Rerum Deus tenax vigor

Rerum Deus tenax vigor. Latin, author unknown. This hymn is in the Ambrosian tradition, but is not thought to be by Ambrose* himself. As the ferial None (ninth hour) hymn in the New Hymnal (see ‘Medieval hymns and hymnals’*) it is commonly found in medieval manuscripts, comprising two verses and a doxology. Analecta Hymnica (50.20) prints a text ‘Ad Horam Nonam’, with ‘nunquam’ (‘never’) for ‘nusquam’ (‘nowhere’); Milfull prints ‘nusquam’ in Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 132. It is found in Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 52, in two verses with a doxology, entitled ‘Hymnus ad Nonam’ (None, or the Ninth Hour). According to Milfull (p. 133) it was not sung during Lent and...