1

HYMNS
OF
The Eastern Church

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PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
LONDON

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HYMNS
OF
The Eastern Church.

TRANSLATED,
WITH NOTES AND AND AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
THE REV. J. M. NEALE, D.D.,
Warden of Sackville College.
FIFTH EDITION
LONDON:
J. T. HAYES, 17 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
[Electronic edition with material from the first edition:
LONDON:
J. T. Hayes, 5, LYALL PLACE, EATON SQ.
1862.]

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Sion’s lyre, thou best content That e’er Heav’n to mortals lent, Though they as a trifle leave thee, Whose dull thoughts cannot conceive thee, Though to them thou be a scorn Who to nought but earth are born, May my life no longer be Than I am in love with thee!

WITHER

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TO
THE SUPERIOR
AND
THE OTHER SISTERS
OF
The House of Mercy at Clewer.
WITH THANKFULNESS FOR THEIR PAST, AND
PRAYERS FOR THEIR FUTURE SUCCESS,
THESE HYMNS
ARE DEDICATED.

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7

CONTENTS

Preface to First Edition	13
Preface to Second Edition	19
Preface to Third Edition	21
Introduction	25
S. Anatolius (d. 458)	55
Stichera for a Sunday of the First Tone	57
Evening Hymn	59
Stichera at Vespers, S. Stephen’s Day	62
Stichera for Christmas-tide	64
S. Andrew of Crete (A.D. 660-732)	71
Stichera for Great Thursday	73
Troparia for Palm Sunday	76
The Great Canon	78
Stichera for the Second Week of the Great Fast	82
S. Germanus (A.D. 634-734)	85
A Sunday in the Week of the First Tone	87
S. John Damascene (circ. A.D. 780)	90
Canon for Easter Day, called the “Queen of Canons”:	92
Ode 1. “‘Tis the Day of Resurrection”	95
Ode 3. “Come and let us drink of that New River”	97
Ode 4. “Stand on thy watch-tower, Habakkuk the Seer”	98
Ode 5. “Let us rise in early morning”	100
Ode 6. “Into the earth’s lowest parts descending”	102
Ode 7. “Who from the fiery furnace saved the Three”	103
Ode 8. “Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise”	105
Ode 9. “Thou New Jerusalem, arise and shine”	107
The Stichera of the Last Kiss	108
Idiomela for All Saints	115
Canon for S. Thomas’ Sunday:
Ode 1. “Come, ye faithful, raise the strain”	116
Ode 3. “On the rock of Thy Commandments”	121
Ode 4. “Christ, we turn our eyes to Thee”	123
Ode 5. “Thee, O Christ, we, very early rising”	125
S. Cosmas, surnamed The Melodist (A.D. 760)	127
Canon for Christmas Day:
Ode 1. “Christ is born! Tell forth His fame”	130
Ode 3. “Him, of the Father’s very Essence”	133
Ode 4. “Rod of the Root of Jesse”	136
Ode 5. “Father of Peace, and God of Consolation”	139
Ode 6. “As Jonah, issuing from his three days’ tomb”	141
Ode 7. “The Holy Children boldly stand”	143
Ode 8. “The dewy freshness from the furnace flings”	145
Old 9. “O wondrous mystery, full of passing grace!”	148
Cento on the Transfiguration	150
S. Tarasius (A.D. 806)	154
S. Theophanes (A.D. 759-818)	156
Idiomela on Friday of Tyrophagus	160
Stichera at the First Vespers of Cheese Sunday (Quinquagesima): “Adam’s Complaint”	164
S. Theodore of the Studium (A.D. 826)	168
Canon for Apocreos (Sexagesima)	171
Ode 1. “That fearful day, that day of speechless dread”	174
Ode 3. “God comes, and who shall stande before His fear?”	176
Ode 4. “The day is near, the Judgment is at hand”	178
Ode 9. “The Lord draws nigh, the righteous Throne’s Assessor”	181
Orthodoxy Sunday (1st Sunday in Lent)	184
S. Methodius I (A.D. 836)	192
Idiomela for a Sunday of the Fourth Tone	193
S. Joseph of the Studium (A.D. 830)	195
Canon at Lauds for Sunday of the Prodigal Son (Septuagesima)	198
Cento from the Canon of Ss. Timothy and Maura: “Let our Choir new Anthems raise”	201
Cento from the Canon for the Monday of the First Tone; in the Paracletice: “And wilt Thou pardon, Lord?”	204
Cento from the Canon of the Bodiless Ones (Tuesday in the Week of the Fourth Tone): “Stars of the Morning”	206
Canon for Ascension Day:
Ode 1. “After three days Thou didst rise”	209
Ode 3. “Exalt, exalt, the Heavenly Gates”	212
Ode 4. “Jesus, Lord of Life Eternal”	214
Ode 5. “Now that Death by death hath found its ending”	216
Ode 6. “Rain down, ye heav’ns, eternal bliss”	218
Ode 7. “Wafting Him up on high”	221
Ode 8. “Of twofold natures, Christ, the Giver”	223
Ode 9. “Holy gift, surpassing comprehension”	226
S. Theoctistus of the Studium (circ. A.D. 890)	229
Cento from the “Suppliant Canon to Jesus”	229
Metrophanes of Smyrna (circ. A.D. 910)	233
From the Canon for Sunday of the Second Tone: “O Unity of Threefold Light”	234
Euthymius (A.D. 910)	236
Leo VI (A.D. 917)	237
John Mauropus (A.D. 1060)	238
APPENDIX
S. Stephen the Sabaite (A.D. 725-794)	240
Idiomela in the Week of the First Oblique Tone	242
S. Joseph of the Studium (A.D. 830)
“The Pilgrims of Jesus”	245
“The Return Home”	248

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PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

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The following Translations have occupied a portion of my leisure time for the last twelve years: and some of them have already appeared in more than one ecclesiastical periodical. So has also great part of the Introduction.

It is a most remarkable fact, and one which shows how very little interest has been hitherto felt in the Eastern Church, that these are literally, I believe, the only English versions of any part of the treasures of Oriental Hymnology. There is scarcely a first or second-rate hymn of the Roman Breviary which has not been translated: of many we have six or eight versions. The eighteen quarto volumes of Greek Church-poetry 14 can only at present be known to the English reader by my little book.

Yet surely, if in the future Hymnal of the English Church we are to build an eclectic superstructure on the foundation of the Sarum Book, the East ought to yield its full share of compositions. And hence, I cannot but marvel that the compilers of eclectic Hymnals, such as the (modern) Sarum, the Hymns Ancient and Modern, and others, have never turned to this source. Here was a noble field open to them; and to me it is incomprehensible that they should have so utterly neglected it.

There are difficulties in the task to which it is as well to revert. Though the superior terseness and brevity of the Latin Hymns renders a translation which shall represent these qualities a work of great labour, yet still the versifier has the help of the same meter; his version may be line for 15 line; and there is a great analogy between the Collects and the Hymns, most helpful to the translator. Above all, we have examples enough of former translation by which we may take pattern.

But in attempting a Greek Canon, from the fact of its being in prose—(metrical Hymns, as the reader will learn, are unknown,)—one is all at sea. What measure shall we employ? why this more than that? Might we attempt the rhythmical prose of the original, and design it to be chanted? Again, the great length of the Canons renders them unsuitable for our churches, as wholes. Is it better simply to form centos of the more beautiful passages? or can separate Odes, each necessarily imperfect, be employed as separate Hymns? And above all, we have no pattern or example of any kind to direct our labour.

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These questions, and many others, have as yet received no reply; but will, in time, no doubt, work out their answer. My own belief is, that the best way to employ Greek Hymnology for the uses of the English Church would be by centos.

