§ 116. The Latin Poets and Hymns.
§ 116. The Latin Poets and Hymns.
The poets of this period, Prudentius excepted, are all clergymen, and the best are eminent theologians whose lives and labors have their more appropriate place in other parts of this work.
Hilary, bishop of Poitiers (hence Pictaviensis, † 368), the Athanasius of the West in the Arian controversies, is, according to the testimony of Jerome,1252 the first hymn writer of the Latin church. During his exile in Phrygia and in Constantinople, he became acquainted with the Arian hymns and was incited by them to compose, after his return, orthodox hymns for the use of the Western church. He thus laid the foundation of Latin hymnology. He composed the beautiful morning hymn: "Lucis largitor splendide;" the Pentecostal hymn: "Beata nobis gaudia;" and, perhaps, the Latin reproduction of the famous Gloria in excelsis. The authorship of many of the hymns ascribed to him is doubtful, especially those in which the regular rhyme already appears, as in the Epiphany hymn:
"Jesus refulsit omnium
Pius redemptor gentium."
We give as a specimen a part of the first three stanzas of his morning hymn, which has been often translated into German and English:1253
"Lucis largitor splendide,
"O glorious Father of the light,
Cuius serene lumine
From whose efflugence, calm and bright,
Post lapsa noctis tempora
Soon as hours of night are fled,
Dies refusus panditur:
The brilliance of the dawn is shed:
"To verus mundi Lucifer,
"Thou art the dark world’s truer ray:
Non is, qui parvi sideris,
No radiance of that lesser day,
Venturae lucis nuntius
That heralds, in the morn begun,
Augusto fulget lumine:
The advent of our darker sun:
"Sed toto sole clarior,
"But, brighter than its noontide gleam,
Lux ipse totus et dies,
Thyself full daylight’s fullest beam,
Interna nostri pectoris
The inmost mansions of our breast
Illuminans praecordia."
Thou by Thy grace illuminest."
Ambrose, the illustrious bishop of Milan, though some-what younger († 397), is still considered, on account of the number and value of his hymns, the proper father of Latin church song, and became the model for all successors. Such was his fame as a hymnographer that the words Ambrosianus and hymnus were at one time nearly synonymous. His genuine hymns are distinguished for strong faith, elevated but rude simplicity, noble dignity, deep unction, and a genuine churchly and liturgical spirit. The rhythm is still irregular, and of rhyme only imperfect beginnings appear; and in this respect they certainly fall far below the softer and richer melodies of the middle age, which are more engaging to ear and heart. They are an altar of unpolished and unhewn stone. They set forth the great objects of faith with apparent coldness that stands aloof from them in distant adoration; but the passion is there, though latent, and the fire of an austere enthusiasm burns beneath the surface. Many of them have, in addition to their poetical value, a historical and theological value as testimonies of orthodoxy against Arianism.1254
Of the thirty to a hundred so-called Ambrosian hymns,1255 however, only twelve, in the view of the Benedictine editors of his works, are genuine; the rest being more or less successful imitations by unknown authors. Neale reduces the number of the genuine Ambrosian hymns to ten, and excludes all which rhyme regularly, and those which are not metrical. Among the genuine are the morning hymn: "Aeterne rerum conditor;"1256 the evening hymn: "Deus creator omnium;"1257 and the Advent or Christmas hymn: "Veni, Redemptor gentium." This last is justly considered his best. It has been frequently reproduced in modern languages,1258 and we add this specimen of its matter and form with an English version:
"Veni, Redemptor gentium,
"Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth,
Ostende partum Virginis;
Come, testify Thy Virgin Birth:
Miretur omne saeculum:
All lands admire—all times applaud:
Talis partus decet Deum.
Such is the birth that fits a God.
"Non ex virili semine,
"Begotten of no human will,
Sed mystico spiramine,
But of the Spirit, mystic still,
Verbum Dei factum est caro,
The Word of God, in flesh arrayed,
Fructusque ventris floruit.
The promised fruit to man displayed.
"Alvus tumescit Virginis,
"The Virgin womb that burden gained
Claustrum pudoris permanet,
With Virgin honor all unstained
Vexilla virtutum micant,
The banners there of virtues glow:
Versatur in templo Deus.
God in His Temple dwells below.
"Procedit e thalamo suo,
"Proceeding from His chamber free,
Pudoris aulâ regiâ,
The royal hall of chastity,
Geminae Gigas substantiae,
Giant of twofold substance, straight
Alacris ut currat viam.1259
His destined way He runs elate.
"Egressus ejus a Patre,
"From God the Father He proceeds,
Regressus ejus ad Patrem,
To God the Father back He speeds:
Excursus usque ad inferos
Proceeds—as far as very hell:
Recursus ad sedem Dei.
Speeds back—to light ineffable.
"Aequalis aeterno Patri,
"O equal to the Father, Thou!
Carnis tropaeo1260 cingere,
Gird on Thy fleshly trophy (mantle) now
Infirma nostri corporis
The weakness of our mortal state
Virtute firmans perpeti.
With deathless might invigorate.
"Praesepe jam fulget tuum,
"Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
Lumenque nox spirat novum,
And darkness breathe a newer light,
Quod nulla nox interpolet,
Where endless faith shall shine serene,
Fideque jugi luceat."
And twilight never intervene."
By far the most celebrated hymn of the Milanese bishop, which alone would have made his name immortal, is the Ambrosian doxology, Te Deum laudamus. This, with the Gloria in excelsis, is, as already remarked, by far the most valuable legacy of the old Catholic church poetry; and will be prayed and sung with devotion in all parts of Christendom to the end of time. According to an old legend, Ambrose composed it on the baptism of St. Augustine, and conjointly with him; the two, without preconcert, as if from divine inspiration, alternately singing the words of it before the congregation. But his biographer Paulinus says nothing of this, and, according to later investigations, this sublime Christian psalm is, like the Gloria in excelsis, but a free reproduction and expansion of an older Greek hymn in prose, of which some constituents appear in the Apostolic Constitutions, and elsewhere.1261
Ambrose introduced also an improved mode of singing in Milan, making wise use of the Greek symphonies and antiphonies, and popular melodies. This Cantus Ambrosianus, or figural song, soon supplanted the former mode of reciting the Psalms and prayers in monotone with musical accent and little modulation of the voice, and spread into most of the Western churches as a congregational song. It afterwards degenerated, and was improved and simplified by Gregory the Great, and gave place to the so-called Cantus Romanus, or choralis.
