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Project Hildegard #30

On December 28th, it was the feast day in honour of the Holy Innocents. I have to admit that I had to double-check this one. It refers to the massacre by King Herod of all male children of two years old and under in and around Bethlehem. The Catholic Church regards them as the first Christian martyrs. Hildegard von Bingen wrote a responsory for them:

rex noster promptus est suscipere sanguinem innocentum

Our king is prompt to receive the blood of the innocents of whom the angels sing and make sound in praise but the clouds weep for the same blood. The tyrant however is suffocated by his own malice in the heavy sleep of death. But the clouds weep for the same blood. Glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy ghost. But the clouds weep for the same blood.

The Riesencodex begins this chant on a D. I am treating this as a clerical error.

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