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ADAM of St Victor. d. Paris, 1146. The earliest identification of this figure is probably the signature 'Subdeacon Adam' in a 1098 charter of Notre Dame cathedral, Paris. He was certainly precentor there by 1107, although he became an Augustinian canon* at the Abbey of St Victor in Paris ca. 1133 after being part of a failed attempt to impose the Augustinian rule on the cathedral canons. A vita of Adam was later written by a monk of the Abbey of St Victor, William of St Lô (d. 1349).
In modern...
Adoro te devote, latens Deitas. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5-1274).
This hymn is of uncertain date, but St Thomas Aquinas is known to have been writing on the Eucharist during his second stay in Paris, and it may therefore have been written ca. 1260. It is ascribed to Thomas Aquinas in the majority of manuscript witnesses, many of which are associated with Naples and/or Dominicans. The hymn did not enter liturgical use during the middle ages, although its focus is the Eucharist. Instead, it had...
Alleluya, dulce carmen. Latin, perhaps 11th century.
This hymn was dated by Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus IV. 261-2, as 11th century. Daniel assigned it to the Saturday before Septuagesima Sunday. Milfull (Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, Cambridge, 1996, p. 226) says that it was for Vespers, but in one version for Compline. It appears in Analecta Hymnica 51. 52-3 (no 53). AH 2. 41 prints a version from the Moissac Breviary. Verse 2 line 3, 'Exules nos flere cogunt Babylonis flumina', is...
Alma Redemptoris Mater. Latin, composed by the late 11th century.
Although it is frequently asserted that the earliest manuscripts containing 'Alma Redemptoris mater' are 12th century, the earliest manuscript containing the chant is the St Gall* manuscript known as the Hartker antiphonary, (an image may be seen here; this portion of the manuscript is usually dated to the late 11th century). Here it is assigned as an antiphon for the feast of the Assumption. It was adopted in various...
Amor patris et filii. Latin, perhaps 12th century. This hymn is found in a number of manuscripts, including one from Liège, used by John Mason Neale* (Sequentiae ex Missalibus, 1852); one from the Benedictine foundation at St Lambrecht, Austria (Universitätsbibliothek Graz, MS. 409; see Anderson, 1972); and one in the British Library (MS. Burney 357). A facsimile of MS Burney 357 is printed in Volume I of Early English Harmony (Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, 1897), edited by Harry Ellis...
Angelus ad virginem. Latin, probably 13th Century, author unknown, possibly Philip the Chancellor* (d. 1236; see under Goliards*).
This carol is best discussed in two sections: the medieval and the modern.
The Medieval Carol
This was sung by Nicholas, the student in Chaucer's 'The Miller's Tale' (Nicholas is a very unpleasant character, whose seduction of his landlord's wife is a grotesque parody of the angel's visit to the Virgin Mary). The carol is first recorded in a fourteenth-century...
ANSELM. b. Aosta, Italy, 1033; d. 21 April 1109. Anselm studied under Lanfranc at the Norman abbey of Bec where he became a monk in 1060, prior in 1063, and abbot in 1078. He was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. A philosopher and theologian, he is famous for formulating the ontological argument for the existence of God: nothing greater than God can be imagined and reality consists of more than what is imagined, therefore God exists in reality. 'Quid commisisti, dulcissime puer'*,...
This is a medieval term for a liturgical book containing antiphons. The term first appears in library catalogies from the 8th and 9th centuries, as well as in the titles of some manuscripts from that era. In the middle ages, an antiphoner might contain antiphons for the Mass (that is, introits and communions, perhaps together with other Mass proper chants) or for the divine office. Because of potential confusion between these two sorts of books, collections of Mass proper chants are usually...
ARNULF von Löwen [Leuven, Louvain, Leeuwen]. b. Louvain, ca.1200; d. ca.1251. He became the Cistercian Abbot of Villers-en-Brabant (1240-1248). Arnulf von Löwen is famous for his long Passion poem 'Ad singula membra Christi patientis rhythmus' which begins 'Salve mundi salutare'. There are seven sections, each beginning 'Salve'. Each section consists of five verses, devoted to Christ's wounds, to (respectively) the feet, the knees, the hands, the side, breast, heart, and the face.
The poem...
The term 'Augustinian canon regular' is used to refer to the clergy of a wide range of religious establishments in the Middle Ages. From the late 11th century onwards the Rule of St Augustine of Hippo* was adopted widely by congregations of clergy who wished to live communally in the manner of the Apostles. Houses of canons subscribing to St Augustine's Rule were founded across the whole of Europe, covering the continent from Poland to Spain and from Scandinavia to Italy (Dickinson, 1950, p....
Ave regina caelorum. Latin, 12th century or slightly earlier.
This is one of the four antiphons to the Blessed Virgin Mary whose use was mandated for the four parts of the year by Pope Clement VI (1350); the others are 'Salve, regina'*, 'Alma Redemptoris Mater'* and 'Regina coeli'*. 'Ave regina caelorum' was assigned to the period from the Purification (2 February) to Holy Week. In the 12th century, the liturgical assignments of the chant were much more diverse, as the following illustrative...
Ave verum corpus natum
Latin, 13th century. This medieval Latin hymn (Analecta Hymnica 54. 257) was used at the elevation of the Host at Mass, a liturgical practice that was introduced in the 12th century. The authorship is uncertain. It is not common in medieval manuscripts, but does appear in a Reichenau manuscript (14th century), a manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, dated ca. 1340 (see Frost, 1962, p. 354), and in a 13th-century central Italian Franciscan manuscript (Chicago,...
