The Advent Hymns of Charles Coffin

It seems that since the compiling of Veni, veni Emmanuel, approximately 500 years passed by without new hymns for Advent written in Latin.  Naturally, Latin’s growing disuse over the previous thousand years in favor of vernacular languages played a primary role.    Charles Coffin was born in Northern France and in 1701 would become a faculty member of the College of Beauvais, and later the principal of the same.  In 1718 he became rector of the University of Paris for a short time before returning to the College.  An avid scholar and Latin author, poet, and hymn writer, Coffin published a number of his Latin poems in 1727 and in 1736 published his Hymni Sacri Auctor Carolo Coffin, a collection of one hundred of his own hymns, many of which were also published in the Paris Breviary.  Following the styles of Ovid and Horace, “he was the outstanding Latin author France has produced.”¹ In 1736, the Archbishop of Paris commissioned Coffin, along with several other French writers, to create the Paris Breviary, with the intention of replacing the “…ancient Latin hymns with more modern ones.”² In the preface to his Hymni Sacri, Coffin writes:

In his porro scribendis Hymnis non tam poetic indulgendum spiritui, quam nitore et pietate consulendum esse existimavi.  Pleraque igitur, argumentis convenientis e purissimis Scripturs Sacra fontibus deprompsi quae idoneis Ecclesiae cantui numeris alligarem.

[In composing the hymns which follow, I have judged it right not so much to give rein to a poetic spirit, as to have regard to elegance and piety. For the most part, therefore, I have drawn their themes from the purest sources of Sacred Scripture, and have incorporated these in verses fitted for the Church's song.]³

The dissemination of a number of Coffin’s hymns occurred in great part thanks to the Rev. James Chandler (1806-76), a Vicar in the Anglican Church of Witley.  Chandler’s translations resulted from his desire to “…see the ancient prayers of the Anglican Liturgy accompanied by hymns of a corresponding date of composition.”⁴ He had not seen hymns of this type before he discovered a few hymn extracts of the Parisian Breviary in the British Magazine (1839).  Of particular notice to Chandler were those hymns “…of the peculiar hymn metre, Dimeter Iambics, [which] appear ancient, simple, striking, and devotional.”⁵ In addition, he says in the preface of his The Hymns of the Primitive Church (1841) that his goal in translating these hymns was simplicity, “…thinking it better to be, of the two, rather bald and prosaic than fine and obscure.”⁶ Of Coffin’s Advent hymns found in the Hymni Sacri, there are two which Chandler mistook as “primitive”, or ancient, not realizing that they were only 100 years old at the time:  Instantis adventum Dei and Jordanis oras praevia. It is intriguing to note that the British Magazine published translations of all four of Coffin’s Latin Advent hymns just two years before Chandler’s publishing of his The Hymns of the Primitive Church; however, the magazine did not include the original Latin texts, nor author, nor translator.  That notwithstanding, it is apparent that Isaac Williams (1802-1865), a member of the Oxford Movement, published the translations for the magazine, yet with “unrhythmical [sic] harsh”⁷ meters to prevent the church from singing unauthorized hymns.  The diocese in Paris was the last to relinquish its breviary in favor of the authorized Roman Breviary in 1873, by which time Coffin’s hymns had been translated multiple times.

The Advent of Our God

Instantis adventum Dei (“The Advent of Our God”) has become one of the more popular of all Latin Advent hymns.  It has been used not only in the breviaries of the Divine Offices in the Catholic Church, but has transcended even into most Protestant arenas, with the exceptions of Baptist (in the cases of instances of the Baptist Hymnal)  and Church of Christ (whose hymnals unfortunately contain no hymns for Advent at all.)  Addressing the usual Avent themes of the incarnation and judgment, the hymn begins and ends with exhortations to the people to joyfully praise the coming Son.  Unlike most other Advent hymns, however, this hymn is addressed to the people from the people rather than to God from the people.
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Coffin originally designated this hymn for Matins on Sundays and weekdays during Advent.  The Latin text contains six stanzas of four verses in iambic dimeter yielding the present long meter.  Most widely known by Chandler’s translation titled “The Advent of Our God,” there are at least a dozen translations, some of the based loosely on Chandler. In An English-Speaking Hymnal Guide, Erik Routley provides sources for five unique translations, all of which are in small meter instead:⁹

