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Salmebog for Lutherske Kristne i Amerika

Publication Date: 1919 Publisher: Der Forenede Kirkes Forlag Publication Place: Minneapolis Editors: M. B. Landstad; Johannes Nilssøn Skaar

Author: Martin Rinchart; Anonymous Appears in 8 hymnals Lyrics: 1 Nu takker alle Gud Med Hjerte, Mund og Hænder, Som overflødigt Gods Os uforskyldt tilsender, Som alt fra Moders Liv Paa os har naadig tænkt, Og al Nødtørstighed Saa rigeligen skjænkt! 2 Den evig rige Gud Han os fremdeles unde Sjæls Glæde, Ro og Fred, Han give, at vi kunde I Naade altid staa Hos ham, og ved vor Bøn Faa Hjælp i Nød og Død, Tilsidst en Naade-Løn! 3 Gud Fader og Guds Søn Ske evig Pris og Ære, Den værdig Helligaand Derhos høilovet være! Velsignet Guddom, som Forbliver, var og er, Vi dig id Ydmyghed Vort Takke-Offer bær! Topics: Slutningssalmer; Closing Hymns; Sædvanlige Salmer til Høimesse; High Mass; Søndag efter Jul Til Aftengudstjeneste; Sunday after Christmas; Nyaarsdag Til Høimesse; New Years Day; Tjuesjete Søndag efter Trefoldiheds Fest Til Aftengudstjeneste; Twenty sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Min Sjæl, min Sjæl, lov Herren

Author: Johs. Gramann; Landstad Appears in 5 hymnals Lyrics: 1 Min Sjæl, min Sjæl, lov Herren, Og alt, hvad i mig er, hans Navn! Min Sjæl, min Sjæl, lov Herren, Glem ingen Ting af alt hans Gavn! Han, som din Synd udsletter Og læger dine Saar; Han, som dit Liv opretter, Naar du til Døden gaar; Han, som ny Kraft dig sender, Gjør Alderdommen ung; Han, som dig bær paa Hænder, Naar Tiden falder tung! 2 Sit Ord han lod os kjende, Og hans Velgjerninger vi ved. Barmhjertig uden Ende Og rig paa evig Miskundhed Han lader Vreden fare For dem, som gjøre Bod, Vil ingen Salve spare For Sorg og saaret Mod. Med Naaden sin og Trøsten Har han vor Angest stilt, Som Vesten er fra Østen Langt Synden fra os skilt. 3 Som sig en kjærlig Fader Miskunder over sine Smaa, Saa gjør vor Gud, og lader Op Naaden ny hver Morgen gaa. Han veed, vi ere ringe, Kun Støv og Aske vist, Ret som et Græs i Enge, En Urt, sin Blomst har mist. Naar Veiret hart paafalder, Da findes det ei mer, Saa gaar det med vor Alder, Vort Engelight er nær. 4 Men Guds Miskund alene Den bliver fast i Evighed Hos dem, ham trolig tjene, Hans kjære Børn og Menighed. Fra Himlens høie Sæde Han holder hellig Vagt. I Engle, som med Glæde Er Vidner til hans Magt. I Stærke, I, som fare At føre ud hans Bud, Og Jordens hele Skare Stat op og lover Gud! Topics: Slutningssalmer; Closing Hymns; Sædvanlige Salmer til Høimesse; High Mass; Confessions; Skriftemaal; Søndag efter Jul Til Høimesse -Til Tredje Teksxtækkes Evangelium; Sunday after Christmas; Søndag Seksagesima Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Epistel; Sexagesima Sunday; Marias Bebudelses Dag Til Høimesse -Til Tredje Teksxtækkes Evangelium; Annunciation; Fjortende Søndag efter Trefoldiheds Fest Til Høimesse; Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday Scripture: Psalm 103

