The supreme place among the Latin hymns is universally accorded to the Ira' (q.v.), written by one of the early Franciscans. Prof essor Saintsbury says: °There is not likely to be ever lack of those who, authority or no authority, in youth and in age, after much reading or without much, . . . will hold these wonderful triplets, be they Thomas of Celano's or another's, as nearly or quite the most perfect wedding of sound to sense that they know.' This enthusiastic recognition has been shared by Crashaw, Jeremy Taylor, Dr. Johnson, Goethe, the Schlagels, Dryden, Scott, "Villemin, Trench, Macaulay, and a host of similar per sons of ability. Just after the 'Dies Ira' comes the (Stabat Mater' (q.v.), written very by another of the early Franciscans, acopone da Todi. Schaff declares: °It is the most pathetic, as the 'Dies Ira' is the most sublime hymn of the Middle Ages, and occupies the second rank in Latin hymnology.' It has inspired some great musical compositions by the most famous composers. The five other greatest of the Latin hymns constituting an immortal septet are the 'Ad Regias Agni Dapes,' probably written by Saint Ambrose, surely coming from his time; the (Vexilla Regis,' an unrhymed hymn usually said to have been written by Fortunatus in the 6th century; the Dulcis Memoria' of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux written in the 12th century; the rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix or Bernard of Cluny, a contemporary of Saint Bernard, and finally the (Pange Lingua Gloriosi' (q.v.), of Saint Thomas Aquinas. There are many other hymns urged by admirers for the place in this list of honor, but those given are surely the favorites. Neale says that Aquinas' Pange Lingua' °contests the second place among the hymns of the Western Church with the 'Vex illa Regis,' the 'Stabat Mater,' and the 'Jesu Dulcis Memoria,' . . . leaving the 'Dies Ira' in its unapproachable glory.° It is a supreme surprise to find the greatest scholar of his time possessed as so many think with the greatest human mind after that of Aristotle, thus placed among the greatest of poets, for it is generally recognized that these hymns are among the greatest poetry ever written, unsurpassed and never equalled except by Dante and Shake speare. (Saintsbury). The loving devotion
with which these hymns were written can be very well appreciated from the rhythm of Bernard of Morlaix, out of which a number of the modern hymns on 'Jerusalem the Golden' were composed. It is written in hexameters following rather strictly the old prosody, but there are two internal sub-rhymes in each line and the lines rhyme as couplets. The difficul ties of the task must have been enormous but they have been marvellously overcome and have only served to enhance the beauty of the hymn. Schaff, in his 'Christ in Song' says: •This lowing description is the sweetest of all the Jerusalem hymns of heavenly homesickness,' and Dr. Neale says that "it is the most lovely as the 'Dies Ira' is the most sublime and the Mater' the most pathetic of mediaeval poems.' Rhyme and metre shackles only make the pcet dwell on his theme so thoroughly that his thought has been a fount of devotion all down the ages.
After the beauty of the Latin hymns, their most wonderful feature is the admirable crit ical faculty, which served to recognize and preserve to posterity so many precious gems of religious poetry, though there must have been at all times, as has been so true in ours, so many counterfeit imitations of mere senti mentality and not true poetry.
Bibliography.— March, 'Latin Hymns' (New York 1874); Trench, 'Sacred Latin Poetry> (London 1864); Neale, 'Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences' (London 1867); Schaff, 'Christ in Song' (New York 1868); Charles, (The Voice of Christian Life in Song' (New York 1867) ' • Daniel (Thesaurus Hymnologicus' (Leipzig 1841-56, 5 vols.); Mone, (Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters' (Freiburg 1853-55, 3 vols.).