BERNARD of Clairvaux. b. Fontaines-lez-Dijon, Côte-d'Or, ca. 1090 ; d. 1153. He was born, probably in 1090, at the castle of the son of Tescelin le Saur, lord of Fontaine, vassal of the duke of Burgundy, and of Aleth de Montbard. He studied with the canons of Saint-Vorles at Châtillon-sur-Seine. In 1112, Bernard, accompanied by thirty followers, entered Cîteaux Abbey (founded in 1098 by Robert de Molesme); he took vows one year later. In 1115, at the request of Abbot Stephen Harding, Bernard...
BERNARD of Cluny. Dates unknown, 12th century. Little is known of Bernard's life. He is sometimes referred to as 'Bernard of Morlaix' (for example by John Mason Neale*). Neale believed that Bernard had been born in Brittany of English parents, but this is not certain. He entered the monastery at Cluny, and was a monk there under Peter the Venerable*, abbot from 1122 to 1157. He dedicated his great poem, De Contemptu Mundi, to 'Peter his abbot'. It is a remarkable work of 2966 lines, written in...
Bonaventura da Bagnoregio (Giovanni di Fidanza) b. Bagnoregio, Italy, ca. 1217; d. Lyons, France, 14 July 1274. The rise of St Bonaventura from young scholar to prominent theologian and mystic, minister general of the Order of Friars Minor, prelate, and advisor of popes is one of the remarkable stories of the Middle Ages. There is no contemporary source of biographical information about Bonaventura. The earliest are a 15th-century biography by Mariano of Florence and a Chronicle of the...
Breviary. This is the title given to a book containing all the material necessary for performing the Divine Office — prayers, chants, and readings. The readings are usually abbreviated, hence the name. Breviaries first appeared in the 11th century, and contained so much material that they were often divided into summer and winter volumes. For a detailed introduction to the contents of Breviaries see Tolhurst (1942).
Breviaries were useful for monks and clerics who were not able to attend the...
The hymnody composed within the Byzantine rite is essentially a continuation of Hagiopolite hymnody (Rite of Jerusalem*), but the liturgical framework is no longer the Palestinian rite but the new rite resulting from the fusion of the Palestinian and the Constantinopolitan rites. This fusion, whose result is usually called the 'Byzantine rite', took place from the 7th century onwards in the patriarchate of Constantinople, thereafter spreading to other regions, for instance Southern Italy...
Cantico di frate sole. St Francis (ca. 1181/2-1226).
This hymn, 'Canticle of brother son, praise of all creation', ('laude della creatur') is believed to be the earliest Italian Laude spirituale. It may have been written over a period of time, and finished (with the reference to death) in 1225, at a time when St Francis was suffering greatly in mind and body. It has affinities with Psalm 148, but adds its own uniquely affectionate wording, praising the elements of the creation in terms of...
Cantio is a Latin term simply meaning 'song' which has been applied to many repertoires, but which usually refers to sacred but non-liturgical Latin song traditions of the 14th-16th century (Schlager 1972, 286). Stevens uses this term for the Notre Dame conductus* in order to differentiate it from the type of conductus found in northern French Christmas-time liturgies. Cantiones are similar to hymns: both are strophic settings of devotional Latin poetry. However, cantiones often include a...
Chorus novae Ierusalem. Perhaps by Fulbert of Chartres* (d. 1028). It is ascribed to St Fulbert, although, as Milfull points out, if it was by him it must have become popular very quickly (Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 452), since it is found in two 11th century MSS (British Library, Vesp. D. xii, f. 72b and St Gall 387). It is written in the Ambrosian iambic dimeter (8+8+8+8 syllables in each verse).
It is an Eastertide hymn, with the first verse inviting 'colens cum sobriis paschale...
Christ ist erstanden. German, 11th or 12th century.
This is the German version of the Easter Sequence, 'Victimae Paschali'*. It is found in a 12th-century MS of a liturgical drama, but Leaver (The Hymnal 1982 Companion, 1994, 3A, p. 374) notes that the melody comes from the Latin sequence and speculates that it may have originated in the 11th century (but see the entry, 'Austrian hymnody*, where it is dated 1160, and located in a Salzburg Cathedral MS). In its original vernacular form, a...
Two quite separate repertoires are identified as conductus in the Middle Ages. The first consists of para-liturgical monophonic Latin songs, sung on important liturgical feasts, and clustered around the Christmas season. This repertoire played an important role in the 13th-century feast of the Circumcision at the northern French cathedrals of Laon, Sens and Beauvais, including the famous conductus 'Orientis partibus' with its French refrain 'Hez sir asne, hez!'. Conductus were particularly...
See 'Paulinus of Aquileia'*
Customary
Customaries are texts that describe or prescribe liturgical uses in a monastery, along with information on the daily life of the community as well as the duties of the monastic officers. They supplement the regulations set forth in the Rule of Benedict*. Whereas the Rule is a set of guidelines to be applied in principle to any Benedictine community, customaries offer much more detail on the liturgy and reflect the way of life in a particular house; moreover, they were written not...
DANIEL BEN JUDAH. (fourteenth century). Daniel ben Judah is thought to have been a Roman dayan (or dayyan, a rabbi and judge) who composed the Yigdal, a metrical paraphrase of the thirteen articles of Jewish faith drawn up by Maimonides (Moses ben Maimon, 1130-1205). The Yigdal is known to Christians through a further paraphrase by Thomas Olivers*, with its first phrase 'The God of Abraham praise'*, often sung to LEONI.
Little is known about Daniel ben Judah. Indeed, it appears that only...
