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of the whole Church besides, and cannot in reason be construed as any more than a private order for the Churches of that province, made upon some particular reasons unknown to us at this day. Notwithstanding therefore any argument to be drawn from this canon, it is evident the Ancients made no scruple of using psalms or hymns of human composition, provided they were pious and orthodox for the substance, and composed by men of eminence, and received by just authority, and not brought clandestinely into the Church.

SECT. 18.-But two Corruptions severely inveighed against: First, over great Niceness, and Curiosity in Singing, in Imitation of the Modes and Music of the Theatre.

But there were some disorders and irregularities always apt to creep into this practice, and corrupt the psalmody and devotions of the Church: and against these the Fathers frequently declaim with many sharp and severe invectives. Chiefly they complain of the lightness and vain curiosity, which some used in singing, who took their measures from the mean and practice of the theatres, introducing from thence the corruptions and effeminacy of secular music into the grave and solemn devotions of the Church. We have heard St. Chrysostom before' complaining of men's using theatrical noise and gestures both in their prayers and hymns. And here I shall add the reflection which St. Jerom makes upon those words of the Apostle, Ephes. v. " singing, and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." Let young men hear this, let those hear it, who have the office of singing in the Church, that they sing not with their voice, but with their heart to the Lord: not like tragedians, physically preparing their throat and mouth, that they may sing after the fashion of the theatre in the Church. He that has but an ill voice, if he has good works, is a sweet singer before God.

Book xiii. chap. viii. sect. 11.

SECT. 19.-And Secondly, Pleasing the Ear without raising the Affections of the Soul.

The other vice complained of, was the regarding more the music of the words, and sweetness of the composure, than the sense and meaning of them; pleasing the ear, without raising the affections of the soul, which was the true reason for which psalmody and music was intended. St. Jerom takes notice of this corruption in the same place,' giving this caution against it: "Let the servant of Christ so order his singing, that the words, that are read, may please more than the voice of the singer: that the spirit, that was in Saul, may be cast out of them, who are possessed with it, and not find admittance in those, who have turned the house of God into a stage and theatre of the people." St. Austin confesses he was for some time thus moved to a faulty complacency in the sweetness of the song, more than the matter that was sung, and that he rather wished not to have heard the voice of the singer. St. Isidore of Pelusium brings the charge of these abuses more especially against women, and goes so far as to say, that though the Apostle had allowed them to sing in the Church, yet the perverse and licentious use they made of this liberty, was a sufficient reason, why they should be totally debarred from it. And some are of opinion, that it was abuses of this kind, in excess, and not in defect, that made the Council of Laodicea forbid all but the canonical singers to sing in the Church; as thinking, that that they might be better regulated and restrained from such abuses by the immediate dependence they had upon the rulers of the Church. But the experience of later ages rather proves, that this was not the true way to reform such abuses; since there are greater complaints made by conside

1 Hieron. in Ephes. v. Sic cantet servus Christi, ut non vox canentis, sed verba placeant quæ leguntur: ut spiritus qui erat in Saule, ejiciatur ab iis, qui similiter ab eo possidentur, et non introducatur in eos, qui de Domo Dei scenam fecere populorum. 2 Aug. Confess. lib. x. cap. 83. Cùm mihi accidit, ut me ampliùs cantus, quàm res quæ canitur moveat, pœnaliter me peccare confiteor, et tunc mallem non audire cantantem. Isidor. lib. i. ep. 90.

ring men, of the excesses committed in Church music after it was wholly given up to the management of canonical singers, than there were before. Witness the complaints made by Polydore Virgil,' Maldonat, Durantus, and others in the Romish Church, and Bishop Wettenhal in the protestant communion, which it is none of my business in this place any further to pursue.

CHAP. II.

A particular Account of some of the most noted Hymns in use in the Service of the Ancient Church.

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SECT. 1. Of the lesser Doxology, "Glory be to the Father, &c."

BUT there is one thing may be of use for the better understanding the psalmody of the ancient Church, which is, to give a distinct account of the most noted hymns that made a part of her service. Among these one of the most ancient and common was that, which was called the lesser doxology, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost." Concerning which we are to note in the first place, that it was something shorter than it is now: for the most ancient form of it was only a single sentence without a response, running in these words, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen!" Part of the latter clause, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," was inserted some time after the first composition. This appears from the most ancient form used both in the Greek and Latin Church without those words in it. The fourth Council of Toledo, Anno 633, reads it thus: "Glory and honour be to the

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* Maldonat.

