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It was Franciscan in origin and probably intended far the use of nuns rather than friars. “My attention had been drawn to a small fifteenth century processional in the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale.

Mary Berry who discovered the tune in a manuscript at Paris’ Bibliothèque Nationale, being a tune for a processional for a community of French Franciscan nuns. The source for this was uncovered in 1966 by Dr. The volume listed the tune as being 'From a French Missal in the National Library, Lisbon. The familiar tune called Veni Emmanuel was first linked with this hymn in 1851, when Thomas Helmore published it in English Hymnal paired with an early revision of Neale's English translation of the text.

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The Reverend Thomas Alexander Lacey (1853–1931) created a new translation (also based on the five-verse version) for The English Hymnal in 1906, and this appears to be the one we use today.īut the original music seems to have been lost, although it would have been part of a series of plainchant antiphons for advent. That is the picture in Medieval wood carvings and wall paintings, There is a much greater realisation of a picture closer to Dante in the original Latin, with the way that leads on high to heaven (“that leads on high”), and the lower ways which lead to hell (“close the lower ways”). Here is his translation of two key stanzas, which differ markedly from the later revision: Neil Conway has provided online the Latin and a translation, and the later rendering.

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