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Aurelius Clemens Prudentius

348 - 410 Person Name: Prudentius Author of "PATRO-ALTUL' ĈEESTU" in Himnaro (Unua Kolekto) Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, "The Christian Pindar" was born in northern Spain, a magistrate whose religious convictions came late in life. His subsequent sacred poems were literary and personal, not, like those of St. Ambrose, designed for singing. Selections from them soon entered the Mozarabic rite, however, and have since remained exquisite treasures of the Western churches. His Cathemerinon liber, Peristephanon, and Psychomachia were among the most widely read books of the Middle Ages. A concordance to his works was published by the Medieval Academy of America in 1932. There is a considerable literature on his works. --The Hymnal 1940 Companion ============= Prudentius, Aurelius Clemens , with the occasional prefix of Marcus (cf. Migne, vol. lix. p. 593, and Dressel, p. ii. n), is the name of the most prominent and most prolific author of sacred Latin poetry in its earliest days. Of the writer himself we know nothing, or next to nothing, beyond what he has himself told us in a short introduction in verse to his works. From that source we learn that he was a Spaniard, of good family evidently, and that he was born A.D. 348 somewhere in the north of Spain, either at Saragossa, Tarragona, or Calahorra, but at which is left uncertain, by his applying the same expression to all, which if applied only to one would have fixed his place of birth. After receiving a good education befitting his social status he applied himself for some years to practising as a pleader in the local courts of law, until he received promotion to a judgeship in two cities successively:— "Bis legum moderanrine Frenos nobilium reximus urbium Jus civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos;" and afterwards to a post of still higher authority: "Tandem militiae gradu Evectum pietas principis extulit." Archbishop Trench considers this last to have been "a high military appointment at court," and such the poet's own words would seem to describe; but it may well be doubted whether a civilian and a lawyer would be eligible for such employment; in which case we may adopt the solution of the difficulty offered in the Prolegomena to our author's works (Migne, vol. lix. p. 601):— "Evectus indeest ad superiorem rnilitia? gradum, nimirum militia? civil is, palatinae, aut praesidialis, non bellicae, castrensis, aut cohortalis; nam ii qui officiis jure consultorum praesidum, rectorum et similium funguntur, vulgo in cod. Theod. militare et ad superiores militias ascendere dicuntur." It was after this lengthened experience at a comparatively early age of positions of trust and power that Prudentius, conscience-smitten on account of the follies and worldliness that had marked his youth and earlier manhood, determined to throw up all his secular employments, and devote the remainder of his life to advancing the interests of Christ's Church by the power of his pen rather than that of his purse and personal position. Accordingly we find that he retired in his 57th year into poverty and private life, and began that remarkable succession of sacred poems upon which his fame now entirely rests. We have no reason however to regard him as another St. Augustine, rescued from the "wretchedness of most unclean living" by this flight from the temptations and engrossing cares of official life into the calm seclusion of a wholly devotional leisure. He had probably rather learnt from sad experience the emptiness and vanity for an immortal soul of the surroundings of even the high places of this world. As he himself expresses it:— "Numquid talia proderunt Carnis post obitum vel bona, vel mala, Cum jam, quicquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?" and sought, at the cost of all that the world holds dear, those good things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Beyond the fact of his retirement from the world in this way, and the fruits which it produced in the shape of his voluminous contributions to sacred poetry, we have no further information about our author. To judge from the amount he wrote, his life must have been extended many years after he began his new career, but how long his life was or where he died we are not told. Probably he died circa 413. His works are:— (1) Liber Cathemerinon. "Christian Day, as we may call it" W. S. Lilly, "Chapters in European History," vol. i. p. 208). (2) Liber Peristephanon. "Martyrs' Garlands" (id.). (3) Apotheosis. A work on the Divine Nature, or the Deification of Human Nature in Christ. (4) Hamartigenia. A treatise on the Origin of Sin, directed against the Marcionites. (5) Psychomachia or "The Spiritual Combat"-—an allegorical work. (6) Libri contra Symmachum. A controversial work against the restoration in the Senate House at Rome of the altar of Victory which Gratian had removed. Symmachus had