DAVID'S HARP

SONG AND STORY,

JOSEPH WADDELL CLOKEY. D. D.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

W.

J. ROBINSON, D. D.

" The Harp the Hebrew minstrel swept,

The King of Men, the loved of Heaven,

Which Music hallow'd while she wept

O'er tones her heart of hearts had given, Redoubled be her tears, its chords are riven

!

It soften'd men of iron mold.

It gave them virtues not their own

;

No ear so dull, no soul so cold,

That felt not, fired not to the tone,

Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne." —Enron.

PITTSBURGH :

UNITED PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION.

63 AND 55 Ninth Street,

1896

DEDICATION.

To the memory of my Sainted Parents is dedicated this

History of the Bible Psalms, which supplied for their life-

time the sole material of their praise, both in their church

and home.

If they are now, in the other life, in conscious

touch with us in this, it will be a pleasant thought to them

to know that they have children in earth who will never

cease to be grateful to them that they led their feet in child-

life by the green pastures and still waters of a Holy Bible

and a Holy Psalmody.

New Albany, Ind.

CONTENTS.

Introduction

Chapter

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

X.

XI.

XII.

by Dr. Robinson 6

The Psalms 11

The Psalms in the Jewish Church 18

Primitive Church 46

Dark Ages 64

Reformation 90

Swiss and French Ref-

ormation 107

Netherlands 134

English Reformation.

. 149

Scotch Reformation. .

. 177

American Colonies. . .

. 207

American Presbyterian

Churches 225

Psalm Singing Among the Early New

England Puritans 249

PREFACE.

At one of the last sessions of the Presbyterian General Assembly

held in Pittsburg in the month of Maj', the following communication

was read by the stated clerk :

" To the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, now in session

in Pittsburg

:

" Dear Fathers and Brethren—The undersigned beg leave to state

that they are chairmen of committees appointed by the General As-

sembly of the United Presbyterian church now in this city and by the synod of the Eeformed Presbyterian church, respectively, for the pur-

pose of securing a metrical version of the Book of Psalms which will be

correct and elegant and conform to the present canons of literary taste in

the English tongue.

The object proposed is not to commit any body oi

Christians to the use of such book in whole or in part when completed,

but to secure, if possible, a metrical translation of the Psalter of such

excellence as will commend it to the taste and judgment of all who may

desire to use the Psalms in praise, and as will secure it a place in the

hymnody of all the churches.

" It is believed that the material for such a version is already in

hand and is to be found in the many versions and the many manuals

of the churches, as also in many separate individual renderings.

Thus,

while new renderings would not be excluded from consideration, the

proposed work would be chiefly that of collation, selection and compila-

tion of metrical translations now in existence.

" We are instructed by the bodies which we represent to solicit the

co-operation in this revision of other bodies of Christians which have

authorized in their standards the use of the Psalms in praise.

"We therefore request this General Assembly, representing the

largest and most influential of the Presbyterian bodies, to consider this

proposal favorably and to appoint a committee to co-operate in this work, being assured that your example in so doing would be readily followed by all the Reformed churches.

"W. J. Robinson,

"Chair. Com. United Presbyterians.

" W. J. Coleman,

"Chair. Com. Reformed Presbyterians."

May 27, 1895.

The members of the Assembly at the time, perhaps, looked on a

favorable response to this communication more in the light of a courtesy than anything else, and so appointed a corresponding committee.

The

question of her Psalmody had not been one of the agitated topics of the

church, and few, if any, of the delegates felt that here was a proposition

of serious import.

The falling of the communication among such a body

intensely stirred by questions connected with seminary control, was like

the dropping of a leaf in a tempest, yet, it was a leaf borne by a dove to

the ark that told of the subsidence of the flood, and the reappearing of

the forests and the soil that had been for months covered from sight.

So may not this communication fi"om two bodies of Presbyterians to a

third, by a prophetic leaf, omening such a setthng down of denomina-

tional agitations as will bring to the surface, as never before, the Psalms

of the Bible, which have been so often obscured amid the contentions

over other important affairs.

To this united committee from these three

leading bodies of Christians this little work goes with its silent plea.

It

is sent to you that the Psalms may tell their own story.

They come in

no spirit of dispute ; they do not propose to take issue with you on any

of the questions of your Psalmody over which you conscientiously differ.

At present they only plead for greater prominence in the praises of

Zion.

We are part of God's Inspired Word, they say to you, sent down

from Heaven through the movings of the Holy Spirit that we may be sung

in the praises of God's people.

For more than twenty-five centuries we

have been in the worship of the church, and what we have done in all

these long ages, in comforting and inspiring the people of God, we are

still capable of doing for the ages to come.

Are you, and are your

difficulties and dangers, and experiences, so different from your fathers who loved us, that you can afford to consign us to an obscure corner in your Books of Song !

We claim a high place in your material of praise.

Kead our story and consider our plea.

INTRODUCTION.

The Book of Psalms is a unique portion of the Inspired vohime.

While it is vitally, as well as structurally, a part of the sacred Book,

breathing the same spirit, and throbbing with the pulsations of the same divine life which animates the whole, yet in its structure, matter, style

and tone, it differs from all the other books of the Bible.

As another

has well said, "It is not the history of God's people, or of God's ways

with them, nor is it the inculcation of positive doctrines or duties, nor

the formal prophetic announcement of coming events.

These are in the

Psalms, it is true, but only in a subordinate way.

History, prophecy,

providence, doctrine and law are all here, but these form nothing more than the frame around which the Spirit of God has built the praise,

prayer and adoration of the Lord's people." Dr. Addison Alexander, in

his learned exegetical Commentary on the Psalms, points out the follow-

ing distinctive characteristics of the book: "These hundred and fifty

independent pieces, different as they are, have this in common, that

they are all poetical, not merely imaginative and expressive of feeling, but stamped externally with that peculiar character of parallelism

which distinguishes the higher style of Hebrew composition from

ordinary prose.

A still more marked resemblance is that they are all not

only poetical, but lyrical,

i. e., songs, poems intended to be sung, and

with musical accompaniment.

Thirdly, they are all religious lyrics,

even those which seem at first sight the most secular in theme and spirit, but which are all found on inquiry to be strongly expressive of religious

feeling.

In the fourth place, they are all ecclesiastical lyrics. Psalms or

Hymns, intended to be permanently used in public worship, not ex-

cepting those which bear the clearest impress of original connection with

the social, domestic or personal relations and experiences of the writers." Like every other portion of the Sacred Volume, the Book of Psalms is

the Word of God, the expression of the Divine mind toward sinful

men, "The revelation of the will of God for human salvation," and is

profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in

righteousness." But unlike every other portion of the Volume, in its

structure, matter, style and form, it seems to be specially adapted to the

use of formal praise and worship.

It is a book complete in itself.

It

depends for its interpretation, and for its highest uses, upon every other

part of the Word, yet it stands out with a recognized prominence that

distinguishes it as "theDivinest of these Divine Words." In its themes

6

it compasses the whole range of revealed truth.

It opens the door into

the very inner sanctuary of the Divine mind.

It lays bare the secrets of

the human heart.

It sweeps every chord in the entire gamut of human

feeling, and attunes its voice to all the varying moods, and changing

experiences, which make up the spiritual life of the child of God on earth. "There," says Luther, "you look right down into the heart of saints,

and behold all manner of joys and joyous hearts toward God and his

love springing lustily into life !

Again, you look into the heart of saints

as into death and hell !

How gloomy and dark their mournful visions of

God." What notes of joy, outbursts of gladness and songs of praise

echo and re-echo through this wonderful book !

And yet how much of

the song is modulated to the expression of grief and sorrow. "The Book

is a 'Psalm of Life' ", and it sings in both the major and minor keys,

because human life has both joys and sorrows.

What a mirror it is of

the human heart burdened with sin, redeemed by grace, struggling

against ten thousand enemies within and without, helpless in itself,

laying hold upon the divine strength, in the depths to-day, and crying

out in fear and anguish on the Rock to-morrow, and shouting the songs

of deliverance, now wailing the cry of utter despair, and anon rising

exultant on the wings of hope, " faint, yet pursuing ! " It is no wonder

that the true child of God finds the Book of Psalms the very manual of

his spiritual life.

Though written ages before the fuller revelation of the

Gospel had been given, this Book is irradiated with the brightest beams

of Gospel Hght.

It was rich and full as the honey-comb to the Old

Testament saint, but it has a richer fulness and a sweeter taste to him

who has entered most largely into "the fulness of the blessing of the

Gospel of Christ.'' Spurgeon writes in the Preface to the last volume

of " The Treasury of David," as the testimony of his experience in the study of the Book, "The Book of Psalms instructs us in the use of wings

as well as words ; it sets us both mounting and singing.

Often have I

ceased my <iommenting upon the text, that I might rise with the Psalm, and gaze upon the visions of God." And what multitudes of the best

and holiest of the followers of Jesus have found in this Book, the songs which have made melody " in the house of their pilgrimage ! " Well

may the celebrated Tholuck say, "Songs, which like the Psalms have

stood the test of three thousand years, contain a germ for eternity." And yet another distinction belongs to this Book.

These songs, so rich, full

and complete in all the material for the worship of God, so adapted in

their clear and graphic expression of all the emotions and experiences

of true piety, to the purposes of worship, so adequate to all the uses of

worship, are declared by their very style and structure to have been

designed by their Author, for the service of worship.

This is the con-

clusion to which all scholarly study of the Book invariably leads.

Few,

if any, competent Expositors have failed to express this conviction.

The

great and prominent purpose of the Book of Psalms, as indicated by its matter, style and structure, was to furnish the Church with an inspired

Psalter for her service of praise on earth.

Has the Church accepted and

acted upon this divine intent in giving the Book?

Has she made use of

it as the manual of her formal Praise in the worship of her God ? A

glance at the Church to-day suggests a negative answer to the question.

With the exception of a few of the smaller branches, the great Church of Jesus Christ has found other, and in her judgment, better and more appropriate material for rendering the high praises of God in her public worship than is furnished by the inspired Psalter.

The genius of un-

inspired men has created a hymnody for praise and worship, drawn from the inspired Word, and from the store-house of human experience, which has been accepted by the Church, as better fitted to express the reverent

adoration, praise and homage due from the creature to the great

Creator, than the inspired Psalms and Hymns of the Sacred Scrip-

tures.

And hence, the voice of inspired Psalm is seldom heard in the

public worship of the modern Church.

Has it always been thus?

Has

this divinely-given Book of Praises never approved itself to the mind

and heart of the Church ?

Or is its exclusion from the service of praise

a modern innovation ?

These are inquiries which cannot but be of great

interest to every lover of the inspired Word.

It is believed that these

inquiries find a very satisfactory answer in the pages of this Work.

The

Author has undertaken to show, by a careful study of the history of the Church, what is the estimate which the Church in all past ages has

placed upon the inspired Psalter, and what is the place she has given it

in her service of worship.

Well fitted for the necessary study and re-

search, by his taste, his scholarly attainments, his mental acumen, dis-

cipline and equipment, and his access to the Authorities, Dr. Clokey has

traced the history of the Psalter from its first appearance in the Hebrew

Church, down through all the Christian ages to the present time.

And

b}' an accumulation of undisputed testimonies, he has shown that this

incomparable Book of Praises has not only furnished the material for

the Church's praise through all the ages past, but has also been her sup-port in the times of her severest trials, her "Battle Cry" in her great

conflicts with the powers of darkness, and the inspiration to her glorious "Works of faith, and labors of love." He has disclosed the fact that

these inspired Psalms have played an important part in the great

" Revivals " and Reformation movements, which have so often awakened

the slumbering Church, and lifted her up to a higher plane of life.

He has also made prominent the fact that these Psalms have been a

great conserving power in the Church, standing as a bulwark of defense

to the truth against the assaults of error.

And thus we believe that this

8

volume is not only a timely and valuable contribution to the religious

literature of the day, but also a full vindication of the claims of the

inspired Psalter to be the divinely-appointed and all-sufficient Hymnody of the Church on earth, and a mighty plea for its restoration to its

rightful place in the modern Church.

The work is commended to the

Christian public, with the full assurance that a careful perusal of ita

contents will awaken a new interest in this most precious portion of the

Word of God, and with the hope that it will give a mighty impulse to

the movement which has already begun, to unite the whole Church of Jesus Christ in the use of God's own Songs, in the service of his praise and worship.

W. J. Robinson.

Allegheny, Pa., Feb., 1896.

CHAPTER I.

The Psalms.

A French infidel has called the Psalms

'

' the poetry of

religious souls.

'

' This compliment is full of meaning and

reveals more than usual acquaintance with the history and

character of the Psalms.

Were his

'

' Life of Jesus

'

' as faith-

ful a portrayal of truth, the world would acknowledge itself

under an eternal debt of gratitude to him.

The poetic

merits of these Bible lyrics have never been disputed.

They

have been extolled by literature's most eminent critics.

The

very greatest of our poets frankly confess their indebtedness

to them for that which gives life to their numbers—poetic

inspiration.

The Psalms possess no instance of the extrava-

gance of an excited fancy ; yet have they the sublimit}^ of

the most exalted genius.

They never descend to triteness

nor vulgarity ; yet are they grand in their simplicity.

They

are nature's own poetry.

Like the swelling of the sea or

the murmur of the brook ; like the rushing of the storm or

the silent falling of the sunshine, they move, not as if con-

trolled and impelled by some force from without, but as by

the impulse of a principle and under the guidance of a law.

They are a true representative of the poetry of that age

when the imagination and the heart were not constrained by

a narrow poetic creed, but roamed in freedom and yielded

only to nature's inspirings.

The soul, in all the variety of

its experience ; in the enthusiasm of its joy or the depression

of its grief ; in the buoyancy of its hopes, the agitation of

its fears, the harassing of its doubts, can find no freer, fuller

utterance than in the Psalms of Holy Writ.

The Psalms exhibit that without which no poem can be

12 David's harp in song and story.

a portraiture of true human experience—piety.

It is be-

cause of their eminently religious character, that they have

formed the staple of the sacred songs of the Church for

three thousand years.

The

'

' new creature' ' in Christ being the same in all

ages, the harp of Judah has never ceased to awaken sympathy

in the hearts of God's people.

Truly remarkable is the

endurance of the Psalms ; their changes from age to age,

from race to race, from clime to clime, have left no evidences

of decay.

For centuries they served in the temple ; for

centuries they have mingled in the devotions of the New

Economy, yet are they as new and vigorous as when first

they sprung from the souls of their inspired authors.

Well

has Tholuck said,

'

' Songs, which, like the Psalms, have

stood the test of three thousand years, contain a germ for

eternity.

'

' The universal appreciation of the Psalms has been

no less remarkable.

Like a sparkling spring they have

welcomed and refreshed every soul that has sought their

cooling waters.

We do not wonder that genius has been

attracted to their beauty.

They bear the impress of a divine

origin, and must possess depths of excellence that will, to

human intellects, ever reveal new truths or known truth

in new attractions.

These Psalms comforted Chrysostom,

Athanasius, Savonarola—great minds of earlier years—in

their retreat from persecution.

Polycarp, Columba, Hilde-

brand, Bernard, Francis of Assisi, Columbus, Huss, Edward

VI., Ximenes, Xavier, Melancthon, and Jewell, varying in

their creeds and characters, yet, in common, great in birth

or intellect, all breathed their last utterances in words from

the Psalms.

Sentiments from his Psalter were the last

words that fell upon the ear of Charles V., the imperial foe

to the Reformation.

Locke, in his last days, bade a friend

THE PSALMS. 13

read the Psalms aloud, and it was while in wrapt attention

to them that the stroke of death fell upon him.

So dear to

Wallace, in his wanderings, was his psalm book that when

brought to the place of execution, he had it hung before

him, and his eyes remained fixed upon it as the consolation

of his dying hours.

Henry V. , of England, at his death-bed

had the penitential Psalms read to him.

When the priest

came to the words of the Fifty-first Psalm, ' 'Build thou the

walls of Jerusalem,

'

' the warlike genius of the dying King was

aroused, and he exclaimed: "Ah, had God suffered me to

live out my days and bring this French war to a close, I am

the man who would have conquered the Holy Land." The

great Addison found the Twenty-third Psalm, throughout his

life, the best expression of his devotion. " I have lost a

world of time," said the learned Salmasius on his death-bed ;

"If I had one year more, I would spend it in reading the

Psalms of David and Paul's Epistles."

Humbolt was an especial admirer of the One hundred

and fourth Psalm.

He called it a picture of the entire

cosmos, and adds, "We are astonished to see within the

compass of a poem of such small dimensions, the universe,

the heavens, and the earth drawn with a few grand strokes.

The unhappy Darnley was soothed in the toils of his enemies by the Fifty-fifth Psalm.

Burleigh selected the Psalms—over the rest of the

Bible—as his especial delight.

Luther called them his

"Little Bible," and made them the framework of his devo-

tions, and the substance of his war cries. "This sweet-

smelling bundle of Psalms,

'

' said Dickson, of Scotland.

But the burden of the history of these sacred songs comes

from the homes of the lowly and obscure.

Where the names

of Homer, Dante, Byron, Shelley, Milton are never heard,

14 David's harp in song and story.

the Psalms are sung, read, committed to memory, repeated,

as though the exclusive boon of earth's unknown.

From how

many lips, now closed in death, have gone up the sweet

music of Judea's hallowed songs !

From how many cots

of disease ; from how many deserts and rocks, and caves,

and forests ; from how many crosses and guillotines have

echoed back to ancient Jerusalem the vibrations of David's

Psaltery !

The history of the Psalms as they nourished and

comforted the captives in Babylon, the hunted worshipers

under the cruelty of Roman Emperors, the Waldenses, in

their mountain retreats, the Huguenots, in their desert

worship or in banishment, and the Covenanters among the

rugged resorts of the Highlands—in all they have done for unnumbered hearts and homes, can never be written.

Whence this agreement in love and admiration for the

book of Psalms ?

Doubtless in the fact that they are the

poems of the heart.

However men may differ in their

habits of thought, their tastes, education, position and origin,

the workings of the human heart are everywhere the same.

A tear is a tear, whether it fall upon the cheek of the galley

slave or of a King or a poet ; so with joy, grief, love, fear,

doubt, distress ; external distinctions do not run into the

bosoms of men.

In the heart is the unity of the human

race.

The Psalms are the pure offspring of emotion ; go

forth saturated with the feeling of natures deeply stirred by

the experiences of the inner life, and so are profoundly

human.

Men everywhere and in all times and positions love

them, because every one sees in them the exact and full

mirroring of his own soul.

Nor can they ever be despised

or even find a successful rival till the race ceases to be what

it is, and its living myriads rise to sing heaven's new Psalms,

or sink to the wailings of despair.

THE PSALMS. 15

The selection of a few of the many eloquent encomiums

upon the Psalms may claim a place here as a part of their

history and literature :

"So far from questioning the poetry of the Psalms of David, there

existed no productions which could be conceived vaorepoetical, harmonious and heart-stirring and mostly more ecstatic than just the Psalms."—Henry

Stephanus.

"The use of the Psalms became the blessing of humanity, not only

on account of their contents, but also on account of the form.

Just as no

lyric poet among the Greeks and the Romans furnished such a mass of

doctrine, consolation and instruction, so there is hardly anywhere to be found so rich a variety of tone in every species of song as here.

For two

thousand years have the Psalms frequently and differently been translated and

imitated, and stiU there are many new formations of their much-embracing and rich

tnanner possible.

They are flowers which change their appearance in every time

and in every soil—hit always bloom in the beauty of youth.

Just because the

Psalter contains the simplest lyrical expressions of the most diversified

feelings—it is the hymn-book for all times."—Herder.

"David yields me every day the most delightful hour.

There is

nothing Greek, nothing Roman, nothing in the West, nor in the land

towards midnight to equal David, when the God of Israel chose to praise him higher than the gods of the nations.

The utterance of his mind

sinks deep into my heart, and never in my life, never have I thus seen God." —John Mueller.

" One word from the Psalms was a sunbeam to me ; like a lark, I

settled on the pinions of that eagle ; carried by her, I scaled the rock,

and beheld from that eminence the world, with its cares and mine,

stretched out beneath me ; I acquired to think, infer, mourn, pray, wait,

hope and speak in the spirit of David : ' I thank thee, Lord, that thou

hast humbled me.'****' Next to the writings of the New Testa-ment, these are to me my dearest and most precious book—the golden

mirror, the cyclopaedia of the most blessed and fruitful knowledge and

experience of my life ; to thoroughly understand them will be the occu-

pation of eternity, and our second life will form their commentary."

John Jacob Moser.

" The Book of Psalms is a vase of perfume broken on the steps of

the temple and shedding abroad its odors to the heart of all humanity-

The little Shepherd has become the master of the sacred choir of the

miiverse.

A chord of his harp is to be found in all choirs, resounding

16 David's harp in song and story.

forever in unison with the echoes of Horeb and Engedi.

David is the

psalmist of eternity.

What power hath poetry when inspired by the

Almighty God!"—Lamartine.

"These works (the Psalms, allegories of Solomon, and prophecies of

Isaiahj are set forth with a splendor and a sublimity which, considered merely as poetry, excite our wonder and disdain all comparison with any other composition ; they form a fountain of fiery and God-like inspira-

tion of which the greatest modern poets have never been weary of drink-

ing, which has suggested to them their noblest images and animated

them for their most magnificent flights."—Schlegel.

" It is in the main owing to the religious and devotional qualities of

the Hebrew p>oetry that the Book of Psalms still, after the lapse of so

many centuries, and the rise and fall of so many modes of thought and forms of social life, holds an emi^ire over the hearts of men far wider and deeper and more influential than what any other influence has possessed, save only that which is and will ever be exercised by David's greater

Son."—kitto.

"The Psalms thus applied have advantages that no fresh composi-

tions, however finely executed, can possibly have.

Since, besides their

incomparable fineness to express our sentiments, they are, at the same

time, memorials of and appeals to former mercies and deliverances ; they

are acknowledgments of prophecies accomplished ; they point out the

connection between the old and new dispensations, whereby teaching us

to admire and adore the wisdom of God displayed in both and furnishing while we read or sing them, an inexhaustible variety of the noblest

matter that can engage the contemplations of men."—Home.

" Those holy songs are nothing else than the expressions and breath-

ings of devout and holy aSections : such as an humble and fervent love

to God, admiration of His glorious perfections and wonderful works,

earnest desires, thirstings and j^antings of soul after Him.

And these

expressions of holy afi'ection of which the Psalms of David are every-

where full, are the more to our present purpose, because those Psalms

are not only the expression of the religion of so eminent a Saint, but

were also by the direction of the Holy Spirit penned for the use of the

Church, not only in that age but in after ages."—Jonathan Edwards.

" The soul of the reformer has vibrated under them (the Psalms) to its

depths ; and the lone hand of Luther holding his banner before the eyes

of Europe, has trembled less that it was stretched out to the time of

David's heroic Psalms.

On them the freed spirit of the Martyr has

soared away.

And have not destruction and death heard their fame,

THE PSALMS. 17

when on the brown heaths of Scotland, the stern lay was lifted, by the

persecuted, like a new drawn sword,and waved flashing before the eyes of the foemen

* In Judah's land God is well known, His name's in Israel great,' etc.

"Wild, holy, tameless strains ; how have ye run down through ages, in

which large poems, systems and religions have perished, firing the souls

of poet^, kissing the lips of children, smoothing the pillows of the dying,

stirring the warrior to heroic rage, perfuming the chambers of solitarj'-

Saints and clasping into one the hearts and voices of thousands of

assembled worshipers ; tinging many a literature and finding a room

in many a land, and still ye are as fresh and young and powerful as

ever ; yea, perhaps preparing for even mightier triumphs than when first

chanted !

Britain, Germany, America, now sing you, but you must yet

awaken the dumb millions of China and Japan."—GilfiUan.

" We need not dwell on this universality as found in the Psahns of

David.

Devout feeling, and the most learned critical research, alike

concur in the thought, that the key to their best interpretation is found

in that view which regards them as the divine songs of all truly religious

souls, the standing temple service of all ages, so adapted to the expression

of temporal and spiritual sorrows, temporal and spiritual joys, temporal and spiritual salvation, that each may be regarded as the primary or

secondary significance, according to the state of soul in which the in-

cipient reads or chants the wondrously adapted words.

There is nowhere

in the physical world any such evidence of adaptedness or design as this.

The historical world certainly furnishes nothing like it.

Let it be called

accommodation, if any prefer the word ; we could not thus accommodate

one of the lyric hymns of Greece, or a song of the Rig Veda."—Tayler Lewis.

CHAPTER n.

The Psalms in the Jewish Church.

Some of the old Jewish writers, proud of the antiquitv

of their Psalms, have taken pains to prove to us that Abra-

ham, Melchisedec, and even Adam, are to be classed

among the sacred Psalmists.

But more modern critics are

content with claiming the church's first great Lawgiver as

her first great inspired Poet.

To Moses, in the present col-

lection of the Psalms, is given but one—the Mnetieth.

When that was composed, where, on what occasion, no one

has told us.

Its title is its sole history—"A Prayer of

Moses." That its strains came from a soul when in sorrow

and oppressed by the consciousness of some present or fore-known calamity, our own experience tells us, as we pass

over the sentiments of that Psalm.

Let the reader place

himself by the Red Sea, with the hosts of Egypt struggling

hopelessly before him ; let him visit the camp of Sennacherib,

with its countless dead covering the sods of the valley ; or

let him listen to the wailings at the final fall of Jerusalem,

her streets in blood from a million of her slain ; let him view

these

scenes as one personally interested in the dead, and

how fully will his religious feelings find expression in the

pathos of these sad words :

" 3.

Thou turnest man to destruction ; and sayest, Return, ye

children of men.

" 4.

For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it

is past, and as a watch in the night.

" 5.

Thou earnest them away as with a flood ; they are as a sleep ;

in the morning they are like grass which gi'oweth up.

"6.

In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up ; in the evening it

is cut down, and withereth.

"7.

For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we

troubled."

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 19

How much of this world's history has the "Prayer of

Moses

'

' seen ?

Move than five hundred years passed away

with it, before Homer penned his immortal Iliad ; or before

David played his harp in the royal chamber of Saul.

Was

the Ninetieth Psalm sung in the Wilderness pilgrimage?

Did its strains help express the joy at the crossing of the

Jordan, or at the falling of Jericho's walls?

Perhaps the

joung minstrel prophets that met Saul were chanting to the

music of their instruments, "Lord, thou hast been our

dwelling place."

Wonderful song !

Since its inditing, Greece has begun

and ended its career of martial and literary splendor

;

Komulus built a city that grew, mastered the world ; that

fell, and is now only remembered as the great Rome—all

since Moses sang.

Fifteen hundred years of the past, and

eighteen hundred of the present dispensation have gone by

thirty-three centuries, yet the

'

' Prayer of Moses

'

' survives.

Worn in the bearing upward of countless prayers, in the

soothings of countless troubled and penitent souls, it has

lost none of its simple, sublime beauty ; but now awaits

the bidding of new-born souls, as fresh as in its Wilderness

days.

Leaving Moses, one cannot pass over the centuries that

intervene in the authorship of the Psalter without lamenting

the loss of the many inspired songs that comforted and

cheered the Israelites in the days of their pilgrimage and

during the rule of the judges.

Did God provide inspired

men to indite new songs from period to period ?

It is not

passing the bounds of probability to suppose that Israel was

frequently supplied with Psalms by the prophets to be sung

in connection with any that may have descended to them

from the days of Moses and Job.

But God has for some

20 David's harp in song and story.

wise purpose shut out of the Psalter all but one of the ante-

Davidic Psalms.

The next Psalmist we meet with comes upon a throne,

and so surrounds his sacred poetry with the dignity of royal

authorship.

While the first King of Israel was enjoying the

undisputed authority of his reign, a shepherd lad was feeding

his father's sheep on the plains about the ancient city of

Bethlehem, He possessed no external distinction, save that

which was in common with his race—he was a Jew.

His

father was from one of the most noted lines of Jewish ancestry,

but spent his days, like his brethren, in the peaceable pur-

suits of a shepherd's life ; and young David was passing

quietly into the same calling, unambitious and unsuspecting

of a bright destiny.

The choice of the grave old prophet

was his first intimation of greatness. The gloiy of a successful combat against the giant champion of the Philistines, and

the songs of Israel's daughters over his triumphs were

further premonitions that his valor was not always to be

exercised against the foes of his father's flocks, but had been

consecrated by an overruling power to the exploits of a

soldier and a king.

Religious in spirit, beautiful in person, heroic in danger,

a poet, a musician, David grew in favor with God and men.

His royal preferment, coming not from inheritance nor civil

suffrage, but from heaven, an unseen hand safely guided his

footsteps up from the humble home at Bethlehem, through

the praises of his fellow-countrymen, to a long and suc-

cessful sway over a proud and powerful race.

But the world thinks least of David, the King ; most of

David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel.

The sovereignty of

his sceptre extended over one people and in one generation.

When in the tomb of the kings, his authority reclined with

him ; for the mere name of royalty, however green-preserved

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 21

in memory, can win no victories.

As a poet prince, David

rules as he never ruled before ; though dead, the music of

his voice still successfully summons obeying nations, and

though none now bow at his throne, millions list and are

moved at the touching of his Psaltery.

David was called as a Psalmist as well as a King.

His

education referred to his songs as well as to his commands.

Continually under the influence of the Spirit, led by Him in

every pathway of life, and through every form of experi-

ence, David's Psalms are a miracle in their vast depth of

feeling and in their comprehension of every shade of life

between deep sorrow and exultant joy. " His harp was full-

stringed, and every angel of joy and sorrow swept over the

cords as he passed.

For the hearts of one hundred men

strove and struggled together in the narrow continent of his

single heart ; and will the scornful men have no sympathy

for one so conditioned, but scorn him, because he ruled not

with constant quietness the unruly hosts of divers natures

which dwelt within his single soul ?

With the defense of his

backslidings, which he had more keenly scrutinized, more

clearly discerned against, and more bitterly lamented than

any of his censors, we do not charge ourselves, because they

were in a manner necessary, that he might be the full-orbed man that needed to utter every form of Spiritual feeling.

'

" The Lord did not intend that his Church should be without a rule

for uttering its grief; and to bring such a rule and institute into being

He raised up his servant David as he had formerly raised up Moses to

give to the Church an institute of law, and to that end he led him the round of all human conditions, that he might catch the Spirit proper to everyone and utter it according to truth.

He allowed him not to curtail

hi.s being by treading the round of one function, but every variety of

function. He cultivated his whole being, and filled his soul with wisdom and feeling.

He found him objects for every affection, that the affection

might not slumber and die.

He brought him up in the sheep pastures,

22 David's harp in song and stoey.

that the ground -work of his cliaracter might be laid among the simple

and univeral forms of feeling.

He took him to the camp and made him

a conqueror that he might be filled with nobleness of soul and ideas of

glory.

He placed him in the palace that he might be filled with ideas of

majesty and sovereign might.

He carried him to the Wilderness and

placed him in solitudes that his soul might dwell alone in the sublime

conceptions of God and his mighty works.

And he kept him there for

long years with only one step between him and death that he might be

well schooled to trust and depend upon the Providence of God."

Irving's Introduction to the Psalms.

Much difference of opinion prevails as to the number of

the canonical Psalms of which David was the author.

From

the general appellation, David's Psalms, as commonly ap-

plied to the Psalter, the impression of the masses is that

David composed all of the one hundred and fifty.

With this

impression corresponds the opinion of some of the old Greek

and Latin fathers.

Some eminent archaeologists credit to

him only seventy-three, and others even less than this, while some of the Jewish writers regard David as only the com-

piler of the Psalms.

But by the best authorities David is

regarded as the author of at least seventy Psalms.

By consulting the titles of the Psalms in our English

Bibles we find that seventy-three are assigned to David.

This

classification of King James' version agrees with the Hebrew.

In the Latin Vulgate only seventy Psalms are attributed to

the Hebrew Psalmist.

As some of the Psalms bear no names

of authors, and as there is no possible way of ascertaining

their authorship, it is possible that some or all these came

from the pen of David.

Of two things only are we certain,

that David composed more of the Psalms than any other

poet, and that he did not compose all of them.

Following the titles of the English and Hebrew Psalters,

the Psalmist immediately succeeding David is Solomon, to

whom are attributed the Seventy-second and One hundred

and twenty-seventh Psalms.

It is doubtful, however, whether

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 23

either of these Psalms was composed by Solomon.

While

most of the versions ascribe the Seventy-second to him, the

Syriac ascribes it to David, which seems very probable since

the conclusion reads, "The prayers of David the son of Jesse

are ended.

'

The title of the One hundred and twenty-seventh Psalm

in the Syriac reads, "A Psalm of David concerning Solo-

mon; and that it was spoken also concerning Haggai and

Zechariah, who forwarded the building of the temple."

In the Septuagint, ^thiopic, Arabic and Anglo-Saxon, the

title is simply "A Psalm of Degrees." The Psalm bears

internal evidence of having been written at the time of the

Iniilding of one of the temples, but which one is not known.

It is not probable that the Psalms can claim Solomon, the

gifted king and poet, among their authors, unless for some of

those inserted without titles.

Twelve Psalms bear the name of Asaph.

The first Asaph

of whom we have any knowledge, was a celebrated musician

in the days of David, and the son of Berachiah of the tribe of

Levi.

He was one of three chief leaders in the choir, first

of the tabernacle, and afterwards of the temple.

He was a

prophet as well as a poet and musician, and in the days of

Hezekiah is placed alongside of David in the estimation of

the Jews—"moreover, Hezekiah the king, and the princes

commanded the Levites to sing jiraise unto the Lord, with

the words of David and of Asaph the seer.

'

It has been supposed by some that Asaph was only a

composer of the music to which the Psalms bearing his name

were sung.

This may be; it is plain that the full twelve

Psalms were not written by the Asaph of David's time, as

some of them bear marked evidence of having been composed

over the downfall of Jerusalem at the time of the captivity

in Babylon.

The apparent discrepancy between the title and

24 David's harp in song and story.

the occasion of the writing of these Babylonish Psalms is no

doubt explained by the supposition that some other Asaph, who was among the captives, was their author.

That there

was an Asaph among the returned captives, we learn from

Nehemiah 2:8.

This Asaph, in the land of the captivity,

was held in esteem, as he had l)een appointed keeper of the

king's forest, and held communications with Artaxerxes.

In the Psalter, Heman and Ethan have each one Psalm.

These two were both Levites, Ezrahites, and leaders in the

choir in the days of David and Solomon.

They were men

so distinguished for wisdom that they were among the speci-

fied few who in

1 Kings 4 : 31, are said to have excelled.

Ethan is sometimes called Jeduthan.

There have been those who have referred the Eighty-

eighth and Eighty-ninth Psalms to the Heman and Ethan

mentioned in 1 Chron. 2:6, as the grandsons of Judah by his

daughter-in-law Tamar.

If this conjecture were correct,

these Psalms are the oldest specimens of poetry extant, as

these two persons lived nearly two hundred years before

Moses.

