Broken are the gates of death!

Author: Peter the Venerable

Peter of St. Maurice (Petrus Mauritius), also called Peter of Cluny (Petrus Cluniensis), or Peter the Venerable (Petrus Venerabilis), Abbot, was born 1092 or 1094 (Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 101) of a noble family (the Counts of St. Maurice) in Auvergtie ("Nobili genere natus fuit noster in Arvernia": Leyser, Hist. Poem. Med. Ævi, p. 425). Beginning life as a soldier, he afterwards became a Benedictine monk, and on the death of Hugh, Prior of Marcigny, who had but three months before been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the better known Pontius, Peter was elected Abbot of the celebrated monastery of his order at Cluny, in 1122. From this time much of his life was spent in controversy, a summary of which… Go to person page >

Translator: Alexander Ramsay Thompson

Thompson, Alexander Ramsay, D.D., a minister of the American Reformed Dutch Church, was born at New York, Oct. 22, 1822, and graduated at the New York University, 1842, and the Princeton Seminary, 1845. He was Reformed Dutch Pastor at various places, including East Brooklyn, St. Paul's (R. P. D.), New York City, North Reformed Church, Brooklyn (1874), and others. Dr. Thompson was joint editor of the Reformed Dutch Hymns of the Church, N. Y., 1869, and the Hymns of Prayer and Praise, 1871. He has contributed original hymns and translations from the Latin to these collections, to Schaff’s Christ in Song, 1869, and to the Sunday School Times, Philadelphia, 1883, &c. In addition two original hymns:— 1. 0 Thou Whose filmed and fading eye.… Go to person page >