Early Church Music. A Digest of Citations... Lotsa fun!

DIGEST OF SOME CITATIONS

From

Music in Early Christian Literature, by James McKinnon

(Cambridge University Press: 1987).

What follows is a sampling of relatively “undigested” citations from the record of the early church from a collection of some 400 passages on music from early Christian literature (New Testament to c. A.D. 450). I have another, longer, paper which treats the evidence more fully. Most comments below are McKinnon’s, summarized by me.

(the # refers to the number heading in McKinnon’s collection)

(Note, McKinnon uses the Vulgate/LXX numbering of the Psalms, not the Hebrew numbering.)



Clement, third Bishop of Rome, #20, c. 96 AD, may give a reference to the Sanctus of the Eucharist, but the language is inconclusive: “For the Scripture says: ‘Ten thousand times ten thousand stood by him and a thousand times a thousand ministered to him and cried out, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Sabaoth, the whole creation is full of his glory’ (Is. 6:3). Let us, therefore, gathered together in concord by conscience, cry out earnestly to him as if with one voice, so that we might come to share in his great and glorious promises.” (McKinnon, 18).



In Antiochenes, a spurious epistle attributed to Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35-107), # 23, the author recognizes the office of cantor already in the second century: “I greet the holy presbytery. I greet the sacred deacons…I greed the sub-deacons, the readers, the cantors (), the porters, the laborers, the exorcists and the confessors. I greet the keepers of the sacred gateways and the deaconesses in Christ” (19).



Justin Martyr (c.100-165). # 24. “We have been instructed that only the following worship is worthy of him, not the consumption by fire of those things created by him for our nourishment but the use of them by ourselves and by those in need, while in gratitude to him we offer solemn prayers and hymns for his creation and for all things leading to good health” (20)



McKinnon treats the Odes of Solomon in #s 34-37, pp. 22-24.



While tinged with Gnostic heresy, some of the Apocryphal New Testament documents testify to various Hymns, of which some are quite orthodox in character. The pseudepigraphic Acts of John 94-7, #38, of uncertain date (not orthodox), but referred to by Eusebius, tells of an story where Jesus says, “‘Before I am given over to them, let us sing a hymn to the Father, and thus go to meet what lies ahead’. So he bade us form a circle, as it were, holding each other’s hands, and taking his place in the middle he said: ‘Answer Amen to me’. Then he began to hymn and say: ‘Glory to thee, Father.’ / And we, forming a circle, responded ‘Amen’ to him. / ‘Glory be to thee, Word, / Glory be to thee, Grace. ’Amen.’ / Glory be to thee, Spirit, / Glory be to thee, Holy One,/ Glory be to thy Glory. ‘Amen.’/ ‘I wish to mourn; / Beat your breasts, all of you.’ ‘Amen.’/ ‘The one octad sings with us.’ ‘Amen.”/ ‘the twelfth number dances above.’ ‘Amen.’/ ‘To the universe belongs the danger.’ ‘Amen.’/ ‘Who dances not, knows not what happens.’ ‘Amen’… After dancing with us, my beloved, the Lord went out, and we, confused and asleep, as it were, fled one way and the other.” (25)



Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215), #53, from Paedagogus II, iv. “…But let our geniality in drinking be twofold according to the Law: for if you love the Lord your God and then your neighbor, you should be genial first to God in thanksgiving and psalmody and secondly to your neighbor in dignified friendship” (33).

• Again from Paedagogus, II, iv, #54. “…Sing to him a new song (Ps. 32:2). And does not the psaltery of ten strings reveal Jesus, the Word, manifested in the element of the decad? Just as it is appropriate for us to praise the creator of all before partaking of food, so too it is proper while drinking to sing to him as beneficiaries of his creation. For a psalm is a harmonious and reasonable blessing and the Apostle calls a psalm a spiritual song” (34).

• #62 from Stromata VII, xvi, 102. “Would then that even these heretics, after studying these notes, would be chastened and turn to god the almighty. But if like ‘deaf serpents’ they do not give ear to the song which is called new, although most ancient, let them be chastised by God” (36).



