HYMETTUS, a mountain in Attica, bounding the Athenian plain on the south-east (3,37o ft.), has always been famous for its honey. The spring mentioned by Ovid (Ars Amat. iii. 687) is probably near the monastery of Syriani or Kaesariani on the western slope and identical with that known as KvXXov Hs pa said to be a remedy for childlessness. The marble of Hymettus, which often has a bluish tinge, was used for building in ancient Athens, and even for sculpture; although the white marble of Pentelicon was preferred for both purposes.
See E. Dodwell, Classical and Topographical Tour (1819), i. 483. HYMNS. The word "hymn" (vµvos) was employed by the ancient Greeks to signify a song or poem composed in honour of gods, heroes or famous men, or to be recited on some joyful, mournful or solemn occasion. But hymns are actually much older than any Greece can show; the ancient Chinese "hymned" the Ruler of Heaven ; Assyria, Egypt and India have all left us records of early hymns. The Athenian dramatists (Euripides most frequently) use the word and its cognate verbs of odes in praise of conquerors at the public games; they also describe by them metrical oracles and apophthegms, martial, festal and hymeneal songs, dirges and lamentations or incantations of woe.
Hellenic hymns, according to this conception of them, have come down to us, some from a very early and others from a late period of Greek classical literature.
The Romans did not adopt the word "hymn" ; nor have we many Latin poems of the classical age to which it can properly be applied. There are, however, a few—such as the simple and graceful "Dianae sumus in fide" ("Dian's votaries are we") of Catullus, and "Dianam tenerae dicite virgines" ("Sing to Dian, gentle maidens") of Horace—which approach much more nearly than anything Hellenic to the form and character of modern hymnody.
The modern distinction between psalms and hymns is arbitrary (see PSALMS).
In the New Testament we find our Lord and His apostles sing ing a hymn (wµviiQavTES i ;,X9ov), after the institution of the Lord's Supper; St. Paul and Silas doing the same (i uvovv row 9E60 in their prison at Philippi; St. James recommending psalm singing NiaXXiTW) and St. Paul "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (tkaXµois Kai iiµvocs Kai c,8a2s srvEVµarchaIs) St. Paul also, in the i4th chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians, speaks of singing (t'aM) and of every man's psalm (Efcarros vµwv IiaXµov EXEC), in a context which plainly has reference to the assemblies of the Corinthian Christians for common worship. All the words thus used were applied by the LXX. to the Davidical psalms; it is therefore possible that these only may be intended, in the different places to which we have referred. But there are in St. Paul's epistles several passages (Eph. v. 14; I Tim. iii. 16 ; I Tim. vi. 15, 16 ; 2 Tim. ii. II, 1 a) which have so much of the form and character of later Oriental hymnody as to have been supposed by Michaelis and others to be extracts from original hymns of the Apostolic age.
The practice, not only of singing hymns, but of singing them antiphonally, appears, from the well-known letter of Pliny to Trajan, to have been established in the Bithynian churches at the beginning of the and century. This agrees well, in point of time, with the tradition recorded by the historian Socrates, that Ignatius (who suffered martyrdom about A.D. was led by a vision or dream of angels singing hymns in that manner to the Holy Trinity to introduce antiphonal singing into the church of Antioch, from which it quickly spread to other churches.
The Greek hymnody contemporary with Ephraem followed, with some licence, classical models. One of its favourite metres was the Anacreontic ; but it also made use of the short anapaestic, Ionic, iambic and other lyrical measures, as well as the hexameter and pentameter. Its principal authors were Methodius, bishop of Olympus, who died about A.D. 311, Synesius, who became bishop of Ptolemais in Cyrenaica in 410, and Gregory Nazianzen, for a short time (380-38I) patriarch of Constantinople. They have found an able English translator in the Rev. Allen Chatfield (Songs and Hymns of Earliest Greek Christian Poets, 1876). Among the most striking of their works are µvs sso X pcorE ("Lord Jesus, think of me"), by Synesius; a1 Thy ack8crov µovapXsjv ("0 Thou, the One Supreme") and Ti (roc 8iXEas ysvEoOac ("0 soul of mine, repining"), by Gregory; also avc.o9EV SrapOivoL ("The Bridegroom cometh"), by Methodius. There continued to be Greek metrical hymn-writers, in a similar style, till a much later date. Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem in the 7th century, wrote seven Anacreontic hymns; and St. John Damascene, one of the most copious of the second school of "Melodists," was also_ the author of some long compositions in iambic trimeters.
