Young—Ordo Prophetarum. 
79 
Omnes de Saba venient aurum et tus deferentes, et laudem Domino 
annuntiantes. 
Confunduntur 
Convertuntur 
iMaiestatis aethere. 
Omnes gentes 
Non credentes 
Peperisse virginem 
Since for our present purpose the interest of this liturgical piece 
is somewhat subsidiary, I deal with it only briefly. It is a troped 
form of the Epistle for the Mass of Epiphany: among the sentences 
of the Vulgate (Isa. lx, 1-6) are distributed metrical compositions 
in the nature of embellishments of the orthodox liturgical text. 27 
It will be observed that the trope begins with the Gloriosi et famosi, 
and consists of stanzas virtually every word of which we have al¬ 
ready encountered in one version or another of the Ordo Prophet- 
arum. That this trope is in some way related to the prophet-play 
is further apparent in the intrusive summons Isaias, die, de Christo 
quid prophetizas? 
The question arises, then, as to whether this trope is one of the 
sources of the Ordo Prophetarum, or is itself under the influence of 
the dramatic tradition. That the latter relation is the valid one 
is suggested, in the first place, by the uniqueness and late date of 
the text before us. In order to influence the development of the 
Ordo Prophetarum it would have been necessary that this Epistle- 
trope be in existence and be well-known as early as the eleventh 
century, the date of the Limoges Ordo Prophetarum, for this 
dramatic text contains substantial passages that are identical with 
passages in the trope. 28 That fact that the editors of Analecta 
Hymnica have discovered only one text of the trope, and that this 
text is relatively late (fourteenth century), seems to show that the 
trope can scarcely have had sufficient age or repute for serving 
as a source of the prophet-play of Limoges. 29 
Further indication that the trope is not a source of the prophet- 
27 1 follow Blume in printing the liturgical Epistle itself in italics. 
28 See above, pp. 25-31. In the trope are found also the following passages of 
the Limoges text: Omnes gentes . . . per ordinem; Est necesse . . . 
est spiritus (filius) Dei; Et vos (Omnes) gentes . . . peperisse virginem. 
29 The Beverend H. M. Bannister, who contributed the trope under considera¬ 
tion, was complete master of the trope manuscripts of Western Europe, as one 
may infer, for example, from his list of troparia in Analecta Hymnica, Vol. 
XLVII, pp. 22-25. 