The Coming of Our God (LORD) – R. Campbell, St. Andrew’s Hymnal, 1850
The Advent of Our King – based on Chandler’s Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837
The Advent of Our God – Harriet Packer, English Hymnal, 1906
The Advent of Our God – P. Dearmer, Songs of Praise, 1931
The Advent of Our God – Compilers of Canadian Hymn Book, 1871

Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology lists another half dozen translations and sources, most of which are also in small meter.  Orby Shipley’s Annus Sanctus includes two translations:  one by R. Campbell (The Coming of Our God) in common meter and one by J.C. Earle (The Advent of Our God at Hand) in long meter.

The Parisian Breviary did not specify a tune to be used with this hymn; perhaps it was understood that one of the already established Advent tunes was to be used.  Nonetheless, since most translations are in small meter, there are at least three tunes associated with this hymn: FESTAL SONG (Seventh Day Adventist Hymnal), ST. THOMAS (The English Hymnal, Hymnal for Worship and Celebration), and FRANCONIA (Hymns Ancient and Modern, The Lutheran Book of Worship).

On Jordan’s Bank the Baptist’s Cry

“Coffin is one of only a few French poets and Roman Catholic clerics whose hymns have been used in English Protestant churches.  This is perhaps the most widely sung of his more than one hundred hymns.”¹⁰ A hymn for use at Lauds on Sundays and Ferial days during Advent, Iordanis oras praevia was first published by Coffin in his Hymni Sacri and in the Paris Breviary of 1736.  Hearkening to John the Baptist’s cry for the people to “make straight the way of the Lord”, the central focus is for the people to make themselves ready for the coming of Christ.

Once again, it is Chandler’s translation from Hymns of the Primitive Church, 1837, which has become most popular, though with some significant alterations.  Hymns Ancient and Modern notes the second stanza as optional and alters the translation of the the fifth stanza and the doxology to be more accurate:  “To heal the sick stretch out Thine hand, / And bid the fallen sinner stand; / Shine forth, and let Thy light restore Earth’s own true loveliness once more. / All praise, Eternal Son, to Thee / Whose Advent sets Thy people free, / Whom with the Father we adore / And Holy Ghost for evermore.”¹²

There are two popular tunes associated with Iordanis oras praevia: WINCHESTER NEW (Hymns Ancient and Modern, The English Hymnal, and PUER NOBIS (The Worshiping Church, The Lutheran Book of Worship).

© 2010, Mark Burnett. All rights reserved.

Mark Burnett

Mark Burnett received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Arkansas and a Master of Church Music degree in Conducting from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was licensed to the gospel ministry by First Baptist Church (Lincoln, AR), where he served as Minister of Music (2001-2004), and in November 2010 was ordained to the gospel ministry by First Baptist Church (Crowley, TX), where he has served as Minister of Music since 2005. Mark has been an active member of the Baptist Church Music Conference, and most recently has been requested to serve as Local Church West Representive for the 2011-2012 conferences.

Endnotes:

1. Episcopal Church, The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 2d ed. (New York,: Church Pension Fund, 1951), 406. [↩]
2. Marilyn Kay Stulken, Hymnal Companion to the Lutheran Book of Worship (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 120. [↩]
3. David Goodall, “Hymni Sacri.” The Enchiridion: Notes on Source Books Cl-Coo.  (2002) [on-line]; Notes compiled during work on Rejoice & Sing and its subsequent Companion; accessed 12 November 2010; available from http://www.canamus.org/Enchiridion/ Sbooks/ sc3.htm#CCof; Internet. [↩]
4. Julian, 217. [↩]
5. J Chandler, The Hymns of the Primitive Church (John W. Parker, 1837), viii. [↩]
6. Ibid., ix. [↩]
7. DA Withey, John Henry Newman: The Liturgy and the Breviary: Their Influence on His Life as an Anglican (Sheed & Ward, 1999), 159. [↩]
8. Chandler, 39-40. [↩]
9. Routley, p. 103. [↩]
10. The New Century Hymnal Companion: A Guide to the Hymns [↩]
11. Chandler, p. 40-1. [↩]
12. Monk, 61. [↩]

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2. "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"
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4. A potential danger in writing hymns in an age of mass media
5. More on teaching children hymns