Among the "melodists" of this latter Greek school there were many saints of the Greek church, several patriarchs and two em perors—Leo the Philosopher, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus, his son. Their greatest poets were Theodore and Joseph of the Studium, and Cosmas and John (called Damascene) of St. Saba. Neale translated into English verse several selected portions, or centoes, from the works of these and others, together with four selections from earlier works by Anatolius. Some of his transla tions—particularly "The day is past and over," from Anatolius, and "Christian, dost thou see them," from Andrew of Crete—have been adopted into hymn-books used in many English churches; and the hymn "Art thou weary," which is rather founded upon than translated from one by Stephen the Sabaite, has obtained still more general popularity.
Western Church Hymnody.—It was not till the 4th century that Greek Hymnody was imitated in the West, where its intro duction was due to two great lights of the Latin Church—St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Ambrose of Milan.
Hilary was banished from his see of Poitiers in 356, and was absent from it for about four years, which he spent in Asia Minor, taking part during that time in one of the councils of the Eastern Church. He thus had full opportunity of becoming acquainted with the Greek church music of that day; and he wrote (as St. Jerome, who was thirty years old when Hilary died, and who was well acquainted with his acts and writings, and spent some time in or near his diocese, informs us) a "book of hymns," to one of which Jerome particularly refers, in the preface to the second book of his own commentary on the epistle to the Galatians. Isidore, archbishop of Seville, who presided over the fourth council of Toledo, in his book on the offices of the church, speaks of Hilary as the first Latin hymn-writer; that council itself, in its i3th canon, and the prologue to the Mozara bic hymnary (which is little more than a versification of the canon), associate his name, in this respect, with that of Ambrose.
Of the part taken by Ambrose, not long after Hilary's death, in bringing the use of hymns into the church of Milan, we have a contemporary account from his convert, St. Augustine. Justina, mother of the emperor Valentinian, favoured the Arians, and de sired to remove Ambrose from his see. The "devout people," of whom Augustine's mother, Monica, was one, combined to pro tect him, and kept guard in the church. "Then," says Augustine, "it was first appointed that, after the manner of the Eastern churches, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should grow weary and faint through sorrow ; which custom has ever since been retained, and has been followed by almost all congrega tions in other parts of the world." He describes himself as moved to tears by the sweetness of these "hymns and canticles." It is not, however, to be assumed that the hymnody thus introduced by Ambrose was from the first used according to the precise order and method of the later Western ritual. To bring it into (substantially) that order and method appears to have been the work of St. Benedict. Walafrid Strabo, the earliest ecclesi astical writer on this subject (who lived at the beginning of the 9th century), says that Benedict, on the constitution of the religious order known by his name (about 530), appointed the Ambrosian hymns to be regularly sung in his offices for the canonical hours. Hence, probably originated the practice of the Italian churches, and of others which followed their example, to sing certain hymns (Ambrosian, or by the early successors of the Ambrosian school) daily throughout the week, at "Vespers," "Lauds" and "Nocturns," and on some days at "Compline" also— varying them with the different ecclesiastical seasons and festivals, commemorations of saints and martyrs and other special offices. The national rituals were probably the "Ambrosian" and the "Mozarabic" (of Spain).
The hymns of which the use was thus established and author ized were those which entered into the daily and other offices of the church, afterwards collected in the "Breviaries"; in which the hymns "proper" for "the week," and for "the season," continued for many centuries, with very few exceptions, to be derived from the earliest epoch of Latin Church poetry—reckoning that epoch as extending from Hilary and Ambrose to the end of the pon tificate of Gregory the Great. The "Ambrosian" music, to which those hymns were generally sung down to the time of Gregory, was more popular and congregational than the "Gregorian," which then came into use, and afterwards prevailed.