petitioned Valentinian II. for its restoration in 384, but the influence of St. Ambrose had prevailed against him at that time. In 392 the altar was restored, but removed again by Theodosius in 394. After the death of the latter the attempt to restore it was renewed by Arcadius and Honorius, and it was at that time that Prudentius wrote his first book. The second (for there are two) was written in 405. Fague considers that the first may date in 395. (7) The Dittochseon = the double food or double Testament, is a wordy collection of 49 sets of four verses each, on Old and New Testament scenes. Of these different works the most important are the first two, and it is from them that the Liturgical hymns enumerated below have been chiefly compiled. The general character of Prudentius's writings it is not easy fairly to estimate, and to judge by the wholesale laudation he obtains from some of his critics, and the equally unsparing censure of others, his judges have so found it. In venturing upon any opinion upon such a subject, the reader must bear in mind the peculiar position in which the period at which he was writing found the poet. The poetry of classical Rome in all its exact beauty of form had long passed its meridian, and was being replaced by a style which was yet in its infancy, but which burst forth into new life and beauty in the hands of the Mediaeval hymnologists. Prudentius wrote before rhyming Latin verse was thought of, but after attention had ceased to be given to quantities. Under such circumstances it were vain to look for very finished work from him, and such certainly we do not find. But amidst a good deal of what one must confess is tasteless verbiage or clumsy rhetorical ornament-—however varied the metres he employs, numbering some 17—-there are also passages to be found, not unfrequently, of dramatic vigour and noble expression, which may well hold their own with the more musical utterances of a later date. He writes as a man intensely in earnest, and we may gather much from his writings concerning the points of conduct which were deemed the most important in Christian living at a time when a great portion of mankind were still the victims or slaves of a morality which, heathen at the best, was lowered and corrupted the more as the universality of its influence was more and more successfully challenged by the spread of the Gospel of Christ. If, there¬fore, we can scarcely go as far in our author's praise as Barth—-much given to lavish commendation—-who describes him as "Poeta eximius eruditissimus et sanctissimus scriptor; nemo divinius de rebus Christianis unquam scripsit"; or as Bentley—-not given to praise--who calls him the "Horace and Virgil of the Christians," we shall be as loath, considering under what circumstances he wrote, to carp at his style as not being formed on the best ancient models but as confessedly impure; feeling with Archbishop Trench that it is his merit that "whether consciously or unconsciously, he acted on the principle that the new life claimed new forms in which to manifest itself; that he did not shrink from helping forward that great transformation of the Latin language, which it needed to undergo, now that it should be the vehicle of truths which, were all together novel to it." (Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 121.) The reader will find so exhaustive an account of the various writings of Prudentius in the account given of him and them in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography, and Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, that it is only necessary in this work to refer very briefly to them as above. The poems have been constantly reprinted and re-edited, till the editor who produced the best edition we have of them, Albert Dressel (Leipsic, 1860), is able to say that his is the sixty-third. The use made of Prudentius's poems in the ancient Breviaries and Hymnaries was very extensive. In the form of centos stanzas and lines wore compiled and used as hymns; and it is mainly from these centos, and not from the original poems, that the translations into English were made. Daniel, i., Nos. 103-115, gives 13 genuine hymns as having been in use for "Morning," "Christmas," "Epiphany," "Lent," "Easter," "Transfiguration," "Burial," &c, in the older Breviaries. ….Many more which were used in like manner have been translated into English. When to these are added the hymns and those which have not been translated into English, we realise the position and power of Prudentius in the hymnody of the Church. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============== Prudentius, A. C, p. 915, ii. Two somewhat full versions of Prudentius are: (1) The Cathemerinon and other Poems of Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in English Verse, Lond., Rivington, 1845; and (2) Translations from Prudentius. By Francis St. John Thackeray, M.A.. F.S.A. Lond., Bell & Sons, 1890. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