In the Arabic the Eighty-ninth Psalm is credited to

Nathan, the Israelite.

Korah was confederate with Dathan, Abiram, and two

hundred and fifty of the principal Levites in their rebellion

against the authority of Moses and Aaron, and with them

was swallowed up in the cleaving of the earth.

As all the

children of Korah did not perish with him, it is thought by

Professor Stuart that the '

' sons of Korah,

'

' to whom are

attributed ten Psalms, were his descendants.

In the days

of David, the Korahites ' 'were over the work of the service,

keepers of the gates of the tabernacle; and their fathers,

being over the host of the Lord, were keepers of the entry.

'

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH, 25

The Korahites were also singers in the temple in the days of

Jehoshaphat.

The authors of the ten Psalms may have beeh

some of these who served in the tabernacle or sang in the

temple.

Many of the Psalms composed during, or after the cap-

tivity, are variously ascribed to Haggai, Ezra, Zechariah and

Nehemiah; but the name of neither of these persons appears

in the titles of what are regarded the captivity Psalms.

There are not wanting learned men who bring some of

the Psalms down to the age of the Maccabees.

Certain

Jewish authorities include in this period all of the Hallelujah

Psalms.

By Rudinger, the First, Forty-fourth. Forty-sixth,

Forty-ninth and One hundred and eighth; by Herman Von

Hardt, the One hundred and nineteenth ; by Venema, the

Eighty-fifth, Ninety-third and One hundred and eighth; and

by others, in addition to these, the Sixtieth, Seventy-fourth,

Seventy-ninth, Eightieth, Eighty-third, are considered Mac-

cabman.

Hitzig represented few Psalms as belonging to any

earlier date: according to his hypothesis Psalms First, Second,

Forty-fourth, Sixtieth and the last three books, including all from the Seventy-third to the One hundred and fiftieth Psalm,

were of Maccabsean origin.

He is followed in his opinion

by Lengerke and Justus Olshausen.

Westcott, late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge,

thus sums up the ^objections to a Maccabaean authorship in

the Psalter : "But if it be admitted that the Psalms in ques-

tion are of a later date than the captivity, it by no means

follows that they are Maccabtean.

On the contrary, they do

not contain the slightest trace of those internal divisions of

the people which were the marked features of the Maccabaean

struffffle.

The dangers then were as much from within as

without; and party jealousies brought the divine cause to the

greatest peril.

It is incredible that a series of Maccabaean

26 David's hakp in song and stoey.

Psalms should contain no allusion to a system of enforced

idolatry, or to a temporizing priesthood, or to a faithless

multitude.

And while the obscurity that hangs over the

history of the Persian supremacy from the time of Nehemiah

to the invasion of Alexander, makes it impossible to fix with

any precision a date to which the Psalms can be referred, the

one glimpse which is given of the state of Jerusalem in the

interval, is such as to show that they may well have found

some sufBcient occasion in the wars and disorders which at-

tended the decline of the Persian power.

'

It may be stated in addition to this that the closing of

the Old Testament canon in the fourth century before Christ, and the translation of the Septuagint, containing the entire

Psalter, in the third century before the Christian era, contra-

dict the supposition of any Psalms having been composed as

late as the time of the Maccabees.

The question of the authorship of the Psalms, though

perplexing, does not affect the integrity, inspiration and sub-

limity of the Psalms themselves.

The one hundred and fifty

are in the canon of the sacred Scriptures, and "whether David

or any other prophet was employed as the instrument of

communicating to the Church such and such a particular

Psalm, is a question which, if it cannot always be satisfac-

torily answered, need not disquiet our minds.

When we

discern in an epistle the well-known hand of a friend, we are

not solicitous about the pen with which it was written.

'

At this point may be introduced an inquiry of no little

importance : What was the design of the Almighty in di-

recting the gradual collection of the Psalms and the final

fixing of them in the canon of his inspired Word?

As each

of the other books of the Bible is only a selection, and has for some wise purpose been compiled from much more that

might have been included, we must conclude that there was

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 27

some special design also in choosing out of the Jewish Psal-mody of more than one thousand years, the one hundred and

fifty Psalms, and setting them as a part of a complete Bible.

What this design was, does not appear from any express

declaration in the Scriptures.

The individual and general

titles of the Psalms throw no light on the subject, for they

either make no reference to it, or are of an origin that can-

not be regarded as authoritative.

Nowhere in the Old Tes-

tament does God inform us why he had the one hundred and

fifty Psalms collected, and placed where they are.

The sup-

position that he was governed by a desire simply to provide

a Liturgical Psalm-book for the temple worship does not

harmonize with the delay of a complete collection until within

live hundred years of the final overthrow of the temple ser-

vice, nor with the fact of a limited selection from the many

inspired songs sung from time to time by the Jewish people.

By consulting the New Testament, we conclude that the

primary design of the present selection from all the songs of

the Hebrews was, that these specially foreshadowed the com-

ing of Christ.

That the Psalms are prophetic of Christ no

good commentator pretends to deny.

That Psalms prophetic

should be gathered because of their prophecies, seems just

as probable as that the writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah

should be collected and made canonical for theirs.

Bishop Horsley, in his preface to the book of Psalms,

remarks : " It is true that many of the Psalms are com-

memorative of the miraculous interpositions of God in behalf

of his chosen people; for, indeed, the history of the Jews is

a fundamental part of revealed religion.

Many were prob-

ably composed upon the occasimi of remarkable passages in

David's life, his dangers, his afilictions, his deliverances.

But of those which relate to the public history of the natural

Israel, there are few in which the fortunes of the mystical

28 David's harp in song and story.

Israel, the Christian Church, are not adumbrated; and of

those which allude to the life of David, there are none in

which the Son of David is not the principal and immediate

subject.

David's complaints against his enemies are Mes-

siah's complaints, first of the unbelieving Jews, then of the

heathen persecutors and of the apostate faction in the latter

ages.

David's afflictions are the Messiah's sufferings; Da-

vid's penitential supplications are the supplications of the

Messiah in agony; David's songs of triumph and thanksgiv-

ing are Messiah's songs of triumph and thanksgiving for his

victory over sin and death and hell.

In a word, there is not

a page of this book of Psalms in which the pious reader will

not find his Saviour, if he reads with a view of finding him.

'

That the Psalms which David himself wrote, were pro-

phetic, David himself states : " David the son of Jesse said,

and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet Psalmist of Israel said, The Spirit

of Jehovah speaks by me, and his word was on my tongue.

'

In the New Testament the principal use made of the

Psalter is of it as a collection of prophecies.

The Second,

Eighth, Sixteenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-second,

Fortieth, Forty-first, Forty-fourth, Forty-fifth, Sixty-eighth,

Sixty-ninth, Seventy- third.

Ninety-first, Ninety-fifth, One

hundred and tenth, One hundred and seventeenth, One hun-

dred and eighteenth and One hundred and thirty-second are

expressly quoted from as containing })rophecies of Christ in

his life, death and exaltation.

Christ himself referred to

the Psalms as prophecies.

After his resurrection he ap-

peared to his disciples and in the course of his conversation

with them said, "These are the words which I spake unto

you while I was yet with you, that all things must be ful-

filled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the

prophets, and in the Pmlms concerning me.''''

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 29

That the projjhecies concerning the Messiah should be

composed in the form of Psalms or songs, and be sung in

the stated services of the Jewish Church, does not seem

strange.

There is nothing in the material of a prophecy

that need render it unfit for psalmody; and there is a peculiar

beauty and appropriateness in making the Psalms of a great

people reflect the glories of an approaching Saviour.

It seems probable that in early days the terms to desig-

nate prophecies and psalms were synonymous.

The students

whom Saul met after leaving Samuel, are called ' 'prophets,

'

and they are said to have been prophesying "with a psaltery,

and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp;" by which we under-

stand that they were psalming their prophecies.

In 1 Chron. 25:2, Jeduthan is represented as one who

' ' prophesied iiyith a harp, to give thanks and to praise the

Lord. " " Moreover, David and the captains of the host

separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman,

and of Jeduthan, who should prophesy/ with harps, with psal-

teries, and with cymbals.

'

That God also designed the Psalter as a book of praise

for his Church has been a commonly-received opinion, both

in the earlier and later days of the New Testament Church.

Without such a design could not be well explained the adapt-

ability of the Psalms for psalmody, their use by Christ and

his disciples, and their influence in the sacred music of God's

people in every age.

At whatever time the general title of

the book was given, the Psalter was regarded as a book for

praise, for the " Schillim " of the Hebrews, and the "Psal-mor " and " Psalterion " of the Septuagint Greek, were

given to designate the Psalms as material to be sung in di-

vine worship, rather than as a collection of prophecies, or of

divine precepts.

Although the New Testament Scriptures make but little

30 David's harp in song and story.

mention of the matter of sacred melodies, yet, in what they do say, the Psalms of David are clearly recognized as com-

mended as proper songs for the edifying and comforting of

God's people.

As in Eph.

5:19: "Speaking to your-

selves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts "

; and in Col. 3

: 16: " Let

the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom ; teach-

ing and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto the

Lord "

; and in James 5

: 13 : "Is any merry?

Let him

sing Psalms."

Over the character of Hebrew poetry hangs a cloud

whose gloom eminent critics for centuries have vexed them-

selves to remove.

That the Psalms, the Book of Job and

other parts of the Scriptures are sublimely poetic, all fully

agree.

That poetry, of whether sacred or secular, should

assume a measure and find its utterance in numljers, all fully

accord as an essential in its composition.

What was the

measure ?

Was there any form of metre ?

These are the

mysterious problems which the learned have labored to solve.

The rules regulating the composition of Hebrew poetry

have been lost, and to restore them at this date is as difficult

as to transfer ourselves back to the times and into the cir-

cumstances when the poems of the Bible were recorded, and

created anew the numbers of their inditing.

There was a

period when there were no rules for the poet ; all that he

had, in common with the poets of his own times, and of all

times, was the genius and inspiration that give birth to

poetic sentiment.

Having no mould for his utterance, the

poet must create one for himself.

The poems of Homer

and of the Bible were probably the first of their kind, com-

posed at a time when the measures, like the poet himself,

were born.

Poetic genius, when creating, is no more likely

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 31

to create the same measures in the utterances of two indi-

viduals, or in two localities, or in two eras, than it is to

create sameness of sentiment.

Originality must be peculiar

to every composer in the first days of poesy.

For this reason,

Homer might write in Greece, and Solomon at the same time

in Jerusalem, and no known rules guide them, and so their

poetry would differ as widely in the numbers as in the

sentiment.

For the same reason the numbers of modern

tunes and those of the tunes of the Hebrew poets would

bear no resemblance to one another.

To trace the measures

of the Psalms in the Iliad or Odyssey, or to seek their dis-

covery in the rules of modern poetry and rhetoric, assumes

the poets to have had common rules, and to have written

according to them.

Had the Psalms themselves been totally

lost, how foolish to attempt to resurrect their sentiments by

taking the Iliad or Paradise Lost as a starting point !

To

restore lost sentiment is to create it ; to restore lost meas-

ures is to create them.

It is highly probable that many of the later Psalms

were composed upon some model ; but this model was in

earlier Psalms, or earlier poems, the rules of whose compos-

ing are lost, so that these possess the same difficulty as

though written when rules were unknown.

That there should be some resemblance between the

utterance of the Psalms and the works of Homer, Hesiod or

Pindar is natural.

All poems, however widely they may

differ in their origin, or their eras, possess resemblances.

Resemblances in poetry are inborn ; hence in any age, or

any land, we can, as by instinct, detect a poem, though

totally ignorant of its general construction.

But resemblances do not argue even the existence of rules.

The Psalms, like the Iliad, were written too soon for

rhyme.

Ehyme was neither born nor created, nor discov-

32 David's harp in song and story.

ered ; it was invented.

It is mechanical, and must be

classed with the locomotive and the reaper, and not with the

offspring of poetic inspiration.

He who invented rhrjme

invented manacles for the hands that should freely guide the

pen.

Still a history of the Psalms would not be complete

without certain spectral theories concerning the style of their

poetry.

These, if they will throw no light into dark places,

will be useful in summing up the estimation in which the

Psalms have been held, and the relative degree of attention

and investigation they have attracted.

Some of the early writers speak with as much confidence

upon the measures of the Psalms as though the Hebrew

system of poetic numbers was fully known in their times.

Josephus aflarms that the Songs of Moses, the Ninetieth

Psalm among them, were composed in the Greek heroic

verse, and that David composed odes and hymns in penta-

meters and trimeters—verses of five and three feet.

Origrin

and Eusebius followed his opinion.

Eusebius states that

the One hundred and nineteenth Psalm was composed in

heroic verse of sixteen syllables.

Julian, in reply to

Eusebius, undertakes to prove that the Hebrews had no

culture, and that their poetry, like the poetry of all un-

civilized nations, was rude.

Jerome fancied he could trace

in the Psalms the iambic, alcaic and saphic verses of Horace,

Pindar, Alcaceus and Sappho.

Gregory, of Nyssa, denies

the existence of classic metres in the Psalms.

Augustine

favored the view that they were in metre, and Scaliger re-

sponds to him by saying that the poetic books of the Bible

were mostly composed in prose, only animated by a poetic

spirit, the Song of Moses, the Proverbs and Job being the

onl}'- exceptions.

Gerhard Vossius argued for a rhythm, bat

no metre, while Gomarus, in the seventeenth century, con-

tended for both rhythm and meters.

Marcus Meibomius,

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 33

toward the close of the same century, professed to have dis-

covered the lost system of Hebrew metres, and proposed

to restore the whole Scriptures to their original state, pro-

vided six thousand men would contribute each £5 sterling for

a copy of his book.

Failing in his scheme, he published some

specimens of restored poems.

The whole book of Psalms,

according to his view, was w^ritten in distichs, and were in-

tended to be sung by two choirs.

Sir W. Jones attempted to apply the Arabic meters to

the Psalms, but succeeded in establishing no system.

M.

de Lacy, the French Orientalist, Herder and other eminent

German writers believed that the Psalms had no proper

meter, consisting of cadences and measured syllables, but

" simply of periods artificially constructed and balanced,

resembling a well-trellessed garland or a row of pearls ar-

ranged in just proportions." Dr. Kitto thought the ancient

Hebrews had too much simple majesty and too much gravity

for the jingling play of rhyme. " Rh3^me is indeed entirely

foreign to the genius of the ancient Hebrew poetry ; and

although a rhyme may here and there be met with, it may

safel}^ be presumed to be the result of accident rather than

design, or any part of poetical contrivance.

It is of more

consequence to notice this, because later Hebrew poetry has

both rhythm and metre.

'

'

Says Bishop Horsley :—" The Psalms are all poems of a lyric kind

that is, adapted to music, but with great variety in the style of the com-

position.

Some are simply odes—some are of the kind called eliagici

which are pathetic compositions upon mournful subjects ; some are

ethic, delivering grave maxims of life or the precepts of religion, in

solemn, but for the most part, simple strains ; some are enigmatic, de-

livering the doctrines of religion in enigmas contributed to strike the

imagination forcibly, and yet easy to be understood.

In all these the

author delivers the whole matter in his own person.

But a very great,

I believe the far greater, part are a sort of dramatic ode, consisting of

dialogues between persons sustaining certain characters.

In these dia-

34 David's harp in song and story.

logue Psalms, the persons are frequently the Psalmist himself, or the

chorus of Priests and Levites, or the leader of the Levitical Band, open-ing the ode with a proem, declarative of the subject, and very often

closing the whole with a solemn admonition drawn from what the other

persons say ; the other persons are Jehovah, sometimes as one, some-

times as another, of the three persons ; Christ, in his incarnate state,

sometimes before, sometimes after his resun-ection ; the human soul of

Christ as distinguished from the divine essence.

Christ, in his incarnate

state, is personified sometimes as a priest, sometimes as a king, and

sometimes as a conquerer."

A novelty in the Psalms in the Hebrew, which is not

seen in our English Bible, is in the acrostic or alphabetical

Psalms.

These are consitlered by Bishop Lowth as one of

the leading features in the effusions of Hebrew music.

In

these Psalms, the number, order of the lines, or system of

lines and periods are regulated by the number and order of

the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet; each letter

beginning a line or stanza.

It is supposed that poems among

the Hebrews were written in this method to aid the memory

in committing and retainino; them.

It bears somethino- of

the same relation to poetry as does the rhyme of later times, and no doubt answered much the same purpose.

The only evidence of the feature of Hebrew poetry that

presents itself in the English Bible, is in the One hundred

and nineteenth Psalm, where the English spelling and naming

of the Hebrew characters occur at regular intervals through

the Psalm, and which serve no other end than to mystify the mass of readers, and probably to divide the Psalm into por-

tions of convenient lensrth to be sunof.

Of the multitude of versifyers of the Psalms only two

have attempted to transfer into English metre the acros-

ticisms of the alphabetical Psalms.

These are Montagu and

Burges.

The following specimen from Montagu, will give the

reader some idea of the Hebrew acrostics:

THE rSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 35

Psalm

100.

All ye lands now come in throng, Be ye joyful in the Lord: Come before him with a song, Do him homage in accord.

Earth ! all nations ! Him adore.

Fear and serve him evermore.

Qod provides for all our needs;

He 'twas made us ; his we are ;

In his pastures, Jah us feeds, Keeps us with a Shepherd's care, Laud to him raise every voice;

Mirthful in the Lord rejoice.

Now him in his temple sue,

Offer up your thanks and praise f Pay him your oblation due, Quicken ye, your voices raise,

Raising high, his praises frame;

Singing, bless his holy name.

Truth and mercy are the Lord's Unto everlastingness.

Vast hie works are, wise his words,

Xcellent.

Him all confess.

Yield him homage and adore; Zealous serve him evermore.

Concerning the use of the Psalms in the early Jewish

Church, we know little more than that they were sung.

Whether they were sung in family worship, or sung by the common people, we can only conjecture, as the specialties of

the home devotions of Israel are not given to us either in the Old Testament or at the hand of any uninspired chronicler.

Of the Psalm-singing in the Tabernacle and Temple and

on ffreat festive occasions there are few items recorded, and

those few refer mostly to the manner of the Jewish Psalmody

rather than to the matter of it.

Judging from what we

know, and from the structure of the several Psalms, there is

warrant for saying that the Psalms we now have in the

Psalter are given us, not simply as the oii'spring of inspiration,

l)ut of great and special occasions for which they were com-

36 David's harp in song and story,

posed.

Could we have a full history of the inditing of each

Psalm, these records "would no doubt give us an insight into

the great occasions and remarkable vicissitudes of the Hebrew

nations.

May not our Psalter be composed only of the gems of

the Hebrew Psalm-books, thrown up into view and use by

the extraordinary experiences of a thousand years ?

Whilst reliable records give us little insight into the dis-

tribution of the Psalms in the services of the Jewish Church,

tradition comes to our assistance.

In the work of Light-

foot on the Temple Service, in Brown's Jewish Antiquities

and other similar works are given what are reputed to be

the customs of the Jews at or about the time of Christ.

The Hebrew worship was liturgical, and the Book of Order

contained certain Psalms arranged as stated songs for cer-

tain occasions, just as we now see in the liturgies of the

Greek, Eoman and English churches.

In connection with the morning service of the Temple,

a stated Psalm was sung for each day of the week.

On the

first day :

Psalm 24 was sung, because, as the gamara states, it

celebrates the creating of the world by the Lord upon the

first day of the week. "The earth is the Lord's and the

fullness thereof : the world and all that dwell therein," etc.

Psalm 48 was sung on the second day of the week,

because the Lord on this day divided the waters and

reigned over them.

Psalm 82 was sung, because on this day the earth

appeared, on which were judges and judging, and by his

wisdom he established the world.

Psalm 94 was sung on the fourth day, because God

on it made the sun and moon and stai's, and will be avenged

on them that worship them.

J

THE FSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 37

Psalm

81 was sung on the fifth day, because of the

variety of creatures made on that day to praise God's name.

Psalm 93 was sung on the sixth day, because the Lord

finished his work by making man, who can give glory to the

Creator.

Psalm 92 was sung on the seventh day.

It is entitled

a Psalm for the Sabljath.

No mention is made by tradition of what Psalms were

sung during each day and at evening service.

According

to some authorities, Psalms 9,

104, 118 were set apart

for Sabbath Psalmody.

These Psalms, when sung, were

divided into three parts, with pauses between the parts,

where the priests could blow their ordinary blasts, and the

people worship.

Thus, in the Twenty-fourth Psalm, the

whole band probably sang verses first and second: "The

earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof : the world and

they that dwell therein," etc.

Here, in the pause, the

trumpets sounded, and the people worshipped.

The second

division begins with one-half the choir asking in the third

verse : " Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? " etc.,

and the other half answers in verses 4, 5, 6, "He that

hath clean hands and a pure heart,

'

' etc.

Here the whole

band sound

'

' Selah,

'

' and the second pause begins.

The

third division begins with one-half of the band singing :

" Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye

everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in."

The other half responds :

'

' Who is this King of glory ?

'

The first again answers :

'

' The Lord strong and mighty,

the Lord mighty in battle," etc.

The second half again

asks in the tenth verse: "Who is this King of glory?"

The first half again reply :

'

' The Lord of hosts, he is the

King of glory "

: when the w^hole band ends the Psalm by

soundino-' ' Selah.

'

^ David's harp in song and story.

The singing of the Psalms was not confined to the regu-

lar services of the Temple,

Dr.

Loroth supposes that the Hundred and thirt}^-

fourth Psalm was sung by the two divisions of those who

watched the Temple by night, and sung with such intervals

as to indicate the hours of the night.

Tholuck thus trans-

lates and divides this Psalm :

A Song from the Higher Choir.

THE COMING TEMPLE GUARD.

1. Behold, bless ye the Lord,

All ye the servants of the Lord, Which by night stand in the house of the Lord.

2.

Lift up your hands to the sanctuary.

And bless the Lord.

THE RETIRING TEMPLE GUARD.

3. The Lord that made heaven and earth,

Bless thee out of Zion.

Some Psalms were no doubt considered as especially

appropriate for occasions of war, and were sung in march or

at the attack.

In the days of the Maccabees the Psalms

were sung in the procession of the }:)eople, who bore branches and the boughs of firs and palms in their hands in token of

triumph.

The young warriors under Judas Maccabees

sang them at the siege of Grazara ; and Judas himself ' 'sung

Psalms with a loud voice," as he and his company charged

against the soldiers of Gorgias, the Governor of Idumea.

From 2 Chron., 20: 21, we learn that as early as the days of

Jehoshaphat, the Psalms were sung in battle.

Jehoshaphat,

when he had gone forth against Moab and Ammon, appointed

singers unto the Lord, who should praise the beauty of

holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say,

" Praise the Lord ; for His mercy endureth forever." It

was while this martial choir was singing the One hundred

THE rSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 39

and thirty- sixth Psalm that the Lord sent ambnshments

against the enemy and they were smitten.

'

' After the

victory, the whole army, with Jehoshaphat in the front,

marched in a triumphal procession to the house of the Lord,

singing to the music of their harps and psalteries.

Psalm-singing was a prominent feature in the worship

of the great Jehovah festivals.

The first great festive oc-

casion was the Passover, fixed for the appearance of the

new moon in the Jewish first month, or our month of March.

In the original institution of the Passover, each family

was to have a lamb for sacrifice.

But in the time of our

Saviour this rule was so modified as to allow a lamb for a

group, or society of not less than ten.

These groups were

called in Hebrew Hebure, and were generally made up four

days before the day of the Passover.

It was while these

companies were offering their lambs in the court of the

priest, about the middle of the afternoon, that the Levites

sang the Egj^ptian Hallel, comprising Psaims One hundred

and thirteenth, One hundred and fourteenth, One hundred

and fifteenth. One hundred and sixteenth. One hundred and

seventeenth. One hundred and eighteenth.

The companies

entered the court in three divisions, hence the Hallel was

besfun three times, and almost finished a third time when the

last company completed its offering.

The Egyptian Hallel

was so called from its being a Hallelujah in remembrance of

the deliverance from Egypt.

Sometimes it was called the

Lesser Hallel to distinguish it from the greater Hallel sung

at a later period on passover occasions.

On the evening of the 14th of the month, or, accord-

ing to Jewish reckoning, on the beginning of the loth day,

the several companies gathered around their tables to eat the

paschal lambs.

During the continuance of the meal the Jews

were to drink four cups of mingled wine and water.

Be-

40 David's harp in song and stoky.

tween the drinking of the first and second cup, there was to

be, among other things, an explanation of the passover by

the presiding oflicers.

This was generally done by taking

the Hallel Psalms and commenting on a part of them.

The

fourth cup of wine was called the Hallel cup because the

President finished with it his reading of the Hallel Psalms,

begun over the second cup.

It is supposed that the cup

Christ blessed and gave to his disciples was the third of the

evening, and that it was the concluding part of the Hallel

Psalms that he and his disciples sang before retiring to the

INIount of Olives.

After the fourth, or Hallel cup, the usual custom on

these festive occasions was to close the ceremonies for the

evening.

But there was a tradition that a fiJth cup might

be taken by such as felt so disposed, provided they would

repeat the great Hallel over it.

There is a division of

opinion as to what constituted the Great Hallel.

Eabbi

Judah says it was Psalm One hundred and thirty-six ; Rabbi

Johanan, that it was from One hundred and twenty to One

hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm ; Eabbi Ahabar Jacol),

that it was from Psalm One hundred and thirty-fifth, fourth

verse, to Psalm One hundred and thirty-seventh.

In the treatise, Erachin, to the above Psalms, the One

hundred and fifth is added as part of the great Hallel.

The second of the three great Jewish festivals was the

feast of Pentecost—sometimes called the feast of "Weeks,

sometimes the feast of Harvest, sometimes the day of

the first fruits.

The time of the observance was on the

fiftieth day after the first day of unleavened bread, or

sometimes in the month of May.

Brown, in his Anti(|ui-

ties of the Jews, thus describes the gathering of the Jews

on this occasion, and their singing the One hundred and

twenty-second Psalm.

They tell us that all the males

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CIIUIICH, 41

v.ithin the limits of the several districts throughout the

lanu, having met at the principal cities in these districts,

with a view of going up to Jerusalem to the feast of Pente-

cost, lodged in the streets during the night, for fear of pol-

lution ; and, as the air was mild, they could do it without

injury to their health ; that on the morning of the following

day, the President of each company called them betimes,

" Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord, thy God ; "

that they set out on their journey, preceded by a bullock,

intended for the sacrifice, whose horns were gilded (like that

afterward vowed by Diomed to Pallers, and of Nestor to

Minerva) ; and whose head was decorated with a garland of

olive branches ; and that a person playing on a pipe went

also before them, to cheer them on their journey, whilst

bursts of religious fervor were frequently heard by the

people, exclaiming as in Psalm One hundred and twenty-two, "I was glad when they said unto me, let us go up to the house

of the Lord." Delightful, indeed, must the sight have been

to observe the companies coming from the different districts

of the land to Jerusalem, as to a common center, to worship

God.

We are informed, that to avoid fatigue, they traveled

only two parts of the day, and that when they came near the

city they sent a messenger to announce their approach ; on

which, some of the chiefs of the priesthood went out to

meet them.

Their entry into the city was exceedingly

picturesque.

Each carried his basket of w^heat, grapes, figs,

apricots, olives or dates.

The baskets of the rich were of

gold or silver, and those of the poor were of wicker work,

fancifully ornamented with flowers.

As they entered the

city they joyfully exclaimed, ' Our feet shall stand within

thy gates, O Jerusalem ;

' and all the artificers in their

shops rose as they passed and bade them welcome.

Indeed

the whole of Psalm One hundred and twenty-two receives

42 David's harp in song and story.

an additional beauty if we consider it as expressive of what would naturally happen on this occasion.

"Let us suppose the several tribes to be near the walls

of the city and preparing to enter it, headed by the several

chiefs of the priesthood: what was more natural for them to

say in holy exultation, as in verses 1, 2, 'I was glad when

they said unto me, Let us go up into the house of the Lord.

Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. ' Hav-

ing entered the city and seen the private and public build-

ings, which to many of them would be new and wonderful,

they would naturally exclaim, as in verses 3, 4, 5, ' Jeru-

salem is builded as a city that is compact together, whither

the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony

of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord; for

there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house

of David. ' The very welcome that was given to them as

they passed, by the artificers and other inhabitants, from the

doors of their shops, and the tops of their houses, seemed to

be contained in verse 6, 'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

To which the tribes would naturally reply, 'They shall

prosper that love thee.

Peace be within thy walls, and pros-

perity within thy palaces.

For my brethren and compan-

ions' sakes, I will now say. Peace be within thee.

Because

of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

Thus did they proceed with the sound of music to the moun-

tain on which the temple stood ; at the foot of which every

individual, of whatever rank, took his basket on his shoul-

der and repeated as he ascended, the whole of the One hun-

dred and fiftieth Psalm, probably in a kind of musical ca-

dence, to make the procession more solemn and impressive.

When come into the court of the priests, the band of the

temple sang the Thirtieth Psalm, and the president of the

company, with his basket on his shoulder, in the name of the

THE PSALMS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 43

rest, repeated the words which God had enjoined on the oc-

casion, as we have already tianscribed them from Deut. 26:

3-10, ' I profess this day,' etc.; a priest in the meantime

putting his hand under the president's basket and waving it before the Lord.

'

'

During the days of the Feast of Pentecost, the Psalms

were frequently sung, but what Psalms we are not informed

till the eighth and last day of the festivities.

The Psalms

sung on this day were the Egyptian Hal lei, already men-

tioned, in the celebration of the Passover.

The third of the three principal Jewish festivals was the

Feast of Tabernacles, which came in the latter part of the

month of Tizri, or September.

In the original appointment

on the occasion of this feast, the people were required to

dwell in booths ; but in the time of Christ the Pharisees so

explained the commandments as to establish the custom of

bearing branches in the hands rather than dwelling in booths.

Accordingly the first thing the Jews did when the feast be-

gan, was to supply themselves with branches of the palm

and myrtle, and then to resort to a place called Mutsa^ a

short distance below Jerusalem, and on the banks of the Kid-

ron, for willow branches.

Each person procured two willow

branches; one to place on the altar, and the other to be bound by means of a golden, or silver cord, or by a twig, with the branches of palm and myrtle.

This last was called the luleb,

which was to be carried during the whole of the first day of

the feast.

During the days of the feast, the ordinary Psalms for

the week were dispensed with and the Egyptian Hallel sung:

' ' that being renewed daily,

'

' as the Jerusalem Targum ex-

presses it, ' 'because their lulebs were renewed daily.

'

' Dur-

ing the performing of the psalmody by the band the crowds were accustomed to express the ardor of their feelings by

outward tokens.

When the beginning of the 118th Psalm

was sung, " O give thanks unto the Lord," they shook the

branches they held in their hands.

The same thing was

done when the 25th verse was repeated ; and at the conclud-

ing verse, the whole multitude joined in shaking their lulebs "on the right hand and on the left, upwards and downwards.

44 David's harp in song and story.

During the sacrifices of the first day of the Feast of Tab-

ernacles, the Levitical band sang the 105th Psalm.

After

the completion of the sacrifices, and before the Jews left the mountain of the Lord's house, they went in procession round the altar, setting each one his branch against it, and re-

peating Psalm 118:25, "Save now,

1 beseech thee, O Lord;

O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.

'

' As they

passed through the gates of the court of Israel they solemnly pronounced this benediction, "Beauty be to thee, O altar;"

'

' beauty be to thee, O altar.

'

' Among the Jews of some

countries at the present day this custom still prevails, the

people walking around the desk in the middle of the syna-

gogue, singing Psalm 118:25.

At the Feast of Tabernacles the people did not leave the

temple at the end of the evening sacrifice, as was their custom on other festive days.

They remained at night and engaged

in the rejoicing for the pouring out of the water, as it was

called. " Their manner of observing it was as follows: They

all met in the court of the women; the women above in the

balconies which surrounded three sides of the court, and the men below on the ground.

The court was lighted by four

golden lamps, one on each side, which were raised to a great

height, and kept burning, by four young men of the priest-hood, who ascended them by a ladder, poured into each of

them one hundred and twenty logs of oil, and supplied them with wicks that had formerly been prepared from the old

coats and girdles of the priests.

'

' Prominent in the exercises

of this evening was the music.

The pipe of the temple was

played, and on the steps leading from the court of the women

to the gate of Nicanor, sat the Levites with their instru-

ments, those belonging to the vocal department singing, as

stated by some authorities, the fifteen Psalms of Degrees,

from Psalm 120th to Psalm 134th, while the members of the Sanhedrin, the rulers of the synagogues and the doctors and the eminent in rank and piety amused themselves and the

audience by dancing to the sacred music, and promenading

with torches in their hantis.

On the morning of the second day of the Feast of Taber-

nacles, instead of the regular Psalm of the morning,

THE rSAI.:MS IN THE JEWISH CHURCH. 45

the Hallel was again sung.

During the offering of the

special sacrifices of this day, the Twenty-ninth Psalm was

sung, and at the close of the ceremonies the Jews passed

round the altar, singing Psalm One hundred and eighteenth,

twenty-fifth verse.

The Hallel was sung again on the third

day, and the special Psalm sung was the Fiftieth, from the

eighteenth verse to the close.

The exercises of the fourth

day were similar to those preceding, only the Ninety-fourth Psalm was sung from the sixteenth verse to the end ; on the

fifth day, during the special offering, the Ninety-fourth

Psalm was sung from the eighth verse to the end.

On the

sixth day, the Eighty-first Psalm was sung from verse sixth

to the end ; on the seventh day, the Eighty-second Psalm,

from verse fifth to the end, was sung.

On this day the

modern Jews lay aside their myrtle and palm branches, and take only the willow, while they make seven revolutions

round the desk of the synagogue, singing the Twenty-ninth Psalm.

The Psalm of the eighth day of the feast is not

mentioned in the authorities relied on.

At the Feast of Trumpets, appointed for the first day

of the moon of the month Tizri, the Levites sang Psalm

Eighty-first ; if, however,

'

' the first day of the year fell upon

the fifth day of the week, on which day this Psalm was ap-

pointed always to be sung during the offering of the morn-

ing sacrifice, they then sang it twice over, viz., once at the

daily sacrifice and once at the additional sacrifice, beginning one of the times at the sixth verse, but whether the first or

last time is not said.

And if the new year fell upon the

Sabbath the Psalms for the first day of the year were sung,

and took the place of the Psalms which in that section were

said to be appointed for the Sabbath."

The foregoing account, while it does not contain the full

story of the Psalm-singing of the Jews, will suffice to show

the high estimation in which the Psalms were held and the manner in which they were woven into the whole warp and woof of the devotions of God's ancient people.

CHAPTER

III.

The Psalms in the Primitive Church.

Two of our prominent historians seem to have dis-

covered no traces of the universal use of the Psalms before

the fourth century.

Says Spanheim : " Besides hymns and

songs, and private Psalms, of which there was a great num-ber in their solemn assemblies, the Psalm-book of David

was brought into the Western Church in this age" (the

fourth century).

