THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
to any ecclesiastical dignity who does not perfectly know the whole Psalter or the usual canticles and hymns and service of baptism " (cf . Hefele, ConcUiengeschichte, hi. 99, Fr. transl. iii. 1, p. 291, Eng. transl. iv 471).
With the Reformation psalmody definitely accentuated its underlying principle — the authority of the Scriptures in all that pertains to faith, worship, and life. Huss first broke ground in the metrical use of the Psalms. As early as 1524 3. Protes- Luther wrote Spalatin to secure poets tant to prepare them for church uses (St. Psalmody. Louis ed. of Luther, xxo, cols. 582- 583), but it was only twenty-three years later that the work was completed (see Psalm Melodies, French). So popular was the result that in some instances Roman Catholics also adopted the psalter of Calvin, although the Jesuit Adam Contzen declared that the hymns of Luther and the psalms of Beza killed more than their books did (PolUicorum libri decern, Cologne, 1629). In his preface to the edition of 1545 Calvin wrote: " When we sing them (the Psalms), we are as certain that God has put the words in our mouths as if he himself sang within us to exalt his glory " (Opera, ed. J. W Baum and others, vi. 171). The history of psalmody in England and Scotland is outlined in Hymnologt, IX., § 2. In the English colonies of North America the first hymns sung were Psalms, by the Pilgrim fathers in the paraphrase of Henry Ainsworth and by the Indians in John Eliot's version, and the first book printed in British North America was the Bay Psalm Book (q. v.) . The Psalms practically reigned supreme in the colonies until the outbreak of the American Revolution, when various causes opened the way for the hymns of Isaac Watts (q.v.), which were " allowed," not authorized, by the Presbyterian synod at Philadelphia in 1787. This was the first distinct breaking away from the original principle of the Reformation — the Bible only.
In 1719 Isaac Watts made a complete innovation by his Psalms of David, in which, while preserving the name and numbering of the Psalms, he so modified them as to open the way for unrestricted hymnody, his plea being that he would make David speak the language of a Christian, not of a Jew. The decay of real psalmody, combined with other causes, was the preparation for the great popularity of this hymnody. Nevertheless, such critics as James Beattie and Samuel Johnson expressed disapproval, and many others were sorely grieved, while the evangelical Anglican William Romaine, in his Essay on Psalmody (London, 1775) voiced their sentiment in no uncertain language. Never since has the great body of the Church returned to the Reformation attitude regarding psalmody. Previous to Watts, however, English Churchmen and non-conformists alike had been true to the Psalms. The Baptists met the question and furnished some distinct witnesses, such as John Gill (q.v.); and the Quaker Robert Barclay (q.v.) also commended the spiritual singing of Psalms. The great Methodist movement was only indirectly unfriendly to the Psalms. The Wesleys expressed great love for them, and Charles Wesley furnished metrical versions for
most of them. Adam Clarke (q.v.) favored the singing of Psalms in the most faithful version, and George Whitefield (q.v.) likewise sympathized with a true psalmody.
The present witnesses for exclusive psalmody do not exceed half a million, scattered in seventeen denominations of Presbyterians, particularly the United Presbyterian body (see Presbyterians). Their influence, however, is beyond all proportion to their numbers on account of their educational and missionary activity. That a purely Biblical Psalmody is still not an antiquated or obsolescent principle in these churches, but has in them, as in apostolic and immediately post-apostolic times, its representative, without paraphrastic mixture or credal and liturgical sequences, is evidenced by the fact that a new and carefully prepared metrical Psalter is now (1910) in process of publication (see below) . This work has been under way for a considerable period and has been the subject of several revisions and overtures in the United Presbyterian body which took the lead in the enterprise and is entrusted with the responsibility for its completion. It has been said that had they, like the Baptists, made duly prominent the distinctive characteristic in which they all agree, they would now have as large a membership. They have allowed themselves, however, rather to follow than lead in the meters and music of their Psalms, and to cling too fondly to catechisms and confessions which glorify prayer and preaching, but ignore psalmody. A " testimony," or formal official expression of opinion, on this subject could never take rank with the original confession; and the failure of the Psalm-singing churches to realize in practise the entire theology of the Psalms accounts in part for their limited success. The new metrical Psalter mentioned above as being in process of publication is the joint work of committees from nine churches (one in Canada), and covers a period of ten years of faithful preparation. It seeks to reproduce the Hebrew verity without paraphrase and with due regard at the same time to poetic structure and musical adaptation.
Robert Brewster Taggart.
Musically speaking, psalmody occupies an intermediate position between the so-called accerdus, i.e., liturgical intonation or recitative, and the socalled concentus, or elaborated singing (in the sense of the ancient theory of tones). In 4. The practise it conforms to the " Psalm Psalm tones " as fixed by the Church. Corre- Tones. sponding to the eight divisions of the octave in ancient music, which are preserved by the Church in her eight church tones, there are eight Psalm tones. These were augmented, in course of time, by a ninth, or " foreign," tone, which is usually treated as a separate tone since opinions differ in regard to its harmonic structure. It occurs in the antiphon Sed nos qui vivimus to Psalm cxiii (Vulgate; A. V. cxiv.-cxv.) in vespers for Sundays, and in the antiphons Martyres Domim and Angeli Domini; while in the Lutheran Church it has come to be the usual tone for the Magnificat and the Aaronic benediction (Num. vi. 24-26). By some this " pilgrim tone " is classed with the first