St. Paulinus, of Nola

353 - 431 Person Name: Paulinus of Nola, 353-431 Author of "Another Year Completed" in The Cyber Hymnal Paulinus, Pontius Meropius. St. Paulinus of Nola, born at Bordeaux in 353, became Bishop of Nola in 409, and died circa 431. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Saint Patrick

372 - 466 Person Name: St. Patrick, 372-466 Author (attributed to) of "I Sing as I Arise Today" in The New Century Hymnal Patrick, St., the 2nd Bishop and Patron Saint of Ireland, was the son of Calpurnius, a deacon, and grandson of Potitus, a presbyter, and great grandson of Odissus, a deacon, was born most probably near Dumbarton, in North Britain, in 372. According to his epistle to Coroticus, his father was also a decurio, a member of the local town council, and a Roman by descent. Hence probably the name Patricius. St. Patrick alludes in Coroticus, § 5, to his having been originally a freeman, and of noble birth. His birthplace is termed in his Confession, § 1, Bannavem Taberniæ. Some have identified that place with Boulogne-sur-Mer, in France. His mother's name was Concessa, said to have been sister of St. Martin of Tours. According to Tirechan's Collections (circa A.D. 690), Patrick had four names—-(1) Magonus, which Tirechan explains by clarus, illustrious; (2) Sucat (Succetus), god of war, or brave in war, said to have been his baptismal name; (3) Patricius; and (4) Cothraige (Cothrighe), given because he had been a slave to four masters. At the age of 16 he was carried off with many others to Ireland, and sold as a slave. There he remained six years with Milcho, or Miliuc. He was engaged in feeding cattle (pecora), though the later writers say that he fed swine. In his captivity he became acquainted with the Irish language. His misfortunes were the means of leading him to Christ, and be devoted himself to prayer, and often frequented, for that purpose, the woods on Mount Slemish. Having escaped after six years, he spent some years with his parents, and then was stirred up, when still a youth (puer), to devote himself to the evangelisation of Ireland. According to Secundinus's Hymn (St. Sechnall), which is probably not much later than the age of St. Patrick himself, the saint received his apostleship "from God," like St. Paul. No reference is made in that hymn, or in the later so-called Hymn of St. Fiacc, to any commission received from Pope Celestine, as is asserted by later writers. St. Patrick does not in his own writings allude to the external source whence he obtained ordination, and, as he speaks of his Roman descent, it would be strange for him not to have mentioned his Roman consecration, if it had been a fact. From some “sayings" of his, preserved on a separate page of the Book of Armagh, it is probable that he travelled through Gaul and Italy, and that he was ordained in Gaul as deacon, priest, and, afterwards, as bishop. He was probably a bishop when he commenced his missionary labours in Ireland. There were, however, Christians in Ireland before that period. Palladius, the senior Patrick, who preceded our saint by a few years, was, according to the chronicle of Prosper (the secretary of Pope Celestine), "ordained and sent to the Scots (the Irish) believing in Christ, by Pope Celestine, as their first bishop." Palladius's mission was a failure, while that of the second Patrick, which was quite independent of the former, was successful in a high degree. Its success, however, has been greatly exaggerated; for St. Patrick, in the close of his Confession, or autobiography, written in old age, speaks of the high probability of his having to lay down his life as a martyr for Christ. The date of St. Patrick's mission is not certain, but the internal evidence of his writings indicate that it was most probably about A.D. 425. The day and month of his death (March 17), but not the year [466] is mentioned in the Book of Armagh. St. Patrick's claim to a record in this Dictionary is associated with the celebrated hymn or “Breastplate," a history of which we now subjoin. 1. St. Patrick's Irish Hymn is referred to in Tirechan's Collections (A.D. 690). It was directed to be sung in "all monasteries and churches through the whole of Ireland," "canticum ejus scotticum semper canere," which is a proof that it was at that time universally acknowledged to be his composition. That regulation was very naturally lost sight of when the old Celtic Church lapsed into the Roman, (a) The expressions used in the hymn correspond entirely with the circumstances under which St. Patrick visited Tara. (b) Moreover, although all the ancient biographies of St. Patrick (with the exception of his own Confession, and of Secundinus's Hymn) speak of him as a worker of miracles, and as having performed miracles at Tara, there is no trace of such a fact in St. Patrick's Hymn, (c) Further, the phrase, "creator of doom," which twice occurs in it, according to the most approved translation, curiously corresponds with another fact that, "my God's doom," or “the doom," or "judgment of my God," was, according to the ancient biographies, one of St. Patrick's favourite expressions. 2. The first notice of the existence at the present time of an ancient manuscript copy of St. Patrick's "Hymn or Breastplate," was made known by the late Dr. Petrie in his Memoir of Tara, published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, 1839, vol. xviii. Dr. Petrie gave the original in Irish characters, an interlineary Latin version and an English translation by himself, together with copious notes. Dr. Petrie found the original in the Liber Hymnorum, in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin (iv. E. 4, 2, fol. 19 b). “The tradition respecting its primary use by the saint is that he recited it on Easter Sunday, when proceeding to encounter the droidical fire-worshippers, with their pagan king, Laoghaire, and his court, at Tara, the royal residence." (Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, p. 2.) 