Mosheim, basing his opinion on the testi-

mony of Cyril, of Jerusalem ; of the Apostolical Constitu-

tutions, and of Beansobre, states that the " Psalms of David were now (fourth century) sung as part of divine service.

'

How far Mosheim's opinion is rendered plausible by the

statements of Cyril and Beansobre, the author cannot say,

for the writings of these persons could not be consulted

;

but the Apostolical Constitutions make no mention of the

Psalms except in connection with the singing and reading of them in the regular worship of the Church, thus giving no

more ground for the inference that this is the first use made

of them, than is given by the English Liturgy, or Scotch

Liturgy for the conclusion that the Psalms were not sung in Great Britain till after the Reformation.

Were there no direct testimony as to Psalm-singing in

the earliest days of the New Testament worship, there is

circumstantial evidence strong enough to justify the conclu-sion that it was universal.

The founders and first converts of the primitive Church

were Jews, the habits, convictions, and tastes of whom

would, in every absence of divine institution and direction, give to the new system of worship a shape corresponding to that of the old.

We need no more confirmation of this

conjecture than a knowledge of human nature, a principle

of which is to reproduce in new places, and under new sj^s-

tems, old and long-cherished customs, except where necessity or new convictions would call for a change.

So powerfully

(46)

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 47

does this principle operate, that often antique ways and

manners are preserved in spite of the claims of duty,

necessity, and reason for reform, thus occasioning the de-

nunciation of bigotiy.

The whole Jewish peopie at the coming of Christ were

Psalm-singers.

They were early brought into contact with

the temple services, where the music of the Levites would,

more than anything else, make a pleasing impression upon

their youthful hearts.

Their fondness for the temple and

the temple exercises would naturally include the Psalter.

After the Babylonish captivity, there is a probability that

the Psalms became, as they were not fully before, the com-mon property of the people, and the families.

The Levites

^till held their place and observed the sacred rites of their

office and the people attended their services, but the worship

of the Church was not so fully as before performed by

representation.

The people began to meet in synagogues by

themselves and for themselves, and their Psalmody was

diffused among the homes of the nation.

At the beginning

of the Christian Dispensation, we may suppose that wherever

there was a religious family there the Psalms were sung and

taught.

These home customs would tend to deepen the love

of the Jews for their Psalms.

In middle life and old age

they would be invested with tender recollections and pleasing memories of early years and of home.

Christ himself was

a Jew, of strictly Jewish training, and grew up familiar

with, and fondly attached to, the Book of Psalms.

Paul's

attachment to Judaism in all of its features is well seen in his

earl}^ persecutions.

With all of the Apostles of the primi-

tive Church, there were habits and preferences such as would insure the transfer of the Jewish songs into the new worship.

In addition to the reference of early impressions and

early recollections, the Psalter had a history that would

beget for it strong attachment in the Jewish mind.

The

biography of their Psalmists is a gallery of the nation's most honored characters.

The tabernacle days are represented

by but one song, but that one is sufficient to hallow the

whole Psalter with the memory of Moses.

David is the first

of their greatest kings and warriors, and to this day he is

48 David's harp in song and story.

honored as the nation's sweetest bard.

Here are the Psalms

of their warrior kings; Psalms from the days of Hezekiah,

and Josiah; and from the poets of the returning captives.

These are the Psalms the fathers have sung for centuries ;

they have cjmforted them in trouble, soothed them in cap-

tivity, nerved them for battle, gladdened them in their tri-

umphs and pilgrimages.

The Psalter is identified with the

whole history of the race from the escape out of Egypt to that out of Babylon, and is a mirroring of its successes and mis-fortunes.

What a precious relic of the past !

What a sweet

souvenir of departed greatness—these old lyrics !

Every

Jew would be highly susceptible to the influence of such re-

flections, and would grow proud of his Psalter as of his

home and his race.

Conversion to the faith of Jesus, as the

Messiah, would not change his preferences for the songs of

his people, unless plain precept would identify them with

the things that were to pass away.

Rather would his faith

deepen his fondness for them, as in tho Saviour it would per-

ceive the substance of their foreshadowings.

Wh}', the converted Hebrew might ask, may I not sing

the Psalms of the fathers in my own worship?

Christ has

nowhere forliidden it.

His apostles have not forbidden it.

These Psalms were no part of the ceremonial law, and

so need not necessarily pass away with the 1)uliock and the

blood of the altar.

The tone of them is against Jewish rit-

ualism, and is eminently in harmony with the spirituality of the new Faith.

Instead of a bleeding laml?, their offering

is a bleeding heart; a broken spirit instead of a mangled sac-

rifice.

What an emphasis are they upon the fundamental

Gospel idea, "Not by the flesh of bulls and goats, but by

the precious blood of Jesus Christ,

'

It would be unnatural to suppose an entire and abrupt

cessation in the sinoing^ of the Psalms at the change of dis-

pensation.

The positive testimony to the use of the Psalms in the

primitive Church is by no means full, but there remains suf-

ficient to place the question beyond a doubt.

In Ephesians

5:19; Colossians 3:16, and James 5:13, the use of the term

"Psalms " or Psalmoi, as it is in the Greek, certainly refers

THE rSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 49

to the Psalms, and intimates that they were sung at Colosse and Ephesiis, and among

'

' the twelve tribes

'

' which were

'

' scattered abroad.

'

' Christ and the writers of the New

Testament frequently quote from the Psalter, and call it the

"Psalms," and that, no doubt, from the title given them in the Septuagint translated many years before their day.

The

expression in 1 Cor. 14: 15, "I will sing with the spirit,

and I will sing with the understanding,

'

' reads in the orig-

inal,

'

' I will psalm with the spirit and I will psalm with the

understanding,

'

' and seems to be a clear indication that the

Psalms were sung at Corinth.

The occasions on which the

Psalms were sung in the early primitive Church and the

manner of singing them are enveloped in darkness.

That the

'

' Hymn

'

' sung by Christ and his disciples at

the institution of the Lord's Supper was the usual Psalm of the old Passover, as prescribed by the Jewish liturgy, there can be scarcely a doubt.

Says Albert Barnes,

'

' The One

hundred and thirteenth and One hundred and fourteenth

Psalms were sung during the observance of the Passover,

and the One hundred and fifteenth. One hundred and six-

teenth, One hundred and seventeenth, and One hundred and eighteenth Psalms at the close.

There can be no doubt that

our Saviour and the apostles also used the same Psalms in

their observance of the Passover.

'

' With this view agrees

Dr. Lange in his

'

' Life of Christ.

'

' The celebration was

now concluded by singing at its close the usual Song of

Praise (Psalms One hundred and fifteenth to One hundred

and eighteenth inclusive)." At the time of Christ, the Greek words

'

' Psalms

'

' and

'

' Hymns

'

' were both applied to the

Psalms of the Bible.

In the Septuagint

'

' Hymns

'

' is em-

ployed in the titles of some of the Psalms, as in Psalms Six, Fifty-four, Fifty-five.

In the

'

' Antiquity of the Jews,

'

' published about the

year 93 A. D., Josephus speaks of the Psalms as hymns:

"And now David, being freed from wars and dangers, and

enjoying for the future a profound peace, composed songs

and hymns to God of several sorts of metre; some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters ;

He also made instruments of music, and taught the Levites

60 David's harp in song and story.

to sing hymns to God." In the apostolical constitutions, a

liturgy belonging to the fourth century,

'

' the Psalms are

called hymns. " " Let another sing the hymns of David

and let the people repeat the concluding line.

'

During the latter part of the first century and early part

of the second, concerning which profane history says but

little, we may suppose that the Psalms still held the principal place in the Psalmody of the Christians.

Still hallowed by

the same memories as when first sung by the primitive con-verts from Judaism, and sanctified by the practice of Jesus

and his disciples, they would commend themselves to that

age almost immediately connected with the days of the found-ing of the Church.

The custom from the latter part of the

second to the fifth century shows that from a very early date the Psalms were in prominent use at communion, on the

Sabbath, during the extraordinary gatherings of the people

preparatory to the sacred festivals, and in the private wor-

ship of home.

As Christianity spread itself over the world

the Psalms went with it, until by the fourth century, they

were sung on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, amid

the mountains of Persia, in the deserts of Arabia, in Egypt and Abyssinia, along the north coast of Africa, and in the

British Isles, as well as in the crowded congregations of Pal-

estine, Asia Minor, Greece and Rome.

They became every-

where identified with the New Testament Church, as with

the Church before the days of Christ; and their varied use

now forms a prominent and interesting feature of ecclesias-

tical history.

During the persecutions of the first centuries,

begun by Nero, and carried on by his successors, the singing

of Psalms was one of the most prominent and most frequent

exercises of the persecuted as they gathered in the Roman

Catacombs, in the caves, and wilderness places, or in the

deserts and cemeteries.

Tertulian, who was a presbyter at Carthage about the

close of the second century, informs us that the Psalms took

their place in his day in the regular worship of the African

Church, and that the singing of them usually followed the read-

ing of the Scriptures.

'

' The Scriptures are read and Psalms

sung.

'

' The same custom existed still in the fourth century, as

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, 51

Jerome testifies.

In speaking of the assemblies of Christians

in his time, he says the services began with the reading of

Scripture and the singing of Psalms. "When they are as-

sembled together, Psalms are sung and Scriptures read; then prayers being read, they all sit down and the father begins

a discourse to them.

'

'

Eusebius, a Bishop of Csesarea, in the fourth century,

tells us the Psalms were sung in his day and his country, in

all the assemblies of the Christians.

St.

Basil, of the same

century and belonging to the same country as Eusebius, says

that the Christians in their assemblies offered their confes-

sions on their knees, and then rose and sang Psalms to God.

John Chrysostom, born at Antioch, about the year 354, and made Bishop of Constantinople in 398, testifies to the use of

the Psalms in his bishopric.

In a sermon at Constantinople

he remarks to his audience, "All of us, young and old, rich

and poor, bond and free, men and women, what have we

now enjoyed in our united Psalm !

With one voice, and, as

it were with one heart, we have sung the prayer.

As the

hand of the harper unites all the strings to one song, so the

Psalm brought together our hearts into one prayer.

And

the royal poet who wrote ages agone by, has been present

with us to-day by his Psalm and has joined in our worship.

The singing of Psalms was in great repute in Alexandria

during the fourth century, and especially while Athanasius resided there as the Bishop of that church, as is stated by

Augustine, a writer of the fifth century.

It was equally

popular in the church at Milan, while St. Ambrose was its

Bishop.

Psalm-singing was not confined to the assemblies of the

Christians, but became a popular pastime, and a part of

social and family festivities and devotions.

Jerome says :

'

' You could not go into the fields but you might hear the

plowman at his hallelujahs and the vine dresser chanting the Psalms of David." In the "Apostolical Constitutions,"

which may be taken as a fair representation of the customs of Psalmody during the fourth century, it is stated,

'

' the women,

the children, and humblest mechanic, could repeat all the

Psalms of David ; they chanted them at home and abroad ;

52 David's harp in song and story.

they made them the exercises of their piety and the refresh-

ments of their minds.

They thus had answers ready to

oppose temptation, and were alwaj^s prepared to pray to God, and to praise him in any circumstance in a form of their own

inditing.

'

The same custom prevailed among the Christians at

Constantinople.

Says Chrysostom, in his Homily on Peni-

tence : "All Christians employ themselves in David's

Psalms more frequently than in any other part of the Old

or New Testament.

The grace of the Holy Ghost hath so

ordered it, that they should be recited and sang every night

and day.

In the Church's vigils, the first, the midst, the

last are David's Psalms.

In the morning David's Psalms

are sought for ; and David is the first, the midst and the

last.

At funeral solemnities, the first, the midst and the

last is David.

Many who know not a letter can say David's

Psalms by heart.

In all the private houses, where the

virgins spin—in the monasteries—in the deserts, where men converse with God, the first, the midst and the last is David.

In the night, when men are asleep, he wakes them up to

sing ; and collecting the servants of God into angelic troops,

turns earth into heaven, and of men makes angels, chanting David's Psalms."

The popularity of Psalm-singing among the people as

early as the second century may be seen in the

act of

Bardesanes in conforming the number of his private Psalms

to the one hundred and fifty Psalms of the Psalter, so that

his sentiments might more easily gain access to the people

and be adopted by them.

Although, it has been surmised, by writers favorable to

that view, that during the third century, the compositions

of uninspired men were to some extent sung by Christians, yet any attempt to set aside the Psalms and to substitute in

their place any other songs was firmly withstood.

An in-

stance of this occurs in the case of Paul, of Samosata, after

the middle of the third century.

Paul was Bishop of

Antioch at the time he began to promulgate his Socinian

heresy.

Two councils were convened concerning him, at the

second of which, about 269, A. D., he was deposed from his

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 53

office, excluded from the privileges of the Church, and an

epistle was written and dispersed through the Roman world explaining the errors of Paul, and the decision of the council.

The following: extract is taken from Milner's translation of

that epistle as it is recorded by the historian, Eusebius :

'

' Vain, and fond of secular dignity, he preferred the name of

Judge to that of Bishop ; he erected for himself a tribunal

and lofty throne, after the manner of civil magistrates,

and not like a disciple of Christ.

He was accustomed to

walk through the streets with a numerous guard, in great

state, receiving letters and dictating answers ; insomuch that

great scandal has accrued to the faith through his pride and haughtiness.

In Church assemblies he used theatrical

artiiices, to amaze, surprise and procure applause from weak people, such as striking his thigh with his hand, and stamp-ing with his feet.

Then, if there were any who did not

applaud him, nor shake their handkerchiefs, nor make loud acclamations, as is usual in the theater, nor leap up and

down as his partisans do, but behaved with decent and

reverent attentions as becomes the house of God, he reproved and even reviled such persons.

He openly inveighed against

the deceased expositors of the Scripture in the most impu-dent and scornful terms, and magnified himself exactly in the manner of sophists and impostors.

He suppressed the

Psalms made in honor of Jesus Christ, and called them

modern comj^ositions,' and he directed others to he sung in the Church in his own cominendatloii i which very much

shocked his hearers ; he also encouraged similar practices, as

far as it was in his power, among the neighboring Bishops.

'

From this epistle it will appear that a part of the charge

against Paul was that he interfered with the Psalm-sinsfing:,

long in practice at Antioch, and instituted songs in his own

honor, an encroachment that a council composed of seventy Bishops decided as contrary to the custom of the Church

and the spirit of Christianity.

This case of Paul, however,

has been a matter of controversy.

It is claimed by many

that the Psalms displaced by Paul were the hymns of the

earlier days composed in honor of Christ as divine, and that he is the first who introduced and defended the exclusive use

54 David's harp in song and story.

of the Psalms of the Bible.

The testimony on which such an

opinion is based is that of Neander in his Ecclesiastical

History.

He states the case of Paul thus :

'

' The Church

hymns, which had been in use since the second century, he

banished as an innovation, * * * on the principle that

only passages out of the Holy Scripture ought to be sung ;

and thus he probably suffered nothing but the Psalms to be

used.

'

It is difficult to determine how historians become so

widely different in their views, when having access to the

same records.

It is equally difficult to conjecture how Paul

could expect any aid in his errors from the exclusive use of

the Psalms, since they have always been regarded as pro-

phetic of a divine Saviour, and are so quoted in the New

Testament.

It was no uncommon circumstance for the Christians to

be condemned by heretics for their Psalm-singing.

Augustine

says of one Hilary, that he

'

' took every opportunity of

loading with malicious censure the customs—that hymns

from the Book of Psalms should be sung at the altar."

Such was the conduct of this person that Augustine, at the

request of his brethren, replied to his reproaches.

The

same author says of the Donatists that they reproached the

Orthodox

'

' because they sang with sobriety the divine songs

of the prophets, while they (the Donatists) inflamed their

minds with the poetic effusions of human genius.

'

Concerning the distribution of the Psalms in the public

services, whether a liturgical method of stated Psalms for

stated occasions prevailed to any great extent, as among the

Jews, is not known.

It appears that certain Psalms were

popular on special occasions before the fifth century, but it

is not probable any rule on the subject was generally fol-

lowed.

In the second century, Tertullian says that the

One hundred and thirty-third Psalm was generally sung on communion occasions, and he complains of those who use it only on that occasion.

In the third century it was customary

in the Africk churches to sing the Thirty-third Psalm at com-munion: " I will bless the Lord at all times ; his praise shall

be continually in my mouth," etc.—corresponding to the

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 55

Thirty-fourth of the English Psalter.

This Psalm is also

recommended by the author of the Apostolical Constitutions, and was used at the Lord's Supper by Jerome.

In Je-

rome's day, the Forty-fifth was a communion Psalm :

' ' My heart is inditing a good matter,

'

' &c.

In the

Africk churches about the same time the One hundred and

thirty-third was sung.

Of this Psalm, St. Augustin says it

was so noted and well known that they who knew nothing

of the Psalter could repeat it from hearing it so frequently

sung at the altar.

In the Liturgy of St. James the Thirty-fourth Psalm is

appointed for communion seasons, chiefly because of the

words in the eighth verse, " O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in him." St. Mark's

Liturgy appoints Psalm Forty-second, " As a hart panteth

after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God,

'

&Q.

According to Cotelerius, in some of the ancient rituals,

at the end of Gregory's Sacramentarium, the One hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm is recommended, " O Lord, thou has searched me and known me," &c.

St. Chrysostom says the

One hundred and forty-fifth Psalm was, in his day, sung at

communion, chiefly because of the words, "The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due sea-

son.

In a Liturgy attributed to St. Chrysostom the One hun-

dred and thirteenth and Thirty-fourth Psalms are appointed

to be sung.

The Liturgy of St. James recommended the singing of

the Fifty-seventh Psalm after the communion, " Be merci-

ful unto me, O God,

'

' &c. ; also the Seventy-first, because

of verse eighth, "Let my mouth be filled with thy praise,

and with thy honor all the day.

'

' In some of the churches

it was customary to sing Psalms while the communicants

were partaking of the supper, as well as before and after it,

but what Psalms, or whether any particular ones, were se-

lected, is not stated.

It was also customary in some places

for the minister to lecture through the Psalms regularly, in

which case the precentor was required to give out the Psalms

in their order for the people to sing.

This method was fol-

56 David's harp in song and story.

lowed by Augustine, for he speaks of the Sixty-fifth as be-

ing sung in this way.

Psalm-singing was a part of the exercises connected

with the burial of the dead.

At first there do not seem to

have been any set Psalms for such occasions ; but after lit-

urgies had come into use the Psalms for funerals, as well as the prayers and chapters from the Scriptures, were appointed and regularly sung.

This custom came into the New Testa-

ment church from the Jews, among whom it was customary to follow the dead to their graves singing and playing upon instruments of music.

An incident related by Gibbon in his History of the

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire will illustrate the use of Psalmody at funerals, and give some idea of the enthusi-asm with which the Psalms were sung in the time of Julian, the apostate.

Julian, who, until his manhood, was trained

in the doctrines of Christianity, became one of the last de-

fenders of ancient paganism.

He restored the worship of

the sun, filled his gardens with the statues and altars of the

gods, rebuilt the temples and sacred places that Christianity had been instrumental in destroying, and spent the greater

part of his revenue in refitting the groves once dedicated to

some heathen deity, bringing birds from distant countries to bleed on the altars, and procuring oxen, a whole hecatomb

of which he would sometimes sacrifice at a single offering,

all for the purpose of resurrecting the magnificent pageantry of heroic and mythological ages.

Julian, in his zeal for his new faith, tried a weapon

often tried after his day by the church he then sought to de-stroy—persecution.

Such was his fervor that blood did

not satisfy; but even the dead bodies of the Christians that

for a century had been in their graves must be removed from the sacred places and buried elsewhere.

The demonstration

of the Christians connected with the removal of the body of

one of their early bishops, and its reburial at Antioch, is

graphically described by Gibbon in his seventy-third chap-

ter.

After the body of Babyeas, bishop of Antioch, had

rested near a century in its grave it was reburied in the

Grove of Daphne and a magnificent temple erected over his

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 67

remains.

By the order of Julian this temple was demol-

ished and the remains of the bishop removed to their former

resting place within the walls of Antioch. "The scene of

infection was purified according to the forms of ancient

rituals; the bodies were decently removed, and the ministers

of the church were permitted to convey the remains of St.

Baljylas to their former habitation within the walls of An-

tioch.

The modest behavior which might have assuaged the

jealousy of a hostile government was neglected on this occa-

sion by the zeal of the Christians.

The lofty car that trans-

ported the relics of Babylas was followed and accompanied and received by an innumerable multitude, who chanted^ with thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David, the most ex-

pressive of their contempt for idols and idolaters.

The re-

turn of the saint was a triumph; and the triumph was an in-

sult to the religion of the Emperor, who exerted his pride

to dissemble his resentment.

During the night which ter-es o

minated this indiscreet procession the temple of Daphne was

in flames; the statue of Apollo was consumed, and the walls

of the edifice were left a naked and awful monument of

ruin.

'

' The Psalm chanted on this occasion was the Ninety-

seventh, chosen particularly for the sentiment, " Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols.

'

' The ringleader in the movement of the Chris-

tians was Theodorus, a pious young man.

Julian, enraged,

commanded him to be seized and put to the torture.

But

though tormented by the pains of the rack for a whole day, Theodorus continued cheerful and persevered in singing

<

' Confounded be all they that serve graven images,

'

' &c.

In Antioch lived, during these excitements, a Christian

lady named Publia.

It was her custom when Julian would

pass by her window to sing from the One hundred and fif-

teenth Psalm,

'

' Their idols are silver and gold, the work of

men's hands," &c.

When commanded on one occasion to

be silent, she responded to the command by singing from

Psalm Sixty-eighth,

'

' Let God arise, let his enemies be

scattered," &c.

For her Psalm-singing Julian commanded

her to be brought before him, where she was beaten till she

was covered with blood.

She bore her suffering patiently,

68 David's harp in song and story.

and, on her release, returned to her home to continue sing-

ing with her companions.

An interesting feature in the history of the Psalms dur-

ino; the fourth century, and while Julian was still in power,

is the use made of them by the Christians for comfort and

encouragement under the Arian persecution.

It was no un-

common thing for the Christians to be surrounded in their

churches by Arian soldiers, and besieged while at their devo-

tions.

Under such circumstances the bishop, or presbyter,

would order his precentor to give out some Psalm, which he and the people would sing.

Sometimes whole nights and

days were spent in Psalm-singing, and not unfrequently the

besiegers were batfled by the valor and Psalmody of the

besieged.

An instance of this occurred in the church at Alexan-

dria, under the rule of the celebrated Athanasius, often known

as the Father of Orthodoxy.

The duke of Egypt, with five

thousand soldiers, suddenly invested the church of St. The-

onas, where Athanasius and part of his clergy and people

were performing their midnight devotions.

While the sol-

diers were breaking open the sacred edifice, ' 'the archbishop,

seated on his throne, expected, with calm and intrepid dig-

nity, the approach of death; while the public devotion was

interrupted by shouts of rage and cries of terror, he ani-

mated his trembling congregation to express their religious

confidence by chanting one of the Psalms of David which

celebrates the triumph of the God of Israel over the haughty and imperious tyrant of Egypt.

'

' The Psalm sung was the

One hundred and thirty-sixth, which was performed by the

deacon singing:

give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good

And the people responding

For his mercj' endureth forever.

As the Psalm concluded the soldiers rushed into the build-

ing, but Athanasius, through the importunities of the clergy and monks, made his escape and spent six years in impene-

trable obscurity among the lonely monasteries by the Nile.

In Syria, among other depredations, the Arians per-

verted the Doxology, "Glory be to the Father, the Son and

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 59

the Holy Ghost,

'

' which contained a recognition of the Trin-

ity of the Godhead, and made it read, '

' Glory be to the

Father, hy the Son and the Holy Ghost.

'

' Leontius, the

Arian Bishop of Antioch, adopted this Unitarian doxology,

when Flavian and Diodorus, two pastors, and both earnest

supporters of the orthodox faith, withdrew from his com-

munion, and assembled their followers at the monuments of the martyrs, where, dividing them into two parts, they

taught them to sing alternately the Psalms of the Bible and

the orthodox doxology. Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, According to Theodoret, Flavian and

Diodorus and their adherents, wandered for days and nights

in the palm groves of Syria, and the desert, now reclining

under the open sky, again resting near the foot of some

mountain, havini; nothino; to console them but the Psalms,

which, however, they sang everywhere.

'

' At length they

led the iiock beside the banks of a neighboring stream; they

did not, like the captives of Babylon, hang their harps on

the willows, for they sang praises to their Creator in every

part of his kingdom.

'

' The zeal of these Trinitarians was

so great that swarms of monks were attracted to their meet-ings and took part in their Psalmody.

Leontius, the Bishop

of Antioch, was in danger of losing his whole congregation, and was compelled to recall the two protesting pastors and

introduce the orthodox doxology.

Milner states that Fla-

vian was the first to use the present doxology, as sung in our evangelical churches, and that he was induced to introduce

it as an offset to the Arian doxology established first in his

day.

To the fourth century has been referred a relic brought

by Dr. Hogg from Egypt, in 1843.

It is a portion of the

book of Psalms, written on papyrus, and is thus described: "Among the various objects of antiquity which were pur-

chased from the Arabs at Thebes were two papyri, the one

Coptic, the other Greek; both in the form of books.

The

subject of the Coptic papyrus, now in the hands of Sir Wil-liam Gill, at Naples, has not yet been ascertained, but since my return to England, the Greek papyrus has been discov-ered to contain a portion of the Psalms.

The leaves are of

60 David's harp in song and story.

about ten inches in length, by seven in width, and are ar-

ranged and have been sewed together like a book.

They

are formed of strips of the papyrus plant crossing each other

at right angles.

The writing, continued on both sides, is

perfectly legible, the letters partaking both of the uncial and cursive forms, sometimes standing quite apart, unconnected by cursive strokes, with accents occasionally but not regu-

larly inserted.

The beginning of the manuscript is imper-

fect, and it concludes with the second verse of the Thirty-

fourth Psalm.

The text, as far as it has been collated, has

been found to be a good one, and to possess some interesting variations not found in other ancient versions.

These papyri

were both discovered among the rubbish of an ancient con-

vent at Thebes, remarkable as still presenting some frag-

ments of an inscription purporting to be a pastoral letter

from Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, who died A. D.

371, which has been conjectured to be the age of the man-

uscript.

'

' This was no doubt the form of the Psalm books

used by the monks in their devotions in that early day, and

as used in the church in Alexandria while Athanasius was

Bishop.

The Book of Psalms was highly esteemed by the early

Christian fathers, not simply because they atforded excellent material for public and private psalmody, but because of the

influence the reading, singing and studying of them had in

forming character and promoting virtue.

Most of the early

authors prepared commentaries on the Psalms, in which

their sentiments may be seen.

Says St.

Basil, of the fourth century, '

' What is it, I

pray, which you cannot lind in the Psalms ?

Do not they

teach you the most honoral^le fortitude, the most exact jus-

tice, a grave temperance, a discerning prudence, a right

manner of repentance, the rules of patience, and every good thing that can be mentioned ?

'

St.

Ambrose was a great admirer of what he called

"The sweet book of Psalms." The One hundred and nine-

teenth was especialh' a favorite with him.

Ausrustine, after he had heard the Psalms sunff in the

church at Milan, wrote, " I read with pleasure the Psalms

THE PSALMS IN THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH. 61

of David—the hymns and songs of thy church moved my

soul intensely; thy truth was distilled by them into my

heart; the flame of piety was kindled, and my tears flowed

for joy." From the tenth book of his Confessions we learn

that the "hymns and songs " sung at the church at Milan

were the Psalms of the Bible.

In his last sickness this dis-

tinguished divine exhibited his attachment to the Psalms by having those called the Penitential Psalms inscribed upon the

wall of his bed chamber in a position and in such sized char-

acters that he could easily read them.

He usually read them

with eyes filled with tears.

Bingham, in his Antiquities,

states the same thing as having been commanded by St. Aus-

tine while he lay sick.

Jerome was the author of " Commentaries on the

Psalms;" and he was so much of an admirer of them that he was accustomed to recommend the reading, singing and com-mitting of them to his pupils.

He directed Rusticus

'

' to

learn the Psalms by heart, and to repeat them in turn as in

the monks' assemblies," saying that he himself had learned them by heart when he was young, and sang them every day when old.

His advice to the Lady Paula, with reference to

the training of her daughter, was,

'

' Let her never hear bad

words, but as soon as she can speak let her learn some parts

of the Psalms." He relates of Marcella, Paula, Blesilla

and Eustochinno that they could recite with ease the Psalter

in the Hebrew, Greek and Latin tongues.

The Psalms are still read and sung in those churches of

the present day that have descended from the primitive

Asiatic, African and European congregations.

While we

lament their degeneracy in the faith and piety of early days, and that they are now regarded, alongside of Mohamedan-ism and Budhism, as missionary ground, yet their present

practices and attachments with reference to the Psalms and

remnants of other portions of the Scriptures, are a pleasing episode in a history otherwise so full of superstition and

folly.

Among the Nestorians, the nearest orthodoxy of all the

relics of primitive churches, the Psalms are sung exclu-

sively in worship.

The whole book of Psalms, or portions

62 David's harp in song and story.

of it, may be still found among the native Abyssinians,

Copts, Armenians, and all the Eastern churches.

The fol-

lowing extracts are fi'om a letter written years ago to the

author by Kev. John Crawford, a missionary of the United Presbyterian Church in Damascus, Syria :

'

' The Psalms

of David are, I believe, used more or less in all the Eastern

churches.

These churches are not all represented in Damas-

cus, or in Syria, although the most of them are.

There

are, for example, no Nestorians in Syria, and no Copts in

this part of it, and I cannot therefore speak positively in re-

gard to them; but I presume that, in respect to the matter

under consideration, there is little difference between them

and the other churches.

In the Greek, the Armenian, the

Syrian and the Maronite churches the Psalms are much used

in their different services.

The Liturgy of the Greek

church, which I have before me in Arabic, contains a large

number of Psalms.

Some of these are merely read, or used

as prayers; others are sung.

In the Greek church here in

Syria they are sung sometimes in Arabic, sometimes in mod-ern Greek, although few of the people understand Greek.

In the Syrian and Maronite churches they are sung in Syriac only, a language which few of the worshipers now under-

stand.

In the Armenian church, the Armenian language,

which is the language of the people, is, I think, used alone.

' '• In all the schools in these churches the children are

tavight to read the Psalms.

No other portion of the Script-

ures is used, and the book of Psalms is almost the only read-ing book, so that the children become very familiar with the Psalms and can repeat many of them from memory.

'

' So far as I am informed, none of the churches have

metrical versions of the Psalms, but all use the prose ver-

sion.

They are, of course, chanted, although, I should say,

their mode of chanting differs a good deal from the mode of chanting in the West.

I have not, however, sufficient

knowledge of music to describe the difference.

'

It is an interesting fact, amid the many changes that

have passed over the spirit of the Oriental churches, during

a period of more than two thousand years, that the music of Judah's Psalmists in no instance has lost its exercise or

THE PSALMS IN THE PEIMITIVE CHURCH. 63

its power.

In the Revolution of Christ and his Apostles

that overturned a system having its existence from the days of Moses, the Psalms received a lustre they never possessed

before, and so continued the songs of Zion.

In the decay of primitive Christianity, they preserved

a place and an influence, when for the most part superstition and formalism covered and concealed all else.

Whatever

efforts have been made, to further change the features of

eastern religion, it has been Psalm-singers converting Psalm-

singers to Psalm-singing.

Judaism, in its efforts to reclaim

the fair country of Palestine to the faith and the forms of

the kings and the prophets, still sings the Psalms of David.

Catholicism sent over her missionaries to persuade the

Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Abyssinians, to pay respect to the Holy See, but she sent the Psalter as the music of her

schools.

From the evangelical churches of Great Britain

and the United States have been sent missionaries to brinor

back the descendants of the primitive worshipers to the

purity and simplicity of the truth as it is in Christ, but in

their Sabbath Schools and congregations in Asia Minor,

Palestine, along the Nile, the Copts, Armenians, Maronites, are taught to sing the same Psalms that they and their

fathers before them had sung in their native worship.

CHAPTER IV.

The Psalms in the Dark Ages.

The term Dark Ages has been applied in its widest

sense to that period of intellectual depression in the history

of Europe, from the establishment of the barbarian su-

premacy in the fifth century to the revival of learning, about the beginning of the fifteenth century.

During these thousand

years the pall of ignorance, superstition and crime rested

upon the Church, as well as the state, and her forms of

worship, like her priests and people, became greatly cor-

rupted.

The Scriptures gradually passed out of the hands

of the people, so that Luther could consult a Bible only as

he found it in a dead language, and chained in a monastery.

It is an exceedingly interesting fact, that in this period of

darkness the Psalms of David were almost the only portion

of the Sacred Volume that continued its influence upon the

minds of men.

Though the practice of Psalmody was

greatly corrupted, the chain in the story of the Hebrew

Psalter remains an unbroken one.

This is the era of the reign of the monastic system,

which, in the fourth century, swept with the rapidity of a

contagion from the highlands of Upper Egypt, through

Palestine and Syria and Italy, into Gaul and Great Britain.

What was at first a vast confusion, gradually became reduced

to a rigid system of religious forms and services under the

influence of such monks as St. Anthony and Pachomius.

Of the devotions of the monasteries it may be said that

David's Psalms were "the first, the middle and the last."

It was a part of the exercise of each day to learn a portion

of the Psalms by heart.

Outside of the cloister exercises the

monks sang Psalms at their labors, in their recreations, in

their wanderings.

Friends were received into the dwellings

of the monks by Psalm-singing in imitation of Christ's en-

trance into Jerusalem.

They sang them at their meals, in

(64)

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 65

their social gatherings, and at all hours during the night and

day.

This they did without books, having committed to

memory the Psalms according to the rules of their orders.

Psalm-singing was so universal among the monks that an

ancient author says of those in Palestine,

'

' At Bethlehem

there was nothing to be heard but Psalms; one could not go

into the fields but he would hear the mower solacing himself with hymns, and the vinedresser tuning David's Psalms."

As may be supposed, in an age of extravagance, and

among fanatics, Psalm-singing among these ascetics was car-

ried to excess. A single instance will exhibit this.

Socrates

in his Ecclesiastical History, when speaking of the monks of Egypt, mentions one Pambos, an illiterate man who spent

nineteen years in singing one verse of a Psalm: he "went to

some one for the purpose of being taught a Psalm; and hav-ing heard the first verse of the Thirty-eighth, ' I said, I will

take heed to my ways that I oflfend not with my tongue, ' he

departed without staying to hear the second verse, saying,

this one would suffice if he could practically acquire it. And

when the person who had given him the verse, reproved him because he had not seen him for the space of six months, he ans^^ered that he had not yet learned to practice the verse of

the Psalm.

After a considerable lapse of time, being asked

by one of his friends whether he had made himself master of the verse, he answered, 'I have scarcely succeeded in accom-

plishing it during nineteen years.' "

In the monasteries Psalms were sung at all the canoni-

cal hours.

