metres adopted from Prudentius, and other preceding writers, chiefly in dimeter iambics, and trochaics, in which prosody was gradually neglected. Saint Hilary, who was bishop of Poitiers from the year 355 to 368, a man of genius, was the first who was eminent in these compositions 44. The rhymes in his verses are very regular and perfect; as on the Epiphany: Jesus refulsit omnium Pius redemptor gentium, Totum genus fidelium Laudes celebret dramatum, K. T. λ. So in the hymn on fasts: Jesus quadrigenariæ Dicator abstinentiæ, Quique, ob salutem mentium, Hoc sanxeras jejunium. Pope Damasus, a Spaniard, who occupied the see of Rome from 366 to 384, was an elegant poet, but of forty poems printed in the great Collection of the 44 Cave, etc. Qui primus hymnorum gloria claruit. Vossius, de Script. Lat. Works of the Fathers one only is in rhyme, though he wrote others. It is upon Saint Agatha 45. Martyris ecce dies Agathæ In the Cotton manuscripts is an epistle from him to his friend Rainaldus 46: VERSUS DAMASI AD AMICUM SUUM. Cartula nostra tibi-portat, Rainalde, salutes, Dulcia sunt animæ-solatia quæ tibi mando, Quod mea verba monent-tu noli tradere vento, Ut tibi grande bonum-nostri monitus operentur, 45 Biblioth. Mag. Patrum, vol. xxvii. p. 55. His works were likewise published separately. 46 Cotton MSS. Titus, D. 24. fol. 91. Menti sinceræ possunt hæc verba placere. Vox divina sonat-quod nemo spem sibi ponat etc. etc. Saint Ambrose, the great and pious bishop of Milan, who was born in 333, consecrated bishop in 374, and died in 397, contributed many beautiful hymns to the church, mostly in rhyme, such as those which begin 47 Rerum Creator optime— Te lucis ante terminum- The next poem with which I shall present the reader is of a very extraordinary nature, and was written by the celebrated Saint Augustine, upon the following occasion. The Donatists, a sect which arose in the fourth century from a double election of a bishop of Carthage, but without holding any heretical doctrines, excepting that of rebaptizing those whom they denominated heretics, were vigorously opposed by the bishop of Hippo. He wrote this psalm against them, as he informs us, in rhyme, to 47 Cave Hist. Scrip. Eccl. be sung to the very lowest people, who spoke Latin as their vernacular dialect, for their information, and to assist their memory. He says that he did not compose it in regular metre, that the restrictions of a correct prosodiacal verse might not compel him to use words remote from common use 48. The poem is in stanzas of twelve lines each, every stanza beginning with a different letter of the alphabet in order, from A to U. There is besides one line for a chorus, or burden, which he calls hypopsalma, for the people to respond, and which was repeated at the end of each stanza; with this, and an epilogue of thirty lines, the whole consists of two hundred and seventy lines, which all rhyme to the letter E. It was written in the year 393, but, notwithstanding the bishop's efforts, this absurd sect was not finally suppressed till the sixth century 49. 48 Augustini Opera Benedict. vol. ix. p. 1. Paris 1694. Augustini lib. i. Retractationum, cap. xx. Volens etiam causam Donatistarum ad ipsius humillimi vulgi, et omnino imperitorum atque ideotarum notitiam pervenire, et eorum quantum fieri posset per nos inhærere memoriæ, psalmum qui eis cantaretur, per Latinas literas feci, sed usque ad U literam, tales enim abcedarios appellant.Ideo autem non aliquo carminis genere id fieri volui, ne me necessitas metrica ad aliqua verba, quæ minus sunt usitata, compelleret. 49 Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 142. PSALMUS CONTRA PARTEM DONATI. Hypopsalma. Omnes qui gaudetis de pace modò verum judicate. Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres conturbare: Bonus auditor fortasse quærit, qui ruperunt rete? D |