SALVETE
410
SALVI
The composers adopt curious forms for the introduc-
tion of the text, for example (fourteenth century):
Salve splendor priecipue supernae claritatis,
Regina vincens strenue scelus impietatis,
Misericordia? tU£B
munus impende gratis, etc. The poem has fourteen such stanzas. Another poem, of the fifteenth century, has forty-three four- line stanzas. Another, of the fifteenth century, is more condensed:
Salve nobilis regina
fons misericordiae, etc. A feature of these is their apparent preference for the briefer formula, "O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Maria."
The anthem figured largely in the evening devotions of the confraternities and guilds which were formed in great numbers about the beginning of the thirteenth century. "In France, this service was commonly known as a Salut, in the Low Countries as the Lof, in England and Germany simply as the Salve. Now it seems certain that our present Benediction service has resulted from the general adoption of this evening singing of canticles before the statue of Our Lady, enhanced as it often came to be in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, which was employed at first only as an adjunct to lend it additional solemnity." This highly interesting view of Father Thurston (see Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament for some elaboration) is developed in his articles on the "Bene- diction of the Blessed Sacrament" ("Month", June, July, Aug., Sept., 1901) and "Our English Benedic- tion Service" (ibid., Oct., 1905). Luther complained that the anthem was sung everywhere throughout the world, that the great bells of the churches were rung in its honour, etc. He objected especially to the words "Queen of mercy, our life, our sweetness, our hope"; but Daniel (II, .322) points out that the language of devotion is not that of dogma, and notes that some Protestants, unwilling that it should disappear from Lutheran churches, reconstructed it "evangelically". He perhaps refers to a version in use at Erfurt in 1525 : "Salve Rex aetemai misericordiae". The Jansenists found a like difficulty, and sought to change the ex- pression into "the sweetness and hope of our life" (Belssel, I, 126). While the anthem thus figured largely in liturgical and in general popular Catholic devotion, it was especially dear to sailors. Clarke ("Old and New Lightson Columbus", New York, 1893, pp. 191, 237) gives instances of the singing of Salve Regina by the sailors of Columbus and the Indians.
The exquisite plainsong has been attributed to Hermann Contractus. The Vatican Antiphonary (pp. 127-8) gives the revised official or "typical" form of the melody (first tone). The now unofficial "Ratisbon" edition gave the melody in an ornate and in a simple form, together with a setting which it de- scribed as being in the eleventh tone, and which is also very beautiful. An insistent echo of this last setting is found in the nlain.song of Santeul's "Stupete gentes" (see "Recueil cornplet des hymnes etc.", Dijon, 1845, p. 174). There are many settings by polyphonic and modern composers. Pergolesi's (for one voice, with two violins, viola, and organ) was written shortly before his fleath; it is placed among his "happiest inspirations", is deemed his "greatest triumph in the direction of Church music" and "uns\irpassed in purity of style, and pathetic, touching expression".
Mearns in .Iri.iAN, Did. of Ifymnolom f2ncl ed., Ixinrlon, 1907), 991, IUHH. \m7. To the eleven translationH there noted should be a/lded thow bv Baohhawe, Rrevinry Humnn and Mixnal Segumrex fix.ndon. UlOO). 220; Donahok. Earl,/ Chri»lian Hymnn (S<-v/ York. 1W)«), l.Vi; an excfllonf literal rhvmed ver- sion by the ronnpilfr of Ronar,/ of the. RhiinM Virgin Mary (\jon- don, 8. d.). 244: "Hail! holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, hail!",
in rhythmical prose by Duffield in Latin Hymn-viriters and their
Hymns (New York, 1889), 162; prose translation in the (Balti-
more) Manual of Prayers, 79. For some English poems on the
theme see Shipley, Carmina Mariana (2nd series, 68: Bridgett's
"Our Life, Our Sweetness, and Our Hope"; p. 236: Mangan's tr.
of Karl Simrock's "O Maria Regina Misericordise"; p. 337:
"Post Hoc Exsilium"). Liguori, The Glories of Mary, devotes
ten chapters to an ascetical commentary. Dreves, Lateinische
Ifymnendichter des Mitleltjilers, II (Analecla hymnica medii ven, L,
Leipzig, 1907), 318, contains ^ISS. sources; for biographical no-
tice of Hermann Contractus, cf. ibid., 308-9. Consult also Beis-
SEL, Gesch. der Verehrung Marias in Deutschland wShrend des Mit-
telallers (Freiburg, 1909), 122 sqq., 202-6, 214, 253, 272, 290, 353,
546; Idem, Gesch. der Verehrung M.'s i7i D. im 16 u. IT. Jahrh.