3. Dr. Todd in his work, S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, 1864, gives a metrical rendering of the “Breastplate” which begins:— "I bind to myself today, The strong power of an invocation of the Trinity, The faith of the Trinity in Unity, The Creator of the elements." The translation, which extends to 78 lines, was mainly the work of Dr. Whitley Stokes. A more correct version by the same scholar is given in the Rolls's edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887; and that revised version, with a few modifications, accompanied with critical notes, explanatory of the alterations made on the former version, is given in the 2nd and 3rd editions of the Writings of St. Patrick, by Dr. V. H. H. Wright. Dr. Whitley Stokes, therefore, is to be regarded as the real translator from the original Irish. Dr. Petrie's translation, though highly meritorious as a first attempt, has been proved in many particulars to be erroneous. There is no mention of Tara in the hymn. An uncertainty yet exists as to the meaning of a few words. 4. In Dr. W. MacIlwaine's Lyra Hibernica Sacra, 1878, Dr. Todd's translation was repeated (with notes), together with a second translation by James Clarence Mangan, the opening lines of which are:— "At Tara to-day, in this awful hour, I call on the Holy Trinity! Glory to Him Who reigneth in power, The God of the elements, Father, and Son, And Paraclete Spirit, which Three are the One, The everlasting Divinity." 5. A popular version of the hymn for congregational use was written by Mrs. Cecil F. Alexander, for St. Patrick's Day, 1889, and sung generally throughout Ireland on that day. The opening lines are:— "I bind unto myself to-day The strong Name of the Trinity, By invocation of the same, The Three in One and One in Three. ”I bind this day to me for ever, By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation; His baptism in Jordan river; His death on Cross for my salvation; His bursting from the spiced tomb; His riding up the heav'nly way; His coming at the day of doom; I bind unto myself to-day." Mrs. Alexander's version is given, along with that of James Clarence Mangan, in the Appendix to the Writinqs of St. Patrick, edited by Dr. C. H. H. Wright (R.T.S.), 1889. 6. Another metrical version of this hymn was given in the Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette for April 5, 1889. It is by Joseph John Murphy, and the opening lines are:— "I bind as armour on my breast The Threefold Name whereon I call, Of Father, Son, and Spirit blest, The Maker and the Judge of all." 7. The translation in Stokes and Wright's edition of St. Patrick's writings was set to music as a cantata by Sir R. Stewart, and was performed for the first time in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day, 1888. 8. Mr. Thomas French, Assistant Librarian of Trinity College, Dublin, writes as follows respecting this hymn:— "The manuscript called the 'Liber Hymnorum' belonged to Archbishop Ussher, and forms one of the volumes of the Ussher Collection now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. There is no interlineary Latin translation in the original. It was given by Petrie in his account of the hymn 'for the satisfaction of the learned’ [The St. Patrick authorship is tradition only, so far as I know.] Dr. Todd in his S. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, p. 426, says ‘It is undoubtedly of great antiquity, although it may now be difficult, if not impossible, to adduce proof in support of the tradition that St. Patrick was its author.'...... Petrie and Todd make the age of the manuscript 9th or 10th century, Whitley Stokes 11th or 12th." We may add that St. Patrick's Latin works were published by Sir James Ware, 1656, in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bollandist Fathers, 1668, by Villanueva, 1835, and by others, as B. S. Nicholson, 1868, Miss Cusack, 1871, and, above all, by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in the Rolls' Edition of the Tripartite Life, 1887. The latter three works contain also translations. Translations of the whole, or a portion of St. Patrick's writings, have been published by Rev. T. Olden, 1876; Sir S. Ferguson, LL.D. Transactions of Royal Irish Academy, 1885, and more completely in the Writings of St. Patrick, edited by Prof. G. T. Stokes and Dr. C. H. H. Wright, 1st ed. 1887, 2nd ed. 1888, 3rd ed., edited, with notes critical and historical, and an introduction by Dr. C. H. H. Wright revised and enlarged. London: Religious Tract Society, 1889. [Rev. Charles H. H. Wright, D.D., Ph.D.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ==================== Patrick, St., p. 885, ii. (l) In the Oxford University Herald of April 6, 1889, is an anonymous paraphrase in 7 stanzas of 4 lines of a portion of "St. Patrick's Hymn," beginning- "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! May Thine overshadowing might Be as armour to my soul, Be my weapon in the fight." (2) Note concerning § 3, on p. 885, i., that Dr., W. Stokes's translation appeared in its original form in the Saturday Review, Sept. 5, 1857. In his Goidilica, Calcutta, 1866, p. 66, in an altered form to that of 1857 and 1864. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Paul, the Deacon