In Egypt, according to St. Jerome, the monks met

at 9 o'clock, when Psalms were sung. Scriptures read, prayer offered and remarks made.

The author of the Constitutions

prescribes for the devotions, the reading of the Old Testament, then the singing of Psalms ; to the Bishops he gives direc-

tion: " When you teach the people, O Bishop, command

them to come to church morning and evening, every day

do you assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing Psalms, and praying in the Lord's house.

But especially on the Sabbath day, do you meet together

more diligently.

'

' In many cases the superintendence of

these Bishops extended to the monasteries.

06 David's harp in song and story.

St.

Basil, in speaking of the nocturnal worship of the

monks, mentions their confessing on their knees, and their

rising to sing Psalms.

In connection with certain hours, certain Psalms were

chosen and sung regularly because of some supposed fitness

for those hours.

The Psalm that was sung statedly in the morning ser-

vice was the Sixty-third, being selected because of the words, "Early will I seek thee." The monkish fathers highly

prized this Psalm "as a spiritual song and medicine to blot out our sins, to kindle in us a desire of God; to raise our

souls and inflame them with a mighty fire of devotion.

'

' It

was known as the Morning Psalm.

The stated Psalm for

the evening service was that numbered One hundred and for-

tieth in the Latin Psalter, bat in the English One hundred

and forty-first.

It was selected for the words,

'

' Let my

prayer be set forth before thee as incense, ajid the lifting up

of my hands as the evening sacrifice,

'

' and was called the

Evening Psalm.

In some monasteries stated Psalms were

selected for the hours between the morning and evening ser-

vices, and in others not, such being sung as the leader or

abbot might choose.

According to St. Basil, in some places

the Ninety-first Psalm was sung regularly at the sixth hour or noon-day.

It was used to guard against the incursions of

noon-day devils, and was selected chiefly because of the

words in verses fourth, fifth and sixth:

"4.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings

shalt thou trust ; his truth shalt be thy shield and buckler.

"5.

Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for the

arrow that llieth by day ;

" 6.

Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness ; nor for the

destruction that wasteth at noonday."

The stated Psalm was not the only one sung at the hour

for which it was appointed.

Other Psalms were usually

selected at the option of whoever conducted the worship.

Cassian tells us that in Italy the Fifty-first and Nine-

tieth Psalms were sung in addition to the Sixty-third, the

regular morning Psalm, the Ninetieth being thought appro-

priate because of the words :

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 67

" 5.

Thou carriest them away as with a flood ; they are as a sleep ;

in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

"6.

In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up ; in the evening

is cut down and withereth."

Frequently the Psalms were selected with reference to

their appropriateness to those hours at which occurred the

condemnation, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus

Christ; thus the Twenty-second Psalm, "My God, my

God, why hast thou forsaken me," etc., was a crucifixion

Psalm.

In all of the nocturnal services, or the vigils. Psalms were

sung, but seldom were any fixed for stated singing.

When

the Matutina or new morning services were begun in Beth-

lehem, and were fixed at'6 o'clock, the Fifty-first Psalm was appointed to be sung as a Psalm of confession :

" Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness ;

according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my trans-

gressions," etc.

In other places, however, this Psalm was sung at the

close of the nocturnal devotions or at the break of day.

In Egypt, the vigils were concluded with the One

hundred and forty-eighth. One hundred and forty-ninth, and One hundred and fiftieth Psalms.

St.

Basil, speaking of

these vigils, says that

'

' the people rise while it is yet night,

and come to the place of prayer, and there, with much

labor and affliction and contrition and tears, make confession

of their sins to God."

'

' When this is done, they rise from prayer, and dispose

themselves to Psalmody ; sometimes dividing themselves into

two parts, they answer one another in singing, or sing

alternately ; after this again, they permit one alone to begin

the Psalm, and the rest join in the close of every verse.

And thus, with this variety of Psalmody, they carry on the

night, praying betwixt whiles, or intermingling prayers,

with their Psalms.

At last, when the day begins to dawn,

they all in common, as with one mouth and one heart, offer

up to God the Psalm of confession (Fifty-first), every one

making the words of their Psalm to be the expression of his

own repentance.

'

The number of Psalms sung at the canonical hours,

68 David's haup in song and story.

has differed in different localities and ages.

At first there

was no uniform rule on this point, each monastery having

been left to its own choice.

Cassian tells us that in Egypt, at the beginning of the

Monastic life, the monks, in some places, sang ten Psalms in immediate succession ; in other places eighteen were sung ;

in others twenty ; in some as high as fifty were sung without

intermission.

At last, by common consent, the number for

the morning and evening was reduced to twelve Psalms.

After the full complement of canonical hours was intro-

duced, many monasteries regulated the number of the

Psalms by the number of the hour—three Psalms at the

third hour, six at the sixth, nine at the ninth.

Finally, the

custom was established of singing only three Psalms at all

the diurnal hours, the singing of the twelve being reserved

for the regular morninof and eveninsf service. o o o

The Psalms in the vigils of the night usually numbered

more than during the day, in some monasteries as high as

sixty being sung.

In the Galilean church, at the time of the second

council of Tours, an order prevailed differing from that of

the eastern countries.

In one of the canons of this council,

which met about the year 567 A.

D., it was ordered that

the new morning service, beginning at 6 o'clock, should be

performed with six antiphonies and two Psalms, in the

height of summer ; in September there were to be seven

antiphonies and two Psalms ; in October, eight antiphonies

and three Psalms ; in November, nine antiphonies and three

Psalms ; in January and February until Easter, ten anti-

phonies and three Psalms.

At the sixth hour, there were to

be six Psalms and the Allelujah, and at the twelfth hour,

twelve Psalms and the Allelujah.

In the month of August,

there were to be manications—early matins, or morning

service, without Psalms, because it was the harvest time,

and men were in haste to go to their labors.

This nocturnal Psalm-singing was increased to almost

perpetual Psalmody in the vigils preceding the days appointed

for great festive occasions.

These special days grew in

number, till there was an average of two for each week.

TTIK PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 69

The Psalmody in the monasteries was usually performed in

a standing posture, and after the manner of the church

itself.

In Egyptian monasteries, only the leader sang, and

he

' ' with a plain, even voice.

'

' In some cases more than

one person was appointed to conduct the singing, in which

case one person would follow another ; if there were four

persons, each would chant three of the twelve Psalms ; if

three, each would chant four ; if two, each would chant six

Psalms.

Never more than four persons were appointed at

one time.

Beside the regular monasteries, there were other com-

munities of ascetics, which practiced what they called per-

petual Psalmody.

This custom was begun by the Watchers,

founded in Constantinople during the fifth century, Ijy

Alexander, a monk.

They divided themselves into three

classes, which succeeded each other at stated hours, so that

the exercises of prayer and praise never ceased.

This they

carried on, day and night, to guard against the incursions of midday and midnight devils.

Besides these, were the

Graziers, who lived after the manner of flocks and herds,

and who performed their Psalm-singing in the fields and

mountains as their cloisters.

It was contrary to their

custom to dwell in a house, to eat bread or flesh and to drink wine.

They would usually sing and pray till meal -time and

then take their knives and cut grass for their food.

In the

nunneries, the customs of the Psalmody as performed in the monasteries were followed.

St.

Jerome speaks of virgins

sinofinsf Psalms at the canonical hours and in the nisfht visfils, and says they were ol)liged to learn portions of the Psalter

every day.

After the revolution produced by the Northern hordes,

though the monastic institutions underwent some changes,

yet the canonical hours, and the Psalms for those hours were retained.

Cassian, writing about the fifth century, says, in

a vindication of the Egyptian monks, what may be said of

those in the West : "Our elders have not changed the an-

cient customs of singing, but the devotions are performed

in the same manner as formerly in the meetings l)y night.

The hymns, which it had been the custom to sing at the end

70 David's harp in song and story.

of the night vigils, were the same hymns they sing at this

day, namely, the iifty-first. Sixty-third, Ninetieth and One hundred and forty-ninth." The changes of St.

Benedict

referred to agriculture, the distribution of monastic duties,

the conduct of the monks in sleeping, eating, &c.

Not only was the ancient Psalm-singing continued by

Benedict, but there was in his order something of the early

enthusiasm of Psalmody.

The Benedictines were " ad-

vised to separate the soul from the body by divine contem-

plations and for that purpose to emaciate and enervate the

body by watching and singing of Psalms.

'

' Benedict de-

sired to divide the day equally between agricultural pursuits and religious exercises ; but many of his disciples forgot the

rules of their leader and spent their days in singing and

prayer.

The fanaticism among such became so great, as

we are informed by Fosbrook, that the

'

' best man was

looked on as a barrel organ set to Psalm tunes ; and this

was carried to such excess in some places that the}' estab-

lished the Laus Perennis or Perpetual Psalmody—an infinite

series of psalmody continued by relays of monks day and

night forever without coming to an end.

Not to wonder,

when Psalm-singing was in high repute, that the monks

should soon get up some marvelous tales about St. Benedict,

the founder of their order ; it was asserted that he sang

Psalms in his mother's womb ; and, at his birth, came sing-

ing into the world.

'

'

About the middle of the sixth century Columba, an

Irishman, founded many churches and monasteries among

the Irish and Scots.

He was of royal blood, and was born,

521, in Gastan, County of Tyrconnel, Ireland.

In 563 or

565, " he set out in a wicker boat, covered with hides, ac-

companied by twelve of his friends and followers, and

landed in the isle of Hi, or lona, near the confines of the

Scottish and Pictish territories,

'

' being resolved to l^ecome

the Apostle of the Highlands.

'

' By the preaching and virtues of Columba, many of the

northern Picts were led to embrace Christianity, who gave

him the small island on which he first landed.

Here he

built his monastery, which became the chief seminary of

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 71

learning of that time, perhaps in Europe, and the nursery

from which not only the monasteries of his own island, and

above three hundred churches, which he himself had estab-

lished, but also many of those in neighboring nations, were

supplied with learned divines and able pastors.

In this

seminary, which might justly he called a missionary college,

the students spent much of their time in reading, and in

transcribing the Scriptures and sacred hymns, which Co-

lumba was at pains should be done with the greatest care

and accuracy, in which he was surprisingly successful.

'

'

Columba, like Basil, Athanasius and Benedict, was a

monk and a Psalm-singer, and taught the singing of the

Psalms in his monastery.

A part of each day's duties for

his pupils was the copying of the Psalter.

On one occasion

Baithen, a disciple of Columba, requested that a Psalter

which he had copied should be examined by one of his

brethren, but Columba replied that it had already been ex-

amined, and that there was but oiie error in it, which was

the absence of the letter i from a word.

It is not until the time of Benedict and Columba that

we find the Psalms a part of the disciplinary inflictions of

the monasteries.

It was a custom, in the old English mon-

asteries, to line the monks who w^ere rich according to their

wealth, but to impose a penalty of singing fifty Psalms on

those unable to pay a fine in money.

In the rules of Columba it was ordained, "A year's

penance for him who loses a consecrated wafer ; six

months for him who lets it turn red ; forty days for him

who contemptuously flings it into the water ; twenty days

for him who brings it up through weakness of stomach.

He who neglects his Amen to the Benedicite, who speaks

when eating, who forgets to make the sign of the cross

on his spoon, or on a lantern lighted by a younger brother,

is to receive six or twelve stripes as the case may deserve,

and repeat twelve Psalms . . .

Fif t}^ stripes for him who

does not kneel at prayer, who has sung badly or has

coughed while chanting the Psalms."

In the flogging of the monks, a valuation of so many

Psalms was placed alongside of so many lashes, and when

72 David's harp in song and story.

the valuation superceded what was demanded by individuals for penance or penalty, the superabundant value of stripes

went into a common fund for the benefit of those who could not pay what they owed.

'

' The monks of Fonte Avellana determined that thirty

Psalms sung with an accompaniment of one hundred lashes

to each Psalm, making three thousand lashes, should be set

off for one year of purgatory.

By a fantastic species of

arithmetic three thousand lashes were valued at £4.

The

whole Psalter, with fifteen thousand lashes, was set off for

five years; and twenty Psalters with thirty thousand lashes

entered into the book of the Recording Angel as receipt in

full for one hundred years of purgatory.

This scale seems

to have been sanctioned by the Pope.

'

None was more ambitious, if we may believe a legend,

to lay up this kind of spiritual and heavenly treasure than

St. Dominic, the Cuirassier—so called from wearing an iron cuirass next his skin.

He taxed himself ordinarily at ten

Psalters and thirty thousand lashes for each day : at which

rate, three thousand six hundred and fifty years of purgatory could be redeemed in a single year.

During Lent, the ordi-

nary task was not suflBcient for this benevolent monk.

His

superiors were petitioned to supplement till his daily task

was two and a half Psalters and thirty-four thousand five

hundred stripes for each day, the valuation of one hundred

years of purgatory.

But even this did not satisfy him.

During Lent again, he petitioned for the privilege of redeem-ing one thousand years of purgatory.

During the forty

days of Lent, says Damian, he sang two hundred Psalters

and inflicted sixty millions of stripes !

Well might Yepes

say of this saint, "1 neither know how his head should be

capable of repeating so many Psalms, nor how his arms

should have strength to give him so many blows, nor how

his flesh should be able to endure so inhuman a battery.

'

But as the legend runs, St. Dominic gained flesh under his

castigations.

His appetite grew by what it fed on until, in

jockey phrase, he flogged himself against time.

He com-

menced one evening singing and flogging and in twenty-four hours went twelve times through the Psalter and had be^un

J

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 73

the thirteenth and gone to beati qaorum in the Thirty-second Psalm, taking one hundred and eighty-one thousand one

hundred lashes, equal to sixty-one years, twelve days and

thirty-three minutes of purgatory ! !

Now as old St. Dom-

inic only sinned once, in accepting the present of a furred

robe, he stood creditor to an immense amount on the angel's books; but as no good works are lost, all went to the great

sinking fund of the Holy Catholic Church.

'

' Pietro Dami-

ano, a cardinal and saint, related these events as occurring

to his own personal knowledge.

His relation of them is in

a letter written to Pope Alexander II. "A Protestant might have asked how Dominic counted the stripes while singing

the Psalms, artid also what he-came of tJie cuirass all the time^

for it has been well said, if he kept it on, he might have

laid on as lustily as Sancho on the trees, and still have kept a whole skin.

'

In the Brotherhood of the Eleven Thousand Virgins,

founded by Elector Frederick the Wise, the community

had accumulated vast fortunes in spiritual treasures, which

was to be set at the disposal of its members to help them on the road to salvation.

They were entitled to draw on a

fund of no less than six thousand, four hundred and fifty-

five masses ; three thousand, five hundred and fifty entire

Psalters ; two hundred thousand rosaries, besides eleven

thousand prayers of the Patroness of St. Ursula, and "six

hundred and thirty-eleven thousand Paternosters and Ave

Marias."

It was partly because many of the monks had come be-

hind in their yearly penance of Psalters and stripes—some

of them to the extent of three hundred years in purgatory,

and nine hundred thousand lashes, valued at £1,200—that

the Crusades took so largely from these monastic orders.

The Pope proclaimed pardon and exemption to all who

would go in the Crusades.

An interesting feature of the history of the Psalms as

they are connected with the monasteries, is in the art of

illuminating and illustrating manuscripts, as it was carried

on extensively by the monks in their cells.

The copying of

the Scriptures .in letters of gold was called chrysographia.

74 David's harp in song and story.

or gold writing.

It is evidently very ancient in its origin,

having existed among the Arabs, and probably among the

Jews, long before the Christian era.

The copy of the sa-

cred book sent to Ptolemy by the high priest Eleazar, and

presented to him by the seventy-two interpreters, was writ-

ten upon the finest vellum in letters of gold.

A number of Psalters are preserved embellished richly

with gold letters and pictures.

Among the legacies of Count Everard we find be-

queathed to his son Beringarius, a Psalter written in letters

of gold.

Of the few books belonging to the first church

erected at Canterbury, England, was

'

' a Psalter ornamented

with a miniature painting of Samuel, the Priest, and adorned on the outside with the image of Christ and the four evan-

gelists on a plate of silver." A Latin Psalter, ornamented

with most beautiful miniatures and richly illuminated for

Kichard II. when but a youth, is preserved in the Cottonian Library.

It contains a calendar and various tables, besides

hymns and the Athanasian Creed.

The King is represented

in different places on his knees before the Virgin Mary, who has the infant Jesus in her arms.

Charlemagne, while King of the Franks, had a Psalter

executed in letters of gold to present to Pope Hadrian II.

as the dedicatory verses, written by himself, state.

The

Psalter is written on vellum and is a large octavo volume.

Scaliger tells us "his grandmother had a Psalter, the

cover of which was two inches thick, in the inside of which was a kind of cupboard wherein was a silver crucifix, and

behind it the name of Berenica Codrona, de la Scala.

'

A Latin Psalter, with an interlinear Saxon version, of

the ninth century, is decorated on the exterior of the oaken

boards with which it is bound, with a large brass crucifix,

about seven or eight inches in height, formerly, perhaps,

covered or washed with silver.

Ervene, one of the teachers of Wolstan, and Bishop of

Worcester, to encourage his pupils to learn to read, had a

Psalter and Sacramentary prepared whose capital letters

were written in gold.

In the Cotton Library is a Psalter said to have been

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 75

used by Athelstan, in Saxon letters, written in T03.

Every

Psalm is begun with gilt capitals, with a title preceding it

in red letters.

It has several ornamental paintings.

Longfellow, in his History of Poetry, gives an idea of

an ancient glee-man from an illuminated manuscript of the

Psalms.

The picture is "a frontispiece to the Psalms of

David.

The great Psalmist sits upon his throne with a harp

in his hand and his masters of sacred song about him.

Belo^v

stands the glee-man throwing three balls and three knives

alternately into the air and catching them as they fall, like

a modern juggler."

In the Egerton Collection is a Psalter, the corners of

of whose binding are carved ivory.

To protect the fragile

binding it is encased in a portable glass box.

The one side

presents six incidents in the life of King David; the other,

six works of mercy.

A small shield with the text is placed

between the figures in each.

The figures are flat in execu-

tion, but the interlacing bands, strongly resembling the Saxon

style of ornament, the graceful, though nondescript, animals

that fill up the interstices, the borders, beautiful exceedingly,

that surround each side, are exquisite in execution and taste.

The middle of each foliaged scroll is finished with a turquoise,

the centre ornaments have rubies, and scarcely could Queen

Victoria receive a more royal gift-book than this remain of

an age termed dark and barbarous.

The Psalter belonged

to one of the queens of Jerusalem about the twelfth century.

In 1299 Godfrey, abbot of Peterborough, presented to

an Italian cardinal

'

' a Psalter written in letters of azure and

gold and wonderfully illuminated." In the Arundel collec-

tion is a Prayer-book containing a Psalter and antiphonal,

the gift-book of Robert de Lyle to his daughter Audfrey.

"The chief fault of the specimen is its profusion of gold.

Nearly all the pictures are on a burnished gold ground ; and

so thick has the sizing been laid on, that in some instances

the figures seem sunk within it.

With the initial letters,

raised gold forms the letter and the most grraceful foliaae

enriches it, and sweeps downward almost to the foot of the

page.

Lighter foliage, vine or iv}^ leaves, some green, some

bright gold, waves around the heavier portions and the masses

76 David's harp in song and sxoRr.

of shade and color are further carried off by most delicate

flourishes, with the finest pen.

The music of the Psalter is

on four red lines.

A border encircles some of the pages, fin-

ished off with fine pen flourishes, and sometimes with a small

vignette.

These consist of birds and beasts.

Figures of

the prophets and saints in oral meditation, on a ground of

bright pierced gold, and delicate armorial bearings, also meet

us.

The initial letter of the Eighty-first Psalm encloses

King David, not playing on a harp, but striking a row of

silver bells, like a true Saxon, with hammers.

Two figures,

one playing the violin, and the other the bagpipe, support

him; two graceful figures with a harp and a small organ,

occupy the lower corner of the page, and above two angels are blowing burnished trumpets.

The initial letter of the

Ninety-third Psalm gives us a group of choristers singing

from a long roll of music; the One hundred and tenth Psalm (Dixit Dominus) has a representtition of the Trinity finely

drawn, and the whole page is gorgeously ornamented.

'

There is a story told of the Cathack, a beautiful manu-

script copy of the Psalms, said to have been written by St.

Columba.

To exhibit veneration for the memory of this

great saint, this Psalter was enshrined in a magnificent case,

was carried as a sacred standard before the army in liattle

and was so highly venerated from age to age, that it came

to be employed as a solemn sanction in the taking of oaths.

But the opening of this mysterious Psalter was forbidden

forever under the pain of some awful calamit3^

In the monasteries of the present day, which may be

found in almost every country under the sun, the ancient

rules of Psalmody are to a great extent followed.

The

Psalms are distributed throughout their liturgies for regular reading and singing.

In the East, along the banks of the Nile, in Palestine,

Mesopotamia, Syria, where the ascetic system took its rise,

may be seen, everywhere, monastic buildings, some of which

are very ancient, and all of which are still occupied by a few miserable and idle male and female monks.

The lil)raries of

these monasteries are mostly composed of well-thumbed lit-

urgies, in which the Psalms always hold a prominent place.

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 77

Lazy pilgrims may be met with who will perform upon one another the rite of baptism in the Jordan, or Red Sea, sing-

ing, as they baptize, the Psalms with a loud and boisteious

noise.

But the history of the Psalms in the middle ages is not

confined to the monasteries or to the churches whose ritual

corresponded closely to that used by the monks.

Their

story is part of the every-day life of the era, and is always

identified with the devoutness of such zealous Christians as

survived the general decay.

The great Gregory, who was raised to the papal chair

in 590, exhibited much attachment to the sacred Scriptures, which he knew by heart, and so loved the Psalms that he

obliged his attendants to sing them with him when on his

deathbed.

Charlemagne, the renowned warrior of France, whose

name is associated with the military achievements of the

close of the eighth and beginning of the ninth century,

manifested great fondness for Psalm-singing.

In his youth

he had committed the Psalms to memory, and afterward

sang them to the day of his death.

A frequent charge of

his to the priests was that they should gain proper views of

the Scriptures and commit the Psalms to memory.

He also

recommended that when the Bishops and Abbots would have

the poor with them at their meals, they should associate

psalmody with their feasting.

From his memorizing the

Psalms, Alcuin, the historian of Charlemagne, has called

him David.

A Latin Psalter, owned by Hildegard, wife of Charle-

magne, and used by her during her lifetime, was, after her

death, presented by the Emperor to the Cathedral of Bre-

men, where it was kept for several centuries, and annually

exhibited to wondering and admiring multitudes.

During the Middle Ages there was a custom, largely

observed in Roman Catholic countries, of perambulating,

with great pomj) and ceremony, the boundaries of the parish.

This was done on what were called Gauge days—the Mon-

day, Tuesday and Wednesday before Holy Thursday or As-cension Day.

In the procession were borne banners, bells

78 David's harp in song and story.

and lights, while occasionally the people engaged in singing Psalms and listenetl to the haranofuino; of some monk or

priest, having the One hundred and fourth Psalm as his

theme.

The Psalms sung were thanksgiving psalms, such

as exhi])ited best the festivities and hilarities of the occasion.

This custom of religious processions originated at a

very early day, and was observed especially at funerals and

marriages.

Afterward it was adopted by the Arians, who

awakened enthusiasm by their torchlight processions at

night and their vociferous singing of Arian hymns.

After

the fourth or fifth century processions were frequent in con-nection with the installation of bishops, the consecration of

relics, at feasts of thanksgiving, and often on occasions of

danger or calamity.

'

' Through the influence of Mamertus,

Bishop of Vienna, 450 A. D., and Gregory the Great, pro-

cessions became a regular ceremony which recurred at stated

times, when the Gospels, costly crucifixes and banners,

torches and burning candals, relics, pictures of the Virgin

and of saints, were carried about, and Psalms or hymns

suno;.

The religious services on these occasions were called

Litanies.

The}^ consisted of prayers, and of the invocation

of saints and angels, to which the people made response,

' Ora pro nobis ! ' "

Sometimes, during the Middle Ages, we meet with the

Psalms in the novel customs of divination.

This is at times

called bibliomancy, at other, sortes sacrae, or sacred lots,

and consisted in a sudden dipping into the Bible, or a sud-

den entrance into a religious assembly and a noting of the

passage first striking the eye or the ear.

This practice was

a relic of heathenism, pagans at a very early day observing

it with the poems of Homer and Virgil.

Though it was re-

peatedly prohibited by successive councils in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth centuries, yet it prevailed extensively in

the Roman Catholic Church.

Prominent in these divina-

tions were the Psalms, which became the oracle to which

many resorted for intimations of the future.

When Clovis, the King of the Franks, was about to go

to war with the Goths of Spain, he asked of heaven that he might have some revelation of the success of his project.

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 79

As he entered the Church of St. Martin, whither he had

gone for the divine intimation, the choir was singing those

words in the Eighteenth Psalm, " Thou hast given me the

necks of mine enemies, that I might destroy them that hate me.

They cried but there was none to save them, even unto

the Lord, but he answered them not.

'

' This satisfied the

superstitious monarch, and he went from the church con-

vinced that heaven had decreed victory for him.

Biblio-

mancy was resorted to frequently in appointing bishops, in

which case, after a fast of three days, the Psalms, the Epis-

tles of St. Paul and the Gospels were placed on one side of

the altar, and on the other side small billets having on them

the names of the candidates for the office.

On one of these

occasions when St. Agnan was chosen, it was done by St.

Euvert calling a child and requiring it to act in the Sacred

Lots.

The child took up a billet that had the name of St.

Agnan written on it.

That the multitude might be satisfied

that the call was of God, Euvert took the Psalter and

opened suddenly where it said: " Blessed is the man whom

thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he

may dwell in thy courts. " Opening in the Epistle of St.

Paul he found ; " Other foundation can no man lay, than

that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." In the Gospels he

found : " Upon this rock will I build my church, and the

gates of hell shall not prevail against it." These testimo-

nies were satisfactory, and St. Agnan was proclaimed bishop.

This custom was continued in the cathedrals at Boulogne,

Ypres, and at St. Omer till a period as late as 1744, the prac-

tice at Boulogne differing from that of earlier times in that

the Psalms only were used in the divination.

The Psalms were sung in the canonization of the saints.

From ten to twenty years after the death of some illustrious servant of the Church, canonization began by the proper

authorities pitching a tent over the grave of the dead. Around the tent stood the great body of the attendants, whose office

it was to chant the Psalms, while the Superior, accompanied

by the more aged of the brotherhood, entered the tent, opened

the grave, and prepared the bones, by washing and carefully

80 David's harp in song and story.

wrapping them in linen or silk, for their deposition in the

mortuary chest.

Psalm-singing accompanied unction at sick-beds.

It

was customary lo perform unction on the eyelids, ears, lips,

nostrils, neck, shoulders, breast, hands, feet and the princi-

pal ])arts affected by pain, a Psalm being chanted after each

unction.

If the sick died, the priests walked in front of

the bier to the church and thence to the cemetery, chanting

Psalms.

In the dedication of churches during the Middle A^es,

Psalm-singing was a prominent feature of the ceremonies.

The night preceding the solemn occasion was spent in watch-ing and prayer.

In the morning, the prelates, dressed in

their pontifical robes, repaired to the porch of the church.

Here the principal consecrator struck the door thrice with

his crozier, saying, " Lift up your gates, O ye princes ; and

be ye lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory shall

come in." At the third stroke the door was opened.

As

the procession entered the church, the choir sang the Twenty-fourth Psalm, and the bishop exclaimed, "Peace to this

house and all who dwell in it; peace to those who enter it

Peace to those who go out.

'

' Proceeding to the foot of the

altar, the consecrators lay prostrate till the litany was sung ;

after which one of the bishops wrote two Poman alphabets

on the floor in the form of a cross, and sprinkled the altar,

walls and pavements with holy water.

A prayer being

chanted, the altars consecrated and mass said, the ceremonies ended with a banquet in the Episcopal palace.

In the devotions for the dead, the order consisted in

frequent repetition of the Lord's Prayer, which was com-

monly called a belt of Pater-nosters; in the chanting of a

number of Psalms, and in the people prostrating themselves upon their knees and intoning the anthem, "O Lord, accord-ing to thy great mercy give rest to his soul, and in consid-

eration of thy infinite goodness grant that he may enjoy eter-

nal light in company of the saints."

In the consecration of cemeteries, among other cere-

monies, the bishop, followed by the clergy, walked around

the limits intended for the burial of the dead, chanting the

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 81

Miserere—Fifty-first Psalm—and reading five prayers, one at

each of the four corners and one in the middle of the ground.

Absolution was one of the favorite practices of the Roman

cleroy, the ceremonies of which were attended with great

pomp. Ash-Wednesday was theitime appointed for this event.

In the morning of this day, those who wished the imposiiion

of penance, on account of some sin against the Moral Law, or some insult to religion, repaired publicly to the porch of

the church, barefoot and clothed in roI)es of mourning.

At

the proper time the bishop led them into the church, and,

himself, lay prostrate ])et:ore the altar, while the choir chanted Psalms Thirty-seven, Fifty, Fifty-one and Fifty-three.

After

the offering of a prayer, the imposition of hands and the

clothing of the head in sackcloth and ashes, the penitents,

after the example of God's casting out Adam, were thrust

from the church, and required, before their absolution would

take effect, to perform the penitential services imposed upon them.

Psalm-singing mingled to some extent in the enthusiasm

of the Crusades, which began in the eleventh century and

continued to the middle of the thirteenth.

This was not en-

gaged in by the people, but by the priests and monks who

performed the offices of the Church during the pilgrimages.

It has been stated that the Crusades originated in a misin-

terpretation of a passage in the Psalms.

The seventh verse

of Psalm One hundred and thirty-second, which is properly

rendered in the English version, "We will worship at his

footstool," was translated in the Vulgate, "Let us adore

the Lord in the spot where his feet were placed." Some of

the most eminent fathers of the Church, such as Jerome

and EuseBius, considered this as a prophecy and a command requiring the faithful to visit the Holy City and its sur-

rounding sacred spots for the purpose of worshiping God

where Christ himself had engaged in his devotions. Whether or not this verse gave rise to the Crusades, certain it is that

it was the text of many a flaming discourse by bishops,

priests and monks in their efforts to begin and carry on the

holy wars against the infidels of the Holy Land.

Among the wonderful tales of the Crusade era is one

82 David's harp in song and story.

concerning the miraculous "Psalm-book of Quindreda," the

sister of St. Kenelmus.

On the eve of the festival of St.

Kenelmus, at Winchelcumbe, a crowd of women came from

all the neighboring places to be present at the festivities

given by the monks.

During the progress of the events

connected with the occasion, one of the monks became guilty

of an outrage in the corridors of the cloister.

On the next

day he carried the Psalter of Quindreda in the procession;

but when he wished to put it down, the book adhered to

his hands.

He then remembered his sin of the pieceding

night, confessed, offered penance, and, by the assistance of

the prayers of the brethren, succeeded in

'

' breaking the

chains the Divinity had imposed on him!"

This wonderful Psalter was the means of detecting;

guilt in Quindreda herself.

When the body of Kenelmus,

her brother, was being carried to the grave, the people cried

out, " He is a martyr." Quindreda being suspected of

committing the murder, she attempted a defense by saying, " Itis as true that he has been assassinated as it is true that my eyes, drawn from my hand, are fastened on this Psalter, Scarcely had she uttered the words till both eyes fell from

their sockets upon the book, leaving the stain of blood upon

the leaves.

Such are some of the legends related by Bald-

win, Archbishop of Canterbury, in a journal written in

Wales.

It seems that this Psalter accompanied the crusaders in

their marches and operated great prodigies by the way.

It is an item of no little interest that after the soldiers

of the first Crusade scaled the walls of Jerusalem, July 15th,

1099, they marched by the light of burning buildings, and

with feet treading in blood, to the church of the Resurrec-

tion, repeating Psalms.

The subject of the various versions of the Psalms meets

us frequently during the progress of the Middle Ages.

The

Hebrew was the original language of the Psalter.

There is

no evidence of its having ])een rendered in any other dialect

until about two hundred years before Christ.

This was the

lano-uao'e of the Tabernacle, the Temple, a language that is

now a dead tongue, except to some of the Jewish descend-

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 83

ants, who have preserved a knowledge of it, by its use in

the religious services of the synagogues.

The dialect in which Christ and his disciples employed

the Psalms was the Greek, in what is commonly known as

the Septuagint.

At what time the Psalms, with the other

inspired books, passed into the native dialects of the early

Christian communities, is not known.

In the West the Scriptures were at first familiar only

to those who could read the Greek, or who had learned them from those who had carried them there.

But translations

soon appeared.

From Augustine we learn that the Latin

Church very early possessed a number of versions in the

native dialect of Italy.

That translation which obtained the

widest circulation passed under the name of Vetus Itala, or

Ancient Italian.

It was a translation from the Septuagint,

and not from the Hebrew, there being few in the Western

Church that were at that time acquainted with the native

language of the Jews.

It is supposed to have been prepared

in the early part of the second century, as it is mentioned by Tertullian before the close of that century.

It was from this old Italic that the Psalms were sung

by the western Christians for nearly three hundred years.

But before the middle of the fourth century the Italic ver-

sion of the Scriptures became extremely faulty, owing to

errors in the copying of it from time to time.

These errors

gave opportunity to the enemies of the Church, especially

to the Jews, to cavil concerning the doctrines and fidelity of the Christians.

To remedy the evils and silence the objec-

tions of enemies, Jerome, under the patronage of Pope Da-

masus, undertook first a revision of the old version, and after-wards an entirely new one.

The corrected edition appeared

A. D. 390 or 391.

The Psalms, which are all that remain

of this edition, were called the Roman Psalter, because it

began the soonest, and lasted the longest in the Roman offices.

Its use began in the churches of Gaul almost as soon as at

Rome, and prevailed there until, in the sixth century, Gre-

gory of Tours, introduced that known as the Gallican

Psalter.

The Gallican Psalter was also prepared by Jerome.

It

84: David's harp in song and story.

was made from Origen's corrected edition of the Greek ver-

sion, but, where the Greek was supposed faulty, the render-ing was taken directly from the Hebrew; this Psalter was

completed in 389 and was first used in Gaul, hence called

Galilean.

From Gaul it passed into the worship of the Eng-

lish churches, and into those of Germany and Spain.

But

in Rome, Jerome's first corrected edition continued in use,

though the popes connived at its introduction in the western churches, even in those of some parts of Italy.

This ver-

sion was publicly authorized by the Council of Trent and

was soon afterwards introduced into the Church at Rome

itself.

It is this ancient Psalter, corrected somewhat by

Coverdale and others, that is still continued in the English

Liturgy as the reading/ Psalms^ and in the offices of the Cath-

olic Church.

Augustine at first violently opposed the use of the Gal-

ilean Psalms, but afterwards became so highl}^ pleased with

them that he selected passages from them and embodied them

in his Speculum, or Mirror, a work which contained choice

selections from the Scriptures, and which he designed for

those who were too poor to purchase the whole of the sacred Word, or too busily employed to read it all.

