Rector potens, verax Deus

Rector potens, verax Deus. Latin, author unknown. This is an anonymous two-verse hymn (with doxology) in the Ambrosian metre (iambic dimeter). The question of authorship is discussed by A.S. Walpole in Early Latin Hymns  (pp. 25, 26, 108). It is one of a series for the Hours, such as ‘Iam lucis orto sidere’* for Prime, ‘Nunc Sancte nobis Spiritus’* for Tierce, and ‘Rerum Deus tenax vigor’* for None. This one was sung at Sext in both the Old Hymnal and the New Hymnal (see ‘Medieval hymns and hymnals’*). Milfull, The Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 131, says that it was not sung during Lent and at Pentecost. It is found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 51-2, and in Analecta Hymnica...