The statement of Bartholomew of Pisa, that already in 1285 the _Dies Irae_ was employed in the service for the dead, shows how early it made its way into church use. In earlier times there was no sequence in that service, for the reason that the “Hallelujah,” which the sequence always followed, being a song of rejoicing, was not sung in the funeral service. This enables us to form an opinion on the controversy as to whether it was written directly for church use, or adapted for that after being written as a meditation on the Day of Judgment for private edification. It would seem most probable that it was the wonderful beauty and power of the hymn which led the Church to break through its rule as to the sequence following a Hallelujah necessarily. The _Dies Irae_ was not written to fill a place, but when written it made a place for itself. This controversy connects itself with another as to the genuineness of certain verses which are prefixed or added to the eighteen of the text in the Missal. There are, in fact, three texts of the hymn: (1) That of the Missal, which is generally followed, and will be found at the end of this chapter. (2) That of the Mantuan marble tablet, which prefixes four verses: 1. Cogita, anima fidelis, Ad quid respondere velis Christo venture de coelis. 2. Cum deposcit rationem Ob boni omissionem, Ob mali commissionem. 3. Dies illa, dies irae, Quam conemur praevenire Obviamque Deo ire. 4. Seria contritione, Gratiae apprehensione, Vitae emendatione. After these come in the Mantuan text the first sixteen verses of the Missal text, with slight and unimportant variations, but the seventeenth and eighteenth are omitted, and the following conclusion substituted: 17. Consors ut beatitatis Vivam cum justificatis, In aevum aeternitatis. Amen. (3) The Hammerlein text, so called because found among the manuscripts of Felix Hammerlein after his death, which occurred about 1457. This also contains the first sixteen verses of the Missal text, but with far more variations than the Mantuan text shows, although not such as commend themselves by their merits. Then it proceeds, altering and expanding the seventeenth and eighteenth into three and adding five more: 17. Oro supplex a ruinis, Cor contritum quasi cinis; Gere curam mei finis. 18. Lacrymosa die illa, Cum resurget ex favilla Tanquam ignis ex scintilla, 19. Judicandus homo reus,— Hinc ergo parce Deus, Esto semper adjutor meus. 20. Quando coeli sunt movendi, Dies adsunt tunc tremendi, Nullum tempus poenitendi. 21. Sed salvatis laeta dies; Et damnatis nulla quies, Sed daemonum effigies. 22. O tu Deus majestatis, Alme candor Trinitatis, Nunc conjunge cum beatis. 23. Vitam meam fac felicem, Propter tuam genetricem, Jesse florem et radicem. 24. Praesta nobis tunc levamen, Dulce nostrum fac certamen, Ut clamemus omnes: Amen!