3 Durant. de Ritibus. lib. ii.

1 Polyd. Virgil, de Rer. Invent. lib.vi. cap. ii. p. 359. de vii. Sacramentis. tom. ii. p. 238. cap. xxi. n. 11. and 247.

dicimus, Gloria et Jorum. Amen !”

* Wettenhal. Gift of Singing. chap. i. p. 277

5 Con. Tolet. iv. can. 12. In fine omnium Psalmorum honor Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto in sæcula sæçu

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Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen!" Where we may observe, that not only the "words, As it was in the beginning, &c." are omitted, but the word honour is added to glory, according to another decree made in that Council; that it should not be said, as heretofore some did, "Glory be to the Father," but " Glory and honour be to the Father:" for as much as the prophet David says, "Bring glory and honour to the Lord," Psal. xxviii. 2. And John the Evangelist, in the Revelations, heard the voice of the heavenly host, saying," Honour and glory be to our God, who sitteth on the throne," Rev. v. 13. From whence they conclude that it ought to be said on earth, as it is sung in heaven. The Mosarabic Liturgy, which was used in Spain a little after this time, has it in the very same form:9 "Glory and honour be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen!" Which shews, that that was the received way of using this hymn in the Spanish Churches. The Greek Church also for several ages used it after the same manner, only they did not insert the word honour, which seems to be peculiar to the Spanish Church. Athanasius, or whoever was the author of the treatise De Virginitate, among his works repeats it thus," Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, world without end. Amen!" And Strabo says of the Greeks in general, that they omitted those words in the latter clause, " as it was in the beginning." So that it is not easy to tell what time they first began to be used in it. Some say, the Council of Nice ordered them to be inserted against Arius: others, that the Church, by common consent admitted them, in compliance with the doctrine of that Council, to confront the Arian tenet, which asserted that the Son was not in the beginning, and that there was a time when he was not. But if so it is strange we should not hear of this additional part of the hymn in any

1 Con. Tolet. iv. can. 14. In fine Psalmorum, non sicut à quibusdam huc usque, Gloria Patri,' sed 'Gloria et honor Patri,' dicatur, &c.

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2 Missa Mozarab. in Nativ. Christi. ap. Mabillon. de Liturg. Gallic. p. 453. 'Gloria et honor Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto in sæcula sæculorum, Amen!'

3 Athan. de Virgin. p. 1051.

de Reb. Eccles. cap. xxv.

* Strabo,

Greek or Latin writer for above two whole centuries after. The first express mention, that is made of it, is in the second Council of Vaison,' Anno 529, which says, it was then so used at Rome, and in Italy, and Afric, and all the East, and therefore is now so ordered to be used in the French Churches. Whence it is plain, it was not in the French Churches before. And there is reason to conjecture, that the East is here put for the West, by a mistake of some transcriber, since it appears from Strabo, that in his time the custom of the Greek Church was still otherwise: and how long it had been the custom of the Western Churches before the time of this Council is uncertain. The Spanish Churches, as we have seen, did not admit it till afterwards.

There goes an Epistle, indeed, under the name of St. Jerom, to Pope Damasus, which, if it were genuine, would make this addition more ancient, than now it can be allowed to be: for there he advises Damasus to order, that in the Roman Church at the end of every psalm there should be added, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost: as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen!" But this Epistle is rejected as spurious by learned men of all sides, Bellarmin, Baronius, Bona, and others of the Romanists, as well as Protestants in general, because it contradicts the known practice of the Roman Church in another particular: for at Rome they did not use the Gloria Patri at the end of every psalm long after this, in the time of Walafridus Strabo,s neither do they now by the rubrics of the Roman Breviary at this day whereas, if Damasus had made those orders as this Epistle directs, the Gloria Patri would have been used at Rome at the end of every psalm; which it was not, either there or in any of the Eastern Churches, but only in

1 Con. Vasion. ii. can. 5. Quia non solùm in sede Apostolicâ, sed etiam per totum Orientem et totam Africam vel Italiam, propter hæreticorum astutiam, quâ Dei Filium non semper cum Patre fuisse, sed à tempore fuisse blasphemant, in omnibus clausulis post, Gloria Patri, &c.' sicut erat in principio, dicitur, etiam et nos in universis ecclesiis nostris hoc ita esse dicendum decrevimus. 2 Hieron. Ep. ad Damasum. 53. et inter Decreta Damasi ap. Crab. Con. tom. i. p. 383. Istud carmen laudis omni psalmo conjungi præcipias, &c. 3 Strabo de Reb. Eccles. cap. xxv.

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