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 Another Random Document on
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indiscriminately. She was probably familiar with hymns as they had
developed in the fourth century both in the eastern and western
churches. It has been assumed that the hymn sung at the daily
[5]
lighting of the candles was Phos hilaron, “O gladsome light.” The
hymns she heard at the Good Friday observance have been
tentatively identified as the Idiomela for Good Friday, traditional in
[6]
Byzantine ritual. In any case they were true hymns, perhaps of a
metrical, or more probably of a rhythmical type. It is impossible to
identify the processional hymns of which she speaks. All that can be
asserted is that non-scriptural, as well as scriptural hymns, were
sung in the processions at Jerusalem.

In Constantinople, contemporary processions have already been

mentioned. The practice of Jerusalem was also adopted there. In the
sixth century under Justinian, the Feast of Ypapanti was introduced.
[7]
However, the history of Byzantine processions must be omitted
from this study which is devoted primarily to the Latin West.

In Rome, the Christian procession had an independent origin, being

derived in part from the memorial honors paid to the Christian
martyrs and in part from the Christianization of pagan 63
ceremonies. When the period of persecution of Christianity
had come to a close and the triumphant Church was able to assert
publicly her influence and authority at Rome, processions were made
as early as the fifth century to the places where martyrs had
suffered. This is the origin of the later station procession, followed
by the celebration of mass in the various churches where the
remains of martyrs removed from the catacombs were buried. A
century earlier in Milan, Ambrose had discovered and removed the
bodies of St. Protasius and of St. Gervasius from their original burial
[8]
place to a church newly erected in their honor. Pope Gregory the
Great (590-604) observed the Roman stations and Pope Sergius
[9]
(687-701) completed their organization. The processions were
accompanied by the chanting of psalms but there is no record of
non-scriptural hymns. The symbolism of the procession, however,
was enriched by the idea of pilgrimage to a spot made sacred by
martyrdom, a continuing processional motive throughout the Middle
Ages.

While the station processions developed in the vicinity of Rome, the

litany processions arose in Gaul. Mametus, the Bishop of Vienne,
474, inaugurated the litania minor or the public blessing of the fields
and crops in the spring season. In 511, the Council of Orleans
ordained the observance for Gaul, and the Council of Girona, in 517,
for Spain. The litaniae minores or rogations, perpetuate in their
intent, processions of the Roman era. The litaniae maiores which
were prescribed by Gregory the Great, 598, and Leo III (795-816),
were of similar origin and purpose. A litania septiformis was also
[10]
organized by Gregory on the occasion of a pestilence at Rome.
The litania maior came to be observed on April 25, St. Mark’s day,
and the litaniae minores in the three days preceding Ascension.
Psalms but not hymns in the sense of non-scriptural compositions
were heard in the litanies. The procession of supplication common
alike to pagan and Christian practice is illustrated in the litanies, a
constant motive and a constant observance in medieval rites.

It seems clear, therefore, that primitive Christian processions in

Rome consisted of stations and litanies. Festival processions were
introduced into the west gradually. Ascension is spoken of as an
ancient feast but there is no specific evidence of its observance
before the middle of the fourth century. The Ascension 64
procession, implied by Aetheria in her journal, is unknown in
[11]
Rome at this time. Pope Sergius imported into Rome the festival
procession for Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification of the
Virgin. The Feast of Ypapanti or Presentation, originally observed in
Jerusalem and later adopted in Constantinople, as noted above,
gained in the transfer a new feature. The carrying of lighted candles,
not mentioned by Aetheria, seems to have been added in Byzantine
practice. The words spoken by Simeon of the infant Jesus, “a light to
lighten the Gentiles” (Luke 2. 32) made the symbolic use of lights
almost inevitable. The date of the Feast of the Purification, February
2, was approximately that of the pagan Amburbium or Amburbale,
an early Roman procession of lustration which had taken place in
that month. Possibly the procession for the Feast is reminiscent of
[12]
this pagan practice. It might be of interest to follow in closer
detail the origin of the medieval Candlemas, but attention must be
directed to the Candlemas hymns later to be written and sung in
procession at this Feast.