So highly pleased with this translation was Lucinius

Boeticus, a Spaniard, and a warm friend to the Scriptures,

that in 394 he sent six short-hand copyists from Spain to

Palestine, where Jerome was when he prepared it, to take

copies of it and of the other works of Jerome.

Jerome prepared also a Psalter directl}^ from the He-

brew, which has been called the Hebraic-Latin Psalter.

This

was completed in 391, but though much admired, was never introduced into the offices of the Church.

Daring the Middle Ages many translations of the

Psalms were made into the dialects of those nations among

whom the Catholic Church sent her missionaries.

In many

cases the Psalms were published in a volume by themselves, owing to their being essential to the performances of the

Liturgy.

Sometimes versions were translated by individuals

on their own responsibilit}^ This was especially the case

toward the close of the Middle Ages, Avhen the Papal Church

THE Pt^ALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 85

prohibited the use of the Scriptures to the people in their

own dialects.

In the Ninth Century appeared a metrical version of

the Psalms in the German, by Otfrid.

Otfrid was a German

by birth, and a monk of the Order of St. Benedict.

He

was at first a hearer, then a disciple of the celebrated Abbot

of Fulda, E-abanus Maurus.

Trithemus says of Otfrid :

"He was profoundly versed in the knowledge of the Scrip-

tures, and extensively acquainted with literature in general

;

a philosopher, a rhetorician, and a famous poet ; eloquent in

speech and excellent in disposition.

His prose and poetical

works were numerous, and have transmitted his name with

honor to posterity.

After the example of Charlemagne, he

attempted to reduce the barbarous language of the ancient

Germans to grammatical rule, and partially succeeded.

'

' A

manuscript copy of his metrical Psalms is preserved in the

Imperial Library at Vienna.

In the same century the Roman Liturgy with the

Roman Psalter was translated into the Slavonic by Cyril

and Methodius, brothers, and natives of Thessalonica, and

both missionating monks.

The letter of Pope John VIII,

to these monks, approving of their works, will show that

the Catholic Church had not yet, 880 A. D., shut out the

Scriptures from the native languages.

He says :

'

' We

approve of the Slavonic letters invented by the philosopher

Constantine ; and we order that the praises of Christ may

be published in that language.

It is not contrary to the

faith to employ it in the prayers of the Church, and in

reading the Holy Scriptures.

He who made the three

principal languages, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, made the

rest also for his own glory.

Nevertheless to show the more

respect to the Gospel, let it first be read in the Latin, and

then in the Slavonican for the sake of the people who under-stand not Latin.

'

'

In the latter part of the Tenth Century, Notker, sur-

named Labeo, translated the Psalter into the Teutonic or

Old German.

He undertook the translation of the Psalms

that the monks, under his care, who could not understand

the Latin, might understand what they sang.

8b

DAVID'S HARP IN SONG AND STORY.

Schilter, who published a corrected edition of this

Psalter, gives the title of it in Latin, ''' Notkeri Tertii

Tabeonis Psalter'ium : e Latins) in Theotiscam Veterem Lin-

guam versum., et Paraphran iUustratu7n.

E Manuscripto

codice pe7'vetusto Du de la Lanhere, Primus eruit^ et descrihi^ dum vi-veret, curavit.

Titm interj>retatione et notis orncmit

lo.

Schilterm.

Ulmae, 1726.

A cop3^ of this Psalter was written for the use of the

Empress Cuneofundis, wife of Heniy II, A. D. 1004, by the younger Ekkerard, a monk of Mentz.

The following will give an idea of this translation :

Psalm

I.

1.

Der man ist salig, der in dero argon rat ne gegieng,

Noh an dero sundigon unege ne stuont;

Noh an demo suhstnole ne saz.

2.

Nube ner ist salig, tes unillo an gotes eo ist, unc der

dara ana denchet tag unde naht.

In the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, are two

translations of the Psalms, one into the Norman-French, and the other a Polyglot, belonging to the Eleventh Century,

The Polyglot contains the three most celebrated versions of

the Latin Psalms, the Galilean, Roman and Hebraic, with a

preface, prayer and commentary subjoined to each Psalm.

With the Galilean version is a gloss or brief commentary;

with the Roman is an inter] ineary Normano-Saxon version ;

and with the Hebraic, the Norman-French version.

The

whole is written on vellum, and is a beautiful specimen of an illuminated manuscript.

In the year 1229, met the Council of Toulouse, made

infamous in history by its prohibiting the translation of the

Scriptures into the languages of the people.

The celebrated

Canon is in the following terms : "We also forbid the laity

to possess any of the Old or New Testaments, except

perhaps, some one out of devotion wishes to have the Psalter

or Breviary for the divine offices, or the Hours of the

Blessed Virgin.

But we strictly forbid them having an}' of

these ])ooks translated into the vulgar tongue."

But this Canon had little influence, for from the

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 87

Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centiiiy, individual enterprise

supplied the Psalms and all the other sacred books in many

of the vulgar tongues of the times.

In the Fifteenth Century printing was invented, and so

the world was destined no longer to look for its copies of the Word of God to the pens and parchments of the lazy monks.

The first book issued from type and the first printed

book that bears the names of the printers, and the place and

date of its publication, was a Latin Psalter, commonly

known as the Mentz Psalter.

The most perfect copy of it

has been preserved in the library at Vienna.

It was dis-

covered near Inspruck, in the Castle of Ambras, in

1665,

among a mass of MSS. and printed books collected by

Francis Sigismund.

'

' The book is printed in folio, on

vellum, and of such extreme rarity, that not more than six

or seven copies are known to be in existence, all of which,

however, differ from each other in some respect or other.

The Psalter occupies one hundred and thirty-five leaves, and the recto the one hundred and thirty-sixth ; the remaining

forty-one leaves are appropriated to the litany, prayers,

responses, vigils, &c.

The Psalms are executed in larger

characters than the hymns ; the capital letters are cut on

wood, with a degree of delicacy and boldness which is truly surprising ; the largest of them, the initial letters of the

Psalms, which are black, red and blue, must have passed

three times through the press.

'

This Psalter bears date of August 14, 1457.

A second

edition of it was executed in 1459, and contains, with it, the

first printed text of the Athanasian Creed.

It is supposed

that the St. Alban and Benedictine monks were at the

expense of issuing both of these editions.

Before the close

of the century more than thirty editions of the Latin Psalter were issued from the press of Faust and Schoeffer.

Since the Fifteenth Century, and especially since the

Reformation, Psalters, either by themselves or bound up

with the New Testament, have passed into almost every

language upon the face of the globe, and are now read or

sung by earth's millions.

But one more edition of the Psalter will be noticed in

88 David's harp in song and story.

this connection : it is the celebrated Polyglots of Justinian,

or Giustiniani.

Concerning the rise of Polyglots, a learned

writer in his

'

' Succinct Account of Polyglot Bibles,

'

remarks :

'

' The taste that prevailed early in the Sixteenth

Century for the cultivation of literature was partly the

cause of, and partly owing to the publication of the sacred

writings in different languages.

Certain men, in whom were

providentially meeted a taste for sound learning, together

with ecclesiastical influence, and secular opulence, determined

to publish, first, ^j>«rfe, and then the whole of the sacred

writings, in such languages as were esteemed the learned

languages of the universe.

These were principally Latin,

Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Chaldee and Syriac ; others of less

importance were added to them.

Such publications attract-

ed general attention, and became greatly studied.

Hence

the taste, not only for sacred literature, but universal

science, became widely dift'used ; and the different nations

of Europe seemed to vie with each other in the publication

of those works which have since obtained the denomination

of Polyglotts, that is, ' Books in many languages.' "

The Polyglott Psalter of Justinian, Bishop of Nebio, in

the Island of Corsica, was the first of these great publica-

tions.

Its title is, "Psalterium, Hebraicum, Graecum, Ara-

bicum, et Chaldeum, cum tribus Latinis Interpretationibus

at Glossis. " It was printed at Geneva, 1516, by Peter Paul

Porrus, and is in folio.

The preface to the Psalter is ad-

dressed by the author to Pope Leo X.

The work is divided

into eight columns, the first containing the Hebrew, the

second, Justinian's Latin translation, rendered word for

word from the Hebrew ; the third, the Latin Vulgate ; the

fourth, the Greek; the fifth, the Arabic; the sixth, the Chal-dee paraphrase in Hebrew characters ; the seventh, Justin-

ian's Latin translation of the Chaldee paraphrase; the eighth.

Latin Scholia, or notes.

The Arabic in this Psalter was the first ever printed,

and the Psalter itself the first part of the Bible that ever ap-peared in so many languages.

Justinian's motive in preparing this work was to secure

some means wherebv he might assist his indiorent relatives.

THE PSALMS IN THE DARK AGES. 89

But in this he was grievously disappointed, as we learn from

his own statement: " I had always imagined that my work

would be largely sought after, and that the wealthy prelates and princes would have afforded me every assistance neces-

sary for printing the rest of the Bible in such a diversity

of languages.

But I was mistaken; every one applauded

the work, but suffered it to rest and sleep; for scarcely was

a fourth part sold of the two thousand copies which I had

printed, exclusive of fifty more copies printed upon vellum, which I had presented to all the kings of the world, whether Christian or pagan.

'

In the Scholia or comments on Psalm

19:4: "Their

words are gone to the end of the world,

'

' Justinian has

given, "by way of commentary, a curious sketch of the life of Columbus, and an account of his discovery of America,

with a very singular description of the inhabitants, partic-

ularly of the female native Americans; and in which he af-

firms that Columbus often boasted himself to be the person

appointed by God to fulfill this prophetic exclamation of

David." But the account of Columbus, by Justinian, seems

to have displeased the family of that great navigator, for in the life of Columbus, written by his son (See ChurchilFs Coll. of Voyages, &c.. Vol.

II, Page 560), he is accused of false-

hood and contradiction; and it is even added, "that consid-

ering the many mistakes and falsehoods found in his Psalter and History, the Senate of Genoa has laid a penalty upon

any person who shall read or keep it, and has caused it to

lie carefully sought out in all places it has been sent to, that

it may by public decree be destroyed, and utterly extin-

Sfuished.

CHAPTER V.

The Psalms ii^ the Reformation.

The Reformation of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

partook of the nature both of a reaction and a revival.

For

centuries the intelligence and piety of the Church had been

lying in a relapse; ignorance, formality and idolatry had

succeeded to primitive light and zeal, saints and relics had

usurped the honors of the Messiah; traditions and visions

had been valued above Revelation, and society was again

growing grey in its sins.

But, as has been often remarked,

there is a point in the retrogression of human affairs beyond which the race does not seem to pass.

Before ignorance en-

tirely reaches the brutal, and the heart's passions grow thor-oughly fiendish, the divine within us, as if impelled by the

sudden consciousness of its terrible decline, wheels upon its

course, and mounts rapidly in a reform.

The historian need

not pause to determine the philosophy of such a phenome-

non.

Whether attributable to a certain elasticity of the

native intellect, to the immediate interposition of a higher

Power, or to both, the fact remains, and history apj^ears to

us little else than a record of the successive ebbings and

Sowings of faith and intelligence.

By the twelfth century

Western Europe had touched the lowest mark of immorality and wretchedness, when began another of the seeming peri-

odic returns.

This reaction against superstition, priestcraft,

idolatry, ignorance and corruption in a thousand forms, cul-

minated in what is commonly termed the Reformation ; and

introduced an era surpassed in importance only by the com-ing of Christ himself.

With the reactions began a revival

of primitive piety; the Bible issued from the cloister, and the shackles of an unknown tongue to exert a new power in the

dialects of the people ; faith gained upon supeistition ; and

the doctrines of pure and undefiled religion upon the legends

of a barbarous age; Christ rose to the zenith of esteem; men sought again the truth from the lips of his faithful servants,

90

THE PSALMS

IN THE REFORMATION. 91

and the world once more beheld the fervor and heard the

devotions of a ffreat regeneration.

Few events have ever given to the world such a variety

of blessings as the Reformation.

So universal was the change

it produced, that Ave seem to be ushered into the presence of

a newer and higher economy.

The human mind regained

its independence, and with it followed naturally freedom of

speech and of the press.

Conscience regained its lost rights, and men learned that

the}' could worship God as their own convictions impelled

them.

Education resumed her influence among the masses,

bearing to the humblest the ability to read and study the

divine records.

Civil liberty began to dawn, and at this remote day we

have republican institutions, the fruits of the great reform.

Among all the secondary features of the Reformation

none appear with greater interest than the revival of sacred

Psalmody.

Daring the Dark Ages, the human voice was

not silent in the matter of song, but its tones were bent from

the high and ennobling exercise of singing the Redeemer's

praise, and of giving utterance to the workings of pious

hearts, and became merely a medium for exhibiting the cor-ruptions of depraved inner life, or for magnifying the names and attributes of Antichrist.

The Reformation purified the

Psalmody of Zion; the book of Sacred Songs was expurgated,

those in the praise of the Virgin and the saints being cast out.

The Sacred Songs of the Reformation appeared in the

native tongues of the people, instead of a language dead, and

so its sentiments unknown.

Psalms and Hymns rolled over

Germany, rising from the lips of her thousands, in words

and in a rythm with which all were familiar.

Passing from

the native land of Luther, these sacred songs retained their

inspiration and truth, but dropped their dress and reappearcl

in the dialects of the Russian, the Pole, the Swiss, the Ital-

ian, the Spaniard, the Portuguese, the French, the Nether-lander, the Norwegian, the English, the Scotch, the Irish,

thus presenting to the world a Babel of tongues, but to God a unity of sentiment and praise.

92 David's harp in song and story.

In the reaction the masses regained their rio^hts to sins:

praise to their God.

The Psalmody of the Dark Ages was

representative, a select and trained choir appearing for the

people.

By an enactment the congregation sat silent.

In

the revival the Church heard the voices of all her sons and

daughters praising her Lord as in primitive days.

Many of those agencies that prepared the way for a re-

turn to pure and evangelical faith and worship contributed

also to the influence and universality of sacred Psalmody.

The invention of printing secured the extensive distri-

bution of sacred songs in the form of tracts and books, so

that the people could be fully supplied with material for their

praise.

Previous to the fifteenth century the world depended

for its supply of reading matter upon the pens of the monks; hence books were exceedingly scarce and commanded exorbi-

tant prices.

Private libraries were almost unknown, and the

few books possessed by the colleges and cathedrals scarcely

merited the name of library.

The length of time required

for the transcription of manuscripts, and the cost of securing and preparing the materials for the work, rendered the pur-chase of books almost impossible to all save the wealthy.

The invention of printing changed this condition of affairs.

Books were multiplied and sold at a reasonable price; the

people everywhere, by the beginning of the sixteenth cen-

tury, were possessing Bibles and Psalm-books for themselves, and soon learned to read and sing from them with facility.

The writings of Luther, the sacred poetry of Hans Sachs,

the Psalms of Marot, Beza and others were struck off and

sold by the thousands.

Printing presses could not supply

the demands that came in from all parts of France and the

Netherlands for the new French songs.

Ten thousand copies

were issued in the first edition of the Genevan Psalm-book, and yet edition followed edition with wonderful rapidity.

Through Germany, Holland, Prussia and other of the Ger-

man States, the little primer of Luther containing his Psalms and Hymns entered nearly every family and carried their

sentiments into the hearts of multitudes.

This difl'usion of

the Psalms of the Bible was one of the chief elements in the

success of the Reformation.

THE rSALMS

IN THE KEFORMATION. 93

It was the distribution of the Psalms among the masses

that hiid the foundation for a full restoration of congrega-

tional singing.

In the homes of the Reformed were heard

the sweet melody of sacred music set to evangelical senti-

ments of Reformation songs; in the congregation the voices

of men, women and children mingled in the praise; and in

the vast conventicles that mst in the open air and numbered thousands of worshipers, the music that bore up in the clear heavens the joy of redeemed souls, resembled the noise of the

sea when agitated in a mighty tempest.

The world in the

Reformation witnessed to an extent never known before, and

never, probabl}', to be known again till the millennium dawn, an enthusiasm of praise.

The early ages were to be more

than renewed, when from the field, the workshop, the vine-yards, from off the bosoms of generous streams, from the

crowded ranks of war, from, the persecuted in deserts and

dens, as well as from the family fireside and the great con-

gregation, the strains of the sweet Psalmist of Judah were

to pour forth, in a music rude, perhaps, to a skillful ear, but

loud, sincere and powerful with an impartial God.

Even the

enemies of the cross, the voluptuous, the profane, caught

the inspiration of God's freed people, and purchased and

sang their Psalms and Hymns; kings and queens, the counts and nobles in the courts of ro3'alty were affected amid the

musical contagion, and unintentionally sanctioned and pro-

moted a purified and holy Psalmody.

Thus did God liter-

ally cause the wrath of man to praise him.

In accounting for the character and success of the Refor-

mation Psalmodj', much credit must be given to the celebrated Troubadours and their kindred bands.

Those bards of the

Middle Ages that are commonly known as the Troubadours, took their rise in the twelfth century; though they were pre-ceded by poets and minstrels for perhaps many centuries be-fore.

We read of the Celtic bards at a very early date; there

were Troubadours in Normandy one hundred years before

those of the South of France, who composed romances in

rhyme and sang them to the music of their harps at festival

solemnities.

Previous to the twelfth century and during the

reign of the provincial bards, the western part of Europe

94 David's harp in song and story.

was both amused and entertained by bands of jongleurs, a

class of men who invented different kinds of poetry, and

sang their poems to the accompaniment of various instru-

ments.

These jongleurs were attached to the courts of kings

and princes and noblemen, whose glorious exploits they

turned into verse and sang to their harps or violins.

When

these minstrels began a roving life, they traveled mostly on

foot, with their instruments suspended round their necks,

while troops of women, dancers and mountebanks followed

in their train.

The Troubadours proper claim an important place in

history by virtue of the influence they exerted in the devel-

opment of refinement in social manners, civilization and re-

ligion.

They arose in France, the birthplace of chivalry,

and are sometimes called the Provencal poets, because of

their inhabiting Provence in the southern part of France.

These Troubadovirs were to a very great extent the poets of

love.

Love was their inspiration, their theme, the business

of their lives.

Though the sentiments of their poems seem

idle and foolish in a more learned and dignified age than that

in which they lived, yet the language and style of their

compositions were the finest of their day; and poetry for

many a century since has resorted for some of its most fin-

ished expressions to the vapid songs of Provence.

The poems

of the Troubadours were composed in the form of rhyme,

and were cast in almost every variety of metre, from two to twelve syllables.

These minstrels like the jongleurs were

the guests of royalty.

The honorable and the wealthy com-

peted in doing them honor.

They received a welcome in the

most refined courts and circles of Europe, and sometimes

even aspired to link their life-fortune to ladies of a nobler

birth than their own.

The Troubadours were undoubtedly "the first product

of Christian civilization;" the earliest faint glimmerings of

a coming Reformation.

Among them were men of noble

characters, who mourned over the corruption of society and

the Church.

Poems were composed and sung in which vice

in all its forms was attacked; princes were not spared in their

fearless criticisms, and Kome herself received from them

some of her earliest wounds.

THE rSALMS IN THE REFORMATION. 95

Sometimes the themes of the Troubadours were drawn

from the Scriptures; more frequently they were afforded

from the lives and adventures of distinguished patrons, and

from the heroic deeds of the crustides.

Although the Troubadours had ceased as a distinct band

many years before the Reformation, yet they were succeeded by the Mmne- singers, Flagellants and others, who roved in

bands of thousands often exciting the minds of men, and

continuing till the outbreak of the reform itself.

These minstrel bands were educating society for the suc-

cess of a nobler and more soul-inspiring Psalmody.

Wher-

ever they went the spirit of song was awakened, the masses

of society honored those who were the guests of their rulers, and were ambitious to imitate and join them.

Western

Europe became a country of musicians; and to this day those

parts of Italy, Sj)ain, France and Germany, which were the homes of the Troubadours and their successors, are renowned

in the records of music and song.

Carlyle thus speaks of the age immediately preceding

the Reformation:

'

' Then truly was the time of singing come,

for princes and prelates, emperors and squires, the wise and the simple, men, women and children all sang and rhymed, or delighted in hearing it done.

It was a universal noise of

song, as if the Spring of mankind had arrived, and w^arblings from every sprig—not, indeed, without infinite twitterings

also, which, except their gladness, had no music—were bid-ding it welcome.

This was the Swabian era, justly reck-

oned, not only superior to all preceding eras, but properly

the first era of German literature.

Poetry at length found

a home in the life of men; and every pure soul was inspired by it and in words, or, still better, in actions strove to give

it utterance. 'Believers,' says Tieck, 'sang of faith; lovers

of love; knights described knightly actions and battle, and

living, believing knights were their chief audience.' "

When the Bohemian Reformers of the fifteenth century,

and those of Germany and Geneva, in the sixteenth, looked abroad for the agencies of their success in sacred Psalmody, they found that the mediaeval bards had prepared the way

for them.

96 David's haei' in song and story.

TJie songs of the Troubadours provided the rhyme and

the metres for the moulding of their translations from the

Bil)lo, or for the composition of their own inspiration; the

metres and rhyme appropriated, the tunes and melodies of

those traveling poets were found convenient; and when,

through the help of the press, these divine songs were cast

upon the world, they found communities already skilled in

music and famdiar with the very tunes to which they were

to be sung.

Thus was God for centuries preparing for a

great renovation in his Church.

The history of the Psalms and Psalm-singing among

the Reformers Ijegins properly as early as the twelfth cen-

tury.

Along the northern portions of Spain and Italy;

throughout Southern France; among the Alps; in the coun-try on both sides of the Rhine, and, at a later period, in Ger-many, Flanders, Switzerland and Austria, lived the Wai-

denses, a class who have gained an envial)le notoriety in the history of the Church, for the purity of their doctrines and

for their opposition to the crimes and follies of the Catholic Church.

The Christians of the Middle Ages were the suc-

cessors of the Cathari, or Puritans, who flourished some cen-

turies before.

The chief apostle of the Waldenses was Peter

Waldo, who has also the reputation of founding and afford-ing the name for this sect.

Waldo was born about the be-

ginning of the twelfth century, and is known tirst as a rich

merchant of Lyons; but, becoming a convert to the true

faith, he distinguished himself as an opponent of the dogmas and vices of the Roman clergy.

According to Milner, the

Christian world in the West is indebted to this bard, or pas-tor of the Wakienses for the first translation of the Bible

into a modern tongue after the time that Latin had ceased to be a living language.

An account of the doctrines, discip-

line and persecutions of this remarkable people may be found

in the records of all of the church historians.

After the rise

of the Hussites, the Waldensian Christians retired from Ger-many, France, Italy and settled in the valleys of Piedmont

and Savoy, where their descendants, with many of their an-

cient forms, and much of their primitive piety, may still be found.

The historians who have written concernino; ther

THE PSALMS IN THE REFORMATION. 97

Waldenses give us little more than the fact that they were

Psalm-singers.

When Waldo translated the Psalms with the

rest of the Bible into the French tongue, it is probable that

his followers at once adopted them in their Psalmody and

chanted them after the manner of the Komish Church.

It is

certain that in the year 1179 there was among this people a

French version of the Psalms, with a gloss accompanying

it; for Walter Mapos, a chaplain to Henry II., informs us

that during the Council of Lateran, held in 1179, the Wal-

denses presented to Pope Alexander

III., "a book contain-

ing the text of the Psalms, with a gloss; and the greater part

of the books of both Laws"—the Mosaic Law and the Gos-

pel.

Owing to the poverty of the Waldenses, and the high

prices of manuscripts of the Scriptures, but few Psalm-books could be possessed by the people, but this difficulty was to a remarkable degree balanced by their efforts to commit and

retain in their memories what they might hear read by their

pastors.

Reinerius, a Roman Catholic writer, states that

he heard a peasant recite the whole book of Job by heart,

and that he had heard of many others who could so repeat

the New Testament.

It was required, as a part of the requi-

site attainment of young men to the place of pastors, that

they should memorize portions of the Scriptures, among

which were the Psalms. "They are to learn by heart all

the chapters of St. Matthew and St. John, all the canonical

Epistles, and a good part of the writings of Solomon, David and the Prophets.

'

An intimation that the singing of the Psalms was a part

of the public and private worship of the Waldenses is given by De Thou, one of their enemies.

In a description he gives

of the stony valley of Dauphiny, where many of these Pro-

testants resided, he says of the people: "Their clothing is

of the skins of sheep; they have no linen.

They inhabit

seven villages ; their houses are constructed of flint stone,

with a flat roof covered with mud, which being spoiled or loosened by the rain, they smooth again with a roller.

In

these they live with their cattle, separated from them, how-ever, by a fence; they have besides, two caves set apart for

particular purposes, in one of which they conceal their cattle,

S8 damd's harp in song and story.

in the other themselves when hunted by their enemies. They

live on milk and venison, being by constant practice excel-

lent marksmen.

Poor, as they are, they are content, and

live separate from the rest of mankind.

One thing is aston-

ishing, that persons externally so savage and rude should

have so much moral cultivation.

They can all read and

write.

They understand French, so far as is needful for un-

derstanding the Bible, and the sinking of Psalms.

You can

scarce find a boy among them who cannot give you an intel-

ligible account of the faith which they profess; in this, in-

deed, they resemble their brethren of the other villages; they pay tribute with a good conscience, and the obligation of

this duty is peculiarly noted in the confession of the faith.

If by reason of the civil wars they are prevented from doing

this, they carefully set apart the sum, and at the first oppor-

tunity pay it to the king's tax-gatherers,"

A late writer says of the Waldensian Psalm-singing:

"This was not only a part of their worship, but also a part

of their recreation fi'om labor, and their solace at work.

The

women carrying their milk from the pasturage, and the la-

borer in the field, the shepherd on the mountain side and the mechanic in his workshop cheered themselves by singing the Psalms of David.

They committed them to memorj'^ in

French and sang them without a book, and were so noted

for Psalm-singing that for any one to be found singing

Psalms, was taken for good proof that he was a Vaudois.

Upon their return under Henry Arnaud, after the battle of

Salabertraud, ' they had the infinite satisfaction of finding

their church at Prali standing. ' They removed everything

that savored of Romish idolatry, and sang the Seventy-fourth Psalm

' Oh ! God, why art thou absent from us so long.'

Monsieur Arnaud then mounted a bench in the doorway,

that he might be audible to those within and without the

church, and after the One hundred and twenty-ninth Psalm

had been sung, preached in exposition of some of the verses

of that Psalm.

It is worthy of remark that the church in

which God granted to the Vaudois to perform service on

their return, was formerly served by Monsieur Liedet, who

THE PSALMS IN THE REFORMATION. 99

being detected in singing Psalms under a rock, was, there-

fore, hunor on a gribbet at St.

Michael, near Lucerne.

To

this day, the valleys of the Vaudois echo these songs of

Zion in the ear of the traveler.

'

Dr. Henderson, in an account of a tour that he made,

in 1844, through the valleys of the Piedmont, bears testi-

mony to the fact that the Waldenses still sing the inspired

Psalms.

He describes the first religious service he attended

at Angrognd thus: " It was conducted as follows: The

school regent, at the desk below the pulpit, read three chap-

ters of the New Testament with the practical remarks of

Ostervald's French Bible on the passage, all the services

beino^ conducted in that language.

He next read the deca-

logue, and our Saviour's summary of the Law.

The min-

ister then offered from the pulpit a short confession of sins,

and gave out some verses of a Psalm, toMch were sung hy all

the people from, musical note-hooks^ and while sitting.''''

The same traveler quotes a passage from Jerome as

applicable, with scarcely any abatement, to the Waldenses or Vaudois of the present century : ' 'In every direction where

there is a sound of human voices, it is the voice of psalmody.

If the ploughman is guiding his plough, his song is Hal-

lelujah !

If it be the shepherd tending his flock, the reaper

gathering his corn, or the vine-dresser pruning the tendrils,

his chant is the same ; it is some song of David that he

sings.

Hence all poetry is sacred poetry, and every feeling

of the heart finds utterance in the language of the Psalmist.

'

Passing from the valleys of Southern France, into

Bohemia, we meet with the successors of the early Vaudois, under the denomination of Hussites.

These Christians

began to flourish fully two hundred and forty years after

the days of Waldo.

Though their doctrines varied in some

particulars from the Waldenses, yet they owed their rise to

the teachings of the Swiss and Piedmontes emigrants, who

settled in Bohemia, and peddled among the inhabitants their principles as well as their wares.

The Hussites were not

pre-eminent for their Psalm-singing.

With them began

that general use of hymns, which from that day to this, has

chiefly characterized the German churches.

The author of

100 David's harp in song and story.

the " Encyclopedia of Music " observes of the disciples of

Huss, Wicklitf , and Jerome, that they were

'

' celebrated

psalm-singers.

'

' A similar statement is made by the author

of

'

' Primitive Psalms.

'

' But the term Psalm has been so

frequently used both to designate the songs of the Psalter

and the hymns of uninspired poets, that but little can be

known of the proportion the Psalms held in the Psalmody

of the Bohemian worshipers.

That the Hussites had the

Psalms and sang them, at least to a limited extent, is certain ;

but, aside from the mere fact, little is known.

Bohemia

presents us with one item of interest.

It is here we find the

first Psalmist of Reformation times, whose metrical render-ing of the Psalter was prepared for the use of the church.

This Psalmist was no other than John Huss, the apostle of

Bohemia.

From Rees' Encyclopedia we learn that this

eminent Reformer rendered the Psalms into German metre and had them published as early as the beginning of the

fifteenth century.

Of this vei-sion no history has been pre-

served, but that it formed a part of the Psalmody of the

Hussites there is no reason to doubt.

The first Psalmist of the Reformation of whose version

we have any definite knowledge was Martin Luther.

Luther was a poet as well as a theologian.

Soon after his

fifteenth year, he composed Latin verses, "which alike

surprised and gratified his insti'uctors. " These early ex-

ercises under the inspiration of the poetic muse, instead of

being merely the effusions of a susceptible age, were dis-

ciplining the youthful rhymer for a wider sphere of useful-

ness.

Germany will ever remember her great Reformer as

the chief of her sacred poets.

His genius gave his country

songs that ever since his day have been administering comfort and encouragement in hours of trial.

Many of them are

yet, three centuries from the age of his personal sojourn on

earth, the household words of German Christians.

From the moment of his gaining access to the old Latin

Bible in his Monastery, Luther was a special admirer of the Psalms.

These formed the basis of some of his earliest ex-

positions of the Scripture.

Luther had some favorite Psalms from which he derived

THE PSALMS IN THE REFORMATION. 101

especial benefit.

Of the One hundred and tenth he said, it

"is very fine.

It describes the kingdom and priesthood of

Jesus Christ and declares him to be King of all things, and

the intercessor for all men, to whom all things have been

remitted by the Father and who has compassion on all. 'Tis

a noble Psalm : if I were well I would endeavor to make a

<;ommentary on it.

'

' ' The Second Psalm,

'

' said he,

'

' is one of the best

Psalms.

I love that Psalm with my heart.

It strikes and

flashes valiantly among kings, princes, councellors, judges,

etc.

If what this Psalm says be true, then are the allega-

tions and arms of the papists stark lies and folly.

If I were

as our Lord God, and had committed the government to my

son, as he has to his Son, and these vile people were as dis-

obedient as they now be, I would knock the world in pieces.

'

He thus compliments the

'

' Sweet Psalmist: " " Neither

Cicero nor Virgil, nor Demosthenes, is to be compared

with David in point of eloquence, as we see in the One

hundred and nineteenth Psalm, which he divides into two

and twenty parts, each composed of eight verses and yet all having but one thought—the law of God.

He had great

gifts and was highly favored of God.

I hold that God

sufl'ered him to fall so horribly lest he should become too

haughty and proud.

'

' Of those words in the Third Psalm :

' ' I lay me down and sleep ; I wake ; for the Lord sustaineth

me,

'

' he was so fond, that he engaged the famous composer,

Lewis Leufel, to put music to them.

When he would find

Melancthon depressed in spirit over approaching troubles, he would say cheerfully to him, " Come let us sing the Forty-

sixth Psalm, and let earth and hell do their most."

In the year 1526 Luther published an exposition of

certain Psalms.

This volume was dedicated to Mary of

Austria, the relict of Lewis, King of Hungary, who was

drowned in his flight from Solyman, who had defeated him on the plains of Mohacz.

This princess was the sister of

Charles V. and of Ferdinand ; and the Reformer by his

dedicating his book to her, no doubt hoped to promote the

Reformation by gaining her to the Protestant religion.

Whether or not it was Luther's comments and dedicatory

102 David's harp in song and story.

preface that conciliated Mary's favor, certain it is that she

acted with prudence and moderation when administering the government in the Low Countries, and sought to warn

Charles against the wiles of the Catholic clergy.

In 1624 Luther announced his intention of having the

Psalms versitietl for the use of the German churches.

His

design at the time was carried out only to a very limited ex-

tent.

A small primer was issued, having but three sheets,

and containing only eight selections of Psalms and Hymns, and three melodies.

The melody then set to the Eleventh

Psalm may still be found in the German choral books.

According to Milner, " Luther, a short time before he

ventured to administer the Lord's Supper in the German

tongue, had had the precaution to compose and print a very useful little book, containing thirty-eight German Hymns,

with their appropriate tunes, for the express purpose of con-veying and hxing in the memories of the common people

a deal of religious instruction in a very concise and agreeable manner.

The subjects were : parts of the Catechism ; lead-

ing articles of belief ; prayers and thanksgiving ; in fact,

the book was a summary of Christian doctrine expressed

in very neat and elegant German metre, and so well

managed, that the harmony and modulation of the voice

agreed with the words and sentiments, and tended to raise

the corresponding affection in the minds of the singers.

On

this account the author has been called the true Orpheus of Germany ; and to his praise it is added, that he applied his

knowledge of musical numbers and harmonies to the excita-

tion of the most pious and fervid emotions in the soul."

Some of the versifications in this sacred song book, we

are assured, were metrical Psalms, and of Luther's own

composing ; but other than this does not appear.

Aside

from those compositions of Luther's, that are commonly

classed among his Psalms, are others that are merely very

fine paraphrases upon some parts of certain Psalms.

His

celebrated

'

' Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott,

'

' which has

been termed the Marseilles Hymn of the Reformation, is a

paraphrase of the Fort3'-sixth Psalm.

It is said that he

composed it but a short time before going to Worms ; and

THE PSALMS IN THE REFORMATION. 103

that as he approached that city on the memorable 10th of

April, he rose in his chariot and sang it with a cheerful

voice.

When he had recovered, on a certain occasion from a

fainting fit, induced by the intensity of spiritual conflict, he

composed a paraphrase of the One hundred and thirtieth

Psalm.

When his dead body was borne through Halle to its

last resting place at Wittenberg, his countrymen followed it

in throngs, and when it was placed in the church at that

place the people gathered about it and amid tears and sobs

sang: that Psalm beside it.

There were also paraphrases of the Twelfth, Sixty-

seventh and One hundred and twenty-fourth Psalms.

