Toms Luis de Victorias Cum Beatus Ignatius in the Context of

Romes Jesuit Colleges

Noel ORegan


The motet Cum Beatus Ignatius with its secunda pars Ignis, Crux, bestiis, is the most
vivid setting of a text in Toms L. de Victorias Il Primo Libro de Motetti of 1572. It
sets words by St. Ignatius of Antioch which describe in dramatic terms that saints
welcoming of his impending martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum in Rome
and the torments which he expects to suffer. Ignatius is the only non-major saint
honoured in what is a highly-organised motet collection, raising the question of why
he might have been singled out. Its text, celebrating one of the earliest of all martyrs
in the dramatic language of one the lessons from his office, could have had a
particular resonance in the Collegio Germanico, in which Victoria was a student and
subsequently a music teacher and ultimately Moderator Musicae; the Collegios
purpose was the preparation of students for the German mission, with the threat of
persecution. The incipit of Cum Beatus Ignatius uses the same music as Palestrinas
popular madrigal Vestiva i colli and so it also taps into a large series of works based to
a greater or lesser extent on that piece. Victorias motet may also help to throw light
on the modal ambiguities in that work.

Adriano Giardina has undertaken a comprehensive study of Victorias Il
Primo Libro de Motetti of 1572, pointing out its three different levels of organisation.
The first is by number of voices, rising through 4, 5, 6 and 8; within these groups a
second organisational level is by liturgical calendar, starting with the feast of All
Saints (O quam gloriosum); the third is that the contents are grouped almost entirely
in pairs, each pair characterised by the same tonal type parameters, i.e. they have the
same clef system, key signature and final note. In terms of liturgical ordering the
majority are for feasts in the proprium de tempore, followed by motets for feasts of
the Virgin. There are motets for five individual saints: Andrew, Peter, Thomas the
Apostle, John the Baptist and Ignatius of Antioch (1 February). While the other four
were important feastdays (three apostles and John the Baptist) Ignatius wasnt (though
his name does appear in the old Roman canon). Why did Victoria include a piece in
his honour? One plausible explanation is that Ignatius was the name-day of Ignatius
Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, and so this feast might have had some prominence in
Jesuit-run institutions such as the Collegio Germanico and the Seminario Romano to
which Victoria was attached. Ignatius himself was not canonised until 1622, after
which his feastday could be celebrated; prior to that his early-church antecedent
would have been the nearest equivalent.

At the same time, Ignatius was one of the earliest of all martyrs (under the
emperor Trajan) whose authenticated epistles are particularly significant. Victoria has
set a text from the sixth office lesson for St. Ignatius which paraphrases words from
his Epistle to the Romans, actually written during his journey to Rome, in which he
anticipates his martyrdom

Cum beatus Ignatius damnatus esset ad bestiis et, ardore patiendi, rugientes
audiret leones, ait: frumentum Christi sum, dentibus bestiarum molar, ut panis
mundus inveniar. 2.a pars. Ignis, crux, bestiae confractio ossium, membrorum
divisio et totius corporis contritio, et tota tormenta diaboli in me veniant:
tantum ut Christo fruar.

When Blessed Ignatius was condemned to the beasts, with a desire for suffering,
he heard the roaring lions, saying: I am the corn of Christ, let me be ground by
the teeth of the beasts, so that I can become the bread of the world. Fire, cross,
breaking of bones by beasts, division of limbs and total destruction of the body:
let all the torments of the devil assail me so that I can gain Christ.

Ignatius of Antioch, letter to the Romans:
I write to all the churches and charge them all to know that I die willingly for
God, if only you do not hinder. I beseech you, do not unreasonably befriend
me. Suffer me to become the food of wild beasts, through whom I may attain to
God. I am God's grain, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts, that I may
be found the pure bread of Christ.


The words of the secunda pars go through the torments which Ignatius imagines he
might suffer. Of particular importance is the Eucharistic metaphor, the identification
with Christ and with the Passion as the means for redemption. The homily from
which the lessons of the 3rd nocturn are taken are from the sermon of St. Augustine
on the text: unless the grain of wheat fall to the earth and die it remains alone and
unfruitful. The close association of the Passion and Eucharistic devotion was central
to much Counter-reformation devotion, especially that of the sepolcro on Maundy
Thursday and in the Quarantore or 40 House Devotion. The text here would also
have appealed to the Jesuits in its explicit depiction of suffering for contemplation and
the aural stimulus of the music would have encouraged the listener to put themselves
into the same frame of mind as Ignatius the martyr who accepted, even welcomed, his
forthcoming death.