Augustine, the greatest theologian among the church fathers († 430), whose soul was filled with the genuine essence of poetry, is said to have composed the resurrection hymn: "Cum rex gloriae Christus;" the hymn on the glory of paradise: "Ad perennis vitae fontem melis sitivit arida;" and others. But he probably only furnished in the lofty poetical intuitions and thoughts which are scattered through his prose works, especially in the Confessions, the materia carminis for later poets, like Peter Damiani, bishop of Ostia, in the eleventh century, who put into flowing verse Augustine’s meditations on the blessedness of heaven.1262 Damasus, bishop of Rome († 384), a friend of Jerome, likewise composed some few sacred songs, and is considered the author of the rhyme.1263
Coelius Sedulius, a native of Scotland or Ireland, presbyter in the first half of the fifth century, composed the hymns: "Herodes, hostis impie," and "A solis ortus cardine," and some larger poems.
Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius († 405), an advocate and imperial governor in Spain under Theodosius, devoted the last years of his life to religious contemplation and the writing of sacred poetry, and stands at the head of the more fiery and impassioned Spanish school. Bently calls him the Horace and Virgil of Christians, Neale, "the prince of primitive Christian poets." Prudentius is undoubtedly the most gifted and fruitful of the old Catholic poets. He was master of the classic measure, but admirably understood how to clothe the new ideas and feelings of Christianity in a new dress. His poems have been repeatedly edited.1264 They are in some cases long didactic or epic productions in hexameters, of much historical value;1265 in others, collections of epic poems, as the Cathemerinon,1266 and Peristephanon.1267 Extracts from the latter have passed into public use. The best known hymns of Prudentius are: "Salvete, flores martyrum," in memory of the massacred innocents at Bethlehem,1268 and his grand burial hymn: "Jam moesta quiesce querela," which brings before us the ancient worship in deserts and in catacombs, and of which Herder says that no one can read it without feeling his heart moved by its touching tones.1269
We must mention two more poets who form the transition from the ancient Catholic to mediaeval church poetry.
Venantius Fortunatus, an Italian by birth, a friend of queen Radegunde (who lived apart from her husband, and presided over a cloister), the fashionable poet of France, and at the time of his death (about 600), bishop of Poitiers, wrote eleven books of poems on various subjects, an epic on the life of St. Martin of Tours, and a theological work in vindication of the Augustinian doctrine of divine grace. He was the first to use the rhyme with a certain degree of mastery and regularity, although with considerable license still, so that many of his rhymes are mere alliterations of consonants or repetitions of vowels.1270 He first mastered the trochaic tetrameter, a measure which, with various modifications, subsequently became the glory of the mediaeval hymn. Prudentius had already used it once or twice, but Fortunatus first grouped it into stanzas. His best known compositions are the passion hymns: "Vexilla regis prodeunt," and "Pange, lingua, gloriosi proelium (lauream) certaminis," which, though not without some alterations, have passed into the Roman Breviary.1271 The "Vexilla regis" is sung on Good Friday during the procession in which the consecrated host is carried to the altar. Both are used on the festivals of the Invention and the Elevation of the Cross.1272 The favorite Catholic hymn to Mary: "Ave maris stella,"1273 is sometimes ascribed to him, but is of a much later date.
We give as specimens his two famous passion hymns, which were composed about 580.
Vexilla Regis Prodeunt.1274
"Vexilla regis prodeunt,
"The Royal Banners forward go:
Fulget crucis mysterium,
The Cross shines forth with mystic glow:
Quo carne carnis conditor
Where He in flesh, our flesh who made,
Suspensus est patibulo.1275
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.
"Quo vulneratus insuper
"Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Mucrone diro lanceae,
Life’s torrent rushing from His side:
Ut nos lavaret crimine
To wash us in the precious flood,
Manavit unda et sanguine.
Where mingled water flowed, and blood.
"Impleta sunt quae concinit
"Fulfilled is all that David told
David fideli carmine
In true prophetic song of old:
Dicens: in nationibus
Amidst the nations, God, saith he,
Regnavit a ligno Deus.
Hath reigned and triumphed from the Tree.
"Arbor decora et fulgida
"O Tree of Beauty! Tree of Light!
Ornata regis purpura,
O Tree with royal purple dight!
Electa digno stipite
Elect upon whose faithful breast
Tam sancta membra tangere.
Those holy limbs should find their rest!
"Beata cuius brachiis
"On whose dear arms, so widely flung,
Pretium pependit saeculi,
The weight of this world’s ransom hung
Statera facta saeculi
The price of human kind to pay,
Praedamque tulit tartaris."1276
And spoil the spoiler of his prey!"
Pange, Lingua, Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis.1277
"Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,1278 with completed victory rife,
And above the Cross’s trophy, tell the triumph of the strife;
How the world’s Redeemer conquer’d, by surrendering of His life.
"God, his Maker, sorely grieving that the first-born Adam fell,
When he ate the noxious apple, whose reward was death and hell,
Noted then this wood, the ruin of the ancient wood to quell.
"For the work of our Salvation needs would have his order so,
And the multiform deceiver’s art by art would overthrow;
And from thence would bring the medicine whence the venom of the foe.
"Wherefore, when the sacred fulness of the appointed time was come,
This world’s Maker left His Father, left His bright and heavenly home,
And proceeded, God Incarnate, of the Virgin’s holy womb.
"Weeps the Infant in the manger that in Bethlehem’s stable stands;
And His limbs the Virgin Mother doth compose in swaddling bands,
Meetly thus in linen folding of her God the feet and hands.
"Thirty years among us dwelling, His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His Passion, for that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted, where His life-blood shall be spilled.
"He endured the shame and spitting, vinegar, and nails, and reed;
As His blessed side is opened, water thence and blood proceed:
Earth, and sky, and stars, and ocean, by that flood are cleansed indeed.
"Faithful Cross! above all other, one and only noble Tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee!1279
"Bend thy boughs, O Tree of Glory! thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor, that thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty on thy bosom gently tend.
"Thou alone wast counted worthy this world’s ransom to uphold;
For a shipwreck’d race preparing harbor, like the Ark of old:
With the sacred blood anointed from the wounded Lamb that roll’d.
"Laud and honor to the Father, laud and honor to the Son,
Laud and honor to the Spirit, ever Three and ever One:
Consubstantial, co-eternal, while unending ages run.
