Matthew ii.

p. 173. It belongs to the fourteenth century. It was a great favorite in the Lutheran churches, and has remained in use almost or quite to the present day. Theme. The Birth of Christ. Line 5, 6. The ox and ass were every where accepted as occupants of the stable with Christ. Proof is in Habakkuk iii., 2, where, for "in the midst of the years," the Septuagint strangely reads ἐν μέσῳ δύω ζωών γνωσθήσῃ, and the old Latin version, "in medio duorum animalium innotesceris." This was interpreted by Isaiah i., 3: "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib." The bos also represented the Jews, the shepherds, and asinus the heathen, the wise men.-7. Reges. That the wise men from the East were kings was universally believed, the proof resting on Isaiah lx., 3; Psalm 1xxii., 10-15. -Saba: Psalm lxxii., 10.

HYMN II.

In Daniel, 1, 341; Mone, 1, 195; Wackernagel, 1, 175–177, five forms. In manuscript of the fourteenth century. The corresponding German, "Christ ist erstanden," is known in the twelfth century, and may possibly be the original. Compare Schaff, Christ in Song, p. 253, where is a translation into English. Theme. The Resurrection of Christ. Mark xvi. Line 15, 16. John xxi.

HYMN III.

In Mone, 3, 65; Wackernagel, 1, 157. Of the thirteenth cent

ury.

Theme. The Apostles.

Line 2. Nubes: Isaiah 1x., 8. It is applied to the apostles often: ὥσπερ νεφέλαι πλήρεις θείου φωτός, πᾶσιν ἐπομβρίζουσιν ὕδωρ ZwоTOιòv oi áπóσтоλo. Greek service for June 30. So Gregory, M. Hom. in Ev., 1, 5, 4; Athanasius. "Showers of truth fall from their dark sayings." Augustine, in Mone, 3, 65.—5. Principes: Matt. xix., 28.-6. Lapides: 1 Peter ii., 5, 6. -7, 8. Psalms xix., 4.--13-15. In the year 95, says the legend, St. John was sent to Rome by the proconsul of Asia, and there miraculously preserved from death when thrown into a caldron of boiling oil.

HYMN IV.

Trench, p. 134. Translation by Mrs. Charles. Christian 1.0 ✯ Song, p. 175. It is part of a long poem, sometimes ssertded se Anselm of Lucca, who died 1086. The meter is a Šrotar ond much used for narrative poems in the Middle Ages.

Theme. Our Lord's Life and Death.

Line 15. Vallem lacrymarum, “vale of tears” - 17, Trikertur: Isaiah liii., 3.

“The Joy of all is plunged in grief, the Light of all is w****

The Bread of Life needs nourishing, the Strength of all sustaining e The Fount at which all heaven is filled, the Fount of life is thirsting What heart such wonders can behold, and not be nigh to barsting!"

HYMN V.

In Daniel, 2, 339; Trench, p. 116; Königsfeld, with German translation, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 2, 806. Fifteenth century. Theme. The Nativity.

Line 4-6. Quae (nox) paris in terris delicias suspiratas (et) datas e coelo.-10-12. Meus Deus, sol vitae, in carne suboritur mundo, ut (mundus) vivat.—16. Caulâ, stable, singular of the ow lae given in the dictionaries.-24. Quid sibi volunt, what wish ̧tòr themselves, purpose, mean.

HYMN VI.

In Daniel, 2, 342; Königsfeld, 1, 208. Translation into English in Schaff's Christ in Song, p. 100, by E. A. Washburn, Fourteenth to sixteenth century.

Theme. The Infant Christ in the arms of his Mother.

Line 18. Spicula, darts, beamings of love and light; frequently, darts of Cupid-a play on the two meanings is intended.-21. One struck by such a dart was inflamed with love.-24. Iesule, diminutive of Iesus. H., 315; A. and G., 44, 1, 3. Diminutives of affection abound in the Romanic tongues. See p. 175, line 44.

HYMN VII.

In Daniel, 2, 335; Königsfeld, with a German translation, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 2, 280; Mrs. Charles, with an English

translation, Christian Life in Song, p. 293; Schaff, Christ in Song, p. 602. Longfellow also has translated it:

"O God! my spirit loves but Thee."

It is a late hymn, and is known as Xavier's hymn, having been often ascribed to Francis Xavier, the friend and companion of Loyola, "the Apostle of the Indies." 1506-1552.

Theme. Love of Christ.

Line 12. Ah: others, ac.-20. Schaff omits the last line. Others read:

In Daniel, 2, 345; Königsfeld, with a German translation, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 1, 222; Trench, p. 150.

sixteenth century.

Theme. The Love of the Suffering Christ.

Fourteenth to

Line 1, 2. Psalm lv., 6.-8. Improperium: Rom. xv., 3; Heb. xi., 26.-13, 14. "Columba mea in foraminibus petrae, in caverna maceriae, ostende mihi faciem tuam." The Latin of the Song of Solomon, ii., 14. "Foramina petrae, vulnera Christi. In his passer invenit sibi domum et turtur nidum, ubi reponat pullos suos; in his se columba tutatur, et circumvolitantem intuetur accipitrem." St. Bernard, in Cant. Serm. 61; Trench, p. 151.

