"Divinum mysterium" was a "Sanctus trope" – an ancient plainchant melody which over the years had been musically embellished.

[2] An early version of this chant appears in manuscript form as early as the 10th century, although without the melodic additions, and "trope" versions with various melodic differences appear in Italian, German, Gallacian,[clarification needed] Bohemian and Spanish manuscripts dating from the 13th to 16th centuries.

[2] "Divinum mysterium" first appears in print in 1582 in the Finnish song book Piae Cantiones, a collection of seventy-four sacred and secular church and school songs of medieval Europe compiled by Jaakko Suomalainen and published by Theodoric Petri.

[4] The text of the "Divinum mysterium" was replaced by the words of Prudentius's poem when it was published by Thomas Helmore in 1851.

[2] There are two translations commonly sung today; one by John Mason Neale and Henry W. Baker, and another by Roby Furley Davis.

Neale's translation was later edited and extended to nine stanzas by Henry W. Baker for Hymns Ancient and Modern (London, 1861; below).

Dissatisfied with Neale's translation, Roby Furley Davis (1866–1937), a scholar at St John's College, Cambridge, wrote a new version for The English Hymnal of 1906.

Davis was assistant master at Weymouth College and a scholar of the works of Tacitus, especially his book on Agricola.

Corporis formam caduci, membra morti obnoxia Induit, ne gens periret primoplasti ex germine, Merserat quem lex profundo noxialis tartaro.

O beatus ortus ille, virgo cum puerpera Edidit nostram salutem, feta Sancto Spiritu, Et puer redemptor orbis os sacratum protulit.

O ye heights of heaven adore Him; Angel hosts, His praises sing; Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King!

Tibi, Christe, sit cum Patre hagioque Pneumate Hymnus, decus, laus perennis, gratiarum actio, Honor, virtus, victoria, regnum aeternaliter.