Hymns and hymn tunes have their independent history as much as psalms and psalm tunes. Mr. Bunsen's greater 'German Hymn Book' contains nearly 1000 hymns selected out of 150,000, of which about twenty belong to the Latin Church before the Reformation. For the use of his second (minor) edition, he has added the old Gregorian chants, for an alternate singing of the psalms by hemistichs by the choir and congregation, and a collection of 300 hymn tunes. Luther had himself translated about twelve Ambrosian hymns in the same metre, and, retaining the old tune, among others the Creator Spiritus of Charlemagne's time. All who remember Arnold's Life (i. 363.) will remember the delight with which this selection was welcomed by him. We cannot give our readers a general idea of the subject in fewer words than in the following passage from Mr. Ernest Bunsen's preface to a selection of hymns in English with their church melodies, which he published two or three years ago for the benefit of the German Hospital in London.

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Hymnodic composition is based upon the old diatonic 'system of the original eight modes, wisely chosen for the 'Christian service by the Church of Milan, and then adopted by Rome, and through Rome by the whole Western Church. This system was at the time of the Reformation preserved and brought into congregational use with the power of genius, by Luther, and then developed and systematised by an illustrious ' class of first-rate composers, principally in Germany, but also in France and England. . . . The choral hymn has its own positive laws. It is not a popular air merely sobered down or ' restrained, it is a more elevated structure. . . . Its models are, in the first place, the compositions of the Western Church, from the fifth or sixth to the fifteenth century, altogether scarcely more than 150; in the second place, the 'German hymnodic airs from Luther and his friend Walther in an unbroken chain down to our own age: the number exceeding 2000.'

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But an original hymn in the sight of the hotter Reformers of Geneva was man's work! and hymns, in order to become acceptable to them, had to put on the form of translated psalms. Cal'vin' (says Florimont de Rémond, in his History of Heresy,') 'eut le soin de mettre les psaumes de Marot et de Beze entre les • mains des plus excellents musiciens qui fussent lors en la chrétienté: entre autres de Goudimel, et d'un autre nommé Bourgeois pour les 'coucher en musique.' This being the case, we have only to recollect who Palestrina was, and learn that Goudimel had been his master, to raise our wonder at Warton's rashness in discredit

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ing his History of English Poetry,' with the following account of the metrical psalmody introduced by Calvin:- Calvin, intent as he was to form a new Church on a severe model, had yet too much sagacity to exclude every auxiliary to devotion. .... Sensible that his chief resources were in the rabble of a republic, and availing himself of that natural propensity 'which prompts even vulgar minds to express their more 'animated feelings in rhyme and music, he conceived a mode ' of universal psalmody, not too refined for common capacities and fitted to please the populace. The rapid propa'gation of Calvin's religion, and his numerous proselytes, are a strong proof of his address in planning such a sort of service. 'France and Germany were instantly infatuated with the love of 'psalm-singing, which being admirably calculated to kindle and diffuse the flame of fanaticism, was peculiarly serviceable to the purposes of faction, and frequently served as the trumpet to rebellion.'. . . Calvin's music was intended to correspond 'with the general parsimonious spirit of his worship; the 'music he permitted was to be without grace, elegance, or elevation. These apt notes were about forty tunes, of one part only, and in one unisonous key.'

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What says Mr. Ernest Bunsen? Of the Reformed Church 'the psalm tunes composed by Goudimel and some of his school 'stand pre-eminent; but most of the metres to which they are 'adapted are complicated and peculiar to French poetry.' How far they are written without grace, elegance, or elevation,' the compositions themselves, still extant, are the best evidence. It is equally clear that so far from being designed and calculated for the mere rabble of a republic,' they were studiously prepared for a musically educated people. Warton is also in error in saying that these tunes were written in one part only': those which Bourgeois composed were published in 1561, and those supplied by Goudimel, in 1565, all being composed in four parts. In 1608 appeared Les Pseaumes de David, mis en musique à quatre et cinq parties, par Claudin le jeune.' This work was reprinted at Geneva, Leyden, and Amsterdam.

The growth and progress of congregational singing in the Protestant Churches on the Continent were straightforward; while its course in England was circuitous, and influenced by various and conflicting causes. The predilections of Queen Elizabeth, as head of the Church; the wishes and opinions of her chief advisers in all matters which concerned its government; the expectations and desires of the majority of her people, and their state of

* Hist. of English Poetry, 8vo edit. vol. iii. pp. 448. 455. VOL. XCV. NO. CXCIII.

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musical culture, all had to be taken into consideration. With regard to the first, there is no doubt that the Queen desired to retain in the ceremonies of the Church, as many of the externals of Popery as could be engrafted on a Protestant ritual. Elizabeth,' says Burnet, had been bred up from her infancy 'with a hatred of the Papacy and a love to the Reformation; but yet, as her first impressions in her father's reign were in 'favour of such old rites as he had still retained, so in her own 'nature she loved state, and some magnificence in religion as 'well as in every thing else.' More especially, her love of music led her to retain, as far as was practicable, the performance of choir music. The musical service' [of the Church], says Heylyn, was admired and cherished by the Queen; for the Liturgy was officiated every day, both morning and evening, in the chapel, with the most excellent voices of men and children that could be got in all the kingdom, accompanied by the organ.' The choir of the chapel royal, including its twentyfour clerical members, then consisted of sixty-two voices. Šo much for the Queen's personal choice and example in her own peculiar place of worship. The supremacy recognised in the Crown would secure to the royal chapel and its form of service a similar authority to what the papal chapel had exercised before. Marbeck was one of its members in 1550, when he published his Book of Common Praier, noted.' He describes it, as containing so much of the Common Praier, as is to be sung in churches:' and its adoption on the whole, as the authentic 'choral book of the Church, so far as the alterations of the ser'vice permitted,' is considered by Mr. Dyce to be placed beyond any doubt. It would complete an antiphonarium for the reformed liturgy.'

