Berno of Reichenau (Berno Augiae Divitis)
(On the Various Modulation of Psalms and Chants)
SYNOPSIS
1. Ezra restored the Holy Scripture. 2. The Seventy Interpreters. 3. Other interpretations of Scripture. 4. The Gallican and Roman versions of the Psalter. 5. Differences of the Roman version from the Gallican. 6. Differences in Isaiah and other prophets. 7. Nothing should be sung in the Church unless from Holy Scripture, or treated by the more learned. 8. The words of Holy Scripture should not be changed. 9. And nothing contrary to its faith should be set forth. 10. On the antiphons beginning with O in Advent and certain ones for the feasts of the Nativity. 11. On the office of Septuagesima, when the alleluia is set aside. 12. On responsories whose verses do not adequately correspond: 13. Or abound with other errors.
Berno, who wills what God wills, to Meginfrid and Eipenno, beloved brothers in Christ, the everlasting honor of unfading glory.
It seems reasonable to me that those whom one spirit binds with the bond of charity should not be separated by the written word; rather, a letter should join those whom the fellowship of dear friendship binds together. Therefore, compelled by the request of your brotherly love, O Meginfrid, to write something for you concerning the various modulation of psalms and chants, which is customarily done in the Church in dissimilar or confused fashion, I first wish to make some mention of the translators' versions, so that, as if laying this foundation of discourse, the edifice of our narrative may rise more solidly on high.
1. Ezra Restored Holy Scripture
1. For as the authority of the elders confirms, all the Scripture of the Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew language. But after Jerusalem was destroyed and the Law was burned by the Chaldeans, when the Jews returned from the Babylonian captivity to Jerusalem, Ezra, a scribe learned in divine knowledge, restored the entire library of the Old Testament and all the volumes of the laws and prophets, and arranged, corrected, and ordered them in twenty-two volumes according to the number of Hebrew letters. In imitation of him, many of the Gentiles gathered the deeds of others and established libraries. Among these a certain Episistratus is said to have flourished; then Xerxes, afterward Seleucus and Alexander the Great.
2. The Seventy Interpreters
2. But also Ptolemy, surnamed Philadelphus, surpassing all learned men in zeal, gathered not only the writings of the nations but also the divine writings into a library. For seventy thousand books, it is reported, were found at Alexandria in his time. He also, requesting from Eleazar the high priest that the Scriptures of the Old Testament be translated from the Hebrew language into Greek, obtained the Seventy Interpreters, who would satisfy his wish. For some wonderfully assert concerning those same seventy Interpreters that, each divided into separate cells, they interpreted everything through the Holy Spirit in such a way that nothing was found in any one's manuscript that differed from the others even in the order of words. To which opinion St. Jerome vigorously objects, saying thus: I do not know who first fabricated with his lie the seventy cells at Alexandria, in which they wrote the same things separately, since Aristeas, the bodyguard of the same Ptolemy (which is interpreted 'faithful protector'), and, much later, Josephus reported nothing of the sort; but they write that they were gathered in one basilica and compared their work, not that they prophesied. For it is one thing, he says, to be a prophet, another to be an interpreter. The former foretells future things by the spirit; the latter transfers by learning and abundance of words what he understands. And a little above, when he had mentioned what had been omitted by the seventy interpreters, he says: The Jews say it was done by prudent counsel, lest Ptolemy, a worshipper of one God, should discover a twofold divinity even among the Hebrews; which he was especially inclined to do, because it seemed to fall under the teaching of Plato. Finally, wherever Scripture testifies something sacred concerning the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they either interpreted it differently or were entirely silent, so that they might both satisfy the king and not disclose the secret of the faith. Read the prologue of the same most blessed Jerome on the book of Genesis.
There is also a sixth edition, about which blessed Jerome says: 'I briefly admonish you, that you should know there is one edition, which Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea and all the commentators of Greece call Koine, that is, Common and Vulgate; and another of the Seventy Interpreters, which is found in the Hexapla manuscripts, and which was faithfully translated by us into the Latin language, and is chanted in the churches of Jerusalem and the East.' And a little later he adds again: 'Just as in the New Testament, whenever a question arises among the Latins and there is variation among the copies, we run to the fountain of the Greek language in which the new instrument was written; so in the Old Testament, whenever there is a discrepancy between the Greeks and Latins, we take refuge in the Hebrew truth, so that whatever proceeds from the fountain, we may seek in the streams. But that Koine, that is the Common edition, is itself the same as the Seventy, but the difference between the two is that the Koine is an old corrupted edition, varying by places and times and by the will of the scribes; whereas the one that is found in the Hexapla, which we translated, is the one preserved uncorrupted and immaculate in the translation of the Seventy Interpreters in the books of the learned. Therefore, whatever differs from this, there is no doubt that it likewise disagrees with the authority of the Hebrews.' Thus far Jerome. This great man was once caught up to the tribunal of the eternal Judge, where he was admonished by divine rebuke to devote himself to sacred studies and to serve the usefulness of the holy Church.
3. Other Interpreters of Scripture
3. There were also other interpreters who translated the sacred words from the Hebrew language into Greek, such as Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. There is also a Vulgar interpretation, whose author is not apparent, and for this reason it is called the fifth edition without the name of an interpreter, which Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea call Koinon, that is, Common or Vulgate; which Origen found with wondrous labor and compared with the other editions. But many of the Greek commentators translated and corrupted it in various ways. Many of the Latins, especially the Romans, before St. Jerome received it and use it to this day, hold and preserve it. Wishing to correct their diversity, or rather their error, blessed Jerome, being skilled in many languages, translated all the Scripture of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin speech: whose interpretation is rightly preferred to the others, as Isidore says; for it is both more faithful to the words and clearer in the perspicuity of meaning. But also St. Gregory the Pope asserts that his translation is more truthful than the others.
4. The Gallican and Roman Psalter
4. Among other things, from the corrected translation of the Seventy Interpreters he translated the Psalter from Greek into Latin and handed it over to be sung in all the churches of Gaul and some of Germany; and for this reason they call it the Gallican Psalter, while the Romans still sing the Psalter from the corrupted Vulgate edition, from which the Romans composed their chant and handed down to us the practice of singing. Whence it happens that the words that are modulated in the manner of singing in the daily or nightly offices are intermixed and confusedly inserted into our psalms, so that it cannot easily be discerned by the less skilled what belongs to our edition or the Roman one. Seeing this, the pious father and skilled master Jerome composed three editions in one volume: he arranged the Gallican Psalter, which we sing, in one column, the Roman in another, the Hebrew in a third. And wherever something has been inserted in our version that is not found in the Hebrew, he marked it with an obelus, that is a spit, with this sign; but where he added something from the Hebrew, he made it shine forth with an asterisk, that is a star.
5. Differences Between the Gallican and Roman Editions
5. Therefore, following from afar the footsteps of this supreme doctor, though much inferior in knowledge -- inasmuch as in comparison with him I consider myself not even to have a tongue -- for the sake of your love I wish to distinguish something of what we sing in antiphons, responsories, graduals, offertories, and communions, and what we say when clearly pronouncing in the churches. And because I am small in understanding, slow in talent, and though advanced in age, already failing with old age, in the manner of boys who after learning the first elements are accustomed to learn the songs of the psalms, I begin my introduction taking my starting point from fear: because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord (Ps. 110:10), so that through fear we may arrive at charity, which when perfect casts out fear (1 John 4:18). And not only in chant, but also in certain other places where our edition and the Roman one appear to differ in words, we strive to note.
And so the antiphons or communions, which are sung according to the Roman Psalter: 'Serve the Lord in fear, and exult in him with trembling,' we sing according to the emendation of blessed Jerome: 'And exult in him in trembling.' In the third psalm, where they sing: 'I slept and took sleep'; we: 'I slept and was put to sleep.' In the fourth psalm, where they sing: 'When I called upon you, and you heard me, O God'; we say: 'When I called upon him, the God of my justice heard me.' The fact that it suddenly passes from the first person to the second, saying: 'In tribulation you enlarged me,' is in the manner of all the prophets, who are accustomed very often to change tenses and persons and to observe the order of reason in such a manner.
