\ 9G. LATIN HYMNS AND HYMNISTS. 427
O Holy Ghost, Creator, come ! Kindle our senses to a flame,
Thy people's minds pervade ; And fill our hearts with love,
And fill, with Thy supernal grace, And, through our bodies' weakness, The souls which Thou hast made. still
Pour valor from above !
Thou who art called the Paraclete, Drive further off our enemy,
The gift of God most high — And straightway give us peace ;
Thou living fount, and fire and love, That with Thyself as such a guide, u Our spirit's pure ally ; We may from evil cease.
Thou sevenfold giver of all good ; Through Thee may we the Father
Finger of God's right hand ; know,
Thou promise of the Father, rich And thus confess the Son ;
In words for every land ; For Thee, from both the Holy
Ghost, We praise while time shall run.
In this connection we mention the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, the other great pentecostal hymn of the middle ages. It is gen erally ascribed to King ROBERT of France (970—1031), the son and successor of Hugh Capet.1 He was distinguished for piety and charity, like his more famous successor, St. Louis IX., and better fitted for the cloister than the throne. He was disci plined by the pope (998) for marrying a distant cousin, and obeyed by effecting a divorce. He loved music and poetry, founded convents and churches, and supported three hundred paupers. His hymn reveals in terse and musical language an experimental knowledge of the gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit upon the heart. It is superior to the companion hymn, Vcni, Creator Spiritus. Trench calls it "the loveliest" of all the Latin hymns, but we would give this praise rather to St. Bernard's Jesu dulcis mcmoria ("Jesus, the very thought of Thee)." The hymn contains ten half-stanzas of three lines each with a refrain in mm. Each line has seven syllables, and ends with a double or triple rhyme ; the third line rhymes with the third line of the following half-stanza. Neale has repro-
1 A few writers claim it for Pope Innocent III.
FOURTH PEEIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
duced the double ending of each third line (as " brilliancy " — " radiancy ").
Veni, Sancte /Spiritus, Et emittee ccelitus Lucis tuce radium.
Veni, Pater pauperumt Veni, dator munerum, Veni, lumen cordium.
Consolator optime, Dulcis hospes animce, Dulce refrigerium :
In labore requies, In cestu temperies, Infletu solatium.
0 lux beatissima, JKeple cordis intima, Tuorum fidelium.
Sine tuo numine Nihil est in homine Nihil est innoxium.
Lava quod est sordidum, Riga quod est aridum, Sana quod est saucium.
Flecte quod est rigidum, Fove quod est languidum, Hege quod est devium.
Da tuis Jidelibus, In te confitentibus, Sacrum septenarium;
Da virtutis meritum. Da salutis exitum.
Da perenne gaudium.1
Holy Spirit, God of light! Come, and on our inner sight
Pour Thy bright and heavenly ray !
Father of the lowly ! corne ; Here, Great Giver ! be Thy home, Sunshine of our hearts, for aye !
Inmost Comforter and best ! Of our souls the dearest Guest, Sweetly all their thirst allay ;
In our toils be our retreat, Be our shadow in the heat, Come and wipe our tears away.
O Thou Light, all pure and blest I Fill with joy this weary breast, Turning darkness into day.
For without Thee nought we find, Pure or strong in human kind, Nought that has not gone astray.
Wash us from the stains of sin, Gently soften all within, Wounded spirits heal and stay.
What is hard and stubborn bend, What is feeble soothe and tend, • What is erring gently sway.
To Thy faithful servants give, Taught by Thee to trust and live, Sevenfold blessing from this day ;
Make our title clear, we pray, When we drop this mortal clay ; Then, — 0 give us joy for aye.2
1 See the Latin text in Daniel II. 35 ; V. 69 ; Mone, I. 244. In ver. 8 line 2 Daniel reads f rigidum for languidum,
2 The English version is by Hamilton M. MacGill. Other English versions by John Austin, 1668 (''Come, Holy Spirit") : Miss Winkworth (''Come, Holy Spirit, God and Lord"); Caswall, 1848 (" Holy Spirit, Lord of Light"); Faber, 1849 (" Come, Holy Spirit ! from the height ") ; Eobert Campbell, 1850