Far less important as a poet is Gregory I. (590–604), the last of the fathers and the first of the mediaeval popes. Many hymns of doubtful origin have been ascribed to him and received into the Breviary. The best is his Sunday hymn: "Primo dierum omnium."1280
The hymns are the fairest flowers of the poetry of the ancient church. But besides them many epic and didactic poems arose, especially in Gaul and Spain, which counteracted the invading flood of barbarism, and contributed to preserve a connection with the treasures of the classic culture. Juvencus, a Spanish presbyter under Constantine, composed the first Christian epic, a Gospel history in four books (3,226 lines), on the model of Virgil, but as to poetic merit never rising above mediocrity. Far superior to him is Prudentius († 405); he wrote, besides the hymns already mentioned, several didactic, epic, and polemic poems. St. Pontius Paulinus, bishop of Nola († 431), who was led by the poet Ausonius to the mysteries of the Muses,1281 and a friend of Augustine and Jerome, is the author of some thirty poems full of devout spirit; the best are those on the festival of S. Felix, his patron. Prosper Aquitanus († 460), layman, and friend of Augustine, wrote a didactic poem against the Pelagians, and several epigrams; Avitus, bishop of Vienne († 523), an epic on the creation and the origin of evil; Arator, a court official under Justinian, afterwards a sub-deacon of the Roman church (about 544), a paraphrase, in heroic verse, of the Acts of the Apostles, in two books of about 1,800 lines. Claudianus Mamertus,1282 Benedictus Paulinus, Elpidius, Orontius, and Draconti
Euseb. Hist. Eccl. viii. 1.
The cities of New York, Brooklyn, and Philadelphia, for instance, have more churches than the much older cities of Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. New York has some three hundred, Berlin and Paris each hardly fifty. This is a noble triumph of the voluntary principle in religion.
Homil. lxxxi in Matth. § 2, and l. § 3.
Optatus of Mileve, De schism. Donat. ii. 4: "Inter quadraginta et quod excurris basilicas."
I This last was, according to Ambrose, Epist. 54, the custom in Rome, and certainly wherever such relics were to be had.
2 Chron. c. 5-7.
Macc. iv. 44 ff.
Vita Constant. iv. 43-46.
Hist. Eccl. x. 2-4. Eusebius speaks here in general of the consecration of churches after the cessation of persecution, and then, c. 4, gives an oratio panegyriea, delivered probably by himself, in which he describes the church at Tyre in a minute, but pompous way.
TaV ejgkaivnia, in memory of the purification of the temple under the Maccabees, I Macc. iv. 59; John x. 22.
Sozomen, H. E. ii. 25 (26). Gregory the Great ordered: "Solemnitates ecclesiarum dedicationum per singulos annos sunt celebrandae."
Hom. vi. in Gen., § 2 jEkklhsivan poivhsovn sou th;n oijkivan kai; ga;r kai; ejpeuvquno" ei\ kai; th'" tw'n paidivwn kai; th'" oijketw'n swthriva" .
Serm. in Eutrop.:JH ejkklhsiva ouj teu'co" kai; o[rofo" , ajlla; pivsti" kai; bivo" .
De incomprehensibili: jEntau'qa ejstiv ti plevon, oi|on hJ oJmovnoia kai; hJ sumfwniva kai; th'" ajgavph" oJ suvndesmo" kai; aiJ tw'n iJerevwn eujcaiv.
Serm. 94.
Sometimes the narthex again was divided into two rooms, the upper place for the kneelers (locus substratorum), i.e., catechumens who might participate, kneeling, in the prayers after the sermon (hence genuflectentes, gonuklivnonte" and the lower place, bordering on the outer portico, for mere hearers, Jews, and pagans (locus audientium).
Flentes, hiemantes.
Krhvnh, cantharus, phiala.
In Num. xix. 2 ff.; xxxi. 19 ff. (comp. Heb. ix. 13) the sprinkling-water, or "water of separation" (i.e., water of purification, LXX.: u{dwr rjantismou'), already appears, prepared from the ashes of the burned red heifer and water, and used for the cleansing of those made unclean by contact with a corpse. The later Jews were very strict in this; no one could appear in the temple or synagogue, or perform any act of worship, prayer, or sacrifice, without being washed, 1 Sam. xvi. 6; 2 Chron. xxx. 17. Therefore synagogues were built by preference in the neighborhood of streams. The Pharisees were very paltry and pedantic in the matter of these washings; comp. Matt. xv. 2; Mark vii. 3; Luke xi. 38. The same custom of symbolical purification before worship we find among the ancient Egyptians, Persians, Brahmans (who ascribed to the water of the Ganges saving virtue), Greeks, and Romans, and among the Mohammedans. At the entrance of every Turkish mosque stands a large font for this purpose.
1 Kings vii. 23-26; 2 Chron. iv. 2-5.
Benedictio fontis.
Naov".
JIerovn..
Nau'", navis ecclesiae. Many derive this expression from a confusion of the Greek naov" with nau'" and navis. Not till the ninth and tenth centuries is navis used in this way. The more exact equivalent in English would be long-room, or hall.
Called ejperw'a, the elevated galleries on the side walls. Besides this the women’s places were protected by wooden lattices from all curious or lascivious glances of the men. Chrysostom says, Homil. 74 in Matth.: "Formerly these lattices certainly did not exist; for in Christ there is neither male nor female (Gal. iii. 28), and in the time of the apostles men and women were together with one accord. But then men were still men, and women were women; now women have sunk to the level of prostitutes, and men are like horses in rutting." A sad commentary on the moral and religious condition of that time!
[Ambwn from ajnabaivnw, pulpitum, suggestus. Hence the English pulpit, while the corresponding German Kanzel is derived from cancelli.
Bh'ma, exedra.
jWdei'on. Subsequently the singers were usually placed in the galleries of upper-church.
Ta; a{gia tw'n aJgivwn, ta; a[duta, iJeratei'on,, sacrarium, sanctuarium.
Corov", bh'ma, (ascensus).
Hence the terms high mass, high altar.
Hence called also kovgch, shell.
Thus so early as this was the line of east and west established as the sacred (or church-building) line. Yet there were exceptions. Socrates, H. E. v. 22, notes it as peculiar in the church of Antioch, that the altar here stood not in the eastern end, but in the western (ouj ga;r pro;" ajnatola;" to; qusiasthvrion, ajlla; pro;" duvsin oJra'/).
jAmfivqura, kigklivde", cancelli, whence the name chancel.