O du min Immanuel

Author: Brorson Appears in 4 hymnals Lyrics: 1 O du min Immanuel, Jesus! hvilken Himmel-Glæde Har du gjort min arme Sjæl Ved dit Blods den Purpur-Væde! Fienden tænkte, den var fast, Men hans træske Snare brast. 2 Jeg er i min Faders Skjød, Har hos Gud i Himlen hjemme, Der er Synd og der der Død Ikke mere at fornemme; Arven faar jeg vist og sandt, Har den Helligaand til Pant. 3 Gud ske Lov for Dag, der gaar! Gud ske Lov for Dag, der kommer! Dermed har vi Jubelaar, Og en evig, evig Sommer, Da det sidste Morgenskjær Er, Halleluja, os nær! 4 Op, min Sjæl, til Fryd og Sang, Flyde hellig Glædes Taare, Hver Blodsdraabe Takkerklang Give, til jeg er paa Baare; Dig, som for os Kalken drak, Jesus, Jesus, evig Tak! Topics: Slutningssalmer; Closing Hymns; Sædvanlige Salmer til Høimesse; High Mass; Confessions; Skriftemaal; Søndag efter Jul Til Høimesse -Til Tredje Teksxtækkes Evangelium; Søndag efter Jul Til Aftengudstjeneste; Sunday after Christmas; Sunday after Christmas; Nyaarsdag Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Epistel; New Years Day; Second Sunday after Epiphany; Fastelavns Søndag Til Høimesse -Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Evangelium; Shrovetide; Palmesøndag Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Tredje Tekstrækkes Lektie; Palm Sunday; Første Søndag efter Paaske Til Aftengudstjeneste; First Sunday after Easter; Niende Søndag efter Trefoldiheds Fest Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Epistel; Ninth Sunday after Trinity Sunday; Tjuetredje Søndag efter Trefoldiheds Fest Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Epistel; Twenty third Sunday after Trinity Sunday; Tjuefjerde Søndag efter Trefoldiheds Fest Til Høimesse -Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Evangelium; Twenty fourth Sunday after Trinity Sunday; Barnekaaret; Adoption; Glæde og Hvile I Herren; Joy and Rest in the Lord; Jesus, vor Forsoner; Jesus, Our Atonement; Jesus, vor Retfærdighed; Jesus, Our Righteousness; Anden Søndag efter Hellig 3 Kongers Dag Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Epistel

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Instances

Published text-tune combinations (hymns) from specific hymnals

I Jesu Navn

Author: Johan Fredriksen Hymnal: SLKA1919 #1 (1919) Lyrics: 1 I Jesu Navn Skal al vor Gjerning ske, Om det skal komme os till noget Gavn, Endes ei med Spot og Ve. Al den Idræt, Som begyndes i det, God Lykke og Fremgang faar, Indtil den Maalet naar, At det Gud til Ære sker, Og dernæst til os henser, Hvori al vor Velfærd staar. 2 I Jesu Navn Vi ville prise Gud, Han Lykke give vil dertil og Gavn, Efterdi det er hans Bud, Han haver gjort Store Ting ved sit Ord, Og ved sin Arm saa sterk Høipriselige Verk, Thi hør os i allen Tid Hannem prise med stor Flid; Hvo, sam frygter Gud, det merk! 3 I Jesu Navn Vi leve vil og dø. Om vi da leve, vorder det vort Gavn, Om vi dø, vort Gavn maa ske. I Jesu Navn, Ham till Ær', os til Gavn, Skal vi igjen opstaa, Og i Guds Rige gaa, Hvor vi da med Lyst og Fryd Skulle se Guds Aasyn blid, Og den evig' Ære faa. Topics: Indgangssalmer; Entrance Hymns; Konfirmation; Confirmation; Nyaarsdag Til Høimesse; New Years Day; Femte Søndag efter Hellig 3 Kongers Dag Til Aftengudstjeneste; Fifth Sunday after Epiphany; Gudsfrygts Velsignelse Languages: Norwegian

Herre, Gud Fader, du vor høi'ste Trost!

Author: Landstad Hymnal: SLKA1919 #2 (1919) Lyrics: 1 Herre, Gud Fader, du vor høi'ste Trøst! Du er vor glæde og vor Lyst; Vor Bøn lad komme for dig ind: O, spar os og forlad os al vor Synd! MisKunde dig ovr os! 2 Kriste, Guds Søn, vor Vei og sande Lys, Du Hyrde god til Himlens Hus, Du alle Kristnes Liv og Raad, Til Salighed os given, men forsmaad! Miskunde dig aver os! 3 Herre, Gud Helligaand, i Evighed Vær hos os, og vor Sjæl bered At Gud vi søge, Naade faa, I vore Synder lad os ei forgaa! Miskunde dig over os! Topics: Indgangssalmer; Entrance Hymns; Almindelig Bededag Til Morgengudstjeneste og Høimesse; Ordinary Prayer Day; Trosbekjendelsen; Creed Languages: Norwegian

