CAPÍTULO V TEORÍA DE LA ACCIÓN
LOS ACTOS JURÍDICOS PROCESALES Introducción
This chapter is devoted to the six hymns which have been attributed to Paul. The hymns to S. Benedict, fratres alacri pectore (ML 26), S. John the Baptist, ut queant laxis (ML 64), the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, quis possit amplo (ML 55), and Christe, decus mundi (ML 16)882 are collected together under the heading ‘Paulus Diaconus’ in volume 50 of Analecta
Hymnica, .883, which also lists manuscript sources for each of them. There are no known
manuscript sources for the two hymns, Martir Mercuri, saeculi futuri (ML 41) and salve, miles egregie (ML 57) which commemorate the translation of the relics of S. Mercurius to the church of S. Sophia, founded in Benevento by Paul’s patron, Arichis II in 768; the only known source is a book by the seventeenth-century Neapolitan physician, Petrus Pipernus.884 Martir Mercuri and the first four lines of salve, miles egregie are printed elsewhere in Analecta Hymnica.885
5.2 : Fratres alacri pectore (ML 26)
This is the only hymn of which Paul is the undisputed author; he included it in book I of the Historia Langobardorum (HL) together with the epanaleptic poem Ordiar unde tuos, sacer.(ML 46) Admittedly there are other poems in HL which are not the work of Paul886. However, since Raby considers fratres alacri pectore to be
‘…a mere paraphrase of the longer poem887 and nothing more than a catalogue of miracles from the second book of Gregory’s dialogues’888
and Heath has observed that
‘Paul’s interest in the life and thought of Gregory runs like a golden thread through his literary output’,889
Paul’s authorship of the hymn cannot be doubted.
5.3 : Christe, deus (or decus) mundi (ML 16)
882 See E. Dümmler, ed., Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini, vol. I (Berlin: Weidmann, 1881), where, this composition has the incipit Christe, deus mundi and it is printed as a continuous poem of sixteen verses, not divided into stanzas as it is in G. Dreves, ed., Analecta
Hymnica, vol.50 (Leipzig: O.R. Riesland, 1909), 124-25.
883 AH, vol. 50, 117-25.
884 Pipernus, De effectibus magicis libri sex: ac De nuca maga beneventana liber uncius (Naples: Colligni, 1634).
885 C. Blume, ed., Analecta Hymnica, vol. 52 (Leipzig: O.R. Riesland, 1909), 261. For the full text of salve,
miles egregie, see Bethmann, Leben und Schriften, 332.
886 L. Bethmann and G. Waitz ed., MGH SS. Rer. Lang., Pauli Historia Langobardorum 12-187. The epitaphs to Droctulft, Clauditur hoc tumulo (book III, c.19), and Cedoal, Culmen, opes, sobolem, (book VI, c.15).
887 That is, Ordiar under tuos, sacer.
Dümmler includes this hymn among the carmina dubia in his edition, where the words of the incipit are Christe, deus mundi. It is clear that Dümmler did not regard it as a hymn, since he did not divide it into stanzas.890 Its manuscript source is Leipzig Staatsbibliothek Rep. I, 74,s. ix or x,891 where it is the last in a sequence of six poems, all of which Neff attributes to Paul. The two which immediately precede it in the Leipzig codex are the first two of the three epigraphic poems collected by Neff under the heading ‘Andere Inschriften’.892 Neff did not include it in his edition, and in the commentary to that group of poems he concludes that, having regard to its form and content, the prayer (as he describes it) is not the work of Paul. The text as printed in
Analecta Hymnica893 is entitled ‘Oratio Vespertina’, the incipit reads Christe, decus mundi (not deus
mundi) and the hymn is divided into four four-line stanzas. There is no commentary and the critical apparatus does not mention any other source or any alternative reading for ‘deus’. However, the commentary in Citelli’s edition describes the emendation as ‘probably correct’894 and states that the reading Christe, deus mundi (instead of decus) is in a work by Haupt895, which does not address the question of the authorship of the hymn.