Eusebius mentions, in his description of the church of the bishop Paulinus in Tyre, H. E. x. 4, an elegantly wrought lattice, and Athanasius mentions the curtains. Indeed, the pictures placed upon these curtains date back even to the fourth century, since Epiphanius, Ep. ad Joann. Hierosolymit., inveighed against a painted curtain in a village of Palestine. The lattice has perpetuated itself to this day in the picture wall or iconostas (eijkonovstasi") in the Russo-Greek church. It bears, on the right the picture of Christ, and on the left that of the Virgin Mary, and is pierced with three doors; the middle one, called the Emperor’s gate (dweri Zarskija), because only the emperor, besides the chief priest, may pass through it to take the holy Supper, is decorated and distinguished with the utmost splendor; oftentimes a golden sun with a thousand rays appears, which suddenly separates during the worship, and discloses the altar; or a Mount Zion with innumerable temples and battlements; or a network of golden garlands of flowers and fruits, among which especially clusters of grapes, probably with reference to the sacramental wine, frequently occur.
Altare, mensa sacra, qusiasthvrion, aJgiva travpeza The altar-cloth, palla, pallia, covers the whole upper face of the altar. This must not be confounded with the corporale (ei[lhton, from eijlevw, involvo), i.e., a white linen cloth, with which the oblations prepared upon the altar are covered.
Purgo", tower; kibwvrion (of doubtful origin), ciborium, umbraculum. Subsequently the ciborium gave place to the steeple-shaped tabernaculum for the preservation of the body of Christ. With the ciborium the dove-shaped form of the receptacle for the body of Christ (hence called peristhvrion) also gradually disappeared.
Rev. vi. 9. In the Greek and Roman churches every altar must contain some relics, be they never so unimportant.
Kruptaiv, memoriae, confessiones, testimonia.
This usage also no doubt came from Judaism into the Christian church; for in the temple at Jerusalem, and in the tabernacle before it, a lamp was perpetually burning according to divine command, Exod. xxvii. 30f. Probably lamps were in earlier use in the church. But tapers also were already in use in the time of Chrysostom, especially for lighting the altar, while lamps were rather employed in chapels and before images of saints.
In the Roman church the second of February, or the fortieth day after Christmas, when Mary presented the Lord in the temple, and when the aged Simeon prophetically called the child Jesus "a light to lighten the Gentiles," is appointed for this consecration, and is hence called Candlemas of Mary, a contraction of the two names, Purification of Mary and Candlemas.
He even expressly (Ep. ad Philad. c. 4) likens the unity of the church in the episcopate to the unity of the altar: [En qusiasthvrion, wJ" ei|" ejpivskopo".
Provqesi". oblationarium, still used in the Greek church.
Skeuofulavktion, diakonikovn, sacristia, sacrorum custodia, salutatorium, etc.
Qrovno", cathedra.
Before Ambrose the emperors were permitted to take their seats within the altar-space. But Ambrose, with the approval of Theodosius, abolished this custom, and assigned to the emperors a special place at the head of the congregation, just outside the rails. Sozomen, H. E. vii. 25.
Bunsen, Schnaase, Kugler, Kinkel, Quast, &e.
Zestermann (1847) and Krauser (1851).
The passage quoted for this view from Ausonius in his address of thanks to the emperor Gratian, his pupil, c. 2: "Forum et basilica olim negotiis plena, nunc votis, votisque pro tua salute susceptis," implies only, according to the connection, that now all houses and public places are full of good wishes for the emperor.
Stoai; basilikaiv The name comes from that of the highest civil magistrate, the a[rcwn basileuv", who held court in these buildings. In the church this designation was very naturally transferred to Christ, as the supreme King and Judge. Though of Greek origin, the basilicas first reached their full development in Rome, and, properly speaking, arose from the forum Romanum. They were strictly fora for the people, but roofed, and so protected from rain and heat. The city of Rome had ten of them: the Bas. Julia, Ulpia, Porcia, Marciana, &c. Zestermann, however, denies the connection of the Roman basilica with the Athenian stoa; basivleio" , from the later times of Roman luxury, when the name basilicus was applied to everything grand and costly.
Basilicas with a single nave are very rare. The pagan basilica of Trier is an instance, and the small church of St. Balbina in Rome, said to have been built by Gregory I. in the beginning of the seventh century.
In the panegyric addressed to Paulinus, bishop of Tyre, Hist. Eccl. x. c. 4.
Comp. the more minute descriptions of these churches in the above-mentioned illustrated work of Guttensohn and Knapp: Monumenta di religione christ., etc., 1822-’27, and the explanatory text by Bunsen: Die Basiliken des christl. Roms. München, 1848. Also Gottfried Kinkel: Geschichte der bildenden Künsten bei der christlichen Völkern, i. p. 61 sqq., and Ferd. von Quast: Die Basilika der Alten.
Kurtz, in his large Handbuch der K. Gesch., 3d ed. i. 372, well says: "The Byzantine state, in that maturity of it which Constantine introduced and Justinian completed, was, in polity, as astonishing, gorgeous, majestic a centralized edifice, as the church of St. Sophia in architecture. The imperial power, as absolute autocracy, was the all-ruling, all-moving centre of the whole state life. The main dome, over-topping all, the full expression of the majesty of the centre, towards which all parts of the building strove, to which all were subservient, in the splendor of which all basked, was the court and the residence; on it the provinces and the authorities set over them leaned, as the subordinate side-domes or half-domes on the main one."
Qovlo".
The Wisdom, the Logos, of God; called in Proverbs and the Book of Wisdom sofiva. Hence the name of the church. There is still standing in Constantinople a small church of St Sophia, which was likewise erected by Justinian.
In 557, the 32d year of Justinian, the eastern part of the dome fell in, and destroyed the altar, together with the tabernacle and the ambo, but was restored in 561. A similar misfortune befell it by an earthquake in the twelfth century, and again in 1346. The Turks let the grand structure gradually decay, till finally, by command of the Sultan, a.d. 1847-’49, a thorough restoration was undertaken under the direction of an Italian architect, Fossati. This brought to light the magnificence of the Mosaic pictures which Mohammedan picture-hatred and Turkish barbarism had in part destroyed, in part plastered over. The Sultan now caused them to be covered with plates of glass, cemented with lime; so that they are secure for a time, till the pile shall come again into the service of Christianity.
Nenivkhkav se Solomwvn. Comp. the descriptions in Evagrius: Hist. Eccl. l iv. cap. 31; Procopius: De aedific. i. 1; and the poem of Paul Silentiarius: !Ekfrasi" naou' th'" Sofiva" (a metrical translation of it in the above cited work of Salzenberg and Kortüm).
Comp. on these Byzantine churches Kinkel, l. c., i. p. 100 sqq. and p. 121 sqq., and the splendid work of Salzenberg and Kortüm, Altchristliche Baudenkmale Konstantinopels, etc.
Fwtisthvria, places of enlightening; because the baptized were, according to Heb. vi. 4, called "enlightened."
Kolombhvqra, piscina fons baptismalis.
