Marcus Prudentius, a Spaniard, born in 348, eight years later than Ambrose, contributed many hymns to the Latin hymnody. Neale calls him "the prince of early Christian poets." A famous lawyer, judge, and soldier, he entered the church at the age of fifty-seven, and for the rest of his life was an ecclesiastical apologist and poet. Now then at last, close to the very end of life, And if by deed it cannot, yet at least by words give praise to God, Join day to day by constant hymns. Fail not each night in songs to celebrate the Lord, Merely the titles of his poems bear witness to the place of hymnody in the lives of the people: "For Cock-Crow"; "For Morning"; "Before Meat"; "After Meat"; "At the Lighting of Lamps"; "Before Sleep"; "Fasting"; "Burial." The hymn "For Cock-Crow" shows his deep piety, and his mastery of the hymn form: Iseum ciamus vocibus, Dormire cor mundum vetat. Tu, Christe, somnum disice; Two stanzas of Neale's translation follow; he adds rime, which had not yet come into Latin hymns: The winged herald of the day Proclaims the morn's approaching ray; "Take up thy bed" to each he cries, "Who, sick, or wrapped in slumber, lies, And watch, my coming is at hand. The fourth century must have seen an outburst of song somewhat like that which Germany saw in Luther's time, France in Marot's time, and England in the times of Wyclif and of the Wesleys. St. Jerome, speaking of the hymnody of the period, says, "One cannot go into the field without hearing the plower at his halleluiahs, and the mower at his hymns." Augustine speaks with great feeling of the influence of the hymns which his mother had learned at the church of Milan. These statements give some idea of hymn sing ing in Syria, Constantinople, and Rome. There is a curious account of a pilgrimage made to Palestine near the close of the fourth century, by St. Silvia of Aquitania. It may be that this pilgrim was partial to hymnody; but, at any rate, accounts of hymn singing have a large place in her story. Her party had been to the Mount of the Ascension singing: And thence with hymns, all, down to the smallest child, descend on foot to Gethsemane. .. When they arrived at Gethsemane, first a suitable prayer is offered, then a hymn is sung, then that passage of the gospel where the Lord is apprehended; and there is much moaning and groaning of all the people with weeping that the groans may be heard almost to the city. From that hour, they go on foot to the city with hymns.1 She was at Jerusalem at Easter. After mass, she says: Both men and women, as many people as wish, go up to Olivet. Hymns are sung and prayers offered. After that psalms have been sung and prayers offered, they descend again with hymns at the hour of vespers. . . . Selections are read there, and hymns interspersed; antiphons are also sung suitable to the day and place. Another indication of the prevalence of singing is in a letter from Jerome concerning the death of Paula in Jerusalem: No weeping nor lamentations followed her death, but "The Pilgrimage of St. Silvia of Aquitania to the Holy Places." Translated by John H. Bernard, Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, London 1891. all present united in chanting the Psalms, each in their several tongues. . . One after another they chanted the Psalms, now in Greek, now in Latin, now in Syriac, throughout the remainder of the week.1 Clement of Alexandria in one of his homilies says, "A noble hymn of God is an immortal man established in righteousness in whom the oracles of truth are engraved." Ancient Latin hymns may be said to close with St. Gregory the Great. The hymn "Veni Creator”— translated, "Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire, by John Cosin-is attributed uncertainly both to Gregory and to Charlemagne. "The Gregorian tones or chants," says Julian in his "Dictionary of Hymnology," "we owe to his anxiety to supersede the more melodious and flowing style of church music, which is popularly attributed to St. Ambrose, by the severer and more solemn monotone which is their characteristic." With Fortunatus (530-609) and the Venerable Bede (637-735) begins the medieval hymnody which reached its splendid height in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In form the Latin verse had tended more and more to break away from the classical quantity measure and to fall into the accented measure. With it came the decoration of rime. Hymnody became more and more popular, and more rich and splendid through the Middle Ages. The rime and the musical beat charmed the ears of the common people and clung in their memory. "This verse, says Clement Blume, in his article on hymns in "The Catholic Encyclopedia," "was especially for the congregation; for the people who in those days took a much more active and important part in the Liturgy than is now the case. Christian hymnody is therefore originally and essentially a poetry of the people." For influence, no other form of literature of the Middle Ages approached its hymnody. The fact that half a dozen of those hymns, translated into English within the last two generations, have taken their places among the most familiar and best loved hymns indicates that the praise lavished upon them by modern critics is just; but nothing can indicate their splendor and magnificence except the Latin poems themselves. The "Dies Iræ," named the most splendid of them all, while it is what Theodore Parker termed a "damnation lyric," has a tremendous music about it, and a combination of pathos and grandeur that would distinguish any century that produced such a song. "Jerusalem the golden"; "Jesus the very thought of thee"; "Jerusalem, my happy home"; "O come, all ye faithful," as the first lines of English translations, are powerful in themselves. The number of these medieval hymns still extant is enormous. largest collection of them is that brought together by Dreves and Blume, "Analecta, Hymnica Medii Ævi" (Leipsic, 1866-1906); it is made up mainly The |