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Catherine Winkworth

1827 - 1878 Person Name: Miss Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878 Translator of "Holy Ghost, my Comforter" in Methodist Hymn and Tune Book Catherine Winkworth (b. Holborn, London, England, 1827; d. Monnetier, Savoy, France, 1878) is well known for her English translations of German hymns; her translations were polished and yet remained close to the original. Educated initially by her mother, she lived with relatives in Dresden, Germany, in 1845, where she acquired her knowledge of German and interest in German hymnody. After residing near Manchester until 1862, she moved to Clifton, near Bristol. A pioneer in promoting women's rights, Winkworth put much of her energy into the encouragement of higher education for women. She translated a large number of German hymn texts from hymnals owned by a friend, Baron Bunsen. Though often altered, these translations continue to be used in many modern hymnals. Her work was published in two series of Lyra Germanica (1855, 1858) and in The Chorale Book for England (1863), which included the appropriate German tune with each text as provided by Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt. Winkworth also translated biographies of German Christians who promoted ministries to the poor and sick and compiled a handbook of biographies of German hymn authors, Christian Singers of Germany (1869). Bert Polman ======================== Winkworth, Catherine, daughter of Henry Winkworth, of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, was born in London, Sep. 13, 1829. Most of her early life was spent in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Subsequently she removed with the family to Clifton, near Bristol. She died suddenly of heart disease, at Monnetier, in Savoy, in July, 1878. Miss Winkworth published:— Translations from the German of the Life of Pastor Fliedner, the Founder of the Sisterhood of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserworth, 1861; and of the Life of Amelia Sieveking, 1863. Her sympathy with practical efforts for the benefit of women, and with a pure devotional life, as seen in these translations, received from her the most practical illustration possible in the deep and active interest which she took in educational work in connection with the Clifton Association for the Higher Education of Women, and kindred societies there and elsewhere. Our interest, however, is mainly centred in her hymnological work as embodied in her:— (1) Lyra Germanica, 1st Ser., 1855. (2) Lyra Germanica, 2nd Ser., 1858. (3) The Chorale Book for England (containing translations from the German, together with music), 1863; and (4) her charming biographical work, the Christian Singers of Germany, 1869. In a sympathetic article on Miss Winkworth in the Inquirer of July 20, 1878, Dr. Martineau says:— "The translations contained in these volumes are invariably faithful, and for the most part both terse and delicate; and an admirable art is applied to the management of complex and difficult versification. They have not quite the fire of John Wesley's versions of Moravian hymns, or the wonderful fusion and reproduction of thought which may be found in Coleridge. But if less flowing they are more conscientious than either, and attain a result as poetical as severe exactitude admits, being only a little short of ‘native music'" Dr. Percival, then Principal of Clifton College, also wrote concerning her (in the Bristol Times and Mirror), in July, 1878:— "She was a person of remarkable intellectual and social gifts, and very unusual attainments; but what specially distinguished her was her combination of rare ability and great knowledge with a certain tender and sympathetic refinement which constitutes the special charm of the true womanly character." Dr. Martineau (as above) says her religious life afforded "a happy example of the piety which the Church of England discipline may implant.....The fast hold she retained of her discipleship of Christ was no example of ‘feminine simplicity,' carrying on the childish mind into maturer years, but the clear allegiance of a firm mind, familiar with the pretensions of non-Christian schools, well able to test them, and undiverted by them from her first love." Miss Winkworth, although not the earliest of modern translators from the German into English, is certainly the foremost in rank and popularity. Her translations are the most widely used of any from that language, and have had more to do with the modern revival of the English use of German hymns than the versions of any other writer. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ============================ See also in: Hymn Writers of the Church

William Henry Monk

1823 - 1889 Composer of "ST. PHILIP" in The Cyber Hymnal William H. Monk (b. Brompton, London, England, 1823; d. London, 1889) is best known for his music editing of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861, 1868; 1875, and 1889 editions). He also adapted music from plainsong and added accompaniments for Introits for Use Throughout the Year, a book issued with that famous hymnal. Beginning in his teenage years, Monk held a number of musical positions. He became choirmaster at King's College in London in 1847 and was organist and choirmaster at St. Matthias, Stoke Newington, from 1852 to 1889, where he was influenced by the Oxford Movement. At St. Matthias, Monk also began daily choral services with the choir leading the congregation in music chosen according to the church year, including psalms chanted to plainsong. He composed over fifty hymn tunes and edited The Scottish Hymnal (1872 edition) and Wordsworth's Hymns for the Holy Year (1862) as well as the periodical Parish Choir (1840-1851). Bert Polman

Anonymous

Author of "Holy Ghost, my Comforter" in The Methodist Hymn-Book with Tunes In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.