Nu bede vi den Helligaand

Author: Martin Luther; Landstad Hymnal: SLKA1919 #3 (1919) Lyrics: 1 Nu bede vi den Helligaand Frem for alt om Troen ret og sand, At vi den bevare Til vor sidste Ende, Naar vi skulle fare Hjem fra al Elende. Kyrie eleison! 2 Du vœrdig' Lys, giv os dit Skin, Led os ret til Jesus Kristus ind! At vi maatte trygge Hos vor Frelser kjære Blive, bo og bygge, Og i Raaden være. Kyrie eleison! 3 Du søde Aand, send Kjærlighed Brændende i vore Hjerte ned! At vi med hverandre, Udi Kristus fundne, Maa i eet Sind vandre, Kjærlig sammenbundne. Kyrie eleison! 4 Du Trøster bedst i al vor Nød, Hjælp, vi frygte Djævel ei og Død! At ei Modet brister Og vor Sjæl forsager, Naar den onde Frister Alt vort Liv anklager! Kyrie eleison! Topics: Indgangssalmer; Entrance Hymns; Sjette Søndag efter Paaske Til Aftengudstjeneste - Til Sekund Tekstrækkes Lektie; Sixth Sunday after Easter Languages: Norwegian

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People

Authors, composers, editors, etc.

Thomas Aquinas

1225 - 1274 Person Name: Thomas af Aquino Hymnal Number: 309 Author of "Zion, pris din Saliggjører" in Salmebog for Lutherske Kristne i Amerika Thomas of Aquino, confessor and doctor, commonly called The Angelical Doctor, “on account of," says Dom Gueranger, "the extraordinary gift of understanding wherewith God had blessed him," was born of noble parents, his father being Landulph, Count of Aquino, and his mother a rich Neapolitan lady, named Theodora. The exact date of his birth is not known, but most trustworthy authorities give it as 1227. At the age of five he was sent to the Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino to receive his first training, which in the hands of a large-hearted and God-fearing man, resulted in so filling his mind with knowledge and his soul with God, that it is said the monks themselves would often approach by stealth to hear the words of piety and wisdom that fell from the lips of the precocious child when conversing with his companions. After remaining at Monte Cassino for seven years, engaged in study, St. Thomas, "the most saintly of the learned, and the most learned of the saints," returned to his family, in consequence of the sack of the abbey by the Imperial soldiers. From thence he was sent by his parents to the University of Naples then at the height of its prosperity, where, becoming intimate with the Fathers of the Dominican Order, and being struck, probably, by the devotedness and ability of the Dominican Professors in the University, he was induced to petition for admission into that order, though he was at that time not more than seventeen years of age. This step gave such umbrage to his mother that she caused him to be waylaid on the road to Paris (whither he was being hurried to escape from her), and to be kept for more than two years in prison, during which time his brothers, prompted by their mother, used all means, even the most infamous, to seduce him from religion. At last the Dominicans' influence with the Pope induced the latter to move the Emperor Frederick to order his release, when St. Thomas was at once hurried back to Naples by the delighted members of his order. He was afterwards sent to Rome, then to Paris, and thence to Cologne. At Cologne his studies were continued under the celebrated Albertus Magnus, with whom, in 1245, he was sent by the Dominican Chapter once more to Paris for study, under his direction, at the University. In 1248, when he had completed his three years' curriculum at Paris, St. Thomas was appointed, before he was twenty-three years of age, second professor and “magister studentium,” under Albertus, as regent, at the new Dominican school (on the model of that at Paris), which was established by the Dominicans in that year at Cologne. There he achieved in the schools a great reputation as a teacher, though he by no means confined himself to such work. He preached and wrote; his writings, even at that early age, were remarkable productions and gave promise of the depth and ability which mark his later productions. His sermons also at that time enabled him to attract large congregations into the Dominican church. In 1248 