Deus tuorum militum

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 who] sing the praises of the martyrs from the bonds of sin’).  There were five stanzas and a doxology. It is found at Analecta Hymnica 51. 130. According to Milfull it is anonymous; she states that...