5.4 : Quis possit amplo famine praepotens (ML 55)
The authorship of this alcaic hymn for the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary has attracted some discussion. Bethmann says of quis possit amplo that the words of Marus896 (whom he does not further identify) to Petrus (presumably Peter the Deacon) are the only notice (Nachricht) about it.897 I translate them as:
There exists at the same time in an ancient Lombard manuscript of the rite of the Beneventan church a hymn in the Alcaic metre to be sung customarily for the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin mother of God, which is declared to have been written by our Paul.
There is no indication of the identity of ‘our Paul’. Dahn firmly denies Paul’s authorship, listing this hymn under the heading ganz unbeglaubigt und abzuprechen sind (they are insufficiently
890 PLAC I, carm. xlix, 78; cf. the hymn fratres alacri pectore, carm. iii, 41, in sixteen stanzas. 891 Neff dates it as s. ix, Dümmler as s.x;
892 Neff, Gedichte, 20. 893 AH, vol. 50, 124-25.
894 L. Citelli, ed., Paolo Diacono Opere/2, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiae Aquilensis vol. IX/II, (Rome: Citta Nuovo Editrice 2014), 381.
895 M. Haupt, Opuscula, (Leipzig: Impensis Salomonis Hirzelii, 1876), 296.
896 Petrus Diaconus, De viris illustribus casinensibus, c.8, L.A. Muratori (ed.), Rerum Italicarum scriptores, vol.6. (Milan: Muratori, 1725): 10-62.
897 L. Bethmann, ‘Paulus Diaconus Leben und Schriften,’ Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 10 (1851): 290.
authenticated and to be rejected).898 Dümmler includes it among the dubia.899 Neff ignores it altogether, as do some later commentators.900
The strongest support for Paul’s authorship is found in the commentary to the hymn in
Analecta Hymnica901, which repeats the passage quoted from De viris illustribus Cassinensis. I
translate it as follows:
This witness, which rests on local tradition, has, in spite of the added ‘ut asseritur’, its worth. The hymn, of which Peter speaks, can be only the one mentioned above (that is, quis possit amplo). The metrical licences are not such that they can exclude the song from Paul’s authorship; the prevailing appearance of the same902 in Casinese and Beneventan manuscripts supports the tradition.
It is unfortunate that the editor did not identify either the perceived ‘licences’903 or the verses of local origin in which the same ‘licences’ appeared, but even had he done so, an attribution to Paul would involve circular reasoning, in that the ‘licences’ of quis possit amplo reflect the style of the comparison verses which are attributed, or attributable, to Paul because they exhibit the same ‘licences’.
Szövérffy lists this hymn, together with fratres alacri pectore (ML 26) and ut queant laxis, as hymns which are attributed to Paul included in Analecta Hymnica, but rejects their attribution,904 He acknowledges that Dreves gave credence to it and connected ‘the above place’905, presumably Monte Cassino, with this hymn, which had been handed down since the tenth century in various manuscripts. Of the text, he notes that it begins with a rhetorical question and a topos; that the account of the Fall of Man (Sündenfalle), at v.3 (hausto maligni primis et occidit) is complicated and artificial, and that the account of Mary’s childhood years (v.8, hoc
signat aedis, ianua non patens) was in the regular sequence of the popular perception.906 It is not
apparent how any of this amounts to a reasoned argument for rejection of Paul’s authorship.
898 J.S.F. Dahn, Paulus Diaconus (Leipzig: Breitkopf and Hartel, 1876): 71. 899 Dümmler, PLAC I, carm. lv, 84.
900 M. Manitius, ‘Die universalen Schriftsteller: 41, Paulus Diaconus’ Geschichte der lateinischen
Literatur des Mittelalters, vol. 1 (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1911-31): 257-72; F.J. Worstbrock., ‘Paulus
Diaconus OSB’ in Deutsches Litteratur des Mittelalters Verfasserlexikon, Band 11, Nachträge und
Korrekturen, ed. K. Ruh, (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004), clm. 1172-86; F. Brunholzl, ‘Le Renouveau
de Charlemagne, Paul Diacre’, in Histoire de la litterature latine du moyen age, (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996), 20-29 .
