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Maker of all things! God most high!

Appears in 4 hymnals

[Maker of all things! God most high!]

Appears in 1 hymnal Tune Key: G Major or modal Incipit: 17121 74323 23176 Used With Text: The Parting Day

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Published text-tune combinations (hymns) from specific hymnals

The Parting Day

Hymnal: Union Hymnal #57 (1897) First Line: Maker of all things! God most high! Tune Title: [Maker of all things! God most high!]

Maker of all things, God most high

Author: J. D. Chambers; Ambrose of Milan Hymnal: The Saint Dunstan Hymnal, Plainsong Hymns with Accompaniments, from the Manuscripts of the late Rev. Winfred Douglas #d35 (1968)

Maker of all things! God most high!

Hymnal: Hymns and Anthems adapted for Jewish Worship #131 (1887) Languages: English

340 - 397 Person Name: St. Ambrose Author of "Maker of all things, God most high" Ambrose (b. Treves, Germany, 340; d. Milan, Italy, 397), one of the great Latin church fathers, is remembered best for his preaching, his struggle against the Arian heresy, and his introduction of metrical and antiphonal singing into the Western church. Ambrose was trained in legal studies and distinguished himself in a civic career, becoming a consul in Northern Italy. When the bishop of Milan, an Arian, died in 374, the people demanded that Ambrose, who was not ordained or even baptized, become the bishop. He was promptly baptized and ordained, and he remained bishop of Milan until his death. Ambrose successfully resisted the Arian heresy and the attempts of the Roman emperors to dominate the church. His most famous convert and disciple was Augustine. Of the many hymns sometimes attributed to Ambrose, only a handful are thought to be authentic. Bert Polman ===================== Ambrosius (St. Ambrose), second son and third child of Ambrosius, Prefect of the Gauls, was born at Lyons, Aries, or Treves--probably the last--in 340 A.D. On the death of his father in 353 his mother removed to Rome with her three children. Ambrose went through the usual course of education, attaining considerable proficiency in Greek; and then entered the profession which his elder brother Satyrus had chosen, that of the law. In this he so distinguished himself that, after practising in the court of Probus, the Praetorian Prefect of Italy, he was, in 374, appointed Consular of Liguria and Aemilia. This office necessitated his residence in Milan. Not many months after, Auxentius, bishop of Milan, who had joined the Arian party, died; and much was felt to depend upon the person appointed as his successor. The church in which the election was held was so filled with excited people that the Consular found it necessary to take steps fur preserving the peace, and himself exhorted them to peace and order: when a voice suddenly exclaimed, "Ambrose is Bishop," and the cry was taken up on all sides. He was compelled to accept the post, though still only a catechumen; was forthwith baptized, and in a week more consecrated Bishop, Dec. 7, 374. The death of the Emperor Valentinian I., in 375, brought him into collision with Justina, Valentinian's second wife, an adherent of the Arian party: Ambrose was supported by Gratian, the elder son of Valentinian, and by Theodosius, whom Gratian in 379 associated with himself in the empire. Gratian was assassinated in 383 by a partisau of Maximus, and Ambrose was sent to treat with the usurper, a piece of diplomacy in which he was fairly successful. He found himself, however, left to carry on the contest with the Arians and the Empress almost alone. He and the faithful gallantly defended the churches which the heretics attempted to seize. Justina was foiled: and the advance of Maximus on Milan led to her flight, and eventually to her death in 388. It was in this year, or more probably the year before (387), that Ambrose received into the Church by baptism his great scholar Augustine, once a Manichaean heretic. Theodosius was now virtually head of the Roman empire, his colleague Valentinian II., Justina's son, being a youth of only 17. In the early part of 390 the news of a riot at Thessalonica, brought to him at Milan, caused him to give a hasty order for a general massacre at that city, and his command was but too faithfully obeyed. On his presenting himself a few days after at the door of the principal church in Milan, he was met by Ambrose, who refused him entrance till he should have done penance for his crime. It was not till Christmas, eight months after, that the Emperor declared his penitence, and was received into communion again by the Bishop. Valentinian was murdered by Arbogastes, a Frank general, in 392; and the murderer and his puppet emperor Eugenius were defeated by Theodosius in 394. But the fatigues of the campaign told on the Emperor, and he died the following year. Ambrose preached his funeral sermon, as he had done that of Valentinian. The loss of these two friends and supporters was a severe blow to Ambrose; two unquiet years passed, and then, worn with labours and anxieties, he himself rested from his labours on Easter Eve, 397. It was the 4th of April, and on that day the great Bishop of Milan is remembered by the Western Church, but Rome commemorates his consecration only, Dec. 7th. Great he was indeed, as a scholar, an organiser, a statesman; still greater as a theologian, the earnest and brilliant defender of the Catholic faith against the Arians of the West, just as Athanasius (whose name, one cannot but remark, is the same as his in meaning) was its champion against those of the East. We are now mainly concerned with him as musician and poet, "the father of Church song" as he is called by Grimm. He introduced from the East the practice of antiphonal chanting, and began the task, which St. Gregory completed, of systematizing the music of the Church. As a writer of sacred poetry he is remarkable for depth and severity. He does not warm with his subject, like Adam of St. Victor, or St. Bernard. "We feel," says Abp. Trench, "as though there were a certain coldness in his hymns, an aloofness of the author from his subject. "A large number of hymns has been attributed to his pen; Daniel gives no fewer than 92 called Ambrosian. Of these the great majority (including one on himself) cannot possibly be his; there is more or less doubt about the rest. The authorities on the subject are the Benedictine ed. of his works, the Psalterium, or Hymnary, of Cardinal Thomasius, and the Thesaurus Hymnologicus of Daniel. The Benedictine editors give 12 hymns as assignable to him, as follows:—1. Aeterna Christi munera. 2. Aeterne rerum Conditor. 3. Consors Paterni luminii. 4. Deus Creator omnium. 5. Fit porta Christi pervia, 6. Illuminans Altissimus. 7. Jam surgit hora tertia. 8. 0 Lux Beata Trinitas. 9. Orabo mente Dominum. 10. Somno refectis artubus. 11. Splendor Paternae gloriae. 12. Veni Redemptor gentium. Histories of these hymns, together with details of translations into English, are given in this work, and may be found under their respective first lines. The Bollandists and Daniel are inclined to attribute to St. Ambrose a hymn, Grates tibi Jesu novas, on the finding of the relics of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. These, we know, were discovered by him in 386, and it is by no means unlikely that the bishop should have commemorated in verse an event which he announces by letter to his sister Marcellina with so much satisfaction, not to say exultation.A beautiful tradition makes the Te Deum laudamus to have been composed under inspiration, and recited alternately, by SS. Ambrose and Augustine immediately after the baptism of the latter in 387. But the story rests upon a passage which there is every reason to consider spurious, in the Chronicon of Dacius, Bishop of Milan in 550. There is no hint of such an occurrence in the Confessions of St. Augustine, nor in Paulinue's life of St. Ambrose, nor in any authentic writing of St. Ambrose himself. The hymn is essentially a compilation, and there is much reason to believe, with Merati, that it originated in the 5th century, in the monastery of St. Honoratus at Lerins. [Te Deum.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) Also known as: Ambrotio, Ambrosio de Milán Ambrosius Mediolanensis Ambrosius Saint, Bp. of Milan Ambrosius von Mailand Aurelio Ambrogio, Saint, Bishop of Milan Aurelius Ambrosius, Saint, Bishop of Milan Milan, d. 397

