SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
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what I meant thereby ? And when I had told him the cause; tush, quoth he, thou goest about a rain and tedious labour. But this were a pro- fitable work for thee, to set out a Concordance in Eorlish. A Concordance, said I, what is that ? Then he told me it was a book to find out any word in the whole bible by the letter, and that there was such a one in Latin already. Then I told him I had no learning to go about such a thing. Enough quoth he for that matter, for it Tequireth not so much learning as diligence. And seeing thou an so painfull a man, and one that cannot be unoccupied, it were a good exer- cise for thee." He accordingly borrowed a Latin Concordance, and had gone through the letter L, when he was apprehended, imprisoned, and and all his papers seized. He was arraigned, for that he had with his own hand gathered out of divers men's writings, certain things, that were expressly against both the mass, and the sacra- ment of the altar. He was arraigned and con- demned with three others, namely, Anthony Persone, priest ; Robert Testwood, singing man ; and Henry Filmer, tailor ; on account of the six articles in the year 1544 ; the three last were homed at Windsor ; but the innocence of Mer- becke gained him the king's pardon. When be was set at liberty, as his papers were not restored to him, he had bis Concordance to begin again ; which, when completed, he showed to a friend, who promised to assist him in having it presented to the king, in order to hare it published by his authority ; but Henry VIII. died before that coald be brought about. When Edward VI. was settled on the throne, Merbecke consulted Grafton, concerning the printing of it, " who" says he, in his introduction, " seeing the volume so huge and great, said, — ^the charges of imprinting thereof would not only be importunate, but the books when finished would bear so excessive a price, as few should be able to attain unto them^ wherefore, by his desire, I yet once again a new writ out, tbe same in such sort as the work now appeareth." Merbecke was brought up to the study of music, and was admitted to the degree of bachelor of music at Oxford, in 1649, and early in the following year, he published the Booke of common prater, with musical notes to the pieces, prayers, and responses, which was likewise printed by Richard Grafton.
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There are only three or four sorts of notes used. The first note is a strene note, and is a hrere; the second a square note, and is a semy brere ; the third a pycke, and is a mynymme. And when there is a pryke by the square note, that prycke is halfe as muche as the note that that goeth before it ; the fourth is a close, and is only used at the end of a vene. The whole is filled with cbaunting notes on four red lines only.
Dr. Buraey, in his HUtary of Muticy vol. ii. has given a considerable extract from Merbecke's cathedral service printed with the common prayer in 1550. Merbecke was living when Fox wrote his Acts and Momumentt. See the curious ac- count of his examination in that work.
It was at this time that metrical psalmody, as it is still practised in our parochial churches, had its beginning, or at least became general in England. Whatever objections may be made to the manner of singing which was then introduced, it was upon a level with the taste of the nation in other respects. Parish churches had hitherto used the plain chant, as well as cathedrals. It has not pterhaps, been remarked, says D'Israeli, that psalm-singing, or metrical psalms, degene- rated into those scandalous compositions which, under the abused title of hymns, are now used by some sects, many of which abound with ribaldry, obscenity, and blasphemy. These are evidently the last disorders of that system of psalm-singing which made some religious persons early oppose its practice. Even Stemhold and Hopkins, says honest Fuller, found their works afterwards met with some frowns in the faces of g^reat clergyman. Warton regards the metrical psalms of Stemhold as a puritanic invention, and asserts, that notwithstanding it is said in their title-page that they are ul forth and allowed to be tung in all churcnet, they were never ad- mitted by lawful authority. They were first introduced by the Puritans, from the Calvinists of Geneva, and afterwards continued by conni- vance. To trace the history of modern metrical psalmody, we must have recourse to Bayle, who, as a mere literary historian, has accidentally preserved it. It is indeed strange, that Calvin, while he was stripping religion not merely of its pageantry, but even of its decent ceremonies, that this levelling reformer should have intro- duced this taste for tinging psalms in opposition to reading psalms. " On a parallel principle," says Warton, " and if any artificial aias to oevo- tion were to be allowed, he might at least have retained the use of pictures in the church." But it was decreed that statues should be mutilated of " their fair proportions," and painted glass be dashed to pieces, while the congregations were singing psalms! Calvin sought for proselytes among " the rabble of a republic, who can have no relish for the more elegant externals." But to hare made men sing in concert, in the streets, or at their work, and, merry or sad, on all occasions to tickle the ears with rhymes and touch the heart with emotion, was betraying no deficient know- ledge of human nature.
1550, Feb. Died, Martin Bucer, one of the most eminent scholars of the age in which he lived. Bucer was born in 1491, at Schelestadt, near Strasburg, a town of Alsace, in the modern French department of the Lower Rhine. His real name was Kuhom (Cowhom), which, ac- cording to the pedantic fashion of his time, he changed into a Greek synonym, calling him- self Bucer. He received his education at Hei- delberg. Some tracts by Erasmus and others,
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