In the fifth psalm: 'Direct my way in your sight'; which, as blessed Jerome says, neither the Seventy have, nor Aquila, nor Symmachus, nor Theodotion, but only the Koine edition has. Finally, as it is written in the Hebrew, all translated with a similar voice: 'Direct your way in my sight,' according to that which is said in the Lord's Prayer: 'Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name'; not that by our praying it is hallowed in us: therefore now too the Prophet asks that the way of the Lord, which is in itself straight, may also be made straight for him.
In the sixth psalm, where they sing: 'Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chastise me in your fury'; we sing: 'Lord, do not rebuke me in your fury, nor chastise me in your anger.' Likewise: 'Turn, Lord, and deliver my soul'; we say: 'Turn, Lord, deliver my soul.' In the seventh, where they sing: 'Arise, Lord my God, in your command'; we say: 'and arise, Lord.'
In the eighth psalm: 'I see your heavens' is not found in the Greek, but in the Hebrew it reads Samecha, which is interpreted 'your heavens,' and it was added from the edition of Theodotion into the Seventy Interpreters under an asterisk. Where the Romans sing: 'For to you the poor man has been left: to the orphan you will be a helper'; we, omitting 'enim,' say: 'To you the poor man has been left, to the orphan you will be a helper.' In that psalm: 'The fool has said,' after the verse ends: 'All have turned aside,' the three that follow: 'Their throat is an open sepulchre; destruction and unhappiness,' up to 'there is no fear of God before their eyes,' are not found in the Hebrew, but were inserted by blessed Jerome from the Greek into our translation.
They: 'Guard me, Lord, as the pupil of the eye'; we: 'Guard me as the pupil of the eye.' But where the words of the psalm itself do not precede or follow, it does not matter if in a single verse we say: 'Arise, Lord'; just as in that verse: 'Save your people, Lord, and bless your inheritance'; our Psalter has: 'Save the people and bless your inheritance.'
Where they sing: 'But I with justice shall appear in your sight; I shall be satisfied when your glory is manifested'; we say: 'But I in justice shall appear before your sight; I shall be satisfied when your glory has appeared.'
In Psalm 17: 'Before the brightness in his sight the clouds pass by,' blessed Cassiodorus says: this verse is not to be passed over easily. 'Before the brightness' is one part of speech, that is a nominative plural, and corresponds to 'clouds'; and the clouds, as was said above, are to be understood as preachers of the divine word.
In Psalm 18: 'He rejoiced like a giant to run his course'; neither in the Greek nor in the Hebrew is 'suam' (his) found, but it was added by blessed Jerome under an obelus. In the same, where they sing: 'The law of the Lord is irreproachable,' we say: 'The law of the Lord is immaculate.'
In that offertory: 'The judgments of the Lord are right, gladdening hearts,' because those words that are placed in the Psalter are missing, up to that place: 'And sweeter than honey and the honeycomb'; we would more rightly sing: 'The judgments of the Lord are right, gladdening hearts, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb.' In that tract, where the Romans sing: 'The heavens shall declare his justice,' we do not say 'the heavens,' but sing: 'They shall declare his justice.' Where the Romans sing: 'And your cup that inebriates, how excellent it is!' our edition has: 'And my cup that inebriates, how excellent it is.' The Romans sing: 'Make known to me your ways, Lord, and teach me your paths'; but we: 'Show me your ways, and teach me your paths.' In that psalm, where they sing: 'Hear, Lord, my voice, with which I cried to you; my heart said to you: I have sought your face, your face, Lord, I will seek.' But we: 'Hear, Lord, my voice, with which I cried, my heart said to you: My face has sought your face, Lord, I will seek.' In that offertory: 'In you I have hoped, Lord, I said: You are my God, in your hands are my times'; we for what are 'times' have: 'My lots.' In that psalm: 'I was turned in my distress,' in the Greek 'mea' (my) is not found, but from the Hebrew and from the translation of Theodotion it was added under an asterisk, that is a star.
In that antiphon or communion, where they sing: 'Rejoice, you just, in the Lord'; we sing: 'Exult, you just, in the Lord.' In that introit, where in song we sing: 'And from all his tribulations he freed him'; we, chanting the Psalter, say: 'He saved him.' In the same psalm, where they sing: 'Fear the Lord, all his saints, for nothing is lacking to those who fear him'; we say: 'There is no want for those who fear him.' Where they say: 'They shall not fail'; we: 'They shall not be diminished of any good.' In Psalm 41, where they sing: 'As the deer longs for the springs'; our translation has: 'Just as the deer longs' and in another verse: 'My soul has thirsted for the living God'; we have under an asterisk 'for the strong God.' It should be known that in this psalm 'the salvation of my countenance, my God' is found twice; but in the second instance, that is at the end of the psalm: 'the salvation of my countenance and my God,' so that the conjunction 'and' was added from the Hebrew and Theodotion under an asterisk. In the same: 'Those who trouble me, my enemies, reproached me,' which is not found among the Romans, but in the Hebrew it is placed: 'My enemies reproached me.'
In Psalm 43, according to the Roman version it is written: 'And you will not go forth, O God, in our armies'; but 'God' there is superfluous. Likewise in the same psalm, when in chant and in verse we sing: 'Arise, Lord, help us, and free us for your name's sake'; according to our edition we only say: 'Arise, help us and redeem us for your name's sake.' Where the Romans sing: 'God will help her'; we say: 'God will help her in the early morning.' They: 'God ascended in jubilation'; we: 'God ascended in jubilee.' They: 'As we have heard, so also we have seen'; we: 'As we have heard, so we have seen.'
In Psalm 48, that verse: 'Man when he was in honor' is placed twice, and in the first occurrence it has the conjunction 'and' added, as: 'And man when he was in honor'; at the end it does not have the conjunction, but thus: 'Man when he was in honor.' They: 'Call upon me in the day of your tribulation, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me'; but we: 'And call upon me in the day of tribulation, and I will rescue you, and you will honor me.'
In the fiftieth psalm, their edition has: 'Wash me more from my injustice, and from my offense cleanse me'; but ours: 'Wash me more from my iniquity, and from my sin cleanse me.' Theirs: 'For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my offense is before me always'; but ours: 'For I myself know my iniquity, and my sin is against me always.' Theirs: 'For behold I was conceived in iniquities, and in offenses my mother bore me'; ours: 'For behold I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins my mother conceived me.' Likewise theirs: 'I shall teach the wicked your ways'; but ours: 'I will teach the wicked your ways.' They near the end of the psalm sing: 'A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit, a contrite and humbled heart, God, does not despise'; but we: 'A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit, a contrite and humbled heart, God, you will not despise.'
In Psalm 52, which begins thus: 'The fool has said,' in the second verse it has added: 'There is none that does good, there is none even unto one'; we end the verse only with: 'There is none that does good.' But to the fourth verse, which begins thus: 'All have turned aside,' we add at the end: 'There is none even unto one.' They modulate: 'Shall not all who work iniquity know, who devour my people as food of bread?' and a little later: 'They trembled with fear where there was no fear'; but we: 'Shall not all who work iniquity know, who devour my people as the food of bread?' and at the end of the verse: 'They trembled with fear where there was no fear.' They: 'When the Lord turns away the captivity of your people'; we: 'When the Lord turns back the captivity of his people.'
They end the first verse of the following psalm thus: 'And in your power free me'; but we: 'And in your power judge me.' They sing: 'Hear, God, my prayer, and do not despise my supplication; attend to me and hear me'; but we: 'Attend to me and hear me.' In the same psalm, where they modulate: 'Fear and trembling came upon me and darkness covered me'; we: 'Fear and trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me.' Nor should it disturb you that the translators, regarding the rule of grammatical art, put the singular number, which is 'tenebra' (darkness), for the plural, since, as blessed Gregory testifies, the words of the heavenly oracle are not to be bent under the rules of Donatus; just as the same Prophet, not fearing the rod of grammarians, wrote: 'Deliver me from bloods' (Ps. 50:16); and in the Gospel of John: 'Who were born not of bloods,' it says, 'nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God' (John 1:13). Just as there the plural number was used for the singular, so here the singular was used for the plural, following the consonance of the Hebrew truth, which says: 'Fear and trembling came upon me, and mist covered me.' Where they sing: 'Cast your thought upon the Lord'; we sing: 'Cast your care upon the Lord.'
In that fifty-sixth psalm the verse: 'Be exalted above the heavens, O God,' is placed both in the middle and at the end; in the middle it reads 'and over all the earth your glory'; at the end, 'and above all the earth your glory.' Where we sing alternately in the choir: 'God showed me through my enemies, do not slay them, lest my peoples forget'; they: 'My God showed me good things among my enemies, do not destroy them, lest they forget your law.' And in the following verse, for what we sing: 'Bring them down, my protector, Lord'; they say: 'Destroy them, my protector, Lord.'
In Psalm 59 it reads: 'Judah is my king, Moab the pot of my hope'; in the one hundred and seventh: 'Moab the basin of my hope.' Where we say: 'The foreigners are subject to me'; the Romans: 'The Allophyli are subject to me.' At the end of this psalm we sing: 'And he himself will bring to nothing those who trouble us'; in the other: 'And he himself will bring to nothing our enemies.' In that verse: 'Let all the earth adore you and sing psalms to you,' where they conclude, 'let it sing a psalm to your name, Lord'; the Roman edition has, 'to your name, Most High'; ours only, 'let it sing a psalm to your name': the Hebrew sings, 'to your name.' Where they sing: 'God, in his holy place, God who makes those of one mind to dwell in a house,' we say: 'God makes those of one manner to dwell in a house.' Regarding that verse which reads in our version: 'They saw your processions, O God,' blessed Jerome says: therefore we must read it thus: 'They saw your processions, O God,' and the error of the scribe must be left behind, who put the nominative for the accusative. Where they sing: 'Ascending on high he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men,' we sing: 'You ascended on high, you took captivity captive, you received gifts among men.'
In that psalm: 'Save me,' where we sing: 'Confusion covered my face'; they: 'Reverence covered my face'; we: 'I became a stranger to my brothers and a pilgrim to the sons of my mother'; they: 'A guest to the sons of my mother.' In that psalm: 'Give the king your judgment, O God,' they sing: 'All kings of the earth, all nations shall serve him'; we: 'All nations shall serve him.' In the same, blessed Jerome says: 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,' is said not to have 'God' twice in the Greek, whereas in the Hebrew and among the Seventy it very clearly reads 'of the Lord God,' which naming is a mystery of the Trinity, that is, 'Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel.' They sing: 'For I was zealous over sinners'; we: 'For I was zealous over the wicked.' In the same psalm: 'You held my right hand, and by your will you led me, and with glory you received me.'
In Psalm 73, when blessed Jerome was expounding that verse: 'Look upon your covenant, for they are filled,' he expounded it thus: 'For they are darkened by the thickets of iniquities,' thickets, he says, are interpreted as thorns: these therefore who have darkened your land with their persecutions are filled with the seats of iniquity. But you, Lord, who through your Covenant, whether Old or New, since both proceeded from you, indeed which is held as one, promised to protect us, now cut down the thorns and rescue us. In that psalm, where they sing: 'Make vows and pay them to the Lord your God, all you who around him offer gifts'; we: 'Who around him will bring gifts.' In that offertory they sing: 'The earth trembled and was still'; we: 'The earth feared and was still.'
In that Psalm 77, in that verse where many sing: 'And I meditated at night with my heart, and I was sweeping my spirit,' or 'was sweeping': Jerome puts it thus: 'And I was digging my spirit,' that is, he says, I was digging as if a field, to sow there the seed of the Lord's teachings. In that verse where it is sung: 'Their priests fell by the sword,' many say: 'And their widows will not be mourned,' in the future tense; but we think it more correctly said in the past tense: 'They were not mourned,' because the prophet narrates past words as if they were events already completed, and the Hebrew agrees with this meaning, when it says: 'His priests fell by the sword, and his widows were not wept for.' Where they: 'They laid the mortal remains of your servants'; we say: 'The corpses of your servants.' Where they: 'You who sit upon the Cherubim, appear before Ephrem'; we: 'You who sit upon the Cherubim, show yourself before Ephraim.' In that introit: 'Exult in God our helper,' where they sing: 'Sing at the beginning of the month with a trumpet'; we sing: 'Sound the trumpet at the new moon.' In that verse, where they sing: 'With his shoulders'; we: 'On his shoulders.' They sing: 'Walking in the darkness of destruction'; we: 'From the assault and the noonday demon.' They: 'He called upon me'; we: 'He cried to me.' Where they sing: 'The just man shall flourish like a palm tree, like the cedar which is in Lebanon he shall be multiplied'; we: 'The just man shall flourish like a palm tree, like the cedar of Lebanon he shall be multiplied.' They sing: 'The Lord has reigned, he put on beauty, the Lord put on strength and girded himself with power'; we: 'The Lord has reigned, clothed in beauty, the Lord is clothed in strength and has girded himself.'
In the ninety-fourth psalm, which begins thus: 'Come, let us exult in the Lord,' where they sing: 'For the Lord will not reject his people,' our edition does not have this. Where they sing: 'For in his hand are all the ends of the earth, and he beholds the heights of the mountains'; we: 'For in his hand are all the ends of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are his.' They: 'And his hands founded the dry land'; we: 'And his hands formed the dry land.' They: 'Let us weep before the Lord who made us'; we: 'Let us weep before the Lord, who made us.' They: 'But we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture'; we: 'But we are the people, and the sheep of his hand.' They: 'As in the provocation'; we: 'As in the irritation.' They: 'They tested and saw my works'; we: 'They tested,' and we add under an obelus - 'me, and they saw my works.' They: 'For forty years I was near to this generation, and I said: They always err in heart'; we: 'For forty years I was offended with that generation, and I said: They always err in heart.' They: 'To whom I swore in my anger, if they shall enter into my rest'; we: 'So that I swore in my anger, if they shall enter into my rest.'
Where the Romans sing: 'Praise and beauty are in his sight, holiness and magnificence'; we: 'Praise and beauty are in his sight, sanctity and magnificence.' They: 'Take up sacrifices and enter into his courts, adore the Lord in his holy hall'; we: 'Take up sacrifices and enter into his courts, adore the Lord in his holy court.' They: 'For he has established the world, which shall not be moved; he will judge peoples in equity and nations in his wrath'; we only: 'He will judge peoples in equity.' They: 'The Lord has made known his salvation before the sight of the nations'; we: 'In the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.' They: 'All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God'; we: 'All the borders of the earth have seen.'
In that one hundred and first psalm, where they sing: 'I am struck like grass, and my heart has withered, for I forgot to eat my bread,' we say: 'It is struck like grass and my heart has withered, for I forgot to eat my bread.' They sing: 'I was tempering my drink with weeping'; we: 'I was mixing my cup with weeping.' In that verse: 'This great and wide sea with hands,' in the Greek 'manibus' (with hands) is not found; from the Hebrew and from the edition of Theodotion it was added to the Seventy under an asterisk, that is a star. It is said metaphorically of the sea, as if it had outstretched hands and received all things into itself. Among the Romans it is sung: 'Arise, my glory'; among us only: 'Arise, psaltery'; for 'my glory' is found neither among the Hebrews nor among any interpreter, but is found only in the fifty-sixth psalm.
In the one hundred and ninth psalm, which begins thus: 'The Lord said to my Lord,' the first name of the Lord, as blessed Jerome says, is written in Hebrew with those letters by which God the Father is designated; but the second name of the Lord is written with those letters by which men are accustomed to call a lord. Whence also by the Lord Father it is commanded to the man, who was assumed by God, that he should sit. This we have said against the Arians and against those who say the Father is greater, who commands to sit, than he who is commanded. All the Gospels resound concerning the person of the man, and now there is no need for proof, because all things that seem lowly are referred to the flesh.
That psalm which begins: 'I will confess to you, Lord, in my whole heart,' here the 'in' is superfluous. Where the Romans sing: 'A light has risen in darkness for the upright of heart'; we do not have 'of heart.' The Romans: 'The just man shall be in eternal memory, he shall not fear an evil report'; we: 'He shall not fear an evil hearing.' 'Because he inclined his ear to me, and in my days I will call upon you,' blessed Jerome says in his letter to certain ones: 'You say that in the Greek "te" (you) is not present, and rightly it should be erased from your manuscripts.' In the same: 'I will please the Lord in the land of the living'; for which in the Greek you say you have read: 'I will please in the sight of the Lord'; but this is superfluous.
In that psalm: 'Confess to the Lord,' the Romans sing: 'Surrounding they surrounded me, and in the name of the Lord I will be avenged on them'; we: 'And in the name of the Lord, for I have taken vengeance on them.' Likewise in the same, they: 'O Lord, save me, O Lord, prosper well'; we: 'O Lord, save, O Lord, prosper.'
In the one hundred and eighteenth psalm, where the Romans sing: 'How sweet are your words to my palate, Lord, above honey and the honeycomb to my mouth!'; we: 'How sweet are your words to my palate, above honey to my mouth!' 'My soul is in your hands always.' Concerning this verse blessed Jerome says to Sunnia and Fretela: for which in the Greek you say you have read 'my soul in your hands always.' But it should be known that both among the Seventy and all other interpreters it is written: 'In my hands,' and not: 'In your hands'; and all the ecclesiastical interpreters among the Greeks expounded this passage thus, and briefly this is the meaning: Every day I am in danger and as it were carry my blood in my hands, and yet I do not forget your law. In the same: 'Streams of water my eyes poured forth, because they did not keep your law'; for which in the Greek you say you have read 'because it did not keep your law'; but this is superfluous, because in the Hebrew too it reads: 'Rivers of waters flowed from my eyes, because they did not keep your law.'
The Romans sing: 'I saw those not keeping the covenant and I wasted away'; we: 'I saw the transgressors and I wasted away.' In that verse: 'Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, from a deceitful tongue,' in the Greek you say you have read, 'and from a deceitful tongue'; and therefore it is superfluous. In the following psalm, where they sing: 'I lifted my eyes to the mountains'; we say: 'To the mountains.'
Where they sing: 'Unless that the Lord'; we: 'Unless because the Lord.' In that verse: 'Blessed is the man who has filled his desire from them'; and in the Greek it is said that 'vir' (man) is not found; which is most clearly contained both in the Greek and in the Septuagint.
In the one hundred and thirty-fourth psalm, where the Romans sing: 'Praise the Lord for he is gracious'; we: 'Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.' Where they sing: 'For the Lord will judge his people and will be consoled in his servants'; we: 'Will be entreated.' 'Who made great luminaries,' blessed Jerome says to those you mentioned above, because in the Greek you found 'great alone'; but this is from the upper verse, where we read: 'Who alone does great wonders.' Therefore it should be read there, and here it is as it were superfluous and should not be written. In that psalm: 'By the rivers,' where they sing: 'When we remembered you, Zion'; we say: 'When we remembered Zion.' They sing: 'Remember, Lord, the sons of Edom'; we: 'Be mindful.'
In that offertory: 'If I should walk,' where they sing: 'Stretching out the hand,' we: 'You stretched out.' In that tract: 'Deliver me, Lord,' where they sing: 'From the wicked man free me,' we: 'Deliver me.' They: 'Who devised evil in their heart'; we: 'Who devised iniquities.' They: 'From wicked men free me, Lord'; we: 'Deliver me.' They: 'Snares'; we: 'A snare.' They: 'And they stretched cords as a snare for my feet'; we: 'And they stretched cords as a snare.' They: 'Overshadow my head'; we: 'You overshadowed.' In that responsory, where they sing: 'Lead my soul out of prison'; we: 'Lead out of custody.' Where they sing: 'My spirit was anxious within me'; we: 'My spirit was anxious over me.'
In the one hundred and forty-third psalm, where the Roman edition has: 'Who gives salvation to kings, who freed David your servant from the evil sword'; ours has: 'Who gives salvation to kings, who redeemed David his servant, deliver me from the evil sword.' Nor should the sudden change of person or tense disturb the reader; because the prophets, taught by the Holy Spirit, are accustomed to pass from persons to persons, and from tenses to tenses, and thus to utter divine words. In that introit, where they sing: 'Your saints, Lord, will bless you'; we: 'Let your saints bless you.' In that gradual: 'The Lord is near to all who call upon him,' where it is sung: 'My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name'; we: 'My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless his holy name.' In that psalm, where they sing: 'Praise the Lord, my soul, I will praise the Lord in my life, I will sing to my God as long as I shall be'; we: 'I will sing to my God as long as I shall have been.'
In that one hundred and forty-sixth psalm, which begins thus: 'Praise the Lord, for psalm-singing is good,' among some there is a dispute whether it is more correctly said: 'Praise the Lord, for he is good,' or: 'Praise the Lord, for psalm-singing is good'; but from the Hebrew, where it says: 'Praise the Lord, for singing is good,' we can observe that it is more correctly said: 'For psalm-singing is good,' that is, it is a good thing to sing psalms, as blessed Jerome expounds; 'to sing psalms,' he says, 'not with the voice, but with the heart. How many have a good voice, and because they are sinners, they sing psalms badly. He sings psalms well who sings in the heart, who sings Christ in the conscience.' Let these few words about the psalms suffice for now.
6. Differences in Isaiah and Other Prophets
6. Now I shall attempt to turn my hand to Isaiah, who, as blessed Jerome says, should be called not so much a prophet as an evangelist and apostle; for he himself testifies concerning himself and the other evangelists, saying: 'How beautiful are the feet of those preaching good things, preaching peace!' and again concerning himself: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me, he has sent me to preach to the poor.' And because 'apostle' is interpreted as 'one sent,' God speaks to him as to an apostle: 'Whom shall I send, and who will go to this people?' and he answered: 'Here am I, send me.' And because many, not only those less accomplished in literary knowledge, but also those educated in the liberal arts, are accustomed in this prophet to distinguish in their reading much differently from how the truth stands, or to utter words in chant differently, it has seemed good to note briefly the places where they distinguish the meanings less correctly, or utter words differently from how the truth stands.
Now first let us consider what is written: 'What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord.' And since it should be understood and punctuated as, 'I am full,' that is, I lack nothing, according to what is written elsewhere: 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof'; some erroneously join to this little sentence, 'I am full,' the ablative: 'With the burnt offering of rams and the fat of fatted animals'; and then add the accusative: 'And the blood of calves and lambs and goats I did not want,' when the prior words: 'The burnt offering of rams and the fat of fatted animals' should be uttered in the accusative, just as what follows: 'And the blood of calves and lambs and goats I did not want.' And again in that place where it is written: 'In the first time the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali was lightened, and in the last time the way of the sea beyond Jordan of Galilee was made heavy.' Where some join the word 'of the nations' to the following sentence thus: 'The people of the nations, who walked in darkness,' when it should be punctuated far differently. For there are two Galilees: one beyond Jordan, in which Solomon gave twenty cities to Hiram king of the Tyrians in the lot of the tribe of Naphtali; the other beside the lake of Gennesaret in the tribe of Zebulun near Tiberias. To distinguish this one, which is in Judea, he now says 'beyond Jordan of Galilee of the nations.' Then he adds: 'The people who walked in darkness saw a great light.' And where it is written: 'And you overcame the scepter of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian,' some erroneously put the plural for the ablative singular and say: 'As in the days of Midian.'
In that introit which we sing on the day of the Lord's birth: 'A boy is born to us, and a son is given to us,' our translation according to the Hebrew truth has: 'A little child is born to us, a son is given to us.'
And for what we sing: 'whose government is upon his shoulder,' the Hebrew truth has: 'And the government was made upon his shoulder.' And for what we sing: 'And his name shall be called the Angel of great counsel,' in the Hebrew six names are found: Wonderful, Counselor, God, Mighty, Father of the age to come, Prince of peace. Where it should be noted that, not as most think, the names should be joined in pairs, so that we read: 'Wonderful Counselor,' and again: 'Mighty God'; but 'Wonderful' should be read separately, and 'Counselor' apart, and 'God' separately, then 'Mighty,' and afterward two names should be joined: 'Father of the age to come,' 'Prince of peace.'
In that reading: 'Go up upon a high mountain,' some manuscripts have in the masculine gender: 'You who evangelize Zion, and you who evangelize Jerusalem,' whereas according to the Hebrew it should be pronounced in the feminine gender: 'You who evangelize Zion, and you who evangelize Jerusalem'; and Zion and Jerusalem are commanded to go up upon a high mountain, that is, to ascend to the heights of virtues, and to raise their voice in strength, and to announce without fear, and to say to the cities of Judah: 'Behold your God,' and the rest that follows.
That antiphon which some modulate: 'The saints who hope in the Lord shall have strength, they shall take up wings as eagles, they shall fly and shall not fail'; in the Hebrew it reads: 'But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall take up wings like the wings of eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not fail,' this signifying that the saints, having taken up the wings of virtues, just as eagles in old age are accustomed to revive through the change of feathers, so these in the service of God shall always run and not grow weary, walk and not fail, as it is written of them: 'They shall walk from virtue to virtue': so that after the end of this life, having taken up an immortal body, the God of gods may be seen by them.
In that responsory: 'Be enlightened, be enlightened, Jerusalem, your light has come,' in the Hebrew it is written: 'Arise, be enlightened, for your light has come'; the name Jerusalem is not found in the Hebrew, so as to signify that the things written and promised pertain not only to Jerusalem and to the Jews, but generally to all generations that were going to believe in Christ. And below: 'Your sons shall come from far, and your daughters shall suck milk'; some punctuate it so as to say 'from milk,' and then add 'they shall rise,' thinking it follows that to the phrase 'from far' should correspond the other phrase 'from milk.' But blessed Jerome puts another meaning, that it should say: 'Your daughters shall suck milk,' as souls nursing in Christ, in the baptism of little ones, as the Apostle Peter says: 'As newborn infants, desire the rational milk without guile'; as little ones they should suck milk, that is, the doctrine of the apostles, until they are able to take the solid food of perfect doctrine, or as some manuscripts have: 'They shall rise from the side'; for either it should be read: 'Your daughters shall suck milk,' or 'your daughters shall rise from the side.' This signifying that, just as Eve the mother of all was formed from the rib of Adam's side, so the Church was built from the side of Christ, when, according to the Gospel of John, one of the soldiers pierced the side of Christ with a lance, and immediately blood of our redemption and water of baptism flowed forth, which is so joined together that we are baptized by water and redeemed by blood.
In that canticle of Hezekiah, and in that verse: 'I said: I shall not see the Lord'; some manuscripts have: 'the Lord God,' but it is falsely written; for 'the Lord the Lord' should be repeated twice, as blessed Jerome says. That verse: 'I shall not look upon man any more and the inhabitant,' they so divide and terminate that the following verse begins thus: 'My generation has ceased'; and indeed blessed Jerome first translated it thus because of the ambiguity of the word, but afterward corrected it: 'the inhabitant of rest,' true rest and true exultation is eternal life; and eternal life is the contemplation and vision of the Trinity. Who is the inhabitant of eternal life, if not God Almighty himself and his elect?
In that verse: 'Lord, I suffer violence,' some manuscripts have: 'Answer for me,' but it is falsely written; for it is better, as the commentators say: 'Be surety for me,' as if he were saying: If I have erred in anything, be surety for me, that is, be my guarantor, and receive me in your faith and protection; for it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs; but of God who shows mercy (Rom. 9:16). And again there: 'Lord, thus one lives,' some manuscripts have: 'If thus one lives'; but it is not so, as blessed Jerome says; the king philosophized about the state of this life, saying thus: 'Lord, thus one lives,' that is, so fragile and perishable is human frailty.
Likewise in that introit, where it is sung: 'You who thirst, come to the waters, and you who have no price, come'; some sing: 'Drink with joy'; but according to the prophet it should be said: 'Eat'; not, 'drink.' But how can we eat water? For Sacred Scripture in some places is food, in some drink; wherever it is grasped with difficulty, it is food; where indeed it has easy understanding, it is drink. And this is the meaning: O Gentiles, who by thirsting desire the knowledge of the Old and New Testament, come to the waters of baptism, or to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and you who do not have silver, that is the words of the Lord, of which the Psalmist says: 'The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, tested'; hasten, come quickly to my faith, purchase the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the water of baptism, not at the price of gold or silver or anything of the sort, but by believing and doing good, eat the water itself, that is, spiritual doctrine, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, by hearing, reading, meditating, and retaining in the heart.
In that reading, where it is read: 'You shall no longer be called Forsaken, and your land shall no more be called Desolate,' in some manuscripts it follows: 'But you shall be called My Will in Her'; but falsely: for it is the Hebrew custom always to impose names from things, as Abraham, who was first called 'exalted father'; again when he heard through the promise: 'And in your seed all nations shall be blessed,' he was called Abraham, that is, 'father of many nations,' and the Lord Savior among other names was called Emmanuel, which is interpreted 'God with us'; so now the Church is called in Hebrew Hephzibah, which is interpreted 'my will in her'; and this is the meaning: you shall no longer be called Forsaken by God, and your land, that is your dwelling, shall no more be called Desolate, because Christ will dwell in your midst; but you shall be called 'My Will in Her,' that is, the Church of Christ; and it shall be said of you: This is the Church of Christ, which does the will of the Lord. Therefore let us ask the Lord that, doing his will, we may be both called and be children of his holy mother Church, so that forever and unto the age of ages we may be able to remain with him and in him.
7. Nothing Should Be Sung Without Scriptural Authority
7. Now therefore it pleases me to note certain chants which in the holy Church appear to have been composed without the authority of Sacred Scripture, or compiled irregularly by human custom according to the whims of the carnal, those who sang such things not considering that the Lord commands through the prophet, crying out: 'Sing psalms wisely' (Ps. 46:8); and in the African Council it was established that prayers and orations, unless they have been approved, should not be said, nor should any of them at all be sung in the Church, except those that have been treated and approved by the more learned in synod, lest perhaps something has been composed against the faith either through ignorance or through zeal. Where it should be briefly considered that not only those things composed through the zeal of perfidy, but also those composed through the simplicity of ignorance against the rule of faith, are to be rejected with equal censure.
Blessed Jerome also, when expounding the precept of the Apostle, where he says: 'Be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord' (Eph. 5:19); among other things says: Therefore we ought to sing, and chant, and praise the Lord more with the soul than with the voice. Whence the holy father Benedict commands us, saying: 'Let us so stand for psalm-singing that our mind may accord with our voice.' How does our mind accord with our voice, when in modulating we raise our voice on high, but are either entirely silent about Sacred Scripture, or change the words or meaning to a foreign sense, fulfilling rather that line of Vergil: 'He gives forth sound without mind,' than that apostolic precept which we set forth above?
8. The Words of Scripture Should Not Be Changed
8. And in a wondrous manner, while some wish to seem and to be wise men of this world, they try through superstitious understanding to apply the words of Sacred Scripture to their own meaning, and the words which the very Power and Wisdom of God uttered through himself, or the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouths of prophets and apostles, they sing and say otherwise, changing them according to Donatus and Priscian, even though all worldly philosophy and the teaching of secular knowledge drew their origin from the authority of Sacred Scripture. For what is the logic that Priscian should be heeded, and truth, which is God, should be despised? For if Terence, Vergil, Cicero, and other followers of liberal letters earned this in their writings -- that their sayings should remain unshaken, as they are, mark you: 'diunt,' 'ipsus,' 'optumus,' 'maxumus,' 'olli,' and many similar -- how much more should the oracles of heavenly words persevere in their own rule!
For some in the Gospel, where it reads: 'And I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes'; they wish to emend: 'And to another, Come, and he comes.' And where the holy Gospel says: 'Because power went out from him and was healing all'; they emend, 'because power went out from him.' And where Zacchaeus in the Gospel says: 'If I have defrauded anyone,' they say 'defrauded.'
But in that offertory for the dead, where we sing: 'Deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the hand of hell, and from the depths of the pit'; some with a certain stilted mind sing: 'from the depths of the lake,' paying little attention to the fact that the noun 'lacus' (pit/lake) is accustomed to bear its genitive according to both declensions, that is the second and the fourth. But according to the idiom of Sacred Scripture, 'laci' is more often used than 'lacus,' especially where a deep pit and abyss or the depth of hell is designated. Therefore the prophet Isaiah, who says of himself: 'And one of the Seraphim flew to me, and in his hand a hot coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and he touched my mouth and said: Behold this has touched your lips, and your iniquity shall be taken away, and your sin shall be cleansed'; he, I say, said: 'Nevertheless you shall be dragged down to hell, into the depth of the pit'; and again: 'Who descend to the foundations of the pit,' that is, of hell. Rightly therefore we judge that the authority of him whose lips were cleansed by heavenly fire should be followed rather than the instruction of some grammarian author.
And Daniel agrees with this meaning: 'A stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the pit'; and again: 'and they had not reached the floor of the pit before the lions seized them, and crushed all their bones.' We therefore ask by singing that the Lord may deliver the souls of his faithful from the depth of the pit, that is, of hell. We must therefore hold firmly to the sequence of Sacred Scripture and observe its tenor inviolably in all things, heeding what a certain wise man admonishes, saying: 'Prudent reader, always beware of superstitious interpretation, so that you do not adjust the Scriptures to your understanding, but join your understanding to the Scriptures.' Therefore it must be established that we preserve the sacred words of the Gospel, the oracles of the patriarchs and prophets, the writings of the apostles, with integral faith and fitting devotion, as they are found in the authentic books, unchangeably -- we should preserve, hold, and guard them, adding nothing, removing nothing, changing nothing -- if we wish to escape that threatening which the Holy Spirit appears to intend near the end of the Apocalypse: 'If anyone adds to these things, God will add upon him the plagues written in this book; and if anyone diminishes from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the book of life, and from the holy city, and from those things which are written in this book.' Therefore if anyone wishes to sharpen his talent by the rule of grammatical art, let him exercise himself in the schools, let him use, if he likes, Donatus and Priscian as masters, provided that, preserving the integrity of the true interpretation, he does not refuse to maintain due honor for the divine words.
But enough of these matters. Now let us consider the rest.
9. On Chants Not Found in Scripture
9. Finally, that responsory which is first placed in the antiphonary: 'Looking from afar'; or that introit: 'On a high throne'; and also that responsory which is sung concerning the holy Mary ever Virgin: 'I saw the beautiful one ascending like a dove above the streams of water'; in the entire course of Sacred Scripture, I was not able to find where they are written, unless perhaps there are those who say that in the beginning of the nascent Church there were many interpreters who translated Sacred Scripture from Greek into Latin, and from that these were taken, before blessed Jerome, interpreter of the divine law, translated the entire Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin and handed over the corrected edition of the Seventy Interpreters to Latin ears. But we do not dare to prove anything from a source about which we hold nothing certain, although blessed Jerome himself, in a certain sermon which he composed for Paula and Eustochium on the assumption of the holy Mother of God, Mary ever virgin, testifies that the words of this responsory are found in the Song of Songs, saying thus: 'Concerning the ascension of this one to the heavens, with much wondering gaze the contemplator of heavenly secrets follows in the Song of Songs: I saw, he says, the beautiful one ascending like a dove above the streams of water, etc.' But where he found those words, or whether he himself translated them, we hold as uncertain, knowing for certain that according to the edition which we have from him, we can by no means find them.
What is sung concerning St. Michael in that antiphon or alleluia: 'The sea was shaken and the earth trembled, where the archangel Michael was descending from heaven,' in what place this should be sought and found I entirely do not know.
That antiphon which some sing in the Church: 'You are holy, says the Lord, I will multiply your number, that you may pray for my people in this place,' where the Lord said these words is not easily found. But, because God is truth, he who presumes to utter such things about him should have spoken the truth, not fearing what the Lord threatens through the prophet, saying: 'Have you not seen a vain vision and spoken a lying divination? and you say: The Lord says, when I have not spoken' (Ezek. 13:7).
In that responsory: 'Receive the Word, Virgin Mary,' in that place where it is written: 'you shall conceive through the ear'; and in that responsory: 'It was announced through the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary concerning the entrance of the king, and he entered through the splendid golden region of the Virgin to visit the palace of the womb, and he departed through the golden gate of the Virgin,' it is said quite childishly and simply, and would that it were not said less than in a catholic manner. For if, as they assert, she conceived as soon as she heard the words of the angel, what do they make of the delay of so many sentences from that place where the angel said: 'Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women.' When she had heard, she was troubled by his word: And: 'Do not fear, Mary; behold you shall conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus; he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High,' up to that place where holy Mary said to the angel: 'How shall this be, since I do not know man?' and the angel answering said to her, not speaking of the present but foretelling the future: 'The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you, and therefore the holy one that shall be born shall be called the Son of God,' until Mary thus concluded: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord,' not declaring but wishing, she says: 'Let it be done to me according to your word.'
By these words it is sufficiently given to understand that no one was ever able, is able, or will be able to know how the Son of God entered through the womb of the untouched virgin for the salvation of the human race, and departed with the seal of holy chastity closed. For according to the prophecy of Ezekiel, that gate perpetually shut was prefigured, open only to God; with the Holy Spirit cooperating, the Virgin ineffably conceived the Son of God, and in the unity of person the Virgin bore true God and true man, and after giving birth the Virgin remained. Hence in that responsory: 'Receive the Word': where we sing: 'you shall conceive through the ear,' we would more rightly say: 'You shall conceive in the womb.' But that: 'It was announced through the archangel Gabriel,' is rightly considered to have been rejected by the wise, just as also that which is sung on the very holy night of the Nativity: 'He descended from heaven, sent from the citadel of the Father, he entered through the ear of the Virgin into our region' is rightly refuted, and in its place in many churches of Gaul, what we have written below, is modulated thus: 'He descended from heaven, true God begotten of the Father, he entered into the womb of the Virgin, that he might appear visible to us, clothed in the human flesh of the first parent Adam, and he went forth through the closed gate, God and man, light and life, Creator of the world. As a bridegroom.'
That responsory too, which is sung on that most sacred night, beginning thus: 'Holy and immaculate virginity, with what praises shall I extol you, I know not, for whom the heavens could not contain, you bore in your bosom,' how rightly it can be criticized is easily perceived; for it speaks to virginity as if to some woman: 'Holy and immaculate virginity,' whereas virginity is not a woman, but a certain virtue, so named from the word 'virgo' (virgin); and at the end of the responsory it makes an apostrophe to her, when it says: 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb'; whereas more correctly and more in a catholic manner the same responsory is modulated thus: 'Holy and immaculate Virgin Mary, with what praises shall I extol you, I know not, for whom the heavens could not contain, you bore in your bosom. V. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.'
That antiphon which is sung on the vigil of the same Lord's Nativity: 'When the sun shall have risen from heaven, you shall see the King of kings'; in some manuscripts it is written: 'proceeding from the Father as a bridegroom from his chamber,' although that phrase 'from the Father' has been erased by more recent writers; for God, the Son of God, did not proceed from God the Father as a bridegroom from his chamber, but in the Virgin mother he united human nature to himself, and thus from the Virgin's womb he proceeded as a bridegroom from his chamber.
Therefore it is more correctly sung: 'You shall see the King of kings proceeding from the Mother as a bridegroom from his chamber.'
10. On the O Antiphons of Advent
10. Now, though in a somewhat inverted order, it is fitting to examine those antiphons which begin with the letter O for the purpose of inviting the Lord, and thus proceed in the order of that same letter. For as was established by the holy Fathers, that most desirable advent of the Lord was established in the number of three weeks before the Lord's coming, which are prescribed and preordained with various antiphon melodies for each day. But also three offices were established for the individual Sundays of the three weeks, and because the same period of the Lord's advent is accustomed to extend from the fifth of the Kalends of December up to the Nones of the same month, from those days which remain over from the fourth week -- one or two days or three, or sometimes a full week -- it pleased the arranger of the antiphonary to compose matins praises for each night in that fourth week, when it tends to have extra days, and to arrange antiphons for vesper praises to invite God, beginning from Sunday and reaching up to Friday.
The first antiphon begins thus: 'O Wisdom, who came forth from the mouth of the Most High,' it concludes: 'Come to teach us the way of prudence'; the second, 'O Adonai'; the third, 'O Root of Jesse'; the fourth, 'O Key of David'; the fifth, 'O Dawn, splendor of eternal light'; the sixth, 'O King of nations'; the seventh, 'O Emmanuel,' all of which are closed at the end with that word 'come.' These I took care to note so that it might be openly understood that these alone are those which appear to be regularly and correctly composed to pertain to inviting the Lord's coming. But those that are modulated in imitation of these, whether they agree in meaning and words, let those who wish see and understand.
In that antiphon which is sung on the Octave of the Lord: 'A wondrous mystery is declared today,' we find written: 'natures are renewed'; and I cannot wonder what those natures may be that are said to have been renewed. For God, begotten from the substance of the Father before the ages, born as man from the substance of a mother in time, appeared among men as true God and true man, subsisting in two natures, that is divine and human, and in one person. Whence we read thus in a certain synod held in the city of Seville: 'If therefore anyone should refuse to believe and proclaim either two natures or one person in our Lord Jesus Christ, or if anyone should refuse to confess him to be both God and man, that is, the Word incarnate from the Virgin Mary, truly born for our salvation, he is so reproved by the catholic faith and shown to be a stranger, as to resist the sacrament of human redemption as an ingrate. It appears therefore that the divine nature exists as invisible, impassible, immutable, and could neither be changed, nor restored, nor renewed: but the true God, Son of God, assumed human nature in the unity of person without division or mixture, and on the wood of the cross redeemed, restored, and renewed us: and through this, renewal pertains to the nature of man alone, and therefore it could more rightly be said: 'Nature is renewed'; as it pleases some: 'The Renewer of nature, God was made man.'
That responsory: 'In the form of a dove the Holy Spirit was seen, the Father's voice was heard: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,' where it ends and concludes, some add: 'Listen to him,' which voice was not heard at the baptism, but on the mountain, where the Lord was transfigured, it was uttered by the Father, and therefore it should not be joined to this responsory.
11. On the Office of Septuagesima
11. Now therefore it seems necessary to treat something concerning the solemnity that is entitled Septuagesima, which begins at vespers and, contrary to ecclesiastical custom, ends at matins. For all festivities that are established to be solemnly celebrated are accustomed to begin from the prior vespers, and proceed through the nocturnal and morning hours through the regular courses of the entire day, and so reach the second vespers. But this one alone, as was said above, begins at vespers and barely reaches the morning hours. From this it is conjectured that some, attracted by the sweetness of melodious praise, placed this end point for the alleluia modulation. Whence the author of this nocturnal office is criticized by some, because without the testimony of Sacred Scripture he strove to weave such a musical narrative, addressing the alleluia itself as if it were some person. But we do not wish to be silent about those things which we have recognized to have been taken in some way from the authentic Scriptures.
For in the book of Judges we read that a certain man addressed his son-in-law, who wished to depart, thus: 'Consider that the day is declining toward sunset and is approaching evening, stay with me today as well, and spend a joyful day, and tomorrow you shall set out, to go to your house.' On the occasion of this sentence, he began thus to say to the alleluia: 'Stay with us today' and the rest that follows. In the book of Wisdom we read: 'O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory! for its memory is immortal, because it is known both with God and with men. When it is present, they imitate it and desire it; when it has departed, it triumphs crowned forever.' And in the same book: 'Good delight in the works of her hands, honesty without failing.' And we read that Tobit said to his wife about their son: 'For I believe that a good angel of God accompanies him and arranges well all things that happen around him, so that he may return to us with joy.' That responsory: 'May your years be multiplied by the Lord,' we believe was written from the Proverbs of Solomon on the occasion of this saying: 'Hear, my son, and receive my words, that the years of your life may be multiplied; I will show you the way of wisdom, I will lead you through the paths of equity.' Likewise that responsory which we sing: 'Alleluia; a good name is better than great riches,' we similarly find in the Proverbs of Solomon. But the rest, excepting those composed from the psalms, from what places of Scripture they may be found I have not yet discovered.
Therefore it would seem to me more correct that the chant of the alleluia itself should begin on Friday at vespers, and be celebrated through Saturday, and be finished at vespers with the Alleluia chant in praise of the Lord. For this I put forward according to what I feel, not prejudging the wisdom of others, whom I know to be zealous in the praise of God. The fact that some wish to place those responsories which are positioned in order after the Lord's resurrection, which begin thus: 'If I should forget you,' on this Sunday night which is entitled Septuagesima, seems to me to lack reason, because, if the author of the Antiphonary had first wished them to be sung at that time, he would certainly have written them there and not placed them after Easter.
In that reading taken from the book of Ecclesiasticus, which begins thus: 'In all things I sought rest,' a certain verse in some manuscripts reads thus: 'Like cinnamon and balsam giving fragrance'; but in some: 'Like cinnamon and asphalt I gave an aromatic odor.'
That responsory: 'Our salvation,' which is sung in Lent, some conclude thus: 'That we may serve you in safety'; but it is more correctly sung, as it is found in Genesis: 'May your mercy look upon us, that we may serve the King in safety.'
12. On Responsories Whose Verses Do Not Correspond
12. Therefore now it pleases me to turn my pen to those responsories with which their verses do not at all agree, but greatly differ in meaning and words.
To that responsory: 'Hail, Mary, full of grace,' they fit this verse: 'Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, eternal gates'; since those gates, and those princes, and those eternal gates which are commanded to be lifted up, pertain more to other persons than they suit the holy Mary ever virgin: and because the Angel said to Mary: 'Hail, Mary, full of grace,' she in the verse, asking, answered: 'How shall this be, since I do not know man'; and the Angel answering said to her: 'The Holy Spirit.'
R. Behold the Lord will come. V. Behold the Lord will come with power, and the kingdom is in his hand, and authority and dominion. Over all.
R. Jerusalem, you shall plant a vineyard. V. Exult, daughter of Zion, Rejoice, Jerusalem, Arise, Zion.
R. Bethlehem, city of the Most High God. V. He shall speak peace to the nations, and shall have dominion from sea to sea. And there shall be peace.
R. Receive the Word, Virgin Mary. V. You shall indeed bear a son and shall suffer no loss of virginity; you shall become pregnant and shall be always a virgin untouched. That blessed.
R. Egypt, do not weep. V. Behold the Lord of hosts, your God, shall come in great power. To deliver.
R. The Lord shall descend like rain. V. And all kings shall adore him, all nations shall serve him. He shall arise.
R. Behold the root of Jesse. V. The Lord shall give him the throne of David his father. And he shall be.
R. The Lord will teach us his ways. V. Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob. Because.
R. Sound the trumpet. V. Announce in the ends of the earth, and in the islands which are far off, say: Behold God.
R. Virgin Israel, return. V. With everlasting love I have loved you, therefore I have drawn you, having mercy. For salvation.
R. I have sworn, says the Lord. V. My salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed. And the covenant.
R. Cry out in strength. V. Go up upon a high mountain, you who evangelize Zion, raise your voice in strength. Behold God.
R. A star shall arise from Jacob. V. And all kings shall adore him, all nations shall serve him. And it shall be for all.
R. The Lord shall go forth. V. And he shall be exalted above all the hills, and all nations shall flow to him. And they shall stand.
R. The forerunner enters for us. V. He himself is the king of justice, whose generation has no end. High priest.
R. The nations shall see. V. And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of the kingdom in the hand of your God. And it shall be called.
R. Root of Jesse. V. Over him kings shall hold their mouth shut, the nations shall beseech him. And he shall be.
R. Congratulate me. V. All generations shall call me blessed. Because.
R. She holds in her bosom. V. He who had troubled his mother is carried in maternal arms, angelic leaders surround him in procession. Through whom.
R. They were opened. V. For the death which the Savior deigned to suffer for all, that one was the first to render back to the Savior. And therefore.
R. He who conquers, I will make him. V. To the one who conquers I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God. And.
R. The Magi come. V. We saw his star in the East. And we came.
R. Almighty, to be adored. V. I confess you with my lips, with my heart, I desire you with all my being. Because.
R. Most joyful Agatha. V. Born of the noblest birth, she was led rejoicing by a base man to prison. And as if.
R. Alleluia, while present. V. In her friendship there is good delight, for her memory is immortal.
R. It shall be for me. V. If I shall return prosperously to the house of my father. Tithes.
R. Hear, O Israel. V. Observe therefore, and hear my voice, and I will be an enemy to your enemies. And.
R. I was made a reproach. V. They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue, and with words of hatred they surrounded me.
R. O Judas. V. In body alone you reclined with the diners, and your mind was armed with the fury of envy. And of peace.
R. Jesus rising. V. On the first day of the week therefore, when the doors were shut where the disciples were gathered, Jesus came, Jesus stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace.
R. These are the lambs. V. In the sight of the Lamb they are clothed in white robes, and palms are in their hands. Now.
R. From the mouth of the wise. V. Wisdom rests in his heart, and prudence in his speech. As a honeycomb.
R. He spoke. V. And he lifted me up in the spirit to a great and high mountain. And I saw.
R. This is Jerusalem. V. Its gates shall not be closed by day; for there shall be no night in it. Q.
R. Let not your heart be troubled. V. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate. And.
R. Before I formed you. V. I placed my words in your mouth. And before.
R. Forerunner of the Lord. V. For this is the prophet.
R. My servant. V. I will free you from the hand of the worst, and I will rescue you from the hand of the mighty.
R. O Hippolytus, if you believe. V. If, he says, you match deeds to words, I will do what you urge, to whom blessed Lawrence said. And.
R. This is the man. V. They bound the limbs of his body placed on a grill; as they put coals beneath, the levite of Christ mocks them. Q.
R. In the sight of the nations. V. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing well to him in jubilation. A.
R. O blessed man. V. With eyes and hands always intent on heaven, he did not relax his unconquered spirit from prayer. Q.
R. O blessed Cecilia. V. Blessed are you, virgin and glorious, and blessed is the word of your mouth. Who.
R. Glorious virgin. V. With a hairshirt Cecilia tamed her limbs, she implored God with groans. And.
R. With a hairshirt Cecilia. V. Not for days nor ever from divine things. Tiburtius.
R. Blessed Cecilia. V. For just as the love of God made your brother my spouse, so it made you my kinsman. Q.
R. Cecilia sent me. V. Finding the poor, Valerian said: Show me the holy Urban.
R. He loved Andrew. V. The Lord chose him and made him honorable. Whom.
R. You heard, Lord. V. Lord, you who keep covenant and mercy with your servants, who walk before you in their whole heart. Ble.
R. Lord, if they turn back. V. If your people sin against you and turn back and do penance, and come and pray in this place. Del.
R. The beginning of wisdom. V. Love of it is the keeping of the laws, for all wisdom is the fear of the Lord. Praise.
R. I ask, Lord. V. All your judgments are just, and all your ways are mercy and truth. N.
R. It is time. V. Bless God, O heavens, and confess to him before all the living. And.
R. Lord, almighty king. V. Hear, Lord, my prayer, and turn our mourning into joy.
R. Hope in no other. V. Lord, God of heaven and earth, look upon our lowliness. Q.
R. Yours is the power. V. Creator of all, God, terrible and strong, just and merciful.
R. You, Lord of all. V. You, Lord, to whom the prayer of the humble and meek has been pleasing. Con.
R. I will break the chains. V. I will return to Jerusalem in mercy, my house shall be built in it. E.
R. By your impregnable wall. V. Rescue us by your wonders and give glory to your name. Deliver.
R. This city. V. Let your fury be turned away, Lord, from your people and from your holy city. Hear.
R. You who contain the heavens. V. For we do not pour forth prayers before your face by our own justifications, but by your many mercies. Hear.
13. On Verses That Become Cheap Through Overuse
13. Among these things it should be known that, although certain verses agree with their responsories, nevertheless from their excessive frequency, with which they are too often placed, they become in a way cheap and cause weariness, such as: 'God will come from Lebanon'; 'from the rising of the sun'; 'you who rule Israel,' and many of this kind. Whence we have not only placed those verses which we were able to find in the more correct Antiphonaries for the sake of correction, but have also taken care to note other newly composed verses in place of the earlier ones.
That verse which pertains to that responsory which is sung 'in the sweat of your face,' which begins thus: 'Because you obeyed the voice of your wife, more than mine,' that is, you should have obeyed my voice rather than the voice of your wife. That verse: 'And when Reuben had gone to the pit and had not found him,' is modulated by some as: 'And having torn his garments'; but the conjunction 'quae' is superfluous there, and it is more regularly said: 'Having torn his garments, going to the brothers, he said.' Some sing 'more than me'; but it is more correctly said 'more than mine.'
There remains yet one responsory which it seems to me should not be passed over, which begins thus: 'When the Lord was walking in paradise'; to which is appended the verse: 'Lord, I heard your hearing and I was afraid.' And there is added what is found in the prophet Habakkuk: 'I considered your works and was terrified,' when more correctly that phrase should follow which is read in Genesis: 'Lord, I heard your hearing and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.' Nor should it be passed over that God sought lost man in the breeze after midday and found him naked. At midday the sun is accustomed to be more fervent, and afterward to decline into the breeze. The first man fell away from the fervor of the Sun of Justice, when he did not remain in the love of the Creator; he declined into the breeze after midday when he fell into the guilt of treachery. But let us, burning with divine love, always proceeding clothed in the wedding garment, seek the heavenly Bridegroom at midday, saying with the bride: 'Show me whom my soul loves. Where you feed, where you rest at midday,' so that remaining in the fervor of twofold love, we may always rejoice exulting with Christ.