In the 5th and early in the 6th century the priest Sedulius, whose reputation perhaps exceeded his merit ; Elpis, a noble Roman lady (considered, by an erroneous tradition, to have been the wife of the philosophic statesman Boetius) ; Pope Gelasius I.; and Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, were hymn-writers. Sedulius and Elpis wrote very little from which hymns could be extracted; but the small number taken from their compositions obtained wide popularity, and have since held their ground. Gelasius was of no great account as a hymn-writer ; and the works of Ennodius ap pear to have been known only in Italy and Spain. The latter part of the 6th century produced Pope Gregory the Great and Venan tius Fortunatus, an Italian poet, the friend of Gregory, and the favourite of Radegunda, queen of the Franks, who died (609) bishop of Poitiers. Eleven hymns of Gregory, and twelve or thirteen (mostly taken from longer poems) by Fortunatus, came into general use in the Italian, Gallican and British churches. Eleven metrical hymns are attributed to Bede and there are also in one of Bede's works (Collectanea et fibres) two rhythmical hymns of considerable length on the Day of Judgment, with the refrains "In tremendo die" and "Attende homo," both irregularly rhymed, and, in parts, not unworthy of comparison with the "Dies Irae." Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia, contemporary with Paul, wrote rhythmical trimeter iambics in a manner peculiar to himself. Theodulph, bishop of Orleans (793-835), author of the famous processional hymn for Palm Sunday in hexameters and penta meters, "Gloria, Taus, et honor tibi sit, Rex Christe Redemptor" ("Glory and honour and praise be to Thee, King Christ the Re deemer"), and Hrabanus Maurus, archbishop of Mainz, the pupil of Alcuin, and the most learned theologian of his day, enriched the church with some excellent works.
Sequences.—The invention of "sequences" by Notker (d. 912), may be regarded as the beginning of the later mediaeval epoch of Latin hymnody. In the eucharistic service, in which (as has been stated) hymns were not generally used, it had been the practice, except at certain seasons, to sing "laud," or "Alleluia," between the epistle and the gospel, and to fill up what would otherwise have been a long pause, by extending the cadence upon the two final vowels of the "Alleluia" into a protracted strain of music. It occurred to Notker that, while preserving the spirit of that part of the service, the monotony of the interval might be relieved by introducing at that point a chant of praise specially composed for the purpose. With that view he produced the peculiar species of rhythmical composition which obtained the name of "sequentia" (probably from following after the close of the "Alleluia"), and also that of "prosa," because its structure was originally irregular and unmetrical, resembling in this respect the Greek "troparia," and the "Te Deum," "Benedicite" and canticles. That it was in some measure suggested by the forms of the later Greek hymnody seems probable, both from the intercourse (at that time frequent) between the Eastern and Western churches, and from the applica tion by Ekkehard, in his biography and elsewhere (e.g., in Lynd wood's Provinciale), of some technical terms, borrowed from the Greek terminology, to works of Notker and his school and to books containing them.
The "Golden Sequence," "Veni, sancte Spiritus" ("Holy Spirit, Lord of Light"), is an early example of the transition of sequences from a simply rhythmical to a metrical form. Arch bishop Trench, who esteemed it "the loveliest of all the hymns in the whole circle of Latin sacred poetry," inclined to give credit to a tradition which ascribes its authorship to Robert II., king of France, son of Hugh Capet. Others have assigned to it a later date—some attributing it to Pope Innocent III., and some to Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury.
