical history of St. Cuthbert, which Newman has translated in part (l( Between two comrades dear1').
1 His carmina were edited from an old MS. found in the convent of Fulda by Christopher Brower, a Jesuit, in 1617 (as an appendix to the poems of Venantius Fortunatus), and reprinted in Migne's KAB. MAURI Opera (1852), vol. VI. f. 1583-1682. Comp. Kunstmann, Hrabanus Magnentius Maurus, Mainz 1841; Koch, I. 90-93; Ebert, II. 120-145; Hauck in Herzog2 XII. 459-485. Hauck refers to Diimmler on the MS. tradition of the poems of E. M.
2 So Brower, and quite recently S. W. Duffield, in an article in SchafTs "Bel. Encycl." III. 2608 sq. Also Clement, Carmina, etc., p. 379.
3 In the abridged and not very happy translation of Bishop Cosin (only four stanzas), beginning :
"Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, And lighten with celestial fire. Thou the anointing Spirit art, Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.'1
It was introduced into the Prayer Book after the Eestoration, 1662. The alternate ordination hymn, "Come, Holy Ghost, eternal God," appeared in 1549, and was altered in 1662.