Robert II, King of France

970 - 1031 Person Name: King Robert of France Author of "Holy Ghost! my Comforter!" in Lyra Germanica Robert the Second, King of France, surnamed "Le Page" and "Le Devot," born circa 970, was the son of Hugh Capet, the first of the line of kings that succeeded the Carlovingian monarchs on the French throne. After having been associated with his father in the government of the kingdom, in 988 he became king in his own right. The story of his life, rather than of his reign, is a sad one; troubles both in his family and without so multiplying upon him that it needed all the consolation that he sought and found in religion to enable him to bear up against them. Having in 995 or 996 espoused Bertha, the widow of Eades, Count of Chartres, and daughter of Conrad the Pacific, his cousin in the fourth degree (a marriage at that time strictly forbidden by the Roman Catholic Church), he was commanded by a decree of Pope Gregory V. to put her away. He was tenderly attached to her, and refused, whereupon he was excommunicated. This sentence caused the unhappy couple to be abandoned by all their courtiers, and even their servants, with the exception of two of the latter. After living together for a while in a state of sore privation, nay, almost absolute destitution, Bertha was delivered of a still-born infant, which was represented to Robert to have been a monster with “a head and neck like a goose." On hearing this (for the fond husband was but a weak and credulous man), Robert repudiated his wife, who thereupon retired into a nunnery. Subsequently, probably about 1002, he married Constance, a daughter of the Count of Aries, by whom he had four sons and two daughters. Much of the misery of his later life resulted from this marriage; for in addition to the antagonism which existed in their tastes and pursuits, Constance endeavoured to secure the kingdom for her youngest son Robert, to the exclusion of the third son Henry (Hugh, the eldest, haying died, and Eudes, the second, being an idiot), and this led to constant domestic broils which embittered the gentle king's existence. In 1024 he refused (and wisely) the Imperial Crown of the House of Saxony, when the Italians offered it to him on the death of Henry II., the last of the Saxon Emperors. Robert spent much of his time in the society of monks, assisting in the services of the Church, and engaging on pious pilgrimages. It was upon his return from one of the latter to some of the principal sanctuaries of France that he was attacked by a fever, to which he succumbed at Thelun in 1031, in the 60th year of his age and the 34th of his reign more deeply lamented by his people, to whom he had attached himself by the sweetness and simplicity of his character, than any other king, probably, who ever reigned in France. Robert had a great love for, and skill in, church music, and it is not improbable that compobitions of his are even at this day in use in the services of his Church. [Rev. Digby S. Wrangham, M.A.] It has been the custom to speak of King Robert as a hymn-writer. But when the different authorities come to specify the pieces which he is said to have composed, their statements are hopelessly at variance. For the purposes of this article we shall take four ancient authorities:— (a) and (b) In the Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, vol. x., Paris, 1760, pp. 297-300, there are extracts "ex chronico Sithiensi" (a); and also "ex chronico Alberici ad annum 997 " (b). (c) In the Junius manuscript, 121, in the Bodleian there is a list of authors of sequences, written about 1300. (d) William Durandus (d. 1296) in his Rationale, Bk. iv., has a section "De prosa seu sequentia." This occurs in two manuscripts of the 14th century in the British Museum [Add. 18304, f. 20 b; Reg. 7 E., ix. f. 53. An earlier and finer manuscript than either (Add. 31032) has unfortunately lost the leaf containing this section]. By these four authorities the following hymns and sequences are ascribed to King Robert :— 1. Chorus novae Hierusalem. 2. Rex omnipotens die hodierna. 3. Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia. 4. Veni Sancte Spiritus. 5. Victiniae Paschali. But of these a only ascribes to him No. 3, and does not mention Nos. 1,2, 4 or 5, while b ascribes to him Nos. 2 and 3, and does Dot mention Nos. 1, 4 or 5. On the other hand c ascribes to him No. 5, while No. 3 it ascribes to Hermannus Contract us, and Nos. 1, 2, 4 it does not mention at all. Lastly d ascribes to him Nos. 1 and 4, but ascribes Nos. 2 and 3 to Hermannus Contractus, and does not mention No. 5. Taking these in detail, we find No. 1 is only ascribed to King Robert by d, and seems more probably to be by Fulbert of Chartres (see p, 224, i.). No. $. seems without doubt to be by Notker Balbulus (see note on "Sancti Spiritus adsit"). For No. 5 see note on "Victimae Paschali." No. 2 is noted at p. 958, ii, and, according to the common opinion, is there ascribed to Hermannus Contractus; but this ascription is very doubtful, seeing that he d. in 1054, and was only b. in 1013, while the Bodleian manuscript 775 was written in England about 1000, so that the ascription of b deserves attention. As to No. 4 the subject of authorship is treated more fully under "Veni Sancte Spiritus," but here it may be said that Durandus and those who followed him are alone in ascribing it to King Robert, for the French tradition was clearly against this, e.g. neither a nor b ascribe it to him, and Clichtovaeus in his Elucidatorium, Paris, 1516, and the Augustinian Missal, printed at Paris, 1529, which may be taken to represent the later French tradition, while agreeing in ascribing No. 3 to King Robert, agree also in treating No. 4 as of un¬known authorship. To sum up then it seems to us that No. 2 is possibly by King Robert; that Nos. 3 and 4 are clearly not by him; and that his claim to Nos. 1 and 5 is exceedingly doubtful. The French chronicles a and b as above also ascribe to King Robert other liturgical pieces, viz.:—(1) "O Constantia martyrum," (2) "Judaea (O Juda) et Hierusalem," (3) "Eripe me," (4) " Ounctipotens genitor"(5) "Cornelius centurio," (6) "Pro fidei meritis," (7) “Concede nobis quaesumus." These appear to be Responsories and Antiphons, but whether rightly or wrongly ascribed to Robert the present writer cannot say. No. 7 is also ascribed to him by c as above. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Martin Moller