Before the time of the Reformation, the multiplication of sequences (often as unedifying in matter as unpoetical in style) had done much to degrade the common conception of hymnody. In some parts of France, Portugal, Sardinia and Bohemia, their use in the vernacular language had been allowed. In Germany also there were vernacular sequences as early as the 12th cen tury, specimens of which may be seen in the third chapter of C. Winkworth's Christian Singers of Germany. Scoffing parodies upon sequences are said to have been among the means used in Scotland to discredit the old church services. After the 1 sth cen tury they were discouraged at Rome. They retained for a time some of their old popularity among German Protestants, and were only gradually relinquished in France. A new "prose," in honour of St. Maxentia, is among the compositions of Jean Baptiste San teul; and Dr. Daniel's second volume closes with one written in 1855 upon the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
The hymns produced during the Thirty Years' War are char acteristic of that unhappy time. In point of refinement and graces of style, the hymn-writers of this period excelled their predeces sors. Their taste was chiefly formed by the influence of Martin Opitz, the founder of what has been called the "first Silesian school" of German poetry, who died comparatively young in and who, though not of any great original genius, exercised much power as a critic. Some of the best of these works were by men who wrote little. In the famous battle-song of Gustavus Adolphus, published (1631) after the victory of Breitenfeld, for the use of his army, Verzage nicht du Hauflein klein ("Fear not, 0 little flock, the foe"), we have almost certainly a composition of the hero-king himself, the versification corrected by his chaplain Jakob Fabricius and the music composed by Michael Altenburg, whose name has been given to the hymn. This, with Luther's paraphrase of the 67th Psalm, was sung by Gustavus and his soldiers before the battle of Liitzen in 1632. Two very fine hymns, one of prayer for deliverance and peace, the other of trust in God under calamities, were written about the same time by Matthaus Lowenstern, a saddler's son, poet, musician and statesman, who was ennobled after the peace by the emperor Ferdinand III. Martin Rinckhart, in 1636, wrote the "Chorus of God's faithful children" (Nun danket alle Gott—"Now thank we all our God"), introduced by Mendelssohn in his Lobgesang, which has been called the Te Deum of Germany, being usually sung on occasions of public thanksgiving. Weissel, in 1635, com posed a beautiful Advent hymn ("Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates"), and J. M. Meyfart, professor of theology at Erfurt, in 1642, a fine adaptation of the ancient Urbs beata Hierusalem.
The most copious, and in their day most esteemed, hymn writers of the first half of the 17th century, were Johann Heer mann and Johann Rist. Heermann, a pastor in Silesia, the theatre (in a peculiar degree) of war and persecution, experienced in his own person a very large share of the miseries of the time, and several times narrowly escaped a violent death. His Devoti musica cordis, published in 163o, reflects the feelings natural under such circumstances. Next to Heermann and Rist in fer tility of production, and above them in poetical genius, was Simon Dach, professor of poetry at Konigsberg, who died in Gerhardt.—The fame of all these writers was eclipsed in the latter part of the same century by three of the greatest hymno graphers whom Germany has produced—Paul Gerhardt (1604 1676), Johann Franck (1618-1677) and Johann Scheffler (1624 1677), the founder of the "second Silesian school," who assumed the name of "Angelus Silesius." Gerhardt is by universal consent the prince of Lutheran poets. One of his hymns is well known and highly appreciated in English through Wesley's translation, "Commit thou all thy ways"; and the evening and spring-tide hymns ("Now all the woods are sleeping" and "Go forth, my heart, and seek delight") show an exquisite feeling for nature; while nothing can be more tender and pathetic than Du bist zwar mein and bleibest mein ("Thou'rt mine, yes, still thou art mine own"), on the death of his son. Franck, who was burgomaster of Guben in Lusatia, has been considered by some second only to Gerhardt. It was after his conversion to Roman Catholicism that Scheffier adopted the name of "Angelus Silesius," and pub lished in 1657 his hymns, under a fantastic title, and with a still more fantastic preface.
Joachim Neander, a schoolmaster at Dusseldorf, and a friend of Spener and Schutz (who died before the full development of the "Pietistic" school), was the first man of eminence in the "Reformed" or Calvinistic Church who imitated Lutheran hymnody. The Summer Hymn ("0 Thou true God alone") and that on the glory of God in creation ("Lo, heaven and earth and sea and air") are instances of his best style.
With the "Pietists" may be classed Benjamin Schmolke and Dessler, representatives of the "Orthodox" division of Spener's school ; Philipp Friedrich Hiller, their leading poet in South Germany; Gottfried Arnold and Gerhard Tersteegen, who were practically independent of ecclesiastical organization, though con nected, one with the "Orthodox" and the other with the "Re formed" churches ; and Nikolaus Ludwig, Graf von Zinzendorf. Schmolke, a pastor in Silesia, called the Silesian Rist (1672 173 7 ), was perhaps the most voluminous of all German hymn writers. He wrote 1,188 religious poems and hymns, a large pro portion of which do not rise above mediocrity.