McKinnon has many references to Origin (c.185-c 265) in his #s 63-70, most of which allegorize on the OT instruments. #66, from Against Celsus VIII, 67, McK. Writes, “We, along with the heavens, hymn God and his Son. This is clearly spiritual song, but not as clearly practical song.” The citation: “For Celsus says that we would seem to honor the great god better if we would sing hymns to the sun and Athena. We, however, know it to be the opposite. For we sing () hymns to the one God who is over all and his only begotten Word, who is God also. So we sing to God and his only begotten as do the sun, the moon, the stars and the entire heavenly host. For all these form a sacred chorus and sing hymns to the God of all and his only begotten along with those among men who are just” (38).



The Didascalia Apostolorum (early third century) is a Jewish-Christian work for a Syrian congregation. #71, refers to VI, 3-5. “What is lacking to you in the Law of God that you run after these myths of the gentiles? 4 If it is history that you wish to read, you have Kings; if it is wisdom and poetry, you have the Prophets, in which you will find sagacity beyond that of any wise man or poet, because they are the sounds of the Lord, the only wise. 5 If you yearn for songs, you have the Psalms; if antiquities, you have Genesis; if laws and precepts, you have the illustrious Law of the Lord” (41).



Tertullian (c. 170-225) has several “important references to psalmody and hymnody scattered throughout his writings…”. We have seen his description of impromptu singing, from Apologeticum XXXIX, 16-18, which was performed at the agape feasts. (McK. #74). In De oratione XXVII “Tertullian appears to describe the responsorial recitation of psalms, perhaps in a domestic context” -#79- “This prayer…we must bring amid psalms and hymns to the altar of God, and it will obtain from God all that we ask” (44).

• Tertullian in Ad uxorem II, viii, 8-9, #80, speaks of married couples: “Psalms and hymns sound between the two of them, and they challenge each other to see who better sings to the Lord. Seeing and hearing this, Christ rejoices. He sends them his peace. Where two come together, there is He also, and where He is, there the evil one is not” (44).

• In his Aduersus Marcionem V, viii, 12, McKinnon says that Tertullian “suggests that the ‘psalms’ referred to there [in de anima IX, 4] are not biblical (Cf. 1 Cor. 14:26)”: “So let Marcion display the gifts of his god - some prophets, who have spoken not from human understanding but from the spirit of God, who have both foretold the future and revealed the secrets of the heart. Let him produce a psalm, a vision, a prayer; only let it be of the spirit, while in ecstasy, that is, a state beyond reason, when some interpretation of tongues has come upon him. Let him also show me a woman of his group who has prophesied…” (44).

• De anima IX, 4 is here given, #82: There is among us today a sister favored with gifts of revelation which she experiences through an ecstasy of the spirit during the Sunday liturgy. She converses with angels, at one time even with the Lord; she sees and hears mysteries, reads the hearts of people and applies remedies to those who need them. The material for her visions is supplied as the scriptures are read, psalms are sung, the homily delivered and prayers are offered” (45).

• In De carne Christi XX, 3 “Tertullian contrasts the psalms of David with those of the heretic Valentinus” (#84): “The psalms also come to our aid on this point, not the psalms of that apostate, heretic and Platonist, Valentinus, but those of the most holy and illustrious prophet David. He sings among us of Christ, and through him Christ indeed sang of Himself” (45).



In The Refutation of All Heresies V, x, Hippolytus (c. 170-236) refers to the heretical hymns of the “Naassein Gnostics” as psalms, #88: “This psalm was tossed off by them, in which they appear to hymn all the mysteries of their error in this manner: ‘The generative law of all was the Primal Mind, / While the second was the diffused chaos of the First Born…’” (46).