The period of Christian processional origins which may be considered

to close with the seventh century, saw the development of the
processions at Jerusalem, their adoption in Constantinople and the
evolution of the stations and litanies in the west. Festival processions
[13]
also, were slowly making their way into the Western Church.

II. Evolution in the Early Middle Ages

That the Latin processional hymn appeared first in Gaul should
surprise no one. It has already been suggested that the hymns
among the Carmina of Fortunatus were created in the atmosphere of
freedom enjoyed by Gallic hymn writers in accordance with
contemporary canons. Always a poet of the occasion, Fortunatus
wrote three hymns for the reception of a relic believed to be of the
true Cross, which was presented to Rhadegunda, his patron, by the
Byzantine Emperor, Justin II and his wife Sophia, for the convent at
Poitiers. As a final stage in the journey from Constantinople, the relic
was borne in procession from Migné to Poitiers, accompanied by
Euphronius, Bishop of Tours. On this day the hymn, Vexilla regis
[14]
prodeunt, was first heard. Two others, Pange lingua and 65
Crux benedicta (see Chapter One) were devoted by Fortunatus
to the same theme of the Holy Cross, although it cannot be proved
that they were sung in the same procession.

The Resurrection hymn, Tempora florigero rutilant distincta sereno,

“Season of luminous days, marked bright with the birth of flowers,”
(Carm. 3. 9), was originally written for the Easter baptismal rites
celebrated by Felix, Bishop of Nantes (d. 582). It was a poem of 110
lines or 55 elegiac couplets, from which the cento of 28 lines
beginning Salve festa dies, “Hail thee, festival day,” was later
[15]
selected for an Easter processional.

The metrical models provided by Pange lingua of the trochaic

pattern and Salve festa dies, the elegiac, continued to be employed
throughout the Middle Ages for processional hymnody, the elegiac
excelling in popularity. First in the original hymn, then in centos and
finally in imitative verse adapted to a multitude of feasts, Salve festa
dies was never superseded but maintained the influence of
Fortunatus for centuries.

Spain must have known the processional hymn soon after its
appearance in Gaul, perhaps in the seventh century. Here, the Palm
Sunday festival seems to have been the source of inspiration for the
procession and blessing of palms is mentioned by Isidore of Seville
[16]
as an observance of his day. Contemporary evidence indicates a
[17]
similar procession in Italy. The use of a processional hymn,
however, is not as clearly indicated.

It seems probable that the seventh century hymn, Magnum salutis

gaudium (A. H. 51. 73), “O great joy of salvation,” is one of the
earliest to be assigned for Palm Sunday. It is a simple rendering in
the Ambrosian style, of the events recounted in the biblical narrative.
[18]
In the early centuries when the concept of a specific
processional hymn for a particular festival was almost unheard of, a
familiar hymn from the old hymnals might be used in the new
ceremonies. It has been suggested that Magnum salutis gaudium
was known to Theodulphus, who in the ninth century wrote the Palm
Sunday processional hymn, Gloria laus et honor, for all the ages.

Processions, thus far, have been thought of chiefly, as wholly or in

part outside the church edifice. Processions within the edifice were
also frequently observed. A procession of the clergy, in connection
with which psalms and antiphons were sung, preceded the 66
Sunday high mass; another took place as the Gospel codex
was carried to its place for reading. Other ceremonies within the
church, aside from the liturgy proper, were sometimes accompanied
[19]
by hymns.

Perhaps the earliest hymn in use at a special ceremony, once more a

selection from the hymnal, was Audi, iudex mortuorum (A. H. 51.
80), “Hear Thou Judge of the dead,” sung on Holy Thursday at the
[20]
consecration of the chrism. The words O redemptor, sume
carmen temet concinentium, “O Redeemer, accept the hymn of Thy
[21]
people magnifying Thee,” formed a refrain, a metrical feature
which came to be the unmistakable mark of the processional hymn.

