CHAPTER SIX

Late Middle Ages: Processional Hymns

I. Origins

The procession as a practice of the Christian Church originates in the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. All four evangelists record the event and all four make mention of the hosannas and acclamations of the people which accompanied it.[1] True, the procession is older than Christianity and wider in observance. It seems to be a natural impulse of humanity in all ages and in all lands to make orderly progress from one place to another for the expression of communal joy or lamentation or to seek the aid and blessing of supernatural power in the activities and vicissitudes of life.

Processional ceremonies as they were observed in ancient oriental civilizations or in the culture of Greece and Rome are not considered here, except as they may have affected Christian origins. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the background and setting of processional forms which, in their evolution, gave rise to a continuity of hymns; to trace the origin, development and distinguishing features of such processional hymns in the Middle Ages and to display processional hymnody in its distinctive character as a separate category of medieval Latin hymnology.

Prior to the fourth century the record is obscure. Miscellaneous notices begin to appear in the last quarter of the century. Basil notes a procession in the form of a litany (c. 375). Ambrose mentions a procession of monks (c. 388) and also refers to a procession in Rome honoring Sts. Peter and Paul, in his hymn, _Apostolorum passio_, “The passion of the Apostles,” (A. H. 50. 17). Chrysostom was active in organizing processions in Constantinople to offset Arian influence (390-400).[2] At the same period, 379-388, Aetheria (St. Sylvia of Aquitania?) made her pilgrimage to the holy places of Palestine, describing in her journal in detail, the ceremonies enacted in the worship of the Christian Church at Jerusalem.[3]

Remarkable in all respects, Aetheria’s narrative is obviously written in a spirit of devotion with eager curiosity and joyful appreciation. She describes, among other observances, the Hour services, especially the _lucernare_ when hymns were sung, the Sunday procession to the Anastasis or Church of the Resurrection which marked the tomb of Jesus and the procession and rites for the Feasts of the Epiphany, Ypapanti or Presentation of Christ in the temple, Palm Sunday and Easter.[4] Hymns in which the laity as well as the clergy participated are mentioned in connection with these ceremonies but no specific hymn is named. The immediate purpose of the processions at Jerusalem appears to have been the enactment of scenes in the life of Jesus in the places where they occurred, introducing a dramatic element which pervades medieval processional observances throughout their history.

Aetheria uses the words psalm, antiphon and hymn in connection with the musical parts of the worship she observed, but not indiscriminately. She was probably familiar with hymns as they had developed in the fourth century both in the eastern and western churches. It has been assumed that the hymn sung at the daily lighting of the candles was _Phos hilaron_, “O gladsome light.”[5] The hymns she heard at the Good Friday observance have been tentatively identified as the _Idiomela_ for Good Friday, traditional in Byzantine ritual.[6] In any case they were true hymns, perhaps of a metrical, or more probably of a rhythmical type. It is impossible to identify the processional hymns of which she speaks. All that can be asserted is that non-scriptural, as well as scriptural hymns, were sung in the processions at Jerusalem.

In Constantinople, contemporary processions have already been mentioned. The practice of Jerusalem was also adopted there. In the sixth century under Justinian, the Feast of Ypapanti was introduced.[7] However, the history of Byzantine processions must be omitted from this study which is devoted primarily to the Latin West.

In Rome, the Christian procession had an independent origin, being derived in part from the memorial honors paid to the Christian martyrs and in part from the Christianization of pagan ceremonies. When the period of persecution of Christianity had come to a close and the triumphant Church was able to assert publicly her influence and authority at Rome, processions were made as early as the fifth century to the places where martyrs had suffered. This is the origin of the later station procession, followed by the celebration of mass in the various churches where the remains of martyrs removed from the catacombs were buried. A century earlier in Milan, Ambrose had discovered and removed the bodies of St. Protasius and of St. Gervasius from their original burial place to a church newly erected in their honor.[8] Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) observed the Roman stations and Pope Sergius (687-701) completed their organization.[9] The processions were accompanied by the chanting of psalms but there is no record of non-scriptural hymns. The symbolism of the procession, however, was enriched by the idea of pilgrimage to a spot made sacred by martyrdom, a continuing processional motive throughout the Middle Ages.

