Notes on Adam of St. Victor: F.J.E. Raby

He appears to have been, like Abelard, a Breton by birth, and about 1130 he entered the Augustinian house of S. Victor, which William of Champeaux  had founded in 1108, when he retired from the noise of Paris, and for a time from the tumult of the schools. The abbey flourished and became famous. Before the middle of the century it numbered among its inmates two of the foremost spiritual leaders of the time, Hugh and Richard, who expounded a mystical philosophy midway between the rationalism of Abelard and the pure mysticism of Bernard of Clairvaux. Adam is the third of a trio of famous men.     He drew his inspiration from the same spiritual fountain, and set forth in verse what Hugh and Richard expounded in prose.

It is told of Adam that he loved to haunt the crypt of the abbey church, where there was a chapel dedicated to the Virgin. It was here in the gloom and quiet, before the image of Mary, that he meditated on the Sequences which were to be composed in her honor. There the inspiration of the Salve mater salvatoris came upon him, and he celebrated the mother of God with all the ardent allegory of the Song of S0ngs.

5.         porta clausa, fons hortorum,

cella custos unguentorum,

cella pigmentaria ;

6.         cinnamoni calamum

mirram, tus et balsamum

superas fragrantia.

9.         .... tu convallis humilis,

terra non arabilis,

quae fructurn-parturiit ;

10.       flos campi, convallium

singulare lilium,

Christus, ex te prodiit.

Then, as he reached the crowning strophe of praise and adoration,

salve, mater pietatis

et totius trinitatis

nobile triclinium,

verbi tamen incarnati

speciali maiestati

praeparans hospitium,

the Blessed Virgin appeared before him, and bowed her head in salutation and gratitude.

It is probable that Adam made profound scholastic studies, and he might well have followed in the footsteps of Hugh and Richard. He chose rather to use his talent for the adornment of the liturgy, but the theological foundation of his proses is a conspicuous feature. His life must have passed quietly enough at S. Victor in following the offices and composing the Sequences which were sung at the great festivals. He died towards the end of the century, and was buried in the cloister near the doorway of the chapter house. His epitaph, which affirms the vanity of human life, and may be in part his own

composition, is as follows:

haeres peccati, natura filius irae,

exsiliique reus nascitur omnis homo.

unde superbit homo, cuius conceptio culpa,

nasci poena, labor vita, necesse mori ?

vana salus hominis, vanus decor, omnia vana;

inter vana, nihil vanius est homine.

dum magis alludunt praesentis gaudia vitae,

praeterit, imo fugit; non fugit, imo perit.