901 AH, vol. 50, 123.
902 That is, the metrical licences exhibited by quis possit amplo.
903 Presumably, these licences are departures from strict classical rules of versification in Alcaics.
904 J. Szövérffy, Die Annalen der Lateinischen Hymnendichtung, tom. I-Die Lateinischen Hymnen bis zum Ende
des 11. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 1963), 186-88.
905 Ibid., 188, where Szövérffy identifies ‘Petrus von Monte Cassino’ as the source of Dreves’ attribution; therefore, the ‘obige Stelle’ is Monte Cassino.
Norberg907 has observed that both Prudentius908 and Ennodius composed alcaics and that Ennodius used the four-line alcaic strophe in his hymn Quae lingua possit, quis valeat stilus. He detects the clearly visible influence of Ennodius in Quis possit amplo and states (though without referring to any evidence whatever) that the hymn was written in the Carolingian period and widely known in the south of Italy, both of which statements are consistent with the fact that the earliest manuscript witness is Italian and dates from the ninth century. This source, identified by Dümmler as Rome, BAV Vaticanus 7172, is not mentioned in Analecta Hymnica, where the earliest of the thirteen sources listed, Casinensis 506, which also contains ut queant laxis, dates from the tenth century. All but one of the witnesses are Italian, their locations being Monte Cassino, Naples and Rome.909 Dümmler also notes that the manuscript Rome, BAV Urbinatibus 585, s. xi, contains both ut queant laxis and quis possit amplo.910
Notwithstanding Szövérffy’s observations, it is possible to argue the case for Paul’s authorship. The passage from De viris illustribus Cassinensis quoted in Analecta Hymnica names the author as ‘Paul’. Norberg detects clear influence of Ennodius and Prudentius in the hymn. Dümmler, in his footnotes to angustae vitae fugiunt, (ML 9) whose third verse reads ‘per rosulenta magis cupiunt sed ludere prata’, draws attention to Prudentius’ Peristephanon III which reads at verses 199-200 ‘floribus ut rosulenta putes / prata rubescere multimodis’.911 The inference from this apparent borrowing that Paul was acquainted with the Peristephanon is supported by Szövérffy‘s reference912 to similarities between the poetry of Paul and Venantius Fortunatus, ascribing that to the common influence on them of Prudentius. It is also plausible that Paul would have been acquainted with the works of Ennodius, who was bishop of Pavia (the site of the Lombard court at the time of Paul’s education there) in the mid sixth century. There is only one versifier named Paul known to have been influenced by Prudentius and whose works are extant, and that is Paul the Deacon.
907 D.L. Norberg, An Introduction to the study of Mediaeval Latin Verse, ed. J. Ziolkowsky, trans. G.C. Roti and J. Skubly, (Washington, D.C : Catholic University Press, 2004): 76.
908 Ibid, 76, n.96, where Norberg cites the Peristephanon, 14.
909 Dümmler, PLAC I, in the proemium, 35. The critical apparatus at PLAC I, 84, also refers to a source
identified only as Mo and this is not identified in the proemium. 910 Ibid., 35.
911 Ibid., carm. v, n.9, 43. The subject of the poem in Peristephanon is S. Eulalia of Merida, a victim of Diocletian’s persecution, who was martyred in 304.
5.5 : The S. Mercurius hymns, Martir Mercuri (ML 41) and salve, miles egregie (ML 57). 5.5.1: The initial attribution to Paul
Martir Mercuri is a hymn of ten stanzas, in the sapphic metre. Salve, miles egregie is a prayer to the same saint, which consists of six lines in iambic dimeter, two adonic lines and a final hexameter line, followed by the text of a spoken prayer, beginning with the word ‘Oremus. The Martir Mercuri commemorated by the hymn, originally known as Philopater, was born to Cappadocian parents in 225; he joined the Roman army ca 242 and his success as a commander led to him being re-named Mercurius. He is identified as ‘Mercurius m. Caesarae Cappadocie, sub Decio’,913,914 on whose orders he was executed in 250. The translation of his relics to Benevento has been recounted in both prose and verse.915
Bethmann mentions Martir Mercuri in three places. In the biographical section of his study he suggests the possibility that Paul composed it at the ducal court in Benevento.916 This reads, in translation:
Paul also made the verses, with which Arichis decorated his palaces and the church of SS. Peter and Paul; and when Arichis in 768 had the bones of the holy S. Mercurius brought to Benevento, Paul wrote for the ceremony a song of praise which is still sung in Benevento throughout the year, as with another (presumably, Salve, miles egregie)917 in the martyrdom of the Saint.
