370 THE REFOKMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
§ 87. The Liturgy of Calvin.
I. La forme des prieres et chantzs ecclesiastiques, avec la maniere d' administrer les
sacremens et consacrer le marriage, selon la coutume de f Eijhse ancienne, A.D. 1542. In Opera, VI. 161-210 (from a copy at Stuttgart; the title is given in the old spelling without accents). Later editions (1543, 1545, 1562, etc.) add: "la visitation des inalades," and '■'■ comme on Pobserve a Geneve." An earlier edition of eighteen Psalms appeared at IStrassburg, 1539. (See Doden, Cle'ment Marat, I. 300 sqq.) An edition of the liturgy with the Psalms was printed at Strassburg, Feb. 15, 1542. (See DouEN, I.e. 305, and 342 sqq.) A copy of an enlarged Strassburg ed. of 1545, entitled La forme des prieres et chantzs ecclesiustirjues, was preserved in the Public Library at Strassburg till Aug. 24, 1870, when it was burnt at the siege of the city in the Franco-German War (Douen, 1. 451 sq.).
II. Ch. d'Hericault : Ouvres de Marot. Paris, 1867. — Felix Bovet: Histoire du psautier des ^glises reformees. Neuchatel, 1872. — O. Douen : Cle'ment Marot et le Psautier Huguenot. Etude historique, litte'raire, musicale et hihliographique ; contenant les melodies primitives des Psaumes, etc. Paris (a I'imprimerie national), 1878 sq. 2 vols, royal 8vo. A magnificent work published at the expense of the French Republic on the recommendation of the Institute. The second volume contains the harmonies of Goudimel.
Farel published at Neuchatel in 1533, and introduced at Geneva in 1537, the first French Reformed liturgy, which includes, in the regular Sunday service, a general prayer, the Lord's Prayer (before sermon), the Decalogue, confession of sins, repetition of the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, a final exhortation and benediction.^ It resembled the German liturgy of Bern, which was published in 1529, and which Calvin caused to be translated into French by his friend Morelet.^ Of Farel's liturgy only the form of marriage survived. The rest was reconstructed and improved by Calvin
1 Republished by Baum at Strassburg, 1859. Douen, I.e. I. 346.
- In a letter to Gaspard Megander, an influential minister at Bern (probably from Feb. 20, 1537), Calvin writes: " Libellum tuum ceremonialem a Mauro [Maurus Musaeus, Morelet de Museau], rogatu nostro, versum, cum nostro contnlimus, a quo nihil penitus nisi brevitate differt." Herminjard (vol. IV. 191) adds the following note: "La liturgie usite'e dans Pe'qlise genevoise e'tait, selon toutes les vraisemblances, celle de Farel, publiee a Neuchatel, le 29 aont 1533, sous le litre sxuvant: 'La Maniere et Fasson qu'on tient en baillant le sainct baptesme . . . es lieu.r que Dieu de sa grace a visite's.' Nous avo7is constate' que la liturgie bernoise offre les plus grands rapports avec ' La Maniere et Fasson,' et qu'elle en diffire seulement par la brievete'."
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§ 87. THE LITURGY OF CALVIN. 371
in the liturgy which he first introduced in Strassburg, and with some modifications in Geneva after his return.
Calvin's liturgy was published twice in 1542. It was introduced at Lausanne in the same year, and gradually passed into other Reformed Churches.
Calvin built his form of worship on the foundation of Zwingli and Farel, and the services already in use in the Swiss Reformed Churches. Like his predecessors, he had no sympathy whatever with the Roman Catholic ceremonialism, which was overloaded with un scriptural traditions and superstitions. We may add that he had no taste for the artistic, symbolical, and ornamental features in worship. He rejected the mass, all the sacraments, except two, the saints' days, nearly all church festivals, except Sunday, images, relics, processions, and the whole pomp and circumstance of a gaudy worship which appeals to the senses and imagination rather than the intellect and the conscience, and tends to distract the mind with the outward show instead of concentrating it upon the contemplation of the saving truth of the gospel.
He substituted in its place that simple and spiritual mode of worship which is well adapted for intelligent devotion, if it be animated by the quickening presence and power of the Spirit of God, but becomes jejune, barren, cold, and chilly if that power is wanting. He made the sermon the central part of worship, and substituted instruction and edification in the vernacular for the reading of the mass in Latin. He magnified the pulpit, as the throne of the preacher, above the altar of the sacrificing priest. He opened the inexhaustible fountain of free prayer in public worship, with its endless possibilities of application to varying circumstances and wants; he restored to the Church, like Luther, the inestimable blessing of congregational singing, which is the true popular liturgy, and more effective than the reading of written forms of prayer.