In it, according to tradition, the emperor received baptism from pope Silvester I But this must be an error; for Constantine did not receive baptism until he was on his death-bed in Nicomedia. Comp. § 2, above.
Hence the name martuvria, martyrum memoriae, confessiones. The clergy who officiated in them were called klhrikoi; marturivwn, martyrarii. The name capellae occurs first in the seventh and eighth centuries, and is commonly derived from the cappa (a clerical vestment covering the head and body) of St. Martin of Tours, which was preserved and carried about as a precious relic and as a national palladium of France.
Religiosi crucis.
Tert. Apolog. c. 16.
The cross occurs in three forms: the crux decussata x (called St. Andrew’s cross, because this apostle is said to have died upon such an one); the crux commissa T; and the crux immissa, either with equal arms + (the Greek cross), or with unequal † (the Roman).
In the homily on the divinity of Christ, § 9, tom. i. 571.
jEktupou'n tovn stauro;n ejn tw'/ metwvpw/, effingere crucem in fronte, postare in fronte, which cannot always be understood as merely making the sign with the finger on the forehead. Comp. Neander, iii. 547, note.
Vol. i. § 100 (p. 377 sqq.).
Crosses of this sort, colored red, with a white lamb, are thus described by Paulinus of Nola in the beginning of the fifth century, Epist. 32:
"Sub cruce sanguinea niveo stat Christus in agno."
Kata; to;n ajnqrwvpinon carakth'ra. Hefele (l.c. 266 sq.) proves that crucifixes did not make their first appearance with this council, but that some existed before. The Venerable Bede, for example (Opp. ed. Giles, tom. iv. . p. 376), relates that a crucifix, bearing on one side the Crucified, on the other the serpent lifted up by Moses, was brought from Rome to the British cloister of Weremouth in 686. Gregory of Tours, also († 595), De gloria martyrum, lib. i. c. 23, describes a crucifix in the church of St. Genesius in Narbonne, which presented the Crucified One almost entirely naked (pictura, quae Dominum nostrum quasi praecinctum linteo indicat crucifixum). But this crucifix gave offence, and was veiled, by order of the bishop, with a curtain, and only at times exposed to the people.
Hefele, 1. c. p. 254.
Irenaeus, Adv. haer. 1, 25, § 6: "Imagines quasdam quidem depictas, quasdam autem et de reliqua materia fabricatas habent, dicentes formam Christi factam a Pilato illo in tempore, quo fuit Jesus cum hominibus. Et has coronant et proponunt eas cum imaginibus mundi philosophorum, videlicet cum imagine Pythagorae et Platonis et Aristotelis et reliquorum; et reliquam observationem circa eas, similiter ut gentes, faciunt." Comp. Epiphanius, Adv. haer. xxvi. no. 6; August., De haer. c. 7.
So Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Tryph.; Clement, Alex., in several places of the Paedagogus and the Stromata; Tertullian, De carne Christi, c. 9, and Adv. Jud. c. 14; and Origen, Contra Cels. vi. c. 75. Celsus made this low conception of the form of the founder of their religion one of his reproaches against the Christians.
So Chrysostom, Homil. 27 (al. 28) in Matth. (tom. vii. p. 371, in the new Paris ed.): Oujde; ga;r qaumatourgw'n h\n qaumasto;" movnon, ajlla; kai; fainovmeno" aJplw'" pollh'" e[geme cavrito": kai; tou'to oJ profhvth" (Ps. xlv.) dhlw'n e[legen: wJrai'o" kavllei para; tou;" uiJou;" tw'n ajnqrwvpwn. The passage in Isaiah (liii. 2) be refers to the ignominy which Christ suffered on the cross. So also Jerome, who likewise refers Ps. xlv. to the personal appearance of Jesus, and says of him: "Absque passionibus crucis universis [hominibus] pulchrior est .... Nisi enim babuisset et in vultu quiddam oculisque sidereum, numquam cum statim secuti fuissent apostoli, nec qui ad comprehendendum cum venerant. corruissent (Jno. xviii.)." Hieron. Ep. 65, c. 8.
Kirchengesch., vol. iii. p. 550 (Germ. ed.).
Comp. 2 Cor. v. 16.
In Harduin, Collect. concil. tom. iv. p. 406. A fragment of this letter of Eusebius is preserved in the acts of the council of the Iconoclasts at Constantinople in 754, and in the sixth act of the second council of Nice in 787.
Vita Const. iii. c. 49.
Hist. Eccl. lib. vii. cap. 18. According to Philostorgius (vii. 3), it was for a long time unknown whom the statues at Paneas represented, until a medicinal plant was discovered at their feet, and then they were transferred to the sacristy. The emperor Julian destroyed them, and substituted his own statue, which was riven by lightning (Sozom. v. 21). Probably that statue of Christ was a monument of Hadrian or some other emperor, to whom the Phoenicians did obeisance in the form of a kneeling woman. Similar representations are to be seen upon coins, particularly of the time of Hadrian.
"Imaginem quasi Christi vel sancti cujusdam."
Epiph. Ep. ad Joann Hierosolym., which Jerome has preserved in a Latin translation. The Iconoclastic council at Constantinople in 754 cited several works of Epiphanius against images, the genuineness of which, however, is suspicious.
Jerome, in his biographical sketch of Luke, De viris illustr. c. 7, is silent concerning this tradition (which did not arise till the seventh century or later), and speaks of Luke merely as medicus, according to Col. iv. 4.
Epist. 205. Comp. his Oratio in Barlaam, Opp. i. 515, and similar expressions in Gregory Naz., Orat. 19 (al. 18).
Paulinus, Carmen ix. et x. de S. Felicis natali.
See the fragments of this apology in the 4th act of the second council of Nicaea, and Neander, iii. 560 (2d Germ. ed.), who adds the unprejudiced remark: "We cannot doubt that what Leontius here says, though rhetorically exaggerated, is nevertheless drawn from life, and is founded on impressions actually produced by the contemplation of images in certain states of feeling."
Pollavki" aiJmavtwn rJuvsei" ejx eijkovnwn gegovnasi.
Comp. Matt. xii. 39, 40.
The image-hating Nestorians ascribed the origin of iconolatry to their hated, in opponent, Cyril of Alexandria, and put it into connection with the Monophysite heresy (Assem., Bibl. orient. iii. 2, p. 401).
De gloria martyrum, lib. i. c. 22.