he was directed to take his degree at Paris; and though his modesty and dislike of honour and distinction made the proposal distasteful to him, he set out and begged his way thither; but it was not until October 23rd, 1257, that he took his degree. The interval was filled by such labours in writing, lecturing, and preaching, as to enable him by the time he became a doctor to exercise an influence over the men and ideas of his time which we at this time can scarcely realise. So much was this the case that Louis IX. insisted upon St. Thomas becoming a member of his Council of State, and referred every question that came up for deliberation to him the night before, that he might reflect on it in solitude. At this time he was only thirty-two years of age. In 1259 he was appointed, by the Dominican Chapter at Valenciennes, a member of a Commission, in company with Albertus Magnus and Pierre de Tarentaise, to establish order and uniformity in all schools of the Dominicans. In 1261 the Pope, Urban IV., immediately upon his election to the Pontifical throne, sent for St. Thomas to aid him in his project for uniting into one the Eastern and Western Churches. St. Thomas in that same year came to Rome, and was at once appointed by the General of his Order to a chair of theology in the Dominican College in that city, where he obtained a like reputation to that which he had secured already at Paris and Cologne. Pope Urban being anxious to reward his services offered him, first the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and then a Cardinal's hat, but he refused both. After lecturing, at the request of the Pope, with great success at Vitervo, Orvieto, Perugia, and Fondi, he was sent, in 1263, as "Definitor," in the name of the Roman Province, to the Dominican Chapter held in London. Two years later Clement IV., who succeeded Urban as Pope, appointed him, by bull, to the archbishopric of Naples, conferring on him at the same time the revenues of the convent of St. Peter ad Aram. But this appointment he also declined. In 1269 he was summoned to Paris—his last visit— to act as "Definitor" of the Roman Province at the General Chapter of his Order, and he remained there until 1271, when his superiors recalled him to Bologna. In 1272, after visit¬ing Rome on the way, he went to Naples to lecture at the University. His reception in that city was an ovation. All classes came out to welcome him, while the King, Charles I., as a mark of royal favour bestowed on him a pension. He remained at Naples until he was summoned, in 1274, by Pope Gregory X., by special bull, to attend the Second Council of Lyons, but whilst on the journey thither he was called to his rest. His death took place in the Benedictine Abbey of Fossa Nuova in the diocese of Terracina, on the 7th of March 1274, being barely forty-eight years of age. St. Thomas was a most voluminous writer, his principal work being the celebrated Summa Theologiae, which, although never completed, was accepted as such an authority as to be placed on a table in the council-chamber at the Council of Trent alongside of the Holy Scriptures and the Decrees of the Popes. But it is outside the province of this work to enlarge on his prose works. Though not a prolific writer of hymns, St. Thomas has contributed to the long list of Latin hymns some which have been in use in the services of the Church of Rome from his day to this. They are upon the subject of the Lord's Supper. The best known are:— Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis Mysterium; Adoro te devote latens Deitas; Sacris sollemniis juncta sint gaudia; Lauda Sion Salvatorem; and Verbum supernum prodiens. The 1st, 3rd, and 5th of these are found in the Roman Breviary, the 2nd, 4th, and 5th in Newman's Hymni Ecclesiae; the 4th in the Roman Missal; all of them appear in Daniel; the 2nd and 4th in Mone; and the 2nd, 4th, and 5th in Königsfeld. Of these hymns numerous translations have been made from time to time, and amongst the translators are found Caswall, Neale, Woodford, Morgan, and others. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] -- Excerpts from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