Day by day, dear Lord. Richard of Chichester* (ca. 1197-1253).
This prayer was printed on a card of 1915 in the British Library collection, with the words 'Partly — at least — by St Richard, Bishop of Chichester…'. It was used by Percy Dearmer* in SofPE, in Part VIII, 'Verses and Other Doxologies', as the first of 'Graces and Other Verses':
Day by day, Dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: To see thee more clearly, Love thee more dearly, Follow thee more...
The Devotio Moderna (Modern Devotion or New Devotion) was a movement of religious revival that started in what is now the Netherlands in the late 14th century. Its main characteristics were an inward-looking piety, asceticism and the fostering of the virtuous life. Its instigator was Geert Grote (1340-1384). After having started an ecclesiastical career, a period of severe illness led to a process of inner conversion (1372). After several years of retreat he re-entered public life in 1379,...
Dies irae, dies illa. Latin sequence*, author uncertain, possibly Franciscan.
This chant (Liber usualis, 1810–13) is one of only four Sequences to have been preserved in the Roman rite after the Council of Trent (1543-63). Dreves identifies the lyric text as a pia meditatio — a rhymed verse or a reading-song (Leselied) — that served as a sequence once it became part of the Roman liturgy (Dreves, 1892, p. 523). The Roman Missal prescribes its performance for the Mass of All Souls' Day [In...
The Dominican order was founded by Domingo de Guzman (St. Dominic, ca. 1170-1221), a Spanish priest who emphasised humility and preaching the Gospel in his attempts to persuade Cathar heretics to return to the Roman Catholic church. He gained papal approval in 1216 to found a new order, the Ordo Praedicatorum, based on the rule of St Augustine* and emphasising the importance of preaching and confession. Medieval Dominicans were mendicant preachers and missionaries, often studying theology at...
Exultet caelum laudibus. Latin, 11th century (or possibly earlier). The earliest manuscripts containing this hymn include:
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 12601 (Cluniac breviary used in the monastery of St. Taurin l'Echelle, dated 1064-1095);
Roma, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, C.5 (late eleventh or early twelfth century, written in Rome, taken to Sant'Eutizio di Norcia in 1219);
Toledo, Catedral, Archivo y Biblioteca Capítulares, MS 44.2 (Toledo cathedral, ca 1095);
the...
FULBERT of Chartres. b. ca. 960; d. 10 April 1028. Born possibly in Italy, he studied in Rome and later in Rheims. Between 984 and 987 he was at the court of the Frankish king. He moved to Chartres ca. 992, where he held a teaching office and that of singing-master. He was consecrated bishop of Chartres in 1006. He did much to enhance the spiritual and temporal power of the French bishops, and he began the rebuilding of the cathedral after the fire of 1020. The hymns ascribed to him are found...
Glosses
The Latin hymns of the Divine Office are cited in works on grammar and metrics throughout the Middle Ages. The study of hymns at several different levels of Latin-language education apparently led their texts to be annotated with glosses. Although the majority of the extant glosses are interlinear, some comprise more extended commentary and were thus written in the margins of medieval hymnals. Hymn glosses are preserved in Latin, Old English, Old High German, and Old Irish. Vernacular...
GODRIC (Saint). b. Norfolk, ca. 1070; d. Finchale, County Durham, 21 May 1170. Born to an Anglo-Saxon couple in the early years following the Norman Conquest, Godric became a pedlar and then a trader with European countries. He travelled widely, making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, and Santiago de Compostella. At some point in the early 12th century (ca. 1104-05) he sold all his goods and became a hermit, first at Whitby and then at Finchale, on the banks of the river Wear near Durham. There...
Goliards, goliardic
The term 'goliard' may first have arisen in connexion with Abelard*, though what we identify as the 'goliardic' tradition is some centuries older. An alternative, equally unsatisfactory, epithet is 'wandering scholars', a translation of vagantes, depicting the clerics whose journeys between ecclesiastical establishments in Europe were responsible for the transmission of Latin verse of various types such as love-songs, hymns and carols, polemical or trivial lyrics, planctus*...
The term 'Greek hymnody' within Christianity has both a contemporary and an historical sense. First, it signifies the hymnody of the present Byzantine liturgical rite, contained in the official liturgical hymnbooks. The Byzantine or Eastern Roman empire ended in 1453, but the Byzantine rite contined to be practised in post-Byzantine times, both by Orthodox and eventually by Catholic Uniate churches, as it still is. Second, Greek hymnody incorporates all hymnody used in any of several historical...
Haec nox, carissimi, nox illa flebilis. Peter Abelard* (1079-1142).
From Hymnarius Paraclitensis, the hymnal that Abelard wrote for the religious house of The Paraclete, where Heloise was prioress (see Paraclete Hymnal*). It was written 'In Paraceve Domini. In 1 Nocturno' (for the first nocturnal office on the night of the preparation for the events of Good Friday and Easter Day). It had four stanzas:
Haec nox, carissimi, nox illa flebilis, Qua comprehenditur dies a tenebris, Piis...
SUSO (or Seusse), Heinrich. b. Constance, Swabia, 21 March ca. 1295-1300; d. Ulm, 25 January 1366. Born of a noble family (von Berg) he took his name from his devout mother (Sus or Süs). At the age of 13 he entered a Dominican convent at Constance, and then studied theology under Meister Eckhart, and perhaps John Tauler*, at Cologne (1324-27). From 1329 to 1334 he was a lektor at Constance; in 1343 he was made a prior, probably at Diessenhofen. He was then a prior at Ulm, where he lived until...
