Over the next four weeks as we prepare for and celebrate the season of Advent, I would like to offer translations and versifications of four sequences appearing in the Sarum rite (1) marking the four Sundays of the season. My interest in sequences has grown as I have been exploring how the established texts of particular liturgies were embellished and enriched by later texts arising from meditative reflection on the established texts. (2)<\/p>\n
My source for these Sarum sequences is Charles Buchanan Pearson, Sequences from the Sarum Missal, with English translations<\/em> (London: Bell and Daldy, 1871), though I have also consulted F[rederick] E[dward] Warren, The Sarum Missal in English<\/em> (London: A. Moring Ltd, 1911) which employs Pearson\u2019s versifications. These sources concur that the sequence was chanted after the Gradual and Alleluia. (3)<\/p>\n The following first presents the Latin text with a slavishly literal translation by yours truly below each line; Pearson\u2019s versification (4) of the text follows. \u00a0Please note that I am quite conscious of my limitations as a Latinist, so if any would want to correct my base translation I would be grateful.<\/p>\n Salus eterna, indeficiens mundi vita, Mox Tua spontanea gratia assumens humana Tu animas et corpora Adventu primo justifica; Compti stola incorrupta Perhaps in support of his theory that Sequences arose out of the prolongation of the melody on the \u201ca\u201d syllable concluding the chanted \u201cAlleluia,\u201d Pearson notes: \u201cSequences during the Sundays in Advent\u2026furnish specimens of those ending in A in each verse, — a rule, however, rarely without exception; nor does it appear always possible to divide them into lines consisting of the same number of syllables.\u201d (5)<\/p>\n Thou for ever our salvation, Grieving for man\u2019s loss impending, In our flesh Thy glory veiling, Grant, O Christ, Thine expiation, By Thy first humiliation When in glory manifested As for this sequence exhibiting \u201cmeditative reflection on the established [official liturgical] texts,\u201d it seems to me more an engagement with the season of Advent itself rather than a poetic elaboration of particular nuances of the scriptural readings assigned to this Sunday. Both the pre-Vatican Roman rite and the Sarum use seem to employ the same texts assigned as Epistle (Romans 13:11-14) and Gradual [Psalm 24\/25; 2 \u2013 3) but diverge on the Gospel assigned to the celebration: Matthew 21:1-9 for the Sarum use and Luke 21:25-33 for the Roman Rite. Perhaps some communities of either tradition might wish to sing Pearson\u2019s versification of the Sarum sequence for the First Sunday of Advent to a familiar 88.87 hymntune as part of their Eucharistic worship or in the Divine Office.<\/p>\n ENDNOTES<\/p>\n (1) Or \u201cSarum use\u201d or \u201cUse of Salisbury.\u201d This collection of liturgical texts and ceremonies is a variant of the Roman Rite, probably established by St. Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury and Richard Poore in the 11th C. Used throughout southern England, becoming common to most of England, Wales, Ireland and (at a later period) Scotland until the reign of Queen Mary I in the 16th C, it influenced the Anglican liturgy as found in the Book of Common Prayer<\/em>. I presume that some influences from the Sarum rite are also found in the present orders of worship employed by the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, created by the Vatican in 2012 for people nurtured in the Anglican tradition who wish to worship in communion with [Roman] Catholicism.<\/p>\n (2) For a helpful overview of textual, musical and performance issues connected with the singing of the sequence see David Hiley, Western Plainchant: A Handbook<\/em> (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993) 172-195.<\/p>\n (3) \u201cThe reading of the Epistle being ended, the \u2018Gradual\u2019 and \u2018Alleluia\u2019 were chanted; during which, to add dignity to the reading of the Gospel,\u2026a procession was formed, consisting, according to Sarum use, of the deacon bearing the \u2018text\u2019 [a book of the four Gospels, beautifully bound, and used, not to be read from, but as a \u2018Pax\u2019 for the faithful to kiss], preceded by a thurifer, candle-bearer, and cross-bearer, and the subdeacon carrying the book out of which the deacon was to read the Gospel. The passage of the procession from the altar, and its ascension to the pulpit or rood-loft, occupied some minutes, and, to avoid a break in the chanting between the Alleluia and the Gospel, the final \u2018a\u2019 of the Alleluia was prolonged by a run or cadence, called a \u2018Neuma,\u2019 extending sometime to nearly a hundred notes.\u201d Pearson, Sequences<\/em>, v-vi. Pearson espouses the theory that the Sequence arose as texts were assigned to the \u201cNeuma\u201d so that the melody might be more easily remembered (but cf. Hiley for alternative theories).<\/p>\n (4) \u201cI have not thought it necessary to endeavor to reproduce the double rhyme of the original, which, however suitable to the genius of the Latin language, unavoidably fetters the choice of words at the command of an English translator, reducing him either to acquiesce in a periphrasis or a weak word to serve the rhyme, or to sacrifice the latter in order to give vigour and truth to the translation. It seemed to me best to accept the latter alternative.\u201d Pearson, Sequences<\/em>, viii-ix.<\/p>\n (5) Pearson, Sequences<\/em>, 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Advent, I would like to offer translations and versifications of four sequences appearing in the Sarum rite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":44088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3117,41,19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-scholarship-new-ws","category-episcopalanglican-liturgy","category-mass","category-liturgical-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nEternal health\/salvation, unfailing life of the world,<\/em>
\nLux sempiterna, et redemptio vere nostra,
\nLight everlasting, and truly our redemption:<\/em>
\nCondolens humana perire saecla, per tentantis numina,
\nGrieving that the ages of human history be lost through the wiles of the Tempter,<\/em>
\nNon linquens excelsa, adisti ima propria clementia.
\n[Yet] not leaving behind the [heavenly] heights, You came down with Your mercy.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nSoon by your voluntary grace taking up human nature,<\/em>
\nQuae fuerunt perdia, omnia salvasti terrea,
\nThat had been laid waste, you have saved all earthly things<\/em>,
\nFerens mundo gaudia.
\nBringing joys to the world<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nO Christ, make expiation for<\/em>
\nNostra, Christe, expia,
\nOur souls and bodies<\/em>,
\nUt possideas lucida
\nSo that You might be master of<\/em>
\nNosmet habitacula.
\nBoth us and our radiant dwellings<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nBy [your] first Coming, justify [us]<\/em>;
\nIn secondo nos libera;
\nIn [your] second [Coming], free [us],<\/em>
\nUt cum, facta luce magna,
\nSo that, the great light having been created<\/em>,
\nJudicabis omnia;
\nYou will judge all things<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\nHaving been adorned with incorruptible clothing,<\/em>
\nNosmet tua subsequamur mox vestigia quocumque visa. Amen.
\nMay we and yours soon follow your footprints to whatever place is shown. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThou the life of all creation,
\nThou our hope of restoration,
\nThou the never-failing Light;<\/p>\n
\nBy the tempter\u2019s wiles pretending,
\nCamest down Thine aid extending,
\nLeaving not the starry height.<\/p>\n
\nAll on earth, in ruin failing,
\nThou didst save by might prevailing,
\nBringing joy to all our race.<\/p>\n
\nUnto us Thine own creation,
\nTake us for an habitation,
\nCleansed for Thyself to grace.<\/p>\n
\nGrant us, Lord, justification;
\nWhen again in exaltation
\nThou shalt come, O set us free.<\/p>\n
\nThou the secret heart hast tested,
\nIn unsullied robes invested
\nMay we closely follow Thee!<\/p>\n