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Authors: Mark Lawson-Jones
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twenty miles south of Lille.
In the Middle Ages, the strongly fortified town of Douai had flourished, numbering 30,000 inhabitants. Soon after, it became famous for its university, which dates from 1559, and a college founded by Cardinal Allen in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. To English Catholics, the name Douai was recognized as the place where the majority of clergy were educated when their faith was outlawed in England. It was the place that they felt was preserving the faith, and protecting their traditions. Several other British establishments were founded there, colleges for the Scots and the Irish, and Benedictine and Franciscan monasteries. Douai was the chief centre for those who were exiled for their faith and a considerable number of English Catholics were influential in the university. Several chief posts were held by Englishmen and the first chancellor was Dr Richard Smith, formerly of Merton College, Oxford.
The scribe of the manuscript had been found, the story had taken a new turn and the story of this Christmas favourite had become intermingled with persecution, injustice and intrigue from the Middle Ages.
The scribe invariably signed and dated every one of his books with the original author of ‘Adeste Fideles’, the carol we know as ‘O Come all ye Faithful’. With the copy discovered by the Revd Frost bearing the same text and the watermark of the paper confirming the date, Dom Stephan was confident to declare that the original author of the carol was a Catholic layman, John Francis Wade, who was born in 1711.
Wade originally wrote the carol in Latin, giving it the title ‘Adeste Fideles’, the following verses correspond to the English verses:
Adeste fideles laeti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte
Regem angelorum.
Venite adoremus (ter) Dominum.
Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine,
Gestant puellae viscera.
Deum verum, genitum non factum.
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.
Cantet nunc ‘Io’, chorus angelorum;
Cantet nunc aula caelestium,
Gloria! Gloria in excelsis
Deo!
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.
Ergo qui natus die hodierna.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Patris aeterni
Verbum caro factum.
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.
Wade fled to France during the final Jacobite rising of 1745. Britain and Ireland had been in political turmoil for nearly a century, and the rising of 1745, known as ‘The Forty-Five’, was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the throne for the exiles House of Stuart. Charles, known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ sailed to Scotland and raised the Jacobite flag at Glenfinnan in the Highlands. The army marched south and won several battles, as they gathered momentum they entered England, reaching Derby, but the battles grew harder and they were recalled to Inverness, where the last battle on British soil took place at Culloden. As Bonnie Prince Charlie fled with a price on his head to permanent exile in France, so did John Francis Wade, and many other Catholics, who believed that all was lost.
The words of ‘Adeste Fideles’ are a heartfelt plea for France to invade and restore the Catholic traditions and end the persecutions, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie and the secret followers of the Old Pretender James Francis Stuart, Prince of Wales, the deposed son of James II. In the words, the ‘faithful’ are the ‘Jacobites’ who are being encouraged to return, and Bethlehem, was a code for them to mean England. So this was a carol of rallying the people to return.
In his study, Dom Stephan noted that he had uncovered twenty-seven different versions of ‘Adeste Fideles’, and he felt that his list was ‘far from complete’. He remarked also that ‘One or other [version] will be found in every hymn book in the English language, and the same remark applies to hymn books in other tongues. It is probably one of the very few hymns that has found a place in every collection of Christian hymns. What greater praise could one bestow on
In the Middle Ages, the strongly fortified town of Douai had flourished, numbering 30,000 inhabitants. Soon after, it became famous for its university, which dates from 1559, and a college founded by Cardinal Allen in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. To English Catholics, the name Douai was recognized as the place where the majority of clergy were educated when their faith was outlawed in England. It was the place that they felt was preserving the faith, and protecting their traditions. Several other British establishments were founded there, colleges for the Scots and the Irish, and Benedictine and Franciscan monasteries. Douai was the chief centre for those who were exiled for their faith and a considerable number of English Catholics were influential in the university. Several chief posts were held by Englishmen and the first chancellor was Dr Richard Smith, formerly of Merton College, Oxford.
The scribe of the manuscript had been found, the story had taken a new turn and the story of this Christmas favourite had become intermingled with persecution, injustice and intrigue from the Middle Ages.
The scribe invariably signed and dated every one of his books with the original author of ‘Adeste Fideles’, the carol we know as ‘O Come all ye Faithful’. With the copy discovered by the Revd Frost bearing the same text and the watermark of the paper confirming the date, Dom Stephan was confident to declare that the original author of the carol was a Catholic layman, John Francis Wade, who was born in 1711.
Wade originally wrote the carol in Latin, giving it the title ‘Adeste Fideles’, the following verses correspond to the English verses:
Adeste fideles laeti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte
Regem angelorum.
Venite adoremus (ter) Dominum.
Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine,
Gestant puellae viscera.
Deum verum, genitum non factum.
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.
Cantet nunc ‘Io’, chorus angelorum;
Cantet nunc aula caelestium,
Gloria! Gloria in excelsis
Deo!
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.
Ergo qui natus die hodierna.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Patris aeterni
Verbum caro factum.
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.
Wade fled to France during the final Jacobite rising of 1745. Britain and Ireland had been in political turmoil for nearly a century, and the rising of 1745, known as ‘The Forty-Five’, was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the throne for the exiles House of Stuart. Charles, known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ sailed to Scotland and raised the Jacobite flag at Glenfinnan in the Highlands. The army marched south and won several battles, as they gathered momentum they entered England, reaching Derby, but the battles grew harder and they were recalled to Inverness, where the last battle on British soil took place at Culloden. As Bonnie Prince Charlie fled with a price on his head to permanent exile in France, so did John Francis Wade, and many other Catholics, who believed that all was lost.
The words of ‘Adeste Fideles’ are a heartfelt plea for France to invade and restore the Catholic traditions and end the persecutions, led by Bonnie Prince Charlie and the secret followers of the Old Pretender James Francis Stuart, Prince of Wales, the deposed son of James II. In the words, the ‘faithful’ are the ‘Jacobites’ who are being encouraged to return, and Bethlehem, was a code for them to mean England. So this was a carol of rallying the people to return.
In his study, Dom Stephan noted that he had uncovered twenty-seven different versions of ‘Adeste Fideles’, and he felt that his list was ‘far from complete’. He remarked also that ‘One or other [version] will be found in every hymn book in the English language, and the same remark applies to hymn books in other tongues. It is probably one of the very few hymns that has found a place in every collection of Christian hymns. What greater praise could one bestow on
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