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The Veni Sancte.
THE VENI SANCTE SPIRITUS.
IN the year 997, "whilſt the prieſthood ſtruggled to regain through their anathemas the property that had been taken from them by violence, a young man, who knew neither to threaten nor to lie, nor to inſpire others with fear, ſucceeded to the royal dignity which his father had uſurped. It was Robert, only ſon of Hugh Capet."—Siſmondi, Hiſt. Français.
This King, "there is no good reaſon to doubt" (Konigsfeld), was the author of the Veni Sancte Spiritus, a hymn that the beſt living authority regards as all the lovelieſt of all the hymns in the whole circle of Latin ſacred poetry."—Trench.
The ability of Robert II. to have compoſed the hymn which ranks next to the Dies Iræ and