In Daniel, 2, 365; 230; Trench, p. 159.

HYMN IX.

Königsfeld, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 1, Translation by Mrs. Charles, Christian Life in Song, p. 182; Schaff, Christ in Song, two versions, p. 256, 257. Schaff calls it "this sweet and cheering Easter hymn."

Theme. The Resurrection of Christ. John xix., 11-18.

Line 1. Mary Magdalene is here identified with "the woman that was a sinner" of Luke vii., 37, as she usually is in the Middle Ages. Compare Dies Irae, line 37, p. 155.-3. Simonis: the Pharisee. Luke vii., 40.-4. Supply est.-25. Quinque, etc. John xx., 24-29; Luke xxiv., 40.

HYMN X.

In Königsfeld, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 1, 238, with a German translation; also a second translation by A. W. Schlegel, p. 273; Trench, p. 249. Fourteenth to sixteenth century.

Theme. Love of Christ.

Line 1, 2. The forms of speech are drawn from Solomon's Song, Sionis filiae, Cant. i., 5; ii., 7.-3. Cant. ii., 5.-10. Cant. ii., 5.10-18. The phoenix builds its own funeral-pile of myrrh and cassia, and burns itself, and rises from its ashes with renewed youth. The rest of the poem is the death-song of the phoenix: "Fire ascending seeks the sun;

So a soul that's born of God
Upward tends to his abode."

In Daniel, 2, 349;

324; Trench, p. 302.

HYMN XI.

Königsfeld, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 2,
Trench calls it "perfect in its kind." Four-

teenth to sixteenth century.

Theme. The Cross.

HYMN XII.

In Königsfeld, with a German translation, Lat. Hymnen und Gesänge, 1, 226. An English translation by Mrs. Charles, Christian Life in Song, p. 184. Fourteenth to sixteenth century.

Theme. The Resurrection of Christ.

Line 3, 4. Summus et imus orbis, the highest and lowest part of the world, the world above and below.-7, 8. The beauty of the tender palm is a representative of spring.-20. Barbytha, bad spelling for barbita (Bápßirov), lutes.

HYMN XIII.

In Daniel, 2, 166; Mone, 3, 118; Trench, p. 75. "This sublime hymn, though not Adam of St. Victor's, proceeds from one formed in his school and on his model, and is altogether worthy of him. It is, indeed, to my mind, grander than his own" on the same theme. Trench. Thirteenth century.

Theme. John the Evangelist.

Line 1-6. 1 John i., 1.—7-9. See note on line 49 of Hymn V.

of Adam of St. Victor, p. 142.-12. De throno: Rev. xxii., 1.— 13. Coelum transit: "Transcendit nubes, transcendit virtutes coelorum, transcendit angelos, et Verbum in principio reperit, et Verbum apud Deum vidit." Ambrose, Prol. in Exp. in Luc., c. 3, in Trench, p. 76 :

"He passed the flaming bounds of space and time;

The living throne, the sapphire blaze,

Where angels tremble when they gaze,

-15. John is an eagle, tried by the light of God as the young eagle which its parents try by the sun; if it look steadily, well: "Si acie palpitaverit, tanquam adulterinus ab ungue dimittitur." Augustine of John, Tract. 36.-17, 18. Isaiah vi., 2, is translated in the Vulgate: "Duabus velabant faciem ejus," i. e., Domini. This was coupled with Exodus xxxiii., 20, and the wings of the seraphim were taken as a veil, hiding God even from the prophets. John looked sub alis and saw God.-19-21. Rev. iv., 10; v., 8.-Nummo: John stamps the Trinity on the coins of our city, i. e., exhibits God as its King. Luke xx., 24; Rev. iv., 8-11; iii., 12. Trench thinks these coins are men or words.-25-30. Olshausen has taken this stanza as the motto of his Commentary on John. Trench says sacred Latin poetry has not a grander stanza. -28. Implenda: the Apocalypse.-Impleta: the Gospel.-31. Isaiah lxiii., 1-3; Rev. xix., 11.-32. Isaiah liii., 2-4.-34. Ezek. i., 10; Rev. iv., 7.—37. Dilecte (Iohannes), John xiii., 23; xxi., 20. -De Dilecto (Christo).—38. Ex Dilecto (Deo). “ "Qualis est dilectus tuus ex dilecto," Canticles v., 9, where ex dilecto was thought to mean sprung from God, Son of God.-40. Cibus, Christ. Psalm lxxviii., 25. So Augustine, Hildebert, and others quoted in Trench.-44, 45. John xiii., 23.—46. Patrono: Christ. Rev. v.,

9.

HYMN XIV.

In Mone, 1, 30; in Schaff, Christ in Song, p. 429, the three first lines are quoted as a heading for Bonar's hymn:

"I was a wandering sheep,

I did not love the fold."

It is as early as the eleventh century.