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Liturgical use in early Anglo-Saxon England
No complete hymnal survives from Anglo-Saxon England before the late 10th century. A list given by Thomas of Elmham (early 15th cent.) of the contents of a hymnal purportedly sent to St Augustine of Canterbury by Gregory the Great* seems to suggest a document of considerable antiquity (i.e. possibly authentically Gregorian or at least pre-900 AD) but we cannot be sure of its provenance. We are on firmer ground, however, with two 8th-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...
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....
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 Canterbury Hymnal was a type of New Hymnal (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*) that was apparently introduced at Canterbury during the late 10th-century Anglo-Saxon monastic reform movement called the Benedictine Reform (see 'Rule of Benedict'*). It was one of two types of monastic hymnal known to have been in use in England after the Benedictine Reform, the other being the Winchester Hymnal*. All information about the Canterbury Hymnal must be deduced from the hymnals themselves, since other...
The Carmelites began as a group of hermits in the area of Mount Carmel known as the wadi 'ain es-siah at the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century. Singing hymns necessarily played a minimal role in the liturgical life of the original Carmelites, since as hermits they did not chant the Divine Office together. The rule or way of life they received from Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem 1206-1214, made it clear that they were to come together to celebrate Mass daily but that each...
The Cistercian movement, originating at the beginning of the 12th century, was founded on the desire to return to the rule of St Benedict (see Rule of Benedict*), which gave instructions for the chanting of Ambrosian hymns during the Offices of Nocturn, Lauds and Vespers. Cistercian brothers went to Milan to seek out St Ambrose*'s compositions, returning with a list of hymns. However, because of additions made during the intervening centuries, the Cistercians adopted a mixture of more recent...
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...
Deus tuorum militum. Latin, probably 6th century.
This hymn was included in the Canterbury Hymnal* and the Winchester Hymnal*. In Milfull (1996, pp. 397-9) it was the second of two hymns commemorating an individual martyr. Following 'Ymnus de Uno Martyre', beginning 'Martyr Dei, qui unicum', was this 'Item Hymnus', beginning:
Deus, tuorum militumSors & corona, premium,Laudes canentes martyrisAbsolve nexu criminis.
('God, the portion and crown, the prize of your soldiers, absolve [those...
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,...
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...
Franciscan Hymns and Hymnals
Since the foundation of their order in 1209 or 1210, the contribution of Franciscan writers to western Christianity has been immense, particularly in the areas of theology, preaching, and hymn composition. Since their hymns address both the needs of liturgy and their vocation as preachers, Franciscan writing reflects the ambitions of learned society and the varied tastes of vernacular culture. Their major contributions include a reform in the 13th century of the...
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...
GREGORY the Great. b. probably in Rome, ca. 540; d. Rome, 12 March 604. Born into a noble Roman family, Gregory was well educated. He became a monk in Rome, having founded a monastery there as well as six in Sicily. Gregory was sent to Constantinople with a diplomatic mission where he remained as 'apocrisiarius' ('ambassador'), and became very popular, from 579 to 585. He was recalled to Rome, and was elected Pope Gregory I in 590. Gregory is said to have seen Anglo-Saxon children in the slave...
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...
HILDUIN. b. ca. 785; d. 22 November 855. A cousin of the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious (ruled 814-840), Hilduin was abbot of Saint Denis, near Paris, from 814 until 840, and also abbot of Saint Médard of Soissons, Saint Germain des Prés in Paris, and Saint Ouen in Rouen during this time. As Archicapellanus of Louis the Pious' chapel from 819 to 840, he was a member of the royal household, responsible for ecclesiastical legislation, and close to the centre of Carolingian politics. Hilduin...
Hymns for Prayer and Praise (1996). Hymns for Prayer and Praise was published by the Canterbury Press for the Panel of Monastic Musicians in 1996. It was intended primarily for use in monastic and religious communities, but also in churches in which daily prayer is offered with music. It acknowledges a debt to the Liber Hymnarius of the monks of Solesmes (1983), but its texts are in English, with a small selection of Latin hymns at the end of the book (501-515). The first five hundred hymns...
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...
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...
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...
Liturgia horarum (1971). The daily ritual celebrated by most monastic congregations today is the Liturgia Horarum, or Liturgy of the Hours, first published in 1971. The modern Liturgy is a much less demanding regimen than the Medieval Office. The office of Prime is no longer included, and the office of Matins is now an office of readings which may be observed at any time of the day. Lauds and Vespers are given the most emphasis, and Terce, Sext, None, and Compline retain their traditional...
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...
Milanese hymns. The hymns of Ambrose of Milan* were sung in the Milanese Church from the end of the 4th century onwards, and were quickly diffused in the West (cf. AVG. conf. 9,7,15 ; PAVL. MED. vita Ambr. 13), but nothing leads one to suppose that a Liber hymnorum was compiled during Ambrose's lifetime. The oldest preserved witnesses of the Milanese, or 'Ambrosian', hymnal are no older than the last third of the 9th century. These are the psalter-hymnals Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibl., Clm....
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...
This is the name given to hymns used in the recitation of the Divine Office, or the modern Liturgy of the Hours observed by cloistered communities. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, Office hymns were typically collected either in a separate volume — a combined hymnary and psalter, which would contain all of the hymns and psalms used in the Office — or in the breviary itself, in a special section either at the rear of the volume or in a dividing section between the Temporale and Sanctorale....
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...
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...
[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...
The Rule of Benedict (RB), composed in the first third of the 6th century by an abbot active in central Italy about whom little is known, provides a comprehensive guide to the organization and discipline of a monastery. It prescribes a firm yet flexible pattern of monastic deportment and defines the role of the abbot as the kindly but strict father of the monks under his care.
Chapters 8-20 concern the regulation of the monks' prayer in common, the 'opus dei,' over which nothing in the life of...
In the Roman rite, these were cycles of chants composed for the celebration of the Divine Office on the feast days of saints in the Middle Ages. They typically comprise the following items: the Magnificat* antiphon* of First Vespers* (sometimes one or more antiphons for the Vesper psalms); the invitatory antiphon and the antiphons and responsories of the Nocturns of the Night Office (Vigils, or Matins); the antiphons for the psalms and Benedictus of Lauds; and the Magnificat antiphon of Second...
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...
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...
Gallus, an Irishman, companion of St Columbanus*, remained in Zürich because of illness when his master continued on his travels to Italy. His hermitage, established ca. 613, attracted disciples, and eventually in 720 St Othmar (ca. 689-759) founded a monastery. The Emperor Louis the Pious made it an independent royal abbey in 813. The period of its greatest cultural and intellectual achievement was the later 9th through to the first half of the 11th century. After a long period of mediocrity,...
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...
Winchester Hymnal (late 10th century). The Winchester Hymnal is a type of New Hymnal (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*) that was introduced during the late 10th-century Anglo-Saxon monastic reform movement called the Benedictine Reform (see 'Rule of Benedict'*). It is one of two types of monastic hymnal known to have been in use in England after the Benedictine Reform, the other being the Canterbury Hymnal*.
The Winchester Hymnal is clearly linked to the Benedictine Reform movement because it...
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...