VENI CREATOR
841
VENI CREATOR
ho two cliapfors; he rcducerl the nmnlirr of parish
hiirchos from seventy to thirty. The work of eii-
irging the choir of the basilica brought to light the
plies of St. Mark (1808). In 1811 Napoleon intruded
ito the See of Venice Stcfano Bonsignore, Bishop of
'acnza, but in 1814 that prelate returned to his own
Be. In 1818 the Dioceses of Torcello and t'arolc wen-
lerged in that of Venice, while the dioceses of the
'enetian territory were placed under its metropohtan
jrisdiclion. Cardinal Giuseppe Sarto, afterwards
'ius X, succeeded in 1893; he was refused recognition
y the Italian Government, which claimed the right
f nomination formerly enjoyed by the Emperor of
lUstria and in earlier times by the Venetian Senate,
ut after eleven months this pretension was aban-
oned.
The suffragans of Venice are Adria, Belluno and 'eltre, Ceneda, Chioggia, Concordia, Padua, Treviso, 'erona, and Vicenza. The diocese contains 4.5 par- ihes (32 in the city), about 160 churches, chapels, tc; 250 secular and 280 regular priests; 12 houses of lale and 32 of female rehgious; 150,000 souls; 5 istitutcs for boys and 15 for girls. It has one Jatholic dailv (La Difesa) and two weekUes.
Caren Hazlitt, The Venetian Repuhlic (New York, 1900); [oLMENTi, tr. Brown, Venice, Us Inilividual Growth (London, )06); MOXNIER, Venice in the Eighteenth Century, tr. (London, )10); Brown, Life on the Lagoons (London, 1894); Rcskin, he Stones of Venice (2nd ed., '.i vols, with illustrations by the ithor, London 1856-67; New York, 3 vols, in 2, 1885) : Plan of enice in Bartholomew, Tourist's Atlas Guide to the Continent vondon, 1893); Cappelletti, Le Chiese d' Italia, IX; Idem, 'oria delta Chiesa di Venezia: Flaminius Cohnelips, Eeelesice eneta ei Torcellensis antif^uis monumcntis illustratm (Venice, '49) : Sabellico, DfH' /ii :,'-;! ,,', , , (Venice, 1558); QuiHi.Ni s*D GRADENiao, Tiara •■{ , i Brescia, 1761); Holl,
isserlatio de patriarchatu \ ■ ■ II;. Ilicrg, 1776); Romainin, 'oria doc umentata di Ven€:>n .\rrj ■■, 1 ^Titi-GO); CANXfJ, Venezia
Slorie minari, II (Turin, lsr,4); Daru, Hist, de le Rfp. de enise (Paris, 1821) ; voN Zwiedeneck-Sudenhorst. Venedig s Weltnacht u. Weltstadt (Bielefeld, 1906); Kretschmatr, Geseh.
Venedig, I (Gotha, 1905); Matin, Stctria civile e politica del mmcrcio dei Veneziani (Venice, 1798-1808); Tafel and BOMAS, Urhunden zur alteren Handels . . . u, Staat-gesch. enedigs (Vienna, 1856-58): Thomas and Predelli, Diploma- rium Vencto-Levantinum (Venice, 1880, 1899) ; Franco, Mada-
- n.a, and Morchio, Tarole sinnottiche nummografiche delta
puhlica di Venezia (Venice. 1878); Paoletti, Architettura e •uUura del rinascimenla (3 vols., Venice, 1893); Trotto Cam- irin, Venezia net presente e net passato (Padua, 1902) ; Zanotta, oria delta pittura veneziana (Venice, 1837) ; Yriarte, Venice 'aris, 1878); Zeno, Memorie di scrittori veneti (Venice, 1774); )SCARI^^, Delta tetleratura veneziana (Venice, 1854). Cf.
rchivio Vencto (1876 ); Monumenti storici (pub. by the
eputazioni Veneta di Storia Patria, 1881 ).
U. Benigni.
Veni Creator Spiritus, "the most famous of t'mns" (Frere), is a-ssigned in the Roman Breviary 1 Vespers (I and II) and Terce of Pentecost and iroughout the octave. The Church also sings it at ich solemn functions as the election of popes, the in.secration of bishops, the ordination of priests, the ■dieation of churches, the celebration of synods or luncils, the coronation of kings, etc. It is also sung
the more private devotions attending the opening id closing of the schola,stie year in institutions of arning. The Congregation of Rites decreed (20 me, 1899) that the Eastertide doxologj' (Deo Patri \ gloria — Et Filio qui a morttiis — Surrexit ac Para- ito — In sa-culorum saculal should alw.ays be used, ) matter what the fea-st or sca.«on of the year might ■. The Vat ican Graduale (1908) gives t he older te.xt ttestation of which does not go back beyond the nth century) and also, under the heading ".secun- im usum recentiorem", the present Breviary text, hich is a revision, in the interest of classical pros- ly, of the older text, by the correctors of the Bre- ary under Urban VIII. The doxologj' of the older xt (which is probably not original with the text ielf) is: "Sit l.ius Patri cum Filio — Sancto simul iraclito — N'obisque mitt at Filius — Charisma Sancti jiritus". This doxology is generally associated with e hymn "Beata nobis gaudia". It is unneces.sary
indicate here the points of revision, since the print-
ing of both texts in the Vatican Graduale makes com-
I)arison easy. Hymnologists think the revision
uncalled for.
Dreves (Analecta HjTnnica, L, 195) places the hjTun in the section he devotes to Rabanus RIaurus (d. 856), Abbot of Fulda and Archbishop of Mainz, and shows (p. 194) the importance of the manuscript evidence in his favour. I>ere (Introduction to Hymns Ancient and Modern, historical edition, p. x.xii) thinks the hymn can "with some confidence" be ascribed to him; as does also Blume (1908). Added support of the ascription is found in the scansion of the line "Qui Paracletus dicitur" (revised into "Qui dicitur Paraditus"), where, in accordance with prece- dent found in Rabanus, Pnrncliiits is accented on the penultimate syllable, as against the almost uni- versal medieval custom of accenting it on the ante- penultimate, an illustration of which is found in the third line of the doxology (which is not part of the original hymn). Gueranger, with many others, ascribed the hjinn to Charlemagne, but with slight ground except his zeal for the doctrine of the Proces- sion of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son. The legendary story of Ekkehard V contains its own refu- tation. The hymn has also been attributed to St. Ambrose and to St. Gregory the Great, but without real evidence for either ascription. No ancient writer ascribes it to St. Ambrose, nor can a good argument be based on its inclusion of two lines (Infirma nostri corporis — Virtute firmans perpeti) from the "Veni Redemptor gentium" (which is certainly by St. Am- brose) or on the phrasal similarity of its two lines "Accende lumen sensibus — Infimde amorem cordi- bus" with the line "Infunde lumen cordibus" of the hymn "O lux beata Trinitas" (which is probably by St. Ambrose). Borrowing from celebrated hymns was a common jiractice of medieval hjinnodists. Mone ascribes it to St. Gregory because of its classical metre and occasional rhymes, and especially its prayerfulness, which he declares is a feature of St. Gregory's hymns; and the scansion of Paracletus (with the accent on the penultimate) he considers referable to the learning of such an author.
The hymn was probably first assigned to Vespers. One eleventh-century manuscript has it at both Lauds and Vespers, two others have it at Lauds. Its use at Terce is said to have begim at Cluny — a highly appropriate assignment, as it thus commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost at the third hour of the day (Acts, ii, 15). In the council held at Reims in 1049, Pope Leo IX presiding, it was simg at the com- mencement of the third session in jilaco of the ordi- nary antiphon, "Exaudi nos, Domine". It is found in several pontificals of the same century. It is the only Breviary hymn retained by the Protestant Epis- copal Church, a translation being given in the Prayer Book (Ordering of Priests). There are about sixty English versions. Warton stj'les the translation of Dryden "most elegant and beautiful". It begins:
Creator Spirit, by whose aid
The world's foundations first were laid,
Come visit every pious mind,
Come pour Thy joys on human kind;
From sin and sorrow set us free.
And make Thy temples worthy Thee.
JnuAN, DicJ. of Hgmnotoga (2nd ed., London, 1907), 1206- 1211, 1720; Dreves, Laletnisrhe H ymncnclichter des Mittet- alters, II, in Analecta Hymnica, L (Leipzig, 1907). 19.3-4 (Latin text, MS. references, additional stanzas, notes). 180-1. biographi- cal notice of Rabanus; Frere, Introduction to Hymns Ancient and Modern (hist, ed., London, 1909), p. xxii (see h.vmns Nos. 180, 181, for text and two trs., two harmonized plainsong melo- dies, modern settings and comment); Pimont, Les hymnes du bririaire romain. III (Paris, 1884), 12.5-143, extensive comment: "The other two h.vmn.s of Pentecost are mostly narrative, while the Veni Creator is entirely an address to the Holy Ghost. This characteristic trait, and the exceptional beauty of the hymn, have always made it dear and venerable to Holy Church". . . The Dominicans sing it only at Terce. Other manuscripts locate it at Matins. The ancient Ordinarium of I^on indicates
