ARTICLE V.

THE HYMNS OF MARTIN LUTHER: THEIR PREDECESSORS, AND THEIR PLACE IN HISTORY.1

BY PROFESSOR EDWARD DICKINSON.

THE science of hymnology has never yet received the attention which it deserves at the hands of students of church history. It is a necessary branch of the subject of religious art, and yet while architecture, painting, and music have been examined with considerable thoroughness in respect to their ecclesiastical relations, the voice of the church in hymns and spiritual songs has been but slightingly regarded. So far as hymns have been studied at all, it has been mainly upon the æsthetic side, and in individual instances; not by groups, or with reference to their expression of certain general types of piety. But it is in this latter particular that their historic value lies. The student of church history soon comes to realize that the ultimate object of his search is the enduring

1 The following works are the most important sources of information upon the subject treated in this article: Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kirchenlied, von der ältesten Zeit bis zu Anfang des XVII. Jahrhunderts; Koch, Geschichte des Kirchenliedes und Kirchengesangs der christlichen, insbesondere der deutschen evangelischen Kirche; Winterfeld, Der evangelische Kirchengesang; Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes bis auf Luther's Zeit; Bäumker, Katholische deutsche Kirchenlied in seinen Singweisen von der frühesten Zeit bis gegen Ende des XVII. Jahrhunderts; Liliencron, Deutsches Leben im Volkslied um 1530: Koestlin, Geschichte des christlichen Gottesdienstes. Translations: The Hymns of Martin Luther set to their original melodies, with an English version, edited by L. I'. Bacon assisted by N. H. Allen; The Chorale Book for England, compiled and edited by William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt; Lyra Germanica, translated by Catherine Winkworth.

spiritual elements which underlie doctrinal systems and antagonistic policies. Clearing away the vast multitude of phenomena which tell only of political ambition, the lust of aggrandizement, and the delight in the exercise of mere intellectual subtlety-facts which make the annals of the church so bewildering and often so sad-we perceive that below all these there has been a persistent and constantly deepening current of conscientious spiritual endeavor. There is a history of piety, as well as a history of dogma and of conduct. This religious consciousness, this spirit of piety, has taken manifold forms, it has passed through many phases, often issuing in results of divine beauty and perfection, often led by erroneous conceptions into strange vagaries; yet the ultimate ground purpose has been a sincere longing to enter into right relations with God and to obtain his favor. This impulse has revealed itself in the mystical temper, the ascetic, the practical. In actual conduct it has at one time insisted upon obedience to authority, at another it has deferred to the spirit of individualism; it has absorbed the mind in contemplation, or it has neglected contemplation in favor of philanthropic activities; it has sometimes derived aid from the disciplined enjoyment of the good things of this world, again it has sought the annihilation of temporal satisfactions as hindrances to spiritual growth. All these aspects of the religious motive are the outcome of one common basic principle, acted upon by different conditions and diffracted through various types of mind.

These we study with an especially absorbing interest, for they lead us as far as we can go into the deepest and most sacred arcana of the human soul. We study them not simply as they have manifested themselves in conduct, but with a more penetrating insight and fuller comprehension as we scrutinize the forms of art expression which they have assumed. Religious conceptions, in their primary activity as emotion-love, reverence, aspiration—not deliberately formulated in dogma,

For here the artist is most

have never failed to embody themselves in some kind of artistic form. Art in its historic aspects is the utterance of typical minds when acted upon by ideas that are especially potent in certain epochs and localities. Religious art is at all times particularly truthful as a witness. really himself, most free from the bias of fashion or the temptation of the market; he feels most urgently the demand that he be sincere, for his reference is not so much to the favor of men as to that of a divine Patron and Judge, who cannot be deceived by superficial charm, or gratified by anything but a desire for absolute truth. Religious art is not, however, entirely unconstrained, for while it may disclose the thought of men of genius who are sincere seekers after the heavenly vision, they are also, as a rule, adherents of some particular ecclesiastical institution, which they believe has in its keeping the essential body of truth. Their art is therefore not universally religious, it is definitely ecclesiastical. It is colored by the modes of thought and of devotional exercise which are especially nurtured by the confession to which they adhere. National traits also come into play, and these two elements, the doctrinal and the racial, give to religious art its various distinctive features, developing schools and styles which are the counterparts and reflections of historic creeds, polities, and disciplines.