1090 - 1153 Person Name: Bernhard af Clairvaux Hymnal Number: 66 Author of "Jesus, din Ihukommelse" in Salmebog for Lutherske Kristne i Amerika Bernard of Clairvaux, saint, abbot, and doctor, fills one of the most conspicuous positions in the history of the middle ages. His father, Tecelin, or Tesselin, a knight of great bravery, was the friend and vassal of the Duke of Burgundy. Bernard was born at his father's castle on the eminence of Les Fontaines, near Dijon, in Burgundy, in 1091. He was educated at Chatillon, where he was distinguished for his studious and meditative habits. The world, it would be thought, would have had overpowering attractions for a youth who, like Bernard, had all the advantages that high birth, great personal beauty, graceful manners, and irresistible influence could give, but, strengthened in the resolve by night visions of his mother (who had died in 1105), he chose a life of asceticism, and became a monk. In company with an uncle and two of his brothers, who had been won over by his entreaties, he entered the monastery of Citeaux, the first Cistercian foundation, in 1113. Two years later he was sent forth, at the head of twelve monks, from the rapidly increasing and overcrowded abbey, to found a daughter institution, which in spite of difficulties and privations which would have daunted less determined men, they succeeded in doing, in the Valley of Wormwood, about four miles from the Abbey of La Ferté—itself an earlier swarm from the same parent hive—on the Aube. On the death of Pope Honorius II., in 1130, the Sacred College was rent by factions, one of which elected Gregory of St. Angelo, who took the title of Innocent II., while another elected Peter Leonis, under that of Anacletua II. Innocent fled to France, and the question as to whom the allegiance of the King, Louie VI., and the French bishops was due was left by them for Bernard to decide. At a council held at Etampes, Bernard gave judgment in favour of Innocent. Throwing himself into the question with all the ardour of a vehement partisan, he won over both Henry I., the English king, and Lothair, the German emperor, to support the same cause, and then, in 1133, accompanied Innocent II., who was supported by Lothair and his army, to Italy and to Rome. When Lothair withdrew, Innocent retired to Pisa, and Bernard for awhile to his abbey of Clairvaux. It was not until after the death of Anacletus, the antipope, in January, 1138, and the resignation of his successor, the cardinal-priest Gregory, Victor II., that Innocent II., who had returned to Rome with Bernard, was universally acknowledged Pope, a result to which no one had so greatly contributed as the Abbot of Clairvaux. The influence of the latter now became paramount in the Church, as was proved at the Lateran Council of 1139, the largest council ever collected together, where the decrees in every line displayed the work of his master-hand. After having devoted four years to the service of the Pope, Bernard, early in 1135, returned to Clairvaux. In 1137 he was again at Rome, impetuous and determined as ever, denouncing the election of a Cluniac instead of a Clairvaux monk to the see of Langres in France, and in high controversy in consequence with Peter, the gentle Abbot of Cluny, and the Archbishop of Lyons. The question was settled by the deposition by the Pope of the Cluniac and the elevation of a Clairvaux monk (Godfrey, a kinsman of St. Bernard) into his place. In 1143, Bernard raised an almost similar question as to the election of St. William to the see of York, which was settled much after the same fashion, the deposition, after a time, if only for a time, of William, and the intrusion of another Clairvaux monk, Henry Murdac, or Murduch, into the archiepiccopal see. Meantime between these two dates—in 1140—the condemnation of Peter Abilaid and his tenets, in which matter Bernard appeared personally as prosecutor, took place at a council held at Sens. Abelard, condemned at Sens, appealed to Rome, and, resting awhile on his way thither, at Cluny, where Peter still presided as Abbot, died there in 1142. St. Bernard was next called upon to exercise his unrivalled powers of persuasion in a very different cause. Controversy over, he preached a crusade. The summer of 1146 was spent by him in traversing France to rouse the people to engage in the second crusade; the autumn with a like object in Germany. In both countries the effect of his appearance and eloquence was marvellous, almost miraculous. The population seemed to rise en masse, and take up the cross. In 1147 the expedition started, a vast horde, of which probably not a tenth ever reached Palestine. It proved a complete failure, and a miserable remnant shared the flight of their leaders, the Emperor Conrad, and Louis, King of France, and returned home, defeated and disgraced. The blame was thrown upon Bernard, and his apology for his part in the matter is extant. He was not, however, for long to bear up against reproach; he died in the 63rd year of his age, in 1153, weary of the world and glad to be at rest. With the works of St. Bernard, the best ed. of which was pub. by Mabillon at Paris in the early part of the 18th cent. (1719), we are not concerned here, except as regards his contributions, few and far between as they are, to the stores of Latin hymnology. There has been so much doubt thrown upon the authorship of the hymns which usually go by his name,—notably by his editor, Mabillon himself,—that it is impossible to claim any of them as having been certainly written by him; but Archbishop Trench, than whom we have no greater modern authority on such a point, is satisfied that the attribution of them all, except the "Cur mundus militat," to St. Bernard is correct. "If he did not write," the Archbishop says, "it is not easy to guess who could have written them; and indeed they bear profoundly the stamp of his mind, being only inferior in beauty to his prose." The hymns by which St. Bernard is best known as a writer of sacred poetry are: (1.) "Jesu duicis memoria," a long poem on the " Name of Jesus"—known as the "Jubilus of St. Bernard," and among mediaeval writers as the " Rosy Hymn." It is, perhaps, the best specimen of what Neale describes as the "subjective loveliness " of its author's compositions. (2.) "Salve mundi Salutore," an address to the various limbs of Christ on the cross. It consists of 350 lines, 50 lines being addressed to each. (3.) "Laetabundus, exultet fidelis chorus: Alleluia." This sequence was in use all over Europe. (4.) "Cum sit omnis homo foenum." (5.) " Ut jucundas cervus undas." A poem of 68 lines, and well known, is claimed for St. Bernard by Hommey in his Supplementum Patrum, Paris, 1686, p. 165, but on what Archbishop Trench, who quotes it at length, (Sac. Lat. Poetry, p. 242,) deems " grounds entirely insufficient." (6.) " Eheu, Eheu, mundi vita," or " Heu, Heu, mala mundi vita." A poem of nearly 400 lines, is sometimes claimed for St. Bernard, but according to Trench, “on no authority whatever." (7.) “O miranda vanitas." This is included in Mabillon's ed. of St. Bernard's Works. It is also attributed to him by Rambach, vol. i. p. 279. Many other hymns and sequences are attributed to St. Bernard. Trench speaks of a " general ascription to him of any poems of merit belonging to that period whereof the authorship was uncertain." Hymns, translated from, or founded on, St. Bernard's, will be found in almost every hymnal of the day, details of which, together with many others not in common use, will be found under the foregoing Latin first lines. -John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