Heloise (other names not known) b. 1090–97; d. 16 May 1163/4. She was the daughter of Herenade, who may have been a scion of the Montmorency family (as possibly was Heloise's father) in the region of Paris. Up to about 1116 she was educated at the convent of Argenteuil where she later returned as a nun after her affair with Abelard*, the birth of their son, and Abelard's castration after their clandestine marriage (1117-18) to which she was a most unwilling partner. Their separation after these...
Hermannus Contractus (Hermann the Lame). b. Swabia, 18 July 1013; d. Reichenau, 24 September 1054. He was a Benedictine monk of the monastery on the Reichenau*, the island in Lake Constance.
Hermann, born of a noble Swabian family, was crippled from birth. He was given as an oblate to the monastery on the Reichenau on 15 September 1020 and remained there all his life. His biography can be reconstructed from his own writings and from an account written by his disciple Berthold. This was composed...
HILDEGARD of Bingen. b. Böckelheim, 1098; d. 17 September 1179. The last of ten children of Mechthild and Hildebert, members of the minor nobility, Hildegard was a weak child whose illness was linked throughout her life with distinctive visions. Committed to the religious life as a sort of tithe, Hildegard lived for several years with Jutta of Sponheim, who taught her to read and chant the psalter before both were enclosed as anchorites at Rupertsberg Abbey on 1 November 1112. Hildegard...
Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus. Bernard of Cluny* (12th century: see also 'Cluny'*).
This is the opening line of a poem of 2966 lines, entitled 'Bernhardus Cluniacensis de contemptu mundi. Ad Petrum Abbatem suum' ('Bernard of Cluny on the contempt of the world. To Peter his abbot [of Cluny]'). See Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus, IV. 292. It was printed in an edition of poems entitled Varia doctorum piorumque virorum de corrupto Ecclesiae statu Poemata ('Several poems of learned...
Iesu dulcedo cordium. Latin, probably 12th century.
This is part of the Latin poem in 48 stanzas beginning 'Iesu dulcis memoria'* attributed at one time to Bernard of Clairvaux*, and known as the Iubilus rhythmicus de nomine Iesu ('The joyful poem on the Name of Jesus'). The text is formed from stanzas 4, 3, 16, 24 and 10 of the Bodleian Library copy of the poem. The translation was by Ray Palmer*, beginning 'Jesu, thou joy of loving hearts'*, published in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the...
Iesu dulcis memoria. Latin, 12th century, author unknown.
This hymn is given in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 227-9, as the work of St Bernard of Clairvaux*, but more recent research has noted that the earliest manuscripts containing it are of English origin, and it has been tentatively ascribed to an English monk of the 12th century (see F. J. E. Raby, 'The Poem “Dulcis Iesu Memoria”', Bulletin of the Hymn Society, 33 (October 1945), pp. 1-6, and Maurice Frost, Historical Companion to...
In dulci iubilo. German/Latin, ca. 14th century.
There are many versions of this carol, which is an early example of a text in Latin and German. Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied II. 483-6, lists eight texts, ranging in date from the end of the 14th century (Leipzig, see below) to 1635. Most have four stanzas, but there are texts with five, six, or seven (the last from Munich).
Modern research on the hand-written texts by Gisela Kornrumpf (2000) found examples in parts of southern Germany...
In Gottes Namen fahren wir. German, 13th century and after.
This is the German pilgrims' hymn, probably dating from the time when pilgrimages became an important part of the religious life of the Middle Ages. For those who could travel, there were journeys to be made from all parts of Europe to Jerusalem, Rome, or Santiago de Compostella, and in England to Canterbury or Durham. 'The five hundred years from the early 11th to the early 16th century were the golden age of pilgrimage in Europe. It...
JACOPONE da Todi (BENEDETTI, Jacopo). b. Todi, Italy, ca. 1236; d. Collazzone, 25 December 1306. The Franciscan poet Jacopo Benedetti was born to a noble family. He signed his name Jacobus Benedicti de Tuderto; chroniclers refer to him as either Jacobus Tudertinus or Jacobus de Benedictis. The name Jacopone (something on the lines of 'Big Jim') may refer to his physical stature, for he was a tall man. More importantly, it was the common and, ironically, belittling name, unbefitting his...
HUS, Jan. b. ca. 1370; d. 6 July 1415. Born at Husinec (or Hussinecz), southern Bohemia, he was educated at the University of Prague (BA 1393, Bachelor of Theology 1394, MA 1396). He taught at the University after graduation, and was Dean of the Faculty (1401) and Rector (1402-03, 1409-10). In 1402 he was appointed capellarius (chaplain and preacher) of the Bohemian chapel in Prague, a chapel founded to encourage preaching in the Bohemian language. Hus's preaching there, much influenced by the...
FÉCAMP, Jean de (Jean d'Allie, Jean de Ravenne). b. Ravenna, Italy, ca. 990; d. Fécamp, Normandy, ca. 1078. He was a disciple (not, as is sometimes stated, the nephew) of the celebrated reformer and architect, Guillaume de Volpiano (Guglielmo da Volpiano, 962-1031) who restored many French abbeys and built the chapel at Mont St Michel. Jean was a monk at one of the abbeys, Saint-Bénigne de Dijon, before being nominated by Guillaume to be prior of another, the re-founded Abbaye de la Trinité at...
TISSERAND, Jean. b. date and place unknown; d. 1494. Tisserand was a Franciscan friar, working in Paris in the late 15th century, where he founded an Order for penitent women. He was the author of two Easter hymns, 'Surrexit hodie' and 'O Filii et Filiae'*. His sermons were published after his death as Sermones Religiosissimi F. Jo. Tisserandi, quos tempore Adventus Parisiensibus disseminavit (Paris, 1517).
