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THEODORE OF STUDIUM
CHAPTER I.-
CHAPTER II.-
CHAPTER III.-
CHAPTER IV.-
CHAPTER V
CHAPTER VI.-
CHAPTER VII.-
CHAPTER VIII.-
CHAPTER IX.-
CHAPTER X.-
CHAPTER XI.-
CHAPTER XII.-
CHAPTER XIII
THEODORE'S PLACE IN CALLIGRAPHY AND HYMNOGRAPHY
THOSE who have realized the
great variety of interests which claimed Theodore’s attention, the restless
energy of his mind and character, and the depth and extent of his influence,
during life and after death, will not be surprised to find traces of his
activity in other spheres than those peculiarly his own. If he had never been
made prominent in his relations with Church and State, or earned fame as a
theological protagonist and a monastic reformer, he would still have been a
person whose services to the art of writing and the art of versifying merited
the attention of the palaeographer and the historian
of literature.
We have already seen how
Theodore, and Abbot Plato before him, gave much time and labour to the copying of manuscripts. In his funeral oration on Plato, Theodore
remarks both the zeal which his uncle had shown in collecting books, to the
great enrichment of “the monasteries under us” (i.e. Studium, Saccudio, and others on the islands or the coast
opposite) and his beautiful writing as copyist. “What hand ever drew out the
letters more artistically than his, or who ever showed more diligent care in
writing?”. Similarly Theodore’s own hand was said by Naucratius to be elegant.
One of his biographers says “of which books there remain to us still some
beautiful copies, written with his own hand”. In one of his letters, he
expresses the pleasure and comfort he finds in the work of writing. Further, in
all the accounts we have of Studium, both in the Lives of Theodore and in the
collections of Rules, we see how important a place was held by calligraphy in
the work of the monks. The regulations and penalties by which they were bound
were decidedly severe. A man who broke his pen in a fit of temper had to
prostrate himself thirty times. Copyists of Studium had to mind their stops,
and to keep their manuscripts clean, on pain of a hundred and thirty prostrations.
It is noticeable that the
Studite monk particularly commended by his biographer for swiftness and elegance
in handwriting is that Nicolas who was, as we have seen, the constant companion
of Theodore in his longest and severest exile, and in all probability wrote
many of his letters for him. As might be expected, the art was carried on in
the monasteries which were founded from Studium, and looked to it as their head
and fountain. Provision was made for calligraphy in the various rules of the
Athos Monasteries which have come down to us. The witness of ancient records
agrees with that of modern researchers who, in quite recent times, have reaped
a rich harvest of manuscripts from the regions under Studite influence.
But there is a more definite point, and one of great interest, in the
services rendered by Theodore to the art of writing, and consequently to the
dissemination of learning. Just at his time, and, we cannot help suggesting,
greatly under his influence, a new form of writing was being elaborated, which
in neatness, elegance, and practical usefulness, far exceeded that which had
gone before. This was the Minuscule writing,
which had gradually superseded the earlier uncial before the middle of the
ninth century. It has been shown by various researchers that this character was
not a new invention, but the adaptation to literary purposes of a style already
in common use for informal writing. Most unfortunately for our present purpose,
there are very few manuscripts of the late eighth and early ninth centuries
that can be definitely dated. But if we consider together the immense amount of
writing of an epistolary kind done by Theodore himself; the great pains he
devoted to the art of writing; the number of books copied by his hand or under his direction and placed in the libraries of
the Studite monasteries; and above all, the exquisite specimens of minuscule
writing which, in the two following centuries, were actually subscribed by
monks from Studium or from Mount Athos, the probability that Theodore had great
part in the elaboration of this hand amounts almost to a certainty. And our
confidence is confirmed by our knowledge that Plato acquired his handwriting
in an office of the Imperial Treasury, and our strong suspicion that the same
was the case with Theodore, though even if he did not, it was under his uncle’s
influence and guidance that he first set to work as a copyist. Now it was in
writings from the Imperial Treasury that the regular minuscule hand first
appears. In Sir E. Maunde Thompson’s “Palaeography”, there is an extract from an imperial letter
dated 756 A.D., as to which that author remarks : “In this specimen of the
writing of the Imperial Chancery, most carefully written, we have the prototype
of the minuscule literary hand of the ninth century. Making allowance for the
flourishes [Plato's " tails" ?] permissible in a cursive hand of this
style, the letters are almost identical”.