Gellert and Klopstock.—The transition from Tersteegen and Zinzendorf to Gellert and Klopstock marks strongly the reaction against Pietism which took place towards the middle of the 18th century. The Geistlichen Oden and Lieder of Christian F. Gellert were published in 1757, and are said to have been received with an enthusiasm almost like that which "greeted Luther's hymns on their first appearance." It is a proof of the moderation both of the author and of his times that they were largely used, not only by Protestant congregations, but in those German Roman Catholic churches in which vernacular services had been established through the influence of the emperor Joseph II. They became the model which was followed by most succeeding hymn-writers, and ex ceeded all others in popularity till the close of the century, when a new wave of thought was generated by the movement which produced the French Revolution. Klopstock, the author of the Messiah, cannot be considered great as a hymn-writer, though his "Sabbath Hymn" (of which there is a version in Hymns from the Land of Luther) is simple and good. Generally his hymns (ten of which are translated in Sheppard's Foreign Sacred Lyre) are arti ficial and much too elaborate.
The "Romantic" School.—Of the "romantic" school, which came in with the French Revolution, the two leading writers are Friedrich Leopold von Hardenberg, called "Novalis," and Fried rich de la Motte Fouque, the celebrated author of Undine and Sintram—both romance-writers, as well as poets. The genius of Novalis was early lost to the world; he died in 180i, not thirty years old. Some of his hymns are very beautiful ; but even in such works as "Though all to Thee were faithless," and "If only He is mine," there is a feeling of insulation and of despondency as to good in the actual world, which was perhaps inseparable from his ecclesiastical idealism. Fouque survived till The later German hymn-writers of the 19th century belong, generally, to the revived "Pietistic" school. Some of the best, Johann Baptist von Albertini, Friedrich Adolf Krummacher, and especially Karl Johann Philipp Spitta (1801-59) have produced works not unworthy of the fame of their nation.
British Hymnody.—After the Reformation, the develop ment of hymnody was retarded, in both parts of Great Britain, by the example and influence of Geneva. Archbishop Cranmer appears at one time to have been disposed to follow Luther's course, and to present to the people, in an English dress, some at least of the hymns of the ancient church. In a letter to King Henry VIII. (Oct. 7, , among some new "processions" which he had himself translated into English, he mentions the Easter hymn, Salve, festa dies, toto memorabilis aevo ("Hail, glad day, to be joyfully kept through all generations"), of Fortunatus. In the "Primer" of 1535 (by Marshall) and the one of (by Bishop Hilsey of Rochester, published by order of the vicar general Cromwell) there had been several rude English hymns, none of them taken from ancient sources. King Henry's "Primer" of 1545 (commanded by his injunction of May 6, to be used throughout his dominions) was formed on the model of the daily offices of the Breviary; and it contains English metrical translations from some of the best-known Ambrosian and other early hymns. But in the succeeding reign different views prevailed.
A new direction had been given to the taste of the "Reformed" congregations in France and Switzerland by the French metrical translation of the Old Testament Psalms, which appeared about 1540. This was the joint work of Clement Marot, valet or groom of the chamber to Francis I., and Theodore Beza, then a mere youth, fresh from his studies at Orleans.
The translation commonly known as the "Old Version" of the Psalms, was begun by Thomas Sternhold, whose position in the household of Henry VIII., and afterwards of Edward VI., was similar to that of Marot with Francis I., and whose services to the former of those kings were rewarded by a substantial legacy under his will. Sternhold published versions of nineteen Psalms, with a dedication to King Edward, and died soon afterwards. A second edition appeared in 1551, with eighteen more Psalms added, of Sternhold's translating and seven others by John Hopkins, a Suffolk clergyman. The work was continued during Queen Mary's reign by British refugees at Geneva, the chief of whom were William Whittingham, afterwards dean of Durham, who succeeded John Knox as' minister of the English congregation there, and William Kethe or Keith, said by Strype to have been a Scotsman. They published at Geneva in 1556 a service-book, containing fifty-one English metrical psalms, which number was increased, in later editions, to eighty-seven. On the accession of Queen Eliza beth, this Genevan Psalmody was at once brought into use in England—first (according to a letter of Bishop Jewell to Peter Martyr, dated 5th March 1560) in one London church, from which it quickly spread to others both in London and in other cities. The first edition of the completed "Old Version" appeared in 1562.
In this book, as published in 1562, and for many years after wards, there were (besides the versified Psalms) eleven metrical versions of the Te Deum, canticles, Lord's Prayer (the best of which is that of the Benedicite) ; and also Da pacem, Domine, a hymn suitable to the times, rendered into English from Luther ; two original hymns of praise, to be sung before morning and evening prayer; two penitential hymns (one of them the "humble lamentation of a sinner") ; and a hymn of faith, beginning, "Lord, in Thee is all my trust." In these respects, and also in the tunes which accompanied the words (stated by Dr. Charles Burney, in his History of Music, to be German, and not French), there was a departure from the Genevan platform.