As Luther designed the translation of the whole book of

Psalms, those which he did not himself versify, he com-

mitted to Spalatin and Doezy.

To Spalatin he wrote : " We

intend, after the example of the prophets and primitive

fathers to turn the Psalms for spiritual singing into the vul-gar tongue for the common people, so that the word of God may remain among the people even in singing.

Upon this

account we seek some poets, and as you possess the copious-

ness and elegance of the German, which you have greatly

cultivated, I would request your assistance in this business,

in translating some of the Psalms into German verse accord-ing to the enclosed example.

My wish is to avoid all dif-

ficult and courtly terms, and to use the simplest and most

common phrases, so that they are fit and proper for the edi-

fication of the lowest among the people.

Let the sense be

clear and as close as possible to the original.

To preserve

the sense where you cannot render word for word, it may be right to use such a phrase as will most perfectly convey the

idea.

I confess I am not sufiiciently qualified myself, and

therefore would request you to try how near you can ap-

proach to Heman, Asaph and Jeduthan.

This version of the Psalms was completed, and Luther

lived to see it exceedingly popular.

Luther sang these

Psalms himself and commended them to others— "let them, he says to his friends, "avoid solitariness, keeping always

in good company, sing the Psalms and converse upon the

lO-i David's harp in song and story.

Holy Scriptures. " "Every village school-boy among the

Protestants was presently employed to get them by heart,

and help to sing them on Sunday." In the army, as well

as in the peaceful walks of life, they resounded the praise

of God.

It was the

'

' Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott

'

' that

Gustavus Adolphus, the pious king of Sweden, took for his

battle hymn, and which he had his army sing on the morn-

ing of the battle of Lutzen, Nov. 6, 1632.

Such was the popularity of the German Psalms, that

they were translated into the Heljrew, Greek, Latin, Bohe-

mian, English and other lanjruaofes.

Of the influence of these Psalms and hymns of Luther,

the Jesuit Adam Contzen bore testimony :

'

' The hymns of

Luther have ruined more souls than all his writings and ser-mons.

And hence the rulers of the church must also em-

ploy that as a medicine which the deceivers have invented as a destroyer. " In preparing a hymn-book for themselves,

the papists appropriated many of Luther's compositions, so

altered as to suit their views.

The Papal hymn-book pub-

lished at Mentz in 1679, contained many of Luther's songs.

Luther's " Eine feste burg " is here given :

EINE FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT.

A Paraphrase of Psalm 46

: 1.

MAKTIN LUTHER.

God is our fortress strong and high,

A sure defense and Aveapon ;

His powerful aid is ever nigh

Whate'er distress may happen.

The old and evil foe

Would fain bring us low

With great craft and might

:

Full armed for the fight,

On earth none can him liken.

Our feeble might achieveth naught,

Our i-truggle soon but feigned

By him alone the work is wrought Whom God himself ordained.

Dost thou ask the same ?

The Christ is the same,

The Lord of Sabaoth ;

There is no other (jiod ;

'Tis he the field hath taken.

THE PSALMS IN THE REFORMATION. 105

And were the world of devils full

All threatening to devour us,

We fear not ; true and dutiful

They cannot overpower us.

Prince of this world in vain,

His darts round may rain,

He no harm can us do ;

His arts must perish too,

A little word can slay them.

That word of his shall sure remain,

To man no praise is given ;

He's with us on the battle plain,

His spirit aids from heaven.

Then perish our estate,

Wife, child—by their hate.

On them be the sin ;

Naught from us can they win,

We share his glorious empire.

In 1573, the Psalms were rendered in German verse by

Ambrose Lobwasser, professor of Jurisprudence in Konigs-

berg.

In his translation he imitated the Genevan version of

Marot, and, though his Psalms had little merit, they were

for a long time used exclusively in some of the German

churches.

A new edition of his Psalms was issued in 1612

Ijy Maurice of Hessen, with which were printed some austere melodies for the use of German Christians.

The influence of

many of the early German Psalms and Hymns is still felt

among the German Christians of the old and the new world.

The impress of them still remains.

Wherever you meet the

German Christian, you find him charged with these noble

and evangelical compositions.

Even the emigrant is sure,

if a disciple, to carry across the sea in his blouse or wallet,

his black-covered hymn-book.

In this country, beside the original selections from the

German versification of the Psalms, the Lutheran Church has included in its book of praise, Psalms from the pens of Watts, Tate and Brady, Joseph Addison, Charles Wesley, James

Montgomery, Timothy Dwight, John Mason, Henry Francis Lyte, Hariet Auber and James Merrick; so that this large

and influential body of worshipers, now, as in the age of the Reformation, gives David's Psalms a respectable place in the material of its praise.

106 David's harp in song and story.

From Germany, the Reformation passed toward the

North, and established its supremacy there, while the doc-

trines of the Swiss and German Reformers held sway over the more southern countries.

In Prussia, Sweden, Norway,

Denmark, Livonia, and neighboring states, the Lutheran

Liturgy was either adopted as a whole, or made the ))asis of new liturgies for the regulation of religious worship.

In

all these countries the Psalms and Hymns of the German

poets were sung, and exerted the same powerful influence in promoting the Reformation there as in Germany.

In lower

Germany, the historian, Kurtz, mentions particularly the

surprisingly potent influence of Luther's Psalms and Hymns.

In most of these countries, native poets employed their

talents in versifying the Psalms in their own native tongues, but of their versions little is known.

In the sixteenth century, Gyllenhjelm was author of the

' ' Psalter in Rhyme

'

' in the Swedish.

In Russia, the

'

' Psalms sung in the Churches

'

' were

printed at Nilna in 1623.

It may be added here that the best hymns of Germany in.

the earliest and brightest era of her hymnology were modeled

after the Psalms, and bear evidence of their divine utterances having inspired the pens that gave them to the Church.

Especially numerous are those which express trust in God in

trial or conflict; which speak of Him like the old Hebrew

Psalms, as a rock, a fortress, and a deliverer—they are

songs to mareh to, reviving the fainting strength after many an hour of weary journeying; blasts of the priest's trumpets before which many a stronghold has fallen; chants of tarust

and triumph, which must often have reverberated from the

very gates of heaven as they accompanied the departing

spirit thither and mingled with the new song oft he great

multitude inside.

The majestic hymn of John Gramann, "Now praise the

Lord, my soul," was modeled after Psalm One hundred

and third; and Lobwasser's, " My hope doth stand in God

alone," after Psalm Thirty-seven.

Thus we are indebted,

says Tholuck in the introduction to his commentary on the

Psalms, to the Psalms as models, not only for hymns sung by the people, but for choral songs in general.

CHAPTER VI.

The Psalms in the Swiss and French Reformation.

Modern Calvinism can regard with pride the place of

its birth—Switzerland.

Though crowded by its powerful

neighbors into a narrow place by the Alps, it has ever been

the home of a free, brave and patriotic race.

To believe in

special providences, God has evidently, from the earliest

ages, educated the Swiss for giving origin to an independent church.

From a native love for freedom, and long strug-

gles to maintain their independence, where, in Reformation

limes, a fitter refuge for one, radical in his opposition to a

tyrannical hierarchy, than the land of the Swiss !

When

Calvin was rejected by France, he was welcomed to Ge-

neva, where he found an element already congenial to his

rigid, yet free principles.

Before the visit of that Reform-

er, Switzerland had l)egun a church, distinguished by its

radicalism.

Through the influence of Farel and Viret, the

Presbyterianism of the Alps had been saved from that con-

servatism toward Popery that characterized the German and English establishments, and which to-day by its natural

fruits, is disturbing the Lutheran and Episcopal commun-

ions.

Calvin only promoted, unfolded and established the

principles that now bear his name.

With the Reformation of Geneva, that in France, the

Netherlands, and Scotland were intimately connected.

Un-

der Calvin, Geneva became the metropolis of the Reformed churches.

Its form of government, its creed, its liturgy,

the principle of its Psalmody, became the model for the

Huguenots, the Walloons, and the Scotch.

The Theological

School on the banks of the Rhone, became the resort of the

learned men from many lands, where primitive principles

were imbibed and thence carried everywhere.

In its Psalmody the Presbyterian Church of the Re-

formation, differed in one important respect from that of

the German Lutheran Church ; its songs were modeled al-

(107)

108 David's harp in song and story.

most exclusively after the Psalms and spiritual songs of the Scriptures.

As has been already remarked, human compo-

sition had no prominent place in its worship. Hymns, in ex-ceptional cases, may have been used, but the Psalm-book of Geneva, and its kindred churches, was inspired.

Of its in-

spired songs, the Psalms held the principal place.

The Par-

aphrases were few in number, nor was there in Switzerland and France the same effort as in Scotland at a later date, to

multiply them.

Until the power of the Huguenots was

broken, and the Calvinistic theory had lost much of its in-

fluence in France and the Netherlands, the Psalms continued almost the sole praise of the Church.

The Presbyterian churches of the Reformation, in se-

lecting the material of their Psalmody from the Bible, aimed

to conform their metrical translations as closely as possible

to the expression and sense of the original.

The Scriptures

were the sole rule of faith and practice, and to depart from

them unnecessarily, was sacrilege.

The ordinance of singing praise was held in the high-

est respect among the Genevan Reformers.

Any trifling

as to the matter or form of praise was severely

punished.

From the registers of the Genevan Council

and Consistory, we learn that a man was banished from

the city for remarking,

'

' II chante un beau Psaume

'

' (He

chants a good Psalm), when he heard an ass bray.

The

same penalty was inflicted upon another, who, on presenting

to his bride an account book, said,

'

' Tuez, madame, voci

votre, meilleur Psaume

'

' (Sing, madam, with your voice,

the best Psalm).

The history of Psalmody in the Calvinistic churches of

the continent begins properly with Zwingle.

Before Calvin

came to Geneva, this Reformer had introduced metrical

Psalmody into Switzerland.

What the matter of praise was

can only be conjectured.

At an early date in the Reforma-

tion, the Psalms had been translated into the French, which was the language of parts of Switzerland, and may have

been chanted by the Swiss, as by the Waldenses.

The prob-

ability is that Zwingle and his followers imitated the Chris-

tians of Bohemia, with whom they seem to have held friend-

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 109

[y intercourse, and so adopted their hymns, and the Psalms

versified by Huss.

According to Kurtz the adoption of Psalmody into the

worship of the Reformed churches of the French persuasion, was effected chiefly by John Zwick, a clergyman in Con-

stance.

In 1530 he published a small hymn-book, with ver-

sions of some Psalms, adapted to Lutheran tunes.

Of the

character of this hymn-book we know nothing.

However, it is evident, that until the days of Calvin's

residence in Geneva, the Psalmody of the Swiss Church had been informal.

To Calvin himself belongs the credit of re-

ducing that Psalmody to a system, and of giving to it a

character that distinguished it for more than a century.

Calvin was a great admirer of the Psalms.

While he

was yet at Orleans, in the study of the law under Pierre

de I'Etoile, his attention was especially turned to this book

of God's word, and his private opinion of it he has left in

the preface of his Commentary on the Psalms.

Says he :

"Not without good grounds am I wont to call this book an anatomy of all parts of the soul, since no one can experience emotions, whose portrait he could not behold reflected in its

mirror.

Yes. the Holy Spirit has there depicted in the most

vivid manner every species of pain, affliction, fear, doubt,

hope, care, anxiety and turbulent emotion through which the hearts of men are chased.

Other portions of the Scriptures

contain commandments whose transmission the Lord en-

joine I upon his servants ; but in the Psalms, the Prophets

communing with God and uncovering their most inmost feel-

ings, call and urge every reader to self-examination to such

a degree, that of the numerous infirmities to which we are

liable, and of the many failings which oppress us, not one

remains concea'ed.

How great and rare again for the

human heart to be thus driven out of all its hiding places,

liberated from hypocris}^ (that most fearful of vices) and

exposed to the light.

Lastly, if calling on God is the surest

means of our salvation—if better and more reliable direc-

tions for it than those contained in the Book of Psalms, are not to be obtained, then everyone who reads this book has

attained to an essential part of the Divine doctrine.

Earnest

110 David's harp in song and story.

prayer originates in our sense of need ; afterwards in our

faith in the Divine promises.

The reader of the Psalms

finds himself both aroused to feel his misery, and exhorted

to seek for its remedy. The Psalter unfolds every encourage-ment to prayer.

It is not merely confined to promises, but

men are introduced who, on the one hand invited by God,

and on the other hindered by the tlesh, take courage in

prayer : if therefore, we are beset by doubt and scruple,

here we may learn to combat, till the disenthralled spirit

rises anew to God.

And more than this, we may learn

prayerfully to struggle through hesitation, fear and faint-

heartedness, till comfort be attained.

For, be it remem-

bered, that though unbelief keeps the door shut to our

prayers, we must not desist when in our wavering we are being tossed to and fro, but persevere until faith mounts victo-

riously from her struggles.

Again the Psalms inspire us

with the most desirable of all things, in not only teaching us

to approach God in confidence, but to openly unbare before him all those failings which a false sense of shame otherwise forbids us to own.

They furnish, moreover, the clearest

directions how we may render to God that sacrifice of praise which he declares as most acceptable to him.

You cannot

read anywhere more glorious praises of God's peculiar

grace towards his church or of his works; you cannot find

anywhere such an enumeration of man's deliverances or

praises for the glorious proofs of his fatherly care for us,

or a more perfect representation to praise him becomingly,

or more fervent exhortations to the discharge of that holy

duty.

But however rich the book may prove in all these

respects to fit us for a holy, pious, and just life, its chief

lesson is how we are to bear the cross, and to give the true evidence of our obedience, by parting with our affections, to submit ourselves to God, to suffer our lives to be entirely

guided by his will, so that the bitterest trial, because

he sends it, seems sweet to us.

Finally, not only is the

goodness of God praised in general terms to secure our

perfect resignation to him, and to expect his aid in every

time of need, but the free forgiveness of our sins, which

alone can effect our peace of conscience and reconciliation to

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. Ill

God, are in particular so strongly recommended, that there

is nothing wanting to the knowledge of eternal life.

'

The idea of a special versification of the Psalms for the

worship of the Reformed Church was made to Calvin by

Zwingle.

Before moving in the matter, Calvin consulted

Luther, and it was during this consultation that the Psalms of Marot made their appearance.

Clement Marot was a Frenchman, and was born at

Cahors, in Querci, near Toulouse, in 1495.

Like his father,

Jean Marot, he was valet de Chambre to Francis I ; and also

page to Margaret of France, wife of the duke of Alencon.

In 1521 he accompanied the duke in the Italian campaign,

and was wounded and made prisoner in the battle of Pavia.

Gaining his freedom, he returned to Paris, but being sus-

pected for complicity with the colonists, he was again im-

prisoned.

Being brought before the Lieutenant-criminel,

he was reproached on account of his former irreligion and

the licentiousness of his writings, but gained no more by his earnest solicitations than to 1)0 removed from the miserable

prison of Chatelet to that of Chartres.

It was while incar-

cerated in Chartres that he composed his Enfer and revised

his Roman de la Rose.

When Francis I returned from

his captivity in Spain, Marot was set free, A.

D.

1526.

After this he returned to the court of the Queen of Navarre ;

then to that of the Duchess of Ferrara and in 1536 returned

to Paris.

But having publicly avowed himself a disciple of

Calvin, he fled from persecution, and resided at Geneva.

Quitting Geneva, he went to Lyons, where he is said to

have renounced Calvinism.

After engaging in another

campaign under Francis I, in his Italian wars, he returned

to Piedmont, and died at Turin in 1544, aged 50 years.

Marot seems to have led a licentious life in his earlier

years, and there is little probability that he was a Christian, while espousing the doctrines of Geneva.

He was one of

those free spirits that opposed popery because of its tyrannj^; and enlisted his sympathies in the cause of Reformers more

because of their enmity to the Hierarchy than from any

convictions of his own sins.

His renunciation of the

reformed cause shows his vascillating disposition.

But God

112 David's harp in song and story.

had chosen him as an important instrument for promoting

the true religion.

For the part of a poet to which God had

called him, he was well fitted.

Clement Marot was one of France's best poets.

His

ballads, fables, pastorals, elegies, epigrams were extremely

popular.

His verses are filled with natural beauties La

Fonhiine acknowleged himself his disciple and contributed

greatly to restore to credit the works of this ancient poet.

On his return to Paris from his residence in the court of

the Duchess of Ferrara, he was persuaded by Vatablus,

professor of Hebrew in the University of Paris, to undertake the rendering of David's Psalms into French verse.

In his

attempt he was assisted by Francis Melin de S.

Gelays,

and other learned men, whose prose translations of the

Psalms formed the model of his poetical version.

Before

leaving Paris on account of his Calvinism he had versified

thirty of the Psalms.

These thirty were printed in Paris

and were dedicated to Francis

I.

After removing to

Geneva, Marot, with the encouragement and aid of Calvin,

completed twenty more Psalms.

These twenty, with the

thirty of the Paris edition, and eight others, the author or

authors of which are not known, were printed at Rome, in

1542, by the command of the Pope, and under the supervision

of Theodore Drust, a German, "printer in order to his

holiness.

'

' This edition was printed in the Gothic character,

in octavo, and was without the name of either the printer or place of printing.

Although sanctioned by the highest

authority of the Catholic church, this version was censured

by the faculty of divinity in the Paris Theological College,

who were afterward instrumental in the persecution of

Marot, for his efforts in versifying the Psalms.

In

1543, the version printed in Rome, was issued at

Geneva, and no doubt at the instance of Calvin, for it con-

tained a preface written by him, and dated Jan.

10, 1543.

With the Geneva edition was printed an agreement with the

printers whereby they were to furnish a certain sum for the

relief of the poor refugees at Geneva.

Marot's Psalms,

which were cast in the same mould as his ballads and

roundeaux, constituted the Psalmody of the Reformed

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 113

Church, until Theodore Beza furnished the remaining Psalms

in popular verse.

Nothing more can be gathered concerning the Psalms

versified by Beza than that they were translated in imitation

of Marot's; took their place with those of that great poet in

the Psalmody of the times and were bound up with his in

the Genevan Catechism in 1553, or, according to Kurtz, in

1555.

The dedication of Marot's first Psalms to Francis I,

was made on account of the satisfaction that sovereign had

expressed when some of them were presented for condemna-

tion by the Sorbonne doctors.

The following is the poet's

royal epigram:

" Since, O Sire, it is your pleasure that I pursue the royal work of

the Psalms which I have begun; and since all those who love God desire the same, I reckon I have a valid license to proceed in it.

Wherefore let

whoever pleases take offense at it, for they who cannot be reconciled to a design of such important use ought to know, if they are not sensible of it

already, that while I do your majesty a pleasure, I am glad, however

much I do offend such people."

On the opposite side of the same leaf that contained the

dedication, began an address to the ladies of France, in

which the poet declared his design to add to the happiness

of his fair readers by giving them divine songs in place of

their amorous ditties; to banish from the world the foolish

and fickle Cupid; to inspire all hearts with a passion in

which is no torment, and fill all homes with the praises of

Jehovah.

This address concludes thus:

" Thrice happy they who may behold

And listen in this age of gold!

As by the plow the laborer strays, And carmen wend the public waj's, And tradesmen in their shops shall swell.

The voice of Psalm or Canticle, Singing to solace toil again From Avoods shall come a sweeter strain; Shepherd and shepherdess shall vie In many a tender Psalmody; And the Creator's name prolong As rock and stream return the song.

Begin then, ladies fair, begin The age renewed that knows no sin!

And with light hearts that want no wing.

Sing from the holy song-book, sing."

114 David's harp in song and story.

The first Psalms of Marot, coming from one who at

the time, was not suspected for any complicity with the

Reformed, and being issued simply as rhyming ballads and

not as sacred songs for sacred purposes, were taken up oy

the populace and sung by Reformed, Catholic and Skeptic

alike.

Surpassing any of this famous poet's former pro-

ductions, his Psalms gained a celebrity and possessed a cir-

culation far beyond any of his madrigals and sonnets.

His

remaining twenty and those soon afterward composed by

Beza were equally popular.

Psalm singing at this time was

carried almost to the point of frenzy.

The demand for the

new songs swept like wild-fire over France, so that in a short time the printers could not supply the demand.

Edition

after edition was issued, but still the cry was for more.

The Psalms were sung in all parts of the country, by men

of all trades, and all classes, and became

'

' one of the chief

ingredients in the happiness of social life.

'

' Especially in

the vineyards of Provence, in the market-boats of the Loire and the Rhone, and among the weavers of Flanders, were

the melodies of these inspired songs heard, as they were sung

to the music of the lute, violin and guitar.

The Catholics

might be seen mingling with the multitude, with their

Psalm-books in their hands, entering heartily into the popu-

lar excitement.

Even the Catholic clergy participated in

the enthusiasm; nor was their fever abated until it was dis-

covered that the Psalms were being sung in the private and

public worship of the Protestants.

The Psalms of Marot and Beza supplied the want of

Christian families for sacred songs, and it was not long un-

til God's praise was sung in the homes of His people and

through the sentiments of his own ancient servants.

No

gentlemen professing the Reformed religion would sit down

at his table without praising God by singing.

Yea, it was a

special part of morning and evening worship in their several houses to sing God's praises.

When the Catholics were for-

bidden longer to engage in the National pastime.

Psalm-

singing came to be regarded as a badge of what the French

Papists called Lutheranism, and to be found singing a

Psalm of Marot or Beza was considered suflicient warrant

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION, 115

for the infliction of the penalty pronounced on all heretics.

The popular rage for Psalm-singing was not confined

to the lower ranks of society in France, but entered and

iifected the Palace of Royalty itself.

It was a common

thing in the court of Francis I, for the King and Queen

with their nobles, to refresh themselves with metrical

Psalms.

It was a fashion in the royal circle for each one

to select a favorite Psalm, and sing it especially.

A favor-

ite Psalm of Catharine de Medicis was:

To thee, Lord, my cries ascend,

O haste to my relief,

And with accustomed pity hear

The accents of my grief.

Instead of offering, let my prayer

Like morning incense rise; My uplifted hands supply the place

Of evening sacrifice.

Anthony, King of Navarre, chose " Revenge moy, preu

le querelle, "— " Stand up, O Lord, to revenge my quarrel." Diane de Poictiers, the favorite of Henry II, chose " Du

fond de ma pensie, "—"From the depths of my heart have I

cried unto thee." The Queen sang:

Ne vucilles pas, 0, sire, Me reprendre en tonire.

"Rebuke me not in thine indignation."

Ilenry II, while yet Dauphin, was a great hunter, and

chose, appropriate to his favorite recreation, " Ainsi qu'on

oit le cerf bruire, "—"As the heart panteth after the water

brooks." King Henry continued to solace himself by sing-

ing the Psalms till the day of his death.

This we learn from

a letter written to Catharine de Mt dicis by a gentleman sub-scribing himself Villeinadon :

'

' but if any person loved them

(the Psalms) dearly, and commonly sang them and caused

to be sung, it was the late King Henry, who loved them so

well that good men blessed God for it; and his minions and

his mistress feigned so great a love for them that they were want to say, "Sir, shall not this be mine, give me that if

you please ?

'

' insomuch that the good King had much to do

to please every one's fancy, according to his desire.

Never-

theless he kept for himself the following Psalm, as you re-

member:

116 David's haep in song and story.

The man is blessed, -wlio fears the Lord,

Nor only worship paj-s,

But keeps his steps composed with care

To his appointed ways, etc.

He himself made a tune to this Psalm—which was very

good and pleasant—and caused it to be siinfj so often that he

plainly showed he had an earnest desire to be that blessed

man whom David describes in the said Psalm, and to see

you become the fertile vine therein mentioned.

This was

when he was recovering from his sickness at Angoulesme,

which I found so much abated that he began to sing the

said Psalm with lutes, violins, spinnets and flutes attending

with voices."

It was during the reign of Henry that Paris was thrown

into a ferment by the students of the university of that city.

The most frequented promenade at this time in Paris was

the Pre-aux-clercs, situated where a part of the Fauburg

Saint Germain is at present.

The students belonging to the

university were, generally, friendly to the Calvinistic re-

ligion, and many of them not only made a profession of it,

but publicly defended it.

A custom of the students for

years had been to assemble for recreation and amusement in the Pre-aux-clercs; but the monks of the Abbey of St. Vic-

tor, on one occasion, refusing them the liberty they had

long enjoyed, the opposing parties fell to wrangling, and

finally came to blows.

The students being the stronger,

carried their point and the monks resigned to them the

public promenade.

From this time the Pre-aux-clercs be-

came the rendezvous of the Protestants, who would meet

there on the summer evenings and sing their favorite

Psalms.

The multitudes who were accustomed to assemble

here to participate in the popular games, at first laughed at

the Psalmody of the Christians.

But the number of the

Psalm-singers increasing and their melodies growing in their fervor, the players left their sports, and gathered about the

Huguenots, some to listen, and many to engage in the

music.

So popular did this summer-evening Psalm-singing

become, that hundreds of the citizens of Paris resorted to

the Pre-aux-clercs as to an entertainment.

F-ven the nobles

weie present and participated.

Anthony de Bourbon and

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 117

Jane de Albert were among the habitues of the promenade

on these occasions.

Theodore Beza thus speaks of the

assembly of Protestants at the Pre-aux-clercs:—" Thus

the assembly multijjlied daily at Paris, where it happened

that some being in the place called Pre-aux-clercs, a public

place of the university, began to sing Psalms, which being

heard, a great many of those who were walking or playing

at divers games, joined the company that was singing, some for the novelty of it, and some to bear part in the music.

This continued for some days in a very great assembly,

where were present the King of Navarre himself with many lords and gentlemen, both of France and other nations,

who fell a sino-ing.

And though in a great multitude there

is frequently much confusion, yet there was such a harmony and devotion, that every one present was ravished with it;

even those who could not sing, nay the most ignorant, got upon the walls round about, to hear the singing, and de-

clared that it was ill-done to forbid so ffood a thinof.

Thus were the Psalms carried among the multitudes,

where they became one of the prime agencies in promoting

the progress of pure Christianity, By these songs, the truths

of God's word were disseminated with a rapidity not equalled even by the preaching of evangelists and teachers.

Their

melody was heard in many a nook and corner of Catholicism and infidelity, where the voice of the Reformed clergy was

never heard.

Hence it was that when the Reformation began

to appear in France and Switzerland as in Germany, thousands

w^ere found infected where there was the least suspicion of

heresy.

The whole French court seemed Calvinistic; mass

was forgotten, meat served during Lent, the authority of

Bishop and Pope despised, and, under the toleration of

Catharine de Medicis, the Reformed clergy proclaimed their

principles in the royal palace, crowds composing their

assembly, while a poor Jacobin who preached the Lent ser-

mons at Fontainbleau, had no audience. " Heresy, says an

eminent Jesuit, was seen to enter the palace of the most

Christian King; and it may be said that there it exercised

complete sway."

That the influence of the Psalms for reform, and the

118 David's harp in song and story.

introduction of them into the services of the Swiss and

Huguenot Churches Avould call forth bitter persecution from a Church whose mightiest argument has always been the

sword and the guillotine, was to be expected.

A fervor, the

natural offspring of inspired truth, could not awaken a kin-

dred fervor in the hearts of men whose power was secure

only in a popular ignorance of the word of God, but

aroused resistance, such as, failing in accomplishing its

object by denunciations and decrees, ended in that grand

consummation of tyranny, the blood of St.

Bartholomew's

day.

At an early stage of the Psalm-singing in France, the

Catholic clergy proclaimed Marot a heretic and forced him

to flee to Geneva for refuge.

When individual denunciation

failed, an attempt was made to secure a public prohilntion

from the king.

But Francis I, as we have seen, paid no

attention at first to the entreaties of the Sorbonne doctors,

but complimented Marot for what he had already done and urged him to complete the versification of the entire book of Psalms.

He did more than this : he made a request of the

poet that he should send a copy of his Psalms to Charles V, then emperor of Germany and Spain, Marot complied with

this request and was gratified and encouraged by a letter

from Charles, in which he presented him with two hundred Spanish pistols, expressed himself satisfied with the Psalms

already versified, and pressed on him the importance of com-pleting the version, requesting him especially to send as soon as possible, a metrical version of Psalm 105th—"Con-

fitemini Domino quoniam bonus," as it is called in the

Latin—because he was particularly fond of it.

But evil

councils prevailed.

The Nuncio of the Pope complained to

the King of the novelty of the Psalm-singing and warned him

of its pernicious influence and dangerous tendency.

To the

efforts of the Nuncio were added those of the Cardinal de

Lorraine, a man of distinction and influence at the Parisian

court.

The Cardinal, aware of the difiiculty of persuading

the King by a personal appeal, undertook to influence him

through the agency of Diane de Poictiers, who was known

as "the lovely patroness" of "the Holy Psalm-book."

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 119

Diane was not only a Psalm-singer but a reader of the

Bible, both of which were regarded as evidence of Lutheran-ism.

Lorraine began with her by finding fault with the

Psalms of David and commending the amatory elegancies

of the odes of Horace.

Diane consented to surrender the

Psalm-book, but retained her Bible because the Queen Cath-

arine de Medicis possessed one. On one occasion, the Cardinal entering her apartment, found the Bible lying upon the table.

He immediately crossed himself, smote upon his breast, cast the Book upon the floor, and otherwise so well

acted his

part, that the fair penitent gave up her Bible, and for the

time consented to do penance by saying two masses instead

of one.

Through Diane, it is probable that Lorraine gained his

point with the King ; a royal prohibition was issued against

the Psalms of Marot and Beza.

To be found singing a

Psalm under any pretext was declared criminal.

If anj^ one

were discovered in the act, he was to be fined two hundred

francs, and to have his Psalm-book taken from him and

tjiven to the common hangman to be burned.

The Psalm-singing of the Pre-aux-clercs was brought

before Parliament by the clergy, but here, so many of the

members were found implicated in the assembling at the

promenade, that the summons of Cardinal Bertrand for the

assembling of the Parliament were at first unheeded.

Here

too, however, evil councils at last prevailed and the persecu-

tions of the Huguenots began anew, and continued without interruption till about 1562, when the conference in the

Abbey of Poissy, near Paris, was held.

An edict of tolera-

tion Vvas issued, and for a time the Protestants enjoyed the

liberty of worshiping in accordance with their preferences.

Soon after the edict of toleration, as we are informed by

Bayle, a license was issued by Henry IX to Anthony

Vincent, a bookseller of Lyons, for the printing of Marot

and Beza's Psalms.

The license is in the following terms :

'

' By a special favor of full power and royal authority,

we have given and granted to Anthony Vincent, Bookseller

at Lyons, the privilege, leave, license and permission to

print, or cause to be printed for the space of ten years next

120 David's harp in song and story.

following, all the Psalms of the Prophet David, translated

according to the truth of the Hebre^v text, turned into

French metre, and set to good music, as it is well known,

and have been examined by men learned in the Holy Script-ures and in the said languages and also in the art of music." —Dated, Oct. 19,

1561.

The "men learned in the Holy Scriptures" were no

other than the Doctors of the Sorbonne, who had so dis-

tinguished themselves in former persecutions.

That the

Sorbonne gave its sanction to the printing of the Psalms,

appears from the writings of Jurien, who has produced this

sanction in the following words :— "We, Doctors of Divinity,

whose names are here subscribed, do certify that in a certain translation of the Psalms presented to us, beginning at the

Forty-eighth Psalm, with these words, ' C'est en fatres sainte

cite,' and ending with the verse, ' Chante a jamais son

Empire,' we have found nothing contrary to our Catholic

faith, but everything agreeable to it and the truth of the

Hebrew text.

In testimony whereof, we have signed this

present certificate, Oct.

16, 1561."

After the impression of the Psalms had been made by

Anthony, and before they were issued to the public, they

were examined and approved by Mr. Josse Schelling, Por-tionary of St.

Nicolas at Brussels, deputed for this end by

the council at Brabant.

The Catholic clergy did not contine themselves to the

issue of decrees and the execution of penalties under the

influence of Cardinal de Lorraine, the odes of Horace, and

the obscene poems of Tribullus and Catullus were translated

into French verse and introduced into the court at Paris.

The Catholic laity were permitted to imitate the Psalm-

singers, and so assembled in the streets and sang their hymns and odes while they held before them little images of the

Virgin.

As they would pass from street to street, they would

invite all the persons whom they would meet to join them in

singing, and if any would refuse, they were maltreated, and

their complaints, when made to the civil authorities,

despised.

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 121

The respite following the edict of 1562 did not last long.

The persecution broke forth anew, and the blood of France's

best citizens again reddened her soil. The Papal party contin-ually denounced the Huguenots, and urged the people in

many districts to deeds of violence ; so that the party of the

Keform was compelled to organize and arm.

The struggle

between the opposing forces was fierce, and continued for

many years.

But the Huguenots, unable to succeed against

the powerful forces of the Government, were driven from

almost every battle field, and thousands of families were

forced into exile.

The tale of these persecutions and their

consequent horrors form one of the darkest chapters of

history.

The Massacre of St. Bartholomew on the 21:th of

August, 1572, was but a representation of the bloody scenes

all over France and the Low Countries.

After sixty years of persecution, the Protestants of

France were restored to comparative liberty of conscience in

their worship, by the celebrated edict of Nantes, promul-

gated in

1598.

But peace under this edict was not long

enjoyed.

Twelve years after its promulgation, the King

who issued it was assassinated, when the elements of discord broke loose with more than usual fury.

For nearly a

century, the rage of the Catholic Church was constantly

exerted in the destruction of the Huguenots, and found a

satisfaction in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV, in October,

1685.

This was the death-knell of the

Huguenots.

Soon Papal indignation was to be allayed

because there were no more victims for slaughter ; the

inquisition to rest in its work of blood, for there were no

more armies of the True Faith to conquer.

'

' Great was

the rejoicing of the Jesuits on the revocation of the Edict

of Nantes.

Rome sprang up with a shout of joy to cele-

brate the event.

Te Deums were sung, processions went

from shrine to shrine, and the Pope sent a brief to Louis,

conveying to him the congratulations and praises of the

Romish Church.

Pul)lic thanksgivings were held at Paris, in

which the people eagerly took part, thus making themselves accomplices in the proscription by the King of their fellow-

subjects.

The provost and sheriffs had a statute of Louis

122 David's harp in song and story.

erected at the Hotel de Ville, bearing the inscription, 'Liidii-

vico Magno, victori perpetrio, ecclesia ac regum, dignitatis

assertori. ' Leseuer was employed to paint the subject for

the gallery at Versailles, and medals were struck commem-orating the extinction of Protestantism in France.

'

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes gave license to

every kind of violence against the Huguenots, and every-

thing- that belonged to them.

Protestant worship was

everywhere proscribed, both in public and in private ; the

churches were broken down ; pastors were banished ; schools

closed

; parents were forbidden to teach their children ;

personal property was confiscated ; Protestant children

must be baptized by a parish priest, a heavy penalty being

inflicted in case of disobedience ; and the galley and prisons

filled with thousands who preferred suffering to the surrender of their faith.

It seems almost incredible, the vast numbers of French-

men that fled from their native country to escape these

various persecutions.