However, in the section devoted to Paul’s writings, Bethmann is more equivocal.918 He states that the only witness is ‘the most wonderful book of the physician Petrus Pipernus, De magicis effectibus’ and (again in translation):
That Paul wrote a hymn for the translation in 768, which his patron Arichis brought about, and which he himself described, is very probable; but whether it was truly that hymn, which is developed with many rich rhymes and mentions Arichis only briefly, appears at least doubtful.
913 Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina 2 vols. (Brussels, Societe des Bollandistes, 1898-1901), vol. K-Z, 866, entries 5933-5939.
914 Bibliotheca Hagiographica Graecia, 2nd edn., (Brussels, Societe des Bollandistes, 1909), 177, entries 1271-
74.
915 MGH SS. Rer.lang. s.VI-IX, 576-78.
916 Bethmann, ‘Paulus Diaconus, Leben und Schriften,’, 258. Bethmann’s text reads: ‘Paulus machte auch die Verse, mit denen Arichis in Salerno seinen neuen Palast und die Kirche S Peter und Paul verzierte; und als Arichis in 768 die Gebeine des heiligen Mercurius nach Benevent bringen liess, schrieb Paulus zu dieser Feier einen Lobgesang, der noch jetzt in benevent gesungen wird, so wie einen andern auf das Martyrtum des Heiligem’.
917 My interpolated comment.
918 Bethmann, ‘Paulus Diaconus, Leben und Schriften,’ 291. His text reads: ‘Dass Paulus zu der
Translation 768, die sein Gönner Arichis veranstaltete und selbst bescrieb, einen Hymnus gedichtet hat, ist sehr wahrscheinlich: ob es aber grade dieser Hymnus ist, mit seinen vielen ausgebildeten Reimen und der sehr kurze Erwähnung Arichis, scheint wenigstens zweifelhaft’.
Nevertheless, neither of the hymns are mentioned in the sections of Bethmann’s study devoted to prose and verse compositions of which Paul’s authorship is doubtful (Zweifelhaft, ob
von Paulus, sind), 919 or wrongly attributed to Paul (mit Unrecht wurden Paulus zugeschrieben).920.
The text of the hymns is printed, without further comment, in an appendix921. 5.5.2: The historical and contextual evidence of authorship
This evidence relates to two aspects of the question whether Paul is the author of these two hymns. The first is the likelihood of Paul choosing S. Mercurius as the subject for a hymn. The second is whether he had the opportunity to do so and how it came about. There is no doubt that the historical and contextual evidence identifies Paul as by far the most probable candidate, but (as discussed in the next sub-section) the stylistic features of Martir Mercuri point very decidedly against him, though not towards any other author. Stylistically, there is no feature of its companion piece, the much shorter salve, miles egregie, which is alien to Paul; the three metres employed in that short composition are all found in unquestionably authentic works of Paul.922 However, given that both hymns have the same subject and are clearly designed for the same occasion, while Paul may have been the author of both or neither, it is inconceivable that he was the author of only one of them.
Bethmann did not consider the possibility that Paul would have composed a hymn to S. Mercurius independently of any request from Arichis, though that could have accounted for the paucity of references to him in Martir Mercuri. Yet it is clear that S. Mercurius had connexions with Benevento dating back to the unsuccessful invasion by the emperor Constans in 663 which S. John the Baptist was also instrumental in repelling, according to the Historia Langobardorum.923 When Constans II invaded Italy after landing at Taranto in 663, he first took the Apulian city of Luceria, then unsuccessfully besieged Benevento. It was at his behest that the relics of this Mercurius were translated to Benevento from the ancient town of Aeclanum (or Quintodecimo, the mediaeval town which arose from its ruins).924 The hymn narrates that Constans II had the relics moved there at or about the time of his unsuccessful attempt in 663 to overrun Benevento. Hence, it is plausible that he did so in order to obtain the spiritual aid of the warrior saint for his campaign. However, if Paul had composed a hymn based on his account of Constans’ invasion 919 Bethmann, ‘Paulus Diaconus, Leben und Schriften,’ 319-20.