Scottish Psalms.—In Scotland, the General Assembly of the kirk caused to be printed at Edinburgh in 1564, and enjoined the use of, a book entitled The Form of Prayers and Ministry of the Sacraments used in the English Church at Geneva, approved and received by the Church of Scotland; whereto, besides that was in the former books, are also added sundry other prayers, with the whole Psalms of David in English metre. This contained, from the "Old Version," translations of forty Psalms by Sternhold, fifteen by Whittingham, twenty-six by Kethe and thirty-five by Hopkins. Of the remainder two were by John Pulleyn (one of the Genevan refugees, who became archdeacon of Colchester) ; six by Robert Pont, Knox's son-in-law, who was a minister of the kirk, and also a lord of session ; and fourteen signed with the initials I.C., supposed to be John Craig; one was anonymous, eight were attributed to N., two to M. and one to T. N. respectively.
So matters continued in both churches until the Civil War. During the interval, King James I. conceived the project of himself making a new version of the Psalms, and appears to have translated thirty-one of them--the correction of which, together with the translation of the rest, he entrusted to Sir William Alexander, afterwards earl of Stirling. Sir William having com pleted his task, King Charles I. had it examined and approved by several archbishops and bishops of England, Scotland and Ireland, and caused it to be printed in 1631 at the Oxford University Press, as the work of King James; and, by an order under the royal sign manual, recommended its use in all churches of his dominions. In 1634 he enjoined the Privy Council of Scotland not to suffer any other psalms, "of any edition whatever," to be printed in or imported into that kingdom. In 1636 it was repub lished, and was attached to the famous Scottish service-book, with which the troubles began in 1637. When the Long Parliament undertook in 1642,the task of choosing between the rival transla tions of the Psalms by Rouse and Barton, Rouse's version was chosen and was received in Scotland with great favour, which it has ever since retained. The "New Version" of the Psalms, by Dr. Nicholas Brady and the poet-laureate Nahum Tate (both Irishmen), appeared in 1696, under the sanction of an order in council of William III. The relative merits of the "Old" and "New" versions have been very variously estimated. Competent judges have given the old the praise, which certainly cannot be accorded to the new, of fidelity to the Hebrew.
Of the five attributed to Addison, not more than three are adapted to public singing; one ("The spacious firmament on high") is a perfect and finished composition, taking rank among the best hymns in the English language.
From the preface to Simon Browne's hymns, published in 17 20, we learn that down to the time of Dr. Watts the only hymns known to be "in common use, either in private families or in Christian assemblies," were those of Barton, Mason and Shep herd, together with "an attempt to turn some of George Herbert's poems into common metre," and a few sacramental hymns by authors now forgotten, named Joseph Boyse (166o-1728) and Joseph Stennett. Of the 1,410 authors of original British hymns enumerated in Daniel Sedgwick's catalogue, published in 1863, 1,213 are of later date than 1707; and, if any correct enumeration could be made of the total number of hymns of all kinds pub lished in Great Britain before and of ter that date, the proportion subsequent to 1707 would be very much larger.
The English Independents, as represented by Dr. Isaac Watts, have a just claim to be considered the real founders of modern English hymnody. Watts was the first to understand the nature of the want, and, by the publication of his Hymns in 1707–1709, and Psalms (not translations, but hymns founded on psalms) in 1709, he led the way in providing for it. His immediate followers were Simon Browne and Philip Doddridge. Later in the i8th cen tury, Joseph Hart, Thomas Gibbons, Miss Anne Steele, Samuel Medley, Samuel Stennett, John Ryland, Benjamin Beddome and Joseph Swain succeeded to them.
Of the other followers in the school of Watts, Miss Anne Steele (17 1 7-17 78) is the most popular and perhaps the best. The in fluence of Watts was felt in Scotland, and among the first whom it reached there was Ralph Erskine. This seems to have been after the publication of Erskine's Gospel Sonnets which appeared in 1 73 2, five years before he joined his brother Ebenezer in the Secession Church. The Gospel Sonnets became as some have said, a "people's classic"; but there is in them very little which belongs to the category of hymnody.
