_Ichneumonoidea._--The ten thousand known species included in this
group agree with the Cynipoidea and Chalcidoidea in the position of
the ovipositor and in the jointed trochanters, but are distinguished
by the fore-wing possessing a distinct stigma and usually a typical
series of nervures and areolets (figs. 4, 8). Many of the species are
of fair size. They lay their eggs (fig. 8) in the bodies of insects
and their larvae belonging to various orders. A few small families
such as the _Evaniidae_ and the _Stephanidae_ are included here, but
the vast majority of the group fall into two large families, the
_Ichneumonidae_ and the _Braconidae_, the former distinguished by the
presence of two median (or discoidal) cells in the fore-wing (figs. 4,
7), while the latter has only one (figs. 4, 6). Not a few of these
insects, however, are entirely wingless. On account of their work in
destroying plant-eating insects, the ichneumon-flies are of great
economic importance.
_Proctotrypoidea._--This group may be distinguished from the preceding
by the position of the ovipositor at the extreme apex of the abdomen,
and from the groups that follow (with very few exceptions) by the
jointed trochanters of the legs. The pronotum reaches back to the
tegulae. The _Pelecinidae_--included here by Ashmead--are large
insects with remarkably elongate abdomens and undivided trochanters.
All the other members of the group may be regarded as forming a single
family--the _Proctotrypidae_, including an immense number of small
parasitic Hymenoptera, not a few of which are wingless. Of special
interest are the transformations of _Platygaster_, belonging to this
family, discovered by M. Ganin, and familiarized to English readers
through the writings of Sir J. Lubbock (Lord Avebury). The first larva
is broad in front and tapers behind to a "tail" provided with two
divergent processes, so that it resembles a small crustacean. It lives
in the grub of a gall-midge and it ultimately becomes changed into the
usual white and fleshy hymenopterous larva. The four succeeding
sections, in which the ovipositor is modified into a sting (always
exserted from the tip of the abdomen) and the trochanters are with few
exceptions simple, form the _Aculeata_ of Linnaeus.
_Formicoidea._--The ants which form this group are readily
distinguished by the differentiation of the females into winged
"queens" and wingless "workers." The pronotum extends back to the
wing-bases, and the "waist" is greatly constricted and marked by one
or two "nodes." The differentiation of the females leads to a complex
social life, the nesting habits of ants and the various industries
that they pursue being of surpassing interest (see ANT).
_Vespoidea._--This section includes a number of families characterized
by the backward extension of the prothorax to the tegulae and
distinguished from the ants by the absence of "nodes" at the base of
the abdomen. The true wasps have the fore-wings folded lengthwise when
at rest and the fore-legs of normal build--not specialized for
digging. The _Vespidae_ or social wasps have "queens" and "workers"
like the ants, but both these forms of female are winged; the claws on
their fret are simple. In the _Eumenidae_ or solitary wasps the female
sex is undifferentiated, and the foot claws are toothed. (For the
habits of these insects see WASP.) The _Chrysididae_ or ruby wasps are
small insects with a very hard cuticle exhibiting brilliant metallic
colours--blue, green and crimson. Only three or four abdominal
segments are visible, the hinder segments being slender and retracted
to form a telescope-like tube in which the ovipositor lies. When the
ovipositor is brought into use this tube is thrust out. The eggs are
laid in the nests of various bees and wasps, the chrysid larva living
as a "cuckoo" parasite. The _Trigonalidae_, a small family whose
larvae are parasitic in wasps' nests, also probably belong here.
The other families of the _Vespoidea_ belong to the series of
"Fossores" or digging-wasps. In two of the families--the _Mutillidae_
and _Thynnidae_--the females are wingless and the larvae live as
parasites in the larvae of other insects; the female _Mutilla_ enters
bumble-bees' nests and lays her eggs in the bee-grubs. In the other
families both sexes are winged, and the instinct and industry of the
females are among the most wonderful in the Hymenoptera. They make
burrows wherein they place insects or spiders which they have caught
and stung, laying their eggs beside the victim so that the young
larvae find themselves in presence of an abundant and appropriate
food-supply. Valuable observations on the habits of these insects are
due to J. H. Fabre and G. W. and E. Peckham. The prey is sometimes
stung in the neighbourhood of the nerve ganglia, so that it is
paralysed but not killed, the grub of the fossorial wasp devouring its
victim alive; but this instinct varies in perfection, and in many
cases the larva flourishes equally whether its prey be killed or not.
The females have a wonderful power of finding their burrows on
returning from their hunting expeditions. Among the Vespoid families
of fossorial wasps, the _Pompilidae_ are the most important. They are
recognizable by their slender and elongate hind-legs; many of them
provision their burrows with spiders. The _Sapygidae_ are parasitic on
bees, while the _Scoliidae_ are large, robust and hairy insects, many
of which prey upon the grubs of chafers.
_Sphecoidea._--In this division are included the rest of the
"digging-wasps," distinguished from the _Vespoidea_ by the short
pronotum not reaching backward to the tegulae. They have usually been
reckoned as forming a single, very large family--the _Sphegidae_--but
ten or twelve subdivisions of the group are regarded as distinct
families by Ashmead and others. Great diversity is shown in the
details of structure, habits and nature of the prey. Species of
_Sphex_, studied by Fabre, provisioned their brood-chambers with
crickets. _Pelopoeus_ hunts spiders, while _Ammophila_ catches
caterpillars for the benefit of her young. Fabre states that the
last-named insect uses a stone for the temporary closing of her
burrow, and the Peckhams have seen a female _Ammophila_ take a stone
between her mandibles and use it as a hammer for pounding down the
earth over her finished nest. The habits of _Bembex_ are of especial
interest. The female, instead of provisioning her burrow with a supply
of food that will suffice the larva for its whole life, brings fresh
flies with which she regularly feeds her young. In this instinct we
have a correspondence with the habits of social wasps and bees. Yet it
may be thought that the usual instinct of the "digging-wasps" to
capture and store up food in an underground burrow for the benefit of
offspring which they will never see is even more surprising. The habit
of some genera is to catch the prey before making their tunnel, but
more frequently the insect digs her nest, and then hunts for prey to
put into it.
_Apoidea._--The bees which make up this group agree with the
Sphecoidea in the short pronotum, but may be distinguished from all
other Hymenoptera by the widened first tarsal segment and the plumose
hairs on head and body. They are usually regarded as forming a single
family--the _Apidae_--but there is very great diversity in structural
details, and Ashmead divides them into fourteen families. The
"tongue," for example, is short and obtuse or emarginate in _Colletes_
and _Prosopis_, while in all other bees it is pointed at the tip. But
in _Andrena_ and its allies it is comparatively short, while in the
higher genera, such as _Apis_ and _Bombus_, it is elongate and
flexible, forming a most elaborate and perfect organ for taking liquid
food. Bees feed on honey and pollen. Most of the genera are "solitary"
in habit, the female sex being undifferentiated; but among the
humble-bees and hive-bees we find, as in social wasps and ants, the
occurrence of workers, and the consequent elaboration of a wonderful
insect-society. (See BEE.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The literature of several special families of the
Hymenoptera will be found under the articles ANT, BEE, ICHNEUMON-FLY,
WASP, &c., referred to above. Among earlier students on structure may
be mentioned P. A. Latreille, _Familles naturelles du règne animal_
(Paris, 1825), who recognized the nature of the "median segment." C.
Gerstaecker (_Arch. f. Naturg._ xx., 1867) and F. Brauer (_Sitzb. K.
Akad. Wiss. Wien._ lxxxv., 1883) should also be consulted on this
subject. For internal anatomy, specially the digestive organs, see L.
Dufour, _Mém. savants étrangers_, vii. (1841), and _Ann. Sci. Nat.
Zool._ (4), i. 1854. For nervous system H. Viallanes, _Ann. Sci. Nat.
Zool._ (7), ii. iv. 1886-1887, and F. C. Kenyon, _Journ. Comp.
Neurol._ vi., 1896. For poison and other glands, see L. Bordas, _Ann.
Sci. Nat. Zool._ (7) xix., 1895. For the sting and ovipositor H.
Dewitz, _Zeits. wiss. Zool._ xxv., 1874, xxviii., 1877, and F. Zander,
_ib._ lxvi., 1899. For male genital armature S. A. Peytoureau,
_Morphologie de l'armure génitale des insectes_ (Bordeaux, 1895),
and E. Zander, Zeits. wiss. Zool. lxvii., 1900. The systematic student
of Hymenoptera is greatly helped by C. G. de Dalla Torre's _Catalogus
Hymenopterorum_ (10 vols., Leipzig, 1893-1902). For general
classifications see F. W. Konow, _Entom. Nachtr._ (1897), and W. H.
Ashmead, _Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus._ xxiii., 1901; the latter paper deals
also especially with the Ichneumonoidea of the globe. For habits and
life histories of Hymenoptera see J. Lubbock (Lord Avebury), _Ants,
Bees and Wasps_ (9th ed., London, 1889); C. Janet, _Études sur les
fourmis, les guêpes et les abeilles_ (Paris, &c., 1893 and onwards);
and G. W. and E. G. Peckham, _Instincts and Habits of Solitary Wasps_
(Madison, Wis. U.S.A., 1898). Monographs of most of the families of
British Hymenoptera have now been published. For saw-flies and
gall-flies, see P. Cameron's _British Phytophagous Hymenoptera_ (4
vols., London, _Roy. Soc._, 1882-1893). For Ichneumonoidea, C.
Morley's _Ichneumons of Great Britain_ (Plymouth, 1903, &c.), and T.
A. Marshall's "British Braconidae," _Trans. Entom. Soc._, 1885-1899.
The smaller parasitic Hymenoptera have been neglected in this country
since A. H. Haliday's classical papers _Entom. Mag._ i.-v.,
(1833-1838) but Ashmead's "North American Proctotrypidae" (_Bull. U.S.
Nat. Mus._ xlv., 1893) is valuable for the European student. For the
Fossores, wasps, ants and bees see E. Saunders, _Hymenoptera Aculeata
of the British Islands_ (London, 1896). Exhaustive references to
general systematic works will be found in de Dalla Torre's _Catalogue_
mentioned above. Of special value to English students are C. T.
Bingham's _Fauna of British India_, "Hymenoptera" (London, 1897 and
onwards), and P. Cameron's volumes on Hymenoptera in the _Biologia
Centrali-Americana_. F. Smith's _Catalogues of Hymenoptera in the
British Museum_ (London, 1853-1859) are well worthy of study.
(G. H. C.)
HYMETTUS (Ital. Monte Matto, hence the modern name Trello Vouni), a
mountain in Attica, bounding the Athenian plain on the S.E. Height, 3370
ft. It was famous in ancient times for its bees, which gathered honey of
peculiar flavour from its aromatic herbs; their fame still persists. The
spring mentioned by Ovid (_Ars Amat._ iii. 687) is probably to be
recognized near the monastery of Syriani or Kaesariani on the western
slope. This may be identical with that known as [Greek: Kyllon Pêra],
said to be a remedy for barrenness in women. The marble of Hymettus,
which often has a bluish tinge, was used extensively for building in
ancient Athens, and also, in early times, for sculpture; but the white
marble of Pentelicus was preferred for both purposes.
See E. Dodwell, _Classical and Topographical Tour_ (1819), i. 483.
HYMNS.--1. _Classical Hymnody._--The word "hymn" ([Greek: hymnos]) was
employed by the ancient Greeks[1] to signify a song or poem composed in
honour of gods, heroes or famous men, or to be recited on some joyful,
mournful or solemn occasion. Polymnia was the name of their lyric muse.
Homer makes Alcinous entertain Odysseus with a "hymn" of the minstrel
Demodocus, on the capture of Troy by the wooden horse. The _Works and
Days_ of Hesiod begins with an invocation to the Muses to address hymns
to Zeus, and in his _Theogonia_ he speaks of them as singing or
inspiring "hymns" to all the divinities, and of the bard as "their
servant, hymning the glories of men of old, and of the gods of Olympus."
Pindar calls by this name odes, like his own, in praise of conquerors at
the public games of Greece. The Athenian dramatists (Euripides most
frequently) use the word and its cognate verbs in a similar manner; they
also describe by them metrical oracles and apophthegms, martial, festal
and hymeneal songs, dirges and lamentations or incantations of woe.
Hellenic hymns, according to this conception of them, have come down to
us, some from a very early and others from a late period of Greek
classical literature. Those which passed by the name of Homer[2] were
already old in the time of Thucydides. They are mythological poems
(several of them long), in hexameter verse--some very interesting. That
to Apollo contains a traditionary history of the origin and progress of
the Delphic worship; those on Hermes and on Dionysus are marked by much
liveliness and poetical fancy. Hymns of a like general character, but of
less interest (though these also embody some fine poetical traditions of
the Greek mythology, such as the story of Teiresias, and that of the
wanderings of Leto), were written in the 3rd century before Christ, by
Callimachus of Cyrene. Cleanthes, the successor of Zeno, composed (also
in hexameters) an "excellent and devout hymn" (as it is justly called by
Cudworth, in his _Intellectual System_) to Zeus, which is preserved in
the _Eclogae_ of Stobaeus, and from which Aratus borrowed the words,
"For we are also His offspring," quoted by St Paul at Athens. The
so-called Orphic hymns, in hexameter verse, styled [Greek: teletai], or
hymns of initiation into the "mysteries" of the Hellenic religion, are
productions of the Alexandrian school,--as to which learned men are not
agreed whether they are earlier or later than the Christian era.
The Romans did not adopt the word "hymn"; nor have we many Latin poems
of the classical age to which it can properly be applied. There are,
however, a few--such as the simple and graceful "Dianae sumus in fide"
("Dian's votaries are we") of Catullus, and "Dianam tenerae dicite
virgines" ("Sing to Dian, gentle maidens") of Horace--which approach
much more nearly than anything Hellenic to the form and character of
modern hymnody.
2. _Hebrew Hymnody._--For the origin and idea of Christian hymnody we
must look, not to Gentile, but to Hebrew sources. St Augustine's
definition of a hymn, generally accepted by Christian antiquity, may be
summed up in the words, "praise to God with song" ("cum cantico"); Bede
understood the "canticum" as properly requiring metre; though he thought
that what in its original language was a true hymn might retain that
character in an unmetrical translation. Modern use has enlarged the
definition; Roman Catholic writers extend it to the praises of saints;
and the word now comprehends rhythmical prose as well as verse, and
prayer and spiritual meditation as well as praise.
The modern distinction between psalms and hymns is arbitrary (see
PSALMS). The former word was used by the LXX. as a generic designation,
probably because it implied an accompaniment by the psaltery (said by
Eusebius to have been of very ancient use in the East) or other
instruments. The cognate verb "psallere" has been constantly applied to
hymns, both in the Eastern and in the Western Church; and the same
compositions which they described generically as "psalms" were also
called by the LXX. "odes" (i.e. songs) and "hymns." The latter word
occurs, e.g. in Ps. lxxii. 20 ("the hymns of David the son of Jesse"),
in Ps. lxv. 1, and also in the Greek titles of the 6th, 54th, 55th, 67th
and 76th (this numbering of the psalms being that of the English
version, not of the LXX.). The 44th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, "Let us
now praise famous men," &c., is entitled in the Greek [Greek: paterôn
hymnos], "The Fathers' Hymn." Bede speaks of the whole book of Psalms as
called "liber hymnorum," by the universal consent of Hebrews, Greeks and
Latins.
In the New Testament we find our Lord and His apostles singing a hymn
([Greek: hymnêsantes exêlthon]), after the institution of the Lord's
Supper; St Paul and Silas doing the same ([Greek: hymnoun ton theon]) in
their prison at Philippi; St James recommending psalm-singing ([Greek:
psalletô]), and St Paul "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" ([Greek:
psalmois kai hymnois kai ôdais pneumatikais]) St Paul also, in the 14th
chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, speaks of singing
([Greek: psalô]) and of every man's psalm ([Greek: hekastos hymôn
psalmon echei]). In a context which plainly has reference to the
assemblies of the Corinthian Christians for common worship. All the
words thus used were applied by the LXX. to the Davidical psalms; it is
therefore possible that these only may be intended, in the different
places to which we have referred. But there are in St Paul's epistles
several passages (Eph. v. 14; 1 Tim. iii. 16; 1 Tim. vi. 15, 16; 2 Tim.
ii. 11, 12) which have so much of the form and character of later
Oriental hymnody as to have been supposed by Michaelis and others to be
extracts from original hymns of the Apostolic age. Two of them are
apparently introduced as quotations, though not found elsewhere in the
Scriptures. A third has not only rhythm, but rhyme. The thanksgiving
prayer of the assembled disciples, recorded in Acts iv., is both in
substance and in manner poetical; and in the canticles, "Magnificat,"
"Benedictus," &c., which manifestly followed the form and style of
Hebrew poetry, hymns or songs, proper for liturgical use, have always
been recognized by the church.
3. _Eastern Church Hymnody._--The hymn of our Lord, the precepts of the
apostles, the angelic song at the nativity, and "Benedicite omnia opera"
are referred to in a curious metrical prologue to the hymnary of the
Mozarabic Breviary as precedents for the practice of the Western Church.
In this respect, however, the Western Church followed the Eastern, in
which hymnody prevailed from the earliest times.
Therapeutae.
Philo describes the Theraputae (q.v.) of the neighbourhood of Alexandria
as composers of original hymns, which (as well as old) were sung at
their great religious festivals--the people listening in silence till
they came to the closing strains, or refrains, at the end of a hymn or
stanza (the "acroteleutia" and "ephymnia"), in which all, women as well
as men, heartily joined. These songs, he says, were in various metres
(for which he uses a number of technical terms); some were choral, some
not; and they were divided into variously constructed strophes or
stanzas. Eusebius, who thought that the Theraputae were communities of
Christians, says that the Christian practice of his own day was in exact
accordance with this description.
Antiphonal singing.
The practice, not only of singing hymns, but of singing them
antiphonally, appears, from the well-known letter of Pliny to Trajan, to
have been established in the Bithynian churches at the beginning of the
2nd century. They were accustomed "stato die ante lucem convenire,
carmenque Christo, quasi Deo, dicere _secum invicem_." This agrees well,
in point of time, with the tradition recorded by the historian Socrates,
that Ignatius (who suffered martyrdom about A.D. 107) was led by a
vision or dream of angels singing hymns in that manner to the Holy
Trinity to introduce antiphonal singing into the church of Antioch, from
which it quickly spread to other churches. There seems to be an allusion
to choral singing in the epistle of Ignatius himself to the Romans,
where he exhorts them, "[Greek: choros genomenoi]" ("having formed
themselves into a choir"), to "sing praise to the Father in Christ
Jesus." A statement of Theodoret has sometimes been supposed to refer
the origin of antiphonal singing to a much later date; but this seems to
relate only to the singing of Old Testament Psalms ([Greek: tên
Dauidikên melôdian]), the alternate chanting of which, by a choir
divided into two parts, was (according to that statement) first
introduced into the church of Antioch by two monks famous in the history
of their time, Flavianus and Diodorus, under the emperor Constantius II.
2nd century.
3rd century.
Other evidence of the use of hymns in the 2nd century is contained in a
fragment of Caius, preserved by Eusebius, which refers to "all the
psalms and odes written by faithful brethren from the beginning," as
"hymning Christ, the Word of God, as God." Tertullian also, in his
description of the "Agapae," or love-feasts, of his day, says that,
after washing hands and bringing in lights, each man was invited to come
forward and sing to God's praise something either taken from the
Scriptures or of his own composition ("ut quisque de Sacris Scripturis
vel proprio ingenio potest"). George Bull, bishop of St David's,
believed one of those primitive compositions to be the hymn appended by
Clement of Alexandria to his _Paedagogus_; and Archbishop Ussher
considered the ancient morning and evening hymns, of which the use was
enjoined by the _Apostolical Constitutions_, and which are also
mentioned in the "Tract on Virginity" printed with the works of St
Athanasius, and in St Basil's treatise upon the Holy Spirit, to belong
to the same family. Clement's hymn, in a short anapaestic metre,
beginning [Greek: stomion pôlôn adaôn] (or, according to some editions,
[Greek: basileu hagiôn, loge pandamatôr]--translated by the Rev. A.
Chatfield, "O Thou, the King of Saints, all-conquering Word"), is rapid,
spirited and well-adapted for singing. The Greek "Morning Hymn" (which,
as divided into verses by Archbishop Ussher in his treatise _De
Symbolis_, has a majestic rhythm, resembling a choric or dithyrambic
strophe) is the original form of "Gloria in Excelsis," still said or
sung, with some variations, in all branches of the church which have not
relinquished the use of liturgies. The Latin form of this hymn (of which
that in the English communion office is an exact translation) is said,
by Bede and other ancient writers, to have been brought into use at Rome
by Pope Telesphorus, as early as the time of the emperor Hadrian. A
third, the Vesper or "Lamp-lighting" hymn ("[Greek: phôs hilaron hagias
doxês]"--translated by Canon Bright "Light of Gladness, Beam Divine"),
holds its place to this day in the services of the Greek rite. In the
3rd century Origen seems to have had in his mind the words of some other
hymns or hymn of like character, when he says (in his treatise _Against
Celsus_): "We glorify in hymns God and His only begotten Son; as do also
the Sun, the Moon, the Stars and all the host of heaven. All these, in
one Divine chorus, with the just among men, glorify in hymns God who is
over all, and His only begotten Son." So highly were these compositions
esteemed in the Syrian churches that the council which deposed Paul of
Samosata from the see of Antioch in the time of Aurelian justified that
act, in its synodical letter to the bishops of Rome and Alexandria, on
this ground (among others) that he had prohibited the use of hymns of
that kind, by uninspired writers, addressed to Christ.
After the conversion of Constantine, the progress of hymnody became
closely connected with church controversies. There had been in Edessa,
at the end of the 2nd or early in the 3rd century, a Gnostic writer of
conspicuous ability, named Bardesanes, who was succeeded, as the head of
his sect or school, by his son Harmonius. Both father and son wrote
hymns, and set them to agreeable melodies, which acquired, and in the
4th century still retained, much local popularity. Ephraem Syrus, the
first voluminous hymn-writer whose works remain to us, thinking that the
same melodies might be made useful to the faith, if adapted to more
orthodox words, composed to them a large number of hymns in the Syriac
language, principally in tetrasyllabic, pentasyllable and heptasyllabic
metres, divided into strophes of from 4 to 12, 16 and even 20 lines
each. When a strophe contained five lines, the fifth was generally an
"ephymnium," detached in sense, and consisting of a prayer, invocation,
doxology or the like, to be sung antiphonally, either in full chorus or
by a separate part of the choir. The _Syriac Chrestomathy_ of August
Hahn (Leipzig, 1825), and the third volume of H. A. Daniel's _Thesaurus
Hymnologicus_ (Leipzig, 1841-1856), contain specimens of these hymns.
Some of them have been translated into (unmetrical) English by the Rev.
Henry Burgess (_Select Metrical Hymns of Ephrem Syrus_, &c., 1853). A
considerable number of those so translated are on subjects connected
with death, resurrection, judgment, &c., and display not only Christian
faith and hope, but much simplicity and tenderness of natural feeling.
Theodoret speaks of the spiritual songs of Ephraem as very sweet and
profitable, and as adding much, in his (Theodoret's) time, to the
brightness of the commemorations of martyrs in the Syrian Church.
The Greek hymnody contemporary with Ephraem followed, with some licence,
classical models. One of its favourite metres was the Anacreontic; but
it also made use of the short anapaestic, Ionic, iambic and other
lyrical measures, as well as the hexameter and pentameter. Its principal
authors were Methodius, bishop of Olympus, who died about A.D. 311,
Synesius, who became bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica in 410, and
Gregory Nazianzen, for a short time (380-381) patriarch of
Constantinople. The merits of these writers have been perhaps too much
depreciated by the admirers of the later Greek "Melodists." They have
found an able English translator in the Rev. Allen Chatfield (_Songs and
Hymns of Earliest Greek Christian Poets_, London, 1876). Among the most
striking of their works are [Greek: mnôeo Christe] ("Lord Jesus, think
of me"), by Synesius; [Greek: se ton aphthiton monarchên] ("O Thou, the
One Supreme") and [Greek: ti soi theleis genesthai] ("O soul of mine,
repining"), by Gregory; also [Greek: anôthen parthenoi] ("The Bridegroom
cometh"), by Methodius. There continued to be Greek metrical
hymn-writers, in a similar style, till a much later date. Sophronius,
patriarch of Jerusalem in the 7th century, wrote seven Anacreontic
hymns; and St John Damascene, one of the most copious of the second
school of "Melodists," was also the author of some long compositions in
trimeter iambics.
Period of Arian controversy.
An important development of hymnody at Constantinople arose out of the
Arian controversy. Early in the 4th century Athanasius had rebuked, not
only the doctrine of Arius, but the light character of certain hymns by
which he endeavoured to make that doctrine popular. When, towards the
close of that century (398), St John Chrysostom was raised to the
metropolitan see, the Arians, who were still numerous at Constantinople,
had no places of worship within the walls; but they were in the habit of
coming into the city at sunset on Saturdays, Sundays and the greater
festivals, and congregating in the porticoes and other places of public
resort, where they sung, all night through, antiphonal songs, with
"acroteleutia" (closing strains, or refrains), expressive of Arian
doctrine, often accompanied by taunts and insults to the orthodox.
Chrysostom was apprehensive that this music might draw some of the
simpler church people to the Arian side; he therefore organized, in
opposition to it, under the patronage and at the cost of Eudoxia, the
empress of Arcadius (then his friend), a system of nightly processional
hymn-singing, with silver crosses, wax-lights and other circumstances of
ceremonial pomp. Riots followed, with bloodshed on both sides, and with
some personal injury to the empress's chief eunuch, who seems to have
officiated as conductor or director of the church musicians. This led to
the suppression, by an imperial edict, of all public Arian singing;
while in the church the practice of nocturnal hymn-singing on certain
solemn occasions, thus first introduced, remained an established
institution.
Greek system of hymnody.
It is not improbable that some rudiments of the peculiar system of
hymnody which now prevails throughout the Greek communion, and whose
affinities are rather to the Hebrew and Syriac than to the classical
forms, may have existed in the church of Constantinople, even at that
time. Anatolius, patriarch of Constantinople in the middle of the 5th
century, was the precursor of that system; but the reputation of being
its proper founder belongs to Romanos, of whom little more is known than
that he wrote hymns still extant, and lived towards the end of that
century. The importance of that system in the services of the Greek
church may be understood from the fact that Dr J. M. Neale computed
four-fifths of the whole space (about 5000 pages) contained in the
different service-books of that church to be occupied by hymnody, all in
a language or dialect which has ceased to be anywhere spoken.
The system has a peculiar technical terminology, in which the words
"troparion," "ode," "canon" and "hirmus" ([Greek: eirmos]) chiefly
require explanation.
The _troparion_ is the unit of the system, being a strophe or stanza,
seen, when analysed, to be divisible into verses or clauses, with
regulated caesuras, but printed in the books as a single prose
sentence, without marking any divisions. The following (turned into
English, from a "canon" by John Mauropus) may be taken as an example:
"The never-sleeping Guardian, | the patron of my soul, | the guide of
my life, | allotted me by God, | I hymn thee, Divine Angel | of
Almighty God." Dr Neale and most other writers regard all these
"troparia" as rhythmical or modulated prose. Cardinal J. B. Pitra, on
the other hand, who in 1867 and 1876 published two learned works on
this subject, maintains that they are really metrical, and governed by
definite rules of prosody, of which he lays down sixteen. According to
him, each "troparion" contains from three to thirty-three verses; each
verse varies from two to thirteen syllables, often in a continuous
series, uniform, alternate or reciprocal, the metre being always
syllabic, and depending, not on the quantity of vowels or the position
of consonants, but on an harmonic series of accents.
In various parts of the services solitary troparia are sung, under
various names, "contacion," "oecos," "cathisma," &c., which mark
distinctions either in their character or in their use.
An _ode_ is a song or hymn compounded of several similar
"troparia,"--usually three, four or five. To these is always prefixed
a typical or standard "troparion," called the _hirmus_, by which the
syllabic measure, the periodic series of accents, and in fact the
whole structure and rhythm of the stanzas which follow it are
regulated. Each succeeding "troparion" in the same "ode" contains the
same number of verses, and of syllables in each verse, and similar
accents on the same or equivalent syllables. The "hirmus" may either
form the first stanza of the "ode" itself, or (as is more frequently
the case) may be taken from some other piece; and, when so taken, it
is often indicated by initial words only, without being printed at
length. It is generally printed within commas, after the proper rubric
of the "ode." A hymn in irregular "stichera" or stanzas, without a
"hirmus," is called "idiomelon." A system of three or four odes is
"triodion" or "tetraodion."
A _canon_ is a system of eight (theoretically nine) connected odes,
the second being always suppressed. Various pauses, relieved by the
interposition of other short chants or readings, occur during the
singing of a whole "canon." The final "troparion" in each ode of the
series is not unfrequently detached in sense (like the "ephymnia" of
Ephraem Syrus), particularly when it is in the (very common) form of a
"theotokion," or ascription of praise to the mother of our Lord, and
when it is a recurring refrain or burden.
There were two principal periods of Greek hymnography constructed on
these principles--the first that of Romanos and his followers, extending
over the 6th and 7th centuries, the second that of the schools which
arose during the Iconoclastic controversy in the 8th century, and which
continued for some centuries afterwards, until the art itself died out.
School of Romanos.
The works of the writers of the former period were collected in
_Tropologia_, or church hymn-books, which were held in high esteem till
the 10th century, when they ceased to be regarded as church-books, and
so fell into neglect. They are now preserved only in a very small number
of manuscripts. From three of these, belonging to public libraries at
Moscow, Turin and Rome, Cardinal Pitra has printed, in his _Analecta_, a
number of interesting examples, the existence of which appears to have
been unknown to Dr Neale, and which, in the cardinal's estimation, are
in many respects superior to the "canons," &c., of the modern Greek
service-books, from which all Neale's translations (except some from
Anatolius) are taken. Cardinal Pitra's selections include twenty-nine
works by Romanos, and some by Sergius, and nine other known, as well as
some unknown, authors. He describes them as having generally a more
dramatic character than the "melodies" of the later period, and a much
more animated style; and he supposes that they may have been originally
sung with dramatic accompaniments, by way of substitution for the
theatrical performances of Pagan times. As an instance of their peculiar
character, he mentions a Christmas or Epiphany hymn by Romanos, in
twenty-five long strophes, in which there is, first, an account of the
Nativity and its accompanying wonders, and then a dialogue between the
wise men, the Virgin mother and Joseph. The magi arrive, are admitted,
describe the moral and religious condition of Persia and the East, and
the cause and adventures of their journey, and then offer their gifts.
The Virgin intercedes for them with her Son, instructs them in some
parts of Jewish history, and ends with a prayer for the salvation of the
world.
Melodists.
The controversies and persecutions of the 8th and succeeding centuries
turned the thoughts of the "melodists" of the great monasteries of the
Studium at Constantinople and St Saba in Palestine and their followers,
and those of the adherents of the Greek rite in Sicily and South Italy
(who suffered much from the Saracens and the Normans), into a less
picturesque but more strictly theological course; and the influence of
those controversies, in which the final success of the cause of "Icons"
was largely due to the hymns, as well as to the courage and sufferings,
of these confessors, was probably the cause of their supplanting, as
they did, the works of the older school. Cardinal Pitra gives them the
praise of having discovered a graver and more solemn style of chant, and
of having done much to fix the dogmatic theology of their church upon
its present lines of near approach to the Roman.
Among the "melodists" of this latter Greek school there were many saints
of the Greek church, several patriarchs and two emperors--Leo the
Philosopher, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, his son. Their greatest
poets were Theodore and Joseph of the Studium, and Cosmas and John
(called Damascene) of St Saba. Neale translated into English verse
several selected portions, or centoes, from the works of these and
others, together with four selections from earlier works by Anatolius.
Some of his translations--particularly "The day is past and over," from
Anatolius, and "Christian, dost thou see them," from Andrew of
Crete--have been adopted into hymn-books used in many English churches;
and the hymn "Art thou weary," which is rather founded upon than
translated from one by Stephen the Sabaite, has obtained still more
general popularity.
4. _Western Church Hymnody._--It was not till the 4th century that Greek
hymnody was imitated in the West, where its introduction was due to two
great lights of the Latin Church--St Hilary of Poitiers and St Ambrose
of Milan.
Hilary was banished from his see of Poitiers in 356, and was absent from
it for about four years, which he spent in Asia Minor, taking part
during that time in one of the councils of the Eastern Church. He thus
had full opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Greek church music
of that day; and he wrote (as St Jerome, who was thirty years old when
Hilary died, and who was well acquainted with his acts and writings, and
spent some time in or near his diocese, informs us) a "book of hymns,"
to one of which Jerome particularly refers, in the preface to the second
book of his own commentary on the epistle to the Galatians. Isidore,
archbishop of Seville, who presided over the fourth council of Toledo,
in his book on the offices of the church, speaks of Hilary as the first
Latin hymn-writer; that council itself, in its 13th canon, and the
prologue to the Mozarabic hymnary (which is little more than a
versification of the canon), associate his name, in this respect, with
that of Ambrose. A tradition, ancient and widely spread, ascribed to him
the authorship of the remarkable "Hymnum dicat turba fratrum, hymnum
cantus personet" ("Band of brethren, raise the hymn, let your song the
hymn resound"), which is a succinct narrative, in hymnal form, of the
whole gospel history; and is perhaps the earliest example of a strictly
didactic hymn. Both Bede and Hincmar much admired this composition,
though the former does not mention, in connexion with it, the name of
Hilary. The private use of hymns of such a character by Christians in
the West may probably have preceded their ecclesiastical use; for Jerome
says that in his day those who went into the fields might hear "the
ploughman at his hallelujahs, the mower at his hymns, and the
vine-dresser singing David's psalms." Besides this, seven shorter
metrical hymns attributed to Hilary are still extant.
Ambrose.
Of the part taken by Ambrose, not long after Hilary's death, in bringing
the use of hymns into the church of Milan, we have a contemporary
account from his convert, St Augustine. Justina, mother of the emperor
Valentinian, favoured the Arians, and desired to remove Ambrose from his
see. The "devout people," of whom Augustine's mother, Monica, was one,
combined to protect him, and kept guard in the church. "Then," says
Augustine, "it was first appointed that, after the manner of the Eastern
churches, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should grow
weary and faint through sorrow; which custom has ever since been
retained, and has been followed by almost all congregations in other
parts of the world." He describes himself as moved to tears by the
sweetness of these "hymns and canticles":--"The voices flowed into my
ears; the truth distilled into my heart; I overflowed with devout
affections, and was happy." To this time, according to an uncertain but
not improbable tradition which ascribed the composition of the "Te Deum"
to Ambrose, and connected it with the conversion of Augustine, is to be
referred the commencement of the use in the church of that sublime
unmetrical hymn.
It is not, however, to be assumed that the hymnody thus introduced by
Ambrose was from the first used according to the precise order and
method of the later Western ritual. To bring it into (substantially)
that order and method appears to have been the work of St Benedict.
Walafrid Strabo, the earliest ecclesiastical writer on this subject (who
lived at the beginning of the 9th century), says that Benedict, on the
constitution of the religious order known by his name (about 530),
appointed the Ambrosian hymns to be regularly sung in his offices for
the canonical hours. Hence probably originated the practice of the
Italian churches, and of others which followed their example, to sing
certain hymns (Ambrosian, or by the early successors of the Ambrosian
school) daily throughout the week, at "Vespers," "Lauds" and "Nocturns,"
and on some days at "Compline" also--varying them with the different
ecclesiastical seasons and festivals, commemorations of saints and
martyrs and other special offices. Different dioceses and religious
houses had their own peculiarities of ritual, including such hymns as
were approved by their several bishops or ecclesiastical superiors,
varying in detail, but all following the same general method. The
national rituals, which were first reduced into a form substantially
like that which has since prevailed, were probably those of Lombardy and
of Spain, now known as the "Ambrosian" and the "Mozarabic." The age and
origin of the Spanish ritual are uncertain, but it is mentioned in the
7th century by Isidore, bishop of Seville. It contained a copious
hymnary, the original form of which may be regarded as canonically
approved by the fourth council of Toledo (633). By the 13th canon of
that council, an opinion (which even then found advocates) against the
use in churches of any hymns not taken from the Scriptures--apparently
the same opinion which had been held by Paul of Samosata--was censured;
and it was ordered that such hymns should be used in the Spanish as well
as in the Gallican churches, the penalty of excommunication being
denounced against all who might presume to reject them.
The hymns of which the use was thus established and authorized were
those which entered into the daily and other offices of the church,
afterwards collected in the "Breviaries"; in which the hymns "proper"
for "the week," and for "the season," continued for many centuries, with
very few exceptions, to be derived from the earliest epoch of Latin
Church poetry--reckoning that epoch as extending from Hilary and Ambrose
to the end of the pontificate of Gregory the Great. The "Ambrosian"
music, to which those hymns were generally sung down to the time of
Gregory, was more popular and congregational than the "Gregorian," which
then came into use, and afterwards prevailed. In the service of the mass
it was not the general practice, before the invention of sequences in
the 9th century, to sing any hymns, except some from the Scriptures
esteemed canonical, such as the "Song of the Three Children"
("Benedicite omnia opera"). But to this rule there were, according to
Walafrid Strabo, some occasional exceptions; particularly in the case of
Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia under Charlemagne, himself a
hymn-writer, who frequently used hymns, composed by himself or others,
in the eucharistic office, especially in private masses.
Some of the hymns called "Ambrosian" (nearly 100 in number) are beyond
all question by Ambrose himself, and the rest probably belong to his
time or to the following century. Four, those beginning "Aeterne rerum
conditor" ("Dread Framer of the earth and sky"), "Deus Creator omnium"
("Maker of all things, glorious God"), "Veni Redemptor Gentium"
("Redeemer of the nations, come") and "Jam surgit hora tertia" ("Christ
at this hour was crucified"), are quoted as works of Ambrose by
Augustine. These, and others by the hand of the same master, have the
qualities most valuable in hymns intended for congregational use. They
are short and complete in themselves; easy, and at the same time
elevated in their expression and rhythm; terse and masculine in thought
and language; and (though sometimes criticized as deficient in
theological precision) simple, pure and not technical in their rendering
of the great facts and doctrines of Christianity, which they present in
an objective and not a subjective manner. They have exercised a powerful
influence, direct or indirect, upon many of the best works of the same
kind in all succeeding generations. With the Ambrosian hymns are
properly classed those of Hilary, and the contemporary works of Pope
Damasus I. (who wrote two hymns in commemoration of saints), and of
Prudentius, from whose _Cathemerina_ ("Daily Devotions") and
_Peristephana_ ("Crown-songs for Martyrs"), all poems of considerable,
some of great length--about twenty-eight hymns, found in various
Breviaries, were derived. Prudentius was a layman, a native of
Saragossa, and it was in the Spanish ritual that his hymns were most
largely used. In the Mozarabic Breviary almost the whole of one of his
finest poems (from which most churches took one part only, beginning
"Corde natus ex parentis") was appointed to be sung between Easter and
Ascension-Day, being divided into eight or nine hymns; and on some of
the commemorations of Spanish saints long poems from his _Peristephana_
were recited or sung at large. He is entitled to a high rank among
Christian poets, many of the hymns taken from his works being full of
fervour and sweetness, and by no means deficient in dignity or strength.
5th and 6th centuries.
These writers were followed in the 5th and early in the 6th century by
the priest Sedulius, whose reputation perhaps exceeded his merit; Elpis,
a noble Roman lady (considered, by an erroneous tradition, to have been
the wife of the philosophic statesman Boetius); Pope Gelasius I.; and
Ennodius, bishop of Pavia. Sedulius and Elpis wrote very little from
which hymns could be extracted; but the small number taken from their
compositions obtained wide popularity, and have since held their ground.
Gelasius was of no great account as a hymn-writer; and the works of
Ennodius appear to have been known only in Italy and Spain. The latter
part of the 6th century produced Pope Gregory the Great and Venantius
Fortunatus, an Italian poet, the friend of Gregory, and the favourite of
Radegunda, queen of the Franks, who died (609) bishop of Poitiers.
Eleven hymns of Gregory, and twelve or thirteen (mostly taken from
longer poems) by Fortunatus, came into general use in the Italian,
Gallican and British churches. Those of Gregory are in a style hardly
distinguishable from the Ambrosian; those of Fortunatus are graceful,
and sometimes vigorous. He does not, however, deserve the praise given
to him by Dr Neale, of having struck out a new path in Latin hymnody. On
the contrary, he may more justly be described as a disciple of the
school of Prudentius, and as having affected the classical style, at
least as much as any of his predecessors.
The poets of this primitive epoch, which closed with the 6th century,
wrote in the old classical metres, and made use of a considerable
variety of them--anapaestic, anacreontic, hendecasyllabic, asclepiad,
hexameters and pentameters and others. Gregory and some of the
Ambrosian authors occasionally wrote in sapphics; but the most
frequent measure was the iambic dimeter, and, next to that, the
trochaic. The full alcaic stanza does not appear to have been used for
church purposes before the 16th century, though some of its elements
were. In the greater number of these works, a general intention to
conform to the rules of Roman prosody is manifest; but even those
writers (like Prudentius) in whom that conformity was most decided
allowed themselves much liberty of deviation from it. Other works,
including some of the very earliest, and some of conspicuous merit,
were of the kind described by Bede as not metrical but
"rhythmical"--i.e. (as he explains the term "rhythm"), "modulated to
the ear in imitation of different metres." It would be more correct to
call them metrical--(e.g. still trochaic or iambic, &c., but,
according to new laws of syllabic quantity, depending entirely on
accent, and not on the power of vowels or the position of
consonants)--laws by which the future prosody of all modern European
nations was to be governed. There are also, in the hymns of the
primitive period (even in those of Ambrose), anticipations--irregular
indeed and inconstant, but certainly not accidental--of another great
innovation, destined to receive important developments, that of
assonance or rhyme, in the final letters or syllables of verses.
Archbishop Trench, in the introduction to his _Sacred Latin Poetry_,
has traced the whole course of the transition from the ancient to the
modern forms of versification, ascribing it to natural and necessary
causes, which made such changes needful for the due development of the
new forms of spiritual and intellectual life, consequent upon the
conversion of the Latin-speaking nations to Christianity.
6th century downwards.
From the 6th century downwards we see this transformation making
continual progress, each nation of Western Christendom adding, from time
to time, to the earlier hymns in its service-books others of more recent
and frequently of local origin. For these additions, the commemorations
of saints, &c., as to which the devotion of one place often differed
from that of another, offered especial opportunities. This process,
while it promoted the development of a medieval as distinct from the
primitive style, led also to much deterioration in the quality of
hymns, of which, perhaps, some of the strongest examples may be found in
a volume published in 1865 by the Irish Archaeological Society from a
manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Dublin. It contains a
number of hymns by Irish saints of the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries--in
several instances fully rhymed, and in one mixing Erse and Latin
barbarously together, as was not uncommon, at a much later date, in
semi-vernacular hymns of other countries. The Mozarabic Breviary, and
the collection of hymns used in the Anglo-Saxon churches, published in
1851 by the Surtees Society (chiefly from a Benedictine MS. In the
college library of Durham, supplemented by other MSS. in the British
Museum), supply many further illustrations of the same decline of
taste:--such Sapphics, e.g., as the "Festum insigne prodiit coruscum" of
Isidore, and the "O veneranda Trinitas laudanda" of the Anglo-Saxon
books. The early medieval period, however, from the time of Gregory the
Great to that of Hildebrand, was far from deficient in the production of
good hymns, wherever learning flourished. Bede in England, and Paul "the
Deacon"--the author of a fairly classical sapphic ode on St John the
Baptist--in Italy, were successful followers of the Ambrosian and
Gregorian styles. Eleven metrical hymns are attributed to Bede by
Cassander; and there are also in one of Bede's works (_Collectanea et
flores_) two rhythmical hymns of considerable length on the Day of
Judgment, with the refrains "In tremendo die" and "Attende homo," both
irregularly rhymed, and, in parts, not unworthy of comparison with the
"Dies Irae." Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, contemporary with Paul,
wrote rhythmical trimeter iambics in a manner peculiar to himself.
Theodulph, bishop of Orleans (793-835), author of the famous
processional hymn for Palm Sunday in hexameters and pentameters,
"Gloria, laus, et honor tibi sit, Rex Christe Redemptor" ("Glory and
honour and laud be to Thee, King Christ the Redeemer"), and Hrabanus
Maurus, archbishop of Mainz, the pupil of Alcuin, and the most learned
theologian of his day, enriched the church with some excellent works.
Among the anonymous hymns of the same period there are three of great
beauty, of which the influence may be traced in most, if not all, of the
"New Jerusalem" hymns of later generations, including those of Germany
and Great Britain:--"Urbs beata Hierusalem" ("Blessed city, heavenly
Salem"); "Alleluia piis edite laudibus" ("Alleluias sound ye in strains
of holy praise"--called, from its burden, "Alleluia perenne"); and
"Alleluia dulce carmen" ("Alleluia, song of sweetness"), which, being
found in Anglo-Saxon hymnaries certainly older than the Conquest, cannot
be of the late date assigned to it, in his _Mediaeval Hymns and
Sequences_, by Neale. These were followed by the "Chorus novae
Hierusalem" ("Ye Choirs of New Jerusalem") of Fulbert, bishop of
Chartres. This group of hymns is remarkable for an attractive union of
melody, imagination, poetical colouring and faith. It represents,
perhaps, the best and highest type of the middle school, between the
severe Ambrosian simplicity and the florid luxuriance of later times.
Veni Creator.
Notker.
Another celebrated hymn, which belongs to the first medieval period, is
the "Veni Creator Spiritus" ("Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire"). The
earliest recorded occasion of its use is that of a translation (898) of
the relics of St Marcellus, mentioned in the _Annals_ of the Benedictine
order. It has since been constantly sung throughout Western Christendom
(as versions of it still are in the Church of England), as part of the
appointed offices for the coronation of kings, the consecration and
ordination of bishops and priests, the assembling of synods and other
great ecclesiastical solemnities. It has been attributed--probably in
consequence of certain corruptions in the text of Ekkehard's _Life of
Notker_ (a work of the 13th century)--to Charlemagne. Ekkehard wrote in
the Benedictine monastery of St Gall, to which Notker belonged, with
full access to its records; and an ignorant interpolator, regardless of
chronology, added, at some later date, the word "Great" to the name of
"the emperor Charles," wherever it was mentioned in that work. The
biographer relates that Notker--a man of a gentle, contemplative nature,
observant of all around him, and accustomed to find spiritual and
poetical suggestions in common sights and sounds--was moved by the
sound of a mill-wheel to compose his "sequence" on the Holy Spirit,
"Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia" ("Present with us ever be the Holy
Spirit's grace"); and that, when finished, he sent it as a present to
"the emperor Charles," who in return sent him back, "by the same
messenger," the hymn "Veni Creator," which (says Ekkehard) the same
"Spirit had inspired him to write" ("Sibi idem Spiritus inspiraverat").
If this story is to be credited--and, from its circumstantial and almost
dramatic character, it has an air of truth--the author of "Veni Creator"
was not Charlemagne, but his grandson the emperor Charles the Bald.
Notker himself long survived that emperor, and died in 912.
Sequences.
The invention of "sequences" by Notker may be regarded as the beginning
of the later medieval epoch of Latin hymnody. In the eucharistic
service, in which (as has been stated) hymns were not generally used, it
had been the practice, except at certain seasons, to sing "laud," or
"Alleluia," between the epistle and the gospel, and to fill up what
would otherwise have been a long pause, by extending the cadence upon
the two final vowels of the "Alleluia" into a protracted strain of
music. It occurred to Notker that, while preserving the spirit of that
part of the service, the monotony of the interval might be relieved by
introducing at that point a chant of praise specially composed for the
purpose. With that view he produced the peculiar species of rhythmical
composition which obtained the name of "sequentia" (probably from
following after the close of the "Alleluia"), and also that of "prosa,"
because its structure was originally irregular and unmetrical,
resembling in this respect the Greek "troparia," and the "Te Deum,"
"Benedicite" and canticles. That it was in some measure suggested by the
forms of the later Greek hymnody seems probable, both from the
intercourse (at that time frequent) between the Eastern and Western
churches, and from the application by Ekkehard, in his biography and
elsewhere (e.g. in Lyndwood's _Provinciale_), of some technical terms,
borrowed from the Greek terminology, to works of Notker and his school
and to books containing them.
Dr Neale, in a learned dissertation prefixed to his collection of
sequences from medieval Missals, and enlarged in a Latin letter to H.
A. Daniel (printed in the fifth volume of Daniel's _Thesaurus
hymnologicus_), investigated the laws of caesura and modulation which
are discoverable in these works. Those first brought into use were
sent by their author to Pope Nicholas I., who authorized their use,
and that of others composed after the same model by other brethren of
St Gall, in all churches of the West.
Although the sequences of Notker and his school, which then rapidly
passed into most German, French and British Missals, were not
metrical, the art of "assonance" was much practised in them. Many of
those in the Sarum and French Missals have every verse, and even every
clause or division of a verse, ending with the same vowel "a"--perhaps
with some reference to the terminal letter of "Alleluia." Artifices
such as these naturally led the way to the adaptation of the same kind
of composition to regular metre and fully developed rhyme. Neale's
full and large collection, and the second volume of Daniel's
_Thesaurus_, contain numerous examples, both of the "proses," properly
so called, of the Notkerian type, and of those of the later school,
which (from the religious house to which its chief writer belonged)
has been called "Victorine." Most Missals appear to have contained
some of both kinds. In the majority of those from which Neale's
specimens are taken, the metrical kind largely prevailed; but in some
(e.g. those of Sarum and Liége) the greater number were Notkerian.
Of the sequence on the Holy Ghost, sent by Notker (according to
Ekkehard) to Charles the Bald, Neale says that it "was in use all over
Europe, even in those countries, like Italy and Spain, which usually
rejected sequences"; and that, "in the Missal of Palencia, the priest
was ordered to hold a white dove in his hands, while intoning the first
syllables, and then to let it go." Another of the most remarkable of
Notker's sequences, beginning "Media in vita" ("In the midst of life we
are in death"), is said to have been suggested to him while observing
some workmen engaged in the construction of a bridge over a torrent near
his monastery. Catherine Winkworth (_Christian Singers of Germany_,
1869) states that this was long used as a battle-song, until the custom
was forbidden, on account of its being supposed to exercise a magical
influence. A translation of it ("Mitten wir im Leben sind") is one of
Luther's funeral hymns; and all but the opening sentence of that part of
the burial service of the Church of England which is directed to be
"said or sung" at the grave, "while the corpse is made ready to be laid
into the earth," is taken from it.
The "Golden Sequence," "Veni, sancte Spiritus" ("Holy Spirit, Lord of
Light"), is an early example of the transition of sequences from a
simply rhythmical to a metrical form. Archbishop Trench, who esteemed it
"the loveliest of all the hymns in the whole circle of Latin sacred
poetry," inclined to give credit to a tradition which ascribes its
authorship to Robert II., king of France, son of Hugh Capet. Others have
assigned to it a later date--some attributing it to Pope Innocent III.,
and some to Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury. Many
translations, in German, English and other languages, attest its merit.
Berengarius of Tours, St Bernard of Clairvaux and Abelard, in the 11th
century and early in the 12th, followed in the same track; and the art
of the Victorine school was carried to its greatest perfection by Adam
of St Victor (who died between 1173 and 1194)--"the most fertile, and"
(in the concurrent judgment of Archbishop Trench and Neale) "the
greatest of the Latin hymnographers of the Middle Ages." The
archbishop's selection contains many excellent specimens of his works.
Dies Irae.
Stabat Mater.
Aquinas.
