Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences/Patris Sapientia, Bonitas Divina
Patris Sapientia, Bonitas Divina.
This is one, and the best, of the many efforts of mediæval poets to recite our Lord's Passion in connexion with the Canonical Hours. It may probably be of the twelfth century.
Circled by His enemies,
By His own forsaken,
Christ the Lord at Matin hour
For our sakes was taken:
Very Wisdom, Very Light,
Monarch long expected,
In the garden by the Jews
Bound, reviled, rejected.
See them at the Hour of Prime
Unto Pilate leading
Him 'gainst whom with lying tongues
Witnesses are pleading.
There with spitting and with shame
Ill for good they render,
Marring of That Face which gives
Heaven eternal splendour.
"Crucify Him!" for His Love
Is their bitter payment,
When they lead Him forth at Tierce
Clad in purple raiment:
And a crown of woven thorns
On His Head He weareth:
And the Cross to Calvary
On His Shoulder beareth.
He upon that Cross at Sexts
For man's sake was mounted;
By the passers by reviled,
With transgressors counted:
Mocking, vinegar and gall
To His thirst they proffer:
To the Holy Lamb of God
Such the taunt they offer.
At the Hour of Nones the strife,
Long and sharp, was ended:
Gently to His Father's Hands
He His Soul commended;
And a soldier pierced His Side
With a spear unbidden;
And earth quaked exceedingly,
And the Sun was hidden.
When it came to Vesper time,
From the Cross they take Him,
Whose great love to bear such woes
For our sakes could make Him:
Such a death He underwent,
Sin's alone Physician,
That of Everlasting Life
We might have fruition.
At the holy Compline tide
Holy hands array Him
In the garments of the grave
Where the mourners lay Him;
Myrrh and spices have they brought,
Scripture is completed;
And by death the Prince of Life
Death and Hell defeated.
Therefore these Canonical
Hours my tongue shall ever
In Thy praise, O Christ, recite
With my heart's endeavour:
That the Love which for my sake
Bare such tribulation
In mine own Death-agony
May be my Salvation.
- ↑ It Is not to be wondered at that the above hymn should have received many applications to S. Mary. For example, one begins:
Mary, Mother of the poor,
And their hope unshaken,
Heard about the matin hour
That her Son was taken;
By the Apostolic band >
Utterly forsaken, &c.More worthy of quotation are the following verses of Hildebert's on the same subject: the rudeness of the translation imitates that of the original:
In twice twelve hours the sun goes through the heaven:
And sacred to the Lord of all are seven.
The first is Prime. In this the Sun was placed
On high, and Heaven with all his splendour graced;
In this we praise our King, the world's True Light,
And pray Him to defend from error's night.
Adam at Tierce was made: and given the aw:
Tierce the Redeemer's condemnation saw
And the Blest Spirit's Advent. Here we raise
The Vessels to the Potter, prayer and praise:
That casting off the old, that Adam now
We may put on, in Death Who deigned to bow
As at this very hour: and Heavenly Flame
May purge from sin, and fire with love, our frame.
At Sexts man fell: and Christ his sentence bore,
And the noon fiend is raging evermore.
Whoe'er thou art, for whom Christ deigned to bleed
Fall on thy knees, and thank Him for the deed:
Pray that the dragon, who in this same hour
Adam destroyed, o'er thee may have no power:
That God, at noon for man a Sacrifice,
May shield thee from the flesh, and fiend's surprise.
At Nones by Adam Paradise was lost:
Christ on the Cross at Nones gave up the ghost,
And visited the faithful, to reveal
His marvellous light in shade. Thou therefore kneel,
And pray to join their band, and see their Lord
In the bright realms now lost, and now restored.
At Vesper tide the moon and stars, displayed
In their bright course, the Firmament arrayed.
For these fair signs we yield their author praise,
For the cheered darkness and the lovely rays.
At Vespers, wretched now, and doomed to ills,
Adam first saw the sunset touch the hills,
And prayed, as darkness gathered in apace,
With horror struck, for God's defending grace.
So thou who at the Font hast seen new light,
Pray that thy Sun may never sink in night.
No certain hour hath Compline: yet to God
Render we thanks for that day's journey trod:
Forgiveness ask from grace: from grace request
That Satan with no phantasm break our rest.
O'er earth, at midnight hoar, the deluge burst,
The fearful Baptism of its sin accursed:
Moses exulting, passed the Red Sea wave,
Where Pharaoh and his thousands found their grave:
David arose to Psalms; at this same tide
Shall the last fire the good and bad divide.
These things of mercy and of judgment teach:
The hymns and prayers of David mercy preach:
That Moses passed in safety, when his foes
Were whelmed like lead, judicial sentence shows.