4 First mentioned by the Armenian historian Moses of Chorene in the fifth century, partly on the basis of the spurious correspondence, mentioned by Eusebius (H. E i. 13), between Christ and Abgarus Uchomo of Edessa. The Abgarus likeness is said to have come, in the tenth century, into the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople, thence to Rome, where it is still shown in the church of St. Sylvester. But Genoa also pretends to possess the original. The two do not look much alike, and are of course only copies. Mr. Glückselig (Christus-Archaeologie, Prag, 1863) has recently made an attempt to restore from many copies an Edessenum redivivum.
This Veronica likeness is said to have come to Rome about a.d. 700, where it is preserved among the relics in St. Peter’s, but is shown only to noble personages. According to the common view, advocated especially by Mabillon and Papebroch, the name Veronica arose from the simple error of contracting the two words vera icon (eijkwvn), the true image. W. Grimm considers the whole Veronica story a Latin version of the Greek Abgarus legend.
The letter of Lentulus has been rightly known in its present form only since the eleventh century. Comp. Gabler: De aujqentiva/ Epistolae Publii Lentuli ad Senatum R. de J. C. scriptae. Jenae, 1819, and 1822 (2 dissertations).
Epist. ad Theoph. imper. de venerandis imag. (of somewhat doubtful origin), in Joh. Damasc. Opera, tom. i. p. 631, ed. Le Quien. A third description of the personal appearance of Christ, but containing nothing new, occurs in the fourteenth century, in Nicephorus Callisti, Hist. Eccl. lib. i. cap. 40.
Into the representation of the child Jesus in the manger the ox and ass were almost always brought, with reference to Is. i. 3: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider."
Usually Christ in the middle, and the leading apostles on either side. Augustine, De consensu Evangelist. i. 16: "Christus simul cum Petro et Paulo in pictis parietibus."
Especially the pillar-saint, Symeon. The Antiochians had the picture of their deceased bishop Meletius on their seal rings, bowls, cups, and on the walls of their apartments. Comp. Chrysostom, Homil. in Miletium.
The earliest pictures of the Madonna with the child are found in the Roman catacombs, and are traced in part by the Cavaliere de Rossi (Imagini Scelte, 1863) to the third and second centuries.
Conc. Eliberin. or Illiberitin. can. 36: "Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur aut adoratur, in parietibus depingatur." This prohibition seems to have been confined, however, to pictures of Christ Himself; else we must suppose that martyrs and saints are accounted objects of cultus and adoratio.
@Imanvtia kecarismevna tw'/ Qew'/..
Proskuvnhsi".
De moribus ecclesiae cath. i. 75: "Novi multos esse picturarum adulatores." The Manichaeans charged the entire catholic church with image-worship.
Comp. Horace, Ars poet. v. 20.
H. E. iv. 25.
!Ektupwvmata.
E.g., Eph. v. 14, where either the Holy Spirit moving in the apostolic poesy, or (as I venture to suggest) the previously mentioned Light personified, is introduced (dio; levgei) speaking in three strophes:
[Egeire oJ kaqeuvdwn,
Kai; ajnavsta ejk tw'n nekrw'n:
Kai; ejpifauvsei soi oJ Cristov".
Comp. Rev. iv. 8; 1 Tim. iii. 16; 2 Tim. ii. 11; and my History of the Apostolic Church, § 141.
2 Comp. Euseb. H. E. v. 28.
{Umno" eJwqinov", beginning: Dovxa ejn uJyivstoi" Qew'/, in Const. Apost. vii. 47 (al, 48), and in Daniel’s Thesaur. hymnol. iii. p. 4.
{Umno" ejsperinov", which begins: Fw'" iJlaro;n aJgiva" dovxh", see Daniel, iii 5.
That the so-called Hymnus angelicus, based on Luke ii. 14, is of Greek origin, and was used as a morning hymn, is abundantly proven by Daniel, Thesaurus hymnol. tom. ii. p. 267 sqq. It is found in slightly varying forms in the Apostolic Constitutions, l. vii. 47 (al. 48), in the famous Alexandrian Codex of the Bible, and other places. Of the so called Ambrosian hymn or Te Deum, parts at least are Greek, Comp. Daniel, l. c. p. 276 sqq.
We cannot agree with the anonymous author of the article in the "Christian Remembrancer" for April, 1859, p. 282, who places Cosmas of Maiuma as high as Adam of S. Victor, John of Damascus as high as Notker, Andrew of Crete as high as S. Bernard, and thinks Theophanes and Theodore of the Studium in no wise inferior to the best of Sequence writers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Can. 59: Ouj dei' ijdiwtikou;" yalmou;" levgesqai ejn th'/ ejkklhsiva/. By this must doubtless be understood not only heretical, but, as the connection shows, all extrabiblical hymns composed by men, in distinction from the kanonika; bibliva th'" kainh'" kai; palaia'" diaqhvkh" .
Neale, in his Hymns of the Eastern Church, p. 3 sqq., gives several of them in free metrical reproduction. See below.
On the Syrian hymnology there are several special treatises, by Augusti: De hymnis Syrortim sacris, 1814; Hahn: Bardesanes Gnosticus, Syrorum primus hymnologus, 1819; Zingerle: Die heil. Muse der Syrer, 1833 (with German translations from Ephraim). Comp. also Jos. Six. Assemani: Bibl. orient. i. 80 sqq. (with Latin versions), and Daniel’s Thes. hymnol. tom. iii. 1855, pp. 139-268. The Syrian hymns for Daniel’s Thesaurus were prepared by L. Splieth, who gives them with the German version of Zingerle. An English version by H. Burgess: Select metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem S., Lond. 1853, 2 vols.
See some odes of Gregory, Euthymius and Sophronius in Daniel’s Thes. tom. iii. p. 5 sqq. He gives also the hymn of Clement of Alex. (u{mno" tou' swth'ro" Cristou'), the u[mno" eJwqinov" , and u{mno" eJsperino;", of the third century.
See the details in Neale’s works, whom we mainly follow as regards the Eastern hymnology, and in the article above alluded to in the "Christian Remembrancer" (probably also by Neale).
Hence this last troparion is called Theotokion, from qeotovko", the constant predicate of the Virgin Mary. The Stauro-theotokion celebrates Mary at the cross.
Kanwvn. Neale says (Hymns of the East. Ch. Introd. p. xxix.): "A canon consists of Nine Odes—each Ode containing any number of troparia from three to beyond twenty. The reason for the number nine is this: that there are nine Scriptural canticles employed at Lauds (eij" to;n [Orqron), on the model of which those in every Canon are formed. The first: that of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea—the second, that of Moses in Deuteronomy (ch. xxxiii.)- the third, that of Hannah—the fourth, that of Habakkuk—the fifth, that of Isaiah (ch. xxvi. 9-20)—the sixth, that of Jonah—the seventh, that of the Three Children (verses 3-34, our "Song" in the Bible Version)—the eighth, Benedicite—the ninth, Magnificat and Benedictus."