A more particular reason for Victorias interest in the text might have been its
relevance to the mood of the period in which it was composed, the austere reign of
Pope Pius V, and to the preparation of German students for a return as missionaries to
their homeland where they might well have been expected to undergo persecution and
potential martyrom. Major pictorial manifestations of this would not appear until the
early 1580s in cycles of literally full-blooded frescoes showing persecutions of
martyrs, both early and modern, in S. Stefano Rotondo which came under the care of
the German College, and in the Venerable English College, another Jesuit institution.
But the sentiments painted must have already been in the air as news of martyrs began
to reach Rome from European countries and the New World.

Victorias text also reflects the renewed interest in the relics and lives of early
Christian martyrs which accompanied the post-Tridentine ethos. Although this had
not become fully developed by 1572, it would have been beginning to be in the
Zeitgeist, into which Victoria was tapping. There would be major discoveries of
catacombs in Rome from the late 1570s and a developing interest in the early
Christian church, of which the Roman Catholic church saw itself as the true
successor. Bodies of presumed early Christian saints like Cecilia and Martina would
be rediscovered. Again Victorias piece somewhat predates this but the reign of Pius
V (1566-72) saw the beginning of the church going on the offensive in reclaiming
ancient Roman remains for Roman Catholic christianity. In this sense Victorias
motet is leading the way here. It is certainly a very Jesuit-inspired piece in the sense
that it presents vivid textual and musical images for contemplation, in the same way
as the fresco cycles did for the eyes.

A particularly interesting feature of Cum Beatus Ignatius is its borrowing of
the incipit of Palestrinas madrigal Vestiva i Colli . This has been pointed out by
Antonio Delfino who described how the similarity between the two openings was first
mentioned in the early seventeenth century by Francis Tregian in his manuscript New
York, Public Library, Drexel 430216. Tregian stated there that Victoria had stolen
the opening from Palestrinas madrigal which he had copied into another manuscript.
It is significant that the recusant Tregian knew the Victoria motet (other pieces by
Victoria can be found in the manuscripts of the recusant Paston family). The
openings of the two pieces are strikingly similar, though both use what was a fairly
standard modal formula which, as Harold Powers has pointed out, was used again by
Palestrina at the start of Vergine bella in his 1581 spiritual madrigal cycle. Cum
Beatus Ignatius is one of four motets in the 1572 publication whose openings bear a
close resemblance to motets by Palestrina. The opening piece, O quam gloriosum, is
very similar in its chordal opening to that of Palestrinas O magnum mysterium; his
Doctor bonus is very similar to Palestrinas setting of the same text (though here both
are based on the same plainchant), while his Vidi Speciosam certainly borrows its start
from Palestrinas Tu es Petrus. While there is no evidence of direct contact between
the two composers the closest they would have come professionally was during the
period in the lead-up to the publication of Victorias first book of motets when
Victoria may have replaced Palestrina as maestro at the Seminario Romano (1571.
Filippis book 33, 104-18 is good on this). In each case the Palestrina incipits might
best be seen as having provided a springboard to Victorias imagination. He doesnt
make use of any further material from the madrigal later in the motet.

Vestiva i Colli had been first published in an anthology of 1566, the year in
which Palestrina took up an appointment as maestro at the Seminario Romano. The
madrigal very quickly become one of his best-known even iconic compositions
and was to be the model for a very large number of Masses (including one by
Palestrina himself), Magnificats, and a couple of motets, as well as intabulations and
arrangements of various sorts.

COMPOSERS OF WORKS BASED ON PALESTRINAS VESTIVA I COLLI

MASSES
G. Belli, C. Bianchi, G. B. Biondi, G. F. Biumi, A. Cifra, R. Giovanelli, B. Graziani,
R. de Lassus, P. de Monte, G. M. Nanino, G. Nucius, G. P. da Palestrina, E. Pasquini,
P. Pontio, C. Porta, L. Ratti, F. Soriano, A. Stabile, F. Tresti, Orfeo Vecchi, B.
Vialardi, J. Wanning

MAGNIFICATS
J. Ascanio, C. Berti

MOTETS
G. Puliti, T. L. de Victoria

PARODIES
A. Banchieri, M. Herrer, Orazio Vecchi

TRANSCRIPTIONS FOR LUTE or VOICE AND LUTE
E. Adriansen, C. Bottregari, J. Bull, V. Galilei, P. P. Raimondi, G. A. Terzi

DIVISIONS
G. Bassano, G. della Casa, M. Facoli, F. Rognoni, G. A. Terzi, B. de Selma y
Salaverde, A. Virgiliano