Of the general character of the early minuscule writing, Sir E. Maunde Thompson writes: “The writing of the period of the codices vetustissimi, of the ninth century and to the
middle of the tenth century, as far as is shown by surviving examples, is very
pure and exact. The letters are most symmetrically formed; they are compact and
upright, and have even a tendency to lean back to the left. Breathings are
rectangular, in keeping with the careful and deliberate formation of the
letters. In a word, the style being practically a new one for literary
purposes, the scribes wrote it in their best form and kept strictly to the
approved pattern”. Further on he says, “the writing of this first division of
the minuscule literary hand is subject to so little change in its course that
it is extremely difficult to place the undated MSS. in their proper order of
time”.
No doubt uncial writing was
simultaneously practised at Studium, since that hand
continued in use for some time in service books. But the minuscule was
eminently better fitted for multiplying copies of treatises on topics of
current interest, and for stocking the libraries of the ever multiplying
monasteries in works of scriptural, patristic, and secular lore. It seems by no
means impossible that in South Italy, whither a good many monks had fled before
their persecutors, an impulse was given to calligraphy which came originally
from Studium. But without venturing on any disputable ground, we may safely
affirm that the work of the Studites, and pre-eminently of Theodore himself,
in developing a new style of writing, both useful and beautiful, and employing
it in the multiplication and dissemination of books, accomplished a great
work, the fruits of which we have not even now entirely gathered.
An analogy may be
suggested—but not pressed into details—between the changes then taking place in
the art of versification and that of handwriting. Theodore and his immediate
friends and followers seem in both to occupy a transition stage, and—at least
in the case of verse-writing—to show skill in the old and also in the new
method.
We have already mentioned
the verses which Theodore wrote on the parts and the offices of his monastery.
They are generally in iambic metre with a few
elegiacs, and arc on the whole decidedly graceful and pleasing. As may be seen
from a few rough translations appended to this chapter, while written in a light
vein, they show all the intensity of Theodore's nature, and his stern
conceptions of life and duty. Thus his best wish for his dormitory is that it
may not prove conducive to over-much sleep. Guests, however courteously
received and entertained, are warned not to distract the monks with gossip
about the outside world. Monks who walk abroad to see to the business of the
monastery are enjoined to keep their eyes downcast and to return as soon as
they can. Yet, as in the Catechesis, the ascetic tone is relieved by a
strain of joyous activity, a sense of the dignity of the meanest labour, a certain hope of reward hereafter for all the
toils of the present.
Along with these verses
specially written for Studium, we have a number of epigrams of different kinds
: addresses to various saints and to various churches; lines on the sacred
images, especially on one votive piece of stuff with a picture on it; the
epitaph already cited on Irene the Abbess and some others; a sketch of the
character of a recluse; a friendly address to the place of his captivity; a
disciplinary charge to himself. Of Theodore as poet, Krumbacher says : “He not only fills a gap; it was especially due to him that the art of
Epigram, which in the dark days from the middle of the seventh to the end of
the eighth century, had fallen into desuetude, was recalled to life, and by skillful
application to things of present interest, made worthy of continued existence”.
The large number of manuscripts containing Theodore’s epigrams shows their wide
dissemination.
But it was not by any work
of a classical form, intended only for educated society, that Theodore’s
poetical achievements became the possession of his church and people.
In the voluminous metrical liturgies of the Eastern Church there are a
great number of sacred songs attributed to Theodore. By the middle of the
eighteenth century, Theodore’s other works had been studied and admired by some
learned Benedictine monks who felt puzzled and perhaps scandalized by these
productions. They found it impossible to make them scan. A good deal of
conscientious labour was wasted in their attempts.