Neale, l. c. p. xxxviii., says of the Oriental Breviary: "This is the staple of those three thousand pages—under whatever name the stanzas may be presented forming Canons and Odes; as Troparia, Idiomela, Stichera, Stichoi, Contakia, Cathismata, Theotokia, Triodia, Stauro-theotokia, Catavasiai—or whatever else. Nine-tenths of the Eastern Service-book is poetry." Besides these we find poetical pieces also in the other liturgical books: the Paracletice or the Great Octoechus, in eight parts (for eight weeks and Sundays), the small Octoechus, the Triodion (for the Lent season), and the Pentecostarion (for the Easter season). Neale (p. xli.) reckons that all these volumes together would form at least 5,000 closely-printed, double column quarto pages, of which 4,000 pages would be poetry. He adds an expression of surprise at the "marvellous ignorance in which English ecclesiastical scholars are content to remain of this huge treasure of divinity—the gradual completion of nine centuries at least." Respecting the value of these poetical and theological treasures, however, few will agree with this learned and enthusiastic Anglican venerator of the Oriental church.
Neale, in his preface, says of his translations: "These are literally, I believe, the only English versions of any part of the treasures of Oriental Hymnology. There is scarcely a first or second-rate hymn of the Roman Breviary which has not been translated: of many we have six or eight versions. The eighteen quarto volumes of Greek church-poetry can only at present be known to the English reader by my little book."
Archbishop Trench (Sacred Latin Poetry, 2d ed. Introd. p. 9): "A struggle commenced from the first between the form and the spirit, between the old heathen form and the new Christian spirit—the latter seeking to release itself from the shackles and restraints which the former imposed upon it; and which were to it, not a help and a support, as the form should be, but a hindrance and a weakness—not liberty, but now rather a most galling bondage. The new wine went on fermenting in the old bottles, till it burst them asunder, though not itself to be spilt and lost in the process, but to be gathered into nobler chalices, vessels more fitted to contain it—new, even as that which was poured into them was new." This process of liberation Trench illustrates in Prudentius, who still adheres in general to the laws of prosody, but indulges the largest license.
Comp. the excellent remarks of Trench, l. c. p. 26 sqq., on the import of rhyme. Milton, as is well known, blinded by his predilection for the ancient classics, calls rhyme (in the preface to "Paradise Lost") "the invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame metre; a thing of itself to all judicious ears trivial and of no true musical delight." Trench answers this biassed judgment by pointing to Milton’s own rhymed odes and sonnets," the noblest lyrics which English literature possesses."
"It is a curious thing," says J. M. Neale (The Eccles. Lat. Poetry of the Middle Ages, p. 214), "that, in rejecting the foreign laws in which Latin had so long gloried, the Christian poets were in fact merely reviving in an inspired form, the early melodies of republican Rome;—the rhythmical ballads which were the delight of the men that warred with the Samnites, and the Volscians, and Hannibal."
In his Hymnus de S. Agatha, see Daniel, Thes. hymnol. tom. i. p. 9, and Fortlage, Gesänge christl. Vorzeit, p. 365.
The Apocalypse.
The Gospel history.
Thesaur. rit sacr., cited in the above-named hymnological work of Königsfeld and A. W. Schlegel, p. xxi., first collection.
1252 Catal. vir. illustr. c. 100. Comp. also Isidore of Seville, De offic. Eccles. l. i., and Overthür, in the preface to his edition of the works of Hilary.
1253 The Latin has 8 stanzas. See Daniel, Thesaur. hymnol. tom. i. p. 1.
1254 Trench sees in the Ambrosian hymns, not without reason (I. c. p. 86), "a rocklike firmness, the old Roman stoicism transmuted and glorified into that nobler Christian courage, which encountered and at length overcame the world." Fortlage judged the same way before in a brilliant description of Latin hymns, l. c. p. 4 f., comp. Daniel, Cod. Lit. iii. p. 282 sq.
1255 Daniel, ii. pp. 12-115.
1256 The genuineness of this hymn is put beyond question by two quotations of the contemporary and friend of Ambrose, Augustine, Confess. ix. 12, and Retract. i. 12, and by the affinity of it with a passage in the Hexaëmeron of Ambrose, xxiv. 88, where the same thoughts are expressed in prose. Not so certain is the genuineness of the other Ambrosian morning hymns: "Aeterna coeli gloria," and "Splendor paternae gloriae."
1257 The other evening hymn: "O lux beata Trinitas," ascribed to him (in the Roman Breviary and in Daniel’s Thesaur. i. 36), is scarcely from Ambrose: it has already the rhyme in the form as we find it in the hymns of Fortunatus.
1258 Especially in the beautiful German by John Frank: "Komm, Heidenheiland, Lösegeld," which is a free recomposition rather than a translation. For another English version (abridged), see "The Voice of Christian Life in Song," p. 97:
"Redeemer of the nations, come;
Pure offspring of the Virgin’s womb,
Seed of the woman, promised long,
Let ages swell Thine advent song."
1259 This is an allusion to the "giants" of Gen. vi. 4, who, in the early church, were supposed to have been of a double substance, being the offspring of the "sons of God," or angels, and the "daughters of men," and who furnished a forced resemblance to the twofold nature of Christ, according to the mystical interpretation of Ps. xix. 5. Comp. Ambr. De incarnate Domini, c. 5.
1260 On the difference of reading,tropaeo, trophaeo, and stropheo or strophio (strophium = "cincugulum aureum cum gemmis"), see Daniel, tom. i. p. 14.
1261 "For instance, the beginning of a morning hymn, in the Codex Alexandrinus of the Bible, has been literally incorporated into the Te Deum:
Kaq j eJkavsthn hJmevran eujloghvsw se,
Per singulas dies
benedicimus te,
Kai; aijnevsw to; o[nomav sou eij" to;n aijw'na
Et laudamus nomen
tuum in saeculum
Kai; eij" to;n aijw'na tou' aijw'no".
Et in saeculum
saeculi.
Kataxivwson, kuvrie, kai; th;n hJmevran tauvthn
Dignare, Domine,
die isto
!Anamarthvtou" fulacqhvnai hJma'".
Sine peccato nos
custodire.