1547 - 1606 Person Name: M. Moller Author of "Holy Ghost, my comforter!" in The Lutheran Hymnary Moller, Martin, son of Dionysius Moller, mason at Liessnitz (now Kroptädt), near Wittenberg, was born at Liessnitz, Nov. 11, 1547. He attended the town school at Wittenberg and the gymnasium at Görlitz, but was too poor to go to any university. In 1568 he was appointed cantor at Löwenberg in Silesia, but in April, 1572, was ordained as pastor of Kesselsdorf, near Löwenberg. In the autumn of 1572 he was appointed diaconus at Löwenberg, in 1575 pastor at Sprottau, and in July, 1600, became chief pastor at Görlitz. He preached his last sermon, Oct. 30, 1605, and died at Görlitz, March 2, 1606 (Koch, ii. 211, iv. 552, &c). Moller's hymns appeared in his two very popular devotional books, (I) Meditationes sanctorumpatrum, Görlitz, 1584; pt. ii., Görlitz, 1591, and various later eds. This was mostly made up of meditations from St. Augustine, St. Bernard, and Tauler, selected and tr. into German by Moller. (2) Manuale de praeparatione ad mortem. Görlitz, 1593 [Library of the Prediger-Seminar at Hannover]. Wackernagel, v., Nos. 71-75, gives only 5 hymns under Moller's name. Of these No. 72 ("Heiliger Geist, du Tröster mein") is from “Veni Sancte Spiritus, et emitte " (q.v.), and No. 73, (“Nimm von uns Herr") from "Aufer immensam.” Two versions of the "Jesu dulcis memoria " have also often been ascribed to Moller, viz. "Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid", and, with less reason, "O Jesu süss, wer dein gedenkt." [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.] ----John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Christian Karl Josias, Freiherr von Bunsen