They had faith in Theodore’s learning and they knew that he could write
iambics and even hexameters. Why should he not have written classical odes? But
these odes of his were not to be explained without a clue that the Benedictines
did not possess.
This clue was not discovered till more than a century later, when
Cardinal Pitra, during what he regarded as a
captivity among barbarians,—a sojourn in North Russia—turning over the leaves
of an ancient service book in his cell, and endeavoring to make out the
significance of certain red marks, lit on the secret of the hirmus and troparia, which, when once
recognized, found ample confirmation in the expressions, hitherto but partially
understood, of Byzantine grammarians.
The fact is that the poetry
of the Greek Church had, before Theodore’s time, come to be measured, not by
quantity, but by accent and by number of syllables. The manner in which the
change came about is not a matter on which all are agreed, but the main cause
is evident, that the differences between long and short sounds had ceased to be
articulately conveyed in ordinary speech, whereas the tonic accent had become
as clear and predominant as among us now. Why this should have happened is a
further question which may be left to the student of phonetics and of their
history. The fact itself is undoubted.
Here a natural question
arises : how did it happen that as quantity declined and accent came to the fore,
a new system was required rather than a modification of the old? Why did not
accent simply step into the place of quantity in regulating the order of words
in the ancient measures? We are familiar enough, in English, with hexameters
based on accent, and when we read modern iambics, we hardly realize that
originally iambics went by quantity. Why should not the Greeks have adopted a
scheme of verse in which syllables of greater and less value succeeded one
another according to ancient rules, but having that value determined by accent,
not, as previously, by quantity?
The answer to this question
is not easily to be found. It is to be observed, however, that to a certain
extent, and in some kinds of poetry, the process above indicated was actually
gone through. There was a long struggle between quantity and accent before they
finally separated their respective fields. In Theodore’s Iambi, to go no
further for illustrations, we often find in place of a long syllable a short
one with an accent. But in lyric poetry, or at least in that of the Church, the
old metres were lost. Some investigators have here
seen traces of the influence of Hebrew poetry on the early Church, but this
influence is exceedingly problematic. Others have thought to find only a
rhythmic prose, analogous to those Canticles from Holy Scripture which formed
the earliest of church hymns. Others, again, have hoped against hope to find
reminiscences of classical measures. The whole subject is bound up with that of
church music, since it was the necessity of accommodating words to melody or
melody to words that led to the new system.
Now the discovery of Cardinal Pitra was
briefly this : that generally speaking, in Greek hymns after the sixth century,
we can discover a model verse, not necessarily at the beginning of each hymn,
with a certain number of lines varying in length and number, and following
this a series of verses which correspond with the model pretty exactly in the
number of syllables in each line and in the positions of the accents. The model
verse is the hirmus,
those that follow are the troparia. This we
perceive from the explanation, previously misunderstood, of Theodosius of Alexandria
: "If one wishes to make a canon he must first melodies his hirmus, and then
bring up the troparia,
equal in syllables and alike in accents to the hirmus, and according to one
scheme. Of course, not all Greek hymns are canons. The canon, in fact, was a
collection of hymns or odes, properly nine in number, corresponding to the nine
Scripture canticles. But to compose a canon you must make odes, and to make an
ode you must choose a model from some accepted writer or make one for yourself.
You may use considerable freedom in forming it, but when it is once formed, in
all the succeeding verses you must closely follow your pattern.
If we could apply the
terminology and the process to English psalmody, we might take as an example
one of the paraphrasists of the twenty-third psalm.
He took as his model the verse or stanza :—
“The Lord my shepherd is;
I shall be well supplied.
Since he is mine and I am
his
What can I want beside?”
