JDIETENBERGER
788
DIETENBERGER
probable the conjecture generally entertained by hym-
nologists, that the Dies Irse was composed by a Fran-
ciscan in the thirteenth century.
Its authorship has been most generally ascribed to Thomas of Celano, the friend, fellow-friar, and biog- rapher of St. Francis. Reasons for this particularity of ascription are given by Keyser (Beitriige zur Ge- schichte und Erklarung der alten Ivirchenhymnen, Paderborn und Munster, 1886, II 194-196 and 230- 235) ; also by Duffield (Latin Hymn Writers and Their Hymns, New York, 1889, 245-247), an ardent cham- pion of the ascription to Thomas; also in "The Dol- phin" (Nov., 1904, 514-516), which corrects a funda- mental error in one of Duffield's main arguments. Ten other names have been suggested by various writers as the probable author of the Dies Irae: (1) St. Gregory the Great (d. 604); (2) St. Bernard of Clair- vaux (d. 1153); (3) St. Bona venture (d. 1274); (4) Cardinal Matthew d'Acquasparta (d. 1.302); (5) Inno- cent III (d. 1216); (6) Thurstan, Archbishop of York (d. 1140); (7) Cardinal Latino Orsini, or Frangipani, a Dominican (d. 1296) ; (8) Humbert, a general of the Dominicans (d. 1277) ; (9) Agostino Biella, an Augus- tinian (d. 1491); (10) Felix Haemmerlein, a priest of Zurich (d. 1457). The ascription to Haemmerlein was due to the discovery, after his death, of a variant text of the sequence among his papers. Its eight- eenth and nineteenth stanzas are: —
18. Lacrimosa dies ilia. Cum resurget ex favilla Tanquam ignis ex scintilla,
19. Judicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce, Deus; Esto semper adjutor meus.
To these are added five stanzas of the same form. This Haemmerlein text is given by Keyser (op. cit., 211), Warren (op. cit., 11), and by others. Still an- other text, known as the "Mantuan Marble" text (first printed m 1594), prefaces the Dies Irae with four similar stanzas, and replaces stanzas 17-19 with the single stanza: —
Ut consors beatitatis
Viyam cum justificatis
In sevum Eeternitatis.
Daniel gives both texts in his " Thesaurus Hymnologi- cus" (II, 103-105), except the two concluding stanzas of the Haemmerlein text. Coles (Dies Irae in Thirteen Original Versions, New York, 1868) gives (xv-xxi) both texts together with versified English translation. All of these additional stanzas rather detract from the vigorous beauty of the original hymn, whose old- est known form is, with .slight verbal changes, that which is found in the Roman Missal. It appears most likely that this text originally ended with the seventeenth stanza, the first four of the concluding six lines having been found among a series of verses on the responsory "Libera me, Domine" in a MS. of the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century (cf. Mone, Lateinische Hymnen des Mittelalt- ers, Freiburg im Br., 1863, I, 406). It is quite prob- able that the sequence was first intended for private devotion and that subsequently the six fines were added to it in order to adapt it to liturgical use. The composer found his Biblical text in Soph. (i._ 15, 16): " Dies iraj dies ilia . . . dies tubae et clangoris"; and it may be that he obtained a suggestion for his wonder- ful rhythm (cf. Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, 3rd ed., London, 1874, p. 302, foot-note) from a tenth-century judgment hymn (given in two forms by Dreves, An- alecta Hymnica, Leipzig, 1896, XXIII, pp. 53, 54) containing this rhythnuzed text of Sophonias: —
Dies ira;, dies ilia. Dies nebula; et turbinis, Dies tuba; et clangoris,
Dies nebulosa valde,
Qiiando tenebrarum pondus
Cadet super peccatores.
The sequence has been translated many times into various tongues, the largest recorded number (234) being English renderings. Among the names of those who have given complete or fragmentary translations are those of Crashaw (1646); IJrvden (1696); Scott (1805); Macaulay (1819); Father Caswall (1849). Amongst .\merican translators we find Dr. Abraham Coles, a physician of Newark, credited with eighteen versions; W. W. Nevin, with nine; and Rev. Dr. Samuel W. Duffield, with six. Space wiU not permit here an analysis of the Dies Irae or any quotation of the wealth of eulogy passed upon it by hymnologists of every shade of rehgious conviction, save fragments from the appreciations of Daniel: "Saeroe poeseos summum decus et Ecclesioe Latinae keimelion est pretiosis.simmn " (It is the chief glory of sacred poetry and the most precious treasure of the Latin Church) ; of Orby Shipley, in the "Dubhn Review" of Jan., 1883, who, after enumerating some hymns " which are only not inspired, or which, more truly, are in their degree inspired", says: "But beyond them all, and before them all, and above them all may, perhaps, be placed Dies irae, by Thomas of Celano"; of Coles: "Among gems it is the diamond. It is solitary in its excel- lence"; of Dr. Schatf : " This marvellous hymn is the acknowledged masterpiece of Latin poetry, and the most sublime of all uninspired hymns " ; of Dr. Neale : ". . . the Dies irae in its unapproached glory ".
Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (Revised ed., London, 1907), 295-301, 1551, 1629, gives very serviceable references, but strangely omits W.vrren, Dies 2rce (London. 1902), who de- votes 170 pages to his theme, prefacing it with references under the heading of Literature of the Dies Iras. To their lists should be added: Shipley, Annus Sanclus (London, 1884); Anon., The Srmi Great Hymns of the Media-val Church (New York, 1S6S1; Henry in The Amer. Ecclesiastical Review (.4pril, 1890), 247-261; Idem in The Dolphin (November, 1904, to May. 1905), an extensive series of articles (144 pages) on the history, literary uses, and translations of the Dies irEe; Clop in Revue du Chant Gregorien (Nov.-Dec, 1907), 4(>-53, who discusses the authorship and the plain-song melody of the sequence; Johneh, A New School of Gregorian Chant (New York, 1906), 116.
H. T. Henry.
Dietenberger, Joh.\nn, theologian, b. about 1475
at Fnmkl'ort-cin-the-Main; d. 4 Sept., 1537, at Mainz.
He was educated in his native city, joined the Domini-
can Order, and soon distinguished himself by his at-
tainments, both religious and intellectual. On 3 June,
1511, he registered at Cologne as a theological student;
three years later, 23 September, 1514, he was admitted
to the licentiate, and the next year, after some time
spent at Heidelberg and Mainz, received the doctor's
degree. Towards the end of 1517 Dietenberger was
ajipoiiited Rcgens sludiorum and interpreter of St.
Thomas at Trier, where he opened his lectures 27 Jan-
uary, 1518. In the meantime he had been elected
(1516) prior of his convent at Frankfort, and he re-
tained this office until 1526, when he became prior at
Coblenz. In 1530 Dietenberger attended the Diet of
Augsburg and was chosen a member of the committee
of twenty Catholic theologians selected at the meeting
of 27 June and presided over by Eck, to draw up a ref-
utation of the Protestant Confession. About the
same time he received the appointment of general in-
quisitor for the Dioceses of Jlainz and Cologne. His
last years, from 1532, were devoted to teaching theo-
logy and exegesis in the .\cademy of Mainz.
Foremost among Dietenberger's works stands his catechism: " Evangel ischer Bericht und Christliche Unterweisimg der ftirnehmlichsten Stiick des waren heyligen Christlichen Glaubens", published first at Mainz in 15.37 and often re-edited, lastly by Moufang (Die Mainzer Katechismen). Next should be men- tioned liietenberger's German Bible: "Biblia beider Allt und Newen Testamenten, new verdeutscht".