In this early period from the sixth to the tenth century, a new idea
and a new practice came into being, the use of hymns apart from
those of the canonical hours and the sequences of the mass. The
ninth century revival of hymnody in all its branches was taking place
in western Europe just as this period came to a close, in connection
with which the processional hymn was inevitably affected as the
office hymn and the sequence had been by a fresh inspiration to
poetry and worship. The movement came to fruition at St. Gall
where the musical and ceremonial aspects of that great monastic
center were so highly developed, a center which had contributed so
heavily to the Carolingian revival of literature and the arts.

The French liturgical scholar, Leon Gautier, whose contributions to

the study of medieval hymnology have already been mentioned, was
the first to identify the processional hymn as a trope or liturgical
interpolation. In a study of the St. Gall processional hymns he
observed that they were classified by the name versus which in itself
points to a separate hymnic category. Other earlier hymns used in
processions were there called versus. Gautier discovered that
musical notation always appeared with the versus, an indication that
these hymns were invariably chanted and he noted that the versus,
in the manner of the hymn O redemptor, sume carmen, cited above,
[22]
was without exception, accompanied by a refrain.

The processional hymns of St. Gall, like the sequences, bore the
characteristic marks of the hymnic group to which they belonged.
From this stage in their evolution they were set apart by their 67
music, classification and refrain.

The wider circle of Carolingian liturgical interest included hymn

writers other than those of St. Gall: Theodulphus of Orleans,
Walafrid Strabo of Reichenau, Rabanus Maurus of Fulda, Radbert of
Corbie, who with Waldram and Hartmann of St. Gall wrote
processional hymns. The hymns of Theodulphus and of Rabanus
Maurus have been considered above.

Other great festivals of the ecclesiastical year and of the saints were
now observed with processional honors for which new hymns were
written; special ceremonies also, were thus recognized. Hartmann
wrote the elegiac hymn Salve, lacteolo decoratum sanguine festum
(A. H. 50. 251), “Hail festival, graced with the blood of the
Innocents,” for the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The processional
hymns of Rabanus Maurus were heard at Nativity, Easter and
possibly the Feast of the Purification. The dramatic spirit, always
present in the true processional is felt in all these hymns while the
refrain reiterates the message of the feast:

for Easter,

R. Surrexit quia Christus a sepulcro,

 Collaetetur homo choro angelorum. (A. H. 50. 190)

Since Christ has risen from the tomb,

Let man rejoice with the choir of angels.

for the Nativity,

R. Christo nato, rege magno

totus orbis gaudeat. (A. H. 50. 186)

Since Christ is born, the mighty king,

let the whole earth rejoice.

Processional hymns for saints are represented by Radbert’s hymn

honoring St. Gall,

R. Annua, sancte Dei, celebramus festa diei,

Qua, pater, e terris sidera, Galle, petis. (A. H. 50. 241)

We celebrate, O Saint of God, our yearly feast on this day

When thou, father Gallus, dost leave the earth for heaven.

To celebrate the life and miracles of a patron saint was 68

frequently the inspiration of a medieval procession, which, in
the case of St. Gall, passed beyond the precincts of the monastery
[23]
into the streets of the town. It is no wonder that the tradition of
these processions, furnished with all the splendor of festival
vestments, of robed choirs, of monastic treasures and sacred
banners should have made St. Gall unique.

The Sunday processions were sometimes accompanied by imposing

hymns in the form of litanies. It should not be forgotten that the
ancient Christian processions were, in great part, of this nature.
Waldram, Hartmann and Radbert wrote such hymns but Hartmann’s
was evidently a favorite, Summus et omnipotens genitor, qui cuncta
creasti, “Mighty and omnipotent father, who hast created all things,”
with the refrain,

R. Humili prece et sincera devotione

Ad te clamantes semper exaudi nos. (A. H. 50. 253)

With humble prayer and pure devotion,

Ever hear us as we cry to Thee.