Comp. on this whole hymn the critical investigation of Daniel, l.c. vol. ii, p. 289
1262 This beautiful hymn, "De gloria et gaudiis Paradisi," is found in the appendix to the 6th volume of the Benedictine edition of the Opera Augustini, in Daniel’s Thesaurus, tom. i. p. 116, and in Trench’s Collection, p. 315 sqq., and elsewhere. Like all the new Jerusalem hymns it derives its inspiration from St. John’s description in the concluding chapters of the Apocalypse. There is an excellent German translation of it by Königsfeld and an English translation by Wackerbarth, given in part by Neale in his Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, p. 59. The whole hymn is very fine, but not quite equal to the long poem of Bernard of Cluny (in the twelfth century), on the contempt of the world, which breathes the same sweet home-sickness to heaven, and which Neale (p. 58) justly regards as the most lovely, in the same way that the Dies irae, is the most sublime, and the Stabat Mater the most pathetic, of mediaeval hymns. The original has not less than 3,000 lines; Neale gives an admirable translation of the concluding part, commencing "Hic breve vivitur," and a part of this translation: To thee, O dear, dear Country" (p. 55), is well worthy of a place in our hymn books. From these and similar mediaeval sources (as the "Urbs beata Jerusalem," &c.) is derived in part the famous English hymn: " O mother dear, Jerusalem!" (in 31 stanzas), which is often ascribed to David Dickson, a Scotch clergyman of the seventeenth century, and which has in turn become the mother of many English hymns on the new Jerusalem. (Comp. on it the monographs of H. Bonar, Edinb. 1852, and of W. C. Prime: " O Mother dear, Jerusalem," New York, 1865.)—To Augustine is also ascribed the hymn: "O gens beata ccelitum," a picture of the blessedness of the inhabitants of heaven, and: Quid, tyranne! quid miraris? " an antidote for the tyranny of sin.
1263 Jerome (De viris ill.c. 103) says of him: "Elegans in versibus componendis ingenium habet, multaque et brevia metro edidit." Neale omits Damasus altogether. Daniel, Thes. i. pp. 8 and 9, gives only two of his hymns, a Hymnus de S. Andrea, and a Hymnus de S. Agatha, the latter with regular rhymes, commencing:
"Martyris ecce dies Agathae
Christus eam sibi qua sociat
Virginis emicat eximiae,
Et diadema duplex decorat."
1264 2 E.g., by Th. Obbarius, Tub. 1845; and by Alb. Dressel, Lips. 1860.
1265 The Apotheosis, a celebration of the divinity of Christ against its opponents (in 1,063 lines); the Harmatigenia, on the origin of sin (in 966 lines); the Psychomachia, on the warfare of good and evil in the soul (915 lines); Contra Symmachum, on idolatry, &c.
1266 Kaqhmerinw'n = Diurnorum (the Christian Day, as we might call it, after the analogy of Keble’s Christian Year), hymns for the several hours of the day.
1267 Peri; stefavnwn, concerning the crowns, fourteen hymns on as many martyrs who have inherited the crown of eternal life. Many of them are intolerably tedious and in bad taste.
1268 3 De SS. Innocentibus, from the twelfth book of the Cathemerinon, in Prudentii Carmina, ed. Obbarius, Tüb. 1845, p. 48, in Daniel, tom. i. p. 124, and in Trench, p. 121.
1269 It is the close of the tenth Cathemerinon, and was the usual burial hymn of the ancient church. It has been translated into German by Weiss, Knapp, Puchta, Königsfeld, Bässler, Schaff (in his Deutsches Gesangbuch, No. 468), and others. Trench, p. 281, calls it "the crowning glory of the poetry of Prudentius." He never attained this grandeur on any other occasion. Neale, in his treatise on the Eccles. Latin Poetry, l.c. p. 22, gives translations of several parts of it, in the metre of the original, but without rhyme, commencing thus:
"Each sorrowful mourner be silent!
Fond mothers, give over your weeping!
None grieve for those pledges as perished:
This dying is life’s reparation."
Another translation by E. Caswall: "Cease, ye tearful mourners."
1270 Such as prodeunt—mysterium, viscera—vestigia, fulgida—purpura, etc.
1271 Daniel, Thes. i. p. 160 sqq., gives both forms: the original, and that of the Brev. Romanum.
1272 Trench has omitted both in his Collection, and admitted instead of them some less valuable poems of Fortunatus, De cruce Christi, and De passione Domini, in hexameters.
1273 3 Daniel, i. p. 204.
1274 The original text in Daniel, i. p. 160. The translation by Neale, from the Hymnal of the English Ecclesiological Society and Neale’s Mediaeval Hymns p. 6. it omits the second stanza, as does the Roman Breviary.
1275 The Roman Breviary substitutes for the last two lines:
Qua vita mortem pertulit
Et morte vitam protulit."
1276 Brev. Rom.: "Tulitque praedam tartari."
1277 See the original, which is not rhymed, in Daniel, i. p. 163 sqq.,
and in somewhat different form in the Roman Breviary. The masterly English
translation in, the metre of the original is Neale’s, l.c. p. 237 sq., and in
his Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, p. 1. Another excellent English version by
E. Caswell commences:
Sing, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory; tell His triumph far and wide."
1278 Proelium certaminis, which the Roman Breviary spoiled by substituting lauream. The poet describes the glory of the struggle itself rather than the glory of its termination, as is plain from the conclusion of the verse.
1279 The Latin of this stanza is a jewel:
Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis
Nulla talem silva profert fronde, flore, germine:
Dulce lignum, dulci clavo, dulce pondus sustinens."
(In the Roman Breviary: "Dulce ferrum, dulce lignum, dulce pondus sustinent.")
1280 See Daniel’s Cod. i. p. 175 sqq. For au excellent English version of the hymn above alluded to, see Neale, l. c. p. 233.
1281 Ausonius yielded the palm to his pupil when he wrote of the verses of Paulinus:
"Cedimus ingenio, quantum praecedimus aevo:
Assurget Musae nostra camoena tuae."
1282 Not to be confounded with Claudius Claudianus, of Alexandria, the most gifted Latin poet at the end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth century. The Christian Idyls, Epistles, and Epigrams ascribed to him, were probably the work of Claudianus Mamertus, of Vienne (Comp. H. Thompson’s Manual of Rom. Lit. p. 204, and J. J. Brunet’s Manual du libraire, tom. iii. p. 1351 of the 5th ed. Par. 1862). For Claudius Claudianus was a heathen, according to the express testimony of Paulus Orosius and of Augustine (De Civit. Dei, v. p. 26: "Poeta Claudianus, quamvis a Christi nomine alienus," &c.), and in one of his own epigrams, In Jacobum, magistrum equitum, shows his contempt of the Christian religion.