The authorship of 'O filii et filiae' was uncertain for many years. Tisserand was...
KOUKOUZELES, John, St [Ioannes]. b. ca. 1280; d. ca. 1350. A singer and prolific composer from Mount Athos, Koukouzeles was the foremost exponent of the kalophonic vocal style. In his works we note a marked expansion both of music and text. He increases the length of traditional melodies in three ways: (i) by setting very many notes to the individual syllables of the hymnody (melismas); (ii) by interpolating new words and phrases in pre-existing texts thereby giving him scope to write more...
PECHAM, John (Johannes de Pescham, Peccanus, Pischano, Pisano, Pithyano). b. Patcham, Sussex, ca. 1230; d. Mortlake, Surrey, 8 December 1292. After receiving his early education at the Cluniac Priory at Lewes, John Pecham joined the Order of Friars Minor in Oxford ca. 1250. Pecham studied the liberal arts at Oxford and then, some time between 1257 and 1259, travelled to Paris, where he completed his studies in theology. He served as Franciscan lector and regent master of theology there from...
TAULER, John (Johannes). b. Strasbourg, ca. 1300; d. Strasbourg or Cologne, 15 June 1361. Tauler became a Dominican monk. He studied under the great teacher Meister Eckhart, and became renowned as a teacher and preacher, first at Strasbourg and then at Basle. His place of death is uncertain. He is normally thought of as one of the 'Friends of God', a name for some 14th-century mystics: Catherine Winkworth* described him as one of those who 'spoke often of a mystical or hidden life of God in the...
JULIAN of Norwich. b. 1342; d. ca. 1416. Her anchorite cell was at the Parish Church of St Julian, Conisford, Norwich, and this may be the origin of her name. Little is known for certain about her life, although she became an anchoress before 1394.
She wrote The Revelations of Divine Love, reflections on sixteen visions of Christ crucified which she received in May 1373. A short version was written at some point in the years following the vision; the longer version (on which her reputation...
KHATCHATUR Tarōnetsi. fl. 13th century. Khatchatur of Tarōn was a poet and musician, and he occupies a special place among the authors of Armenian hymns. His best known hymn is 'Khorhurd khorin' ('Mystery profound') which is also called 'The Hymn of Vesting', sung at the beginning of Holy Mass. Successive 4-line quatrains spell out the author's name (KHATCHATUR). According to certain sources, Khatchatur composed it on the occasion of an open-air liturgy organised at the request of Prince...
Lauda Sion Salvatorem. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5-1274). This is one of the sequences* by Aquinas for the feast of Corpus Christi. It was in three parts. Part I had ten 6-line stanzas, rhyming aabccb, followed by Part II beginning 'Ecce, Panis angelorum', and Part III beginning 'Bone Pastor, Panis vere'. Parts II and II have different stanza forms. A translation beginning 'Laud, O Sion, thy salvation' (from Orby Shipley*'s Divine Liturgy, 1863) is in EH, with Part II beginning 'Lo! the Angels'...
The nature of the 'Liturgical drama' is much misunderstood. As Richard Axton showed (1974) the notion that secular drama derived from that of the church is the reverse of the truth. The idea of semi-dramatic presentations of parts of the liturgy seems to derive from the secular stage influencing the 'Quem queritis' Easter dialogue in the early 10th century. This dialogue initiated more florid episodes, especially at the Christmas season; eventually the dramatic (and sometime comical)...
Mechthild of Magdeburg. b. near Magdeburg ca. 1207; d. ca. 1282. Mechthild became a Beguine (a lay sister) ca. 1230 and entered the convent of St Mary at Helfta, Saxony, ca. 1270. Various dates have been proposed for her death; Hans Neumann's estimate of ca. 1282 has the widest currency.
Mechthild wrote the mystical Das Fliessende Licht der Gottheit ('The flowing light of the Godhead') between ca. 1250 and ca.1282. One text, written in Low German, is in the library of the monastery of...
Medieval Hymns and Hymnals.
This entry is by various authors. See below.
Hymns have been a part of Christian worship since the earliest times, but the use of Latin in worship appears to postdate the acceptance by Emperor Constantine of Christianity as the official Roman faith in 313. On the patristic Latin hymn repertory, see Latin hymns*.
Medieval hymns vary in their poetic structure, some being metrical, some accentual, and others are organized according to syllable count together with final...
To the Greeks, 'metre' was a pattern to which the words could naturally be adapted, for there was a fairly clear distinction between long and short syllables in the language. So the Homeric epic could easily be couched in a series of long-short-short patterns (with occasional variations such as long-long), to make a hexameter. The Romans greatly admired Greek poetry, so Classical Latin writers aped this metrical system, despite Latin being less naturally dragooned into such a format....
Monk of Salzburg. fl. late 14th century. Part of a literary circle, some of whose members are referred to in his songs, the monk of Salzburg was associated with the hedonistic court of Pilgrim II von Puchheim, archbishop of Salzburg from 1365 to 1396. 57 secular songs and 49 sacred songs survive, some of which are translations of Latin monophonic and polyphonic hymns and sequences* into German. The monk's songs were widely transmitted for over a century; they are found in almost 100...