Aurelius Clemens Prudentius

348 - 410 Person Name: Aurel. Prudentius Hymnal Number: 528 Author of "Med Sorgen og Klagen hold Maade" in Salmebog for Lutherske Kristne i Amerika Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, "The Christian Pindar" was born in northern Spain, a magistrate whose religious convictions came late in life. His subsequent sacred poems were literary and personal, not, like those of St. Ambrose, designed for singing. Selections from them soon entered the Mozarabic rite, however, and have since remained exquisite treasures of the Western churches. His Cathemerinon liber, Peristephanon, and Psychomachia were among the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. A concordance to his works was published by the Medieval Academy of America in 1932. There is a considerable literature on his works. --The Hymnal 1940 Companion ============= Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens , with the occasional prefix of Marcus (cf. Migne, vol. lix. p. 593, and Dressel, p. ii. n), is the name of the most prominent and most prolific author of sacred Latin poetry in its earliest days. Of the writer himself we know nothing, or next to nothing, beyond what he has himself told us in a short introduction in verse to his works. From that source we learn that he was a Spaniard, of good family evidently, and that he was born A.D. 348 somewhere in the north of Spain, either at Saragossa, Tarragona, or Calahorra, but at which is left uncertain, by his applying the same expression to all, which if applied only to one would have fixed his place of birth. After receiving a good education befitting his social status he applied himself for some years to practising as a pleader in the local courts of law, until he received promotion to a judgeship in two cities successively:— "Bis legum moderanrine Frenos nobilium reximus urbium Jus civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos;" and afterwards to a post of still higher authority: "Tandem militiae gradu Evectum pietas principis extulit." Archbishop Trench considers this last to have been "a high military appointment at court," and such the poet's own words would seem to describe; but it may well be doubted whether a civilian and a lawyer would be eligible for such employment; in which case we may adopt the solution of the difficulty offered in the Prolegomena to our author's works (Migne, vol. lix. p. 601):— "Evectus indeest ad superiorem rnilitia? gradum, nimirum militia? civil is, palatinae, aut praesidialis, non bellicae, castrensis, aut cohortalis; nam ii qui officiis jure consultorum praesidum, rectorum et similium funguntur, vulgo in cod. Theod. militare et ad superiores militias ascendere dicuntur." It was after this lengthened experience at a comparatively early age of positions of trust and power that Prudentius, conscience-smitten on account of the follies and worldliness that had marked his youth and earlier manhood, determined to throw up all his secular employments, and devote the remainder of his life to advancing the interests of Christ's Church by the power of his pen rather than that of his purse and personal position. Accordingly we find that he retired in his 57th year into poverty and private life, and began that remarkable succession of sacred poems upon which his fame now entirely rests. We have no reason however to regard him as another St. Augustine, rescued from the "wretchedness of most unclean living" by this flight from the temptations and engrossing cares of official life into the calm seclusion of a wholly devotional leisure. He had probably rather learnt from sad experience the emptiness and vanity for an immortal soul of the surroundings of even the high places of this world. As he himself expresses it:— "Numquid talia proderunt Carnis post obitum vel bona, vel mala, Cum jam, quicquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?" and sought, at the cost of all that the world holds dear, those good things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Beyond the fact of his retirement from the world in this way, and the fruits which it produced in the shape of his voluminous contributions to sacred poetry, we have no further information about our author. To judge from the amount he wrote, his life must have been extended many years after he began his new career, but how long his life was or where he died we are not told. Probably he died circa 413. His works are:— (1) Liber Cathemerinon. "Christian Day, as we may call it" W. S. Lilly, "Chapters in European History," vol. i. p. 208). (2) Liber Peristephanon. "Martyrs' Garlands" (id.). (3) Apotheosis. A work on the Divine Nature, or the Deification of Human Nature in Christ. (4) Hamartigenia. A treatise on the Origin of Sin, directed against the Marcionites. (5) Psychomachia or "The Spiritual Combat"-—an allegorical work. (6) Libri contra Symmachum. A controversial work against the restoration in the Senate House at Rome of the altar of Victory which Gratian had removed. Symmachus had petitioned