The "Minnesänger" of the thirteenth century—among whom Gottfried of Strassburg and
Walther von der Vogelweide are the most eminent—glorified love, mingling the earthly and
heavenly, the sexual and spiritual, after the model of Solomon’s Song. The Virgin Mary was to
them the type of pure, ideal womanhood. Walther cannot find epithets enough for her praise.
The mystic school of Tauler in the fourteenth century produced a few hymns full of glowing
love to God. Tauler is the author of the Christmas poem, —
"Uns kommt ein Schiff geladen,"
and of hymns of love to God, one of which begins, —
"Ich muss die Creaturen fliehen
Und suchen Herzensinnigkeit,
Soll ich den Geist zu Gotte ziehen,
Auf dass er bleib in Reinigkeit."^643
The "Meistersänger" of the fifteenth century were, like the "Minnesänger," fruitful in hymns
to the Virgin Mary. One of them begins, —
"Maria zart von edler Art
Ein Ros ohn alle Dornen."
From the middle ages have come down also some of the best tunes, secular and religious.^644
The German hymnody of the middle ages, like the Latin, overflows with hagiolatry and
Mariolatry. Mary is even clothed with divine attributes, and virtually put in the place of Christ, or
of the Holy Spirit, as the fountain of all grace. The most pathetic of Latin hymns, the "Stabat mater
dolorosa," which describes with overpowering effect the piercing agony of Mary at the cross, and
the burning desire of being identified with her in sympathy, is disfigured by Mariolatry, and therefore
unfit for evangelical worship without some omissions or changes. The great and good Bonaventura,
who wrote the Passion hymn, "Recordare sanctae crucis," applied the whole Psalter to the Virgin
in his "Psalterium B. Mariae," or Marian Psalter, where the name of Mary is substituted for that of
the Lord. It was also translated into German, and repeatedly printed.^645
"Through all the centuries from Otfrid to Luther" (says Wackernagel),^646 we meet with the
idolatrous veneration of the Virgin Mary. There are hymns which teach that she pre-existed with
God at the creation, that all things were created in her and for her, and that God rested in her on
the seventh day." One of the favorite Mary-hymns begins, —
"Dich, Frau vom Himmel, ruf ich an,
In diesen grossen Nöthen mein."^647
Hans Sachs afterwards characteristically changed it into
"Christum vom Himmel ruf ich an."(^643) Wackernagel, II. 302 sqq.; Koch, I. 191.
(^644) Meister and Bäumker, in the Katholische deutsche Kirchenlied in seinen Singweisen, give a collection of these catholic tunes, partly
from unpublished manuscript sources. They acknowledge, however, the great merit of the Protestant hymnologists who have done the
pioneer work in mediaeval church poetry and music, especially Winterfeld and Wackernagel.
(^645) Wackernagel, in his Biblogr., p. 454 sqq., gives extracts from an edition printed at Nürnberg, 1521.
(^646) II p. xiii.; compare Nos. 222, 226, 728, 870, 876.
(^647) Wackernagel, II. 799 sqq., gives this hymn in several forms. It was sung on the feast of the Nativity of Mary, and at other times.