In the succeeding verses he was bound to follow the first, since each
was bound to consist of: (1) a line of six syllables and three accents ; (2) a
line exactly similar; (3) a line of eight syllables and four accents; and (4) a
line like (1) and (2). Apart from any consideration of rhyme (which, though
not unknown, is not yet of any importance in Greek poetry), a choir would have
to hear the whole four lines before knowing how the tune was to run. The four
line& would then constitute the hirmus and the succeeding verses would be troparia. The
analogy is very imperfect, since in English psalmody the hirmi or models are comparatively few, whereas in Greek they were many in number and
various in form. One early hymn-writer, Romanus, who seems to have been a
master of his craft, composed a large number, which were freely adopted by
others. Thus we find an indication of the hirmus frequently recurring with metrical changes in the Greek liturgies, just as
in English hymn-books there is sometimes given the name of the tune to which
the hymn is to be sung. Romanus doubtless exercised considerable influence over
Theodore, though Theodore was quite equal to the task of making new hirmi for himself, and often did so.
The characteristics of the
new form have varied greatly—like most other forms of verse—according to the
powers of those who used it and the taste of those among whom it became
popular. If dull and mechanical it may become empty and wearisome. If used to
express great thoughts or powerful feelings, and manipulated by artists who
know how to “build the lofty rhyme” it becomes both dignified and pathetic in
the recurrence of its manifold series of similar yet varying sounds.
In some modern Greek monasteries, travellers have heard liturgic odes which have confirmed Pitra’s theory as to the essential character of Greek hymno-graphic rhythm. M. Edmond Bouvy cites a hymn to the Virgin sung in the monasteries of Mount Athos in which the
relation of troparia to hirmus is
made very clear, and he ironically observes that though a hymn in seventy
verses all exactly alike is tedious even to a pious soul, it affords an
excellent opportunity of ascertaining the laws of its metre.
But generally the case is far less simple. No student may hope with Pitra’s key to unlock all at once the elaborate doors of
Byzantine metre. In the first place, though the
principles of “isosyllabism” and “homotony”
(if we may coin abstract terms from the expressions of Theodosius) hold good
within limits, yet we cannot expect to find the accents always recurring with
perfect regularity on corresponding syllables in every troparion.
Then again the accents themselves are misleading, since we have to distinguish
the tonic stress accent from that which was merely grammatical, and possibly by
that time existed for the eye, not for the ear. Furthermore it may be necessary
to have recourse to accents which are discerned by the ear and not marked for
the eye, as in some polysyllabic words, which may have a secondary as well as
the principal accent, the former only being written in. And to maintain the
rule as to syllabic equality, we have to allow a good deal for the elision, diaeresis, or synseresis of vowel
sounds. Then again, as we have said, the hirmus to which most of the troparia answer
need not come at the very beginning of the ode. There may be a prelude or procemium, and in all elaborate Greek liturgies there are
a number of verses intercalated which bear various names according to their
position and purpose. The subject is one which requires special and close
attention. All that is attempted here is to obtain some light on the kind of
measure and harmony which we are to expect in the Church hymns written by
Theodore and the other Studites. For—as we shall have to show later on—Theodore was not the only hymn-writer of his monastery. His brother Joseph practised the art, and probably there were others similarly
employed in that generation, as there certainly were in those that come after.
We have already said that
one of the Church “canons”,—a series of nine odes—purporting to be by Theodore,
which is printed with his other works, is almost certainly not by him. It
commemorates the Restoration of the Icons, and contains expressions of
exultation over John, Antony, and the other iconoclast bishops, which would, at
any time in Theodore’s life, have been highly premature. The other canon is on
the Adoration of the Cross, but seems to have been composed for Easter. The
poems collected by Cardinal Pitra are generally in honour of various saints, but there is one of exceptional
interest to be sung at the burial of a monk. The ode consists of thirteen
stanzas which (except the first, which is a prelude, apparently borrowed) contain
each eight lines besides the refrain at the end. Most of the lines are of
eleven syllables and three accents, but the sixth is a long rolling one of
fourteen syllables and five accents. The form seems well adapted to convey the
ideas, always powerful with Theodore, which the occasion calls forth: the
tragedy of the sudden change; the human cry after the departed friend; the
longing desire for some communication from the unseen world; the triumph of the
self-renouncing life; the solemn warning, here put into the mouth of the dead
monk himself, of the vain and transitory nature of all things mortal; the final
hope, not unmixed with fear. We have the spirit of the Catechesis clad in poetical garb.