The reader will find, in the following pages, examples of different methods of treatment. The following are short Idiomela, &c., which might serve as separate Hymns:—

• 5. The day is past and over. (Evening.)
• 20. O the mystery, passing wonder. (Maundy Thursday.)
• 28. Christian! dost thou see them? (A Sunday in Lent.)
• 35. By fruit the ancient foe’s device. (Easter Tide.)
• 65. Those eternal bowers. (All Saints.)
• 84. The choirs of ransomed Israel. (Transfiguration)
• 124. Are thy toils and woes increasing? (Passion or Holy Week.)

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Centos might perhaps be made from the Canons for:

• Easter, p. 95.
• Low Sunday, p. 118.
• Christmas, p. 130.
• Lent, p. 78.
• Lent, p. 171.

[1st ed., p. xv: It has been with great thankfulness that I have seen such copious use made of my Mediaeval Hymns, and my Rhythm of S. Bernard, in so many modern Hymnals. Permission has usually been most courteously asked: though in some few cases, whole Hymns have been taken without the slightest request for leave, or subsequent acknowledgment. I would therefore request any compiler of a Hymnal who may wish to quote from the following pages, to be so kind as first to express that wish to the publisher, or to myself.]

I trust the reader will not forget the immense difficulty of an attempt so perfectly new as the present, where I have had no predecessors, and therefore could have no master. If I have opened the way for others to do better what I have done imperfectly, I shall have every reason to be thankful. I have kept most of the translations by me for at least the nine years recommended 18 by Horace; and now offer them as a contribution to the hymnology of our own Church. And while fully sensible of their imperfections, I may yet (by way of excuse rather than of boast) say, almost in Bishop Hall’s words—

“I first adventure: follow me who list, And be the second Eastern Melodist.”

Sackville College,
    Feast of the Epiphany, 1862.

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PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

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I had not ventured to hope that, whatever be the beauty of these Hymns in their original language, a Second Edition of the Translation should so soon have been called for. And it has been an additional pleasure to me to find that, notwithstanding the miserable inferiority of the version, the words of S. Cosmas, S. John Damascene, and S. Joseph of the Studium, have been already introduced into English congregations. One Hymnal which has been kindly sent to me, contains no less than eleven Greek Hymns. In the present Edition, all those versions which did not rhyme,—that is, which would be of no practical use, are omitted.¹¹[Restored in the electronic edition.] Of the Canon for 20 S. Thomas’ Sunday more is given: and in some cases where, of alternate rhymes, the one-half was permitted to remain without consonance, the defect has been remedied, I hope, without much injury to the sense. It would be ungrateful if I did not express my gratitude for the way in which my little book has been received, notwithstanding its manifold imperfections.

Sackville College,
    Nov. 16th, 1862.

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PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION

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It is of course a matter of deep thankfulness to me that the Eastern Church should now be more and more widely brought before ordinary congregations by means of some of the following versions. God grant that this may be one little help towards the great work of Reunion.

I have been more than once asked to what tunes any of the hymns contained in this little book may be sung. The following is a list of all the settings with which I am acquainted:—

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In the Church Hymnal of the Rev. J. F. Young, which having appeared in Philadelphia is reprinting in London, eleven of these hymns occur: the Greek being given as well as the English.

Each of the above melodies will be found noticed at the end of the Hymn which has been set to it.

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And so once more I commit this attempt to further the cause of English Hymnology to God’s blessing, and I cannot do it better than in the quaint old words of a forgotten poet:—

Sackville College,
    April, 1866.

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INTRODUCTION.

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As a general rule, the first poetical attempts of the Eastern, like those of the Western, Church, were in classical measures. But as classical Greek died out from being a spoken language,—as new trains of thought were familiarized,—as new words were coined,—a versification became valueless, which was attached with no living bonds to the new energy, to the onward movement. Dean Trench has admirably expressed this truth in the introduction to his “Sacred Latin Poetry,” and showed how the “new wine must be put into new bottles.” Ecclesiastical terms must be used, which rebel against classical metre: in Greek, no less than in Latin, five words in eight would be shut out of the principal 26 classical rhythms. Now, the Gospel was preached to the poor. Church hymns must be the life-expression of all hearts. The Church was forced to make a way for saying in poetry what her message bade her say.²²   As an illustration of this remark, it is worth while noticing how very few examples of Hexameters occur in the New Testament. I believe that the following are all that are tolerable; that is, that can so be scanned without one or two false qualities:— S. Luke 21:18. Θριξ εκ της κεψαλησ υμων ου μη αποληται. S. John 8:5. βαλλει υδωρ εισ τον νιπτηρα, και ηρξατο νιπτειν. S. John 8:16. ουκ εστι [ν] δουλος μειζων του κυριον αυτου. S. John 17:20. και περι των πιστευσοντων δια του λογου αυτων. Titus 3:2. μηδενα βλασϕημειν, αμαχουσ ειναι, επιεικεις. Heb. 12:13. και τροχιας ορθας ποιησατε τοισ ποσιν υμων.
   There are some which are very near a hexameter: as S. Matt. 23:6—
   και τας προτοκαθεδριας εν ταις συναγωγαις.
   A tolerable pentameter occurs in Rom. 6:13—
   και τα μελη υμων οπλα δικαιοσυνης.
   and a remarkable iambic in the Lord’s Prayer.
   τον αρτον ημων τον επιουσιον διδου.

S. Gregory Nazianzen, the first Greek Church poet, used only the ordinary classical measures. S. Sophronius of Jerusalem employed (and in 27 their way not unhappily), Anacreontics: and his hymns on various festivals have some elegance. But there is a certain degree of dilittante-ism, rather than of earnestness, in these compositions; and the most airy, tripping, frivolous measure that the Greek Muse possessed, never, by any possibility, could form the ordinary utterance of the Church. The Church compositions of S. Sophronius, though called ποιηματα, are in fact mere prose: as those grand prayers on the Epiphany.

How then was the problem to be solved as to 28 the composition of Eastern Church Song? In Latin, somewhat before the time of S. Sophronius, A.D. 630, it was answered by that glorious introduction of rhyme. Why not in Greek also?

Now, it is no less true in Greek, than in Latin, that there was a tendancy to rhyme from the very beginning. Open Homer: look for caudate rhymes:—

Il. 18:46

Il. 21:523

Odyss. 8:147

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Leonines are still more common. The reader’s attention is particularly requested to those that follow:—

Il. 2:220.	Εχθιστος δ Αχιλει μαλιστ ην, ηδ Οδυσηι
484.	Εσπετε νυν μοι, Μουσαι, Ολυμπια δωματ εχουσαι
475.	Ρεια δοακρινωσιν, επει κε νομω μιγεωσιν.
3:84.	Ως εϕαθ οι δ εσχοντο μαχης, ανεω τ εγενοντο.
5:529.	Ω ϕιλοι, ανερες εστε, και αλκιμον ητορ ελεσθε.
6:242.	Τον δ Ελενη μυθοισι προσηυδα μειλιχιοισι.
Od. 1:40.	Εκ γαρ Ορεσταο τισις εσσεται ΑτρεFιδαο.
397.	Αυταρ εγω Fοικοιο Fαναξ εσομ ημετεροιο.
4:121.	Εκ δ Ελενη θαλαμοιο θυωδεος υψοροϕοιο.
14:371.	Ασπιδας, οσσαι αρισται ενι στρατω ηδε μεγισται.

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And I might mark multitudes more: but these are enough by way of example. The question then occurs at once, Why did not the new life, instilled into the Greek as well as into the Latin language by Christianity, seize the grand capability of RHYME in the one case as well as in the other? How stately it would have been in anapaestics! how sweet in trochaics! Why was it neglected?

