The Reformers, observing the excessive attention paid to musical services, endeavored to return to the plainness of apostolic times. There had previously been repeated efforts at such a transformation. " The Albi- genses, during the hottest season of persecution, are stated to have solaced themselves, in the very prospect of death, with singing the psalms and hymns of their Church. Psalmody was cherished by the disciples of YVycliffe. The Bohemian Brethren published a hymn- book with musical notes, from which it appears that the melodies they used originated in the chants to which the ancient Latin hymns of the Western Church were sung" (Conder, The Poet of the Sanctuai-y, p. 6). That psalmody was cultivated by the persecuted ancient Vau- dois is evident from the fact that a large manuscript collection of their psalms and hymns is preserved in the library of Geneva (Monastier, Hist, de VEylise Vaudoise, i, 124). But it was the Reformation in the 16th cen- tury which restored to the people their right to partici- pate in this primitive and edifying part of public wor-
PSALMODY
740
PSALMODY
ship. Psalm-singing was taken up by the Reformers, first For private devotion, and soon as a part of the ser- vice of the Church, Luther and Calvin restoring to the people their share in the musical part of public worship. and furnishing them with the means of performing it From the time that psalm-singing was adopted by the Reformers, it was discountenanced by the Roman Cath- olics, and Boon came to be regarded as a badge of Prot- estantism. Metrical versions of the Psalms of David were executed in the principal vernacular languages of Europe; and some of the venerable Reformers are re- corded as having applied themselves to the study of music in order thai they might be enabled to compose plain and solemn tunes in which all would lie able to join. Lather was peculiarly qualified for providing the first psalmody of the Reformation. Not only was he a great poet and musician, but he was full of fervid spirit- ual life. His hymnology, and that of his coadjutors- Hans Sachs, Michael Weiss, Johann Kugelmann, Jo- hann Schop, Johann CrUger, Paul Speratus, Justus Jo- nas, Nicholas Decius, and other contemporary divines and Reformers— were characterized and illustrated by some dozen magnificent chorals, which excited great enthusiasm. But psalmody, in the more modern sense, began in the liith century, when Clement Marot, the court-poet of Francis I of France, translated fifty-two of the Psalms into French verse, dedicating them both to his royal master — whom he likened to the Hebrew psalmist— and to the ladies of France. The sacred song- book, on its tir>t appearance, not being accompanied by music, it became, the practice to sing the psalms to fa- vorite tunes— often those of popular ballads, and for a considerable time psalm-singing became a favorite fash- ion among the gay courtiers of Francis. Marot's col- lection was continued and concluded by Theodore Beza, whose psalms had the advantage of being set to music. Beza having in this the assistance of Calvin, who en- gaged the best composers of the day to unite his sacred songs with beautiful and simple airs of a devotional character. Luther and Calvin differed, however, in their ideal of psalmody: the former was favorable to harmony in parts, while the latter confined himself to the bare, unaccompanied melody. In 1529 Luther pub- lished his first Hymn-book for the Congregation, which was printed by Joseph King in Wittenberg, whence it was also called" the Klug'sche. This collection contained most of Luther's hymns, which may be read in an Eng- lish translation in Luther as a Hymnist fjby the Rev. B. Pick, l'hila. 1875).
Prior to Luther, the Moravian Brethren had published a collection of hymns tin L504 I compiled by their arch- bishop, Lucas- the first example of a hymn-book con- structed of original compositions in t he vernacular to be found in any Western nation which had once owned the supremacy of Pome. Some of its hymns, composed in the Bohemian and German languages, are of older date than the Reformation, and were highly commended by Luther himself for their scriptural and devotional char- acter. In the renewed Church of the Brethren psalms and hymns continue to form an integral part of every re- ligious service. Count Zinzendorf, who eminently con- tributed to its revival in 1722, was himself a Christian poet of no common order. The German hymn-book in general use among the churches of the Brethren was completed in 1778 by bishop Gregor, and lias passed through numerous editions: it contains many hymns derived from the Lutheran Church, and some even from
the primitive Christian Church. Si of the best hymns
in this collection have been translated into English verse, and, With the addition of a number of English hymns, constitute the hymn-book now in use among the con- gregations of the Brethren in this country. The latest edition, comprising 1260 hymns, is entitled Liturgy and Hymns of th Protestant Church of the Unilas I'm nun. or United Brethren | Lond. 1849, 8vo).
In the Reformed Chnrch, sacred songs were limited to the Psalms. As carlv as 1512 the La Forme dea
Prveires et Chontz ecclesiastiques ques avec la Manure, etc, by Marot, was published. This collection contain- ed only twenty-live psalms, to which Theodore Beza af- terwards added the remaining psalms. To abridge the time devoted to singing was an object of their concern, when they could not banish it from their assemblies; and the Helvetic Confession contains a censure on the Gregorian Chant, and a commendation of its rejection by many of the Protestant churches. (See DTsraeli, ( in iosities of Literatun [Lond. 1858], ii. 171. > The first edition of the entire book of Psalms in verse ap- peared in France in 1561, with the royal privilege, and 10,000 copies were immediately dispersed. These were speedily set to music, and were generally sung in the Reformed churches of France. Geneva, and French Switzerland, notwithstanding their condemnation by the college of the Sorbonne. Some expressions having become obsolete, the task of retouching them was un- dertaken, lirst by Valentine Convart, the first secretary of the French Academy, and by one of the elders of the church at Charenton; and afterwards by the pastors of Geneva, who revised their undertaking, and almost re- cast the work of .Marot and Beza. So dear, however, was the memory of these first two poets of the French Reformation that it was found necessary to preserve the very number of their stanzas and the quantity of syl- lables of their verses, and the ancient music of the Kith century is to this day adapted to the singing of the revised and corrected psalms (Musii des J'n>/t.<- tmis Crli'brcs. vol. ii, pt. ii. p. 11, CM. Of late years the Protestant churches in France have paid much atten- tion to the improvement of their psalmody. To the metrical version of Marot and Beza they have added collections of hymns, with music, for various occasions. The French version of Marot and Beza was translated into Dutch metre by Peter Dathen, pastor of the first Reformed church at Frankfort -on-the-Main, about the year 1560, and adapted to the French tunes and meas- ure. A new Flemish metrical version of the Psalms was executed by Philip de Mamix. lord of St. Alde- gonde. A Bohemian version by Stryx, said to be of high merit, was published in 1590; and a Polish ver- sion by Bernard Woiewodka, of Cracow, was printed at Brecsz, in Lithuania, about the year 1565, under the au- spices of prince Radzivil (Bayle, LHctionnaire, par Pes Maizeaux, iv. 124; Milner, Lift of Dr. Isaac Watts, p. 350, note). What Marot and Beza were to the lie- formed Church of France and French Switzerland, Lob- wasser was t,> the Reformed Church of Germany, Ger-