Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/275

 POPULAR POETRY 263 bloody field of Tannenberg, and in 1167, at the battle of Tusculum, the German army sang, ' Christ, Thou Who wert born ' ; while the archbishop Christian of Mentz led the attack, bearing the flag in his hand. The canticle that precedes preaching, ' Come, oh Holy Ghost ! ' the Christian hymn, ' A beauteous Babe ' ; the Easter song, ' Christ is arisen ' ; and that for Pentecost, ' Let us invoke the Holy Spirit,' date from the thirteenth century. In speaking of the last- mentioned the famous preacher, Brother Berthold (dead in 1272), said, 'It is a very profitable hymn. You should sing it often and with devotion, in order to raise your hearts to God and to call Him to your aid. It was a happy thought, and he was a wise man who composed it.' Berthold urged any among his hearers who had the power to compose another like it. In an Easter hymn, attributed to the pastor Conrad of Queinfort, we read in the fifth verse : ' Sing forth in accents sweet and soft, ye faithful in the church ; ye priests in the chancel. Now let your song come forth and proclaim Christ is arisen. To-day hath He burst the bands of death.' In the fourteenth century the Benedictine monk Johann of Salzburg was the most zealous advocate of Church hymns. He made a very valuable collection of the best of the ancient ones, which, with the assistance of a secular priest, he set to music. At the end of the Middle Ages there were still extant many hymns which were written in imitation of his style and set to his compositions. In the fifteenth century Heinrich von Laufenberg, deacon of Freiburg in the Breisgau, about 1445, and later a monk in Strasburg, arranged many religious songs to popular melodies.