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On the other hand, Elizabeth's choice of her religious advisers was dictated by the same acuteness, which in every other important exercise of sovereign power she habitually displayed. She consulted policy and prudence rather than personal preferences. Parker, Grindal, and Jewel were among the most eminent confessors and exiles of the preceding reign. Of Parker's sentiments concerning the introduction of metrical psalmody into the Church Service, we shall have occasion to speak immediately. Grindal and Jewel, recently members of the Reformed Church at Frankfort, where congregational singing was considered as one of the distinguishing features of Protestantism, and whose dislike to the habits and ceremonies which Elizabeth sought to retain, was

*Hist. Reformation, Part II. p. 376.
† Ecclesiastical History, p. 296.

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with considerable difficulty overcome, contended for a practice which every Reformed Church had agreed to adopt, of which Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, Bucer, and Beza had been all equally the advocates, and which had become interwoven with the very frame and order of Protestant worship.

That a large proportion of the English people desired the introduction of metrical psalmody in particular into the Church Service, there can be no question. Elizabeth succeeded to the crown in November, 1558; a few months afterwards, Bishop Jewel, writing to his friend Peter Martyr, says, 'A change 'now appeared among the people. Nothing promoted it more 'visibly than the inviting the people to sing psalms. That 'was begun in one church in London, and did quickly spread itself not only through the City, but in the neighbouring 'places. Sometimes at Paul's Cross there will be 6000 people 'singing. This was very grievous to the Papists.'* With them, therefore, in that age psalm-singing and heresy were synonymous; but what an imposing spectacle! There can also be no doubt that the Cathedral Service was held in abhorrence

by many persons within as well as without the pale of the Church. The Puritans, in their Confessions, p. 1571., say,Concerning the singing of psalms, we allow of the people's joining with one voice in a plain tune, but not of tossing the 'psalms from one side to the other, with intermingling of organs.' What was the plain tune here intended by the Puritans? Probably, the new kind of plain song or metrical psalmody of the Genevan reformers: on the other hand, the 'modest and distinct song' of Elizabeth's Injunction, and the 'plain song' of Heylyn, represented the more moderate inno

Strype observes from his diary, that in Sept. 1559, 'began the 'new morning prayer at St. Antholin's, London, the bell beginning 'to ring at five, when a psalm was sung after the Geneva fashion; 'all the congregation, men, women, and boys,-singing together.' Again, March 3. 1560, Grindal, the new bishop of London, preached 'at St. Paul's Cross, in his rochet and chimere (cymar), the mayor and aldermen present, and a great auditory. And after sermon a psalm was sung (which was the common practice of the Reformed 'Churches abroad), wherein the people also joined their voices.' The congregational singing of Marot's psalms was equally popular in France. Dyer relates, in his Life of Calvin, 1557, that a crowd of from 5000 to 6000 persons, among whom were the King and Queen of Navarre, assembled every evening in the Pré aux Clercs for that purpose nor would the Parliament of Paris interfere. Only fancy the Parisians congregating now to sing psalms in the Champs Elysées!

† Neal, Hist. of the Puritans, p. 290.

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vations, as publicly agreed to by the Church of England, and will most likely have been some one of the ancient ecclesiastical melodies or intonations. These plain tunes were so called, in distinction from the figured music vibratam illam et operosam musicam—which, in his Reformatio legum, Cranmer had wished to proscribe, of which two popes (John XXII. and Pius V.) had also disapproved, and which was preserved only by the genius of Palestrina. Among the most prominent and powerful opponents of the Cathedral Service in the Establishment were the Queen's Professor at Oxford, the Margaret Professor at Cambridge, and Whyttingham, Dean of Durham. All the Protestant dissidents of the time favoured congregational, in opposition to choir singing; and those ministers of the Church of England who, during the persecutions of Mary, had sought refuge abroad, were found, on this point, closely associated with the Nonconformists. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the majority of Elizabeth's Protestant subjects regarded her desire to keep up the Cathedral Service in its full splendour as an evidence of her leaning towards Popery, that many of them desired its entire abolition, and still more of them countenanced the substitution of that universal symbol and badge of Protestantism, congregational singing in one form or another.

But were the English people prepared to effect this change, and to substitute the singing of the congregation for that of the choir were they, like their German, Swiss, and Flemish brethren, singers, not by ear, but from notes? The answer is, they were. At no period of English history was the cultivation of the vocal art so universal as in the reign of Elizabeth. We need not adduce the oft-quoted testimony of Morley; but the copious supply of madrigals during this period is a sufficient evidence of the musical attainments and the musical wants of the English people. Every person who had received any other kind of education, had also received a musical education, and was able to read notes as well as words. The compositions of Byrd, Gibbons, Wilbye, Bennett, Bateson, Morley, and their contemporaries, were everywhere sung; the choicest madrigals of Italy and Flanders were imported and translated; and thus musical knowledge and musical taste were diffused throughout England to an extent of which we have now no idea. Congregational singing could not have been planted in a more congenial soil.

The result of the above conflicting forces will be seen in the Forty-ninth of the Queen's Injunctions,' 1559, which prescribes the mode in which music should be used in the Church. For the