Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/40

28 the Latin; twenty 'Ballatis of the Scripture', one of which is from the German. Its last edition is entitled Psalmes of David with uther new pleasand Ballatis Translatit out of Euchiridion Psalmorum to be sung. Twenty-two psalm versions are included, thirteen of them being from the German; three hymns from the German, one from the Latin; seven adaptations from secular ballads, and thirty-six other items. 'Some of the pieces, though rude, have a wonderful pathos, and even beauty. Reading the anti-papal satires, one does not wonder at the rage they excited among the Roman ecclesiastics'.

In 1564 appeared the complete Scotch Psalter, prepared by order of the General Assembly. Thirty-nine of the versions were by Sternhold, thirty-seven by Hopkins, sixteen by Whittingham, twenty-five by Kethe. The Assembly ordained that every minister, reader, and exhorter should have and use a copy. Charles I sought to enforce the use of another version, which was largely the work of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling. The opposition aroused led Alexander largely to rewrite his version. It was then bound up with Laud's luckless Service Book of 1637, which was indignantly rejected by all Scotland. The General Assembly was restored, and Alexander's monopoly came to an untimely end. When the Westminster Assembly met, in 1643, Parliament instructed it to prepare a Psalter for use in both kingdoms. This was done with much care. But the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland was not satisfied with the result. It therefore appointed four persons to make further revision. The book was published in 1650, and is to this day the one Psalter used by Presbyterian Scotland. Even though sometimes rude in style, its faithfulness, vigour, and terseness cannot be denied. It is woven into the very fibre of the national religion.

The popularity of psalm-singing entirely destroyed the influence of Latin hymnody in England. During the Reformation epoch we catch a few echoes of Luther's muse. With the exception of two pieces, nearly the whole of Coverdale's Goostly Psalmes and Spiritual Songs is a more or less close rendering from the German. It was a misfortune that Coverdale's example was not followed; but Calvin's influence was dominant, and he was not prepared to admit anything into public worship save paraphrases of Scripture, and 'even of Scripture little outside the Psalms became the stern rule of our hymnody for the next century and a half'.