_Dies Iræ, Dies Illa_ (Vol. ii p. 72. Vol. iii., p. 468.).--Although
some time has elapsed since the Query on this hymn appeared, yet as no
very definite reply has been given, I send the following.
This hymn is one of the four "proses" or verses without measure, made
use of in the services of the Roman Catholic Church. The invention of
these proses is attributed to Nolker, a monk of the Convent of St. Gall,
who wrote about the year 880; and who says in his work that he had seen
them in a book belonging to the Convent of St. Jumièges, which was
destroyed by the Normans in 841. Of the many proses which were composed,
the Roman Catholic Church has retained but four, of which the above is
one. Who the author really was, is very uncertain; the majority of
writers on the subject appear to concur in the opinion that Cardinal
Frangipani, a Dominican, otherwise called Malabrancia, a Doctor of
Paris, and who died at Pérouse in 1294, was the composer but it has also
been assigned to St. Gregory and St. Bernard. Bzovius, an. 1294, states
the author to have been either Cardinal Orsino or Cardinal Frangipani,
and other writers maintain it to have been the production of Agostino
Biella, who died 1491; or of Humbertus, General of the Dominicans. The
original consists of fifty-six lines, and may be found in almost every
book of Catholic devotion.