Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/605

589 BRITISH.] HYMNS 589 to be joyfully kept through all generations&quot;), of Fortunatus. In the two &quot;Primers &quot; of 1535 (by Marshall) and of 1539 (by Bishop Hilsey of Rochester, published by order of the vicar-general Cromwell) there had been several rude English hymns, none of them taken from ancient sources. King Henry s &quot;Primer&quot; of 1545 (commanded by his injunction of the 6th May 1545 to be used throughout his dominions) was formed on the model of the daily offices of the Breviary ; and it contains English metrical translations from some of the best-known Ambrosian and other early hymns. But in the succeeding reign different views pre vailed. A new direction had been given to the taste of the &quot; Reformed &quot; congregations in France and Switzerland by the French metrical translation of the Old Testament Psalms, which appeared about 1540. This was the joint work of Clement Marot, valet or groom of the chamber to Francis I., and Theodore Beza, then a mere youth, fresh from his studies under Wolmar at Orleans. .larot s Marot s Psalms were dedicated to the French king and Nalnis. the ladies of France, and, being set to popular airs, became fashionable. They were sung by Francis himself, the queen, the princesses, and the courtiers, upon all sorts of secular occasions, and also, more seriously and religiously, by the citizens and the common people. They were soon perceived to be a power on the side of the Reformation. Calvin, who had settled at Geneva in the year of Marot s return to Paris, was then organizing his ecclesiastical system. He rejected the hymnody of the Breviaries arid Missals, and fell back upon the idea, anciently held by Paul of Samosata, and condemned by the fourth council of Toledo, that whatever was sung in churches ought to be taken out of the Scrip tures. Marot s Psalter, appearing thus opportunely, was introduced into his new system of worship, and appended to his catechism. On the other hand, it was interdicted by the Roman Catholic priesthood. Thus it became a badge to the one party of the &quot; Reformed &quot; profession, and to the other of heresy. The example thus set produced in England the transla- t { on commonly known as the &quot; Old Version &quot; of the Psalms. It was begun by Thomas Sternhold, whose position in the household of Henry VIII., and afterwards of Edward VI., was similar to that of Marot with Francis I., and whose services to the former of those kings were rewarded by a substantial legacy under his will. Sternhold published versions of thirty-seven Psalms in 1549, with a dedication to King Edward, and died soon afterwards. A second edition appeared in 1551, with seven more Psalms added, by John Hopkins, a Suffolk clergyman. The work was continued during Queen Mary s reign by British refugees at Geneva, the chief of whom were William Whittingham (afterwards dean of Durham), who succeeded John Knox as minister of the English congregation there, and William Kethe (or Keith), said by Strype to have been a Scotchman. They published at Geneva in 1556 a service-book, contain ing iifty-one English metrical Psalms, which number was increased, in later editions, to eighty-seven. On the acces sion of Queen Elizabeth, this Genevan Psalmody was at once brought into use iu England, first (according to a letter of Bishop Jewell to Peter Martyr, dated 5th March 1560) in one London church, from which it quickly spread to others both in London and in other cities. Jewell describes the effect produced by large congregations, of as many as 6000 persons, young and old, women and children, singing it after the sermons at St Paul s Cross, adding, &quot;Id sacrificos et diabolum jegre habct ; vident enim sacras conciones hoc pacto profundius descendere in hominum animos.&quot; The first edition of tho completed &quot; Old Version &quot; (containing forty Psalms by Sternhold, sixty-seven by Hopkins, fifteen by Whittingham, six by Kethe, and the rest by Thomas Norton, a barrister, ^Robert Wisdom, iold and lf &quot; John Mardley, and Thomas Churchyard) appeared in 1562. In the meantime, the Books of Common Prayer, &c., of 1549, 1552, and 1559 had been successively established as law by the Acts of Uniformity of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. In these no provision was made for the use of any metrical psalm or hymn on any occasion whatever, except at the consecration of bishops and the ordination of priests, in which offices (first added in 1552) an English version of &quot; Veni Creator&quot; (the longer of the two now in use) was appointed to be &quot;said or sung.&quot; The canticles, &quot;Te Denm,&quot; &quot; Benedicite,&quot; &c., the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds, the &quot;Gloria in Excelsis,&quot; and some other parts of the communion and other special offices were also directed to be &quot;said or sung ; &quot; and, by general rubrics, the chanting of the whole service was allowed. The silence, however, of the rubrics in these books as to any other singing was not meant to exclude the use of psalms not ex pressly appointed, when they could be used without interfering with the prescribed order of any service. It was expressly provided by King Edward s First Act of Uniformity (by later Acts made appli cable to the later books) that it should be lawful &quot; for all men, as well in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly any psalms or prayers taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or omitting thereby the service, or any part thereof, men tioned in the book.&quot; And Queen Elizabeth, by one of the injunc tions issued in the first year of her reign, declared her desire that the provision made, &quot;in divers collegiate and also some parish churches, for singing in the church, so as to promote the laudable service of music,&quot; should continue. After allowing the use of &quot;a modest and distinct song in all parts of the common prayers of the church, so that the same may be as plainly understanded as if it were read without singing,&quot; the injunction proceeded thus &quot;And yet, nevertheless, for the comforting of such that delight in music, it may be permitted that in the beginning or in the end of the Common Prayer, either at morning or evening, there may be sung an hymn, or such like song to the praise of Almighty God, in tho best sort of melody and music that may be conveniently devised, having respect that the sentence &quot; (i.e., sense) &quot;of hymn maybe understanded and perceived. &quot; * The &quot;Old Version,&quot; when published (by John Daye, for the Stationers Company, &quot;cum gratia et privilegio Kegise Majestatis &quot;), bore upon the face of it that it was &quot;newly set forth, and allowed to be sung of the people in churches, before and after morning and evening prayer, as also before and after the sermon.&quot; The question of its authority lias been at different times much debated, chiefly by Heylin and Thomas Warton on one side (both of whom disliked and disparaged it), and by Bishop Beveridge and the Rev. H. J. Todd on the other. Heylin says, it was &quot;permitted rather than allowed,&quot; which seems to be a distinction without much difference. &quot; Allowance,&quot; which is all that the book claimed for itself, is authorization by way of permission, not of commandment. Its publication in that form could hardly have been licensed, nor could it have passed into use as it did without question, throughout the churches of England, unless it had been &quot;allowed&quot; by some authority tlien esteemed to be sufficient. Whether that authority was royal or ecclesiastical does not appear, nor (considering the proviso in King Edward s Act of Uniformity, and Queen Elizabeth s injunctions) is it very important. No inference can justly be drawn from the inability of inquirers, in Heylin s time or since, to discover any public record bearing upon this subject, many public documents of that period having been lost. In this book, as published in 1562, and for many years afterwards, there were (besides the versified Psalms) eleven metrical versions of the &quot; Te Deum,&quot; canticles, Lord s Prayer, ttc., &c. (the best of which is that of the &quot;Bene dicite &quot;) ; and also &quot; Da pacem, Domine,&quot; a hymn suitable to the times, rendered into English from Luther ; two origi nal hymns of praise, to be sung before Morning and Evening Prayer ; two penitential hymns (one of them the &quot; Humble Lamentation of a Sinner &quot;) ; and a hymn of faith, begin ning, &quot;Lord, in Thee is all my trust/ In these respects, and also in the tunes which accompanied the words (stated by Dr Burney, in his History of Music, to be German, and not French), there was a departure from the Genevan platform. Some of these hymns, and some of the psalms also (f &amp;lt;&amp;lt;!, those by Robert Wisdom, being alternative versions), were omitted at a later period; and many alterations and supposed amendments were from time to time made by unknown hands in the Psalms which remained, so that the text, as now printed, is in many places different from that of 1562.