This is the name given to the liturgy used by Christians in the Iberian peninsula living under the rule of the moors before the reconquest of Spain. Because it was in use before the coming of the Arabs, the designation 'Mozarabic' tends to be avoided by modern scholars; 'Old Hispanic' is usually preferred. This liturgical rite was superseded, not without resistance, when the Roman liturgy was imposed on Spain by order of the Council of Burgos in 1080. It remained in use in some Toledan parish...
Medieval Hymns in Germany; The Medingen Manuscripts. German hymns are only rarely noted down in full before the Lutheran reformation. Then, a major need for spreading the gospel in German led to the wide distribution of hymns via pamphlets, single-leaf prints and hymnbooks. Many of these reformation hymns were based, at least partly, on earlier material as titles such as 'Christ ist erstanden, gebessert' ('Christ is risen, in a better version') demonstrate (see 'Christ lag in Todesbanden'*)....
O quanta qualia sunt illa sabbata. Peter Abelard* (1079–1142).
This is the only hymn by Abelard to survive in common usage. It is usually known in the translation by John Mason Neale,* 'O what their joy and their glory must be'*, and there are two other translations in 20th-century books. Unfortunately, none of them (even Helen Waddell*'s which comes the nearest) give much idea of the grandeur of the original text; nor do they reproduce Abelard's rhythm (and therefore do not fit Abelard's tune...
O salutaris Hostia. Thomas Aquinas* ( ca. 1224/5-1274); English translation by Edward Caswall* (1814 -1878).
The Latin text of this hymn is from Aquinas's 'Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram'*. It forms the last two stanzas of that hymn. These stanzas are widely known as a devotional text in both Latin and English.
O salutaris Hostia, quae caeli pandis ostium, bella premunt hostilia, da robur, fer auxilium.
Uni trinoque Domino sit sempiterna gloria, qui vitam sine...
Omni die, dic Mariae. Latin, probably by Bernard of Cluny* (12th century).
This is a selection of lines from 'Ut jucundus cervus undas, aestuans desiderat' (from Psalm 42: 1), the opening of a cycle of poems known as the Mariale. The authorship of the cycle is uncertain, but James Mearns*, after assessing all the evidence, attributed it to Bernard of Cluny (JJ, pp. 1200-1202). Section 7 of the Mariale began 'Omni die, dic Mariae, mea, laudes, anima'.
For Catholics it is notable as the Latin...
Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5- 1274).
This hymn was described in JJ as 'one of the finest of the mediaeval Latin hymns; a wonderful union of sweetness of melody with clear-cut dogmatic teaching' (p. 878). It is found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 251-2, and in Analecta Hymnica 50. 586, where the many references to Codexes indicate its rapid spread during the 13th and 14th centuries. The text was:
Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium, ...
Paraclete Hymnal (c.1131). Abelard's* preface to Book I of this hymnal (Hymnarius Paraclitensis) makes clear that he and Heloise* found the Cistercian* hymn repertory unsatisfactory. When Heloise's new community had been established at the Paraclete, she requested that Abelard provide her with a hymnal that would be worthy of the liturgy. Some of her objections to the traditional hymns were that they often referred to the wrong season or time of day, others displayed exaggerated or mawkish...
Paul the Deacon [Paul of Friuli]. b. ca. 730; d. Montecassino ca. 799. Of noble Italian birth, Paul the Deacon was educated at the court of King Rachis at Pavia before becoming attached to the court of Duke Arichis of Benevento. He entered the monastery of Montecassino after the Carolingian conquest of Italy (773-4). His letter (782) to Charlemagne, petitioning for the release of his brother Arichis, a Lombard prisoner, brought him to the attention of the Frankish king, who summoned Paul the...
ABELARD, Peter. b. le Pallet, near Nantes, Brittany, 1079; d. Châlons-sur-Saone, 21 April 1142. He was the son of Berengar, Lord of Pallet. His distinguished family background marked him out as a potential soldier, but he became a brilliant student of philosophy and theology, both at Paris and Laon. At 22 he was made a canon and teacher at the school attached to Notre Dame in Paris, where his lectures are said to have enthralled his students but alarmed his colleagues. However, one of them,...
PETER Damian. b. Ravenna 1007; d. Faenza, 22-23 February 1072. Peter Damian entered the hermitage of Fonte Avellana in 1035, and had become prior of the community by 1043. He was interested in church reform, both of his own community (combining elements of eremitic and coenobitic monasticism) and of the wider church. He was made Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia in 1057 and was made a Doctor of the Church in 1828.
The clear attestation of Peter Damian's hymn texts and their diffusion in common with his...
PETER the Venerable (Peter of St. Maurice). b. 1092 or 1094; d. 25 December 1156. Petrus (Mauricius) Venerabilis, born at Montboissier, Auvergne, abbot of Cluny* 1122-1156, was one of the greatest of Cluny's abbots in its heyday in the 10th-12th centuries. He came of a noble family, became an oblate of Sauxillanges and entered Cluny under Abbot Hugh. He was prior of Vézelay (ca.1115-1120) and of Domène near Grenoble (1120-1122), in which year he was elected Abbot of Cluny. He led the monastery...
This is a term applied, for example in Analecta Hymnica, to medieval Latin hymns intended for private devotion rather than liturgical or para-liturgical use. Such hymns are sometimes called 'rhythmi', a term applied frequently and broadly in the Middle Ages to any kind of rhymed text; but this term is perhaps better reserved for rhythmically-structured hymns.
Different kinds of Pia dictamina include: 'Psalters' with 150 strophes, concerning Christ, Mary, or each psalm in turn; 'Rosaries' with...