(1910), concluding chapter; Mercati, Leggende medievali sulla
"Salve Regina" in Rassegna Gregoriana (Jan.-Feb., 1907), 43-5,
many references; Daniel, Thesaurus hymnologicus, II, 321-6;
Mone, Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalters, II, 203-16; Godet,
L'origine liturgique du "Salve Regina" in Rerue du clergi franfais
(15 Aug., 1910); Db Valois, Le "Salve Regina" datis I'Ordre
de Clteaux in La Tribune de Saint-Gervais (May, 1907), history of
the anthem and a close study, with musical illustrations, of the
plainsong; T). J., En marge d'une A7itienne: Le " Salve Regina" in
Tribune de Saint-Gervais (Feb. — , 1911).
H. T. Henry.
Salvete Christi Vulnera, the Roman Breviary hymn at Lauds of the feast of the Most Precious Blood, is found in the Appendix to Pars Verna of the Roman Breviary (Venice, 1798). The office, added since 1735, was in some dioceses a commemora- tive Lenten feast, and is still thus found assigned to Friday after the fourth Sunday of Lent with rite of major double. Pius IX (Aug. 10, 1849) added it to the regular feasts of the Breviary and assigned it to the first Sunday of July (double of the second class). In the fact that the feast was thus estab- fished generally after the pope's return from Gaeta, Faber sees "an historical monument of a vicissitude of the Holy See, a perpetual Te Deum for a deliv- erance of the Vicar of Christ" (The Precious Blood, p. 334, Amer. ed.). The hymn comprises eight Ambrosian stanzas in classical iambic dimeter verse together with a proper doxology:
Summa ad Parentis dexteram
Sedenti habenda est gratia
Qui nos redemit sanguine,
Sanctoque firmat Spiritu. Amen. A cento, comprising stanzas i, ii, iv, viii, forms the hymn at Lauds in the office of the Pillar of the Scourging {Columna Flagellationis D. N. J. C), a feast celebrated in some places on the Tuesday after Quinquagesima Sunday; but the hymn in this case has its proper doxology:
Cacso flagellis gloria,
Jesu, tibi sit jugiter,
Cum patre et almo Spiritu
Nunc et per steculum. Amen. To the translations of Caswall, Oxenham, and Wallace, listed in Julian's "Dictionary of Hymnol- ogy", should be added those of Archbi.shop Bag- shawe (Breviarv Hymns and Mi.ssal Sequences, p. 101: "All hail! ye Holy Wounds of Christ"), Donahoe (Early Christian Hymns, p. 252: "All hail, ye wounds of Jesus"), "S.", in Shipley's "Annua Sanctus", Part II (p. 59: "All hail, ye wounds of Christ").
The Vesper hymn of the feast, "Festivis resonent eompita vf»cibus", comprising seven Asdepiadic stanzas, and the Matins hymn, "Ira justa conditoris imbre aquarum vindice", comprising six stanzjis, have been translated l)v Caswall (Lyra Catholica, pp. 83, 8.5), Bag.shawe (loc. cit., Nos. 9.5-0), Donahoe Hoc. cit., pp. 249-.52). The Vesper hynm was also translated ny Potter (Annus Sanctus, Part I, p. 85), and the Matins hvmn by O'Connor (Arundel Hymns, etc., 1902, No. 80), and by Henry (Sursum Corda, 1907, p. 5).
H. T. IIknky.
Salvete Flores Martyrum. See Quicdmqtje Chrirthm Quaeritis. Salvi, Giovanni Battibta. See Sassoferrato.
