2 96. LATIN HYMNS AND HYMNISTS. 433
mother Church, to-day, The clemency of Christ, thy Lord." It found its way into the York Breviary.
GODESCALCUS (GoTTSCHALK, d. about 950, not to be con founded with his predestiuarian namesake, who lived in the ninth century), is next to Notker, the best writer of sequences or proses, as "Laua Till, Christe" ("Praise be to Thee, O Christ)," and Codi enarrant ("The heavens declare the glory"), both translated by Neale.
FULBERT OF CHABTRES (died about 1029) wrote a paschal hymn adopted in several Breviaries: "Chorus novce Jerusalem" (" Ye choirs of New Jerusalem "), translated by Neale.
A few of the choicest hymns of our period, from the sixth to the twelfth century are anonymous.1 To these belong :
" Hyitmum dicat turba fratrum" A morning hymn men tioned by Bede as a fine specimen of the trochaic tetrameter.
" Sancti vcnite" A communion hymn.
" Urbs beata Jerusalem" 2 It is from the eighth century, and one of those touching New Jerusalem hymns which take their inspiration from the last chapter of St. John's Apocalypse, and express the Christian's home-sickness after heaven. The fol lowing is the first stanza (with Neale's translation) :
" Urbs beata Jerusalem, " Blessed City, Heavenly Salem, Dicta pads visio, Vision dear of Peace and Love,
Quae constrmtur in coelo Who, of living stones upbuilded, Vivis ex lapidibus, Art the joy of Heav'n above,
Et angelis coronata And, with angel cohorts circled, Ut sponsata comite." As a Bride to earth dost move ! "
" Apparebit repentina" An alphabetic and acrostic poem on the Day of Judgment, based on Matt. 25 : 31-36 ; from the seventh century ; first mentioned by Bede, then long lost sight of; the forerunner of the Dies Tree,, more narrative than lyrical,
1 See Daniel, Hymni adespofoi circa sec. VI- IX. conscripti, I. 191 sqq. Mone gives a larger number.
2 In the Roman Breviary: "Codestis urbs Jerusalem." Neale thinks that the changes in the revised Breviary of Urban VT1II. have deprived " this grand hymn of half of its beauty."
434 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
less sublime and terrific, but equally solemn. The following are the first lines in Neale's admirable translation : l
" That great Day of wrath and terror, That last Day of woe and doom, Like a thief that comes at midnight, On the sons of men shall come ; When the pride and pomp of ages All shall utterly have passed, And they .stand in anguish, owning That the end is here at last; And the trumpet's pealing clangor, Through the earth's four quarters spread, Waxing loud and ever louder, Shall convoke the quick and dead : And the King of heavenly glory Shall assume His throne on high, And the cohorts of His angels Shall be near Him in the sky : And the sun shall turn to sackcloth, And the moon be red as blood, And the stars shall fall from heaven, Whelm'd beneath destruction's flood. Flame and fire, and desolation At the Judge's feet shall go : Earth and sea, and all abysses Shall His mighty sentence know."
" Ave, Maris Stella" This is the favorite mediaeval Mary hymn, and perhaps the very best of the large number devoted to the worship of the " Queen of heaven/7 which entered so deeply into the piety and devotion of the Catholic church both in the East and the West. It is therefore given here in full with the version of Edward Caswall.2
1 See the original in Daniel, I. 194. Other English translations by Mrs. Charles, and E. C. Benedict. In German by Konigsfeld : " Plotzlich wird der Tag erscheinen"
2 Daniel (I. 204) says of this hymn: " Hie hymnus Marianus, quern ecelesia Catholica semper ingenti cum favore prosecuta est, in omnibus breviarriis, quae inspiciendi unquam mihi occasio data est, ad honorem beatissimce virginis cantandus prcescribitur, inprimis in Annunciatione ; apud permultos tamen aliis quoque diebus Festis Marianis adscriptus est. Quce hymni reverentia ad recentiora usque tempora permansit." It is one of the few hymns which Urban VIII. did not alter in his revision of the Breviary. Mone (II. 216, 218, 220, 228) gives four varia tions of Ave Maris Stella, which is used as the text.