Valentinian II. for its restoration in 384, but the influence of St. Ambrose had prevailed against him at that time. In 392 the altar was restored, but removed again by Theodosius in 394. After the death of the latter the attempt to restore it was renewed by Arcadius and Honorius, and it was at that time that Prudentius wrote his first book. The second (for there are two) was written in 405. Fague considers that the first may date in 395. (7) The Dittochseon = the double food or double Testament, is a wordy collection of 49 sets of four verses each, on Old and New Testament scenes. Of these different works the most important are the first two, and it is from them that the Liturgical hymns enumerated below have been chiefly compiled. The general character of Prudentius's writings it is not easy fairly to estimate, and to judge by the wholesale laudation he obtains from some of his critics, and the equally unsparing censure of others, his judges have so found it. In venturing upon any opinion upon such a subject, the reader must bear in mind the peculiar position in which the period at which he was writing found the poet. The poetry of classical Rome in all its exact beauty of form had long passed its meridian, and was being replaced by a style which was yet in its infancy, but which burst forth into new life and beauty in the hands of the Mediaeval hymnologists. Prudentius wrote before rhyming Latin verse was thought of, but after attention had ceased to be given to quantities. Under such circumstances it were vain to look for very finished work from him, and such certainly we do not find. But amidst a good deal of what one must confess is tasteless verbiage or clumsy rhetorical ornament-—however varied the metres he employs, numbering some 17—-there are also passages to be found, not unfrequently, of dramatic vigour and noble expression, which may well hold their own with the more musical utterances of a later date. He writes as a man intensely in earnest, and we may gather much from his writings concerning the points of conduct which were deemed the most important in Christian living at a time when a great portion of mankind were still the victims or slaves of a morality which, heathen at the best, was lowered and corrupted the more as the universality of its influence was more and more successfully challenged by the spread of the Gospel of Christ. If, there¬fore, we can scarcely go as far in our author's praise as Barth—-much given to lavish commendation—-who describes him as "Poeta eximius eruditissimus et sanctissimus scriptor; nemo divinius de rebus Christianis unquam scripsit"; or as Bentley—-not given to praise--who calls him the "Horace and Virgil of the Christians," we shall be as loath, considering under what circumstances he wrote, to carp at his style as not being formed on the best ancient models but as confessedly impure; feeling with Archbishop Trench that it is his merit that "whether consciously or unconsciously, he acted on the principle that the new life claimed new forms in which to manifest itself; that he did not shrink from helping forward that great transformation of the Latin language, which it needed to undergo, now that it should be the vehicle of truths which, were all together novel to it." (Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 121.) The reader will find so exhaustive an account of the various writings of Prudentius in the account given of him and them in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, and Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, that it is only necessary in this work to refer very briefly to them as above. The poems have been constantly reprinted and re-edited, till the editor who produced the best edition we have of them, Albert Dressel (Leipsic, 1860), is able to say that his is the sixty-third. The use made of Prudentius's poems in the ancient Breviaries and Hymnaries was very extensive. In the form of centos stanzas and lines wore compiled and used as hymns; and it is mainly from these centos, and not from the original poems, that the translations into English were made. Daniel, i., Nos. 103-115, gives 13 genuine hymns as having been in use for "Morning," "Christmas," "Epiphany," "Lent," "Easter," "Transfiguration," "Burial," &c, in the older Breviaries. ….Many more which were used in like manner have been translated into English. When to these are added the hymns and those which have not been translated into English, we realise the position and power of Prudentius in the hymnody of the Church. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============== Prudentius, A. C, p. 915, ii. Two somewhat full versions of Prudentius are: (1) The Cathemerinon and other Poems of Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in English Verse, Lond., Rivington, 1845; and (2) Translations from Prudentius. By Francis St. John Thackeray, M.A.. F.S.A. Lond., Bell & Sons, 1890. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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