It seems probable that the custom of singing a hymn in the

procession before the reading of the Gospel originated at St. Gall.
Hartmann provided a beautiful versus for this purpose,

Sacrata libri dogmata

Portantur evangelici. (A. H. 50. 250)

The sacred words of the

Gospel are borne.

A versus for the reception of the Eucharist was written by Radbert,

Laudes omnipotens, ferimus tibi dona colentes (A. H. 50. 239), “In
reverence, Almighty, we bring our praises as gifts to Thee.” The
Blessing of the Font on Holy Saturday inspired his Versus ad
Descensum fontis (A. H. 50. 242-3). Among the ceremonies most
characteristic of medieval piety was that of Mandatum or foot-
washing, commemorating the act of Jesus in washing his disciples’
feet, (John 13; 1-15). The name “Maundy Thursday” is a modern
[24]
survival of the ancient terminology. The hymn associated with
this rite appears first in Gaul in the eighth or ninth century and 69
may have been current in Italy in monastic centers. The
antiphon, Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est, “Where charity is and
love, God is there,” is at once the motive and refrain of this hymn,
Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor (A. H. 12. 24), “The love of
[25]
Christ has united us,” which follows the scriptural account.
The student must turn once more to the great monastic centers of
the Germanic world for processional hymns honoring royalty. Visits
of kings and emperors to St. Gall and other noted monasteries were
by no means uncommon; that colorful processions and
demonstrations of loyalty were a part of their reception cannot be
doubted. Walafrid Strabo celebrates the visit of Lothair to Reichenau
with the hymn,

R. Imperator magne, vivas

semper et feliciter. (A. H. 50. 176)

Live, O mighty emperor

ever in felicity.

Walafrid Strabo praised Charles, son of Louis the Pious, and Radbert,
the Empress Richgard. Other processionals could be used on the
occasion of the coming of any royal visitor.

Vatican manuscripts offer evidence of contemporary processions in

Italy and Rome, the city of their origin. From this source is derived
the processional hymn Sancta Maria, quid est? (A. H. 23. 74),
“Sancta Maria, what meaneth this?” written for the procession which
marked the eve of the Feast of the Assumption, about the year
1000. Specific directions for the route, the order of precedence and
every detail of the ceremonial are available, while the hymn itself
depicts the devotion and human appeal attending this night time
[26]
scene in Rome.

III. Evolution in the Later Middle Ages

For the evolution of the processional hymn from this point to the
close of the Middle Ages, we have in addition to hymnic manuscripts,
the service books and manuals devoted to, or including, processional
practice. The Ritual or Roman Pontifical was the earliest to include
directions for processions, an illustration of which has been
presented above in the case of Sancta Maria, quid est? In the 70
course of time, since so many medieval processions were not
thus provided for, the Processional came into existence, containing
[27]
the order of processions for a particular diocese or monastery.
The St. Gall Processionals, for instance, are informative as to
customs already described above. The specific name versus gave
[28]
rise to the title Versarius for a book of processional hymns.

In addition to the collections, liturgical writers discussed the

procession. Of these, none was more influential than Durandus,
Bishop of Mende, who, about 1286, produced his Rationale
divinorum officiorum which among many other liturgical subjects,
[29]
included processional rites. Durandus was a leading authority
upon ecclesiastical symbolism. Accordingly, he dwells upon every
minute detail of the great processions for Easter, Ascension, Palm
Sunday and the Purification as well as the Sunday procession and
others of lesser importance, ascribing to each act a wealth of
symbolic meaning. Much of this figurative interpretation is obvious
and inherent in the feast to be celebrated but in other cases he gives
full play to his sense of the symbolic, a phase of contemporary
thought already so characteristic of Adam of St. Victor and other
writers on religious themes. Finally he declares that whatever else is
suggested, “the true procession is a progress to the celestial
[30]
country.” (Ipsa vero processio, est via ad coelestem patriam.) If
the fundamental concepts which entered into their origins be
reviewed, medieval processions apparently carried with them the
familiar ideas of supplication, of dramatic representation or of
pilgrimage to sacred places. Durandus reiterates and sublimates
these concepts, giving them an added significance.