720 - 799 Person Name: Paul the Deacon Author of "Let thine example, holy John, remind us" Paul the Deacon [Paulus Diaconus], son of Warnefrid or Winefrid, was born at Frinli, in Italy, circa 730. He studied at Pavia. For some time he was tutor to Adelperga, daughter of Desiderius, the last of the Lombard kings, and then lived at the court of her husband, Arichisius of Beneveuto. Eventually he became a monk at Monte Cassino, where he died circa 799. He was the author of several works, including Be Gest. Langobardorum. His hymn, “Ut queant laxis resonare fibris," is in three parts. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

St. Peter Damian

1007 - 1072 Person Name: Peter Damiani Author of "From thee, illustrious teacher, Paul" in St. Basil 's Hymn Book. 31st ed. Damiani, or Damian, Peter, Saint, Cardinal, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church, whom Dom Gueranger calls "The austere reformer of the 11th century," was born at Ravenna, about 988. He was the youngest of many children. His mother abandoned him as a babe, and his life was only saved by his being discovered by a faithful female servant, who took care of him until such time as his mother relented and received him back again. Both his parents dying while he was very young, he fell into the hands of a married brother, who, treating him with great harshness and regarding him rather as a slave than a near relation, sent him,”when he was grown up, into the fields to feed swine.” In spite of this treatment, he early developed a virtuous and pious disposition, and another brother, Damian (after whom he is said to have been named), who was arch-priest of Ravenna, took pity on him, and had him educated. The progress he made in learning was the admiration of his teachers, and led very soon to his being employed as a teacher. He was very strict, even as a youth, as regards his mode of life, habituating himself to frequent watching, fasting, self-mortification and prayer. Struck with the self-denial of two Benedictine monks, who happened to call where he was living, he embraced their profession, and became a "religious" (in the monastery of Avellino, in the diocese of Gubbio) of the order of the monks of the Holy Cross of Fontavellana. Of that community he, in A.D. 1041, became the Superior, and so extended its usefulness that he was looked upon as the second founder, the first having been Ludolphus, a disciple of St. Romuald. He founded no less than five monasteries under the same rule, the Priors of which remained under his jurisdiction. After twelve years of eminent service to the Church, he was induced by Pope Stephen IX. to accept, in 1057, very much against his own wish, the position of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. This, after much difficulty, he was allowed to resign by Pope Alexander II., in 1062, but coupled with the reserve of a power to employ him in important Church matters, as he might at any time find needful. With his bishopric he also resigned his post as Superior of his old monastery, where he once more took up his abode. During his retirement (a retirement constantly broken in upon by calls from the Pontiff to proceed in a legatine capacity to settle various questions of importance to the Church in different parts of Europe), he lived a life of extraordinary asceticism and self-mortification. It was on his return journey from Ravenna, whither he had been sent as legate to inquire into the enormities charged against Henry, Archbishop of Ravenna, and otherwise adjust the affairs of the Church there, that he was called to his rest in his eighty-fourth year. He died of fever, at Faenza, in the monastery of Our Lady, on the 22nd or 23rd of March, 1072. Damiani endeavoured by his literary labours to advance the cause of order and morality, and to add his quota, by no means an insignificant one, in worth or amount, to the church's store of Latin hymns. "He has left," as Archbishop Trench remarks, “a considerable body of Latin verse," but it is only with his hymns that we are concerned in these pages. It is not surprising to find these hymns, the work of such a devoted servant of the Church of Rome, deeply tinged with the superstitions of that Church, and thereby to Protestant minds disfigured; but, notwithstanding this drawback, there are very few amongst the compositions of Latin hymn-writers to compare with some of our author's in vivid word-painting and richness of description. Such compositions as "Ad perennis vitae fontem," and "Gravi me terrore pulsas, vitae dies ultima," have very few equals in merit in the school of poetry to which they belong, while the difference between them in thought and treatment is most marked, and exhibits to great advantage the versatility of their composer. In addition to the two hymns named (see "Ad perennis," concerning its disputed authorship), Daniel gives in vol. i. the texts of four hymns in full, and the first stanzas of ten others. The best known in addition to the two named are, "Crux, mundi benedictio;" and "Paule doctor egregie" (q.v.). [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============== Damiani, Peter, p. 278, i. His hymns have been collected, with a biographical notice, in Breves , xlviii., Nos. 16-73; the "Ad perennis," p. 13, i., as No. 66; the "Crux mundi," p. 273, i., as No. 18; the "Gravi me," p. 461, ii., as No. 63; and the "Paule doctor," p. 887, i., as No. 45. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Roberto E. Pagán

b. 1045 Person Name: Roberto E. Pagán, b. 1945 Translator of "Sé exaltado" in Praise y Adoración

