746 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1617.
Ages and the 16th century.^ Here are the opening verses ot two of them :
Dulcis Jesu matris pater Gaude, mater A7ina
Joachim, et Anna mater Gaiide, mater sancla
Jtisti, natu nohiles.'^ Cxim sis Dei facta
Genetrix avia.^
In^-EIagland, singing sacred songs seems to have been little cultivated bejore^the 16th century. The singing of Psalms in the days of Anne Boleyn was a novelty and was greatly enjoyed at the court as it was later in Elizabeth's reign, on the streets. The vast numbers of sacred pieces, written in Germany, France and the Lowlands, were intended for conventual devotions not for popular use.* Singing, however, was practised extensively in pilgrimages and processions and also in churches, and the Basel synod at its 21st session complained that the public services were interrupted by hymns in the vernacular. Germany took the lead in sacred popular music. From 1470-1520, nearly 100 hymns were printedlrora (Terman presses, many of them with original tunes. Sometimes the hymns were in German from beginning to end, sometimes they were a mixture of Latin and German, As the Middle. Ages drew to a close, religious song increased. The^ Reformation established congregational singing and begat the congregational liymn- Boot^
1 Number XLII. of Blume and Dreves' collection gives 10 ; Number XLIII. 9, Number XLIV. 8, Anna hymns.
2 Father of the dear mother of Jesus, Joachim, and her mother Anna, Righteous and noble of birth, XLII. 154.
=* Rejoice Anna mother, Rejoice holy mother. For thou art made grandmother of God. XLIII. 78.
•* The Cambridge Role, a MS. in Cambridge, contains 12 carols. John of Dunstable founded a school of music early in the 15th century. Traill : Social Engl., II. 368 sq. Maskell, 3/oh. rit., III. 1 scjq., gives a number of English hymns printed in the Prijme.rs of the first half of the 10th century.
'' Biiumker gives 71 hymns with original melodies printed before 1520. On the subject of mediaeval hymns, see Mone : Lateinische Ilymnen d. MA, 3 vols., Freib., 1855; Ph. Wackernagel : Das dexitsche Kirchenlied von der liltesten Zeit, etc., 2 vols, Leipz., 1807. W. Biiumker: D. kathol. detitsche Kirchenlied inseinen Singioeisen, 3 vols., Freib., 188(5-1891 and Ein deutsches yeistliches Liede.rhuch mil Melodieen aus d. lf>ten Jahrh., etc., Leipz., 1895, Janssen, I, 283 sqq. Also artt. Kirchenlied and Kirchenmusik in Herzog, X,
§ 79. WORKS OF CHARITF. 747
These adjuncts and elements of Christian worship and training were added to the usual service of the churches, the celebration of the mass, which was central, the confessional and preaching. The age was religious but doubt was growing. A writer of the 15th century says of England : ^ —
There are many who have various opinions concerning religion . . . but all attend mass every day and say many pater nosters in public, the women carrying long rosaries in their hands and any who can read taking the Hours of our Lady with them and reciting them in church verse by verse in a low voice as is the manner of the religious. They always hear mass in their parish church on Sunday and give liberal alms nor do they omit any form incumbent upon good Christians.
The age of a more intelligent piety was still to come, though it was to prove itself less submissive to human authority.
§ 79. Works of Charity.
Benevolence and philanthropy, which are of the very essence of the Christian religion, flourished injthe later Middle Ages. In the endeavor to provoke his generation to good works, Luther asserted that "in the good old papal times everybody was merciful and kind. Then it snowed endowments and legacies and hospitals." ^ Institutions were established to care for the destitute and sick, colleges and bursaries were endowed and protection given to the dependent against the rapacity of unscrupulous money-lenders.
The modern notion of stamping out sickness by processes of sanitation scarcely occurred to the mediaeval municipalities. Although the population of Europe was not -^^ of what it is to-day, disease was fearfully prevalent. No epidemics so fatal as the Black Death appeared in Europe but, even in
1 Italian Relation of Engl., Camden Soc. ed., p. 23.
2 Quoted by Uhlhorn, p. 439. Janssen, II. 325 sq., takes too seriously Luther's complaint that more liberality had been shown and care given to the needy under the old system than under the new, using it as a proof of the influence of Protestantism. Riezler, Gesch. Baierns, as quoted by Janssen, I. 679 says, " The Christian spirit of love to one's neighbor was particularly active in the 15th century in works of benevolence and there is scarcely another age so fruitful in them." So also Bezold, p. 94.