'COME, HOLY SPIRIT, FROM ABOVE.'
Robert, the son of Hugh Capet, to whom this hymn is commonly, but
probably incorrectly, ascribed, became king of France in 988 A.D. He
'was a kindly, easy man, endowed with all the charming and dangerous
virtues which commend themselves in the man and often prove fatal to the
king. His reign was a constant struggle, first with the church for his
wife, afterwards with his barons for his existence.'--_Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, vol. ix, p. 536.
This hymn was in the Middle Ages often called the _Golden Sequence_.
Clichtovaeus (_Elucidatorium_, Paris, 1516, f. 171) declares it 'above
all praise whether by reason of its wonderful sweetness...or of its
brevity along with wealth of ideas or...of the elegant grace of its
structure.' Trench, _Sacred Latin Poetry_, says it 'could only have been
composed by one who had been acquainted with many sorrows and also with
many consolations.'
Julian refers to thirty-eight renderings into English. One of the best
of these is A. P. Stanley's version, _Come, Holy Spirit, from Above_.
The subject is an entreaty to the Spirit to come and to bestow His
gifts. To the former thought belong the earlier stanzas, to the second
thought the latter stanzas. At the beginning of the poem veni,
emphasizing the former thought, is in its position and repetition like
da at the close, emphasizing the latter.
3. lucis: cf. lumen cordium, 1. 6, lux beatissima, 1.13. The Spirit, as
the 'guide into all truth,' is naturally addressed as light and the
giver of light. 7. Consolator: John 14. 16. 9. refrigerium: refreshment.
'May God refresh thy spirit' is a phrase not uncommon in Christian
epitaphs of the Catacombs. 7-12. Stanley renders:
O Thou, of comforters the best,
O Thou, the soul's most welcome guest,
O Thou, our sweet repose,
Our resting-place from life's long care,
Our shadow from the world's fierce glare,
Our solace in all woes.
19, 20. Lava, Riga: John 3. 5; Isaiah 44. 3. 27. septenarium: the
seven-fold gift. The spirit is septiformis munere, the seven gifts being
'the spirit of wisdom,' 'of understanding,' 'of council,' 'of might,' 'of
knowledge,' 'of piety,' and 'of the fear of the Lord,' Isaiah 11. 2, 3.