Coetus in excelsis te laudat caelicus omnis
et mortalis homo, cuncta creata simul.
Plebs Hebraea tibi cum palmis obvia venit;
cum prece, voto, hymnis adsumus ecce tibi.
Hi tibi passuro solvebant munia laudis;
nos tibi regnanti pangimus ecce melos.
Hi placuere tibi; placeat devotio nostra,
rex pie, rex clemens, cui bona cuncta placent. Amen.
The hymn was used as the processional in the Palm Sunday service of the medieval church.
St. Theodulph of Orleans composed the words about A.D. 820. He was probably born in Italy, though neither the date nor place of his birth are definitely known. Theodulph became the abbot of a monastery in Florence but was later brought to France and made bishop of Orleans. Emperor Louis the Pious imprisoned him on a false charge of conspiracy in 818. There is a legend, but only a legend, that this hymn was composed during the author’s confinement, and that St. Theodulph sang it at the window of his cell as the King passed the prison on the way to church and that the latter was so moved by it that he ordered the release of Theodulph and his restoration to his office as bishop.