way of singing psalms for this more ancient way, which derives its original from the foundation of the Church. Thus St. Hilary, who lived before St. Ambrose, takes notice,' that the people all prayed, and all sang hymns together. And St. Chrysostom, comparing the apostolical times with his own, says," anciently they all met together, and all sang in common: and so do we at this day." And again,3 women and men, old men and chidren, differ in sex and age, but they differ not in the harmony of singing hymns: for the spirit tempers all their voices together, making one melody of them all." After the same manner St. Austin sometimes speaks of singing the psalms between the lessons with united voices, though before his time the way of alternate psalmody was become very common in all parts of the Church. SECT. 11.-Sometimes alternately, by the Congregation divided into two Parts. This way of singing the psalms alternately was, when the congregation dividing themselves into two parts, repeated the psalms by courses, verse for verse one after another, and not, as formerly, all together. As the other, for its common conjunction of voices, was properly called symphony: so this, for its division into two parts, and alternate answers, was commonly called antiphony, and sometimes Responsoria, the singing by responsals. This is plain from that noted Iambic of Gregory Nazianzen,5" ZúμpwΣύμφω νον, ἀντίφωνον ἀγγέλων τάσιν,” where the symphony denotes their singing alternately verse for verse by turns. Socrates calls it, "avrípwvov vuvwdíav, the antiphonal hymnody:" and St. Ambrose, Responsoria," singing by way of responsals." Hilar. in Psal. 65. p. 232. Audiat orantis populi consistens quis extra ecclesiam vocem, spectet celebres hymnorum sonitus. 2 Chrys. Hom. 36. in 1 Cor. p. 653. 'Eπέyadov návтeg kolvñ. 8 Chrys. in Psal. 145. p. 824. Cantavimus Psalmum exhortantes centes, Venite odoremus, &c.' inter Iambica. tom. ii. p. 218: 4 Aug. de Verb. Apost. Serm. x. p. 112. nos invicem unâ voce, uno corde, di5 Naz. Carm. 18. de Virtute. 6 Socrat. lib. vi. cap. 8. 7 Ambros. Hexamer. lib. iii. cap. 5. Responsoriis Psalmorum, cantu virorum, mulierum, virginum, parvulorum, consonans undarum fragor rest For, comparing the Church to the sea, he says, " from the responsories of the psalms, and singing of men, women, virgins, and children, there results an harmonious noise like the waves of the sea." He expressly mentions women, in other places,' as allowed to sing in public though otherwise the Apostle had commanded them to keep silence in the Church. St. Austin also frequently mentions this way of singing by parts or alternately by responses: and he carries the original of it in the Western Church no higher than the time of St. Ambrose, when he was under the persecution of the Arian Empress Justina, mother of the younger Valentinian; at which time both he, and Paulinus,* who writes the Life of St. Ambrose, tell us, the way of antiphonal singing was first brought into the Church of Milan, in imitation of the custom of the Eastern Churches, and that from this example it presently spread all over the Western Churches. What was the first original of it in the Eastern Church, is not so certainly agreed upon by writers, either ancient or modern. Theodoret says," that Flavian and Diodorus first brought in the way of singing David's Psalms alternately into the Church of Antioch, in the reign of Constantius. But Socrates carries the original of this way of singing hymns to the Holy Trinity as high as Iguatius. Valesius thinks Socrates was mistaken: but Cardinal Bona and Pagis think both accounts may be true, taking the one to speak of David's Psalms only, and the other of hymns composed for the service of the Church. Some say 1 Ambros. Expos. Psal. i. Mnlieres Apostolus in Ecclesiâ tacere jubet: Psalmum etiam benè clamant. &c. 2 Aug. Serm. in Psal. xxvi. in Præfat. Voces istæ Psalmi, quas audivimus, et ex parte cantavimus. Item in Psal. xlvi. In hoc Psalmo, quem cantatum audivimus, cui cantando respondimus, ea sumus dicturi quæ nostis. 3 Aug. Confess. lib. ix. cap. 7. Tunc hymni et psalmi ut canerentur secundùm morem Orientalium partium, ne populus mæroris tædio contabesceret, institutum est: et ex illo in hodiernum retentum, multis jam ac pænè omnibus gregibus tuis et per ceteras orbis partes imitantibus. 4 Paulin. Vit. Ambros. p. 4. Hoc in tempore primo antiphone hymni et vigiliæ in Ecclesia Mediolanensi celebrari cæperunt. &c. 5 Theod. lib. ii. 6 Socrat. lib. vi. cap. 8. ↑ Bona de cap. 24. Psalmod. cap. xvi. sect. 10. n. 1. Pagi Critic. in Baron. an. 400. n. 10. the custom was first begun by Ignatius, but destroyed by But Paulus Samosatensis, and revived again by Flavian. Pagi's conjecture seems most reasonable, that Flavian only introduced this way of singing the psalms in the Greek tongue at Antioch, whereas it had been used in the Syrian language long before, as he shews out of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, and Valesius himself confirms this out of the same author, whose testimony is preserved by Nicetas. However this matter be as to the first original of this way of antiphonal psalmody, it is certain, that from the time that Flavian either instituted or revived it at Antioch, it prevailed in a short time to become the general practice of the whole Church. St. Chrysostom encouraged it in the vigils at Constantinople, in opposition to the Arians. St. Basil speaks of it in his time,3 as the received custom of all the East. And we have seen before, how from the time of St. Ambrose it prevailed over all the West. And it was a method of singing so taking and delightful, that they sometimes used it, where two or three were met together for private devotion. As Socrates particularly remarks it of the Emperor Theodosius Junior and his sisters, that they were used to sing alternate hymns together every morning in the royal palace. SECT. 12.