J. D. Chambers

1805 - 1893 Person Name: John David Chambers Translator of "Maker of all things, God most high" Chambers, John David, M.A., F.S.A., son of Captain Chambers of the R. N., was born in London in 1805, and educated at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating with honours, in 1827 (M.A. 1831). He was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1831. In 1842 he published an elaborate treatise on the Jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery over the persons and property of Infants, and was appointed Recorder of New Sarum the same year. At Salisbury his attention was specially attracted to the Liturgical and other Ecclesiastical lore appertaining to the Cathedral, and to St. Osmund, its Bishop, 1078. St. Osmund compiled from different sources a series of Divine Offices, and Rules for their celebration within his diocese. These Rules were in two parts, the Ordinals, and the Consuetudinary. The use of these Rules became very extensive; and although in certain parts the Uses of York, Hereford, Bangor, and Lincoln varied, yet John Brompton, the Cistercian Abbot of Jervaulx, writing within a hundred years after St. Osmund's death, eays that these Rules and Offices had been adopted throughout England, Wales, and Ireland. About 1230 (after the opening of the New Cathedral at Salisbury) these Rules were collected and rewritten in a complete volume, entitled Tractatus de Officiis Ecclesiasticus (manuscript in the Cathedral Library). In the mean time the Ordinale had become partly welded into this Consuetudinary, and partly (especially that portion therein omitted from Maundy Thursdav to Easter Eve) incorporated in the Breviary, Missal, and Processional, which had assumed definite shapes. From these materials, together with the aid of several manuscripts and early printed Breviaries, Mr. Chambers published a translation of:— The Psalter, or Seven Ordinary Hours of Sarum, with the Hymns for the Tear, and the Variations of the York and Hereford Breviaries, Lond. 1852. This was accompanied with a Preface, notes, and illustrations, together with music from a manuscript folio Antiphonary or Breviary of the early part of the 14th cent, (in the (Salisbury Cath. Lib.) collated with a similar ms. folio (Lansdowne, 463), both of Sarum Use. The hymns with their melodies, and the Canticles, were also collated with a MS. of the 14th cent. (Harl. 2951). Mr. Chamber's subsequent publications include: (1) The Encheiridion; or, Book of Daily Devotion of the Ancient English Church according to Sarum Use. Lond. 1860. To this a number of the appropriate Hymns and Collects were added. (2) A Companion for Holy Communion for Clergy or Laity; with a Prefatory Office for Confession, from the Ancient English Offices of Sarum Use, 3rd ed. 1855. This was accompanied with notes and authorities. (3) Lauda Syon, Ancient Latin Hymns of the English and Other Churches, Translated into corresponding Metres, Pt. i. 1857; Pt. ii. 1866. (4) An Order of Household Devotion for a Week, with Variations for the Seasons and Festivals, from the Ancient English of Sarum Use. Lond. 1854. (5) A Complete & Particular, yet concise account of the mode of conducting Divine Worship in England in the 13th and 14th centuries, contrasted with and adapted to that in use at the Present Time. Lond. 1877. (6) A translation from the original Greek of the genuine works of Hermes Trismegistus, the Christian Neoplatonist (A.D. 60), with notes and quotations from the Fathers. Mr. Chambers's publications and translations have had no small part in stimulating the great change which has taken place in the mode of worship in the Church of England. His translations of Latin hymns are close, clear and poetical; they have much strength and earnestness, and the rhythm is easy and musical. Those in common use are mainly from the Lauda Syon. Greater use, however, might be made of these translations than has been done. Their earnestness and dignity would raise the tone of many collections. Died Aug. 22, 1893. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)