For this reason: the reader must remember that HARDLY ONE³³1st ed.: NONE OF THE RHYMES I HAVE BEEN POINTING OUT IN HOMER WOULD BE RHYMES TO A GREEK EAR. Read them accentually, and you find αρισται and μεγισται are no more double 31 rhymes to a Greek than gloriously and furiously are to us: μουσαι and εχουσαι, no more than glory and victory. Accent, in the decline of the language, was trampling down quantity. Now accent is not favourable to such rhymes, though many poems have been thus composed in the newer Greek:

But it was not sufficiently removed from every-day life,—too familiar,—had too little dignity. There was an innate vulgarity about it which rendered it impossible to the Church.

Now, let it be observed, accentuation even in Latin was not without its difficulty. In the new style, dissyllables, whatever their real quantity, were always read—and so we read them today—as trochees. Férox, vélox, scéptrum. 32 Hence a verse in the early metrical hymns, such as—

a dimeter iambic, would have been read in mediaeval times, Cástos fídes sómnos júvat, and so have virtually become a demeter trochaic.

Popular poetry soon devised its own metre, political verse, as it was called, because used for every-day domestic matters. This was none other than a favourite metre of Aristophanes,—iambic tetrameter catalectic, our own ballad rhythm:—

And this, sometimes with rhyme, sometimes without, is the favourite Romaic metre to the present day. For example:—

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The Church never attempted this sing-song stanza, and preferred falling back on an older form.

From the brief allusions we find to the subject in the New Testament, we should gather that “the hymns and spiritual songs” of the Apostles were written in metrical prose. Accustomed as many of the early Christians were to the Hebrew Scriptures, this is not unlikely; and proof seems strong that it was so. Compare these passages:—

Eph 5:14.

Wherefore he saith: εγειρε ο καθευδων, και αναστα εκ των νεκρων επιφαυσει σοι ο Χριστος.

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Undoubtedly the fragment of a hymn. Again:—

Rev 4:8.

μεγαλα και Θαμαστα τα εργα σου, Κυριε ο Θεος ο παντοκρατωρ δικαιαι και αληθιναι αι οδοι σου, ο βασιλευς των εθνων.

And nearly coeval with these we have the Gloria in Excelsis, the Ter Sanctus, and the Joyful Light. Also the Eastern phase, so to speak, of the Te Deum; the καθ εκαστην ημεραν. And to this rhythmical prose the Church now turned.

Then, not to pursue the subject with a detail of which this Introduction will not admit, we find that by the beginning of the eighth century, verse, properly speaking (and that with scarcely an exception), had been discarded for ever from the hymns of the Eastern Church; those hymns, occupying a space beyond all comparison greater 35 than they do in the Latin, being written in measured prose. And now to explain the system.

The stanza which is to form the model of the succeeding stanzas,—the strophe, in fact,—is called the Hirmos, from its drawing others after it. The stanzas which are to follow it are called troparia, from their turning to it.

Let Ps. 119:13, be the Hirmos;—

Then verse 15 would be a troparion to it:—

So would 17:—

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and Ps. 102:16:—

Let verse 44 be a Hirmos:

and 45 will be a troparion to it:—

These troparia are always divided for chanting by commas,—utterly irrespective of the sense. This separation into commatisms renders it very difficult to read them without practice. Take an example, with the corresponding effect in English:—

The perfection of troparia is in a Canon, of which I shall say more presently. I need not trouble the reader with the minute distinction between troparia and stichera; as a troparion follows a Hirmos, so a sticheron follows an homoion, and then becomes a prosomoion. There are also idiomela,—that is, stanzas which are their own models,—and an infinite variety of names expressive of the different kind of troparia.

A collection of any number of troparia, preceded by their Hirmos, sometimes merely quoted by its initial words, sometimes given at length, and with inverted commas, is an Ode.

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Let the Hirmos, be as before—

and the Ode might follow thus:—

And let this be most carefully observed: an Ode is simply a Sequence under somewhat different laws. Just when the Greek system of 39 ecclesiastical poetry was fully developed, S. Notker and the Monks of S. Gall hit out a similar one for the Latin Church: the Sequence or the Prose. It was not copied from the East, for we have S. Notker’s own account of the way in which he invented it. It prospered to a certain extent; that is, it became one, though the least important, branch of Ecclesiastical verses.

Now the perfection of Greek poetry is attained by the Canons at Lauds, of which I proceed to speak.

A Canon consists of Nine Odes,—each Ode containing any number of troparia from three to beyond twenty. The reason for the number nine is this: that there are nine Scriptural canticles, employed at Lauds, (εις τον Ορθρον), on the model of which those in every Canon are formed:

1. of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea
2. of Moses in Deuteronomy (chap. 33)
3. of Hannah
4. of Habakkuk
5. of Isaiah (26:9-20)
6. of Jonah
7. of the Three Children (verses 3-34 of our “Song” in the Bible Version)
8. Benedicite (the “Prayer of Azarias”, verses 35-66)
9. Magnificat and Benedictus.

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From this arrangement two consequences follow. The first, that, as the Second Canticle is never recited except in Lent, the Canons never have any second Ode. The second, that there is generally some reference, either direct or indirect, in each Ode, to the Canticle of the same number: in the first Ode, e.g., to the Song of Moses at the Red Sea: in the third to that of Hannah. This gives rise, on the one hand, to a marvellous amount of ingenuity, in tracing the most far-fetched connexions,—in discovering the most remote types;—it brings out into the clearest 41 light the wonderful analogies which underlie the surface of Scripture narration; and so far imbues each Ode with a depth of Scriptural meaning which it could scarcely otherwise reach. On the other, it has a stiffening and cramping effect; and sometimes, especially to the uninitiated, has somewhat of a ludicrous tendency. It would be curious to sum up the variety of objects of which, in a thousand Sixth Odes, we find Jonah’s Whale a type. On the whole, this custom has about the same disadvantages and advantages which Warton points out as resulting from the four rhymes of a Spenserian stanza;—the advantages,—picturesqueness, ingenuity, discovery of new beauties: the disadvantages,—art not concealed by art, tautology, imparity of similitudes, a caricature of typology, painful and affected elaboration.

The Hirmos, on which each Ode is based, is 42 sometimes quoted at length at the commencement, in which case it is always distinguished by inverted commas; or the first few words are merely cited as a note to the singer, for whose benefit the Tone is also given.

The next noticeable matter is that these Odes are usually arranged after an acrostich, itself commonly in verse: sometimes alphabetical. The latter device was probably borrowed from the Psalms; as for example the 25, 112, 119. The arrangement is not to be considered as a useless formality or pretty-ism: it was of the greatest importance, when so many Canons had to be remembered by heart. We know to what curious devices the Western Church, in matters connected with the Calendar, had recourse as a Memoria Technica; and not a few of her short hymns were alphabetical, either by verses or by lines. I know no instance of any other kind of 43 acrostich. Besides the line which forms the initials of Greek Canons, the name of the composer likewise finds a frequent place. And it is worth noticing that, whereas the authors of the world-famous hymns of the West, with a few exceptions (such as the Vexilla Regis, the Dies Irae, the Veni Sancte Spiritus), are unknown, the case in the East is reversed. The acrostich may, or may not, run through the Theotokia, of which I now proceed to speak.

Each Ode is ended by a troparion, dedicated to the celebration of S. Mary, and thence named Theotokion. Sometimes there is another, which commemorates her at the Cross; and then it is a Stauro-theotokion. In long Canons, a stanza, sometimes intercalated at the end of the third or sixth Odes, is called a Cathisma, because the congregation are then allowed to sit. There is also the Oicos, literally the House,—which is the 44 exact Italian Stanza,—about the length of three ordinary troparia. The Catavasia is a troparion in which both choirs come down together, and stand in the middle of the Church, singing it in common.

The acrostichs are usually in iambics,—sometimes none of the best: e.g.—

εκπληττομαι σου τους λογους Ζαχαρια,

on the feast of S. Zacharias the Prophet:—and generally bringing in some paronomasia on the Saint’s names; as—

ϕερωνυμον σε του Θεου δωρον σεβω, on that of S. Dorotheus.