-Sometimes by a single Præcentor repeating the first Part of the Verse, and the People all joining with him in the Close. Where also of Diapsalms, and Acroteleutics and Acrostics in Psalmody. Besides all these there was yet a fourth way of singing, of pretty common use in the fourth age of the Church: which was, when a single person, whom that age called a Phonascus, 'Yoßoλevs, or Præcentor,5 began the verse, and the people joined with him in the close. This the Greeks called 66 ὑπηχεῖν,” ÚTηXEV," and "TaкSELV," and the Latins υπακέειν, "Succinere." And it was often used for variety in the Thus St. Basil, same service with alternate psalmody. describing the different manners of their morning psalmody, tells us, "They one while divided themselves into two parts, and sung alternately, answering to one another; and then again let one begin the psalm, and the rest joined with him in the close of the verse." This was certainly in use at Alexandria in the time of Athanasius, as I have observed in the last Book. For both he himself, and all the historians, who relate the story after him, in speaking of his escape out of the church, when it was beset with the Arian soldiers, tell us, he avoided the assault by setting the people to psalmody, which psalmody was of this kind : for he commanded the deacon to read the psalm, and the people úπaкść, to repeat this clause after him, "For his mercy endureth for ever." The common translations of Athanasius make this" vπaкse" to signify no more than the people's attending to what the deacon read: but Epiphanius Scholasticus, the ancient author of the Historia Tripartita, having occasion to relate this very passage of Athanasius, rightly renders VTTакSELV by "respondere." The deacon read, and the people answered in these words," For his mercy endureth for ever." "Valesius thinks it should be read “ ὑπηχεῖν” instead of “ ὑπακέειν,” in all those places of Athanasius and the historians after him: but there is no need of that critical correction; for both the words among the Greeks are of the same import, and signify to make answer, or responses, as Cotelerius, a judicious critic," has observed. And so the word "TaкśELV" is used both by Theocritus and Homer. So that there is no reason to dispute the use of it in this sense in ecclesiastical writers. 66 ' Basil. Εp. 63. ad Neocæsar. Νῦν μὲν διχῇ διανεμηθέντες, ἀντιψάλλεσιν ἀλλήλοις· ἔπειτα πάλιν· ἐπιτρέψαντες ἐνὶ κατάρχειν τῶ μέλες, οἱ λοιποὶ ὑπηχεσι. 2 Book xiii. chap. v. sect. 6. 3 Athanas. Theodor. lib. ii. cap. 13. Socrat. lib. ii. 5 Hist. Tripart. lib. v. cap. 2. Apol. ii. p. 717. • Vales. Not. in Theod. lib. ii. cap. 13. 7 Coteler. Not. in Theocrit. Idyl. 14. de Hyla. Tois d'ò naïç vπákuov. Ter puer respondit. Vid. Homer. Odyss. iv. et Stephani Lexicon. St. Chrysostom uses the word vπnɣɛv,' when he speaks of this practice. "The singer sings alone, and all the rest answer him in the close, as it were with one mouth and with one voice." And elsewhere he says, "the priests began the psalm, and the people followed after in their responses." Sometimes this way of psalmody was called singing acrostics. For though an acrostic commonly signifies the beginning of a verse, yet sometimes it is taken for the end or close of it. As by the Author of the Constitutions, when he orders one to sing the Hymns of David, and the people to sing after him the acrostics or ends of the verses. This was otherwise called Hypopsalma and Diapsalma, and Ακροτελεύτιον and Ἐφύμνιον, which are all words of the same signification. Only we must observe, that they do not always denote precisely the end of a verse, but sometimes that which was added at the end of a psalm, or something that was repeated frequently in the middle of it, as the close of the several parts of it. Thus St. Austin composed a psalm for the common people to learn against the Donatists, and in imitation of the cxix psalm he divided it into so many parts according to the order of the letters in the alphabet, (whence such psalms were called Abecedarii,) each part having its proper letter at the head of it, and the Hypopsalma as he calls it, or answer, to be repeated at the end of every part of it, in these words, Omnes qui gaudetis de pace, modo verum judicate;" as the Gloria Patri is now repeated not only at the end of every psalm, but at the end of every part of the cxix psalm. And in this respect the Gloria Patri itself is by some ancient writers called the Hypopsalma, or Epode, and Acroteleutic to the psalms, because it was always used at the end of the psalms. Thus Sozomen, giving an account of the Arian's manage 'Chrys. Hom. xxxvi. in. 1. Cor. p. 655. 'O Páλλwv Pádλɛi μóvog, kặv πάντες ἀπήχῶσιν (leg. ὑπηχῶσιν) ὡς ἐξ ἑνὸς τόματος ἡ φωνὴ φέρεται. Vid. Hom. xi. in. Mat. p. 108. 'YanxĤoavтes, &c. 2 Chrys. in Psal. 137. p. 518. Μετὰ τῶν ἱερέων καταρχομένων, προηγεμένων ἕψομαι, κ ἀκολεθήσω, καὶ ἄσω σοι. &c. 3 Constit. lib. ii. cap. 57. 'O λaòs, rà ✦ Vid. Aug. Psalmum contra partem ἀκροςίχια ὑποψαλλέτω. Donati. tom. vii. p. 1. et Retract. lib. i. cap. 20. |