If we read Theodore’s
religious poems, paying attention to the accents and trying to forget
quantities, we become aware of a kind of melody that, if the words were suited
to adequate music, might have an impressive, if somewhat monotonous effect. One
feels that such melody might well have charmed the ears and the soul of
Charlemagne as he listened to the music brought to his Court from far away. And
one may be inclined to regret that at least one fruit of the Greek mind in its
later days has been lost to posterity, or has at any rate failed to obtain due
recognition from those whose lives are devoted to Hellenic studies. For though
it is a product of what is in some respects an age of decay, it is instinct
with vigorous life. Critics may differ as to whether Theodore's classical
epigrams or his Church hymns are better as literature. Probably he bestowed
equal care on both, and he may not have realized the difference between them.
But the former were probably intelligible to few—in fact, it probably needed a
non-natural pronunciation to make them intelligible to anybody—and the latter
became so absorbed in the voice of the Church as to sound familiar in the ears
of many who knew not whence they had come.
The connection between
controverted doctrine and popular hymnody seems to have been very close in
early times. Arius had sought to make his views acceptable to the Alexandrian
boatmen by embodying them in attractive song. We have seen how an addition to
the Trisagion had once aroused
dangerous tumults in Constantinople. Similarly it seemed natural that in the
Iconoclastic Controversy Theodore had to refute the poems (as the phrase went)
of his opponents, and employed his leisure in making acrostic verses against
them. And when the cause of orthodoxy triumphed, the hymns of the Studites
acquired ascendency. If a versifier were to be judged by his weakest
performances, we might set Theodore down among the controversial poetasters of
a feverish age. But if the power to utter words that touch the deepest veins of
human nature and that express the never-ceasing laments and aspirations of man
in dignified and melodious sound, belongs only to the real poet, then we may
well give the name to Theodore, since his work, amid some hay and stubble,
shows here and there pure gold.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XIII
RENDERINGS INTO ENGLISH OF SOME OF THEODORE’S POEMS
(In translating Theodore’s
Iambics, I have merely attempted to give a general notion of the meaning and
character of the pieces through the medium of English blank-verse, the accepted
equivalent for this classical measure. In dealing with the Church hymns, I have
endeavored to follow as far as possible the metre of
the original as to accents and number of syllables. The result is necessarily
very inadequate, owing partly to the poverty of the English language in natural
dactyls and anapaests.)
I. IAMBICS
To THE DOORKEEPER
Be diligent, my child, and
wait in fear
On this thy task. Here is
God’s entrance-gate.
Attend with caution, and
with care reply.
Repeat and utter only what
is fit.
Be silent on whate'er might evil work
To those within, without,
our brethren here,
And strangers there. Open
and shut with care.
Grant to the poor his boon.
Or give good words.
Thus when thou goest hence, thy meed is sure.
TO THE KEEPER OF THE INFIRMARY
Oh blessed task, to bear
the sick man’s load !
That work is thine, my child. Then labour well,
In diligence and zeal to
run thy course.
When daylight dawns, stand
thou by every couch,
To minister to each with fitting
words,
And then to bring the
timely gift of food,
To each what suits him best,
as reason bids;
Each one belongs to thee.
Neglect him not,
Thus shall thy service reap
a rich reward,
Light unapproachable, the
joy of Heaven.
TO THE SEWERS OF LEATHER
A noble art is his who
works the shoes,
Tis like the Apostle’s.
Seek to emulate
The zeal of Paul, who sewed
the leather skins.
Welcome the daily task
appointed you
As Christ's own workmen,
thinking still of Him.
Cut well the leather,
follow well your art,
Make old things new, and
work the new aright.
Throw nought away, and waste not by misuse,
In negligence, if all is
not the best;
Nor cut too close, but find
the proper mean.
Thus doing all things
fitly, ye shall win
The race, accomplishing the
martyr's course.
