And thus confess the Son;
For Thee, from both the Holy Ghost,
We praise while time shall run.
In this connection we mention the Veni, Sancte Spiritus, the other great pentecostal hymn
of the middle ages. It is generally ascribed to King Robert of France (970–1031), the son and success
or of Hugh Capet.^487 He was distinguished for piety and charity, like his more famous successor,
St. Louis IX., and better fitted for the cloister than the throne. He was disciplined by the pope (998)
for marrying a distant cousin, and obeyed by effecting a divorce. He loved music and poetry,
founded convents and churches, and supported three hundred paupers. His hymn reveals in terse
and musical language an experimental knowledge of the gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit
upon the heart. It is superior to the companion hymn, Veni, Creator Spiritus. Trench calls it "the
loveliest" of all the Latin hymns, but we would give this praise rather to St. Bernard’s Jesu dulcis
memoria ("Jesus, the very thought of Thee"). The hymn contains ten half-stanzas of three lines
each with a refrain in ium. Each line has seven syllables, and ends with a double or triple rhyme;
the third line rhymes with the third line of the following half-stanza. Neale has reproduced the
double ending of each third line (as "brilliancy"—"radiancy").
Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
Et emittee coelitus
Lucis tuae radium.
Holy Spirit, God of light!
Come, and on our inner sight
Pour Thy bright and heavenly ray!
Veni, Pater pauperum,
Veni, dator munerum,
Veni, lumen cordium.
Father of the lowly! come;
Here, Great Giver! be Thy home,
Sunshine of our hearts, for aye!
Consolator optime,
Dulcis hospes animae,
Dulce refrigerium:
Inmost Comforter and best!
Of our souls the dearest Guest,
Sweetly all their thirst allay;
In labore requies,
In aestu temperies,
In fletu solatium.
In our toils be our retreat,
Be our shadow in the heat,
Come and wipe our tears away.
O lux beatissima,
(^487) A few writers claim it for Pope Innocent III.