While the station processions developed in the vicinity of Rome, the litany processions arose in Gaul. Mametus, the Bishop of Vienne, 474, inaugurated the _litania minor_ or the public blessing of the fields and crops in the spring season. In 511, the Council of Orleans ordained the observance for Gaul, and the Council of Girona, in 517, for Spain. The _litaniae minores_ or rogations, perpetuate in their intent, processions of the Roman era. The _litaniae maiores_ which were prescribed by Gregory the Great, 598, and Leo III (795-816), were of similar origin and purpose. A _litania septiformis_ was also organized by Gregory on the occasion of a pestilence at Rome.[10] The _litania maior_ came to be observed on April 25, St. Mark’s day, and the _litaniae minores_ in the three days preceding Ascension. Psalms but not hymns in the sense of non-scriptural compositions were heard in the litanies. The procession of supplication common alike to pagan and Christian practice is illustrated in the litanies, a constant motive and a constant observance in medieval rites.

It seems clear, therefore, that primitive Christian processions in Rome consisted of stations and litanies. Festival processions were introduced into the west gradually. Ascension is spoken of as an ancient feast but there is no specific evidence of its observance before the middle of the fourth century. The Ascension procession, implied by Aetheria in her journal, is unknown in Rome at this time.[11] Pope Sergius imported into Rome the festival procession for Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin. The Feast of Ypapanti or Presentation, originally observed in Jerusalem and later adopted in Constantinople, as noted above, gained in the transfer a new feature. The carrying of lighted candles, not mentioned by Aetheria, seems to have been added in Byzantine practice. The words spoken by Simeon of the infant Jesus, “a light to lighten the Gentiles” (Luke 2. 32) made the symbolic use of lights almost inevitable. The date of the Feast of the Purification, February 2, was approximately that of the pagan _Amburbium_ or _Amburbale_, an early Roman procession of lustration which had taken place in that month. Possibly the procession for the Feast is reminiscent of this pagan practice.[12] It might be of interest to follow in closer detail the origin of the medieval Candlemas, but attention must be directed to the Candlemas hymns later to be written and sung in procession at this Feast.

The period of Christian processional origins which may be considered to close with the seventh century, saw the development of the processions at Jerusalem, their adoption in Constantinople and the evolution of the stations and litanies in the west. Festival processions also, were slowly making their way into the Western Church.[13]

II. Evolution in the Early Middle Ages

That the Latin processional hymn appeared first in Gaul should surprise no one. It has already been suggested that the hymns among the _Carmina_ of Fortunatus were created in the atmosphere of freedom enjoyed by Gallic hymn writers in accordance with contemporary canons. Always a poet of the occasion, Fortunatus wrote three hymns for the reception of a relic believed to be of the true Cross, which was presented to Rhadegunda, his patron, by the Byzantine Emperor, Justin II and his wife Sophia, for the convent at Poitiers. As a final stage in the journey from Constantinople, the relic was borne in procession from Migné to Poitiers, accompanied by Euphronius, Bishop of Tours. On this day the hymn, _Vexilla regis prodeunt_, was first heard.[14] Two others, _Pange lingua_ and _Crux benedicta_ (see Chapter One) were devoted by Fortunatus to the same theme of the Holy Cross, although it cannot be proved that they were sung in the same procession.

The Resurrection hymn, _Tempora florigero rutilant distincta sereno_, “Season of luminous days, marked bright with the birth of flowers,” (_Carm._ 3. 9), was originally written for the Easter baptismal rites celebrated by Felix, Bishop of Nantes (d. 582). It was a poem of 110 lines or 55 elegiac couplets, from which the cento of 28 lines beginning _Salve festa dies_, “Hail thee, festival day,” was later selected for an Easter processional.[15]

The metrical models provided by _Pange lingua_ of the trochaic pattern and _Salve festa dies_, the elegiac, continued to be employed throughout the Middle Ages for processional hymnody, the elegiac excelling in popularity. First in the original hymn, then in centos and finally in imitative verse adapted to a multitude of feasts, _Salve festa dies_ was never superseded but maintained the influence of Fortunatus for centuries.

