Pange Lingua Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis.
Pange Lingua Gloriosi Proelium Certaminis. [1]
This world-famous hymn, one of the grandest in the treasury of the Latin Church, was composed by. Fortunatus (q.v.) on occasion of the reception of certain relics by St. Gregory of Tours and St. Radegund, previously to the consecration of a church at Poitiers. It is therefore strictly and primarily a processional hymn, though very naturally afterwards adapted to Passion- tide" (Neale). The following is the form of the hymn in the Roman Breviary:
Pange lingua gloriosi lauream certaminis, Et super crucis tropaeo dic trinmph.nnm iinoilem, Qualiter redemptor orbis immolatns vicelit. De parentis protoplasti fraude factor condolens Quando pomi noxialis in necem morsu ruit, Ipse lignum tune naotavit damna ligni ut solveret. Hoc opus nostrae salatis: ordo depoposcerat; Multiformis proditoris ars nt arreml falleret, Et medelam ferret inde hostis unde loserat. Quando venit erigo sacri plenitudo temporis Missus est ab arce patris natus orbis conditor Atque ventre virginali carune amictus produt. Vagit infans inter arcta conditis praesepia, Melibra panuis involuta virgo mater alligat, Et Dei manus pedesque stricta cingitfascia. Lustra sex qui tam peregit, tenpus implens corporis Sponte libera redemptor passioni deditus, Agnus in crucis levatur'immolandas stipite.
Felle potus ecce langouet: spina, clavi, lancea - Mite ‘ corppi perforaiunt,' nnda mnitiiat et ernor: - Telrra, pontus-, astra, mundus quo layantur flumine. Crux fidelis inter omnes arbor una nobilis Silva talem nulla profert fronde, flore,gemine: Dulce ferinim, dulce lignumj dulce ponds sunstinent. Flecte ramos arbor alta, tensa laxa visciera, Et rigor lentescat ille qnem dedit nativitas, Et siperini.membnra regis tende miti stipite. Sola digna tu fuisti ferre mnlidi victimam, Atque portum prseparare area mundo naufrago, Quem sacer cruor perulnxit fusus agni corpore. [Sempiterna sit beatse Triintati gloria. .Equan patri filioque, par decus paraclito: Unius trinique nomen laudet universitas.]
Of this hymn, which the hynmologist Daniel pronounced "in pulcherrimorum numero recensendum," we give a part of Mrs. Charles's fine rendering:
"Spread, my tongue, the wondrous story of the glorious battle, far! What the trophies and the triumphs of the cross of Jesus are — How the Victim, immolated, vanquished in that mighty war. Pitying, did the Great Redeemer Adam's fall and ruin see, Sentenced then to death by tasting fruit of the forbidden tree, And he marked that wood the weapon of redeeming love to be. Thus the scheme of our redemption was of old in order laid, Thus the wily arts were baffled of the foe who man betrayed, And the armor of redemption from Death's armory was made." Like the-preceding it has been translated into English and German. See Schaff, Christ in Song, p. 155; Neale, Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences, p. 1-4; Caswall, Lyra Catholica, p. 137; Mrs. Charles, Christian Life in Song, p. 133; Hymns Ancient and Modern; Muller, Singers and Songs of the Church, p. 11; Evenings with the Sacred Poets, p. 47 sq.; Bassler, Auswahl altchristlicher Lieder, p. 65, 193; Simrock, Lauda Sion Salvatorem, p. 92 sq.; Rambach, Anthologie, 1:100 sq.; Konigsfeld, Lateinische Hymnen und Gesdnge, 2:78 sq.; Fortlage, Gesdnge christlicher Voizeit, p. 108 sq.; Daniel, Hymnologischer Bluthenstrauss, p. 14, 101; id. Thesaurus Hymnologiscus, 1:163-165; Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, 1:61 sq.; Koch, Geschichte des Kirchenliedes (Stuttgard, 1866), 1:57 sq. (B. P.)