1791 - 1860 Person Name: Christian C. J. Bunsen Translator (from Latin to German) of "Holy Ghost, My Comforter" in The Cyber Hymnal Bunsen, Christian Carl Josias, Baron, Prussian Minister at Rome, 1823-1838; at Berne, 1839-1841; Ambassador to England, 1841-1854; was born at Corbach in Waldeck, 25th August, 1791; died at Bonn, November 28th, 1860. Having gained high honours in the Universities of Marburg and Gottingen, he began life as an assistant master in the Gymnasium of Gottingen, but soon quitted that post to prosecute the enquiries which he felt to be the true aim of his life, and for which he had already, at the age of 24, conceived the idea of a comprehensive plan of philological and historical research, culminating in a synthesis of philology, history and philosophy, with the application of that synthesis to religious and civil legislation. To the accomplishment of this youthful scheme it may truly be said that his whole life was dedicated; for though employed in the diplomatic service of his country fur 37 years, he unremittingly carried on his labours as a scholar, and always regarded public questions under the aspect of their bearing on the moral and religious welfare of man, governing his publications by his convictions on these points, in the pursuit of the aims thus indicated, he studied successively the languages and antiquities of the Germanic, Indo-Peraie, Semitic, and Egyptian peoples, the fruit of his investigations being enbodied in his:— (1) "Description of Borne," 1819; (2) "Egypt's Place in the World's History," 1848; (3) "Hippolytus and his Age," 1852; (4) "Outlines of a Philosophy of Cniversal History," 1854; (5) "Signs of the Times," 1855; (6) "God in History," 1857-58; and lastly his (8) "Bibel-Werk," or Critical Text of the Bible, with com¬mentaries, which he did not live to complete. The titles of these writings will indicate the fact that the studies and employments which aver came nearest to his heart lay in the direction of theology, believing as he did that the revivification of practical Christianity was the "essential condition of universal well-being"—of "the salvation of Church and State." ” It is my conviction," he says (1821, set. 29), "that all communion essentially consists in a common belief in the facts of the redemption of the human race through Christ; but when ... a congregation is to be thereby formed, three points must be considered: first, agreement by means of a theological expression of the points of faith; secondly, congregational discipline; thirdly, a common form of worship." It was for the third of these that Bunsen felt himself especially called to labour; writing in 1821:— "When I thought myself in my late illness on the brink of eternity ... I enquired what I ought to make my calling if God should prolong my life . . . and upon my theological labours I rested as the quarter in which my calling was to be sought. My thoughts were bent principally on my liturgical enquiries." In 1822 he composed the Liturgy still in use at the German Chapel on the Capitol, followed in 1833 by his Versuch eines allgemeinen evangelischen Gesang- und Gebeibuclis, containing 934 Hymns and 350 prayers. In Germany the tendency of the centuries that had elapsed since the great age of hymn-writers had been to adapt their language and modify their thoughts in accordance with modern taste till, as Bunsen says, "Almost everywhere do weo find the admirable ancient hymns driven out of use by modern ones which are feeble and spiritless." Luther's asperities of diction and metre had to be softened down, in order to fit them to be sung in an age rejecting nearly all but iambic or trochaic verses, and moreover each government, sect, or school of opinion, thought them¬selves justified in remodelling the older National Hymnody according to their own ideas, till at length little remained of their pristine rugged glory, they were defaced past recognition. Bunsen's object in his Versuch was to provide materials for a national hymn-book for the whole of Protestant Germany, irrespective of territorial, ecclesiastical or sectarian divisions. To this end he sought out the finest German hymns, and his selection includes a large pro¬portion of the best hymns in the language with no limitations of party. The success of Bunsen's work in Germany at large was attested by the rapid sale of an enormous edition, but when a reprint was called for he published instead a smaller edition of 440 hymns. The motive was his patriotic ambition to produce a handy volume like the English Book of Common Prayer, and he fondly hoped that when the volume was printed at the Rauhe Haus in 1846, it would speedily supplant the locally introduced Gesangbücher of the 18th and 19th centuries. This hymn-book has in fact been adopted for public worship by some individual congregations in Germany, and by many scattered throughout Australia, New Zealand, &c, but it never became a National Hymn-book. Bunsen was among the first to go back to the authors and their original texts, and the abridgments and alterations he made were done with tact and circumspection. Perhaps nothing, however, can better prove the high estimation in which Bunsen's first "epoch-making" work is held than the fact that his work of 1833 has been republished as:— Allgemeines Eoangelisches Gesang-und-Gebet-bueh turn, Kirchen-und-Hausgebrauch: In vollig neuer Bearleitung von Albert Fischer. Gotha, F. A. Perthes, 1881. and that this republication, or rather recast, was conducted by the first German hymnologist living. A parallel case of inability to command universal acceptance for public use on the one hand, and of renovating influence on national hymnody on the other, is that of Lord Selborne's Book of Praise. Before the date of its publication in 1862, little or no regard was paid to original texts. Since then, however, few collections have been published in Gt. Britain and America in which the principle laid down by him has not been followed with more or less fidelity. But it is not Germany alone, or even perhaps most widely, that has profited by Bunsen's zeal for hymnology: Through the medium of translations such as those of Miss Catherine Winkworth, Mr. Massie, Miss Cox, and others, many German hymns are as familiar to English and American readers as to Germans. The Lyra Germanica (of which more than 30,000 copies have been sold in England and probably as many more in America; is a household book wherever English is spoken, and few, if any, collections of hymns that have appeared in England or America since its publication have been compiled without some hymns taken from the Lyra. But no sketch of Bunsen would be complete without mentioning that he himself had no mean talent as a writer of sacred poems. Some of these pieces are given in his Biography, and one is noted under "O lux beata Trinitas." Perhaps the whole scope of Bunsen's life-work can scarcely be summed up better than in his own words written in 1817 [aet. 26]. "To study and then to set forth the consciousness of God in the mind of man, and that which, in and through that consciousness, he has accomplished, especially in language and religion." [Susanna Winkworth] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)