Gloria, laus et honor
Gloria, Laus et Honor is a Christian hymn composed and written by Theodulf of Orléans between 810 and 817, and sung as a processional for Palm Sunday, based on the story of Jesus's arrival in Jerusalem before his passion and death. It was most likely composed by Theodulph of Orléans in the early ninth century.[1] The modern English hymn "All Glory, Laud and Honour" is based on a translation of this text.
Text
Below are the words of the hymn as found in the Graduale Novum.[2]
Refrain
Glória, laus, et honor, tibi sit Rex Christe Redémptor:
cui pueríle decus prompsit Hosánna pium.
Verses
Israel es tu Rex, Davídis et ínclyta proles:
nómine qui in Dómini, Rex benedícte venis. Glória, laus
Coetus in excélsis te laudat caélitus omnis,
et mortális homo, et cuncta creáta simul. Glória, laus
Plebs Hebraéa tibi cum palmis óbvia venit:
cum prece, voto, hymnis, ádsumus ecce tibi. Glória, laus
Hi tibi passúro solvébant múnia laudis:
nos tibi regnáti pángimus ecce melos. Glória, laus
Hi placuére tibi, pláceat devótio nostra:
Rex pie, Rex clemens, cui bona cuncta placent. Glória, laus
Meter
The text is set in elegiac couplets, with each couplet comprising the traditional dactylic hexameter and dactylic pentameter. This use of this classical meter was uncommon in Christian hymn writing at the time.[3]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Gloria, Laus et Honor — A hymn composed by St. Theodulph of Orléans in 810, in Latin elegiacs, of which the Roman Missal takes the first six for the hymn following the procession on Palm Sunday (the use to which the hymn was always dedicated). The first couplet,
Gloria, laus et honor tibi sit Rex Christe, Redemptor,
Cui puerile decus prompsit hosanna pium,
is sung by chanters inside of the church (the door having been closed), and is repeated by the processional chorus outside of the church. The chanters then sing the second couplet, the chorus responding with the refrain of the first couplet, and so on for the remaining couplets until the subdeacon strikes the door with the staff of the cross, whereupon the door is opened, the hymn ceases, and the procession enters the church. The words of the refrain ("puerile decus") suggested the assignment of the hymn in the Middle Ages to boy chanters (thus at Salisbury, York, Hereford, Rouen, etc.). The hymn is founded on Psalm xxiii (Vulgate), 7-10; Psalm cxvii, 26; Matt. xxi, 1-16; Luke xix, 37-38. MEARNS in JULIAN, Dict. of Hymnology (2nd ed., London, 1907), s.v. To this list of trs. add: DONAHOE, Early Christian Hymns (New York, 1908); Missal for the Use of the Laity (London, 1903). For the legend concerning its origin, see MEARNS, loc. cit.; KAYSER, Beitrage z. Gesch. u. Erklarung der alten Kirchenhymnen (Paderborn, 1886), 313-322, full text and much comment.
References
- Back to citation Szövérffy, J., "Gloria, Laus et Honor," in New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed., 241-242, Vol. 6, Detroit: Gale, 2003.
- Back to citation Graduale Novum I: de Dominicis et Festis, Regensburg: ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft, 2011, 99-101.
- Back to citation Strittmatter, Eugene J., "Classical Elements in the Roman Liturgy," The Classical Journal 18, no. 4 (1923): 195-196, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3288702.