Among all these writers, the palm undoubtedly belongs to Charles Wesley. In the first volume of hymns published by the two brothers are several good translations from the German, be lieved to be by John Wesley, who, although he translated and adapted, is not supposed to have written any original hymns; and the influence of German hymnody, particularly of the works of Paul Gerhardt, Scheffler, Tersteegen and Zinzendorf, may be traced in a large proportion of Charles Wesley's works.
The Moravian Methodists produced few hymns now available for general use. The best are Cennick's "Children of the heavenly King" and Hammond's "Awake and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb," the former of which (abridged), and the latter as varied by Madan, are found in many hymn-books, and are de servedly esteemed. John Byrom, whose name we have thought it convenient to connect with these, was the author of a Christmas hymn ("Christians awake, salute the happy morn") which en joys great popularity.
The contributions of the Calvinistic Methodists to English hymnody are of greater extent and value. Few writers of hymns had higher gifts than Toplady, author of "Rock of ages," by some esteemed the finest in the English language.
Berridge, William Williams (1717-1791) and Rowland Hill, all men remarkable for eccentricity, activity and the devotion of their lives to the special work of missionary preaching, though not the authors of many good hymns, composed, or adapted from earlier compositions, some of great merit.
Two publications, which appeared almost simultaneously in 1827 —Bishop Heber's Hymns, with a few added by Dean Milman, and John Keble's Christian Year (not a hymn-book, but one from which several admirable hymns have been taken, and the well spring of many streams of thought and feeling by which good hymns have since been produced)—introduced a new epoch, breaking down the barrier as to hymnody which had till then existed between the different theological schools of the Church of England. In this movement Richard Mant, bishop of Down, was also one of the first to co-operate. It soon received a great additional impulse from the increased attention which, about the same time, began to be paid to ancient hymnody, and from the publication in 1833 of Bunsen's Gesangbuch. Among its earliest fruits was the Lyra apostolica, containing hymns, sonnets and other devotional poems, most of them originally contributed by some of the leading authors of the Tracts for the Times to the British Magazine; the finest of which is the pathetic "Lead, kindly light, amid th' encircling gloom," by Cardinal Newman—well known, and universally admired. From that time hymns and hymn-writers rapidly multiplied in the Church of England, and in Scotland also. Nearly 600 authors whose publications were later than 1827 are enumerated in Sedgwick's catalogue of 1863, and about half a million hymns are now in existence. Works, critical and historical, upon the subject of hymns, have also multiplied; and collections for church use have become innumerable—several of the various religious denominations, and many of the leading ecclesiastical and religious societies, having issued hymn-books of their own, in addition to those compiled for particular dioceses, churches and chapels, and to books (like Hymns Ancient and Modern, published 1861, supplemented 1889, revised edition, 1905) which have become popular without any sanction from authority. Among the best known American hymn-writers are John Greenleaf Whittier, Bishop Doane, Dr. W. A. Muhlenberg and Thomas Hastings ; and it is difficult to praise too highly such works as the Christmas hymn, "It came upon the midnight clear," by Edmund H. Sears ; the Ascension hymn, "Thou, who didst stoop below," by Mrs. S. E. Miles ; two by Dr. Ray Palmer, "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary," and "Jesus, Thou joy of loving hearts," the latter of which is the best among several good English versions of Jesu, dulcedo, cordium; and "Lord of all being, throned afar," by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
The more modern "Moody and Sankey" hymns (see MOODY, D. L.) popularized a new Evangelical type, and the Salvation Army has carried this still farther.
The object aimed at in this article has been to trace the general history of the principal schools of ancient and modern hymnody, and especially the history of its use in the Christian church. For this purpose it has not been thought necessary to give any account of the hymns of Racine, Madame Guyon and others, who can hardly be classed with any school, nor of the works of Caesar Malan of Geneva (1787-1864) and other quite modern hymn writers of the Reformed churches in Switzerland and France.