THE DORMITORY
O Thou who givest sleep, and ease from toil
To those whom daylight calls to labour still,
Grant Thou to me, 0 Christ,
Thou Word of God,
Sleep light and gentle,
swift to come and go,
And pure from fancy visions
profitless,
But Riled with dreams of
all things fair and good.
Then rouse me up, what time
the clapper sounds,
Alert and sober, fit for
sacred song.
Set well my feet to praise
Thee while I go,
From evil spirits keep my
spirit free,
And purify my tongue to
harmony,
To sing and magnify Thy
glorious might;
That rising early after
perfect rest
I may behold the light of
Thy commands.
II. CHURCH HYMNS
HYMN FOR THE BURIAL OF A
MONK
(Scansion
different—probably an older verse adopted by Theodore.)
Gone from things
transitory, piously departed.
He rests in peace with the
righteous ones,
0 Christ, who art God,
E'en if as man he
has sinned with us upon the earth,
Thou who art sinless, lay
not to his charge
What he willingly did amiss
And what unwillingly;
So prays the Mother who
bore Thee.
Thus may we join all our
voices as we sing for him
Our Alleluia.
Troparion I
Passing strange is the
sight and the mystery
For he breathes not, my
comrade of yesterday,
And the voice that was
speaking it speaketh not,
And the eye that beheld, it beholdeth not.
Each of his members is
silenced.
His decree hath God sent
out against him as 'tis written,
And no more will he come to
his place of old,
Where we mortals are
singing and sounding the strain
Our Alleluia.
Troparion II
As a son of the day thou
art gone afar,
But for us there are tears
for the loss of thee,
As we think of the graces
adorning thee,
All thy love, all thy zeal,
all thy gentleness.
We keep thy glories in our
memory.
On thy shoulders thy cross
didst thou carry still in patience,
And didst follow the Lord
on thy earthly way,
Wherefore come, and to God
let us sound forth the strain,
Our Alleluia.
Troparion III
Tell me now, worthy friend,
what I ask of thee,
Tell me where thou dost
dwell who art snatched away ?
With what souls has thy lot
been appointed thee ?
Hast risen to the regions celestial
?
Hast thou attained to the
things thou hopedst for ?
Hast thou found an abode in
the shining light ? 0 tell me
Where the choirs of the
living make melody,
As the shout of their
triumph goes up to the Lord,
Their Alleluia.
Troparion IV
For thy voice it was
pleasant to hearken to,
Thy converse was gentle and
courteous,
Thou wert brother beloved
of the brotherhood,
Loving good, hating evil,
and pitiful;
The truth thou spokest in sincerity,
With no craft in thy tongue
to resist the Lord's commandment.
But on all men thy face
looked in kindliness,
And for this he will love
thee who sings to the Lord
His Alleluia.
Troparion V
Thou hast gone through thy
conflict of holiness,
Thou hast finished thy
course in obedience,
Though hast passed through
the trenches, 0 valiant one,
Of all lustful desire thou
art conqueror,
And to shame hast thou put
the Evil One,
And in meekness thy neck
hast thou bowed beneath thy shepherd,
And excelled in thy humble
obedience,
And for this will he love
thee who sings to the Lord
His Alleluia.
Troparion VI
Yet we seem in the spirit
to look on thee,
And to see thee as still
with us sojourning,
When together we joined in
our harmony,
Working our God-given work
in piety;
Work that delighted all our
hearts to do ;
And we fervently long for
thee our sometime companion,
But our wishes are vain,
for we find thee not,
With whom fain would we
sing as we raise to the Lord
Our Alleluia.
Troparion VII
For a dream is our life and
a vanity,
This thou knewest, for God had instructed thee,
Thou hast left thy parents
at his word to thee,
And thy brethren and
companions and family,
80 great was thy desire for
the Lord himself,
All the world and its glory
didst thou esteem as nothing,
And instead thou hast life
for eternity,
And for this he will love
thee who sings to the Lord
His Alleluia.