Plainchant, also known as plainsong. The term is taken from the Latin cantus planus, and is usually associated with the Latin chant of the Western Church. It has a wide stylistic remit, from simple psalm recitation sung by the whole monastic community to virtuosic solo and choral chants such as offertories. All plainchant is monophonic — that is, it consists of an unharmonized line of melody. 'Plainchant' also encompasses a wide chronological range, from the core repertory of Office and Mass...
Planctus (in print, the word is the same in the singular as in the plural) gives us, through French, the English word '(com)plaint'. The sources of planctus have been brought together by Janthea Yearly (1981). On the face of it, there seem to be various styles and categories: formal laments for monarchs — Charlemagne, William the Conqueror (both of these are in Latin, and their prosody betrays connections with the 'Goliards'*), Richard the Lionheart (in Occitan) or for other famous people...
The hymn was one of the most frequently set liturgical genres of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. It fits well into the style preferences of the period in its use of a version of the chant melody ordinarily associated with the text as the basis for the composition of one of the voices. Its brevity, four to six phrases corresponding to the lines of one stanza, allowed for ready production of a number of settings needed to provide for a polyphonic setting for Vespers* of every important...
Puer nobis nascitur. Latin, 14th century.
This is described in NOBC (1992) as 'one of the most charming of all medieval cantiones' (p. 67). It is found in a Gradual from the Augustinian College at Moosburg, Germany, dated 1355-60; a German text, 'Uns ist geborn ein Kindelein', also exists. In Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied I. 204-6, where it is dated '14th century' there are five versions of the text.
The Latin text is no 11 in Piae Cantiones (Greifswald, 1582), in the section 'Cantiones...
Reichenau
The Benedictine monastery on the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance, close to the city of Constance, was founded according to tradition by St Pirmin in 724, the island being a gift from Charles Martel. The monastery quickly became a centre of learning, strongly supported by the Carolingians, and influential in ecclesiastical affairs at the imperial level. It gained its immunity from episcopal control in 815. From the 10th century only oblates of noble birth were admitted. After...
Resonet in laudibus. Latin, probably 14th century.
This pre-Reformation text is one of the traditional medieval Christmas songs in the German-speaking tradition (cf. 'In dulci iubilo'*). It may have originated in Bohemia, or in southern Germany/Austria (see 'Austrian hymnody'*). It exists in a manuscript of the 14th century, the Moosburg (or Mosburg) Gradual (University Library, Munich), and (as 'Resonemus laudibus') in a manuscript from Aosta, northern Italy. In its German text (see below) it...
In Classical Greek theory, 'rhythm' was an entity different, and almost opposed, to what was then called 'metre'. The latter was dependent on what was understood to be the inherent rhythm of the words, but rhythmos proper was an external pattern, such as might be taken over from an instrumental tune. Apparently quoting from some source ultimately dependent on Aristoxenus, Bede* (De arte metrica, XXIV) says that although rhythm is similar to metre, the verbal proportions of a rhythmic...
[This entry is in two parts. The first, by Joseph Dyer, discusses Roman hymnody from its beginnings to the 15th century. The second, by Daniel Zager, details 16th-century developments.]
Early and Medieval hymnody
Rome proved very reluctant to introduce the singing of hymns in the Divine Office. They were accepted by the papal court and the major basilicas only towards the end of the 12th century. In this they probably differed from the urban monasteries that followed the Rule of Benedict*, but...
Salisbury hymns and hymnals
The Use of Salisbury or Sarum was the most influential and widespread secular liturgy in the British Isles in the later Middle Ages. (For a detailed overview of its history and influence see Sandon, 2001, pp. 159-60.) The origins and early development of the Use are obscure: the earliest surviving service book dates from the end of the 12th century. In the early 13th century the town of Old Sarum was moved to a new site two miles away, which became known as New Sarum...
Salvator mundi Domine. Latin, date and author unknown.
According to James Mearns* in JJ (p. 988), this hymn is found in manuscripts of the 12th and 13th centuries. It is found in the Sarum, York, Hereford and Aberdeen Breviaries, appointed as a hymn for Compline at times that varied from monastery to monastery.
Different versions of this popular hymn are found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus IV, p. 209, and in Analecta Hymnica, 23. 39. It was well known in England in Tudor times, because it...
Salve caput cruentatum. Latin, probably by Arnulf von Löwen* (ca. 1200- ca. 1251). This is the final hymn in a series of seven Passion-tide hymns, 'Ad singula membra Christi patientis rhythmus', addressed to the body of Christ hanging on the Cross, as follows:
Salve mundi salutare (to the feet)
Salve Jesu, Rex sanctorum (to the knees)
Salve Jesu, pastor bone (to the hands)
Salve Jesus, summe bonus (to the side)
Salve salus mea, Deus (to the breast)
Summi Regis cor aveto (to the heart)
Salve...
Most office services for St. James the Greater (Sant'Iago) use hymns from the Common of Apostles or Martyrs. However, the service at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, preserved in the 12-century Codex Calixtinus, used four proper hymns:
'Psallat chorus celestium' (f. 101v);
'Sanctissime O Iacobe' (f. 103r);
'Felix per omnes' (f. 104v); and
'Iocundetur et letetur' (f. 105v).
These hymns are spread across all the feasts of James celebrated at Compostela: the vigil (July 24), the...
Medieval Secular Orders in England
The secular, or non-monastic, clergy of the medieval English church fulfilled a variety of roles, ranging from parish priests to the clergy of secular cathedrals and collegiate churches. Of England's nineteen cathedrals, in the later middle ages, ten were served by chapters of monks or regular canons and nine by chapters of secular canons. In addition to the dean and canons of the chapter, secular cathedrals also employed a college of ordained vicars choral to...