Or again:—

τρυϕης μεθεξειν αξιωσον με, Τρυϕων& 183;

and of S. Clement:

μελπω σε, κλημα της νομτης αμπελου.

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But there are examples of acrostichs which take the form of an hexameter, as—

εικαδι ουρανου εις ξενιην Ξενη ηλθε τεταρτη.
τον παναριστον εν ασκηταις Μακαριον κυδαινω·

and

Τιμοθεον τον Αποστολον, ασμασιτοισδε γεραιρω·

and

τον θεορημονα Γρηγοριον τον αιοδιμον αδω·

I shall more than once have occasion to observe that, while the earlier Odes, which treat of such subjects as the Resurrection, Ascension, Nativity, are magnificent specimens of religious poetry, the later ones, composed in commemoration of martyrs, of whom nothing but the fact of their martyrdom is known, are often grievously dull and heavy. Herein the Eastern Church would have done well; to have had, for such as these, a Canon of the Common of Martyrs, instead of 46 celebrating each differently; if the tautology which composes such Odes can indeed be called different.

I said, some short time since, that the Greek Ode and the Latin Notkerian Sequence were essentially the same. This being so, it is to introduce confusion into the very axioms of hymnology to call that kind of Sequence, as Mone does, by the name of Troparion. The Troparion does not answer to the Sequence, but to each stanza of the Sequence. The differences between Odes and Sequences may be briefly summed up as follows:—

1. The Hirmos in the former has a number of Troparia following it and based on it, whereas in the latter the Troparia run in couples; that is, one Hirmos has one follower, or Troparion, and there an end; then, another follows another, and so on. There are sometimes triplets, but these are not common.

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2. The Hirmos in Greek Odes is always an already existing Troparion; whereas, in Latin, the writer generally composed that as much as any other part of the Sequence. But in certain Sequences this was not always the case. Godeschalkus sometimes took a verse from the Psalms.

3. Sometimes, indeed, a whole Sequence was made super some other Sequence, and then it became a vast Troparion, the different verses taking the place of the commatisms in Greek Odes. In the February number of The Ecclesiologist for 1859, is given a list of Hirmos-Sequences, from the Brander MS. of S. Gall. But even in these cases, it is better not to call them Troparia, as they have so little real resemblance to Greek stanzas of that kind: I had rather see them called Homoia.

4. The rhythm in the Greek is far more exact. Not only the syllabic arrangement, but the 48 accentuation is the same; whereas in Latin, the accentuation is often counter; that is, an iambic dimeter in the Hirmos is answered by a trochaic dimeter in the Troparion. For example, if the Hirmos were,—

the requirements of a Sequence would be satisfied with the Troparion,

Such a licence would not for one moment be allowed in the Greek.

I next have to speak of the books in which Greek Hymnology is to be found. They consist principally of sixteen volumes.

α. Twelve of the Menaea:—which would answer, in Western Ritual, to the Breviary, minus the ferial offices. But, whereas in the 49 West the only human compositions of the Breviary are the lections from the sermons of the Fathers, the hymns, and a few responses—the body of the Eastern Breviary is ecclesiastical poetry: poetry not, strictly speaking, written in verse, but in measured prose. This is the staple of those three thousand pages—under whatever name the stanzas may be presented—forming Canons and Odes; as, Troparia, Idiomela, Stichera, Stichoi, Contakia, Cathismata, Theotokia, Triodia, Staurotheotokia, Catavasiae,—or whatever else. Nine-tenths of the Eastern Service-book is poetry.

50

β. The Paracletice, or Great Octoechus: in eight parts.

This contains the Ferial Office for eight weeks. Each week has on Sunday—

A Canon of the Trinity.

A Canon of the Resurrection.

A Canon of the Cross and Resurrection.

A Canon of the Mother of GOD (one or more).

On Monday:

A Canon of Penitence.

A Canon of the Angels.

On Tuesday:

A Canon of Penitence.

A Canon of the Forerunner.

On Wednesday:

A Canon of the Cross.

A Canon of the Mother of GOD.

On Thursday:

A Canon of the Apostles.

A Canon of S. Nicolas.

On Friday:

A Canon of the Passion.

A Canon of the Mother of GOD (two).

On Saturday:

A Canon of Prophets and Martyrs.

A Canon of the Dead.

51

In the first week, the whole of the Canons are sung to the first Tone: in the second, to the second, and so on. The Greek Tones answer to our Gregorian, thus:—

Latin.	Greek.
Tone I.	I.
II.	I. Plagal.
III.	II.
IV.	II. Plagal.
V.	III.
VI.	Varys (heavy.)
VII.	IV.
VIII.	IX. Plagal.

The Paracletice forms a quarto volume (double columns) of 350 pages: at least half is the work of Joseph of the Studium. The 52 Octoechus, sometimes called the Little Octoechus, contains the Sunday services from the Paracletice: they are often printed separately.

γ. The Triodion: the Lent volume, which commences on the Sunday of the Pharisee and Publican (that before Septuagesima) and goes down to Easter. It is so called, because the leading Canons have, during that period, only three Odes.

δ. The Pentecostarion,—more properly the Pentecostarion Charmosynon,—the Office for Easter-tide. On a moderate computation, these volumes together comprise 5000 closely printed quarto pages, in double columns, of which at least 4000 are poetry.

The thought that, in conclusion, strikes one is this: the marvellous ignorance in which English ecclesiastical scholars are content to remain of this huge treasure of divinity—the gradual completion 53 of nine centuries at least. I may safely calculate that not one out of twenty who peruse these pages will ever have read a Greek “Canon” through; yet what a glorious mass of theology do these offices present! If the following pages tend in any degree to induce the reader to study these books for himself, my labour could hardly have been spent to a better result.

EPOCHS OF
GREEK ECCLESIASTICAL POETRY⁴⁴1st ed. only, p. B.

Like that of the Latin, the Poetry of the Greek Church may be divided into three epochs:—

I. That of formation, while it was gradually throwing off the bondage of classical metres, and inventing and perfecting its various styles; and this ends about A.D. 726.

II. That of perfection: which, as we shall see, nearly coincides with the period of the Iconoclastic Controversy, A.D. 726-820.

III. That of decadence: when the effeteness of an effeminate Court, and the dissolution of a decaying Empire, reduced ecclesiastical poetry, by slow degrees, to a stilted bombast, giving great words to little meaning, heaping up epithet on epithe, tricking out common-places in diction more and more gorgeous, till sense and simplicity are alike sought in vain. A.D. 820-1400.

54

FIRST EPOCH.

A.D. 360—A.D. 726.

It is not my intention to dwell on the hymn writers of this period, such as S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Sophronius, because their works have not been employed in the Divine Office, are merely an imitation of classical writers, and, however occasionally pretty, are not the stuff out of which Church-song is made. There is but one writer in this epoch who gives spring-promise of the approaching summer, and that is S. Anatolius.

55

S. Anatolius.

+ 458.

The first poet who emancipated himself from the tyranny of the old laws—hence to be compared to Venantius Fortunatus in the West—and who boldly struck out the new path of harmonious prose, was S. Anatolius of Constantinople. His commencements were not promising. He had been apocrisiarius, or legate, from the arch-heretic Dioscorus to the Emperor’s Court: and at the death of S. Flavian, in consequence of the violence received in the “Robbers’ Meeting” at Ephesus, A.D. 449, was, by the influence of his Pontiff, raised to the vacant throne of Constantinople. He soon, however, vindicated his orthodoxy; and in the Council of Chalcedon, he procured 56 the enactment of the famous 28th Canon, by which, (in spite of all the efforts of Rome,) Constantinople was raised to the second place among Patriarchal Sees. Having governed his Church eight years in peace, he departed to his rest in A.D. 458. His compositions are not numerous, and are almost all short, but they are usually very spirited.

