Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences/Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia
Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia.
We now come to the age of Notkerian Sequences; about which a few words must be said.
It is well known that the origin of sequences themselves is to be looked for in the Alleluia of the Gradual, sung between the Epistle and Gospel. During this melody it was necessary that the deacon should have time to ascend from his place at the altar to the rood-loft, that he might thence sing the Gospel. Hence the prolongation of the last syllable in the Alleluia of the Gradual, in thirty, forty, fifty, or even a hundred notes; the neuma of which ritualistic writers speak so much. True, there was no sense in this last syllable and its lengthening out, but the mystical interpreters had their explanation: 'the way in which we praise GOD in our Country is yet unknown.'
And good people were content for some three hundred years with this service; and, as it has been very truly observed, the attempt itself, if one may use the expression, to explain the sound into sense, manifests a little of the rationalism with which the Eastern has always taunted the Western Church. But, towards the beginning of the eleventh century, there was a certain Swiss monk, by name Notker. The defects of every religious person were well known in the house where he resided; and a slight lisp in his speech gave him the surname of Balbulus. He had resided for some years in that marvellous monastery of S. Gall; the church of which was the pattern of all monastic edifices, till it was eclipsed by a church, the description of which now reads like a most glorious dream—Cluny. While watching the samphire-gatherers on the precipitous cliffs that surrounded S. Gall, Notker had composed the world-famous hymn, 'In the midst of life we are in death.' But, desirous of obtaining the best education which Christendom could afford, he afterwards betook himself to the Monastery of Jumièges, and there formed an acquaintance with many of its monks. With one of them he had, it seems, a friendly discussion, whether the interminable ia of the Alleluia might not be altered into a religious sense; a discussion which, for the time, had no result. But Jumièges, in common with so many other French monasteries, was desolated by the barbarian Normans. Whereupon Notker's friend, bethinking himself of S. Gall, took refuge in that great house; and the discussion which years before had commenced was again carried on between the two associates. At length Notker determined to put words to the notes which had hitherto only interminably prolonged the Alleluia. He did so; and as a first attempt produced a sequence which began with the line—
and which has lately been republished. He brought this, notes and all, on a parchment rolled round a cylinder of wood, to Yso, precentor of what we should now call the Cantoris side. Yso looked kindly on the composition, but said that be most refer it to Marcellus, the precentor on the Decani side. These two sang the sequence over together, and observed that sometimes two notes went to one syllable in a slur, sometimes three or four syllables went to one note in a kind of recitative. Yso thereupon was charged with the message that the verses would not answer their purpose. Notker, not much discouraged, revised his composition; and now, instead of (for the first line) Laudes Deo concinat orbis universus, he substituted, Laudes Deo concinat orbis ubique totus: instead of the second line, Coluber Adæ deceptor, he now wrote, Coluber Adæ male-suasor: which as he himself tells us, when the good-natured Yso had sung over to himself, he gave thanks to GOD, he commended the new composition to the brethren of the monastery, and more especially to Othmar, Yso's brother by blood. Such then was the origin of sequences, at first called Proses, because written rather in rhythmical prose than with any attention to metre.
It is impossible in this place to enter into the extremely elaborate rules of the Notkerians; they may be seen in my Epistola de Sequentiis, prefixed to the fifth volume of my friend Dr. Daniel's Thesaurus Hymnologicus.
S. Notker died about 912. The following sequence, of his composition, was in use all over Europe: even in those countries, (like Italy and Spain,) which usually rejected sequences. In the Missal of Palencia the Priest is ordered to hold a white dove in his hands, while intoning the first syllables, and then to let it go.
1. The grace of the Holy Ghost be present with us;
2. And make our hearts a dwelling place to itself;
3. And expel from them all spiritual wickedness.
4. Merciful Spirit, Illuminator of men,
5. Purge the fearful shades of our mind.
6. O holy Lover of thoughts that are ever wise,
7. Of Thy mercy pour forth Thine Anointing into our senses.
8. Thou purifier of all iniquities, O Spirit,
9. Purify the eye of our inner man,
10. To the end that the Father of all things may be seen by us,
11. He, Whom the eyes of none save the pure in heart can behold.
12. Thou didst inspire the Prophets to chant aforehand their glorious heralding of Christ.
13. Thou didst confirm the Apostles, so that they shall bear Christ's glorious trophy through the whole world.
14. When, by His Word, GOD made the system of heaven, earth, seas,
15. Thou didst stretch out Thy Godhead over the waters, and didst cherish them, O Spirit!
16. Thou dost give virtue to the waters to quicken souls;
17. Thou, by Thine Inspiration, grantest to men to be spiritual.
18. Thou didst unite the world, divided both in tongues and rites, O Lord!
19. Thou recallest idolaters to the worship of God, best of Masters!
20. Wherefore of Thy mercy hear us who call upon Thee, Holy Ghost:
21. Without Whom, as the faith teaches, all our prayers are in vain, and unworthy of the ears of God.
22. Thou, O Spirit, Who by embracing the Saints of all ages, dost teach them by the impulse of Thy Divinity;
23. Thyself, by bestowing on the Apostles of Christ a gift immortal, and unheard of from all ages,
24. Hast made this day glorious.