"Victimae paschali laudes" is a sequence prescribed for the Catholic Mass and some[who?] liturgical Protestant Eucharistic services on Easter Sunday. It is usually attributed to the 11th-century Wipo of Burgundy, chaplain to Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II, but has also been attributed to Notker Balbulus, Robert II of France, and Adam of St. Victor.
"Victimae paschali laudes" is one of only four medieval sequences that were preserved in the Roman Missal of the Tridentine Mass published in 1570 after the Council of Trent (1545–1563). The three others were "Veni Sancte Spiritus" for the feast of Pentecost, "Lauda Sion" for Corpus Christi, and "Dies irae" for the Requiem Mass (a fifth sequence, "Stabat Mater" for the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was added to the missal by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727[1]). Before Trent, many other feasts also had their own sequences,[2] and some sixteen different sequences for Easter were in use.[3]
"Victimae paschali laudes" is one of the few sequences that are still in liturgical use today. Its text was set to different music by many Renaissance and Baroque composers, including Busnois, Josquin, Lassus, Willaert, Hans Buchner, Palestrina, Byrd, Perosi, and Fernando de las Infantas. Chorales derived from the sequence include "Christ ist erstanden" (12th century) and Martin Luther's "Christ lag in Todes Banden".
The section beginning Credendum est, with its pejorative reference to the Jews, was deleted in the 1570 missal, which also replaced praecedet suos (his own) with praecedet vos (you), and added "Amen" and "Alleluia" to the end.