2. The Middle Ages

Gregory the Great (d. 604) and Fortunatus of Poitiers (d. 600) mark the transition to the medieval period of Latin hymnody. The Ambrosian music was supplanted by the Gregorian (see Music, Sacred, II., i., § 2), the recitative was introduced, and public song in the church service was restricted to the choir of priests, the congregation joining only in the responses. The best hymns of Fortunatus are the Vexilla regis ("The royal banner is unfurled"), and the Pange, lingua ("Sing, my tongue, the Savior's battle"). The hymns of the Middle Ages do not exhibit the joyous and jubilant tone of the Ambrosian and Prudentian hymns, but are set in the minor key. Born of the cloister, they echo the subdued tones of contemplative devotion. The singers linger near the cross and ponder its agonies rather than breathe the clear air of the resurrection morning; they depict the awful solemnities of the judgment and the glories of heaven. The chief centers of production of sacred poetry were the monasteries of St. Gall, St. Martial in Limoges, Cluny, Clairvaux, and St. Victor, near Paris. A vast collection of the religious poems thus produced has been made by Dreves and Blume, all, with a few exceptions, being printed for the first time. They served the purpose of devotional reading, few of them having passed into the church service. They employed rime universally after 1150, and include the varieties of proses, hymns, sequences, psalteries, and rimed prayers for the rosary, called rosario. The psalteries are divided into 150 parts in imitation of the Psalms, and are addressed to the Trinity, Jesus, and Mary. The term "Sequence" was originally applied to a melody, Notker of St. Gall being the first to adapt poems to sequences. Tropes were verses interpolated in the offices of the liturgy and joined to the gloria, the hosanna, and to other parts of the service; they originated in France and became very popular in England. Most of the religious poetry of the Middle Ages was produced in France and Germany. Some of the hymns were in German, and often Latin and German lines or words were intermingled.

3. Individual Hymnists.

Among the sacred poets of the Middle Ages were Gregory the Great, Notker of St. Gall (d. 912), Peter Damian (d. about 1072), Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109), Hildebert of Tours (d. about 1134), and Abelard (d. 1142). The best compositions by an Englishman are those of John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1292), from whose rimed office to the Trinity three hymns were taken (Daniel gives all three, i. 276 sqq.; cf. Dreves xxiii. pp. 5-6). Bernard of Clsirvaux (d. 1153), one of the great hymn-writers, introduced the mystic strain into his compositions. Mabillon doubted the genuineness of all but two of his poems, while Vacandard (Vie de S. Bernard, ii., Paris, 1895, p. 103) and Hauréau (Les Poëmes latins attribués à S. Bernard, Paris, 1890) doubt them all. But the earliest tradition ascribes them to St. Bernard, and no other can be found so likely as he to be their author (see Bernard of Clairvaux). About 1150 Bernard of Cluny gave to the Church his poem on the "Contempt of the World," consisting of about 3,000 lines, from which have been derived "Jerusalem the golden" and two other hymns. The most prolific medieval hymn-writer was Adam of St. Victor (flourished c.1170), called by Gautier, Neale, and Trench "the foremost among the sacred Latin poets of the Middle Ages." From Bonaventura (d. 1274) came the Recordare sancto crucis ("Jesus, holy cross and dying"). Thomas Aquinas contributed three hymns to the breviary. Two of them, Pange, lingua ("Sing, my tongue, the mystery telling"), and Laude, Zion ("Zion, to thy Savior singing") belong to the ritual of Corpus Christi, are addressed to the host, and teach transubstantiation. The most famous hymn of the Middle Ages, perhaps of all ages, is the Dies irae ascribed to Thomas of Celano, the friend and biographer of Francis of Assisi. As a sublime and reverential description of the awe and terror of the last judgment it has never been surpassed, and it has exercised the skill of many translators, among them Sir Walter Scott. Philip Schaff calls it "the acknowledged masterpiece of Latin poetry, and the most sublime of all uninspired hymns" (Christ in Song, New York, 1868, p. 372). The most tender hymn of the Middle Ages is the Stabat mater dolorosa ("At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful mother weeping," attributed to Jacopone da Todi (d. 1306). The first line is taken from John xix. 25. To this class of hymns, though later in time, belong those of St. Francis Xavier (d.1552), "Jesus, I love thee, not because," and of St. Theresa (d. 1552). In general it may be said that the best of the later hymns of the Latin Church, such as those of Madame Guyon, John Henry Newman ("Lead, kindly light"), and Faber, are set in the key of medieval hymnody.

VI. German Hymns: