The enlargement and diversification of the Hymnal to which Canon Douglas
referred in the words quoted at the close of Chapter Two, occurred
within the general historical limits of the Carolingian era and with the
exception of Spain and the British Isles, within the general
geographical limits of Carolingian political influence. The hymn cycles
of the period, recorded in manuscripts which reflect the numerical
increase in hymns as well as their diffusion upon the continent, are
associated with religious centers, for example, St. Martial, Laon,
Douai, Moissac, St. Germain-des-Prés, Corbie, Jumièges, Reichenau,
Treves, Schäftlarn near Munich, Murbach, Rheinau, St. Gall, Einsiedeln,
Bobbio, Monte Cassino, Benevento, Padua, Toledo, Canterbury, Naples and
many other places. The nucleus of the _Later Hymnal_ has been identified
with the hymn cycle found partly in a _hymnarium_ of the ninth century
from St. Paul’s in Lavantthal, Carinthia, and partly in a similar
manuscript from Karlsruh, both manuscripts being associated with
Reichenau.[20] The basic hymns from this group of sources current in the
Carolingian period are listed in the appendix to this chapter. A
complete list of the manuscript sources (prior to 1100), including the
above and others, with an index of the hymns which they contain,
approximately 800 in number, was provided by James Mearns, the English
hymnologist, in his _Early Latin Hymnaries_.[21]
So much for the evidence as to the actual hymns in use from sources
available at the period when the _Later Hymnal_ flourished. The origin
of the _Later Hymnal_, however, is far from clear. It has been defined
as a collection arising about the seventh century which superseded the
_Old Hymnal_ and has since prevailed.[22] This opinion advanced by Blume
and affirmed by Walpole, depends upon the theory that the later cycle
had been in use in the British Isles since the period of Gregory the
Great. An Anglo-Irish cycle therefore, was posited which took possession
of the continent, usurping the original Benedictine hymnal. As early as
1911, Blume’s theory was questioned by Wilmart, the Benedictine scholar,
who asserted that the early cycle constituted a Gallican hymnal only,—a
possibility mentioned above. He thought that the _Later Hymnal_ was a
new version of the Benedictine cycle representing a normal growth
through the centuries. Other critics of note have adopted one or the
other viewpoint, Frere following that of Blume; and Raby, that of
Wilmart.[23] A final solution is obviously impossible for lack of
manuscript evidence.
At the accession of Charlemagne, 768, the future of liturgical hymnody
was uncertain as the forces of Roman usage and Benedictine practice were
in conflict and the possibility of transferring the Benedictine heritage
to the church extremely doubtful, as the preceding survey has already
made clear. Secondary forces, however, were at work to achieve this very
end. First, the early gains made in compiling the Gallican Hymnal and
extending it to the secular clergy were never entirely lost. A precedent
had been set. Second, the Benedictine cycle was enjoined wherever the
Rule was effective and its use was further stimulated by royal
capitularies upon the subject of music and singing. Third, the
establishment of monastic centers of music in the leading Benedictine
abbeys was productive of literary as well as musical effort, attested by
the very manuscripts of hymn collections gathered there. The manuscripts
of St. Gall, for example, cover every department of contemporary
medieval hymnology.
Charlemagne was particularly interested in St. Gall but was also
concerned with the monastic centers at Mainz, Fulda, Treves, Cologne,
Bamberg, Hersfeld, Lorsch, Würzburg and Reichenau.[24] He founded
Neustadt and endowed twelve monasteries in Germany. Meanwhile missionary
zeal had guided Benedictine pioneers beyond the old boundaries, and
Bavaria and Frisia had already been opened to missions and incidentally
to the full round of Benedictine activities. Louis the Pious was active
in monastic reform through his association with Benedict of Aniane; he
was a special patron of St. Gall and he stimulated the efforts of
leaders from Corbie to found New Corbie. Charles the Bald was a
benefactor of Marchiennes, Compiègne, Prum and St. Denis.[25] Prior to
this period, the numerous and influential foundations established on the
continent by Irish monks had adopted the Benedictine Rule, swelling the
total number of centers devoted to religious and educational activities.
The numerical increase in the Benedictine abbeys offers in itself
presumptive evidence of a greater use of hymns. What is known of the
monastic centers and their store of hymnaries offers direct proof. A
closer bond between the Order and the cultural activities of the age is
found in the great personalities drawn from Benedictine ranks to serve
the imperial designs. Of particular interest here are the statements
regarding hymns and hymn singing which appear in contemporary writings.
Alcuin was chiefly interested in the Roman liturgy as such but he wrote
_De psalmorum usu_, _Officia per ferias_ and the _Epistolae_, the last
of which shows a special interest in music. Rabanus Maurus testifies to
the general use of hymns by secular as well as regular clergy. Amalarius
of Metz mentions the use of hymns outside the monasteries. Walafrid
Strabo traces the use of hymns from the time of Ambrose and repeats the
Canon of Toledo recommending hymns. He says that churches which do not
use hymns are exceptional.[26] The testimony is scattered but it points
to the adoption of the hymnal by the secular clergy. It should also be
recalled that the Ambrosian tradition of musical independence was
constantly maintained at Milan.
As the Latin language became more and more an exclusive clerical
possession, the old safeguards provided by monastic walls were no longer
necessary. The whole body of clergy whether regular or secular became
the custodians of the hymnaries used in monastic and diocesan centers of
music and scholarship.[27] The Christian laity of Europe at this period
may have been largely ignorant of their hymnic heritage because the
Carolingian extension of hymn writing and hymn singing occurred within
clerical ranks. There was at this time scant indication of the future
course of Latin hymnology which would ultimately restore to the layman
his original possession handed down from the Early Christian Church.
The poetical writings of the era included a substantial body of
religious verse from which hymns are attributed to the following
authors: Paulus Diaconus, 1; Paulinus of Aquileia, 7; Alcuin, 3;
Theodulphus, 1; Rabanus Maurus, 2; Walafrid Strabo, 5; Florus of Lyons,
2; Wandelbert of Prum, 1; Paulus Albarus of Cordova, 1; Cyprian and
Samson, 2; Sedulius Scottus, 2; Milo, 2; Ratbod, 2; Hucbald, 1;
Hartmann, 4; Ratpert, 4; Eugenius Vulgarius, 1; these with 73 of
doubtful authorship make a total contribution of 114 hymns.
(See Illustrative Hymns, VIII. _Ut queant laxis resonare fibris_, “In
flowing measures worthily to sing,” Paulus Diaconus.)
Ambrosian meters are set aside in favor of the classical meters of the
Greeks, the Sapphic and elegiac meters proving to be the most popular
thereafter. To what extent this influence is actually observable in hymn
cycles may be determined by a comparison of the list of Carolingian
hymns with the lists of hymns provided by Blume, Julian or Mearns.
Batiffol selected thirteen as found in later breviary lists[28] but the
actual direct contribution is much larger if other than breviary hymns
are admitted. Moreover, the literary and liturgical studies of the time
broadened the original Benedictine concept that the hymns of the
monastic cycle should be Ambrosian in style. The hymns of Sedulius and
particularly of Prudentius and Fortunatus were recognized, introduced or
freely adapted to ecclesiastical usage.
The direct influence of Celtic culture upon the new hymn cycles must be
associated with the introduction of biblical and liturgical works
containing hymns into Frankish territory. Later, hymns were written by
Celtic scholars, for instance, Samson, Sedulius Scottus (enumerated
above) and possibly others who are anonymous. Blume’s theory of the
Anglo-Irish hymn cycle, originally sponsored by Gregory the Great and
finally transferred to the continent, illustrates the most decisive form
which Celtic influence has so far been presumed to have exerted. The
list of hymns (see Appendix) bears, on the contrary, no resemblance to
the group of contemporary Celtic hymns.[29] It seems much more probable
that Gregory, the Benedictine Pope, approved the use in Anglo-Irish
lands, of the continental hymn cycle which the Order was responsible for
carrying northward with it when it entered Britain. In any case, the
Benedictine cycles from the ninth century onward are enriched from every
aspect of the diverse culture of the age, in which the Celtic
contribution, both direct and indirect, is important.
At this period hymnology in the Greek-speaking world was at its height.
Yet proof is sought in vain that Greek hymns were used in the west,
either in the Greek language or in translation. The hymnal of the
Western Church received from Greek sources its recorded tunes, not its
words. Although the earliest liturgical manuscript with musical notation
dates from the ninth century, the Greeks had already given their neumes
to the west. As for the hymn melodies which are crystallized in these
manuscripts when they do appear, theories of origin abound. A definite
system of notation was in existence from the seventh century but hymns
had been sung from the fourth century.
In modern times through the consecrated efforts of Benedictine students
of the chant, working chiefly at Solesmes, a collation of the existing
musical manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages, has been made. Their
object has been to determine the authentic melodies of the Benedictine
cycle throughout its long history. Today the results of their
scholarship are available to the public and the great hymns which they
have fostered may be heard as well as read in their medieval form.
The assimilation by the Franks, of alien cultures whether through
conquest or peaceful interchange, may have been to a certain extent
inevitable and involuntary. Such phenomena occur in every period of
history. It is the conscious appropriation by the Carolingian leaders of
a cultural heritage and its organization through existing institutions
which reveals their true genius. This same process had taken place when
Roman genius secured and conserved the achievement of the Greeks. In the
field of religious culture with which this volume is concerned, an
unbroken continuity had been maintained from the days of the primitive
church. Even in the minor category of Christian hymnology, the hymnal as
such, created in the fourth century, was to flourish all the way into
our own times and might have done so without any special intervention.
Historically speaking, in the ninth century and under Frankish auspices,
a transformation took place which must be attributed to the conscious
effort of Frankish churchmen who, receiving the old hymnology, restored
it to formal worship with a much larger content and a greatly
diversified form. Herein lies the fundamental contribution of Germanic
genius to the _Later Hymnal_.
Individual hymn writers of the Carolingian age have been named above as
far as they are known, of whom Theodulphus of Orleans, Rabanus Maurus
and Walafrid Strabo are perhaps the most notable.
A Goth by race, a Spaniard by birth, Theodulphus, (c. 760-c. 821),
belonged to that population dwelling north and south of the Pyrenees
which the Franks had amalgamated into their kingdom. He was learned in
all the wisdom of that age and a man of action in a sense understandable
in any age. Bishop of Orleans, courtier, officer in the administration
of Charlemagne, he served the church and the state with equal
distinction. Theodulphus as a poet of sacred verse is best known for his
Palm Sunday processional hymn, _Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit_, “All
glory, laud and honor,”[30] which he wrote during the period of his fall
from royal favor under Louis the Pious. This beautiful processional
hymn, a triumph of Carolingian verse, invested with all the attraction
of legend and religious pageantry, has been a favorite in every period
of Christian history. Theodulphus was not a member of the regular clergy
and he did not, as far as we know, write hymns for the monastic cycle.
He represents the contemporary trend which brought the hymn into new
areas of worship in the offices and ceremonies of the cathedral.
Rabanus Maurus, (780-856), of Germanic origin, was primarily a
theologian. His boyhood studies were completed at Fulda. As a young man
he became a pupil of Alcuin at Tours. In his maturity he returned to
Fulda reaching the climax of his career as Abbot of Fulda and later, as
Archbishop of Mainz. As a writer, Rabanus undertook to hand on, through
excerpts, the knowledge of his predecessors. He wrote commentaries on
the Bible, discussed ecclesiastical organization and discipline,
theology, liturgy and worship and the liberal arts. He made translations
into German with the collaboration of Walafrid and a Latin-German
glossary for the Scriptures. In connection with worship he became
interested in the Latin hymns which were rapidly spreading through the
west. He discussed the Psalms as hymns and then the hymns of Hilary and
Ambrose, saying of the Ambrosian hymns, how widespread had become their
prestige in his day. We know from other evidence that he was acquainted
also with the hymns of Sedulius, Columba and Bede. It seems almost
certain that he practiced the art of poetry although we are restricted
to a very small remnant of verse conceded to be his. The poems include a
number of hymns for the festivals of the seasons and of the saints,
illustrating the vogue for the classic in metrical forms. Like
Theodulphus, he wrote for processional ceremonies. The Pentecostal hymn,
_Veni, creator spiritus_, has been persistently associated with the name
of Rabanus but without adequate proof. It is a lasting hymn of the ninth
century.
(See Illustrative Hymns, IX. _Veni, creator spiritus_, “Creator-Spirit,
all-Divine.”)
Walafrid Strabo, (809-c. 849), was like Rabanus of Germanic origin and
like him a member of the regular clergy. At Reichenau he received his
early education and at Fulda his theological training under Rabanus.
Walafrid was drawn into the courtly circle of Louis the Pious whose son
Charles he tutored and whose wife Judith became his literary patron. His
life was one of scholarship, prosperity and contentment almost to the
end of his career. Louis had appointed him Abbot of Reichenau, a place
dear to him from boyhood. From these happy surroundings and from his
garden which he immortalized in careful and loving description, he was
ousted during the civil conflict following the death of the emperor. At
the end he was restored to Reichenau and there he died. His hymns like
those of Theodulphus and Rabanus, although few in number, were written
in the spirit of the classical revival. Some were intended for festivals
and others which will be described in connection with processional
hymnody, were written to honor royal patrons.
In reviewing the basic hymns of the _Later Hymnal_ (see Appendix), one
finds only two of Mozarabic origin whereas nine were duplicated in the
_Old Hymnal_ in Spain and Gaul. The new cycles in areas under Frankish
influence appear to diverge from the Mozarabic as they become more
diversified. At the same time, Mozarabic sources reveal a parallel
evolution of the hymnal in the Iberian peninsula. The existing
manuscripts were collated and edited in 1897 by Blume in volume
twenty-seven of the _Analecta Hymnica_ under the title _Hymnodia
Gotica_, comprising 312 hymns of which 210 were identified by him as
Mozarabic in origin.
The hymns of Spain, first assembled under the auspices of Gothic
churchmen as recounted in Chapter Two, continued to increase with the
encouragement and participation of Mozarabic liturgists, scholars and
prelates. The generation that supported Isidore of Seville was succeeded
two hundred years later by the group associated with Eulogius,
Archbishop of Cordova (d. 859), who fostered the old traditions under
Moslem control.[31] In spite of a ruling power alien in every aspect of
culture, Christian hymnology held its own. After the Moorish invasions,
it is estimated that between thirty and forty hymns were written,
several of which contain references to the yoke of the oppressor and
petitions for its removal.[32] When the movement toward the expulsion of
the Moors had been successfully initiated and the Roman Rite introduced
(1089) the Mozarabic hymnals were comparable to the finest of the
continental cycles. In certain instances the contacts between Spain and
Gaul were close and direct even under the rule of the Moslems.
Theodulphus of Orleans combined the Gothic and Carolingian trends.
Alcuin was indebted to Mozarabic sources in his reform of the Frankish
rites.[33] Hymns of Mozarabic origin appeared in other parts of western
Europe and vice versa.
(See Illustrative Hymns, X. _Deus immensa trinitas_, “O glorious
immensity.”)
The possible influence of Arabian music and poetry upon the Christian
hymn has been a tempting idea and one most elusive of pursuit. Studies
of medieval Spanish music and musical instruments have failed to
demonstrate that the ecclesiastical chant in Spain was thereby affected.
Such novelties as it may have possessed have been traced to influences
similar to those which had long before affected the Ambrosian chant and
been transmitted to the west. As for the tentative assumption that
Arabian lyric poetry influenced contemporary hymn writers in Spain, the
evidence narrows to the mono-rhyme or repeated end-rhyme common to
Arabian poetry and to several Mozarabic hymns.[34] The whole subject of
the Arabian impact, highly controversial as it is, appears to be
concerned with influences, which when scrutinized, are observed to
spring from cultures prior both to Christianity and to Islam.
The Mozarabic Hymnal in its fully developed version possessed an
unusually large number of hymns honoring local saints. This feature must
be referred to the history of the Roman persecution in the Iberian
peninsula where the complete destruction of the Church was intended and
martyrdom was the rule. Again the Hymnal is unique in its hymns for
public occasions either of mourning and intercession in time of war,
pestilence, drought and flood or of joy, in festivals of the
consecration of bishops, the coronation of kings and thanksgiving for
full harvests.