(See [Illustrative Hymns, VIII.] Ut queant laxis resonare fibris, “In flowing measures worthily to sing,” Paulus Diaconus.)
Ambrosian meters are set aside in favor of the classical meters of the Greeks, the Sapphic and elegiac meters proving to be the most popular thereafter. To what extent this influence is actually observable in hymn cycles may be determined by a comparison of the list of Carolingian hymns with the lists of hymns provided by Blume, Julian or Mearns. Batiffol selected thirteen as found in later breviary lists[28] but the actual direct contribution is much larger if other than breviary hymns are admitted. Moreover, the literary and liturgical studies of the time broadened the original Benedictine concept that the hymns of the monastic cycle should be Ambrosian in style. The hymns of Sedulius and particularly of Prudentius and Fortunatus were recognized, introduced or freely adapted to ecclesiastical usage.
The direct influence of Celtic culture upon the new hymn cycles must be associated with the introduction of biblical and liturgical works containing hymns into Frankish territory. Later, hymns were written by Celtic scholars, for instance, Samson, Sedulius Scottus (enumerated above) and possibly others who are anonymous. Blume’s theory of the Anglo-Irish hymn cycle, originally sponsored by Gregory the Great and finally transferred to the continent, illustrates the most decisive form which Celtic influence has so far been presumed to have exerted. The list of hymns (see [Appendix]) bears, on the contrary, no resemblance to the group of contemporary Celtic hymns.[29] It seems much more probable that Gregory, the Benedictine Pope, approved the use in Anglo-Irish lands, of the continental hymn cycle which the Order was responsible for carrying northward with it when it entered Britain. In any case, the Benedictine cycles from the ninth century onward are enriched from every aspect of the diverse culture of the age, in which the Celtic contribution, both direct and indirect, is important.
At this period hymnology in the Greek-speaking world was at its height. Yet proof is sought in vain that Greek hymns were used in the west, either in the Greek language or in translation. The hymnal of the Western Church received from Greek sources its recorded tunes, not its words. Although the earliest liturgical manuscript with musical notation dates from the ninth century, the Greeks had already given their neumes to the west. As for the hymn melodies which are crystallized in these manuscripts when they do appear, theories of origin abound. A definite system of notation was in existence from the seventh century but hymns had been sung from the fourth century.
In modern times through the consecrated efforts of Benedictine students of the chant, working chiefly at Solesmes, a collation of the existing musical manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages, has been made. Their object has been to determine the authentic melodies of the Benedictine cycle throughout its long history. Today the results of their scholarship are available to the public and the great hymns which they have fostered may be heard as well as read in their medieval form.
The assimilation by the Franks, of alien cultures whether through conquest or peaceful interchange, may have been to a certain extent inevitable and involuntary. Such phenomena occur in every period of history. It is the conscious appropriation by the Carolingian leaders of a cultural heritage and its organization through existing institutions which reveals their true genius. This same process had taken place when Roman genius secured and conserved the achievement of the Greeks. In the field of religious culture with which this volume is concerned, an unbroken continuity had been maintained from the days of the primitive church. Even in the minor category of Christian hymnology, the hymnal as such, created in the fourth century, was to flourish all the way into our own times and might have done so without any special intervention. Historically speaking, in the ninth century and under Frankish auspices, a transformation took place which must be attributed to the conscious effort of Frankish churchmen who, receiving the old hymnology, restored it to formal worship with a much larger content and a greatly diversified form. Herein lies the fundamental contribution of Germanic genius to the Later Hymnal.
Individual hymn writers of the Carolingian age have been named above as far as they are known, of whom Theodulphus of Orleans, Rabanus Maurus and Walafrid Strabo are perhaps the most notable.
A Goth by race, a Spaniard by birth, Theodulphus, (c. 760-c. 821), belonged to that population dwelling north and south of the Pyrenees which the Franks had amalgamated into their kingdom. He was learned in all the wisdom of that age and a man of action in a sense understandable in any age. Bishop of Orleans, courtier, officer in the administration of Charlemagne, he served the church and the state with equal distinction. Theodulphus as a poet of sacred verse is best known for his Palm Sunday processional hymn, Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit, “All glory, laud and honor,”[30] which he wrote during the period of his fall from royal favor under Louis the Pious. This beautiful processional hymn, a triumph of Carolingian verse, invested with all the attraction of legend and religious pageantry, has been a favorite in every period of Christian history. Theodulphus was not a member of the regular clergy and he did not, as far as we know, write hymns for the monastic cycle. He represents the contemporary trend which brought the hymn into new areas of worship in the offices and ceremonies of the cathedral.
Rabanus Maurus, (780-856), of Germanic origin, was primarily a theologian. His boyhood studies were completed at Fulda. As a young man he became a pupil of Alcuin at Tours. In his maturity he returned to Fulda reaching the climax of his career as Abbot of Fulda and later, as Archbishop of Mainz. As a writer, Rabanus undertook to hand on, through excerpts, the knowledge of his predecessors. He wrote commentaries on the Bible, discussed ecclesiastical organization and discipline, theology, liturgy and worship and the liberal arts. He made translations into German with the collaboration of Walafrid and a Latin-German glossary for the Scriptures. In connection with worship he became interested in the Latin hymns which were rapidly spreading through the west. He discussed the Psalms as hymns and then the hymns of Hilary and Ambrose, saying of the Ambrosian hymns, how widespread had become their prestige in his day. We know from other evidence that he was acquainted also with the hymns of Sedulius, Columba and Bede. It seems almost certain that he practiced the art of poetry although we are restricted to a very small remnant of verse conceded to be his. The poems include a number of hymns for the festivals of the seasons and of the saints, illustrating the vogue for the classic in metrical forms. Like Theodulphus, he wrote for processional ceremonies. The Pentecostal hymn, Veni, creator spiritus, has been persistently associated with the name of Rabanus but without adequate proof. It is a lasting hymn of the ninth century.
(See [Illustrative Hymns, IX.] Veni, creator spiritus, “Creator-Spirit, all-Divine.”)