The highways were crowded with

refugees.

From every outlet on the north and the east they

poured in an incessant throng.

Prohibitions against self-

banishment were issued ; officers patrolled the high roads

night and day ; heavy penalties were inflicted on those caught

in the act of emigrating, but all to no purpose.

The fre-

quented routes were avoided, and the fugitives crossed the

frontier through dense forests, over mountain by-paths,

along trackless wastes, traveling in small parties and by

night. "Women of quality, even sixty and seventy years

of age, who had, so to speak, never i^laced a foot upon the

ground, except to cross their apartments or stroll in an ave-nue, traveled to some village which had been indicated by a

guide.

Girls of fifteen, of every rank, exposed themselves

to the same hazard.

They drew wheelbarrows, they bore

manure, panniers and other burdens.

They disfigured their

faces with dyes to embrown their complexion, with oint-

ments or juices that blistered their skins and gave them a

wrinkled aspect.

Women and girls were seen to counter-

feit sickness, dumbness, and even insanity.

Some went

disguised as men ; and some, too delicate to pass as grown

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 123

men, donned the di'ess of lackeys, and followel on foot

through the mud a guide on horseback, who assumed the

character of a man of importance.

Many of these females

reached Rotterdam in their borrowed garments, and, hasten-ing to the foot of the pulpit before they had time to assume a more decent garb, published their repentance of their

compulsory signature.

'

In all subsequent persecutions, as in that of the days

of Marot and Beza, the wrath of the Roman clergy and

their followers was exercised against the Psalmody of the

Huguenots.

The severest restrictions were placed upon its

exercise, and many are the incidents that might be related of the courage of the Protestants in clinging to their favorite

act of devotion, and the sufferings consequent thereto.

Psalm-singing was forbidden in the private dwellings and in the workshops of the Protestants, and spies selected to de-

tect them in its exercise.

A common

act of devastation

with the Catholics was to enter churches, gather the Psalm-books and Bibles into a pile and burn them.

An edict was

issued in France as late as April 25, 1727, in which the

Protestants were required to surrender all their religious

books within fifteen days that they might be burned in the

presence of the commandants of the respective districts, the penalty for withholding being three years' banishment and

a fine of not less than one-third of the entire personal prop-erty of the offender.

Fearless, amid the terrors of perse-

cution, was a Huguenot pastor who published a defense of

the prohibited Psalm-singing, and for it was arrested and

driven from the country.

There is recorded the noble ex-

ample of an artisan of Lanquedoc, who persisted in his sing-ing of Psalms notwithstanding the royal prohibition ; and,

when the ofiicer presented him with the edict, took it and

wrote on it the following words of the Thirty-fourth Psalm:

" Jamais ne cessarai

De magnifier le seigneur

En ma bouche auri son lionneur

Faut que vivant serai,"

Which in the English prose version read, " I will bless the

Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my

mouth."

124 David's harp in song and story.

One Migaiilt, a schoolmaster, for teaching the Psalms

to his pupils, came near losing his life, having saved it only by hasty flight.

The massacre at Vassy, in May of 1563, was ordered by

the Duke of Guise, because, as he said, when he commanded

the congregation to cease its Psalmody, they defied him and only sang the louder. The following account of this massacre

is given by Smiles, in the History of the Huguenots: "On the 1st of May, 1598, they held one of their meetings, at which about twelve hundred persons were present, in a large barn, which served as a church.

The day before the Duke of

Guise, accompanied by the duchess, his wife, the cardinal of Guise, and about two hundred men, armed with arquebuses and poinards, set out for Vassy.

They rested during the

night at Dampmarten and next morning marched direct upon the cono-regation assemljled in the barn.

The minister, Mo-

rel, had only begun his opening prayer when two shots were

fired at the persons on the platform.

The congregation tried

in vain to shut the doors; the followers of the Duke of Guise burst in, and precipitated themselves on the unarmed men,

women and children.

For an hour they tired, hacked and

stabbed among them, the duke coolly watching the carnage.

Sixty persons, of both sexes, were left dead on the spot,

more than two hundred were severely wounded, and the rest contrived to escape.

After the massacre, the duke sent to

the local judge, and severely reprimanded him for having

permitted the tluguenots of Vassy thus to meet.

The

judge entrenched himself behind the edict of the king.

The duke's eyes flashed with rage, and, striking the hilt

of his sword with his hand, he said, " The sharp edge of

this will soon cut your edict in pieces." So severe were the

restrictions upon the Huguenots that they were not even al-lowed to go to the grave in peace.

Many of the dead bodies,

because not permitted a decent burial by the friends of the

deceased Protestants, were removed from the dwellings by the hangman and cast into the public sewers.

Among those subjected to this brutal indignity was the

body of the distinguished M. de Chenevix.

He had been

celebrated for his learning and piety, and enjoyed for a time

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 125

the position of Councillor to the King of Metz.

During his

illness in

1686, the Catholic curate of the parish forced

himself into the presence of the sufferer, demanded his re-

cantation, and ordered him to communicate.

He positively

refused to confess his sins to any but God, and declined to

communicate after the popish manner.

At his death his

body was removed by the executioner, placed on a hurdle,

dragged off and cast upon a dunghill.

During the night

about four hundred of his friends, mostly women, proceeded

to the spot where the body lay and secured it for a Christian

l^urial.

Wrapjiing the body in linen, four men bore it aloft

on their shoulders and placed it in a grave digged in a gar-

den.

While the body was being lowered to its resting place

the mourning assembly joined in singing the Seventy-ninth

Psalm, "Save me, O God, for the waters are come into my soul," etc.

From this circumstance it would seem that the

custom of Psalm-sino;ing at funerals existed among: the

French Christians, as among those of the early ages of the

New Testament Church.

The Psalms were the constant companions of the wan-

dering Huguenots, and often solaced them in their galley

sufferings, and consoled them as they were led to the scaffold or the stocks.

Editions of the French metrical Psalms were

published in the form of small primers, and thousands of

them carried concealed about the persons of the Huguenots, ready for use when a convenient opportunity was presented.

M.

Fulcrand and M, Pochette, distinguished pastors

amonof the reformed, were carried together to their execu-

tion, where they sang from the One hundred and eighteenth Psalm,

" This is the day which the Lord hath made, We will rejoice and be glad in it," etc.

When the Huguenots were not allowed to assemble in

their accustomed places of worship, they met secretly by

night in caves, among thick forests, in some lone place hy

the sea shore, or sheltered by the rocks of neighboring

mountains.

In the desert were regular gatherings of wor-

shipers which were known as the "Churches of the Desert." These churches were organized, had their pastors, elders and

126 David's harp in song and story.

deacons, and met and adjourned at stated hours.

The meet-

ings were held during the night, and so closely were they

concealed that it was only by the most rigid search that they were ever discovered.

Here in their nio^ht gatherino^, the\'

sang the Psalms of Marot.

As the hour for beginning the

services would draw nigh, the pastor would sometimes send out companies, who were ordered to sing a Psalm to direct

any of the worshipers who might be delayed and in danger of becoming lost in the darkness.

It was from the singing of

these guides that the rendezvous of the Iluo-uenots was fre-es o

quently discovered.

These churches of the desert continued

in existence down to the period of the French Revolution,

when Protestantism w^as again publicly tolerated in France.

Among those who gathered in the Desert for worship

and were celebrated in the wars with the Romish forces,

were the Camisards, so called from the character of their

dress.

This liand owed its organization to Jean Cavalier, a

native of Lauquedoc, and born near the close of the seven-teenth century.

The Camisards were poor Protestants, who

had been goaded to desperation by the cruelty of their per-

secutions ; but who, although ignorant of the art of war,

were so gallant and determined that they carried on a suc-

cessful struggle against the arms of France for almost five

years.

They were without money, but received supplies of

food and clothing from the peasants and from the spoils of

victory.

Their bullets were generally moulded from the

church bells that had formerly summoned them on their

peaceful Sabbaths to the Lord's house.

It was an invariable

custom with them to engage in prayer and Psalmody, both when pitching their camps and when beginning their march.

If they were successful in their onslaughts, they held re-

ligious exercise for the benefit of the peasants who would

flock in crowds to their rendezvous.

The determination and

success of these religious soldiers only prepared the way for greater cruelty.

An enemy, whose rage is excited by the

exercise of the liberty of conscience in religion, is incapable

of admiring the valor of a foe, and so, only devises

severer tortures for those resisting.

Whole villages of

those in sympathy with Cavalier and his band were burned

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 127

to the trround.

The stake and the o-ibbet streamed with the

blood of captives all over Lanquedoc, while many a strag-

gler from his company was shot like a beast and his body

trampled in the dust.

The Battle Hymn of these sturdy

warriors was the Sixty-eighth Psalm, which they usually

sang with one knee on the ground, and when the enemy was maldns: the first onset.

Their Psalm began :

" Que Dieu se montre seulenient,

Et I'on verra dans le moment

Abandonner la place

Le camp des enuemis epars,

Epouvante de toutes parts,

Fuera devant sa face." *

At the battle of Valde Bane, Jan. 12,

1703, a com-

pany of only two hundred Camisards was attacked by the

Papal soldiers under Count de Broglie.

But the smallness

of their numbers, and

'

' the approach of his troops did not

move the resolute band, who continued sing-inor a Psalm

(the Sixty-eighth) with one knee on the ground until they

had received the first volley.

On another occasion, in the diocese of Uzes, when La

Jonquiere supposed he had annihilated a company of

Camisards, and so ordered his men to charge with the

bayonet, he was astonished to see them jump from the

ground and rush to the attack, singing their favorite Psalm.

An anonymous writer says the papal troops were often

paralyzed by the religious fervor of the Camisards.

He

mentions a conversation Avith an officer who declared he

could not keep his men under control when they heard the

music of the

" Que Dieu se montre seulenient," etc.

A

scene at the closing of the Camisard war has been

thus described: "When D'Aygaliers and Cavalier were in

conference with reference to peace, the divisions of the

* " Que Dieu se montre seuement,

Et onverra fondainement

Abandoner la place:

I^ cap des ennemis epars,

Et fes haineux de toutes parts,

Fuer devant fa face."

The above is quoted from Marot and Beze edition, 1684.—J. C. B.

128 David's harp in song and story.

opposing forces mingled, embraced each other and united in singing Psalms.

When the Camisards in Nismis heard that

the struggles were over and that they were to be left to the free exercise of their consciences in worship, the town re-

sounded with the accents of praise and thanksgiving.

Psalms were heard in the streets and pul)lic places.

The

Bishop of Nismis thus alludes to the spectacle :

'

' We have

seen Cavalier at our gates ; his interviev,^ with the Marshall

and M. de Basville ; his submission and his pride ; the bold-

ness of Scelerets, who accompanied him ; the concourse of

new converts who go to see them ; the Psalms they chant

and with which the Vauna.ge resounds, all this greatly

scandalizes and afflicts the Catholics.

'

' On this same oc-

casion, the Catholics became so worried with the endless

singing of the Psalms, that they threatened, if it were not

for the soldiers, they would cast the Huguenots into the

Phone.

Thouo^h the Psalms in 1553 were attached to the cate-

chism of Geneva, and thus became formally a part of the

Order of the Reformed Church, yet there is little mention

made of Psalms and Psalmody in the records of the synods.

Enouo'h, however, remains to convince us that Psalm-sino:-

ing was not a mere accident, but was regarded as an essential part of religious devotion.

From the Synodicon of John Quick, published in Lon-

don in 1692, we iind the acts of the several French Synods.

In the second canon, chapter X of the Discipline, enacted

in the National Synod at Paris, 1559, there is the following

direction : " Singing of God's praise being a divine ordi-

nance to be performed in the congregation of the faithful

and for that by the use of the Psalms their hearts be com-

forted and strengthened, everyone shall be advertised to

bring with them their Psalm-books into the assemblies ; and

such as through contempt of this holy ordinance do forbear

the having them, shall be censured, as also those who, in

time of singing, both before and after sermon, are not un-

covered, as also when the holy sacraments are celebrated."

Previous to

1579 the practice of "lining out the

Psalms," as was generally customary in Scotland, seems to

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 129

have been introduced into the French churches.

This not

meeting with the favor of the ministry generally, an

act

forbidding it was passed in the Tenth Synod, held at Figeae

in 1579— " Churches that in singing Psalms do first cause

each verse to be read, shall be advised to forbear that child-

ish custom, and such as have used themselves to it shall be

censured." Twelve years later the

act requiring Psalm-

books in church was re-enacted.

It is in the records of

the Eleventh Synod that met at Vitre :

'

' Forasmuch

as there is a notorious contempt of religion visible in all

places, yea also in our religious meetings, we advise that

notice be given unto all persons to bring with them Psalm-books into the churches, and that such as contemptuously

neglect the doing of it shall be severely censured ; and all

Protestant printers are advised not to sunder in their im-

pressions the prayers and catechism from the Psalm-books.

'

At length the Psalms of Marot and Beza came to be

regarded as obsolete and barbarous.

Voltaire said of them

that as taste improved they inspired disgust, and that which

in the reign of Francis 1. charmed the court, seemed only

suited to please the populace under Louis.

Geneva, the

first to adopt these Psalms, was the first to abandon them.

The revision of them was begun by M. Conrart, and com-

pleted by M. da la Bastide.

This revision was presented to

the pastors and professors of the church at Geneva, who re-ported favorably on it, and, in

1695, published it.

In a

short time they abolished the use of the old and adopted the new version in the Genevan church, and issued circular let-

ters to the other churches requesting them to do the same.

But, notwithstanding the contemptuous reflection of Vol-

taire, the Psalms of Marot and Beza remained dear to the

people, and to them the new version seemed to lack all

charms.

Because of the love of the people for the old

Psalms, the new ones retained the same number of stanzas, possessed the same quantity of syllables in the verses as

in the old, and w^ere adapted to the old-fashioned tunes,

many of which are used to this day in France and Switzer-

land.

Yet, with all this, the new version was for many

years used by no churches except those in Geneva, Hesse-

130 David's harp in song and story.

Cassel and Nenfchatel.

As late as the year 1700 a synod of

the Walloon district, assembled at Rotterdam, resolved to

retain the old version, providing only for a few changes in

some exceptionable words.

One, writing at the time of the

proposition to have a new version of the Psalms, says :

'

' We may say of the poems of Marot and Beza what Quin-

tilian said of Ennius—

' let us reverence the verses of En-

nius as we reverence the groves that are venerable for their great age, and whose old and lopped oaks, though they

have little beauty, yet strike us with religious awe.' "

The French and Swiss churches of the present day use

almost exclusively human composition in their praise.

The

Psalms of Marot are still sung, but chiefly in those dis-

tricts where dwell the descendents of the Piedmont

Christians.

In my possession is a Liturgy in the French, with the

Psalms in French metre, as they are still sung in some

places on the continent.

The Psalms in this version are

printed with the music to which they were to be sung, the

words coming immediately under their proper notes.

In

this version also are some of the old Psalms that were sung;

in the sixteenth century.

The longer Psalms are divided by

pauses after the ancient method, for resting the voice.

At

the end of the Psalms are

'

' Sacred Canticles

'

' from the

Scriptures, rendered in rhyme, and set to the same music to which the Psalms were sung.

From Switzerland and France,

by missionaries and by the refugees, the French Psalms

were carried into many different parts.

As early as 1555

the Genevan church sent two missionaries and fourteen

students to Coligny's Colony in Rio Janeiro.

Thus, at least

sixty years before the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock, and fifty before the Book of Common Prayer was

borne to the banks of the James River, the Psalms of

Marot and Beza were being sung by the missionaries sent to the Spanish possessions of the far AVest.

From France the refa^ees carried their forms of

worship and their Psalms into the Netherlands and adjoining countries ; to England, Ireland, America, where they estab-

lished churches and worshiped in their own language and

THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 131

after their own method.

In Great Britain the refuffees were

so numerous that a o-reat number of churches were oro-an-

ized, where their pastors on the anniversaries of their

exile would preach to sorrowing assemblies from the words,

'

' By the rivers of Baliylon, there we sat down, yea, we

wept when we remembered Zion." Owing to the gradual

conformity of the descendents of these exiles to customs

and language of their adopted country, the Huguenots

diminished rapidly in influence and numbers.

In Ireland, a

French conOTeofation was oro^anized at Portarlin^ton, which

existed still in this present century.

The last pastor was

Charles de Vignolles, and the French language and French Psalms were employed in worship till

1817, after which

time it was discontinued, the French language being an un-known tongue in the neighborhood.

Several Huguenot

families, led by the nephew of Admiral Duquesne, emigrated

to the Cape of Good Hope, while others removed as far

from France as Surinam in Dutch Guiana.

According to Weiss there are now in the Cape Colony

about four thousand descendents of the Huguenot exiles,

residing in what is known as the French Valley.

In 1739,

the Dutch government proscribed the use of their native

tongue, and their language is now the Dutch. "On each

parlor table is one of those great folio Bibles which the

French Protestants were wont to hand down from father to

son, and in which the dates of the births and the names of

all the members of the family are invariably inscribed,

Clement Marot's Psalms and religious books are often found among them.

Night and morning the members of each

family assemble for prayer and the reading of the Bible.

Every Sunday at sunrise the farmers set out in their rustic

vehicles, covered with hides or Avith coarse cloth, to attend

divine service, and at night they return to their peaceful

homes.

The news of the ^vorld takes a long time to reach

them.

In 1828, when evangelical missionaries told them

that religious toleration had existed in France for forty

years, the old men shed tears."

Some families of French Protestants settled on Long Is-

land Sound, about twenty-live miles from New York City, and

132 David's harp in song and story.

called their settlement New Rochelle, after the name of their stronghold in the mother country.

From this point they,

in the early days of their settlement, would come to New

York to attend divine service.

The journey was made by

the men on foot, and by the women and children, in carts.

Arriving at the city they would encamp within the suburbs

until the Sabbath bell would summon them to service in the

old church du Saint Esprit.

Though these Huguenots found

a safe refuge in their new abode, yet "the old longing for

home in Allan Cunningham's ballad

' It's hame and it's hame, hame fain would 1 be, O hame, hame, hame, to my ain countree,'

clung to their breasts and caused singular melancholy in

some of them.

One old man who went every day down to

the seashore to look and gaze his fill towards the beautiful

cruel land where most of life had been passed, with his face

toward the east, and his eyes strained, as if by force of long-

ing looks he could see the far-distant France, said his morn-ing prayers and sang one of Clement Marot's hymns—there being an edition of the Psalms of David put into French

Rhyme (Pseaumes de David misen Rime francoise, par Clem-ent Marot et Theodore de Beze) published in as small a form

as possible, in order that the book might be concealed in

their bosoms, if the Huguenots were surprised in their wor-

ship while they lived in France.

'

A colony of French Huguenots also settled in Charles-

ton, South Carolina, where they kept up their services in

French, singing the old Psalms of Marot till about 1840.

Owing to the difficulty of procuring pastors who could

preach to them in Fiench they were compelled to secure min-

isters of other denominations, which soon led to a revolution

of their liturgy and to the setting aside of the Psalms of

their early service.

In the early history of the Carolina col-

onies, we find the Psalms of Marot and Beza performing the

office of comforting and supporting amid the horrors of Indian

captivity, as they had often done under the persecutions of

the French Papists.

In the attack on Kingston forty-five

Huguenots were taken captive, one of them being Catharine Le Fever, wife of Louis Dubois.

After the Indians had

"THE PSALMS IN THE SWISS AND FRENCH REFORMATION. 133

selected her to be burned, and when she was already bound

for the sacrifice to savage hate, she consoled herself and

strengthened her spirit for a terrible death by singing one

of David's Psalms.

So highly delighted were the Indians

with her singing that they delayed her sufferings and by

signs urged her to continue.

When she was engaging in her

song the remainder of the captives united in singing the

Psalm of the Babylonish Captivity.

The indulgence of the

savages, for the sake of these sacred melodies, proved the

safety of the captives; for while the strains of the Jewish

lament were yet rising to heaven Dubois and his followers

.broke into the Indian camp and secured their rescue.

CHAPTER VII.

The Psalms in the Netherland Reformation.

Though the Low Countries were the home of man}'

sects, yet the Calvinists were the most numerous ; and

chiefly gave character to the religion of the land.

In all of

the Southern provinces, and chiefly in Flanders, the Re-

formed Church triumphed over all others, being supported

by the Huguenots of France, the Genevan Republic, and the

Calvinistic part of Germany.

The principal

actors amid

the exciting

scenes of the Reformation in the Netherlands

were the Gueux, or Beggars, so called from the Guesen

penny which they wore about their necks, being a gold or

silver coin, one side bearing an efiigy of the King, with the

inscription,

'

' Trust to the King,

'

' and the other having two

hands folded together and holding a wallet with the words,

' ' As far as the Beggars Scrip.

'

' This penny was subse-

quently worn by all who took up arms against the King.

The Netherlands were favorably situated for these re-

formers to promote their cause ; and notwithstanding the

efforts of the King and the cruelty of the Inquisition, their

efforts were attended with overwhelming success.

Booka

and tracts were scattered from many a press in England,

France and at Geneva, while many a refugee preacher,

trained in the school of Geneva, or aroused to desperation

by the persecutions of France, awakened the masses by his

earnest and persistent appeals.

At first the meeting's of the Protestants were held in

secret, but conscious of their increased and rapidly increas-

ing strength, they boldly proceeded to proclaim their pro-

fession and their tenets in the eyes of the world, and in

defiance of the King and the clergy of Rome.

The cities

either being refused them, or being regarded as too danger-ous for their assembling, these fearless Christians took to

the fields and groves, thus giving rise to those famous con-

(134)

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHERLAND REFORMATION. 135

venticles of the sixteenth century.

Led by some converted

priest or friar, these field worshipers began their operations

in western Flanders.

Small audiences at first attended the

services, but they rapidly increased until the whole country

was in a furor, and thousands of the inhabitants, men,

women and children, resorted to the rendezvous of the Prot-

estants.

At Ghent, Aalst, Tournay, Valenciennes, Ant-

werp, were gathered assemblies of Calvinists varying from

5,000 to 15,000.

Although many were attracted by curios-

ity, others to add to their sport, yet the great majority came with consciousness of their wrongs and hungering for the

truths of God's Word.

These field meetings spread through the Walloon prov-

inces and entered the Northern Netherlands.

In July, 1566,

Peter Gabriel, an apostate monk, and a man of singular

eloquence, opened the first conventicle in Holland.

In the

environs of Amsterdam, The Hague, Harlem, at Ypre^,

Bruges, all over the Low Countries, other converts carried

on the work, until the whole population seemed for a while

to have no other emploj^ment than to attend the religious as-

semblies. Many of the Christians, carried away with their zeal and hatred of popery, turned iconoclasts, and images, altars, pictures and many splendid churches and cathedrals were

ruined by their hands.

In the worship of the Calvinistic churches of the Low

Countries, and especially in the field meetings, the Psalms

Avere a conspicuous and powerful agenc}^ in sustaining the

enthusiasm of the people.

In those provinces that spoke the

French, the Psalms of Marot in the original dialect were

used, and translations speedily made for those parts that used a different language.

Of their influence Morton thus speaks

in his History of Poetry: "France and Germany were

infatuated with a love for Psalm- singing . . .

These

energetic hymns of Geneva, under the conduct of the Calvin-

istic preachers, excited and supported a variety of popular

insurrections; they filled the most flourishing cities of the

Low Countries with sedition and tumult, and fomented the fury which defaced many of the most beautiful and vener-able churches of Flanders."

136 David's harp in song and story.

Motley describes the first field assembly in Holland in

the following terms:

'

' Thus the preaching spread through the Walloon

provinces to the north of the Netherlands.

Towards the

end of July (1566) an apostate monk of singular eloquence,

Peter Gabriel by name, was announced to preach at Over-

een, near Harlem.

This was the first field meeting that had

taken place in Holland.

The people were wild with enthu-

siasm ; the authorities were beside themselves with appre-

hension.

People from the country flocked into the town by

the thousands.

The other cities were deserted.

Harlem

was filled to overflowing.

Multitudes encamped upon the

ground the night before.

The magistrates ordered the

gates to be kept closed in the morning till long after the

usual hour.

It was of no avail.

Bolts and bars were but

small impediments to enthusiasts who had traveled so many miles on foot or horseback to listen to a sermon.

They

climbed the walls, swam the moat, and thronged the place

of meeting long before the doors had been opened.

When

they could no longer be kept closed without conflict, for

which the magistrates were not prepared, the whole popu-

lation poured out of the city with a single impulse.

Tens

of thousands were assembled upon the field.

The bulwarks

were erected as usual.

The guards were posted.

The con-

gregation was encamped and arranged in an orderly manner.

The women, of whom there were many, were placed next

the pulpit, which, upon this occasion, was formed of a

couple of spears thrust into the earth, sustaining a cross-

piece against which the preacher might lean his back.

The

services commenced with the singing of a Psalm by the

whole vast assemblage.

Clement Marot's Psalms, recently

translated by Dathenus, were then new and popular.

The

strains of the monarch minstrel, chanted thus in their

homely but nervous mother tongue by a multitude who had but recently learned that all the poetry and rapture of de-

votion were not irrevocably coffined in a buried language,

or immured in the precincts of a church, had never pro-

duced a more elevating effect.

No anthem from the world-

renowned organ in that ancient city ever awakened more

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHERLAND REFORMATION. 137

lofty emotions than did those ten thousand human voices, ringing from the grassy meadows, in that favored midsum-

mer noon.

When all was silent, the preacher arose, a lit-

tle, meagre man, who looked as if he might melt away be-

neath the blazing sunshine of July rather than hold the

multitude enchanted four uninterrupted hours by the magic of his tongue."

It was the usual custom of the iconoclasts to proceed

to their work of devastation by singing some Psalm of Ma-

rot, or some canticle of Geneva, rendered in rhyme.

The

author just quoted from, in speaking of the demolition in

the convent at Marchiennes, says: "A large assemblage

of rioters, growing in numbers as they advanced, swept

over the province of Tournay after accomplishing the sack

of the city churches.

Armed with halbreds, hammers and

pitchforks, they carried on the war, day after day, against the images.

At the convent of Marchiennes, considered by

contemporaries the most beautiful abbey in all the Nether-

lands, they halted to sing the Ten Commandments in Ma-

rot's verse.

Hardly had the vast chorus finished the pre-

cept against graven images,

" ' Tailler nete feras imaige,'

when the whole mob seemed seized with sudden madness.

Without waiting to complete the Psalm they fastened upon the company of marble images, as if they possessed sensi-

bility to feel the blows inflicted.

In an hour they had laid

the whole in ruins.

'

Another favorite practice of the Calvinists was to ex-

press their welcome at the approach of any of the nobles who had joined them, by singing their Psalms.

A single instance

may be given—in the reception of the Prince of Orleans at

Antwerp.

This city was in a tumult from the preaching

and singing of the Protestants.

The keys of the city had

been captured, and the people were openly escorting their

banished pastors back to their places of worship within the

walls.

At the request of the magistrates the Prince of Or-

ange, who was recognized as one of the Gueux, was sent by Margaret of Parma to quell the excitement.

The description

of his reception, given by Prescott, could apply to many

138 David's harp in song and story.

such occurring all over the Netherlands : ' 'As he drew near

Antwerp the people flocked out by thousands to welcome

him.

It would seem as if they hailed him as their deliverer,

and every window, verandah and roof was crowded with

spectators as he rode through the gates of the capital.

The

people ran up and down the streets singing Psalms, or shout-ing 'Vivent les Gueux, ' while they thronged round the

prince's horse in so dense a mass that it was scarcely possible for him to force a passage.

Outside of the gatherings in the fields, and the image-

breaking of the iconoclasts, the history of Psalm-singing is

much the same as in Germany and France.

Being a novelty,

the Psalms became a great favorite with the people, who

sang them both at home in worship, and in their daily toils

in field and workshop.

A singular instance of superstition connected with the

Psalm-sinffinff of the Calvinists in the Low Countries, occur-red at Valenciennes during March

1567, While Egmont

was commanding the Protestant fortifications, the chimes all through the siege played the music of Marot's Psalms, On

the fatal morning of March 25th, when the city fell, the

chimes happened to sound forth from every belfry the music

set to the Twenty-second Psalm, " My God, my God, why

hast thou forsaken me,

'

' This was taken by the Christians

as an omen for evil, and so filled them with dismay and has-tened their downfall.

This Egmont, who led the siege, was at first one of the

most barbarous of the persecutors, but afterward became a

confederate of Orange, and went to the scaffold June 5, 1568, reading aloud the Fifty-first Psalm, "Have mercy upon me,

O God, according to thy lovingkindness,

'

' etc.

When any of the Calvinists were being led by the forces

of the government to prison or to death, it very frequently

happened that the people followed them singing Psalms and

shouting to them words of comfort; and it was not an infre-quent occurrence for both persecuted and persecutors to be

sinsing: Psalms around the same scaffold, the one in the Ian-guage of Marot, and the others their Miserere (Fifty-first

Psalm) chanted in the prose.

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHERLAND REFORMATION. 139

The Netherlanders engaged in their Psalmody at times

with ofreat risk to themselves.

The Psalms of Marot were

prohibited both from being sung and imported.

In 1550

an edict was issued against even the possession of the Psalms and other Calvinistic publications, the penalty being "that such perturbators of the general quiet are to he executed; to

wit, the men with the sword, and the women to be buried

alive if they do not persist in their errors; if they do persist

in them, they are to be executed with fire." " Capons or

sausages on Good Friday, the Psalms of Marot, the Sermon on the Mount in the vernacular, led to the rack, the gibljet

and the stake, but ushered in a war against the Inquisition

which lasted for eighty years.

In Antwerp there was a degree of toleration, three places

in the city being assigned the Calvinists, "where they might

either erect new churches, or convert houses for that pur-

pose, with the restriction, however, that no preacher shall

assail the ruling religion from the pulpit, and no Psalms

should be sung by them out of the appointed tlistricts."

But the edicts and executions did not stop the purchase

and singing of the Psalms.

They were smuggled into the

country from Geneva and France in bales of merchandise,

and sold everywhere by pedlers and hawkers, until "The

Psalms of Marot were as current as the drugs of Molucca

or the diamonds of Borneo.

'

The accounts of the versions of the Psalms and of

their authors are very meagre.

At the beginning of the

Reformation in Holland, "The Protestants first sung in

their families and private assemblies the Psalms of the

noble Lord of Nievelte, which he published in 1540." Of

these Psalms nothing more could be gathered than that they were prepared as a substitute for the obscene songs with

which the cities of Holland resounded and by which the

people were drawn away.

Simon Cock, with the imperial

license granted at Brussels, in 1539, published the Psalms in the Flemish, the dialect of Flanders, but whether or not

they were sung is not known.

About the year 1555 the Psalms were rendered in the

Low Dutch by Peter Uathen, or Dathenus.

His version

140 David's harp in song and story.

was only a translation of the French Psalms by Marot and Beza.

The French tunes were also published with it, and

the whole accompanied with an address or dedication to the

Belgic congregations and their pastors groaning under the

cross.

Though their author was entirely ignorant of the

Hebrew, yet these Psalms were highly extolled, because at

that time Dutch poetry was very little cultivated, and came

into use wherever that tongue was spoken.

Near the close of the sixteenth century the Psalms were

turned into Dutch rhyme by Philip de Marnix, Lord of

Sainte Aldegonde, and were designed to pass into public use

in the place of the version of Dathenus.

But, though a

better translation, it was destined to fall short of the mark

at which it was aimed.

From Bajde we learn that

'

' a good

many years ago, some people of Holland were displeased

with these loose poetical paraphrases, which varied too much from the text of Scripture, especially with respect to the

Psalms of Dathenus, which had been formed upon the

French Psalms of Marot and Beza.

Among others, Philip

de Marnix, Lord of Mount Sainte-Aldegonde, employed

himself this way, and composed a new paraphrase in metre, exactly agreeing with the Psalms of Dathenus, in the

stanzas, lines, and syllables, for this reason, that it might be

sung along with them in the churches, or be easily substi-

tuted in their room.

But whereas most people had already

got the Psalms of Dathenus by heart, the churches did not

see how they could conveniently and without giving some

offense to the common people introduce any alteration in

the public worship."

Melchor Adams observes of the same work :

'

' That

work had been printed several times, but was not yet re-

ceived by the common approbation of the ministers.

The

reason is :

Books have their fate succeeding well or ill, Just in proportion to the reader's skill."

About the beginning of the seventeenth century, a

paraphrase of the Psalms in Dutch rhyme was published by Dirk Rafael Kamphuyzen.

His paraphrase of the One

hundred and thirty-third Psalm, though far from a close

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHERLAND REFORMATION. 141

rendering of the original, is a most beautiful piece of com-

position.

Longfellow saw such beauty in it that he trans-

lated it into English.

Two verses are given here :

If there be one whose thoughts delight to wander In pleasure's fields, where love's bright strains meander ;

If there be one who longs to find Where all the purer blisses are enshrined A happy resting place of virtuous worth, A blessed paradise on earth :

Let him survey the joy conferring union Of brothers who are bound in fond communion.

And not by force of blood alone.

But by their mutual sympathies are known, And every heart and every mind relies Upon fraternal, kindred ties.

In Poland the Psalms, modeled after those of the Re-

formed Church of France, were sung among the Pinczovian

Protestants, a class that had received their name from

Pinckzow, an Italian, and a minister of the Reformed

Church.

These Psalms, in Polish metre, were issued about

1563, by Bernard Woiewodka, of Cracow, who had been

sent by Prince Nicholas Radzivil, Palatine of Wilna, and

had established a printing press at Brest, a royal city of

Lithuania.

In Hungary, a version of the Psalms was prepared

after the model of Marot's Psalms, and accommodated to

the airs published with them.

It was printed at Hanau,

1608, and was bound with a translation of the Heidelberg

Catechism, and the Liturgy of the Hungarian churches.

In the same country, the Roman Catholics issued a

metrical version of the Psalms.

They were printed at

Debrecrin, in 1723, and were sung in the service of the

Papal church.

In the Wittemberg library, collected in the last century

by Charles, Duke of Wittemberg, are poetical versions of

the Psalms in Spanish, Portugese and Italian.

The accounts

of the authorship, origin and use of these versions are

probably lost.

Yet sufficient remains to lead to the con-

clusion that the Psalms in metre were sung in all these

countries by those who, either secretly or openly, espoused

the faith of the Reformation.

Ii2 David's harp in song and story.

Many of the refugees, who fled from the inquisition of

Spain and Italy, settled in the Grisons, a mountainous

country on the East of Switzerland, where they met with

the Swiss forms of worship, and soon conformed to them.

The lano^uao-e of the Grisons was a dialect of the Romance

or Romanese.

Here Biveroni, a native of Spain, and a

Protestant refugee, versified the Psalms in the Grisonian

dialect and published them in

1505.

In 1606, in the same

tongue, were published the Psalms and Sacred Hymns by

Chiampel.