57

[The above hymn has been set by my friend Mr. Helmore; also in H. E. C., of which it forms No. 1: also by Miss Kerr. The last melody is, to my mind, especially beautiful.]

59

EVENING HYMN.

την ημεραν διελθων.

This little hymn, which, I believe, is not used in the public service of the Church, is a great favourite in the Greek Isles. Its peculiar style and evident antiquity may well lead to the belief that it is the work of our present author. It is, to the scattered hamlets of Chios and Mitylene, what Bishop Ken’s Evening Hymn is to the villages of our own land; and its melody singularly plaintive and soothing.

[set by Mr. Helmore: also by Mr. Arthur Brown. Both settings have reached a second Edition.]

62 8

[In contrast with the above Stanzas, the reader may not be displeased to compare the celebrated sequence of Adam of S. Victor, Heri mundus exultavit; which has never yet, I believe, appeared in English.]⁵⁵1st ed. only, p. 8-10.

64

[In Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Christus der ist mein Leben. Harmony by M. Vulpius, 1609.]

13a

66

SECOND EPOCH.

A.D. 726—A.D. 820.

The second period of Greek Hymnology is very nearly, as I said, coincident with the Iconoclastic controversy. Its first writer, indeed, died shortly after the commencement of that stormy age, and took no share in its Councils or sufferings; while the last hymnographer who bore a part in its proceedings, S. Joseph of the Studium, belongs to the decline of his art. With these two exceptions, the ecclesiastical poets of this period were not not only thrown into the midst of that great struggle, but, with scarcely one exception, took an active share in it.

A few words on that conflict of one hundred 67 and sixteen years are absolutely necessary, if we would understand the progress and full development of Greek Hymnography. No controversy has been more grossly misapprehended; none, without the key of subsequent events, could have been so difficult to appreciate. Till Calvinism, and its daughter Rationalism, showed the ultimate development of Iconoclast principles, it must have been well nigh impossible to realize the depth of feeling on the side of the Church, or the greatness of the interests attacked by her opponents. We may, perhaps, doubt whether even the Saints of that day fully understood the character of the battle; whether they did not give up ease, honour, possessions, life itself, rather from an intuitive perception that their cause was the cause of the Catholic faith, than from a logical appreciation of the results to which the Image-destroyers were 68 tending. Just as in the early part of the Nestorian controversy, many and many a simple soul must have felt intuitively that the title of Theotocos was to be defended, without seeing the full consequences to which its denial would subsequently lead. The supporters of Icons, by universal consent, numbered amongst their ranks all that was pious and venerable in the Eastern Church. The Iconoclasts seem to have been a legitimate outbreak of that secret creeping Manichaeism, which, under the various names of Turlupins, Bogomili, or Good-men, so long devastated CHRIST’s fold.

We must keep the landmarks of the controversy in sight. Commenced by Leo the Isaurian, in A.D. 726, the persecution was carried on by his despicable son, Constantine Copronymus, who also endeavoured to destroy monasticism. The great Council of Constantinople, attended by 69 338 prelates, in 752, which rejected the use of images, was the culminating success of the Iconoclasts. Lulling at the death of Constantine, the persecution again raged in the latter years of his successor Leo, and was only terminated by the death of that prince, and the succession of Constantine and Irene. The Second Council of Nicaea, Seventh Oecumenical (A.D. 787), attended by 377 Bishops, seemed to end the heresy; but it again broke out under the Iconoclast Emperor, Leo the Armenian (813), and after having been carried on under the usurper Michael, and his son Theophilus, ended with the death of the latter in 842. In the Hymnographers of this epoch, it may be noticed that the Second Council of Nicaea forms the culminating point of ecclesiastical poetry. Up to that date, there is a vigour and freshness which the twenty-eight years of 70 peace succeeding the Council corrupted, and that rapidly, with the fashionable language of an effete court, and deluged with Byzantine bombast.

71

S. Andrew of Crete.

A.D. 660 A.D. 732.

Andrew was born at Damascus, about the year 660, and embraced the monastic life at Jerusalem, from which city he sometimes takes his name. Hence he was sent on ecclesiastical business to Constantinople, where he became a Deacon of the Great Church, and Warden of the Orphanage. His first entrance on public life does no credit to his sanctity. During the reign of Philippicus Bardanes, (711-714) he was raised by that usurper to the Archiepiscopate of Crete; and shortly afterwards was one of the Pseudo-Synod of Constantinople, held under the Emperor’s auspices in A.D. 712, which condemned the Sixth Oecumenical Council, and 72 restored the Monothelite heresy. At a later period, however, he returned to the faith of the Church, and refuted the error into which he had fallen. Seventeen of his Homilies, rather laboured than eloquent, remain to us: that in which he rises highest is, not unnaturally, his sermon on S. Titus, Apostle of Crete. He died in the island of Hierissus, near Mitylene, about the year 732.

As a poet, his most ambitious composition is the Great Canon; which, partially used during other days of Lent, is sung right through on the Thursday of Mid-Lent week, called, indeed, from that hymn. His Triodia in Holy Week, and Canon on Mid-Pentecost, are fine; and he has a great variety of spirited Idiomela scattered through the Triodion and Pentecostarion.

73

[In Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Pange lingua, harmonised by Dr. Schroeder. I may add that I purposely chose this Stanza to suit the melody of S. Thomas’s great bymn.]

76

TROPARIA FOR PALM SUNDAY.

The following Stanzas are from the triodion sung at Compline on Palm Sunday: which has the same name among the Greeks as among ourselves.

78

THE GREAT CANON,
CALLED ALSO
THE KING OF CANONS.

It would be unpardonable not to give a portion of that which the Greeks regard as the King of Canons—the Great Canon of the Mid-Lent week. It is a collection of Scriptural examples, turned to the purpose of penitential Confession. It is impossible to deny the beauty of many stanzas, and the ingenuity of some tropological applications. But the immense length of the Canon, for it exceeds three hundred stanzas, and its necessary tautology, must render it wearisome, unless devotionally used under the peculiar circumstances for which it is appointed. The following is a part of the earlier portion.

[In Mr. Young’s book: composed by Dr. Schroeder.]

[In H. E. C., where it is No. 2. Also, as Fortitude, a Sacred Song, by M. E. H. S. This is, of course, not intended to be used in Church; but, as a song, it is extremely pretty.]

30a

85

S. Germanicus

A.D. 634—A.D. 734

S. Germanus of Constantinople was born in that city about 634. His father, Justinian, a patrician, had the ill-fortune to excite the jealousy of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, who put him to death, and obliged Germanus to enrol himself among the Clergy of the Great Church. Here he became distinguished for piety and learning, and in process of time was made Bishop of Cyzicus. In this capacity he assisted, with S. Andrew of Crete, in the Synod of Constantinople of which I have just spoken: and no doubt, he might be the more favourably disposed to Monothelitism because he had been so deeply injured by its great opponent, Pogonatus. However, he also, 86 at a late period, expressly condemned that heresy. Translated to the throne of Constantinople in 715, he governed his Patriarchate for some time in tranquillity. At the beginning of the attack of Leo the Isaurian on Icons, his letters, in opposition to the Imperial mandate, were the first warnings which the Church received of the impending storm. Refusing to sign the decrees of the Synod which was convoked by that Emperor in A.D. 730, and stripping off his Patriarchal robes, with the words—“It is impossible for me, Sire, to innovate, without the sanction of the Oecumenical Council,” he was driven from his See, not, it is said, without blows, and returned to his own house at Platanias, where he thenceforth led a quiet and private life. He died shortly afterwards, aged about one hundred years, and is regarded by the Greeks as one of their most glorious Confessors.

87

The poetical compositions of S. Germanus are few.

He has stanzas on S. Simeon Stylites, on the Prophet Elias, and on the Decollation of S. John Baptist. His most poetical work is perhaps his Canon on the Wonder-working Image in Edessa. But probably the following simpler stanzas, for Sunday in the Week of the First Tone, will better commend themselves to the English reader.

