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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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