Every form of religious art gives instruction in regard to the special type of piety that underlies it-but this is most universally the case with the arts of poetry, music, and ceremonial. Only in a few of the branches of the Christian church have painting and sculpture been systematically employed for religious uses. In many sects architecture has no other purpose than to furnish shelter and material convenience for the worshiping assembly. But poetry, music, and some form of symbolic ceremony, if it be no more than the bowing of the head in prayer, are, with but very few exceptions, essential accompaniments of religious service everywhere. In

the large sense they are not the creation of individuals, but of the church which they serve; and the church cherishes them, not only as a means of edification, but still more as her most appropriate form of speech in addressing the ear of her Lord and Master.

No phase of Christian art is more attractive from the standpoint which I have stated, than hymnology. Here we find every possible shade of devotional feeling. That hymns have not proved the highest form of poetry, judged by artistic standards, does not lessen but rather increases their significance. They have been written, not by the lofty poetic geniuses, but by men not ambitious of literary fame, willing to sink their own personality in the office of contributing that which would answer universal needs and be taken into the mouths of the people at large. As hymns have entered into the common everyday life, so are they most intimately the outflowing of the heart of the church. They are not the expression of exceptional experience, but of the common faith. Although not classed as folk song by technical definition, they are essentially such; they must be studied in the mass, be grouped in schools, with constant reference to large religious movements around which they gather and whose vital motives they always plainly reveal.

Among the great historic groups of hymns that have appeared since Clement of Alexandria and Ephraëm the Syrian set in motion the tide of Christian song, the Lutheran hymnody has for us the greatest interest. In sheer literary excellence it is undoubtedly surpassed by the Latin hymns of the medieval church and the English-American group; in musical merit it no more than equals these; but in historic importance the Lutheran song takes the foremost place. The Latin and the English hymns belong only to the history of poetry and of inward spiritual experience; the Lutheran have a place in the annals of politics and doctrinal strifes as well. Protestant hymnody dates from Martin Luther; his

lyrics were the models of the hymns of the Reformed church in Germany for a century or more; the principle that lay at the basis of his movement gave them their characteristic tone; they were among the most efficient agencies in carrying this principle to the mind of the common people, and they also contributed powerfully to the enthusiasm which enabled the new faith to maintain itself in the conflicts by which it was tested. The melodies to which the hymns of Luther and his followers were set became the foundation of a musical style which is the one school worthy to be placed beside the Italian Catholic music of the sixteenth century. This hymnody and its music afforded the first adequate outlet for the poetic and musical genius of the German people, and established the pregnant democratic traditions of German art as against the aristocratic traditions of Italy and France. As we cannot overestimate the spiritual and intellectual force that entered the European arena with Luther and his disciples, so we must also recognize the analogous elements which asserted themselves at the same moment and under the same inspiration in the field of art expression, and gave to this movement a language which helps us in a peculiar way to understand its real import.

The ultimate consequences of this poetic and musical impulse do not come within the scope of this article. Our object will be simply to show in what the importance of the hymns of Luther himself consisted. The method must be that of comparison. The first questions are: What was the origin of the Lutheran hymnody? Had it models, and if so, what and where were they? In giving a store of congregational songs to the German people was Luther original or only an imitator? In this matter does he deserve the honor which Protestants have given him?

Protestant writers have, as a rule, bestowed unstinted praise upon Luther as the man who first gave the people a voice with which to utter their religious emotions in song.