Spain must have known the processional hymn soon after its appearance in Gaul, perhaps in the seventh century. Here, the Palm Sunday festival seems to have been the source of inspiration for the procession and blessing of palms is mentioned by Isidore of Seville as an observance of his day.[16] Contemporary evidence indicates a similar procession in Italy.[17] The use of a processional hymn, however, is not as clearly indicated.

It seems probable that the seventh century hymn, _Magnum salutis gaudium_ (_A. H._ 51. 73), “O great joy of salvation,” is one of the earliest to be assigned for Palm Sunday. It is a simple rendering in the Ambrosian style, of the events recounted in the biblical narrative.[18] In the early centuries when the concept of a specific processional hymn for a particular festival was almost unheard of, a familiar hymn from the old hymnals might be used in the new ceremonies. It has been suggested that _Magnum salutis gaudium_ was known to Theodulphus, who in the ninth century wrote the Palm Sunday processional hymn, _Gloria laus et honor_, for all the ages.

Processions, thus far, have been thought of chiefly, as wholly or in part outside the church edifice. Processions within the edifice were also frequently observed. A procession of the clergy, in connection with which psalms and antiphons were sung, preceded the Sunday high mass; another took place as the Gospel codex was carried to its place for reading. Other ceremonies within the church, aside from the liturgy proper, were sometimes accompanied by hymns.[19]

Perhaps the earliest hymn in use at a special ceremony, once more a selection from the hymnal, was _Audi, iudex mortuorum_ (_A. H._ 51. 80), “Hear Thou Judge of the dead,” sung on Holy Thursday at the consecration of the chrism.[20] The words _O redemptor, sume carmen temet concinentium_, “O Redeemer, accept the hymn of Thy people magnifying Thee,”[21] formed a refrain, a metrical feature which came to be the unmistakable mark of the processional hymn.

In this early period from the sixth to the tenth century, a new idea and a new practice came into being, the use of hymns apart from those of the canonical hours and the sequences of the mass. The ninth century revival of hymnody in all its branches was taking place in western Europe just as this period came to a close, in connection with which the processional hymn was inevitably affected as the office hymn and the sequence had been by a fresh inspiration to poetry and worship. The movement came to fruition at St. Gall where the musical and ceremonial aspects of that great monastic center were so highly developed, a center which had contributed so heavily to the Carolingian revival of literature and the arts.

The French liturgical scholar, Leon Gautier, whose contributions to the study of medieval hymnology have already been mentioned, was the first to identify the processional hymn as a trope or liturgical interpolation. In a study of the St. Gall processional hymns he observed that they were classified by the name _versus_ which in itself points to a separate hymnic category. Other earlier hymns used in processions were there called _versus_. Gautier discovered that musical notation always appeared with the _versus_, an indication that these hymns were invariably chanted and he noted that the _versus_, in the manner of the hymn _O redemptor, sume carmen_, cited above, was without exception, accompanied by a refrain.[22]

The processional hymns of St. Gall, like the sequences, bore the characteristic marks of the hymnic group to which they belonged. From this stage in their evolution they were set apart by their music, classification and refrain.

The wider circle of Carolingian liturgical interest included hymn writers other than those of St. Gall: Theodulphus of Orleans, Walafrid Strabo of Reichenau, Rabanus Maurus of Fulda, Radbert of Corbie, who with Waldram and Hartmann of St. Gall wrote processional hymns. The hymns of Theodulphus and of Rabanus Maurus have been considered above.

