Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/276

 264 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE The fifteenth century was an essentially prolific period in the production and development of sacred song. The struggles for reform in the Church, the awakened spirit of culture, and the increase of German Bibles and books of piety, all favoured this growth. Even the religious controversies of the times contributed to the same end, for the heretics who used poetry as a means of spreading their doctrines had to be met with their own weapons. By the invention of printing with movable type it became possible to convert into common property a number of beautiful hymns which had hitherto been confined to certain districts, and many of the hymns used in Germany at the present day date back to 1470 and to 1520. In one of his sermons Martin Luther said : ' The papists had beautiful hymns and canticles ; for example, " Thou Who hast conquered hell and vanquished the devil," also " Christ arose from all His tortures." They sang them from their hearts. At Christmas they sang, " To-day a beauteous babe is born to us " ; at Pentecost they sing, " We pray Thee, O Holy Ghost ! " and during the Mass is heard the beautiful canticle, " Oh, God be praised and blessed, Who has fed us with His own flesh." ' The more the love of song, both sacred and secular, was developed in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the more did the national melodies also improve ; and musical composers were filled with emulation to produce worthy settings for the melodious lyric emanations of the nation. The number of hymns arranged for four voices by Erhard Oeglin are proofs of the great advance of this