I 9G. LATIN HYMNS AND HYMNISTS.
"Ave, Maris Stella,1 Dei Mater alma Atque semper Virgo, Felix coeli porta.
Sumens illud Ave Gabriel is ore, Fun da nos in pace, Matans nomcn Evce?
Solve vincla reis Profer lumen ca'ds, Mala nostra pclle, Bona cuncta posce.
Monstra te esse matrcm* Sumat per te precem, Qui pro nobis natus Tul it esse iuus.
Virgo singular is, Inter omnes mitis, Nos culpis solutos Mites fac ct castos.
Vitam prccsta pur am Iter para tutum,
Uf vidcntcs lesum Semper collaztemur.
Sit laus Deo Patri, Sum mo Christo decus, Spirit in Sancto Honor tr'mus et unus.
"Hail, thou Star-of-Ocean,
Portal of the sky, Ever- Virgin Mother
Of the Lord Most High I
Oh, by Gabriel's Ave
Uttered long ago Eva's name reversing,
'Stablish peace below I
Break the captive's fetters, Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling, Every bliss implore.
Show thyself a mother,3 Offer Him our sighs,
Who, for us Incarnate, Did not thee despise.
Virgin of all virgins I To thy shelter take us —
Gentlest of the gentle !
Chaste and gentle make us.
Still as on we journey, Help our weak endeavor,
Till with thee and Jesus, We rejoice for ever.
Through the highest heaven To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son, and Spirit, One same glory be.
1 This designation of Mary is supposed to be meant for a translation of the name; maria being taken for the plural of mare: see Gen. I : 10 (Vulgate) '' congregationcs aquarum appellavit tnaria. Et vidit Dens, quod esset bonum." (See (he note in Daniel, I. '205). Surely a most extraordinary exposition, not to say imposition, yet not too far-fetched for the middle ages, when Greek and Hebrew were unknown, when the Scriptures were supposed to have four senses, and allegorical and mystical fancies took the place of grammatical and historical exegesis.
2 The comparison of Mary with Eve — the mother of obedience contrasted with the mother of disobedience, the first Eve bringing in guilt and ruin, the second, redemption and bliss — is as old as Irenaeus (about 180) and is the fruit ful orerm Of Mariolatry. The mystical change of Eva and Ave is mediaeval— a sort of pious conundrum.
5 The words of our Lord to John : " Behold thy mother " (John 19 : 27), were supposed to be spoken to all Christians.
436 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
The Latin hymnody was only for priests and monks, and those few who understood the Latin language. The people listened to it as they do to the mass, and responded with the Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, which passed from the Greek church into the Western litanies. As the modern languages of Europe developed themselves out of the Latin, and out of the Teutonic, a popular poetry arose during the thirteenth and four teenth centuries, and afterwards received a powerful impulse from the Reformation. Since that time the Protestant churches, especially in Germany and England, have produced the richest hymnody, which speaks to the heart of the people in their own familiar tongue, and is, next to the Psalter, the chief feeder of public and private devotion. In this body of evangelical hymns the choicest Greek and Latin hymns in various translations, reproductions, and transformations occupy an honored place and serve as connecting links between past and modern times in the worship of the same God and Saviour.
§ 97. The Seven Sacraments.
Mediaeval Christianity was intensely sacramental, sacerdotal and hierarchical. The ideas of priest, sacrifice, and altar are closely connected. The sacraments were regarded as the chan nels of all grace and the chief food of the soul. They accom panied human life from the cradle to the grave. The child was saluted into this world by the sacrament of baptism ; the old man was provided with the viaticum on his journey to the other world.
The chief sacraments were baptism and the eucharist. Bap tism was regarded as the sacrament of the new birth which opens the door to the kingdom of heaven ; the eucharist as the sacrament of sanctification which maintains and nourishes the new life.
Beyond these two sacraments several other rites were dignified with that name, but there was no agreement as to the number before the scholastic period. The Latin sacramentum, like the