The sequence, originally a product of France, already perfected as a poetical form by Notker and the German school of ecclesiastical hymn writers, attained a greater influence and popularity under Adam of St. Victor. In 1130 Adam entered the Augustinian Abbey of St. Victor on the outskirts of Paris and there he remained until his death. Whether a native of France or England is unknown. Like Notker, he followed in his poetic themes the annual festivals. To him have been attributed more than 100 sequences which appear in the manuscripts of St. Victor. They were published first by Leon Gautier in 1858 and in the later nineteenth century were subjected to critical analysis by Misset who regarded 45 sequences as authentic.[3] Blume, who edited the Victorine sequences in volumes 54 and 55 of the _Analecta Hymnica_, attributed 48 to Adam’s authorship. Adam’s poetical concepts are centered in the mystical interpretation of biblical narratives and of Christian theology as it was taught in the schools of Paris. Hugh and Richard of St. Victor were his contemporaries but Adam was poet as well as theologian. Praise was to him an essential harmony of voice and life. His verse departed from the earlier prose rhythms of the German poets and was cast in a metrical form already popularized in the hymn. A group of rhymed trochaic lines of eight syllables with a caesura after the fourth syllable at the end of a word, closes with a seven syllable line. This scheme with its many variants characterizes the work of Adam and his imitators in countless Latin and later, vernacular lyrics. Adam’s sequence for the Feast of St. Stephen has been selected as illustrative of his finest work. (See Illustrative Hymns, XIII. _Heri mundus exultavit_, “Yesterday with exultation.”) To appreciate fully the function of the sequence in worship at this time as well as its appeal to popular imagination, one should isolate a single theme for more intimate enjoyment. For this purpose, the sequences written for the five feasts of the Virgin are best suited. While manifold saints were honored in the hymnology of the day, the veneration of the Virgin reached at this time, its pinnacle of expression. Notker had provided sequences for her Nativity, Purification and Assumption. Adam of St. Victor, poet of the Virgin, drew upon all the resources of medieval symbolism in his _Salve, redemptoris mater_, “Hail, mother of the Redeemer,” a masterpiece of medieval religious verse. Clerical poets everywhere met the challenge of his example. The result was indicative not only of their devotion and their poetic skill which was at times indifferent, but of the actual use of the Virgin sequences in the numerous feasts which honored her and their familiarity to wide congregations of clergy and laity.