Peter the Venerable

1092 - 1156 Author of "Lo the gates of death are broken" Peter of St. Maurice (Petrus Mauritius), also called Peter of Cluny (Petrus Cluniensis), or Peter the Venerable (Petrus Venerabilis), Abbot, was born 1092 or 1094 (Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 101) of a noble family (the Counts of St. Maurice) in Auvergtie ("Nobili genere natus fuit noster in Arvernia": Leyser, Hist. Poem. Med. Ævi, p. 425). Beginning life as a soldier, he afterwards became a Benedictine monk, and on the death of Hugh, Prior of Marcigny, who had but three months before been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the better known Pontius, Peter was elected Abbot of the celebrated monastery of his order at Cluny, in 1122. From this time much of his life was spent in controversy, a summary of which is an interesting piece of Ecclesiastical history. Pontius, by his arrogance, in claiming, as Abbot of Cluny, the title of "Abbot of Abbots," had raised up a cloud of opponents to his pretensions, and the matter had ended for the moment in his resignation of his office. But Peter had scarcely been three years installed as Abbot, when Pontius established himself as head of an¬other religious community at Treviso, in Italy, whence he started with a train of monks, and, taking advantage of the temporary absence of Peter, again got possession of his old position at Cluny, and drove out the friends of Peter, with the Prior St. Bernard at their head. After great excesses had been committed by the usurper and his followers, and the villages and estates of the Abbey had been given up to fire and the sword, Pope Honorius II. summoned all parties to Rome, and, having heard both sides, decided in favour of Peter, excommunicated Pontius and imprisoned him in a dungeon, where he died a few months afterwards. When this question had been settled, another dispute arose, in which the monks of Citeaux or Clairvaux accused those of Cluny of an undue relaxation of the rule of their order. Robert, a cousin of St. Bernard, had become a monk at Clairvaux, but, finding the rule there too galling, had migrated to Cluny, and, on an appeal to Rome, the Pope directed him to remain at Cluny, much to the chagrin of St. Bernard, who, as the Cistercian head of Clairvaux, vehemently attacked the milder discipline of the Benedictine Cluny. Robert, in consequence of his cousin's objections, was sent back by Peter to Clairvaux, but his monks, resenting such a tame surrender, got William, the Abbot of St. Thierry, near Rheims, to write a sharp letter of remonstrance to St. Bernard. The reply of the latter accusing the Cluniacs of all sorts of declensions from the needful strictness of monastic life, drew forth a rejoinder from Peter as characteristic of "that gentle forbearance and love of peace" of the latter, "which made him stand out conspicuous in his generation, when each man sought his own, or the things of his order, not the things of Jesus Christ " (S. Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints, December, p. 284), as the attack on St. Bernard's part was of his fiery, yet not altogether unfriendly, vehemence of invective. In a subsequent controversy between St. Bernard and Peter the former was more successful. He opposed the wish of Hugh, son of the Duke of Burgundy, to secure the see of Langres, when vacant in 1138, for a Cluniac monk. The Archbishop of Lyons consecrated Hugh's nominee in the teeth of St. Bernard's opposition, but notwithstanding all defence of the appointment of the new bishop which Peter could make, the Pope, who was wholly under the influence of St. Bernard, pronounced the Consecration of the Cluniac monk void, and the Prior of Clairvaux, a cousin of St. Bernard's, was consecrated in his stead. Once more the gentle Peter came into collision with the fiery, domineering St. Bernard in the matter of Abelard. The latter had been condemned, if not altogether unheard, at any rate misunderstood, by the Council of Sens upon charges of heresy brought against him by St. Bernard, and the sentence upon him had been confirmed, upon appeal, by Pope Innocent II.