Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/277

 POPULAR POETRY 265 art in the beginning of the sixteenth century. 1 Such hymns as the following were very popular : ' Christ is arisen,' ' Let us invoke the Holy Spirit,' ' In God's name we live,' ' A loaded ship approaches,' ' I know a beauti- ful May, the fairest time of the year,' ' Oh, blessed the day ! ' ' Christ, Thou mild and good ! ' ' Three holy women went by,' ' Praise to Thee, Jesus Christ ! ' Christ crucified do we live,' ' Eejoice, Christendom ! ' ' Tender Mary, heavenly maid ! ' ' Like a fair rose didst thou spring up,' ' In remembrance of Jesus' agony in the garden do I cry to Thee in my wants,' ' Thou inter- cessor with God,' ' Lord God ! Who takest the name of Jesus, have mercy on us ! ' ' Praised be Jesus and Mary.' These, like many such hymns, were a synopsis of the law, making Christ the beginning and the end of all salvation. What a number of tender and beautiful hymns we find dedicated to the Virgin and the saints ! But dependence on the Saviour is the keynote of all, as in the following : ' In the midst of life we are surrounded by death. From whom can we seek de- liverance if not from Thee, Lord ? Thee alone, Whom we have offended.' They are permeated by a confiding faith: 'Jesus, 1 Luther's Sammtliche WerJce, edit. Frankfort, v. 23. In rela- tion to Kaweraa's assertion that those hymns were not sung in the churches, see Ansivers to my Critics, pp. 61-62. More than half the hymns attributed to Luther were of much earlier origin, and were adapted to the new doctrines by him, while others are merely translations from the Latin. It is very doubtful if he composed a single one of the many for which he gets credit. See Meister, xvi. 30.
 * God lives within us,' ' God be praised and blessed,'
 * Come, Holy Ghost, Thou Lord and God,' ' Through