special prominence. Indeed, the early literature of the Church-not only its hymns, but creeds and liturgies, are singularly free from those carnal conceptions of our Lord's work which came in later times into so much prominence, both in the Roman Church and what may be called the ultra-Evangelical section of the Protestant Church. Our modern hymnody is, to a large extent, reverting to this earlier type; occupying itself with the facts of our Lord's life as in the Eastern, and with the ethical side of the Gospel as in the Latin Church. 46 CHAPTER V. MEDIEVAL HYMNS. THERE are two writers who form a kind of connecting link between early and medieval hymnody-Venantius Fortunatus, who was born in 530, and died in 609 A.D.; and Gregory the Great, whose life extended from 550 to 604 A.D. Fortunatus, a child of the sunny south, in his early days was a kind of Troubadour: "the fashionable poet of his day," who wandered from castle to palace, appearing and singing his songs at marriages and festivals, fond of court revelry; but yet, so far as we can judge, one of the few who passed unscathed through the fires, and they were fierce, of the temptations of such a course in those times. Later in life he was consecrated a priest, and became almoner of the monastery at Tours, founded by Queen Rhadegunda, with whom he had been on very intimate terms, and to whom he addressed many of his poems. Still later in life he became Bishop of Poitiers. His hymns are such as we should expect from such a nature, and from the sunny land in which he spent his days. Three of these attained to great popularity. They have more in common with those of the Eastern Church than those of Ambrose and his school, and are more the product of the poet's imagination than of the moral nature which found so full an expression in the Ambrosian hymnody. One of these, the "Vexilla Regis prodeunt," well-known through Dr. Neale's translation, "The Royal Banners forward go," who calls it "one of the grandest in the treasury of the Latin Church," was written to commemorate the reception of certain relics by St. Gregory of Tours and St. Rhadegund, at the consecration of a church at Poitiers, and was originally intended for use as a processional hymn. This is Dr. Neale's translation of it : The Royal Banners forward go; The Cross shines forth in mystic glow; In true Prophetic song of old; Amidst the nations God, saith he, Hath reign'd and triumph'd from the Tree. O Tree of Beauty! Tree of Light! Those holy limbs should find their rest! On whose dear arms, so widely flung, The weight of this world's ransom hung: With fragrance dropping' from each bough, Hail, Altar! hail, O Victim! Thee In the 14th century, the following verses were added when the hymn was appropriated to Passion-tide: [O Cross, our one reliance hail! To Thee, Eternal Three in one, Another is the "Pange lingua gloriosi" ("Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle "), a hymn in which praise of the cross finds full expression, as witness the following verse: Bend thy boughs, O Tree of Glory! For awhile the ancient rigour On thy bosom gently tend! His "Salva festa dies" ("Hail, festal day! ever exalted high") has for centuries been used as a hymn for Easter day, and is full of poetic vigour, as the following verses may show : The changing months, the pleasant light of daye, The shining hours, the rippling moments praise, Since God hath conquered hell, and rules the starry sky. Countless the hosts Thou savest from the dead; They follow free where Thou, their Lord, hast led. Gregory the Great is a personage of more interest to English folk than his contemporary Fortunatus, since to him we owe the mission of Augustine, by which Christianity was introduced to our land; whilst his name is familiar to the youngest by the beautiful story which tells how, on going into the slave market at Rome, and marking the beauty of certain fair English youths, he exclaimed, "If they were Christians, they were not Angles but angels." A sight which probably prompted the despatch of the mission for the conversion of England to Christianity. Had our country been won to and remained faithful to a Christianity such as was seen in Gregory, the Reformation would have been little needed in our land. Gregory is one of the noblest figures in the history of the Church. To him we owe the Plain Songthe Gregorian tones which for centuries held their ground in the Church, and which to this day find many earnest defenders. Mone, in his great work, "Hymni Latini Medii Evi," assigns to Gregory the "Veni Creator Spiritus," usually assigned to Charlemagne. Wackernagel is of the same opinion. Daniel, however, ascribes it, as it usually has been, to the great Emperor of the West. The question of its authorship must probably remain uncertain. Of its high popularity there can be no doubt. Daniel says it was appointed for use at the creation of a pope, the election of a bishop, the coronation of kings, the celebration of a synod, the elevation and translation of saints. It is the only hymn inserted in the Book of Common Prayer, where Bishop Cosin's version is adopted. It has been again and again translated. As it is so uncertain whether Gregory wrote it, we append another hymn by him, in the translation of an anonymous writer, which seems to us very beautiful: Now, when the dusky shades of night, retreating ·-- Look from the tower of heaven, and send to cheer us Still let Thy mercy, as of old, be near us, E |