Other great festivals of the ecclesiastical year and of the saints were now observed with processional honors for which new hymns were written; special ceremonies also, were thus recognized. Hartmann wrote the elegiac hymn _Salve, lacteolo decoratum sanguine festum_ (_A. H._ 50. 251), “Hail festival, graced with the blood of the Innocents,” for the Feast of the Holy Innocents. The processional hymns of Rabanus Maurus were heard at Nativity, Easter and possibly the Feast of the Purification. The dramatic spirit, always present in the true processional is felt in all these hymns while the refrain reiterates the message of the feast:

for Easter,

R. Surrexit quia Christus a sepulcro, Collaetetur homo choro angelorum. (_A. H._ 50. 190)

Since Christ has risen from the tomb, Let man rejoice with the choir of angels.

for the Nativity,

R. Christo nato, rege magno totus orbis gaudeat. (_A. H._ 50. 186)

Since Christ is born, the mighty king, let the whole earth rejoice.

Processional hymns for saints are represented by Radbert’s hymn honoring St. Gall,

R. Annua, sancte Dei, celebramus festa diei, Qua, pater, e terris sidera, Galle, petis. (_A. H._ 50. 241)

We celebrate, O Saint of God, our yearly feast on this day When thou, father Gallus, dost leave the earth for heaven.

To celebrate the life and miracles of a patron saint was frequently the inspiration of a medieval procession, which, in the case of St. Gall, passed beyond the precincts of the monastery into the streets of the town.[23] It is no wonder that the tradition of these processions, furnished with all the splendor of festival vestments, of robed choirs, of monastic treasures and sacred banners should have made St. Gall unique.

The Sunday processions were sometimes accompanied by imposing hymns in the form of litanies. It should not be forgotten that the ancient Christian processions were, in great part, of this nature. Waldram, Hartmann and Radbert wrote such hymns but Hartmann’s was evidently a favorite, _Summus et omnipotens genitor, qui cuncta creasti_, “Mighty and omnipotent father, who hast created all things,” with the refrain,

R. Humili prece et sincera devotione Ad te clamantes semper exaudi nos. (_A. H._ 50. 253)

With humble prayer and pure devotion, Ever hear us as we cry to Thee.

It seems probable that the custom of singing a hymn in the procession before the reading of the Gospel originated at St. Gall. Hartmann provided a beautiful _versus_ for this purpose,

Sacrata libri dogmata Portantur evangelici. (_A. H._ 50. 250)

The sacred words of the Gospel are borne.

A _versus_ for the reception of the Eucharist was written by Radbert, _Laudes omnipotens, ferimus tibi dona colentes_ (_A. H._ 50. 239), “In reverence, Almighty, we bring our praises as gifts to Thee.” The Blessing of the Font on Holy Saturday inspired his _Versus ad Descensum fontis_ (_A. H._ 50. 242-3). Among the ceremonies most characteristic of medieval piety was that of _Mandatum_ or foot-washing, commemorating the act of Jesus in washing his disciples’ feet, (_John_ 13; 1-15). The name “Maundy Thursday” is a modern survival of the ancient terminology.[24] The hymn associated with this rite appears first in Gaul in the eighth or ninth century and may have been current in Italy in monastic centers. The antiphon, _Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est_, “Where charity is and love, God is there,” is at once the motive and refrain of this hymn, _Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor_ (_A. H._ 12. 24), “The love of Christ has united us,” which follows the scriptural account.[25]

The student must turn once more to the great monastic centers of the Germanic world for processional hymns honoring royalty. Visits of kings and emperors to St. Gall and other noted monasteries were by no means uncommon; that colorful processions and demonstrations of loyalty were a part of their reception cannot be doubted. Walafrid Strabo celebrates the visit of Lothair to Reichenau with the hymn,

R. Imperator magne, vivas semper et feliciter. (_A. H._ 50. 176)

Live, O mighty emperor ever in felicity.

Walafrid Strabo praised Charles, son of Louis the Pious, and Radbert, the Empress Richgard. Other processionals could be used on the occasion of the coming of any royal visitor.