90

S. John Damascene.

+ circ. A.D. 780

S. John Damascene has the double honour of being the last but one of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, and the greatest of her poets. It is surprising, however, how little is known of his life. That he was born of a good family at Damascus,—that he made great progress in philosophy,—that he administered some charge under the Caliph,—that he retired to the monastery of S. Sabas, in Palestine,—that he was the most learned and eloquent writer with whom the Iconoclasts had to contend,—that at a comparatively late period of life he was ordained Priest of the Church of Jerusalem, and that he died after 91 754, and before 787, seems to comprise all that has reached us of his biography. His enemies, from an unknown reason, called him Mansur: ¹⁰¹⁰He was called Ibn-Mansur, from the name of his father.—Assemani, Bib. Orient. ii. 97. R. F. L. whether he were the same with John Arklas, also an ecclesiastical poet, is not so certain.

As a poet, he had a principal share in the Octoechus, of which I have already spoken. His three great canons are those on Easter, the Ascension, and S. Thomas’s Sunday, the first and third of which I shall give either wholly or in part. Probably, however, many of the Idiomela and Stichera which are scattered about the office-books under the title of John and John the Hermit, are his. His eloquent defence of Icons has deservedly procured him the title of The Doctor of Christian Art.

92

CANON FOR EASTER DAY,

CALLED THE “GOLDEN CANON,” OR, THE “QUEEN OF CANONS.”

The circumstances under which the Canon is sung are thus eloquently described by a modern writer. The scene is at Athens.

“As midnight approached, the Archbishop, with his priests, accompanied by the King and Queen, left the Church, and stationed themselves on the platform, which was raised considerably from the ground, so that they were distinctly seen by the people. Every one now remained in breathless expectation, holding their unlighted tapers in readiness when the glad moment should arrive, while the priests still continued murmuring their melancholy chant in a low half-whisper. Suddenly a single report 93 of a cannon announced that twelve o’clock had struck, and that Easter day had begun; then the old Archbishop elevating the cross, exclaimed in a loud exulting tone, ‘Christos anesti!’ ‘CHRIST is risen!’ and instantly every single individual of all that host took up the cry, and the vast multitude broke through and dispelled for ever the intense and mournful silence which they had maintained so long, with one spontaneous shout of indescribable joy and triumph, ‘CHRIST is risen!’ ‘CHRIST is risen!’ At the same moment, the oppressive darkness was succeeded by a blaze of light from thousands of tapers, which, communicating one from another, seemed to send streams of fire in all directions, rendering the minutest objects distinctly visible, and casting the most vivid glow on the expressive faces full of exultation, of the rejoicing crowd; bands of music struck up their gayest strains; the roll of 94 the drum through the town, and further on the pealing of the cannon announced far and near these ‘glad tidings of great joy;’ while from hill and plain, from the sea-shore and the far olive-grove, rocket after rocket ascending to the clear sky, answered back with their mute eloquence, that CHRIST is risen indeed, and told of other tongues that were repeating those blessed words, and other hearts that leap for joy; everywhere men clasped each other’s hands, and congratulated one another, and embraced with countenances beaming with delight as though to each one separately some wonderful happiness had been proclaimed;—and so in truth it was;—and all the while, rising above the mingling of many sounds, each one of which was a sound of gladness, the aged priests were distinctly heard chanting forth a glorious old hymn of victory in tones so loud and clear, that they seemed to have regained 95 their youth and strength to tell the world how ‘CHRIST is risen from the dead, having trampled death beneath His feet, and henceforth they that are in the tombs have everlasting life.’”

That which follows is the “glorious old Hymn of Victory.”

[Set by Mr. Helmore: a very spirited melody. Also in Mr. Young’s book: composed by Dr. Schroeder.]

97

[In Mr. Young’s book: composed by Dr. Schroeder.]

98 100 102 103 105

[No. 1 in Mr. Sedding’s book. A very appropriate melody.]

107 108

THE STICHERA OF THE LAST KISS.

Δευτε τελευταιον ασπασμον δωμεν.

The following Stichera, which are generally (though without any great cause) attributed to S. John Damascene, form, perhaps, one of the most striking portions of the service of the Eastern Church. They are sung towards the conclusion of the Funeral Office, while the friends and relations are, in turn, kissing the corpse; the Priest does so last of all. Immediately afterwards, it is borne to the grave; the Priest casts the first earth on the coffin, with the words, “The earth is the LORD’s and all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein.” I have omitted four of the stanzas, as being almost a repetition of the rest.

109 115

[No. 3 in H. E. C. A very sweet melody.]

118

S. THOMAS’S SUNDAY.

The four following Odes are the first four of our Saint’s Canon for S. Thomas’s Sunday, called also Renewal Sunday: with us Low Sunday. The first Stanzas are marked with inverted commas, as being Hirmoi.

[No. 2 in Mr. Sedding’s book. A genuine Easter melody.]

121

[No. 3 in Mr. Sedding’s book.]

123 125

127

S. Cosmas,
Surnamed the Melodist.

+ A.D. 760.

S. Cosmas of Jerusalem holds the second place amidst Greek Ecclesiastical poets. Left an orphan at an early age, he was adopted by the father of S. John Damascene; and the two foster-brothers were bound together by a friendship which lasted through life. They excited each other to Hymnology, and assisted, corrected, and polished each other’s compositions. Cosmas, like his friend, became a monk of S. Sabas: and against his will was consecrated Bishop of Maiuma, near Gaza, by John, Patriarch of 128 Jerusalem; the same who ordained S. John Damascene Priest. After administering his diocese with great holiness, he departed this life in a good old age, about 760, and is commemorated by the Eastern Church on the 14th of October.

says the stichos prefixed to his life.

His compositions are tolerably numerous, and he seems to have taken a pleasure in competing with S. John Damascene, as in the Nativity, the Epiphany, the Transfiguration, where the Canons of both are given. To Cosmas, a considerable part of the Octoechus is owing. The best of his compositions, besides those already mentioned, seem to be his Canons on S. Gregory Nazianzen, and the Purification. He is the most learned of 129 the Greek Church poets: and his fondness for types, boldness in their application, and love of aggregating them, make him the Oriental Adam of S. Victor. It is owing partly to a compressed fulness of meaning, very uncommon in the Greek poets of the Church, partly to the unusual harshness and contraction of his phrases, that he is the hardest of ecclesiastical bards to comprehend.

130

CANON FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.

This is perhaps the finest, on the whole, of the Canons of Cosmas; and may fairly be preferred to the rival composition of S. John Damascene.

[In Mr. Young’s book. The melody by Dr. Schroeder.]

133 136

[In Mr. Young’s book. The melody by Dr. Schroeder.]

139 141 143 145 148 150

TRANSFIGURATION.

I shall, perhaps, render the following Canon more acceptable to most readers if, instead of translating the Odes in detail, I make a cento from the more remarkable Troparia.

They are principally from the first four Odes.

[No. 5 in Mr. Sedding’s book.]

154

S. Tarasius

+ A.D. 806.

Tarasius, raised by Constantine and Irene from the post of Secretary of State, at one step, though a layman, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople, (A.D. 784) was the chief mover in the restoration of Icons and the Second Council of Nicaea. Strongly opposing the divorce of Constantine from Maria, he refused to celebrate that Emperor’s nuptials with Theodora. But when they had been performed, he was with some difficulty persuaded to pardon the priest who had officiated at them. On this, S. Plato, and the monks of the all-influential Studium, forsook his communion; 155 nor was the schism composed till the Patriarch yielded and retracted his pardon. He died February 25th, A.D. 806, on which day he is commemorated both by the East and West. His hymns are unimportant. The longest is the Canon on the Invention of S. John Baptist, May 25th. It is in no wise remarkable. Nor do I know any of his compositions which would be sufficiently interesting to the English reader, to make it worth versification here.