Sequence is a Latin medieval chant sung after the Alleluia* of the Mass on feast days and, like the Alleluia, not usually sung in Lent. The Latin term 'sequentia' appears to derive from the function of the chant as one which 'follows' the Alleluia, after the pattern: (i) Alleluia incipit, (ii) Alleluia jubilus, (iii) Verse, (iv) Alleluia incipit, (v) Sequence. But it is not certain if this was the original or authentic order of performance, or if it was universally practised.
Sequences are...
Solis ad victimam procedis, Domine. Peter Abelard* (1079-1142).
From Hymnarius Paraclitensis, the book of hymns that Abelard wrote for the religious house of The Paraclete, where Heloise was Prioress (see Paraclete Hymnal*). It was written for the third nocturnal office on Good Friday. It beautifully combines the lament for the solitary figure of Christ 'going forth' to His sufferings and death with the promise that if we share His sufferings ('Tu tibi compati sic fac nos, Domine') we may...
Our earliest sources of information about medieval hymns are the 6th-century monastic rules of St Benedict*, Caesarius of Arles, and Aurelian of Arles. These mention, in more or less detail, hymns sung within the Divine Office. Indirect references to hymns continue to be an important source of information throughout the middle ages. Examples include the Ordines romani (descriptions of Roman liturgical practice), and grammatical treatises, from Augustine*'s De musica through Bede*'s De arte...
Surrexit Christus hodie. Latin, 14th century.
This is found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 341 in the section 'Carmina Sacra, quae in Breviarum Ordinarium non redacta, private consilio ad sacra obeunda adhibita sunt'.
Daniel's text, entitled 'De Resurrectione Domine', was as follows:
Surrexit Christus hodie Humano pro solamine. Alleluia
Mortem qui passus pridie Miserrimo pro homine. All.
Mulieres ad tumulum Dona ferunt aromatum. All.
Quaerentes Iesum dominum Qui est salvator hominum....
Tantum ergo sacramentum. Thomas Aquinas* ca. 1224/5-1274).
This two-stanza hymn consists of stanzas 5 and 6 of the great hymn by Aquinas, 'Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium'* (cf. The similar use of 'O salutaris Hostia'* taken from 'Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram'*). It is sung in the office of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, or during Mass at the Elevation of the Host (JJ, p. 878):
Tantum ergo sacramentum veneremur cernui:et antiquum documentum novo...
Te Deum Marianum
During the later Middle Ages an increasing devotion to the Virgin Mary inspired the composition of many Marian chants. Among them were paraphrases of the 'Te Deum'* which turned it into a song of praise for the Blessed Virgin. These paraphrases, opening with words like 'Te matrem Dei laudamus' or 'Te celi reginam laudamus', can be traced back to the late 12th century and from then on enjoyed a growing popularity.
Several texts exist, their differences being so large that they...
The holly and the ivy. Traditional English carol, collected and arranged by Cecil Sharp* (1859-1924). This is a carol rather than a hymn, but its appearance in a number of hymnbooks (CP, AHB, the English Hymnal Service Book, ICH5 (2000), and others) justifies its inclusion. Its date is unknown, but certainly before the early 18th century, and it may be medieval (though it is not in Richard Leighton Greene's The Early English Carols). The most common form in which it is found in hymn books is...
AQUINAS, Thomas (St). b. ca. 1224/5; d. Fossa Nuova, 7 March 1274. Born to a southern Italian noble family, Thomas Aquinas studied at the University of Naples before becoming a Dominican friar in the early 1240s, against the wishes of his family. He studied with Albertus Magnus at Cologne (probably arriving late in 1244) and accompanied Albertus to the University of Paris (1245-48), subseqently returning with him to Cologne. He began to teach in Paris in 1252, and travelled widely in the...
THOMAS of Celano. b. Celano, ca. 1190; d. 4 October 1260. Because his biographies offered the world the first accounts of the life of St Francis of Assisi, the works of Thomas of Celano are considered vital tools for the interpretation of Franciscan Spirituality (see Franciscan hymns and hymnals*). Born into the noble family of the Conti di Marsi, Thomas of Celano would have had access to the best sort of education available in central Italy. His brilliant literary skills bear witness to a...
Troper (Lat. liber /libellus troparius, troparium, troperium, tropiarium, troporium, troponarius, trophonarius). A medieval book, booklet, or section of a book containing a significant number of tropes (chants introducing, and/or interpolated within, the chants of the mass proper and ordinary and sometimes of the office, such as the Benedicamus Domino).
John Beleth's liturgical commentary (Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis, ca. 1160-64) defines a troper as follows: 'a trophonarius is a book in...
Verbum supernum prodiens, nec Patris linquens dexteram. Thomas Aquinas* (ca. 1224/5-1274).
As with 'Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium'*, St Thomas was here taking an earlier text, 'Verbum supernum prodiens,/ a Patre olim exiens'*, and making it his own. It was written ca. 1263 for use on the Feast of Corpus Christi. It is printed in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 254, entitled 'De eadem festivitate ad Laudes' ('On the same festival at Lauds') thus linking it with St Thomas's other...
York, hymns and hymnals. The Use of York was one of the major secular liturgies of the British Isles in the later Middle Ages. It was used at York Minster and in parish churches across northern England from at least the 13th century to the Reformation. The origins of York's hymn repertory are found in the New Hymnal, a 9th-century collection of hymns compiled in the Frankish Empire (see 'Medieval hymns and hymnals'*). Its first appearance in England was probably as a result of the 10th-century...