An incident in the history of Juan Gonzaler, a de-

scendant of Moorish parents, shows that although the

supremacy of the auto-de-fe prevented the public and wide-spread singing of the Psalms in Spain, as in Germany,

France and the Low Countries, 3^et there were those there

who sang them in their retreats and found comfort in them

when led to the stake.

This Gonzaler had been suspected of

sympathizing with Mohamedanism, and was cast into prison.

When liberated he espoused the Protestant cause and

preached with great celebrity in Andalusia.

For his ofl^ense

he was apprehended, and led to the scaffold.

It was while

going to his death, that, "at the door of the Triania, he

began to sing the One hundred and ninth Psalm.

'

In Germany, the melodies to which the Psalms were

sung were called chorals and were of the same nature with what at the present day are known as

'

' Psalm tunes.

'

These new melodies were studied and sung especially among

the Germans.

Musical clubs were organized in Mayence,

Colmar and Ulm, which shared largely in the events of the

sixteenth century.

When priests and nobles w^ere vieing

^vith one another in wickedness, the

'

' cobblers,

'

' who could

oppose to their manifold forms of vice only decent lives

and a virtuous education, were diffusing their sentiments and promoting truth by their sacred songs which they sung to

their favorite choral melodies, and which were composed in

verses so rugged and uncouth, that " Schustereim "

cobbler's rhyme, has become in Germany a s^'nonym for

doo"gerel.

The motive in their organization they sang

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHERLAND REFORMATION. 143

" By making pious hymns we strive

Coarse ballads from the streets to drive, For every night we hear with shame Such songs as we refuse to name

;

To silence all those idle lays We meet and sing our Maker's praise."

Such life and vigor did these societies of shoemakers

possess that the one at Ulm survived almost to the middle

of the nineteenth century.

All of the Reformers were patrons of sacred music,

and most of them were skillful performers, both with the

voice and on various instruments.

Luther gained much

celebrity for his musical attainments.

His talent for music very early in life aided him in

gaining a livelihood, and in middle life contributed largely

toward his comfort and success in the mission to which God had called him.

It was said of the Reformer, while involved in the

midst of the excitement to which his preaching gave rise,

that he never laid aside his music, but frequently resorted to

it for recreation and social entertainment. " When he felt

himself fatigued with writing or perceived his head becom-ing dizzy, and that his ideas did not keep pace with his pen, he took his flute and played some agreeable air on it.

'

Music was in his eyes a divine revelation. " Music," said

he, "is one of the noblest arts; its notes give life to the

text; it charms away the spirit of sadness, as is seen in the

case of Saul." "Music is a delightful, noble gift of God

and nearly related to theology.

I would not give what lit-

tle skill in music I possess for something great.

The young

are continually to be exercised in this art; it makes good and

skillful people of them.

'

It was a frequent custom with Luther to engage in

singing sacred songs with his family and friends after meals, and sometimes he would invite his guests to form a choir

and unite with him in Psalmody.

An instance of the power of music upon himself oc-

curi'ed while he was a monk at Wittenberg.

On one oc-

casion he was so overwhelmed with trouble because of his

sins that he shut himself up in his cell for several days and

144 David's harp in song and story.

nights—allowed no one to approach him.

When Edem-

berger, his friend, broke open the door he found Luther

lying insensible on the floor and without signs of life.

He

strived, but in vain, to arouse him.

At last some chorister

boys, whom he had taken with him, began one of their

sweet melodies.

Their clear voices acted like a voice from

heaven, and the prostrate monk returned to consciousness

and gradually to accustomed strength.

Luther gained celebrity as a composer of music.

Sir

John Pringle, in a letter written in

1769, observed that

"the late Mr.

Handel, that celebrated musician, told me

that Luther had even composed the music of his Psalms and hymns, and which was so excellent that he borrowed from

it and inserted whole passages in his oratorios.

'

By many the Psalm-tune known everywhere as "Old

Hundred " is supposed to have been composed by Luther,

though others place it among those "most favorite songs of

the times,

'

' or those

'

' ballad airs as would best suit the

meter," which were sung years before the Reformation to romances and licentious songs.

Its first publication was

with the French version of the Psalms in 1550 ; in 1562 it

appeared in England set to the One hundredth Psalm of

Sternhold and Hopkins.

At first it appeared in but one

part, but was afterward frequently composed in two, three,

four and even five parts.

With the first edition of his Psalms Luther published

' * appropriate tunes.

'

' In the preface to this he enforces

the duty of church Psalmody, and supports the duty by the examples of David and Paul. "He had subjoined," he

says,

'

' suitable tunes to show that the fine arts had by no

means been abolished through the preaching of the Gospel;

but that in particular the art of music should be employed

to the glory of God, though he knew this sentiment was

contrary to the romantic ideas of some teachers, who were

disposed to allow nothing but what was purely intel-

lectual." "They are arranged," he added, "for four

voices for no other reason than that I am anxious that

young people, who should and must be educated in music

and other good arts, should have wherewith to get rid of

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHERLAND REFORMATION. 145

their lascivious antl carnal songs, and instead of them learn

something salutary and receive that good with pleasure

which to youth is meet.

'

In preparing the music for his Psalm book Luther con-

sulted Conrad Rupff, conductor of the choir at the Elector's

chapel, with reference to the proper character of choral

music, the scale, &c., "after which he finally arranged the

choral notes himself, selecting the octaves for the Epistles

and the sixths for the Gospel and saying: 'Christ is a kind

master and his words are sweet, wherefore we will adopt

aextum tonuiii for the Gospels; and because St. Paul is a

serious apostle, therefore we will ordain octavum tonum for

his Epistles. ' "

These

'

' appropriate tunes

'

' of Luther, as well as his

Psalms and hymns, were speedily taken up and carried over

the whole nation by traveling musicians, singing processions

of school boys and city cornetters.

AVithin a century from the days of Luther sacred music

in Germany had sadly declined from the simple, but effective, chorals of the people.

The new Italian school had exerted

its influence, until by the middle of the seventeenth century,

as one of Germany's best historians has expressed it, "the

modern style gained a decided preponderance over the anti(|ue method.

Musical declamation and expression suited to the

words prevail; rhythmical irregularities and the old churchly tunes disappear before a regular measure and modern softer

tunes, so that Psalmody becomes wholly alienated from its-

original vital element, as popular singing religious concert

music, which contained no reminiscent traces even of the old church melodies, and despised the form of hymns and

strophes, was more constantly cultivated.

The congrega-

tion wholly ceased to take part in the singing.

'

' The same

author says of the sacred music of the following century,

that it sank "with the hymns of this period to the low-

est degree of its existence.

The old chorals were re-cast

into modern forms, by which they altogether lost their an-

cient power and beauty.

A multitude of new, unnational

and difiicult melodies, in a dry, pedantic style, appeared;

the last trace of the old rhymth disappeared, and tedious,

146

DAVID S HAKP IN SONG AND STORY.

heavy monotony gained the ascendency, by which all sub-

limity and freshness were lost.

Preludes and interludes of

a secular character were introduced as substitutes.

An

operatic overture generally introduced the people into the

church; a march or a waltz dismissed them from it.

The

Church ceased to foster and to produce music; the theatre

and concert hall took its place."

Notwithstanding this, Germany did not lose a taste for

music; she has justly acquired for herself the enviable noto-

riety of a nation of musicians.

At the present day the cul-

ture of this fine art is carried to the highest state, and may

be found in the curriculum of studies even in the insionificant charity schools.

Capability to teach the knowledge of music,

both vocal and instrumental, is an absolute prerequisite of a

schoolmaster.

Hence it is we always find the rudely-clad

and apparently desolate German immigrant, carrying his

instrument, and charged with some favorite national airs.

In France, at the period of the Reformation, sacred

music assumed the most fantastic forms.

Dances, jigs, op-

eras and merry tunes were set to the Psalms of Marot, while new airs were composed

'

' by excellent composers, that

chimed so sweetly that every one desired a new Psalter.

'

The first edition of Marot 's Psalms was published in Paris

without any melodies; hence the populace, who had been

singing his ballads and roundelays, were compelled to take

"secular tunes such as were easy to play on the violin and

other instruments.

'

The Queen sang "Rebuke me not in thine indignation"

to the air of a fashionable jig; Antony chose for "Revenge

my quarrel, " the air of a fashionable dance of Poictou.

The

Psalms rendered by Simon Cock into the Flemish tongue,

and published at Brussels 1539, contained a music selected

from the ballads of his day, each Psalm having printed at

the head of it its own appropriate tune.

These popular and vapid airs were sung to the Psalms

not only in the court and among the populace, but by the

Reformed congregations in their public worship, previous to the second edition of Marot' s version.

Florimod de Remond objected to the music of the Cal-

THE PSALMS IN THE NETHEELAND REFORMATION, 147

vinistic Psalms, because, as he said, it was borrowed from

vulgar ballads, to which Sieur de Pours replied that, what

used to belong to profane songs was now separated from

them and was become in a measure sanctified.

'

' In ancient

times,

'

' he adds, ' 'things that were of common use, even

though taken as plunder, when they were with proper rites

separated and sequestered for the service of the sanctuary,

were counted holy.

'

"When the Psalms of Marot and Beza appeared together,

under the auspices of the Geneva Church, they were all

found set to popular tunes.

Ten thousand copies of this

version were issued, and the new airs soon became as popu-

lar as the old.

These Pbalm-tunes were procured under the

auspices of Calvin.

The chief musician whom he employed

for the production of them was Guillaume de Franc; al-

though it has been said that at least fifty contributors were

numbered in the edition that was published at Strasburg in

1545.

The musicians of France vied with one another in pre-

paring music for the Psalms, and in commending themselves through them to the attention and favor of the populace and of roj'alty.

De Pours observes that Lewis Bourgeois set

eighty-three Psalms to music, in four, five and six parts,

which were printed at Lyons in 1561.

Of the Psalms and their

'

' appropriate tunes,

'

' Mason,

in his work on English Church Music, says,

'

' The verses

were easy and prosaic enough to be intelligent to the meanest

capacity.

The melodies to which they were set rivaled the

words in plainness and simplicity.

They who could read

the one, could find little difficulty in learning to sing the

other."

Godeau, Bishop of Grasse, in the preface to his French

Paraphrase of the Psalms, bears honorable testimony to the Psalmody of the Huguenots: "Those whose separation from the Church we deplore, have rendered their version cele-

brated by the agreeable airs which skillful musicians have

composed for them.

To know those sacred songs by heart

is amongst them, as it were, a sign of their communion;

and to our great shame in great cities, where they are most

148 David's harp in song and story.

numerous, the Psalms are continually heard from the mouths of artisans, and in the country from that of laborers, while

the Catholics are either silent or sino^ indecent songs."

That which, in the sacred music of the Reformation

tunes, most attracts our notice and admiration is its con-

gregational character.

Perhaps never before, certainly

never since, has the true idea of public praise been so

grandly represented as in those vast congregations whose

souls united in the spirit and voices in the melody of heav-

enly song.

There was no trained choir of vocalists, no in-

tonings of the organ to lead or inspire the masses; yet the

volume of praise that rose from the thousands in the field

meetings of Calvinists in the Netherlands has been repre-

sented as so sublime that even the Antiphonies of Primitive Worship and the chanting of the Koyal Band of the Jewish

Temple would appear insignificant beside it.

The command

was obeyed in the highest sense: " Let the people praise

thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

O let the na-

tions be glad and sing for joy."

CHAPTER VIII.

The Psalms in the English Reformation.

The history of the Psalm-singing of the English people

began with the conversion of the British Isles to Christianity.

At the close of the sixth century when St. Augustine crossed the English Channel on his mission of conversion, he carried with him the old Italic Psalter, for which he had an especial

affection, and which he used in all the offices of the mission

church.

From that day to this the harp of David has never

ceased to be heard in the worship of the English-speaking

nations.

Of St. Cuthbert, in the seventh century, the His-

torian Bede has written: "Such was the piety of St. Cuth-

bert that he forgot to take off his shoes for months together, sometimes the whole year round . . . thus did man-

kind go reeling through the dark ages, quarreling, drinking, hunting, hawking, singing Psalms, wearing breeches, grind-ing in mills, eating hot-bread, rocked in cradles, buried in

coffins—weak, suffering, sublime.

Well might St. Alfred

exclaim: 'Maker of all creatures, help now th}^ miserable

mankind ! ' "

It appears that the teaching of the Psalms to mere chil-

dren was not an invention of Reformation times by the

pious parents of Scotland, for nearly one thousand years be-

fore the days of Knox and his fellow reformers, it is given

as an evidence of the precocity of Wilfrid that he had mem-

orized the entire Psalter before he was fourteen years old.

At the close of the seventh century the celebrated Aid-

helm, a bishop in the English Church, rendered the Psalms

into the native tongue of the Anglo-Saxons.

It is thought

by some that an old Psalm-book preserved at Malmesbury

till after the Reformation was the one prepared by this early

poet.

Bede, the great historian of the ancient Britons, and

the ornament of the age in which he lived, is to be classed

in the long list of British Psalmists.

His death occurred in

the year 735.

(149)

160 David's harp in song and story.

One of Bede's frequent exercises from his early youth

was the singing of the Psalms.

A part of each day was

spent in this manner.

When he was elected mass-priest at

the age of thirty, he became obligated by a law that required

this daily exercise—"The mass-priest should at least have

his missal, his singing book, his reader ; his psalter, his

handbook, his penitential and numeral one ; he ought to

have his officiating garments and to sing from sunrise, with

the nine intervals, and nine readings.

His sacramental cup

should be of gold or silver, or tin, and not of earth, at

least not of wood.

'

When in his last sickness, the Psalms afforded him

much comfort.

Cuthbert, his pupil, in a description of his

closing days, says "he continued cheerful and rejoicing,

giving thanks to Almighty God day and night, nay, even

every hour till the day of our Lord's ascension.

He daily

read lessons to us, his scholars ; the rest of the day he spent

in singing Psalms.

The nights he passed without sleep, yet

rejoicing and giving thanks, unless when a little slumber in-

tervened.

When he awoke, he resumed his accustomed de-

votions, and, with expanded hands, never ceased returning

thanks to God."

Bede claims a place among the Psalmists by a trans-

lation of the Psalms into the Anglo-Saxon tongue, con-

cerning which, however, little is known.

From a canon of

Cuthbert, framed in 747, it appears that Psalm-singing was

still, in the eighth century, a duty required among the nuns

of the English church.

It was ordained that " nunneries

be not places of secret rendezvous for pithy talk, junketing,

drunkenness and luxury, but habitations for such as live in

continence and sobriety, and who read and sing Psalms ; but

let them spend their time in reading books and singing

Psalms, rather than in weaving and working parti-colored,

vain-glorious apparel.

'

One of Cuthbert' s canons relating to the practice of

Psalmody, gives the following curious argumeut for singing

the Psalms of the Church in an unknown language,

' ' Psalmody is a divine work, a great cure in many cases,

for the souls of those who do it in spirit and in mind.

But

THE PSALMS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 151

they that sing with the voice, without the inward meaning, may make the sound resemble something, therefore, though

a man knows not the Latin words that are sung, yet he may devoutly apply the intention of his own heart to the things

which are at present to be asked of God, and fix them there

to the best of his power."

Among the earliest missionaries to Ireland, and the first

who instructed the Irish in the use of the Roman letters,

was St.

Patrick, of the fifth century.

In conveying his

instruction in spelling and reading, Patrick made use of his

Psalter, for which he had unusual partiality.

Such was the

rapidity with which some of his pupils learned to read, that

they were able to peruse the Psalms for themselves in fifteen

days.

A poem written by Fiac, one of the Irish converts,

and a poet of no mean distinction, gives some of the habits

of St.

Patrick in the practice of Psalmody: "He daily

sang the Apocalypse and hymns ; and the whole Psalter he

sang thrice ; he preached and baptized and prayed ; and he

incessantly praised God.

One of St.

Patrick's modes of

mortification, as we find related in the same poem, was to

stand

'

' every night in the fountain of Slau, which was never

dry, while he sang an hundred Psalms,

'

' This superstitious

practice was not confined to St.

Patrick ; St.

Neat, the

kinsman of Alfred ; St. Chad, and even Aldhelm, were ac-

customed to chant the Psalms while standing in wells or

springs of water.

The Psalmist of the ninth century was Alfred, surnamed

the Great.

Alfred was born about the year 8-18, and was

made king in 871.

Till after he was twelve years old, this

sovereign did not know one letter from another; yet such

was his thirst for knowledge, and his ambition to attain,

that he mastered the Latin language and finally even became a profound scholar for those times, a grammarian, a rheto-

rician, a philosopher, a historian, a musician, the Prince of Saxon poesy, and an excellent architect and geometrician." King Alfred was an earnest friend to his country, and made every effort to secure a just administration of the law, and

to diffuse knowledge among his subjects.

But the charac-

ter in which he is represented as having been especially dis-

152 David's harp in song and story.

tinffiiished was that of the Christian.

It is no triflinsf evi-

dence of the confidence that was placed in his integrity, that he was known in his day as ' 'The Truth Teller.

'

' A daily

custom with him was to attend divine service, and in his pri-vate devotion was much eno;ao;ed in the sinofino- and reading:

of the Psalms.

That he might ever have with him a manual

of worship, he made a collection of Psalms and prayers for the offices of the day, and carried it in his bosom.

The last

literary work that this monarch undertook was the transla-

tion of the Psalms into the Anglo-Saxon, which, however,

he did not live to finish.

"This victorious warrior; this sagacious statesman; this

friend of distress; this protector against oppression who, in

an age of ignorance loved literature and diffused it; who, in an age of superstition could be rationally pious; and in the

station of royalty could discern his faults, and convert these

into virtues, was called away from the world on the 26th day of October in the year 900 or 901."

The first Anglo-Saxon metrical version of the Psalms

has been referred to the twelfth century.

The translation

is a close rendering of Jerome's Latin Psalter, known as the French or Galilean.

The author of this Psalm-book is un-

known.

A copy of it is preserved in the library of the

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and revised copies, pre-pared either by the author or some one near his time, in

the Bodleian library, and among the Cotton MSS. at the

British Museum.

The fourteenth century presents us with

the last Psalmist previous to the dawning days of the Refor-mation.

This was Richard Rolle, a monk of the St. Auo^us-

tine order, and a native of Yorkshii'e.

Rolle was both a

commentator and versifier of the Scriptures.

The principal

work from his pen was an English version of the Psalms.

Of

his undertaking he remarks in a prologue to his version, "In

this werke I seek no strannge Ynglys, hot lightest and com-munist, and swilk that is most like unto the Latyne: so that

thai that knawes noght the Latyne be the Ynglys may com

to many Latyne words.

In the translacione I felogh the let-

ter als—mekille as I may, and thor I fyne no proper Ynglys I felogh the wit of the wordis, so that thai that shall rede it

THE PSALMS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 153

them thar not drede errynge.

In the expownyng I felogh

holi doctors.

For it may conen into sum envious manner

hond that knowj'-s not what he suld says, at wille say that I

wist not what 1 sayd, and so do harme tille him and tille

other. " The following specimen of this translation has been

selected from the MSS. in the British Museum, and pub-

lished by Rev. H. H. Baber, in his "Historical Account of

the Saxon and English versions of the Scriptures.

'

TWENTY-THIKD PsALM.

"Our Lord governeth me, and nothyng to me shal wante : stede of

pasture thar he me sette.

In the water of the hetying he me brougte:

my soul he twinyde."

"He ladde me on the stretis of ryghtwisnesse, for his name." "For win gif I hadi goo in myddil of the shadowe of deeth: I shall

not dreede yueles, for thou art with me."

"Thi geerde and the staf; thei haue coumfortid me.

Thou has

greythid in my syght a bord: agens hem that angryn me."

"Thou fattide myn hend in oyle; and my chalys drunkenyng what

is cleer."

"And thi mercy shal folewe me: in alle the days of my lyf.

Concerning the Psalmody of the English Reformers in

the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries very little is recorded.

That the Wickliffites had their sacred songs, and that these

songs were frequently and enthusiastically sung among them appears from the very name of reproach that was given them

liy their enemies.

They were called "Lollards," a term

l)orrowed from the German root, loben,

'

' to praise,

'

' with

herr "lord"— "praise the Lord"—and given them because

the Wickliff Christians employed themselves in traveling

about from place to place, singing Psalms and hjonns. Some derive the appellation from another German root, signifying "to sinor with a low voice," and which amons: the Germans was applied to a person who is continually praising God with songs to his honor.

The Alexians, or Cellites, were called

Lollards because they sang their songs in public; and made

it their business to sing a dirge as they carried to the grave

those who had died of the plague.

There is a strong proliability that the material of Wick-

liff' s praise bore the same character with that of his cotem-

porary Huss, in Bohemia; and that it comprised principally

the Psalms of the Bible.

As there were frequent intimacies

154 David's harp in song and story.

between Great Britain and the Continent during the whole reign of Edward III., it was just as natural that there should be a conformity between the Psalmody of England and that of Bohemia, as that there should be such conformity between France and Switzerland, or between Germany and Sweden

or Bavaria.

As the great reformers of that early date were

communicating back and forth over the channel, why may

we not suppose that the Psalm-book of Huss was transferred

to the English, as the writings of Wickliff were transferred

to the Bohemians?

The probability that the Wickliffites had

the Psalms among their sacred lyrics is strengthened by the

fact that there had been a metrical version of the Psalter in

the English dialect almost two centuries previous, and that

the copy now preserved in the Bodleian library bears evidence of having been remodeled and improved by a hand of a later date than its author.

When we come down to Great Britain, as it entered and

passed through the sunshine of the sixteenth century, prob-

abilities and possibilities are dropped with the night, and we are cheered with what we can greet and convey as facts.

Great Britain, in the age of Luther and Calvin, was no

exception to the rule of sacred song, as we have seen it writ-ten in the scenes of the continent.

To adopt the language

of Warton, "The infectious frenzy of Psalm-singing did

not confine itself to France, Germany and the other countries on the continent.

It soon extended itself to Great Britain.

The Reformation being then in its incipiency, and at a time

when the minds of men were ready for a change. Psalm-

singing in its history became parallel to that among the lie-

formers across the continent.

There will be found this ex-

ception, that the popular demand for these songs did not

reach the height it did in France.

In Great Britain they

did not so successfully insinuate themselves into the royal

favor and so fully supplant "ungodly ballads."

In England, as a learned writer observes, when the

people began to throw off the yoke of Rome, "men's af-

fections to the work of reform were everywhere measured by the singing or not singing of the translated Psalms."

Psalm -singing began in the reign of Henry the VIII,

THE PSALMS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 155

was continued under Edward and Mary, but did not reach

its highest stasfe till the accession of Elizabeth.

Althoucjh,

according to statute 2 and 3 Edward VI., c. 1, §7, the people were allowed in the parish churches

'

' to use openly any Psalm

or prayer taken out of the Bible, at any due time, not letting or omitting thereby the service or any part thereof," yet in the regular service of the English church, under Henry,

Edward and Mary, the Psalms were little sung only as they were chanted in Coverdale's revised edition of the old Italic

Psalter.

By the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, the popular

Psalm -singing, under the example set by the Reformers

across the channel, was reaching its height, when that Queen giving public permission for its introduction into the

churches under her control, there began a series of those

enthusiastic gatherings, which we have seen meeting in

Germany, France and the Low Countries.

Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558 ; and what-

evei may have been the truth as to her real sympathy being with the papacy, she was at the time evidently regarded by the Reformers as favorable to their cause, and her accession an omen of its speedy triumph.

This appears clearly from

the conduct of the German exiles, who, in their retreat,

published an English prose translation of the Psalms and

dedicated it to Queen Elizabeth.

This Psalter is dated 1559,

the year following this Queen's accession, and contains the

following complimentary address : "To the most virtuous

and noble Queene Elizabeth, Queene of England, France

and Ireland,

'

' etc.

After stating that the preparation of

the English translation of the Bible had occupied their at-

tention during their exile, the banished Englishmen add :

'

' When we heard that the Almightie and most merciful God

had no less miraculously preferred you to that excellent

dignitie, then he had above all men's expectations preserved you from the furie of such as sought your blood ; with

most joyful myndes and great diligence we endeavoured

ourselves to set foorth and dedicate this most excellent

booke of the Psalmes unto your grace as a spiritual token of our service and good will till the rest of the Bible, which,

156 David's harp in song and story.

praysed be God, is in good readinesse, may be accomplished

and presented"—Epistle 3, prefixed to the Booke of

Psalmes, Geneva, 1559, 16 mo.

That Queen Elizabeth permitted and virtually authorized

the introduction of metrical Psalmody into the English

Established churches, we learn from the fifty-three articles

of injunction which she directed to the clergy and laity in

1559.

The injunction with reference to "the encourage-

ment and continuance of the use of sing-inor * * * *

in divers collegiate, as well as parish churches,

'

' contains the

following saving clause in favoi" of uncathedral and metrical Psalmody, nevertheless, for the comforting of such as delight

in musick, it may be permitted that in the beginning or at

the end of common prayer, either at morning or evening,

there may be sung a hymn or such like song to the praise of Almighty God, in the best melody, and musick that may be devised ; having respect that the sentence of the hymn may

be understood and perceived.

'

As we learn from Strype, in his Annals of the English

Reformation, advantage was taken of the Queen's permission,

first at St.

Antholm's, a small church on Walling street,

London : In the month of September, 1559, began the new

morning prayers at St. Antholm's, London, the bell begin-

ning to ring at 5 o'clock, when a Psalm was sung after the

Genevan fashion,

'

' all the congregation, men, women and

boys singing together."

From this church Psalm-singing spread rapidly

throughout the parishes, and soon became so popular that

multitudes were attracted to the churches, where as many as

six thousand voices might at times be heard joining in the

sacred melodies.

The singing of the Psalms was not wholly confined to

the churches.

'

' Adapting them to popular tunes and jigs,

'

which one of them said ' were too good for the devil, ' the

people sang the new songs in their homes, and at their

employments, as in the primitive church.

The Psalms were

common at ' Mayor's ' dinners and city feasts ; soldiers sang

them when on the march, or when at parade ; few houses,

which had their windows fronting the streets, but had their

THE PSALMS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION, 157

evening Psalms ; for a story has come down to us that the

hypocritical brotherhood did not always care to sing without being heard.

'

There is evidence that the infection of Psalm-singing

even reached the Cathedrals of the English church, and

aifected the dignitaries as well as the populace.

At the con-

vocation of the clergy of the establishment held at the

Cathedral of St.

Paul, in January of

1582, and in the

presence of Archbishop Grindal and other Bishops, we find

that the hymn " Veni Creator, " and the Psalm, " Beatus

Vir, " were sung "in sermone vuloari "—in the vulo;ar

tongue.

As there was no prose translation of the " hymn "

sung, it must have been the metrical translation of it found

in the "form of ordering priests" in the first and second

Liturgies of Kino- Edward VI.

The Psalm in the vuloar en o

tongue must have been the first Psalm of Sternhold, to

which the words " Beatus Vir" were prefixed in the old

English translation, and as they are still prefixed in imita-

tion of the Psalm in the Latin Vulgate.

So that, although

Warton denies that metrical Psalm-singing had the proper

authority from the Powers of the church, yet it had plain

permission, and the public example of the dignitaries, Avhich, with the people, was as good authority as a written license.

Of the zest with which the Psalms were sung in the

reign of Queen Elizabeth, says Burney in his History of

Music: "In England in the reign of Queen Mary, the

Psalms were sung soto voce; but after the accession of

Queen Elizabeth, like orgies they were roared aloud in al-

most every street, as well as in the churches throughout the kingdom."

Dr. Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, in a letter to Peter

Martyr, dated March 5, 1560, thus speaks of Psalm-singing

at that date: "Religion is now somewhat more established

than it was.

The people are everywhere inclined to the

better part.

The practice of joining in church music has

much conduced to this.

For as soon as they had once com-

menced singing in public in only one little church in Lon-

don (St. Antholm's, Walling St.) immediately not only the churches in the neighborhood, but even the towns far dis-

158 David's harp in song and story.

tant began to vie with each other in the same practice.

You may now sometimes see at iSt.

Paul's Cross, after ser-

vice, six thousand persons, old and young, of both sexes,

all singing together and praising God."

These meetings at St.

Paul's Cross were led by a

Frenchman, who carried on the Psalmody after the fashion

of that on the continent, as we learn from the following en-

tries by Strype:

< '1559-60, March the 3d.—Mr. Veron, a Frenchman

by birth, preached at St. Paul's Cross in his rochet and chi-mere; the mayor and aldermen present, and a great auditory.

And after a sermon a Psalm was sung (which was common

in the Keformed churches abroad) wherein the people also

joined their voices."

"1559-60, March the 17th.—Mr. Veron, a Frenchman

by birth, preached at St. Paul's Cross, before the mayor and aldermen, and after sermon they sang, all in common, a

Psalm in metre, as it seems now frequently done, the cus-

tom having been brought from abroad by the exiles.

'

The earliest versification of the Psalms into Engflish

metre in the sixteenth century was that known as "Bishop

Coverdale's Version of the Psalms. " Miles Coverdale was

a native of Yorkshire, England, and had his birth about the year

1486.

At first he Avas a worshiper in the Roman

Church, and a monk of the order of St.

Augustine.

But

becoming a convert to the principles of the Reformation, he,

in 1535, while an exile for his faith, gave to Great Britain

the first English translation of the whole Bible.

The motive of Coverdale in preparing his metrical

Psalms was not that they might be sung either in public or private worship, for he was then a Bishop in the English

Church, which confined its use of the Psalms in song to the

prose translation; but that they might be substituted for the vulgar ballads of the day that were sung by both the nobles and the people.

With this intention he published in 1539 his "Ghostly

Psalms and Spiritual Songs, Drawn Out of the Holy Script-

ures.

'

The work be^an with the author's address to his book:

THE PSALMS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 159

"Go lytle boke, get the acquaintaunce

Amonge the lovers of God's worde

Geve them ocoasyon the same to avannce

And to make theyr songes of the Lorde

That they may thrust under the horde

All other balettes of fylthynes

And that we all with one accorde May geve ensample of goodlynes

Go lytle boke among mens chyldren

And get the to theyre compayne

Teach them to synge ye commaundements ten

And other balettes of God's glorye

Be not ashamed I warande the

Though thou be rude in in songe and ryme

Thou shalt to youth some occasyon be In godly sports to pass theyr tyme."

Bishop Coverdale's version contained the versification

of only thirteen of David's Psalms.

To aid in carrying out his design for displacing the

"ungodlie ballates" he conformed his Psalms to the metres

of these ballads, and published with the first verse of each

Psalm the musical notes to which that Psalm was to be

sung.

Coverdale's Psalms never accomplished the end de-

signed for them by their author.

The ungodly songs that

had corrupted the court and the people continued, and the

Psalm-book was included among those books that Henry

VIII. prohibited being possessed by the people.

Quite a number of contributions to metrical psalmody

bear date during the reign of Edward VI. , which terminated

in 1553.

The first after the Psalms of Coverdale was probably

that of "the ryojhte vertuouse Lady Elizabeth, daughter of

our late soveragne Henry the VIII.," who afterward suc-

ceeded Mary in the throne of the British dominions.

This

Psalm was the Fourteenth, "aptelie translated into Eng-

lyshe, " and was published in 1548.

In her translation the Queen followed the Latin Vul-

gate, as is seen from her including the interpolation found

in Vulgate version of the Fourteenth Psalm, the origin of

which is accounted for by Dr. Alexander:

160 David's harp in song and story.

"The Septuagint version of these words fPs.

xiv. 3) is quoted by

Paul in Rom.

iii., 12, as a part of his scrii^tural description of human de-

pravity, the rest of which is taken from Fs.

v. 10, x.

7., xxxvi. 2, cxl. 4,

Isaiah hx. 7,

8.

Under the false impression that he meant to quote a

single passage, some early Christian copyist appears to have introduced the whole into tlie Septuagint version of this Psalm, where it is still

found in the Codex Vaticanus, as well as in the Vulgate, and even in

one or two Hebrew MSS. of later date.

The interpolation is also re-

tained in the Anglican Psalter."

During this reign, William Hunnis, gentleman of the

chapel under Edward VI., and afterward chapel master to

Queen Elizaijeth, versified the seven Penitential Psalms under the title, "Seven Sobs of a Sorrowful Soul for Sin," and

dedicated them to Frances, countess of Sussex, foundress of Sydney-Sussex College, at Sussex.

Hunnis is thought also to

have been the author of certain Psalms published in 1.550 in London, and entitled " Certayne Psalms in English metre,"

but there is evidence leading to the supposition that these

and his seven Penitential Psalms were identical.

Hunnis

also published meditations in "Certaine Psalms."

1549.

In this year Sir Thos. Wyatt published the seven

Penitential Psalms (and as some suppose, the whole Psalter)

in English metre, with the title, "Certayne Psalms chosen

out of the Psalter of David, commonly called the vij. Peni-

tentiall Psalmes, drawen into English metre by Sii' Thomas

Wyatt, Knight, whereunto is added a Prologue of the auc-

tore before every Psalm, very pleasant and profettable to

the godly reader.

Imprinted at London, in Paules Church-

yarde at the sygne of three starres by Thomas Randall, and John Harrington, cum })riviliofis ad imprimendum solum.

Md. xlix."

These Psalms were reprinted by Bishop Percy with his

ill-fated impression of Surrey's Poems, which was burned

in 1808, in the destruction by fire, of the warehouse of John

Nichol.

To these Psalms of Wyatt, Lord Surrey refers in

one of his sonnets:

" The Great Macedon, that out of Persie chased

Darius, of whose huge power all Asia rang.

In the riche ark Dan Homer's rimes he placed, Who fained gestes of heathen princes song.

What holy grave, what worthy sepulchre, Lo, Wyatt's Psalms should Christians then purchase?

THE PSALMS IN THE ENGLISH REFORMATION. 161

Where he doth paint the hvely faith and pure: The steadfast hope, the sweet return of grace, Of just David by perfite penitence."

The few Psalms that Surrey himself rendered into verse

were published in London about 1567.

1549.

Sir Thomas Smith, Secretary to Edward VI., while a prisoner

in the Tower, turned eleven of the Psalms into English metre, which

were published the same year.

1649.

' 'Psalter of David newely translated into English metre in

such sorte that it may the more decently and wyth more delygte of the minde be reade and songe of al men.

Translated and imprinted by

Eobert Crowley."

This was the first entire versification of the Psalms into

the English of which we have any definite knowledge. With

it were published certain Latin hymns; but the version never came to be esteemed.

1549.

In this year were published by E. Whitchurch, "All such

Psalms of David as Thomas Sternhold, late grome of the Kynges Majes-

ties Roobes, did in his lifetime drawe into English metre."

Thomas Sternhold, according to one authority, was born

in Hampshire; according to a second, at Southampton; ac-

cording to a third, at Aure, a parish about twelve miles

from Gloucester.

Having passed some time at Oxford, he

went to London to serve as groom of the robes of King

Henry VIII., who bequeathed him a legacy of one hundred marks.

When Edward VI. came to the throne he was con-

tinued in the privie chamber.

He was a firm friend to the Reformation, and a man of

sincere piety.

His death occurred in 1549.

Sternhold ver-