The processional manuals, especially of the English rites observed at

Salisbury, York, Canterbury and other cathedral centers, offer
descriptions and sometimes illustrations showing the order and
vestments of the clergy, the position and functions of the choir, the
appropriate acts involved, together with the complete text of the
antiphons, psalms, other scriptural passages, hymns, prayers and
rubrics. Turning to the processional hymns which were rendered in
these centuries, one is impressed by the gradual disappearance of
hymns typical of the efforts of the St. Gall school and its
contemporaries. A tremendous vogue of the original Salve festa dies
of Fortunatus which had never been lost sight of, together 71
with its centos, variants and copies, takes possession of the
field. There were in all, perhaps, from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty true processional hymns in circulation throughout the whole
medieval period, if one enumerates those which are edited in the
Analecta Hymnica. One half of these may be considered to be of the
Salve festa dies type while similar elegiac metrical forms are found in
half of the remainder.

What has been said of the cultural background in which the

sequence developed and multiplied is equally true for the
processional hymn. The same influences which created new seasonal
feasts and additional feasts for the saints, produced new
processional hymns to accompany them. There is, however, a great
disparity between the number of sequences and processional hymns
that were written. The sequence was regnant in sacred and secular
verse, both in Latin and the vernaculars. Office hymns, too, far
outnumbered processionals. This may be another way of saying that
the office hymns and the sequences had a liturgical function and
setting, while the processional was always extra-liturgical and either
superfluous or purely ornamental from this point of view. The
antiphons and psalms were sufficient to satisfy the essential choral
demands of any procession.

Unfortunately Thomas Aquinas did not include a processional hymn

when he furnished the hymnody for the Feast of Corpus Christi. He
could hardly have envisaged the thousands of Corpus Christi
processions throughout Catholic Christendom which have marked
the Feast even to this day. Nor could he have foreseen that his hymn
Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium, written in the tradition of
Fortunatus, would be widely appropriated for that purpose. Other
processionals for Corpus Christi appeared almost at once, especially
of the Salve type.

Contemporary devotion to the Virgin Mother and her festivals was

felt in the expansion of the Marian hymnology for processions. The
establishment of St. Osyth in Essex was a center in which new
hymns were used for the Visitation,

Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo,

Qua Christi mater visitat Elizabeth. (A. H. 11. 51)

Hail thee, festival day, blest day that is hallowed forever,

On which Christ’s mother visits Elizabeth.

and the Assumption, 72

Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo,

Qua fuit assumpta virgo Maria pia. (A. H. 11. 55)

Hail thee, festival day, blest day that is hallowed forever,

On which the holy Virgin Mary was assumed.

A lengthy hymn of twenty stanzas for the Feast of the Purification

which had been observed for so many centuries, appears in a
twelfth or thirteenth century manuscript from Kremsmünster,
Laetetur omne saeculum (A. H. 4. 54), “Let every age rejoice.” The
biblical scene of the Presentation in the Temple is described and
reference is made to the carrying of lighted candles.

Later medieval practice perpetuated other earlier customs. From the

original station processions at Rome had developed the ceremonies
to celebrate the translation of relics of saints in western European
lands. Pope Callistus II (d. 1124) wrote a processional hymn
honoring St. James of Campostella, Versus Calixti Papae, cantandi ad
processionem sancti Jacobi in solemnitate passionis ipsius et
translationis ejusdem (A. H. 17. 194), or Versus of Pope Callistus, to
be sung at the procession of St. James in the celebration of his
passion and translation. A hymn for St. Kyneburga (d. 680)
commemorated the restoration of her relics to their original burial
place in Peterborough Minster from which they had been removed
[31]
during the Danish invasions. (A. H. 43. 218)