156

S. Theophanes

A.D. 759—A.D. 818.

S. Theophanes, who holds the third place among Greek Church-poets, was born in 759, his father being Governor of the Archipelago. Betrothed in childhood to a lady named Megalis, he persuaded her, on their wedding-day, to embrace the monastic life. He retired to the monastery of Syngriana, in the early part of the reign of Constantine and Irene. From the fiftieth year of his age he was nearly bedridden; but his devotion to the cause of Icons marked him out as one of the earliest victims of Leo the Armenian, who, after imprisoning him for two 157 years, banished him to Samothrace. On the third day after his arrival in that inhospitable region, worn out with sufferings and sickness, he departed this life: A.D. 818. He is chiefly famous for his History, with which we have now nothing to do. With the one exception of S. Joseph of the Studium, Theophanes is the most prolific of Eastern Hymnographers; and in his writings we first see that which has been the bane and ruin of later Greek poetry, the composition of hymns, not from the spontaneous effusion of the heart, but because they were wanted to fill up a gap in the Office-book.

Because the great festivals and the chief Saints of the Church had their Canon and their Stichera, therefore, every martyr, every confessor, who happened to give his name to a day, must have his Canon and Stichera also, just for uniformity. How different the Latin use, where not even the 158 Apostles have separate hymns received by the whole Church, but supply themselves from the Common! Hence the deluge of worthless compositions that occur in the Menaea: hence tautology, repeated till it becomes almost sickening; the merest commonplace, again and again decked in the tawdry shreds of tragic language, and twenty or thirty times presenting the same thought in slightly varying terms. Theophanes, indeed, must be distinguished from the host of inferior writers that about his time began to overwhelm the Church. Many of his subjects are of world-wide interest. The Eastern martyrs, whom he celebrates, are, for the most part, those who have won for themselves the greatest name in the annals of history. But still we find him thus honouring some, of whom all that can be said is, that they died for the Name of CHRIST. And though the poet brings more matter to his task 159 than do others, many long stanzas, that keep pretty close to their subject, concerning a Saint of whom there is nothing especial to say, must become tedious.

160

IDIOMELA
ON FRIDAY OF CHEESE-SUNDAY,
THAT IS,
OF QUINQUAGESIMA.

At this period of the year the weeks are named, not from the Sundays that precede, but from those that follow them. Quinquagesima is termed Tyrophagus, because up to that time, but not beyond, cheese is allowed. The Friday previous is appropriated to the Commemoration of All Holy Ascetes; in order, as the Synaxarion says, that, by the remembrance of their conflict, we may be invigorated for the race that is set before us.

164

STICHERA AT THE FIRST VESPERS OF CHEESE-SUNDAY.
(Quinquagesima.)

ADAM’S COMPLAINT.

The reader can hardly fail to be struck with the beautiful idea in the third stanza, where the foliage of Paradise is asked to make intercession for Adam’s recall. The last stanza, Milton, as an universal scholar, doubtless had in his eye, in Eve’s lamentation.

168

Theodore of the Studium.

+ A.D. 826.

Theodore of the Studium, by his sufferings and his influence, did more, perhaps, in the cause of Icons than any other man. His uncle, S. Plato, and himself, had been cruelly persecuted by Constantine, for refusing to communicate with him after his illicit marriage with Theodora, at a time when, as we have seen, the firmness of even the Patriarch Tarasius gave way. Raised subsequently to be Hegumen of the great abbey of the Studium, the first at Constantinople, and probably the most influential that ever existed in the world, Theodore exhibited more doubtful 169 conduct in the schism which regarded the readmission to communion of Joseph, the priest who had give the nuptial benediction to Constantine: but he suffered imprisonment on this account with the greatest firmness. When the Iconoclastic persecution again broke out under Leo the Armenian, Theodore was one of the first sufferers: he was exiled, imprisoned, scourged, and left for dead. Under Michael Curopalata he enjoyed greater liberty; but he died in banishment, Nov. 11th, A.D. 826. His Hymns are, in my judgment, superior to those of S. Theophanes,—and nearly, if not quite, equal to the works of S. Cosmas. In those (comparatively few) which he has left for the Festivals of Saints, he does not appear to advantage: it is in his Lent Canons in the Triodion, that his great excellency lies. The contrast there presented between the rigid, unbending, unyielding character 170 of the man in his outward history, and the fervent gush of penitence and love which his inward life, as revealed by these compositions, manifests, is very striking;—it forms a remarkable parallel to the characters of S. Gregory VII., Innocent III., and other holy men of the Western Church, whom the world, judging from a superficial view of their characters, has branded with unbending haughtiness, and the merest formality in religion, while their most secret writings show them to have been clinging to the Cross in an ecstasy of love and sorrow.

171

CANON FOR APOCREOS.

Apocreos is our Sexagesima, and is so called, because meat is not eaten beyond it. The Synaxarion (which will explain the following poem) begins thus:

“ON THIS DAY, WE COMMEMORATE THE SECOND AND IMPARTIAL COMING of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.

Stichos.

When He, the Judge of all things, sits to doom, Oh grant that I may hear his joyful ‘Come!’

This commemoration the most Divine Fathers set after the “two parables” (i.e., the Gospels of 172 the two preceding Sundays, The Pharisee and Publican, and the Prodigal Son) “lest any one, learning from them the mercy of GOD, should live carelessly, and say, ‘God is merciful, and whenever I wish to relinquish sin, it will be in my power to accomplish my purpose.’ They therefore here commemorated that fearful day, that, by the consideration of death, and the expectation of the dreadful things that shall hereafter be, they might terrify men of negligent life, and bring them back again to virtue, and might teach them not simply to put confidence in GOD’s mercy, considered by itself, but to remember also that the judge is just, and will render to every man according to his works.” As the Eastern Church has no such season as Advent, this commemoration becomes more peculiarly appropriate.

The Canon that follows is unfortunate in provoking a comparison with the unapproachable 173 majesty of the Dies Irae. Yet during the four hundred years by which it anticipated that sequence, it was undoubtedly the grandest judgment-hymn of the Church. Its faults are those of most of the class: it eddies round and round the subject, without making way,—its different portions have no very close connexion with each other,—and its length is accompanied by considerable tautology. Yet, in spite of these defects, it is impossible to deny that the great common-places of Death and judgment are very nobly set forth in this poem. On account of its length, I give the first three and last Odes only.

174

[In Mr. Young’s book. Composed by Dr. Schroeder.]

176 178 181 184

ORTHODOXY SUNDAY.

The first Sunday in Lent is kept in memory: primarily, of the final triumph of the Church over the Iconoclasts in 842; and, incidentally, of her victory over all other heresies. It has a kind of commination appropriate to itself alone. The following Canon is ascribed to S. Theodore of the Studium, though Baronius has thought that it cannot be his, because it implies that peace was restored to the Church, whereas that hymnographer died while the persecution still continued. Very possibly, however, it was written on the temporary victory of the Church, which did occur in the time of S. Theodore; and then, in 842, may have been lengthened and adapted to 185 the then state of things, perhaps by Naucratius, the favourite disciple of S. Theodore. It is, perhaps, the most spirited of all the Canons, though many of its expressions savour too much of bitterness and personal feeling to be well defended, and the reader must constantly bear in mind that the poet feels the cause, not so much of Icons, as of the Incarnation itself, to be at stake. I have only given about one-third of the poem. The stanzas are these: Ode 1. Tropar. 1, 2; III. 6; IV. 1, 2, 3; V. 1, 3, 4, 5; VI. 1; IX. 2, 3, 4, 5.

192

S. Methodius I

+ A.D. 836.