920 Ibid., 320-25.
921 Ibid., (Anhang zu Seite 291), 332-33.
922 Fratres alacri pectore is written entirely in iambic dimeter; Paul’s dedicatory letter to Charlemagne ends with ten adonic verses beginning utere felix, munere Christe, and the other metre employed in salve,
miles egregie is the dactylic hexameter.
923 Peters, ed., Foulke, trans., History of the Lombards, book V, c. vi.
as recorded in Historia Langobardorum, it would be surprising that it was not incorporated into the text, as was the hymn to S. Benedict.
The total lack of manuscript witnesses, and the fact that the hymns came to light only in a book published towards the middle of the seventeenth century which does not state their source, makes any form of dating impossible. The author asserts that:
The prayer to S. Mercurius was composed by Paul the Deacon, a monk of Monte Cassino, of most holy life, one-time secretary to Arichis, prince of Benevento.925 Now Pipernus’ description of Paul’s role as ‘quondam secretarius’ is fully substantiated in Belting’s study of the eighth-century Beneventan court.926 That study emphasises Paul’s role in the development of the centre of learning at the court,927 and refers to Paul’s writings, in particular, his denunciation of iconoclasm when Arichis became embroiled in that
controversy,928 and his authorship of the verse tituli of the frescos in the palace at Salerno and in the palatine church of SS Peter and Paul.929 However, Belting’s account of the consecration of the church of S. Sophia on 26 August 768 930 makes no reference to Paul. We may also note that, whereas there was a Beneventan Mass for the Twelve Brothers, who were translated to
Benevento in 760, there is no music commemorating the dedication of the altar of St Sophia or the translation of Mercurius’ relics to that place in 768, or the saint’s feast day.931 If no music was commissioned for any of these occasions, it may well be the case that no commemorative hymn was written for them either. We may conclude that although Paul was capable of writing a suitable hymn,932 and was present at the Beneventan court at the time of the consecration of the church and the translation of the relics, there is no evidence that Arichis commissioned him to write any verse for the occasion.
5.5.3. The stylistic evidence about authorship
The occurrence of so many rhymes in Martir Mercuri points very strongly against Paul’s authorship. The major early Carolingian poets rarely, if ever, resorted to rhyme. Norberg states 925 Pipernus, De magicis effectibus, 147. The Latin text reads ‘Oratio S. Mercurii composite per Paulus
Diaconus sanctissimae vitae monachum montis Casini, quondam secretarium principis Arichis Beneventani’.
926 H. Belting, ‘Studien zum Beneventanischen Hof in 8. Jahrhundert’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 16,(1962), 141- 93.
927 Ibid., section IV, Hofschule und Kunst unter Arichis; 1, Das Bildungszentrum am Hof und Paulus Diaconus, 164-68.
928 Ibid., 173 and n.256 thereto.
929 Ibid., section IV.2, Die Kunst unter Arichis, Bauten und Inschriften, 170- 72.
930 Ibid., section V, Die Sophiakirche; .2, Das Weihedatum, 175-79.
931 T.F. Kelly, The Beneventan Chant (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 12, 22, 72. He refers to Paul as ‘a significant presence at the Beneventan court from 763 to 774’. The dedication and translation took place on 18 and 26 August respectively; the saint’s feast day is November 25.
932 It has never been asserted that Paul was not capable of writing sapphics; the question is discussed in the next section of this chapter, which is concerned with the much better-known hymn in sapphics, ut
that ‘the Carolingian renaissance and its efforts to recover classicism brought about a retreat from the use of assonance and rhyme’.933 His exposition shows that the initial development of