II. Mediaeval.—Walafrid Strabo's treatise, ch. 25, De hymnis, etc.; Radulph of Tongres, De psaltario observando (i4th century) ; Clichta vaens, Elucidatorium ecclesiasticum (Paris, 1556) ; Faustinus Arevalus, Hymnodia Hispanica (Rome, 1786) ; E. du Meril, Poesies populaires latines anterieures au XIIIe siecle (Paris, 1843) ; J. Stevenson, Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church (Surtees Society, Durham, 1851) ; Norman, Hymnarium Sarisburiense (London, 1851) ; J. D. Chambers, Psalter, etc., according to the Sarum use (1852) ; F. J. Mone, Latein ische Hymnen des Mittelalters (Freiburg, 3 vols., ; Ph. Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied von der dltesten Zeit bis zum Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1864) ; E. Dummler, Poetae latini aevi Carolini (1881-90) ; the Hymnologische Beitrdge: Quellen and Forschungen zur Geschichte der lateinischen Hymnen dichtung, edited by C. Blume and G. M. Dreves (Leipzig, 1897) ; G. C. F. Mohnike, Hymnologische Forschungen; Klemming, Hymni et sequentiae in regno Sueciae (Stockholm, 4 vols., 1885-87) ; Das katho lische deutsche Kirchenlied (vol. i. by K. Severin Meister, 1862, vol. ii. by W. Baumker, 1883) ; the "Hymnodia Hiberica," Spanische Hymnen des Mittelalters, vol. xvi. (1894) ; the "Hymnodia Gotica," Moza rabische Hymnen des altspanischen Ritus, vol. xxvii. (1897) ; J. Danko, Vetus Hymnarvum ecclesiasticae Hungariae (Budapest, 1893) J. H. Bernard and R. Atkinson, The Irish Liber Hymnorum (2 vols., London, 1898) ; C. A. J. Chevalier, Poesie liturgique du moyen age (Paris, 1893) .
III. Modern.—J. C. Jacobi, Psalmodia Germanica (1722-25 and Iii. Modern.—J. C. Jacobi, Psalmodia Germanica (1722-25 and 1732, with supplement added by J. Haberkorn, 1765) ; F. A. Cunz, Geschichte des dewtschen Kirchenliedes (Leipzig, 1855) ; Baron von Bunsen, Versuch eines allgemeinen Gesang- and Gebetbuches (1833), and Allgemeines evangelisches Gesang- and Gebetbuch (1846) ; Cath erine Winkworth, Christian Singers of Germany (1869) and Lyra Germanica (1855) ; Catherine H. Dunn, Hymns from the German (1857) ; Frances E. Cox, Sacred Hymns from the German (London, 1841) ; Massie, Lyra domestics (186o) ; Appendix on Scottish Psalm ody in D. Laing's edition of Baillie's Letters and Journals (1841-42) ; J. and C. Wesley, Collection of Psalms and Hymns (1741) ; Josiah Miller, Our Hymns, their Authors and Origin (1866) ; John Gadsby, Memoirs of the Principal Hymn-writers (3rd ed., 1861) ; L. C. Biggs, Annotations to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1867) ; Daniel Sedgwick, Comprehensive Index of Names of Original Authors of Hymns (end ed., 1863) ; R. E. Prothero, The Psalms in Human Life (19o7) ; C. J. Brandt and L. Helweg, Den danske Psalmedigtning (Copenhagen, 1846-47) ; J. N. Skaar, Norsk Salmehistorie (Bergen, 1879-8o) ; H. Schiick, Svensk Literaturhistoria (Stockholm, 189o) ; Rudolf Wolkan, Geschichte de deutschen Literatur in Bohmen, 246-256, and Das deutsche Kirchenlied der bohm. Briider (Prague, 1891) ; Zahn, Die geistlichen Lieder der Bruder in Bohmen, Mdhren u. Polen (Nurem berg, 1875) ; and J. Muller, "Bohemian Brethren's Hymnody," in J. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology.
For account of hymn-tunes, etc., see W. Cowan and James Love, Music of the Church Hymnody and the Psalter in Metre (London, 1901) ; and Dickinson, Music in the History of the Western Church (New York, 1902) ; S. Kummerle, Encyklopddie der evangelischen Kirchenmusik (4 vols., 1888-95) ; Chr. Palmer, Evangelische Hym nologie (Stuttgart, 1865) ; and P. Utto Kornmuller, Lexikon der kirch lichen Tonkunst (1891) ; F. J. Sillman, The Story of Our Hymns (1921) ; H. E. Langhorne, Some Favourite Hymns (1924) •