—-a mere echo of the prosecutor. Abelard, silenced and broken down, took refuge at Cluny on his way to Rome, and remained there for some two years, during which Peter so far won upon the victorious Bernard as to bring about a reconciliation between him and Abelard, if such can be called a reconciliation, which allowed Bernard still to do his utmost to set the minds of men against his old adversary. The peaceful death of Abelard at Cluny in 1142 finally terminated this controversy. The year 1143 saw a renewal of the correspondence between St. Bernard and Peter on the subject of the two reforms, in which the latter takes credit for a warm love for the Cistercians, and reminds his correspondent of the shocks that love had withstood in the question of the payment of tithes by a Cistercian monastery in the neighbourhood of Cluny to the Cluniac monks, which had led to a keen controversy and many appeals; as well as in the contest about the Bishop of Langres. It was at this time that Peter sent to St. Bernard a copy of the translation of the Koran, which Peter had caused to be made in Spain by Robert, an Englishman, but Archdeacon of Pampeluna. Peter was in high favour with Popes Celestine II. and Lucius II., and in 1146, in common with St. Bernard, took an active part in discountenancing the slaughter of the Jews in France and Germany, which had resulted from the preaching of St. Bernard against the infidels. But though Peter appealed to Louis VII. to stay the massacre, it must be said that he made no effort to prevent the plunder of the Jews. Another matter in which Peter was interested and engaged was that of Peter of Brueys, who founded a sect holding tenets strongly tinged with Manichævism, and was burnt alive by a zealous Catholic mob early in the twelfth century. A letter strongly condemning the heretic, his followers, and his opinions is still extant. Peter went to Rome for five months in 1150, when Eugenius III., a nominee of St. Bernard, was Pope, and gave an account of Eugenius to St. Bernard by letter. The rest of Peter's life was spent at Cluny, where he died early in 1156 or 1157, leaving the impression behind him of "one of the most attractive figures which monastic and mediaeval history presents to us" (S. Baring-Gould's Lives of the Saints, Dec, p. 281). Lacking the fire and power of his great antagonist and correspondent, he succeeded by the gentleness and imperturbability of his disposition in gaining and retaining an influence in the religious world second only to that of St. Bernard. His writings were chiefly controversial, and the poetry which he wrote was great neither in quantity nor quality. Amongst his latter were (1) Some Rhythms, Proses, Verses, and Hymns contained in the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, 1614 ; (2) A Hymn on the "Translation of St. Benedict"-—"Claris conjubila Gallia cantibus," in the Bibliotheca Floriacensis, 1605; and (3) An "Epitaph on Peter Abelard." From the first collection, Archbishop Trench gives two specimens: (a) On Christ's Nativity, "Coelum gaude, terra plaude," and (b) one on the Resurrection of our Lord, "Mortis portis fractis foitis" (Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 102), both of which have been translated. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Pierre, de Corbeil

