O come, all you faithful

As with 359, we here encounter a traditional (rather than ancient) Christmas hymn which has been found indispensable for all kinds of seasonal gatherings, whether in cathedrals, chapels, schools or the open air. A rare non-rhyming item among the older texts, it is translated from the Lat Adeste, fideles, laeti triumphantes, formerly thought to come from France c1700, but now attributed to John F Wade, working in the English College at Douai c1743, before which no ms has been traced. There are variant forms of the Lat and at least 30 attempts to do them justice in English. Frederick Oakeley’s 1841 version first began ‘Ye faithful, approach ye, joyfully triumphant’; the familiar 1st line was adopted on its first publication, in Murray’ Hymnal of 1852 (a precursor of A&M), but The People’s Hymnal of 1867 adhered or reverted to the original form of words. Dearmer commented in 1933, ‘It is a pity that Murray did not alter it more than he did …’; the Sankey collections included a quite different text ascribed to ‘Mercer (tr)’ and many others have since fulfilled that implied wish. The 4th word is the first crux, as many people seem to regard it is absurd to keep ‘ye’ as to change it to ‘you’; it hardly disturbs the flow if the congregation divides at this point, though by line 3 agreement is desirable. This was formerly ‘O come ye …’; Oakeley was clearly fond of ‘ye’, but this archaism has no justification from either the original or questions of reverence, and suggests rather the Town Crier in full voice and costume. More serious is the 3rd line of stz 2, which many have deplored but few until recently have ventured to change—and then with a great variety of solutions. The point of the relevant line in Te Deum Laudamus, reflected in Oakeley’s English but not the Lat, is not that God might have ‘abhorred’ (been disgusted by) the virgin’s womb, but that he did not shrink from the humility required to be conceived and born as a human being. The simple quotation from the Nicene Creed in the same stz, ‘God of God …’, is more authentic. The other stzs are virtually unchanged, with an option enabling us to avoid singing of ‘this … morning’ on quite different days or times. The longer text included stzs translated in 1884 by W T Brooke from either Etienne (de) Borderies or Besnault: ‘See how the shepherds …’, ‘Hail, starled chieftains’ and ‘Child, for us sinners …’; this is now available mainly in traditional Anglican hymnals. Linda Mawson has arranged the undisputed tune, also ascribed to John F Wade with considerable qualification. Wade has signed all but one of the oldest mss containing both words and music; he also clearly wrote or copied the other. It was published in England in part 2 (of 3) of An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782). It has long been known as ADESTE FIDELES from the opening of the Lat text; other claims have been made for Marcus Portugal, for two different English musicians named John Reading, and for Samuel Webbe the elder (whose services at the Portuguese Embassy organ earned it another name, PORTUGUESE [HYMN]). If Wade remains the most likely composer, this summary hardly does justice to the clouded history of both text and tune, about which many pages have been written. The music is oddly set to How firm a foundation (877) in ‘Sankey’; slightly more familiar is the use of the tune’s refrain as a detached item, followed by ‘We’ll give him all the glory … For he alone is worthy …’, etc, as extended stzs, a habit picked up from the USA by MP and others. In spite of the scholarly confusion, the hymn itself has been called a point of harmony between Roman Catholics and protestants, ‘a teaching hymn’, and ‘deservedly indestructible’; see also 359.

b Shrewsbury, Shrops 1802, d Islington, Middx (N London) 1880. After a private education he studied at Christ Ch Oxford (BA 1824); ordained in 1826; Fellow and Chaplain of Balliol 1827. At Oxford he was influenced towards the young high church ‘Oxford movement’ by Wm G Ward, himself a keen disciple of J H Newman. He became incumbent of Margaret Chapel nr C London’s Oxford Circus (later All Saints Margaret St), in 1839. During his time there it became something of a centre for tractarian or ritualistic activity. But like Newman and Ward, influenced by Prof Chas Lloyd’s Oxford lectures but under pressure from the Anglican authorities, in 1845 he turned to Roman Catholicism. Within 2 years he was re-ordained as an RC, becoming a canon of Westminster in 1852. He then worked for some years in that area among some of its most deprived people. Some of his sermons reached publication, together with other books and frequent articles in the British Critic and the Dublin Review. No.367.

b ?England 1710 or 1711, d Douai, France 1786. An English Roman Catholic Latin teacher and music copyist, whose family or friends may have joined the small community of RCs who settled for security in N France after the ‘glorious revolution’ of the Protestant William’s accession to the English throne in 1688. He then taught at the Dominican Coll at Bornem, Belgium, where he also learned the copying of plainchant. The widely-quoted evidence from an obituary in the 1787 Catholic Directory indicates that he was a layman aged 75, ‘with whose beautiful manuscript books our chapels, as well as private families, abound, in writing which and in teaching the Latin and church song he chiefly spent his time’. No.367.