S. Methodius I., a native of Syracuse, embraced the monastic life at Constantinople. Sent as legate from Pope Paschal to Michael the Stammerer, he was imprisoned by that prince in a close cell, and there passed nine years, on account of his resolute defence of Icons. Having been scourged for the same cause, by the Emperor Theophilus, he made his escape from prison and when peace was restored to the Church was raised to the throne of Constantinople. His first care was to assemble a Synod for the restoration of Icons and it is, properly speaking, that Synod 193 which the Greeks celebrate on Orthodoxy Sunday. With this Council the Iconoclast troubles ceased. S. Methodius died November 4th, 846. His compositions are very few, and are chiefly confined to Idiomela.

That which follows seems to me the prettiest. It is for a Sunday of the Fourth Tone.²⁰²⁰This paragraph is in 1st. ed. only.

195

S. Joseph of the Studium.

The third period of Greek Hymnology opens with its most voluminous writer, S. Joseph of the Studium. A Sicilian by birth, he left his native country on its occupation by the Mahometans in 830, and went to Thessalonica, where he embraced the monastic life. Thence he removed to Constantinople, but, in the second Iconoclastic persecution, he seems to have felt no vocation for confessorship, and went to Rome. Taken by pirates, he was for some years a slave in Crete, where he converted many to the Faith; and having obtained his liberty, and returned to the Imperial City, he stood high in the favour, first 196 of S. Ignatius, then of Photius, whom he accompanied into exile. On the death of that great man he was recalled, and gave himself up entirely to Hymnology. A legend, connected with his death, is related of him. A citizen of Constantinople betook himself to the church of S. Theodore in the hope of obtaining some benefit from the intercessions of that martyr. He waited three days in vain; then, just as he was about to leave the church in despair, S. Theodore appeared. “I,” said the vision, “and the other Saints, whom the poet Joseph has celebrated in his Canons, have been attending his soul to Paradise: hence my absence from my church.” The Eastern Communion celebrates him on the 3rd of April. But of the innumerable compositions of this most laborious writer, it would be impossible to find many which, to Western taste, give the least sanction to the position which he 197 holds in the East. The insufferable tediousness consequent on the necessity of filling eight Odes with the praises of a Saint of whom nothing, beyond the fact of his martyrdom, is known, and doing this sixty or seventy different times,—the verbiage, the bombast, the trappings with which Scriptural simplicity is elevated to the taste of a corrupt Court, are each and all scarcely to be paralleled. He is by far the most prolific of the hymn-writers.

198

SUNDAY OF THE PRODIGAL SON.
(SEPTUAGESIMA.)

The Sunday before Septuagesima, and Septuagesima itself are, respectively, in the Greek Church, the Sunday of the Pharisee and Publican,—and the Sunday of the Prodigal Son,—those parables forming the Gospel for the day, and serving for the key-note to the offices. The following Troparia are from the Canon at Lauds on Septuagesima. (Ode VI. and Ode VIII. Trop. 2, 3.)

[In Mr. Young’s book. Melody of Vater unser im Himmelreich: harmonized by Ch. H. Pink. A striking melody.]

201 204

AND WILT THOU PARDON, LORD.

The following Stanzas are a Cento from the Canon for the Monday of the First Tone, in the Paracletice.

[In Mr. Young’s book. Composed by Dr. Schroeder.]

206

STARS OF THE MORNING.

A Cento from the Canon of the “Bodiless Ones;” Tuesday in the Week of the Fourth Tone.

[No. 6 in H. E. C.]

209

CANON FOR ASCENSION DAY.

This is the crowning glory of the poet Joseph; he has here with a happy boldness entered into the lists with S. John Damascene, to whom, on this one occasion, he must be pronounced superior. I have preserved the alphabetic arrangement, and “Joseph’s Ode” at the end. All the Catavasias are in iambics.

212 214 216 218 221 223 226

229

Theoctistus of the Studium.

+ circ. A.D. 890.

He is said to have been the friend of S. Joseph; but is only known to us by the “Suppliant Canon to JESUS,” to be found at the end of the Paracletice. The following is a Cento formed from it.

233

Metrophanes of Smyrna.

+circ. A.D. 910.

He was Bishop of that See towards the close of the ninth century, and is principally famous for his Canons in honour of the Blessed TRINITY,—eight in number, one to each Tone. They are sung at Matins on Sundays: and if the writer has not always been able to fuse his learning and orthodoxy into poetry, nor yet to escape the tautology of his brother bards, these compositions are stately and striking. Metrophanes was a vigorous supporter of S. Ignatius; and the partisan of Rome in her contest with Photius.

It would be impossible, without wearying the reader, to translate the whole of one of the Triadic Canons; but a Cento from one of them may not be unacceptable.

234

---

Beyond Metrophanes, it will not be necessary to carry our translations. The following names may, however, be mentioned.

236

Euthymius

+ A.D. 910.

Euthymius, usually known as Syngelus, (the same as Syncellus, the confidential Deacon of the Patriarch of Constantinople,) who died about 916, is the author of a Penitential Canon to S. Mary, which is highly esteemed in the East. It would scarcely, however, be possible to make even a Cento from it which would be acceptable to the English reader.

237

Leo VI.

+ A.D. 917.

Our next name is that of a Royal Poet, Leo VI., the Philosopher, who reigned from 886 to 917, and left behind him the Idiomela, or detached stanzas, on the Resurrection, sung at Lauds. They are better than might have been expected from an imperial author, and the troubler of the Eastern Church by a fourth marriage.

The same thing may be said of the Exaposteilaria of his son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, whose life lasted till 959.

238

John Mauropus

+ A.D. 1060.

John Mauropus, Metropolitan of Euchaïta, sometimes called the last of the Greek Fathers, left a number of hymns, printed at Eton in 1610; and if not boasting much poetical fire, at least graced with a gentle and Isocratean eloquence. As they have not been employed by the Church, they claim no further notice here.

With this Metropolitan, Greek Hymnology well-nigh ceased: at least the only other name that need be mentioned is that of Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who died in 1376. This man, the warm supporter of the dogma of the Uncreated Light, was the composer of several stanzas for Orthodoxy Sunday, and the Canon for July 16th, on the Holy Fathers: both in the very worst taste.

239

APPENDIX

240

S. Stephen the Sabaite

A.D. 725—A.D. 794.

S. Stephen, called the Sabaïte, from the monastery of S. Sabas, was the nephew of S. John Damascene, who placed him in that house. He was then ten years of age: he passed fifty-nine years in that retreat; and was the earliest of the hymnographers who lived to see the final restoration of Icons. He has left but few poetical compositions. The two best are those on the Martyrs of the monastery of S. Sabas—(March 20th)—on which a monk of that house would be likely to write con amore; and on the Circumcision. His style seems formed on that of 241 S. Cosmas, rather than on that of his own uncle. He is not deficient in elegance and richness of typology, but exhibits something of sameness, and is occasionally guilty of very hard metaphors, as when he speaks of “the circumcision of the tempest of our souls.” He is commemorated on the 13th of July.

242

IDIOMELA IN THE WEEK OF THE FIRST OBLIQUE TONE.

These Stanzas, which strike me as very sweet, are not in all the editions of the Octoechus.²³²³[1st ed. adds: I copy from a dateless Constantinopolitan book.]

[No. 4. in Mr. Sedding’s book: also No. 4. in H. E. C. Both very sweet melodies;—but that in H. E. C., which gives a different version of the 4th line throughout, is, to my mind, singularly touching.]

245 248

[No. 5 in H. E. C. This, of all the melodies written for, or adapted to, these hymns, is my own especial favourite. One feels that the anonymous writer of such a plaintive, yet soothing, melody, must have been one—to quote Archbishop Trench’s words with regard to the author of Veni, Sancte Spiritus,—acquainted with great sorrows, but also with great consolations.]

Indexes

Subject Index

Index of Scripture References

Index of Greek Words and Phrases

Index of Pages of the Print Edition