Vatican manuscripts offer evidence of contemporary processions in Italy and Rome, the city of their origin. From this source is derived the processional hymn _Sancta Maria, quid est?_ (_A. H._ 23. 74), “Sancta Maria, what meaneth this?” written for the procession which marked the eve of the Feast of the Assumption, about the year 1000. Specific directions for the route, the order of precedence and every detail of the ceremonial are available, while the hymn itself depicts the devotion and human appeal attending this night time scene in Rome.[26]

III. Evolution in the Later Middle Ages

For the evolution of the processional hymn from this point to the close of the Middle Ages, we have in addition to hymnic manuscripts, the service books and manuals devoted to, or including, processional practice. The _Ritual_ or _Roman Pontifical_ was the earliest to include directions for processions, an illustration of which has been presented above in the case of _Sancta Maria, quid est?_ In the course of time, since so many medieval processions were not thus provided for, the _Processional_ came into existence, containing the order of processions for a particular diocese or monastery.[27] The St. Gall _Processionals_, for instance, are informative as to customs already described above. The specific name _versus_ gave rise to the title _Versarius_ for a book of processional hymns.[28]

In addition to the collections, liturgical writers discussed the procession. Of these, none was more influential than Durandus, Bishop of Mende, who, about 1286, produced his _Rationale divinorum officiorum_ which among many other liturgical subjects, included processional rites.[29] Durandus was a leading authority upon ecclesiastical symbolism. Accordingly, he dwells upon every minute detail of the great processions for Easter, Ascension, Palm Sunday and the Purification as well as the Sunday procession and others of lesser importance, ascribing to each act a wealth of symbolic meaning. Much of this figurative interpretation is obvious and inherent in the feast to be celebrated but in other cases he gives full play to his sense of the symbolic, a phase of contemporary thought already so characteristic of Adam of St. Victor and other writers on religious themes. Finally he declares that whatever else is suggested, “the true procession is a progress to the celestial country.” (_Ipsa vero processio, est via ad coelestem patriam._)[30] If the fundamental concepts which entered into their origins be reviewed, medieval processions apparently carried with them the familiar ideas of supplication, of dramatic representation or of pilgrimage to sacred places. Durandus reiterates and sublimates these concepts, giving them an added significance.

The processional manuals, especially of the English rites observed at Salisbury, York, Canterbury and other cathedral centers, offer descriptions and sometimes illustrations showing the order and vestments of the clergy, the position and functions of the choir, the appropriate acts involved, together with the complete text of the antiphons, psalms, other scriptural passages, hymns, prayers and rubrics. Turning to the processional hymns which were rendered in these centuries, one is impressed by the gradual disappearance of hymns typical of the efforts of the St. Gall school and its contemporaries. A tremendous vogue of the original _Salve festa dies_ of Fortunatus which had never been lost sight of, together with its centos, variants and copies, takes possession of the field. There were in all, perhaps, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty true processional hymns in circulation throughout the whole medieval period, if one enumerates those which are edited in the _Analecta Hymnica_. One half of these may be considered to be of the _Salve festa dies_ type while similar elegiac metrical forms are found in half of the remainder.

What has been said of the cultural background in which the sequence developed and multiplied is equally true for the processional hymn. The same influences which created new seasonal feasts and additional feasts for the saints, produced new processional hymns to accompany them. There is, however, a great disparity between the number of sequences and processional hymns that were written. The sequence was regnant in sacred and secular verse, both in Latin and the vernaculars. Office hymns, too, far outnumbered processionals. This may be another way of saying that the office hymns and the sequences had a liturgical function and setting, while the processional was always extra-liturgical and either superfluous or purely ornamental from this point of view. The antiphons and psalms were sufficient to satisfy the essential choral demands of any procession.

Unfortunately Thomas Aquinas did not include a processional hymn when he furnished the hymnody for the Feast of Corpus Christi. He could hardly have envisaged the thousands of Corpus Christi processions throughout Catholic Christendom which have marked the Feast even to this day. Nor could he have foreseen that his hymn _Pange lingua gloriosi corporis mysterium_, written in the tradition of Fortunatus, would be widely appropriated for that purpose. Other processionals for Corpus Christi appeared almost at once, especially of the _Salve_ type.

Contemporary devotion to the Virgin Mother and her festivals was felt in the expansion of the Marian hymnology for processions. The establishment of St. Osyth in Essex was a center in which new hymns were used for the Visitation,

Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, Qua Christi mater visitat Elizabeth. (_A. H._ 11. 51)

Hail thee, festival day, blest day that is hallowed forever, On which Christ’s mother visits Elizabeth.

and the Assumption,

Salve festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo, Qua fuit assumpta virgo Maria pia. (_A. H._ 11. 55)

Hail thee, festival day, blest day that is hallowed forever, On which the holy Virgin Mary was assumed.

A lengthy hymn of twenty stanzas for the Feast of the Purification which had been observed for so many centuries, appears in a twelfth or thirteenth century manuscript from Kremsmünster, _Laetetur omne saeculum_ (_A. H._ 4. 54), “Let every age rejoice.” The biblical scene of the Presentation in the Temple is described and reference is made to the carrying of lighted candles.

Later medieval practice perpetuated other earlier customs. From the original station processions at Rome had developed the ceremonies to celebrate the translation of relics of saints in western European lands. Pope Callistus II (d. 1124) wrote a processional hymn honoring St. James of Campostella, _Versus Calixti Papae, cantandi ad processionem sancti Jacobi in solemnitate passionis ipsius et translationis ejusdem_ (_A. H._ 17. 194), or _Versus of Pope Callistus, to be sung at the procession of St. James in the celebration of his passion and translation_. A hymn for St. Kyneburga (d. 680) commemorated the restoration of her relics to their original burial place in Peterborough Minster from which they had been removed during the Danish invasions.[31] (_A. H._ 43. 218)

A procession in which the relics were carried for the veneration of the worshipers was familiar in many places. Records from St. Gall testify that St. Magnus was honored with such a procession and an appropriate hymn of praise (_A. H._ 50. 261). The relics of saints treasured at Exeter were borne in procession with the singing of a hymn which mentions their miraculous powers. (_A. H._ 43. 277)

In an era marked by municipal drama and civic display as well as religious festivals, the pageantry of the procession was understandably popular. Rome always had its great processions. Accounts are extant of ceremonies accompanied by hymns, in Tournai, Strasburg, Nuremberg and other medieval towns, aside from those prescribed by episcopal and monastic manuals of the day for the great cathedrals and abbeys.

The music to which the processional hymn was sung is, in some cases, available. The St. Gall manuscripts, as Gautier noted, were furnished with musical notation. This is occasionally true of later manuscripts, especially as we enter the closing medieval centuries. The traditional melodies of certain hymns, like the _Salve festa dies_ and _Gloria laus et honor_ are known to-day. Musicologists and students of liturgical music are currently engaged in bringing this music to present-day knowledge. For example, the hymn used in procession before the reading of the Gospel appears in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as a _conductus_ or _conductum_ which, in turn, is related to the _cantio_.[32] A _conductus_ for the festival of St. James of Campostella (_A. H._ 17. 199), illustrates the evolution of a minor type of processional hymn from Hartmann’s solemn _versus_, mentioned above, to the festive style of the late medieval period. The recent study of the _conductus_ by Leonard Ellinwood reflects the growing interest of musicians in these forms, both secular and religious, which preceded the Renaissance.[33]

To summarize the characteristic marks of the processional hymn which are constant and quite independent of the date of their appearance, the student must recall the underlying motives: 1) supplication in the litanies, 2) re-enactment of biblical scenes and 3) religious pilgrimage. Respecting usage, the special interest of a ceremony devoted to a particular occasion is present in processional hymns, additional to other rites. Lastly, a group of hymns has come into existence, not to be classified with the more formal categories of the office hymn and the sequence but dedicated to an extra-liturgical purpose.

As a group, the processional hymns are not well-known or frequently used in translation with the exception of the ageless hymns of Theodulphus and especially of Fortunatus whose processionals usurped the medieval field for over one thousand years and are still current to-day.

(See Illustrative Hymns, XVII. _Salve festa dies_, “Hail thee, festival day.”)