A procession in which the relics were carried for the veneration of

the worshipers was familiar in many places. Records from St. Gall
testify that St. Magnus was honored with such a procession and an
appropriate hymn of praise (A. H. 50. 261). The relics of saints
treasured at Exeter were borne in procession with the singing of a
hymn which mentions their miraculous powers. (A. H. 43. 277)

In an era marked by municipal drama and civic display as well as

religious festivals, the pageantry of the procession was
understandably popular. Rome always had its great processions.
Accounts are extant of ceremonies accompanied by hymns, in
Tournai, Strasburg, Nuremberg and other medieval towns, aside
from those prescribed by episcopal and monastic manuals of the day
for the great cathedrals and abbeys.

The music to which the processional hymn was sung is, in 73

some cases, available. The St. Gall manuscripts, as Gautier
noted, were furnished with musical notation. This is occasionally true
of later manuscripts, especially as we enter the closing medieval
centuries. The traditional melodies of certain hymns, like the Salve
festa dies and Gloria laus et honor are known to-day. Musicologists
and students of liturgical music are currently engaged in bringing
this music to present-day knowledge. For example, the hymn used in
procession before the reading of the Gospel appears in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries as a conductus or conductum which, in
[32]
turn, is related to the cantio. A conductus for the festival of St.
James of Campostella (A. H. 17. 199), illustrates the evolution of a
minor type of processional hymn from Hartmann’s solemn versus,
mentioned above, to the festive style of the late medieval period.
The recent study of the conductus by Leonard Ellinwood reflects the
growing interest of musicians in these forms, both secular and
[33]
religious, which preceded the Renaissance.

To summarize the characteristic marks of the processional hymn

which are constant and quite independent of the date of their
appearance, the student must recall the underlying motives: 1)
supplication in the litanies, 2) re-enactment of biblical scenes and 3)
religious pilgrimage. Respecting usage, the special interest of a
ceremony devoted to a particular occasion is present in processional
hymns, additional to other rites. Lastly, a group of hymns has come
into existence, not to be classified with the more formal categories
of the office hymn and the sequence but dedicated to an extra-
liturgical purpose.

As a group, the processional hymns are not well-known or frequently

used in translation with the exception of the ageless hymns of
Theodulphus and especially of Fortunatus whose processionals
usurped the medieval field for over one thousand years and are still
current to-day.

(See Illustrative Hymns, XVII. Salve festa dies, “Hail thee, festival
day.”)

74
 CHAPTER SEVEN

Influence and Survival of Latin

Hymns

I. Late Medieval Influence

From the creation of the Latin hymn in the fourth century by the
earliest writers to the efforts of poets heralding the Renaissance,
Christian hymnody left its imprint upon contemporary verse both
secular and religious. The field of inquiry suggested by this thesis
has never been fully explored although it abounds in fascinating
possibilities for the student of medieval culture. The subject, of
course, cannot be treated within the limits of this chapter but such
hints may be offered as have resulted from a partial study of
particular areas or fall within the bounds of reasonable assumption.

Perhaps the most pervading influence and the simplest to trace is

the metrical. The iambic dimeter of Ambrose, both in its quantitative
and in its rhythmical form, became a standard for poetry of all types,
appearing even in the modern age as the long meter of the metrical
versions of the Psalms. Trochaic verse, initiated in hymns by Hilary,
employed most effectively by Fortunatus and always a favorite,
rivalled the iambic in the vernaculars. As the metrical features of the
Victorine sequence became increasingly popular, they were taken
over bodily by secular poets writing both in Latin and in the modern
European languages. Classical meters fostered by Prudentius and
later by the Carolingian poets showed less vitality as poetical
models. The liturgical hymn and the sequence are of prime
importance in their metrical aspects but the meters of the piae
cantiones and other religious lyrics were also widely appropriated.
The origin of rhyme is a related problem which in the opinion of W.
[1]
B. Sedgwick “centers around the Christian hymn.” Numerous
publications by scholars who, like Sedgwick, have spoken with
authority, bear witness to the general linguistic and literary 75
interest attaching to these subjects of research.