But the two most widely celebrated of all this class of
compositions--works which have exercised the talents of the greatest
musical composers, and of innumerable translators in almost all
languages--are the "Dies Irae" ("That day of wrath, that dreadful day"),
by Thomas of Celano, the companion and biographer of St Francis of
Assisi, and the "Stabat Mater dolorosa" ("By the cross sad vigil
keeping") of Jacopone, or Jacobus de Benedictis, a Franciscan humorist
and reformer, who was persecuted by Pope Boniface VIII. for his satires
on the prelacy of the time, and died in 1306. Besides these, the 13th
century produced the famous sequence "Lauda Sion salvatorem" ("Sion,
lift thy voice and sing"), and the four other well-known sacramental
hymns of St Thomas Aquinas, viz. "Pange lingua gloriosi corporis
mysterium" ("Sing, my tongue, the Saviour's glory"), "Verbum supernum
prodiens" ("The Word, descending from above"--not to be confounded with
the Ambrosian hymn from which it borrowed the first line), "Sacris
solemniis juncta sint gaudia" ("Let us with hearts renewed our grateful
homage pay"), and "Adoro Te devote, latens Deitas" ("O Godhead hid,
devoutly I adore Thee")--a group of remarkable compositions, written by
him for the then new festival of Corpus Christi, of which he induced
Pope Urban IV. (1261-1265) to decree the observance. In these (of which
all but "Adoro Te devote" passed rapidly into breviaries and missals)
the doctrine of transubstantiation is set forth with a wonderful degree
of scholastic precision; and they exercised, probably, a not unimportant
influence upon the general reception of that dogma. They are undoubtedly
works of genius, powerful in thought, feeling and expression.
Medieval hymns.
These and other medieval hymn-writers of the 12th and 13th centuries may
be described, generally, as poet-schoolmen. Their tone is contemplative,
didactic, theological; they are especially fertile and ingenious in the
field of mystical interpretation. Two great monasteries in the East had,
in the 8th and 9th centuries, been the principal centres of Greek
hymnology; and, in the West, three monasteries--St Gall, near Constance
(which was long the especial seat of German religious literature), Cluny
in Burgundy and St Victor, near Paris--obtained a similar distinction.
St Gall produced, besides Notker, several distinguished sequence
writers, probably his pupils--Hartmann, Hermann and Gottschalk--to the
last of whom Neale ascribes the "Alleluiatic Sequence" ("Cantemus cuncti
melodum nunc Alleluia"), well known in England through his translation,
"The strain upraise of joy and praise." The chief poets of Cluny were
two of its abbots, Odo and Peter the Venerable (1122-1156), and one of
Peter's monks, Bernard of Morlaix, who wrote the remarkable poem on
"Contempt of the World" in about 3000 long rolling "leonine-dactylic"
verses, from parts of which Neale's popular hymns, "Jerusalem the
golden," &c., are taken. The abbey of St Victor, besides Adam and his
follower Pistor, was destined afterwards to produce the most popular
church poet of the 17th century.
Bernard of Clairvaux.
There were other distinguished Latin hymn-writers of the later medieval
period besides those already mentioned. The name of St Bernard of
Clairvaux cannot be passed over with the mere mention of the fact that
he was the author of some metrical sequences. He was, in truth, the
father, in Latin hymnody, of that warm and passionate form of devotion
which some may consider to apply too freely to Divine Objects the
language of human affection, but which has, nevertheless, been popular
with many devout persons, in Protestant as well as Roman Catholic
churches. F. von Spee, "Angelus Silesius," Madame Guyon, Bishop Ken,
Count Zinzendorf and Frederick William Faber may be regarded as
disciples in this school. Many hymns, in various languages, have been
founded upon St Bernard's "Jesu dulcis memoria" ("Jesu, the very thought
of Thee"), "Jesu dulcedo cordium" ("Jesu, Thou joy of loving hearts")
and "Jesu Rex admirabilis" ("O Jesu, King most wonderful")--three
portions of one poem, nearly 200 lines long. Pietro Damiani, the friend
of Pope Gregory VII, Marbode, bishop of Rennes, in the 11th, Hildebert,
archbishop of Tours, in the 12th, and St Bonaventura in the 13th
centuries, are other eminent men who added poetical fame as
hymnographers to high public distinction.
Before the time of the Reformation, the multiplication of sequences
(often as unedifying in matter as unpoetical in style) had done much to
degrade the common conception of hymnody. In some parts of France,
Portugal, Sardinia and Bohemia, their use in the vernacular language had
been allowed. In Germany also there were vernacular sequences as early
as the 12th century, specimens of which may be seen in the third chapter
of C. Winkworth's _Christian Singers of Germany_. Scoffing parodies upon
sequences are said to have been among the means used in Scotland to
discredit the old church services. After the 15th century they were
discouraged at Rome. They retained for a time some of their old
popularity among German Protestants, and were only gradually
relinquished in France. A new "prose," in honour of St Maxentia, is
among the compositions of Jean Baptiste Santeul; and Dr Daniel's second
volume closes with one written in 1855 upon the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception.
Roman revision of hymns.
The taste of the Renaissance was offended by all deviations from
classical prosody and Latinity. Pope Leo X. directed the whole body of
the hymns in use at Rome to be reformed; and the _Hymni novi
ecclesiastici juxta veram metri et Latinitatis normam_, prepared by
Zacharie Ferreri (1479-1530), a Benedictine of Monte Cassino,
afterwards a Carthusian and bishop of Guardia, to whom Leo had
committed that task, appeared at Rome in 1525, with the sanction of a
later pope, Clement VII. The next step was to revise the whole Roman
Breviary. That undertaking, after passing through several stages under
different popes (particularly Pius V. and Clement VIII.), was at last
brought to a conclusion by Urban VIII., in 1631. From this revised
Breviary a large number of medieval hymns, both of the earlier and the
later periods, were excluded; and in their places many new hymns,
including some by Pope Urban himself, and some by Cardinal Bellarmine
and another cardinal (Silvius Antonianus) were introduced. The hymns
of the primitive epoch, from Hilary to Gregory the Great, for the most
part retained their places (especially in the offices for every day of
the week); and there remained altogether from seventy to eighty of
earlier date than the 11th century. Those, however, which were so
retained were freely altered, and by no means generally improved. The
revisers appointed by Pope Urban (three learned Jesuits--Strada,
Gallucci and Petrucci) professed to have made "as few changes as
possible" in the works of Ambrose, Gregory, Prudentius, Sedulius,
Fortunatus and other "poets of great name." But some changes, even in
those works, were made with considerable boldness; and the pope, in
the "constitution" by which his new book was promulgated, boasted
that, "with the exception of a very small number ('perpaucis'), which
were either prose or merely rhythmical, all the hymns had been made
conformable to the laws of prosody and Latinity, those which could not
be corrected by any milder method being entirely rewritten." The
latter fate befel, among others, the beautiful "Urbs beata
Hierusalem," which now assumed the form (to many, perhaps, better
known), of "Caelestis urbs Jerusalem." Of the "very few" which were
spared, the chief were "Ave maris stella" ("Gentle star of ocean"),
"Dies Irae," "Stabat Mater dolorosa," the hymns of Thomas Aquinas,
two of St Bernard and one Ambrosian hymn, "Jesu nostra Redemptio" ("O
Jesu, our Redemption"), which approaches nearer than others to the
tone of St Bernard. A then recent hymn of St Francis Xavier, with
scarcely enough merit of any kind to atone for its neglect of prosody,
"O Deus, ego amo Te" ("O God, I love Thee, not because"), was at the
same time introduced without change. This hymnary of Pope Urban VIII.
is now in general use throughout the Roman Communion.
Parisian revisions.
The Parisian hymnary underwent three revisions--the first in 1527,
when a new "Psaltery with hymns" was issued. In this such changes only
were made as the revisers thought justifiable upon the principle of
correcting supposed corruptions of the original text. Of these, the
transposition, "Urbs Jerusalem beata," instead of "Urbs beata
Hierusalem," may be taken as a typical example. The next revision was
in 1670-1680, under Cardinal Péréfixe, preceptor of Louis XIV., and
Francis Harlay, successively archbishops of Paris, who employed for
this purpose Claude Santeul, of the monastery of St Magloire, and,
through him, obtained the assistance of other French scholars,
including his more celebrated brother, Jean Baptiste Santeul, of the
abbey of St Victor--better known as "Santolius Victorinus." The third
and final revision was completed in 1735, under the primacy of
Cardinal Archbishop de Vintimille, who engaged for it the services of
Charles Coffin, then rector of the university of Paris. Many old hymns
were omitted in Archbishop Harlay's Breviary, and a large number of
new compositions, by the Santeuls and others, was introduced. It
still, however, retained in their old places (without further changes
than had been made in 1527) about seventy of earlier date than the
11th century--including thirty-one Ambrosian, one by Hilary, eight by
Prudentius, seven by Fortunatus, three by Paul the Deacon, two each by
Sedulius, Elpis, Gregory and Hrabanus Maurus, "Veni Creator" and "Urbs
Jerusalem beata." Most of these disappeared in 1735, although Cardinal
Vintimille, in his preface, professed to have still admitted the old
hymns, except when the new were better--("veteribus hymnis locus datus
est, nisi quibus, ob sententiarum vim, elegantiam verborum, et
teneriores pietatis sensus, recentiores anteponi satius visum est").