1122 - 1222 Person Name: P. de Corbeille, d. 1221 Composer of "ORIENTIS PARTIBUS" in Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary

Petrus, Dresdensis

1365 - 1421 Person Name: Petrus Dresdensis Author of "Puer natus in Bethlehem" in Evangelisch-Lutherisches Gesang-Buch

Johann Poliander

1487 - 1541 Author of "My soul, now praise thy Maker!" Poliander, Johann was the pen-name of Johann Graumann who was b. July 5, 1487, at Neustadt in the Bavarian Palatinate. He studied at Leipzig (M.A. 1516, B.D. 1520), and was, in 1520, appointed rector of the St. Thomas School at Leipzig. He attended the Disputation in 1519 between Dr. Eck, Luther, and Oarlstadt, as the amanuensis of Eck; with the ultimate result that he espoused the cause of the Reformation and left Leipzig in 1522. In 1523 he became Evangelical preacher at Wurzburg, but left on the outbreak of the Peasants' War in 1525, and went to Nürnberg, where, about Lent, he was appointed preacher to the nunnery of St. Clara. He then, at the recommendation of Luther, received from the Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg an invitation to assist in furthering the Reformation in Prussia, and began his work as pastor of the Altstadt Church in Königsberg, in Oct., 1525. Here he laboured with much zeal and success, interesting himself specially in organising the evangelical schools of the province, and in combating the errors of the Anabaptists and the followers of Schwenckfeldt. He died at Königsberg, April 29, 1541 (Koch, i. 355-59 : ii. 475; Bode, p. 78, &c). The only hymn of importance by him which has kept its place in Germany is :— Nun lob, mein Seel, den Herren. Ps. ciii. Appeared as a broadsheet at Nürnberg, c. 1540, and in J. Kugelmann's News Gesang, Augsburg, 1540. Both of these are given by Wackernagel, iii. pp. 821-23, in 4 stanzas of 12 lines. This fine rendering has been repeated in most subsequent hymn-books, and is No. 238 in the Unverfälscher Liedersegen, 1851. A 5th stanza, "Sey Lob und Preis mit Ehren," appeared in a broadsheet reprint at Nürnberg, c. 1555, and is in Burg's Gesang-Buch, Breslau, 1746, and other books, added to the original stanzas. Lauxmann, in Koch, viii. 316-320, quotes Martin Chemnitz, 15V5, as stating that it was written in 1525 at the request of the Margrave Albrecht, as a version of his favourite Psalm, and as saying that himself (i.e. Chemnitz) heard the Margrave joyfully ringing it on his death-bed. Lauxmann adds that it was used by Gustavus Adolphus on April 24, 1632, at the first restored Protestant service at Augsburg. It was also sung by the inhabitants of Osnabruck, in Westphalia, as a thanksgiving at the close of the Thirty Years' War on Oct. 25, 1648, &c. It is translated as:— My soul, now praise thy Maker! A good and full translation by Miss Winkworth, as No. 7 in her Chorale Book for England, 1863. Other trs. are:—(1) "My soul! exalt the Lord thy God," by J. C. Jacobi, 1722, p. 86 (1732, p. 145). Included in the Moravian Hymn Book of 1754 (Nos. 127 and 315) and 1789. (2) “Now to the Lord sing praises," by Dr. H. Mills, 1845 (1856, p. 192). -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology