408 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2«4 S. IX. May 26. 'CO. 



were reverently Imagined, which might safely be 

 addressed to Her; It is unjust to designate such 

 an attempt, — whatever maybe thought of it as 

 matter of taste and judgment, — as an " appalling 

 substitution." F. C. H. 



The authorship of this hymn is usually ascribed 

 to St. Ambrose, as it would seem, on the faith of 

 a passage in the Chronicle which bears the name 

 of Dacius of Milan. This author relates that 

 when Augustine was baptized and confirmed in 

 the name of the holy and undivided Trinity by 

 Ambrose, in the presence of all the faithful of the 

 city, they (Ambrose and Augustine), under the 

 infiuence of the Holy Ghost, pronounced the 

 words of the Te Deam before the multitude. 

 This account is repeated or referred to by St. 

 Gregory in his Dialogues, and others. The genu- 

 ineness of Dacius's Chronicle is, however, fairly 

 called in question. An ancient Breviary refers 

 the hymn to St. Abundius. The first who men- 

 tion it are St. Benedict and Teridius, a disciple 

 of Csesarius of Aries. A manuscript Psalter in 

 the Vatican calls it a hymn of St. Sisibutus, and 

 Usher speaks of one in which it is attributed to 

 St. Nicetius. All these facts are stated by Car- 

 dinal Bona in his treatise De divina Pscdmodia 

 (Paris, 1678, p. 505.). Other opinions have been 

 advanced, but it is probably quite impossible to 

 say who was its real author ; it may, however, 

 be safely referred to the fifth century, that is to 

 say in its present form. 



My own opinion is, that the hymn is not wholly 

 original, but the recognised Latin representative 

 of hymns which existed in Greek at an earlier 

 period. I will briefly state my reasons for this. 

 It is well known that the primitive Christians 

 were accustomed to sing hymns to Christ as God 

 in Bithynia, as we gather from the testimony of 

 Pliny. Eusebius quotes a writer who says the 

 Christians sing hymns to Christ the Word of God, 

 calling him God. Paul of Samosata put down 

 hymns in honour of the Lord Jesus Christ. The 

 Apostolical Constitutions contain two such hymns. 

 A writing ascribed to Athanasius quotes one of 

 the same. Other ancient references might be 

 added. I will confine myself to one, which exhi- 

 bits this "hymn to Christ as God" in its fullest 

 form, if we except the well-known later additions. 

 I allude to what is called the Morning Hymn, 

 which is to be found at the close of the Psalms 

 in the Alexandrine Codex in the British Museum. 

 This MS. was written, I suppose, not later than 

 a.t>. 450, and perhaps somewhat earlier ; it was 

 written, therefore, nearly at the time when Am- 

 brose is Commonly believed to have composed the 

 Te Deum. The Morning Hvmn is beyond ques- 

 tion more ancient than the Te Deum, and is mani- 

 festly not in its simplest and shortest form in the 

 Alexandrine MS. It seems to consist of three 



principal portions, the first and second of which 

 conclude with the word "Amen." The copy I 

 follow is printed in Grabe's Septuagint, at the 

 end of the Psalms, ed. 1709. 



On comparing the Morning Hymn with the Te 

 Deum, it will bo observed that the Latin wants 

 the first three lines of the Greek, and the whole of 

 the third principal section. A collation of the 

 rest of the Morning Hymn with the Te Deum 

 convinces me that the Latin is an imitation of the 

 Greek. They correspond throughout in senti- 

 ment, and to a great extent in expression. The 

 resemblance is too striking to be the result of ac- 

 cident. Leaving out the first three lines, which 

 are copied from Luke ii. 14., the Greek com- 

 mences, " We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we 

 worship Thee, we glorify Tljee, we give' thanks 

 to Thee, ibecause of Thy great glory.' The Tri- 

 sagion, or "Holy, Holy, Holy," clause is not there, 

 because it was not added until a later date, in the 

 time of Theodosius Junior. In the next clause 

 we have an address to the Father, Son, and Holy 

 Ghost, as in the Te Deum. This is very import- 

 ant in connection with the question of interpo- 

 lations discussed in your pages recently ; for if 

 my theory be correct, it is almost demonstrated 

 that the passage objected to was a part of the 

 original' Te Deum. No theory of casual resem- 

 blance Will meet this case, and, added to what 

 your other correspondents have adduced, I re- 

 gard it as conclusive. The next clauses of the 

 Greek and of the Latin commemorate the solva- 

 tion of Christ, implore his mercy, and recognise 

 his session at the rjght hand of God. Here the 

 first section of the Morning Hymn ends, and the 

 second begins " Every day will I bless Thee, and 

 praise Thy name for ever and ever, and world 

 without end." No one will doubt the resemblance 

 here. It continues, " Vouchsafe, O Lord, that 

 even this day. we may be kept without sin." The 

 rest of the Te Deum consists of quotations from 

 the Psalms, and so is the Morning Hymn. The 

 Greek is sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, 

 but is a less elaborate and artificial composition 

 than the Latin, which, notwithstanding the old 

 faith of its inspiration, is beyond question a copy 

 where it is not an imitation. B. H. C. 



BRASS OF JOHN FLAMBARD AT HARROW. 



(2 nd S. ix. 179. 286. 370.) 



I have to express my acknowledgments to F. 

 C. H. and other correspondents who, on my sug- 

 gestion, have endeavoured to explain the sepul- 

 chral enigma at Harrow : — 



" Jon me Jo raarmore Nujninis ordine Flam tum'lat' 

 Bard q°3 veibere stigis E fuu'e hie tueatur." 



And I beg to assure F. C. H., from a rubbing 

 now before me, that every letter is correctly 



