'Mediâ Vitâ in morte sumus: quem quærimus adjutorem, nisi Te Domine, qui pro peccatis nostris justè irasceris. Ad te clamaverunt patres nostri, speraverunt, et liberasti eos. Sancte Deus: ad te clamaverunt patres nostri, clamaverunt et non sunt confusi. Sancte Fortis, ne despicias nos in tempore senectutis: cum defecerit virtus nostra, ne derelinquas nos. Sancte et misericors Salvator amaræ morti ne tradas nos.' "On consulting the _Thesaurus Hymnologicus_ of Daniel (vol. ii. p. 329.) I find the following notice. {178} It is called 'Antiphona pro Peccatis,' or 'de Morte;' and the text there given corresponds nearly with that in our Burial Service. "Mediâ vitâ in morte sumus: Quem quærimus adjutorem nisi Te Domine, Qui pro peccatis nostris justè irasceris: Sancte Deus, sancte fortis, sancte et misericors Salvator, Amaræ morti ne tradas nos. "Rambach says, '"In the midst of life" occurs in MSS. of the thirteenth century, as an universally common dirge and song of supplication on all melancholy occasions, and was in this century regularly sung at Compline on Saturdays. A German translation was known long before the time of Luther, and was enlarged by him by the addition of two strophes.' Martene describes it as forming part of a religious service for New Year's Eve, composed about the year 1800. "Hoffmann says that this anthem 'by Notker the Stammerer, a monk of St. Gall's (an. 912), was an extremely popular battle-song, through the singing of which, before and during the fight, friend and foe hoped to conquer. It was also, on many occasions, used as a kind of incantation song. Therefore the Synod of Cologne ordered (an. 1316) that no one should sing the _Mediâ vitâ_ without the leave of his bishop.' "Daniel adds that it is not, to his knowledge, now used by the Roman Church in divine worship; but that the admirable hymn of Luther, 'Mitten wir im Leben sind,' still flourishes amongst the Protestants of Germany, just as the translation in our Prayer-Book is popular with us." GEO. A. TREVOR. Your correspondent J. G. T. asks whence comes the expression in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death?" There are some lines in Petrarch which express precisely the same idea in nearly the self-same words; but as the thought is by no means an unlikely one to occur to two separate and independent authors, we may not go to the length of charging the seeming plagiarism upon the compilers of our Prayer-Book. I have mislaid the exact reference[5], but subjoin the lines themselves: "Omnia paulatim consumit longior ætas, _Vivendoque simul morimur_, rapimurque manendo: Ipse mihi collatus enim, non ille videbor; Frons alia est, moresque alii, nova mentis imago, Voxque aliud mutata sonat." JOHN BOOKER. Prestwich. [Footnote 5: Barbato Sulmonensi, epist. i.--ED.]