Text The original text of the
hymn has been from time to time attributed to various groups and individuals, including
St. Bonaventure in the 13th century or King
John IV of Portugal in the 17th, though it was more commonly believed that the text was written by
Cistercian monks – the German, Portuguese or Spanish provinces of that order having at various times been credited. A parody of the chorus ("venite apotemus") was current before 1542, when it appears in chapter 41 of
Rabelais' "
Gargantua". In modern English hymnals, the text is usually credited to
John Francis Wade, whose name appears on the earliest printed versions. Wade, an
English Catholic, lived in exile in France and made a living as a copyist of musical manuscripts which he found in libraries. He often signed his copies, possibly because his calligraphy was so beautiful that his clients requested this . In 1751 he published a printed compilation of his manuscript copies,
Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis per annum. This is the first printed source for
Adeste Fideles. The version published by Wade consisted of four Latin verses. Later in the 18th century, the French Catholic priest wrote an additional three verses in Latin. Another anonymous Latin verse is rarely printed. The text has been translated innumerable times into English. The most common version today is a combination of one of
Frederick Oakeley's translations of the original four verses, and William Thomas Brooke's translation of the first three additional verses. It was first published in ''Murray's Hymnal'' in 1852. Oakeley originally titled the song "Ye Faithful, approach ye" when it was sung at his Margaret Chapel in
Marylebone (London), before it was altered to its current form. McKim and
Randell nonetheless argue for Wade's authorship of the most popular English-language version.
Claims of Jacobite connections Although the hymn's exact sources and origins remain unproven, there is universal agreement among musicologists that it was through the efforts of Catholic layman and music copyist John Francis Wade that it first appeared in print. Wade himself fled to France after the
Jacobite rising of 1745 was crushed, and his liturgical books were often decorated with Jacobite imagery (for context, the aim of the rebellion had been to restore a Catholic monarch – Charles Edward Stuart, popularly known as "
Bonnie Prince Charlie" – to the throne of England). These aspects of Wade's life and political leanings have given rise to speculation that he might have intended for
Adeste Fideles to be a ciphered birth ode to the Jacobite's Young Pretender. This theory regarding the hymn's meaning has been most recently proposed by Professor Bennett Zon, head of music at
Durham University. It essentially holds that "the song's original Latin version was actually a coded rallying cry for the Stewart cause". Elements of this theory include: • The as-yet-unproven but popular claim that "Bethlehem" was a common Jacobite cipher for England. • The claim (also currently unproven) that Wade deliberately meant for the title
Regem Angelorum – which is found in the hymn's original Latin lyrics and translates literally to "King of Angels" – to refer to the king of England via a pun on the Latin words
"Angelorum" ("of the angels") and
"Anglorum" ("of the English"). • The fact that during the mid-18th century some English Roman Catholic liturgical books would place
Adeste Fideles physically close to prayers for the would-be king in exile. Proponents of this theory interpret the notions and circumstances described above as evidence that the lyrics of
Adeste Fideles are meant to be "a call to arms for faithful Jacobites to return with triumphant joy to England (Bethlehem) and venerate the king of angels, that is, the English king (Bonnie Prince Charlie)." However, certain historical circumstances would seem to disprove or at least problematize the Jacobite ode theory. Namely: • The absence of any textual evidence that can conclusively prove that Wade explicitly composed
Adeste Fideles as a piece of political propaganda. In the absence of such evidence, the Jacobite imagery found in Wade's books might be merely an expression of the author's idiosyncratic blend of political and religious thought, which in turn might have reflected the sentiments of Catholic Jacobites as a group. • Sources that credit the hymn's composition to Wade overlook the fact that the exact origins of
Adeste Fideles are uncertain. It is not known whether Wade might have simply copied the hymn from other sources (for instance, it could have been composed by Cistercian monks and eventually sung at the Portuguese embassy chapel in London To Irish musicologist William H. Grattan Flood, it is so readily evident that the hymn is merely an artistic expression of the Catholic spiritual and intellectual tradition that he concludes that the words and music of the song "are to be attributed to a Catholic source and for Catholic worship".
Tune Besides
John Francis Wade, the tune has been attributed to several musicians, from
John Reading and
his son, to
Handel, and even the German composer
Christoph Willibald Gluck. The Portuguese composer
Marcos Portugal as well as
King John IV of Portugal have also been credited.
Thomas Arne, whom Wade knew, is another possible composer. There are several similar musical themes written around that time, though it can be hard to determine whether these were written in imitation of the hymn, whether the hymn was based on them, or whether they are totally unconnected. > } \new Staff { \clef bass \key g \major \set Staff.midiInstrument = "church organ" \relative c' > } >> >> \layout { indent = #0 } \midi { \tempo 4 = 90 }
Published versions The hymn was first published by
John Francis Wade in his collection
Cantus Diversi (1751), with four Latin verses, and music set in the traditional
square notation used for
medieval liturgical music. This version is in
triple meter, contrary to modern versions. It was published again in the 1760 edition of
Evening Offices of the Church. It also appeared in
Samuel Webbe's
An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782). The
hymn tune also made its way to the
Sacred Harp tradition, appearing as "Hither Ye Faithful, Haste with Songs of Triumph" in an 1860 collection. With "Herbei, o ihr Gläub'gen" a German translation of the Latin text was published in 1823 by
Friedrich Heinrich Ranke. == Lyrics ==