The number of the new was, at the same time, very largely increased.
Only twenty-one more ancient than the 16th century remained, of which
those belonging to the primitive epoch were but eight, viz. four
Ambrosian, two by Fortunatus and one each by Prudentius and Gregory.
The number of Jean Baptiste Santeul's hymns rose to eighty-nine; those
by Coffin--including some old hymns, e.g. "Jam lucis orto sidere"
("Once more the sun is beaming bright"), which he substantially
re-wrote--were eighty-three; those of other modern French writers,
ninety-seven. Whatever opinion may be entertained of the principles on
which these Roman and Parisian revisions proceeded, it would be unjust
to deny very high praise as hymn-writers to several of their poets,
especially to Coffin and Jean Baptiste Santeul. The noble hymn by
Coffin, beginning--
"O luce qui mortalibus "O Thou who in the light dost dwell,
Lates inaccessa, Deus, To mortals unapproachable,
Praesente quo sancti tremunt Where angels veil them from Thy rays,
Nubuntque vultus angeli," And tremble as they gaze,"
and several others of his works, breathe the true Ambrosian spirit;
and though Santeul (generally esteemed the better poet of the two)
delighted in alcaics, and did not greatly affect the primitive manner,
there can be no question as to the excellence of such hymns as his
"Fumant Sabaeis templa vaporibus" ("Sweet incense breathes around"),
"Stupete gentes, fit Deus hostia" ("Tremble, ye Gentile lands"),
"Hymnis dum resonat curia caelitum" ("Ye in the house of heavenly
morn"), and "Templi sacratas pande, Sion, fores" ("O Sion, open wide
thy gates"). It is a striking testimony to the merits of those writers
that such accomplished translators as the Rev. Isaac Williams and the
Rev. John Chandler appear (from the title-page of the latter, and the
prefaces of both) to have supposed their hymns to be "ancient" and
"primitive." Among the other authors associated with them, perhaps the
first place is due to the Abbé Besnault, of Sens, who contributed to
the book of 1735 the "Urbs beata vera pacis Visio Jerusalem," in the
opinion of Neale "much superior" to the "Caelestis urbs Jerusalem" of
the Roman Breviary. This stood side by side with the "Urbs Jerusalem
beata" of 1527 (in the office for the dedication of churches) till
1822, when the older form was at last finally excluded by Archbishop
de Quelen.
The Parisian Breviary of 1735 remained in use till the national French
service-books were superseded (as they have lately been, generally, if
not universally) by the Roman. Almost all French dioceses followed,
not indeed the Breviary, but the example, of Paris; and before the end
of the 18th century the ancient Latin hymnody was all but banished
from France.
Modern Latin hymns.
In some parts of Germany, after the Reformation, Latin hymns continued
to be used even by Protestants. This was the case at Halberstadt until
quite a recent date. In England, a few are still occasionally used in
the older universities and colleges. Some, also, have been composed in
both countries since the Reformation. The "Carmina lyrica" of Johann
Jakob Balde, a native of Alsace, and a Jesuit priest in Bavaria, have
received high commendation from very eminent German critics,
particularly Herder and Augustus Schlegel. Some of the Latin hymns of
William Alard (1572-1645), a Protestant refugee from Belgium, and
pastor in Holstein, have been thought worthy of a place in Archbishop
Trench's selection. Two by W. Petersen (printed at the end of
Haberkorn's supplement to Jacobi's _Psalmodia Germanica_) are good in
different ways--one, "Jesu dulcis amor meus" ("Jesus, Thee my soul
doth love"), being a gentle melody of spiritual devotion, and the
other, entitled _Spes Sionis_, violently controversial against Rome.
An English hymn of the 17th century, in the Ambrosian style, "Te Deum
Patrem colimus" ("Almighty Father, just and good"), is sung on every
May-Day morning by the choristers of Magdalen College, Oxford, from
the top of the tower of their chapel; and another in the style of the
Renaissance, of about the same date, "Te de profundis, summe Rex"
("Thee from the depths, Almighty King"), long formed part of a grace
formerly sung by the scholars of Winchester College.
Luther.
5. _German Hymnody._--Luther was a proficient in and a lover of music.
He desired (as he says in the preface to his hymn-book of 1545) that
this "beautiful ornament" might "in a right manner serve the great
Creator and His Christian people." The persecuted Bohemian or Hussite
Church, then settled on the borders of Moravia under the name of "United
Brethren," had sent to him, on a mission in 1522, Michael Weiss, who not
long afterwards published a number of German translations from old
Bohemian hymns (known as those of the "Bohemian Brethren"), with some of
his own. These Luther highly approved and recommended. He himself, in
1522, published a small volume of eight hymns, which was enlarged to 63
in 1527, and to 125 in 1545. He had formed what he called a "house
choir" of musical friends, to select such old and popular tunes (whether
secular or ecclesiastical) as might be found suitable, and to compose
new melodies, for church use. His fellow labourers in this field
(besides Weiss) were Justus Jonas, his own especial colleague; Paul
Eber, the disciple and friend of Melanchthon; John Walther, choirmaster
successively to several German princes, and professor of arts, &c., at
Wittenberg; Nicholas Decius, who from a monk became a Protestant teacher
in Brunswick, and translated the "Gloria in Excelsis," &c.; and Paul
Speratus, chaplain to Duke Albert of Prussia in 1525. Some of their
works are still popular in Germany. Weiss's "Funeral Hymn," "Nun lasst
uns den Leib begraben" ("Now lay we calmly in the grave"); Eber's "Herr
Jesu Christ, wahr Mensch und Gott" ("Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and
God"), and "Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein" ("When in the hour of
utmost need"); Walther's "New Heavens and new Earth" ("Now fain my
joyous heart would sing"); Decius's "To God on high be thanks and
praise"; and Speratus's "Salvation now has come for all," are among
those which at the time produced the greatest effect, and are still best
remembered.
Luther's own hymns, thirty-seven in number (of which about twelve are
translations or adaptations from Latin originals), are for the principal
Christian seasons; on the sacraments, the church, grace, death, &c.; and
paraphrases of seven psalms, of a passage in Isaiah, and of the Lord's
Prayer, Ten Commandments, Creed, Litany and "Te Deum." There is also a
very touching and stirring song on the martyrdom of two youths by fire
at Brussels, in 1523-1524. Homely and sometimes rugged in form, and for
the most part objective in tone, they are full of fire, manly simplicity
and strong faith. Three rise above the rest. One for Christmas, "Vom
Himmel hoch da komm ich her" ("From Heaven above to earth I come"), has
a reverent tenderness, the influence of which may be traced in many
later productions on the same subject. That on salvation through Christ,
of a didactic character, "Nun freuet euch, lieben Christen g'mein"
("Dear Christian people, now rejoice"), is said to have made many
conversions, and to have been once taken up by a large congregation to
silence a Roman Catholic preacher in the cathedral of Frankfort.
Pre-eminent above all is the celebrated paraphrase of the 46th Psalm:
"Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott" ("A sure stronghold our God is
He")--"the production" (as Ranke says) "of the moment in which Luther,
engaged in a conflict with a world of foes, sought strength in the
consciousness that he was defending a divine cause which could never
perish." Carlyle compares it to "a sound of Alpine avalanches, or the
first murmur of earthquakes." Heine called it "the Marseillaise of the
Reformation."
Luther spent several years in teaching his people at Wittenberg to sing
these hymns, which soon spread over Germany. Without adopting the
hyperbolical saying of Coleridge, that "Luther did as much for the
Reformation by his hymns as by his translation of the Bible," it may
truly be affirmed, that, among the secondary means by which the success
of the Reformation was promoted, none was more powerful. They were sung
everywhere--in the streets and fields as well as the churches, in the
workshop and the palace, "by children in the cottage and by martyrs on
the scaffold." It was by them that a congregational character was given
to the new Protestant worship. This success they owed partly to their
metrical structure, which, though sometimes complex, was recommended to
the people by its ease and variety; and partly to the tunes and melodies
(many of them already well known and popular) to which they were set.
They were used as direct instruments of teaching, and were therefore, in
a large measure, didactic and theological; and it may be partly owing to
this cause that German hymnody came to deviate, so soon and so generally
as it did, from the simple idea expressed in the ancient Augustinian
definition, and to comprehend large classes of compositions which, in
most other countries, would be thought hardly suitable for church use.