APPENDIX. SECTION I. The Origin and Progress of Metrical Hymnology. IT has been imagined by some writers, that worldly prudence had at first dictated the expediency of introducing metrical hymns into the of fices of Christianity, in order to conciliate the good-will of idolaters, who had been always aceustomed to hear no other kind of music but what consisted of prosodically measured feet. But if the Christians of the Roman empire, antecedent to the time of Prudentius,* never thought of this expedient, when they stood more in need of softening measures, and a conformity to some apparently innocent externals of Pagan worship, than after their religion had received from Constantine the sanction of imperial laws; the introduction of metrical hymnology into the worship of the true God must have been less owing to worldly prudence than to erroneous • He was born in 848, and died in 595. Bing. Diet. principle. It is likely that, as many influential Pagans had but lately conformed to the church, some of them still retained more or less attachment to their former hymnology and music; and therefore, it is very supposable, that a latent tendency, to have hymns introduced into Christian worship similar to those of polytheism, had commenced this innovation. During the fourth century, the church was exceedingly agitated by every species of heresy, and convulsed by schism in a variety of forms; and what time more congenial with pride, vanity, ignorance, and the remainders of paganism? In convulsive times, the church hath had frequent cause to lament, that the inventions of men have been violently obtruded upon the worship of God in his temple. In the end of this cen tury, the Latin verse hymns of Prudentius began to find admittance into the Roman Church; and the Greeks soon followed the example of the Latins, in admitting metrical hymns into their churches. From Socrates, the historian, (lib.. vi. c. 8) we learn that the heretics used to sing metre hymns, marching through the streets of Constantinople, in procession; with which the vulgar were so much captivated, that the orthodox, under the direction of St. Chrysostom, thought it necessary to follow the example, which had been set them by their inveterate enemies. Processional singing had been long prac tised both by the Jews and Pagans, but no mention is made of it among Christians before this period. From the end of the fourth century to the present time, metre hymnology hath been cultivated by almost every denomination of Christians; yet the Church of England recognizes no metre hymns except those in two of her offices; but our Church not only recognizes those, but fifty one besides, which she allows to be sung in public worship," at the discretion of the minister." SECTION II. The Origin and Progress of Metrical Psalmody. Among the first reformers, who interested themselves about the manner of singing the Psalms, we have not only Wickliff, Huss, Jerome of Prague, and Zingle, but also Luther, Cranmer, Calvin, Beza, Buchanan, and John Knox; who, though each of them had different ideas of the subject of sacred music, yet all agreed in stripping it of all the energy and embellishments of measure and melody, as indeed the Calvinists did likewise of harmony. It is said to have been the opinion of Handel, that Luther was the author of metrical psalmody; but this is far from being the case; for J. Huss, in the beginning of the 15th century, Wickliff,† towards the end of the 14th, and the Albigenses in 1210, were all metre psalm singers. Luther's metre psalms and spiritual songs were published at Wirtemburg in 1524 and 1525; and besides the numerous metrical hymns and psalms of Luther and his friends, there was a metre version of the whole Book of Psalms published at Augsburg in 1525, by John Boschenstein. The bold and intrepid reformer Luther, being himself a lover and judge of music, was so far from banishing it from the church, that he rather multiplied the occasions for its use. Indeed, Luther must have had an insatiable passion for rhyme and music; as besides turning most of the ancient ecclesiastical hymns, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and many other parts of his Liturgy, into German verse, in order to be sung; he wrote his Catechism in rhyme, which was set to music in four parts by Henry of Gottingen; and even the Confession of Augsburg he turned into verse, and had it likewise set to music. In Luther's Epistle to Senplius of Zurich, the musician and scholar of Henry Isaac, Luther places music above all arts and sciences, except theology; as that and religion are alone able to sooth and calm the mind. In the same epistle Huss was burnt at Constance in 1415. he says, "We know that musie is intolerable to demons ;" and therefore thus concludes; "I rerily think, and am not ashamed to say, that next to theology, no art is comparable to music."* It does not appear in the life or letters of Luther and Calvin, that those reformers had ever conferred or corresponded with one another; and yet it hath been said, that it was by the advice of Luther that Calvin established his Psalmody; with which, both Germany and France was soon overrun. Germany was certainly furnished with innumerable psalmodists and hymnologists long before Calvin, who was born in 1509, became the head of a seet. Calvin was in his 36th year when Luther died in 1546. It appears that the ancient ecclesiastical tones regulated the music of the Lutheran Church at the time of the reformation; for most of the old melodies to the evangelical hymns are composed in one or other of them. The Cantamen or an thems and services used in this reformed church. in the German language, are, however, as elabo rate and florid, as the metres set to Latin words used in Italy, during the celebration of the mass. The hymn book of the Picards and Bohemian brethren, printed with musical notes at Ulm, in 1568, shows that the melodies used by those sects. "Scimus musicam dæmonibus etiam invisam et intolerabilem esse; -Plane judico, nec pudet asserere post Theologiam esse nullam artem, quæ possit musicæ æquari.” · Luther's Ep. ad Senpl. Zur. |