Aside from aspects of meter and rhyme, medieval secular verse in

Latin borrowed generously from the hymn; witness the songs of the
wandering scholars as recorded in the collection edited under the
title Cambridge Songs and also the goliardic poetry of the Carmina
[2]
Burana. Well-known hymns are frequently parodied and, in
general, the liturgical models are employed to create humorous
allusion or pungent satire. The student song Gaudeamus igitur is a
familiar illustration of this general group.

The adaptation of the sequence to secular purposes resulted in a

novel type of verse, the modus, already cited in connection with the
origin of the sequence, illustrated by the Modus florum of which
many examples have been preserved varying in beauty and poetic
conceit. Reference has been made in an earlier chapter to the
deeper problems underlying sequence origins on the poetical side.
Discussion among scholars as to the priority of the religious or
[3]
secular Latin lyric is still active. Some would say that popular Latin
verse arose by virtue of the hymnodic influence. Others would posit
a vernacular impulse which eventuated in the Latin lyric both secular
[4]
and religious.
Apart from the lyric, there are in the general field of Latin verse
many resemblances to hymnic models. The lengthy narrative poems
of the Peristephanon in which Prudentius recounted the sufferings of
the martyrs, St. Laurence, St. Vincent, St. Agnes, St. Eulalia and
others, and celebrated their spiritual victories, have been called
[5]
hymns. It has been argued that they were actually sung, in full,
upon the festival days of the saints in question although the praises
of St. Vincent, for example, are expanded to 576 lines, other hymns
varying from 66 to 1140 lines. It may have been possible in the
more leisurely tempo of medieval life to render the martyr hymns of
Prudentius in their entirety. A far more provocative suggestion makes
them the starting point for the medieval saints’ legend of which
illustrations exist in lengthy Latin poems and later, in vernacular
verse.

The contribution of hymns to the liturgical drama of the Church has

been noted in connection with the sequence, Victimae paschali
laudes. It is nowhere contended that the hymn created the 76
drama but that the dramatic phraseology is often reminiscent
of the hymn and that the role of the singers in the schola cantorum
and the choir, as actors in the liturgical play, becomes significant in
connection with the hymnic origins of these productions within the
[6]
church.

Finally, an interesting group of Latin poems having an interrelation

with the hymn is illustrated by O Roma nobilis, a tenth century lyric
praising the apostles and martyrs of the Eternal City (A. H. 51. 219).
[7]

The transition from Latin to vernacular languages took place as soon

as the latter were sufficiently developed to produce Christian verse.
The Gospels were rendered into Germanic rhymed verse in the ninth
century by Otfried the Frank who inserted a hymn of ten stanzas as
a poetic version of the opening of St. John’s Gospel. It is written in
 [8]
seven-syllable couplets with four or six to a stanza. Otfried is said
to have been influenced by Rabanus Maurus and with good reason
since the latter was a recognized leader in mediating Latin patristic
and other writings to the Germanic world of his day.

Otfried was the first of many medieval poets whose religious lyrics in
the vernacular, often revealing the inspiration of the Latin hymn,
have been preserved. Their verse appears in Wackernagel’s great
collection in which he has edited 1448 specimens from the time of
[9]
Otfried to that of Hans Sachs.

Celtic churchmen were pioneers among medieval Latin hymnists,

their earliest contribution dating from the sixth century. Religious
lyrics in the Celtic tongue must have been produced and recorded
before the Danish invasions although the destruction of these
manuscripts delayed the compiling of new vernacular collections
until the eleventh century. The hymn Hymnum dicat turba fratrum,
written in trochaic tetrameter, and preserved in the Bangor
Antiphonary, to which reference has been made in Chapter One,
apparently influenced the metrical system of Celtic poetry. The
metrical pattern used by Otfried, a quatrain of seven-syllable lines
[10]
with rhymed couplets, is commonly found. Latin influence is at
least tentatively acknowledged by scholars in the rhyme and stanza
[11]
structure of Celtic poetry prior to the eleventh century.