Troparion VIII
Yet thou seemest to speak to us hearkening,
0 my brothers attend to the
word I say
'Tis the hour,
come and fight while the strife is on,
Now is the day, there is
work to do
Now ere the stadium is
closed to you,
0 beloved, give diligence
Belial to conquer,
That the glory from Christ
may redound to you,
And a song shall ye sing to
the praise of the Lord,
Your Alleluia.
Troparion IX
O how pleasant the life ye
have chosen you!
0 how sweet 'tis to dwell
in a brotherhood!
For the Saviour himself has
commended it,
When he spake by King David in psalmody.
Rejoice then, brethren, in
all joyfulness
In obeying your shepherd
and each one loving other,
And your passions send far
and spurn away,
That your song may resound
with the praises of God
Your Alleluia.
TroparionX
Yet
a word would I say in farewell to you,
O my brothers, no longer you look on me,
And
my voice never more shall be heard of you,
Till
the Judge gives his sentence concerning me.
That
day so terrible when we mortals
Shall
present ourselves trembling before the throne Eternal,
Whence
each soul shall receive all its recompense,
And
the living shall sound forth the praises of God,
Their
Alleluia.
Troparion XI
Great
the terror and fear all surrounding you,
Hasten
then, wait not, zealously all of you,
In
obedience ever directing you,
Let
the law be your rule and accomplish it.
For
Satan lurketh like a lion hid,
And
he roars as he seeks for the prey of spirits living,
By
hardness with meekness rise victorious,—
That
ye all may sound forth to the praise of the Lord
Your
Alleluia.
Troparion XII
We
have heard all the things thou hast said to us:
Since
to thee has the Ruler seemed pitiful,
For
us all do thou evermore supplicate,
That
receiving instruction we go our way,
And
fight and labour in all discipline,
That
our shepherd may bear his rule over us in wisdom
And
that God may give grace to us each and all,
That
we all may sound forth to the praise of the Lord
Our
Alleluia.
ON THE CRUCIFIXION
Triodion, for Friday of Third Week in Lent
'Twas a skull the name had
given
To
the place where they crucified thee, Christ,
The
Jews, their heads they wagged at thee
In
laughter and in contumely.
Thou
didst endure it,
To
deliver us all.
On
the Cross they wrote a title,
And
the tongues of the superscription three ;
On
Thee, one of the Trinity.
And
Thou must suffer, Pilate said,
As
thou wert willing,
To
deliver us, Christ.
Of
the Trinity in glory
The
triple light the faithful shall adore.
As
Light the Father worshipping,
As
Light the Son they glorify,
As
Light the Spirit
They
proclaim in their song.
HYMN
FOR SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY
Part of a Canon
Day
of terror, I behold
Now Thine appearance, glory unuttered,
Fearfully
I look for the judgment to come,
Now
Thou art enthroned
Quick
and dead will now be judged,
Lord
God who art omnipotent.
When
Thou comest, 0 my God,
There
will be thousands, there will be myriads,
Princes
of the Heavens in attendance on Thee;
And
me wilt Thou summon.
I must
come before Thy face
O Christ in all my
wretchedness.
Come
and take to thee, my soul,
Take
all the terror, think of the judgment,
When
we all shall see that the Lord is at hand,
Lament
in thy mourning;
Thus
in purity be found,
And
bear the test appointed thee.
Now
the fear doth quell my soul
Of
fires of Hell that never are quenched,
Worm
that doth not die, and the gnashing of teeth.
But
save and deliver
And
appoint to me, 0 Christ,
A
place with Thine elected ones.
'Tis Thy voice, ever adored,
Which
doth Thy saints to their glory summon
Joyfully;
that voice shall I hear, even I,
The
feeble one, finding
Of
the Kingdom in the Heavens
The
blessedness unspeakable.
Enter
not, I would beseech,
In
judgment, reckoning my transgressions,
Searching
all my words, taking count of intents;
But remembering mercy,
Overlooking
all my faults Save me,
O
Thou Omnipotent.
CHAPTER XIV
FINAL RESULTS OF THEODORE’S CONFLICTS
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