And yet Thyself they cannot know, As in profoundest night : How then can mortal accents frame Thou, only, while we praise Thy Name, Beyond Metrophanes, it will not be necessary to carry our translations. The following names may, however, be mentioned. Euthymius. + A.D. 910. Euthymius, usually known as Syngelus, (the same as Syncellus, the confidential Deacon of the Patriarch of Constantinople,) who died about 916, is the author of a Penitential Canon to S. Mary, which is highly esteemed in the East. It would scarcely, however, be possible to make even a Cento from it, which should be acceptable to the English reader. Leo VI. + A.D. 917. Our next name is that of a Royal Poet. Leo VI., the Philosopher, who reigned from 886 to 917, left behind him the Idiomela, or detached stanzas, on the Resurrection, sung at Lauds. They are better than might have been expected from an Imperial author, and the troubler of the Eastern Church by a fourth marriage. The same thing may be said of the Exaposteilaria of his son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, whose life lasted till 959. John Mauropus. +A.D. 1060. John Mauropus, Metropolitan of Euchaïta, sometimes called the last of the Greek Fathers, left a number of hymns, printed at Eton in 1610: and if not boasting much poetical fire, at least graced with a gentle and Isocratean eloquence. As they have not been employed by the Church, they claim no further notice here. With this Metropolitan, Greek Hymnology well-nigh ceased: at least the only other name that need be mentioned is that of Philotheus, Patriarch of Constantinople, who died in 1376. This man, the warm supporter of the dogma of the Uncreated Light, was the composer of several stanzas for Orthodoxy Sunday, and the Canon for July 16, on the Holy Fathers: both in the very worst taste. J. T. HAYES, Lyall Place, Eaton Square. |