After the creation of the Latin sequence, vernacular poetry is

overwhelmingly affected by this new type of hymn. Germanic 77
poets followed the leadership of Notker. The Victorine school,
rejecting the strophic system and rhythmic model of the Germans,
built the couplet and rhyme, already existing in hymns, into a
characteristic structure which proved to be easily transferable to
vernacular uses. It has been asserted that the lyric poetry of the
Middle Ages, in German, French, Provençal and English was reborn
 [12]
in this conquest of the vernacular by the Latin sequence. At the
same time, the possible influence of the vernacular over the Latin
must not be ignored. There is a resemblance, for instance, between
the narrative elements of sequences written in honor of saints and
[13]
the ballads of secular poetry. Whatever the conflicting currents
may have been in the period of origins, the smooth-flowing stream
of the vernacular religious lyric with its many tributaries, refreshed
the spirit of medieval man and recalled to memory his religious
heritage.

The vitality of this new religious poetry which flourishes in the later
centuries, in which the Latin hymn suffered so marked a
deterioration, suggests that the future of the hymn, like other media
of Latin literature, was to be realized in a new linguistic environment.
It was not the verity but the language that was destined to change.

In order to appreciate the variety and interest of that vernacular lyric

poetry which arose within the sphere of influence of the Latin hymn,
illustrations may be culled from many parts of Europe. Mary-Verse in
Meistergesang is the title chosen by Sister Mary Schroeder for her
[14]
study of one aspect of the German lyric. A very large proportion,
perhaps two-thirds of the songs are religious in content, showing to
a degree, their dependence upon hymnal poetry, while nearly one-
fourth of them are devoted to the praise of the Virgin. Occasionally,
a Latin sequence has been freely translated, paraphrased or
elaborated.

The Swedish vernacular is represented by the patriotic poem of

Bishop Thomas of Strängnäs, who, in the fourteenth century, wrote
in praise of the national hero, Engelbrekt. Metrical and stanza form
[15]
are both of the hymnal type.

The Romance languages afford myriad examples of the sequence

form. St. Martial, near Limoges, already cited as a center in the
production of the sequence, and Paris, the home of the Victorine
school, are both places of origin for vernacular lyrics. A close 78
connection has been traced between the sequence and the
French romantic lyric, especially the lai, a connection amply
[16]
illustrated and tabulated for the convenience of the student. More
familiar, perhaps, than the lais are the appealing lines of François
Villon, “Dame des cieulx, regente terrienne,” which possesses all the
charm of the Marian lyric at its best.

About the year 1270, Alfonso X of Castile made a collection of 400

poems in the Galician-Portuguese dialect, the Cántigas de Santa
María around which a considerable literature has grown up. All are
devotional in subject matter. Alfonso X was a literary patron. Ramon
Lull (c. 1315) was himself a poet who wrote in the Catalan tongue
although his mystical writings are better known than his poetry. His
Hours of our Lady St. Mary was modeled upon the hymn and set to
[17]
a hymn tune.

The Italian poets of religious verse flourished as writers both in the

vernacular and in Latin. St. Francis of Assisi, (1181-1226), whose
[18]
Cantico di fratre sole is known and loved by countless persons in
our own day, was among the earliest poets of the Laudi spirituali.
The origin of the laudi has been traced in part to the ejaculations of
the flagellants of northern Italy where bands of these penitents were
commonly seen in the thirteenth century. A century earlier, religious
societies of singers, the laudisti, were in existence in Venice and
[19]
Florence. Arezzo knew such a group as early as 1068. Included
among the known writers of laudi are Jacopone da Todi, (1230-
1306), and Bianco da Siena, (c. 1307), both classified today as
writers of hymns.

The movement represented by the laudisti spread to France,

German-speaking lands, the Low Countries and Poland. Everywhere
the vernacular was used with popular unison melodies. As we
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