tile converts it would be somewhat different. Among ternately between themselves, and to praise Christ as
the Greeks and Romans poetry had fixed metrical furms. a god"' (Pliny. Epist. lib. x. ep. 39), alluding probably
to which the tunes of the Hebrews could not be adapted, to the Gloria in Excelsis, the morning hymn of the
There is no reason, however, to believe that the early early Church.
Gentile Christians followed these metrical forms in their J The earliest extant fragment of Greek hymnody is
sacred poetry. The earliest specimens of Christian song found in the Padayoga of Clemens Alexandria
extant— the" hvmn to Christ, preserved by Clemens of . p. 312, 313, Potter's ed.). Bunsen says, however, that.
Alexandria: the evening hymn, referred to by Basil as this was never used in the public worship of the Church
in his time very ancient, handed down from the fathers i Christianity and Mankind, ii. 156).
(De Spir. Sane. c. 29); and the morning hymn, which ; Three early Christian hymns are preserved in the
has been incorporated with the liturgy of the Church venerable Alexandrian MS. as an appendix to the Old-
of England— have no traces of a metrical character, but Test, psalms. The first is the morning hymn of the
are, lfke the Biblical hymns, adapted only for being primitive Church, commencing with the iutroductory
chanted in recitative with a few and simple cadences, verse of the nativity song of the angels, hence called
("Primitiva ecclesia ita psallebat ut modico rlc-xu vocis the Angelical Doxology. It is found in the liturgy of
faceret psallentem resonare, ita ut pronuntianti vicinior the Greek Church, whence, about the year 380, it was
esset quam canenti,'7 Isidon Hispal. De Ecd. Offic i. 5.) transferred by Hilary to the communion service of the
Such singing would no doubt be new to the Gentile Latin Church: thence again to the communion service
converts, but it would be speedily learned: and as they of the English Church.
probably had very little sacred music of their own, they i The other two are another short morning hymn in
would hail with delight this accession to their sources ■ which the verse occurs. •■ Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep
of enjoyment, which served at the same time as a vehicle us this day without sin," afterwards incorporated in the
of the "devotional feeling that had been kindled within Te Deum : and an evening psalm, consisting of a cento
them. It has been suggested that in 1 Cor. xiii we of verses of the Old-Test, psalms.
have an apostolic bymrhand in Eph. v, 14; 1 Tim. iii. '. Besides these, there is an evening hvmn of the Greek 16; James i, 17; Rev. i, 5. 6 : xv. 3. etc.. fragments of Christians. "Yfiroc tov \v\vikov, the "Hymn of the hymns sung in the apostolic churches: but this is mere Kindling of the Lamp." corresponding to the "Ave Ma- conjecture, though not without some probability. ria" hymns of Italy; concerning which Basil says, it is
The early Christians used the Jewish psalms in their " so ancient that he knows not who is the author of it"
worship, which would almost certainly be sung to their ^Bingham, bk. xiii, ch. v. §
traditional Temple music. G. B. Martini says (Storia | The Ter Sanctus. or Seraphic Hymn, also belongs to
della Mitsica, i. 351) : " This is the Hebrew chant of the the first three centuries, and is found in almost all the
psalmodies which ever since the time of David and Sol- ancient liturgies. It is little more than the Trisagium
omon has been transmitted from one generation to an- | of the seraphim in Isa. vi. See Palmer. Origines Litur-
other, and [therefore] goes beyond the first half of the gica?. ii. 126.
first age of the Church. These have not materially These arc the only fragments of Greek hymnody that
varied, but have been substantially preserved by the have been preserved to us. Of course they are rhyth-
Hebrew nation. Is it not. then, sufficient to convince mical. and would require a rhythmical tune or chant.
us that the apostles — who were born Hebrews, brought Much of early Christian song was probably antiphonal
up in the customs of their nation, wont to frequent the i Socrates. //. E. vi. 8 : Theodoret. //. E. ii. 24: as also
Temple and engage in the prayers and divine praises Hahn. Ueber den Gesang in der Syrischen Kirche. p. 54).
therein recited— should retain the same method and use The hymnody of the Syrian churches was much
the same chants with which the people used to respond ' more copious. They had an ampler music and poets
to the Levitical choir." Forkel (Geschichte der Musi?:, of higher inspiration. Its invention is attributed by
ii, 188) says: "This mode of reading the Scriptures Ephraem Syrus to the Gnostic Bardesanes (Horn, ad
with cantilation or chant has been adopted in the Chris- Heeret. 53. quoted by Dr. Burgess in his Introd. to the
tian Church from the Temple, and is still preserved in Select Metrical Hymns and Homilies of Ephraem Syrus.
the mode of chanting the collects, responses, etc." See p. 30). Metres were called after his name. Next to
also Dr. Saalsehiitz, Geschichte und Wiirdigung der Mu- him as an author of Syrian hymnody stands his son