The first of these was included by Vincenzo Galilei in his Fronimo of 1568
and Victorias Cum Beatus Ignatius was next. The most comprehensive list is that
included in Marco della Sciuccas recent biography of Palestrina, used here. It
includes Masses by a number of Rome-based composers who worked in Jesuit
institutions such as Ruggiero Giovanelli, Annibale Stabile, Antonio Cifra, Lorenzo
Ratti, Bonifazio Gratiano, all of whom served in the Seminario Romano or at the
Collegio Germanico. However these are only some of a large number of composers
who made use of Vestiva and the Jesuit connection may not necessarily be significant.
Both Adriano Banchieri and Orazio Vecchi parodied it, in the modern sense of that
word, in musical comedies while contrafacta were produced by the Milan-based
Orfeo Vecchi and Geronimo Cavaglieri among others. Vecchi used the Song of
Songs text Surge propera, amica mea. The only other use of it at the start of a motet
is by the (now) Slovenian Composer Gabriello Pulitis En dilectus meus, again setting
a Song of Songs text.

Victoria retained the same high clefs and no flat signature that Palestrina used
for Vestiva i colli but, rather than the A final of Palestrinas madrigal, Victoria used D
for the final of the seconda pars; he did retain A for the end of the prima pars.
Victoria also changed the initial entry to use the fourth from D to G, rather than the
fifth to A as in Palestrinas second entry. Thereafter the two composers occupy the
same modal space which alternates the fifth D-A with the fifth A-E. Harold Powers
in a much-cited article on the Modality of Vestiva i Colli came down in favour of
following Ludovico Zacconi in seeing it as an example of Hypodorian Mode 2,
transposed up an octave (despite having the final cadence and the majority of its
cadences on A). Powers goes on, however, to show that the same tonal type was later
used by Palestrina to represent the first mode in his Vergine madrigals and in the
Offertoria of 1593 (Mode 2 is represented by same clef and signature but with D
final). Where the madrigal is somewhat ambiguous in its use of tonal type, as are a
lot of pieces in this period with final on A, Cum Beatus Ignatius seems to clarify
Palestrinas intended modal choice by moving the final to D.

Tonal type Cadences (in order of frequency)
Vestiva i Colli G2 - A A, D, F, C, E

Cum Beatus Ignatius G2 - D A, D, C, F, E


Victoria used the same clefs, signature and final for Cum Beatus Ignatiuss paired
motet in the 1572 volume, Descendit Angelus, and also for two Holy Week motets,
Vere languores and O vos omnes. These last two share the same Passion-type
sentiments as Cum Beatus Ignatius. Descendit Angelus deals with the naming of John
the Baptist but he did also lose his head. The various pairs of motets in the volume do
not always or necessarily share the same sentiments, though they often in fact do.
Although the volume does not organise its pairs of pieces in modal order, unlike
Palestrinas Offertories, it is probably safe to assume that Victoria intended this tonal
type here to represent Mode 2 transposed up an octave.

Finally, some brief comments on the musical setting of the text in this piece:
Victoria uses a variety of textures to illustrate his text. He is particularly effective in
intertwining his two soprano parts to create combination tones, something typical of
his five-voice settings. Apart from the opening, based on Palestrina, the piece mainly
uses blocks of homophonic sound, with continuing changing the voice combinations
in the manner of Palestrinas Missa Papae Marcelli and of many of the other five- and
six-voice pieces in Victorias 1572 collection. There is thus much incipient
polychorality in the texture with frequent cadences. The composer only breaks away
from this in order to illustrate particular words like rugientes, ait and frumentum
Christi sum. I would like to draw particular attention to the setting of the word ait:
after two block chords it continues with the same dissonance technique as found in
lamentations, especially in the Hebrew letter settings, using minim passing notes and
suspensions. It is unusual to draw attention to a word like ait in this way the initial
two chords on their own is what one might have expected. Victorias reference to the
lamentation style here is more likely to be a preparation for the following words
frumentum Christi sum, the key words in the motet with their eucharistic reference.
Crux, tormenta, are highlighted by chromatic writing, using the juxtaposition of
sharpened and naturalised versions of the same note which Victoria used to such
effect in his later music.

Cum Beatus Ignatius, then, may have been something of a workshop piece for
Victoria, one to which he brought all his individual talent for word-setting, once his
musical imagination had been sparked by the Palestrina model. Although we still
dont know a lot about the circumstances which sparked the composition of individual
motets in the 1572 motet collection, this piece does seem particularly to reflect the
Jesuit ethos of the Collegio Germanico. Granted, that ethos was not fully developed
in 1571-2, when its seminarians were rather swamped by fee-paying convittori who
were not necessarily studying for the priesthood, and the extensive liturgical
programme instituted by Michele Lauretano was not in place. Likewise the fresco
cycles which were later to act as motivational inspiration to the seminarians were not
yet pained. But Victorias motet seems to prefigure all of this and capture the spirit of
the Catholic Reformation in many of its aspects.