• In his famous Apostolic Tradition 25, #89, Hippolytus writes: “And let them arise therefore after supper and pray; let the boys sing psalms, the virgins also. And afterwards let the deacon, as he takes the mingled chalice of oblation, say a psalm from those in which Alleluia is written. And afterwards, if the presbyter so orders, again from these psalms. And after the bishop has offered the chalice, let him say a psalm from those appropriate to the chalice - always one with Alleluia, which all say. When they recite the psalms, let all say Alleluia, which means, “We praise him who is God; glory and praise to him who crated the entire world through his work alone.’ And when the psalm is finished let him bless the chalice and give of its fragments to all the faithful” (47).



Cyprian (d. 258), recommends the singing of psalms at the evening meal in # 94, Ad Donatum XVI, 222-3: “And since this is a restful holiday and a time of leisure, now as the sun is sinking towards evening, let us spend what remains of the day in gladness and not allow the hour of repast to go untouched by heavenly grace. Let a psalm be heard at the sober banquet, and since your memory is sure and your voice pleasant, undertake this task as is your custom. You will better nurture your friends, if you provide a spiritual recital for us and beguile our ears with sweet religious strains” (49).



The great Athanasius (c. 296-373) has much to say of Psalmody. In Epistula ad Mercellinum 28, #99, we read: “Just as we make known and signify the thoughts of the soul through the words we express, so too the Lord wished the melody of words to be a sign of the spiritual harmony of the soul, and ordained that the canticles be sung with melody and the psalms read with song” (53).

• #102 from Apologia pro fuga sua 24 presents a “clear example of the responsorial performance of psalm 135,” says McK. “It was already night and some of the people were keeping vigil in anticipation of the synaxis, when suddenly the general Syrianus appeared with more than 5,000 soldiers, heavily armed with bared swords, bows and arrows, and cudgels, as I said above, he surrounded the church, stationing his soldiers closely together, so that no one could leave the church and slip by them. Now it seemed to me unreasonable to leave the people in such confusion and not rather to bear the brunt of battle for them, so sitting upon the throne, I urged the deacon to read a psalm and the people to respond, ‘For his mercy endureth forever’ (Ps. 135:1)…” (54).



Pachomius (c. 290-346), the founder of cenobite monasticism, led a vast number of monks and nuns in nine monasteries in Upper Egypt. In #110, Precepta 16-17, he writes: “16 On Sunday and in the synaxis in which the Eucharist (oblatio) is to be offered, aside from the master of the house and the elders of the monastery who are of some reputation, let no one have the authority to recite psalms (psallendi). 17 If someone is absent, while anyone of the elders is chanting (psallente), that is, reading the Psalter, he will immediately undergo the order of penitence and reproach before the altar” (57).



Palladius (c. 364-425), a monk in Egypt from Galatia, tells in his Lausiac History XXVI, #119, of the use of the long Psalm (prob. 118) and Gradual Psalms (prob. 119-33). “Scetis was at a distance of forty miles from us, and during those forty miles we ate twice and drank water three times, while Heron tasted nothing, but went along on foot and recited the fifteen psalms, then the long one, then the Epistle to the Hebrews, then Isaiah and a portion of Jeremiah, then Luke the evangelist, and then Proverbs” (60). McKinnon is using the LXX/Vuglate numbering - the long psalm is our 119.



Many positive citations on Psalmody are given from the Fourth-century Cappadocians, such as Basil the Great (330-379). One citation will have to do, from Homilia in psalmum i. #129: “All Scripture is inspired by God for our benefit; it was composed by the Spirit for this reason, that all we men, as if at common surgery for souls, might each of us select a remedy for his particular malady. ‘Care’, it is said, ‘makes the greatest sin to cease’. Now the Prophets teach certain things, the Historians and the law teach others, and Proverbs provides still a different sort of advice, but the book of Psalms encompasses the benefit of them all. It foretells what is to come and memorializes history; it legislates for life, gives advice on practical matters, and serves in general as a repository of good teachings, carefully searching out what is suitable for each individual” (65).

• Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389), another Cappadocian, gives the story of Emperor Valens being greatly impressed upon entering Basil’s church at Caesarea, in In laudem Basilii Magni 52, #148: “He entered the temple with his entire retinue about him - it was the day of the Epiphany, and there was a great crowd - and he took his place among the people, thus making a profession of unity (which should not be lightly dismissed). When he got inside, he was struck by the thunderous sound of the psalmody; he saw the sea of people, and everywhere good order, more angelic than human, both throughout the sanctuary and all the adjoining area” (72).

• Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330-395), was the little brother of Basil. He was the deepest thinker of the three great Cappadocians, according to McK. He gives a biography of his sainted sister, Macrina in #151, Life of Macrina 3: “And by no means was she ignorant of the Book of Psalms (), completing each portion of psalmody at the appropriate times; and upon rising from her bed, when taking up her chores and leaving off from them, when beginning to eat and leaving the table, when going to bed and arising for prayers - everywhere she had with her the Psalter (), like a good companion which one forsakes not for a moment” (73).

• In the Anonymous De uirginitate xx, formerly attributed to Athanasius, but probably Cappadocian, we find the following description of night and morning offices, #153: “In the middle of the night arise and hymn the Lord your God, for at that hour our Lord arose from the dead and hymned the Father, for which reason he has enjoined us to hymn God at that hour. After rising say first this verse: ‘I rose at midnight to give praise to thee; for the judgments of thy righteousness’ (Ps. 118:62) and pray, and begin to say the entire fiftieth psalm until you finish; and these things have been prescribed for you to carry out each day. Say as many psalms as you can while standing, and after a psalm pray and make prostration, with tears acknowledging your sins to the Lord and asking that he forgive you. And with each three psalms say the Alleluia. And if there are virgins with you, let them also sing psalms and perform the prayers one by one. At dawn say this psalm: ‘O God my God, to thee do I watch at break of day: for thee my soul has thirsted’ (Ps. 62:2); and at daybreak: ‘All ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord, sing hymns’ (Dan 3:57); ‘Glory to God in the highest’ (Lk 2:14); and what follows” (74).



Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315-386) was an orthodox bishop who faced Arian opposition. Some attribute his Mystagogical Catechesis to his successor, John (bishop from 387-417). In Mystagogical Catechesis V, 6, #157, we find the following: “We call to mind the Seraphim also, whom Isaiah saw in the Holy Spirit, present in a circle about the throne of God, covering their faces with two wings, their feet with two, and flying with two, and saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts’ (Is 6:3). Therefore we recite this doxology transmitted to us by the Seraphim, in order to become participants in the hymnody of the super terrestrial hosts” (76).



John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) is the famous preacher of antiquity. In psalmum xli, I, a commentary of Psalm 41 contains his oft-quoted encomium of psalmody. McKinnon tells us that “before launching into it he reveals that the first verse of the psalm was used that day as a response,” #163: “As I said, then, when the wolves attack the flock, the shepherds set aside the pipe and take the sling in hand. So now, with the Jewish festivals at an end, we who are bitter enemies of all wolves should in turn set the sling aside and return to the pipe. Further, let us desist from contentious discourse and engage in other, more truthful things, taking in hand the cithara of David, and leading into the middle the refrain which we all sang today in response. What is this refrain, then? ‘As the hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God’ (Ps 41:1)” (79).

• In his commentary on Colossians, 3:16 (Hom. IX,2; #186), Chryosostom gives his distinction between psalms and hymns, which is, frankly, confusing: “’Teach’, he says, ‘and admonish one another with psalms, with hymns and spiritual songs’ (Col 3:16). Observe also the considerateness of Paul. Since reading is laborious and very tiring, he did not lead you to histories but to psalms, so that you could by singing both delight your spirit and lighten the burden. ‘With hymns,’ he says, ‘and spiritual songs’. Now your children choose satanical songs and dances, as if they were cooks, caterers and chorus dancers; while no one knows a single psalm, which seems rather to be a thing of shame even, to be laughed at and ridiculed… The psalms contain all things, but hymns in turn have nothing human. When one is instructed in the psalms, he will then know hymns also, as a more divine thing. For the powers above sing hymns, they do not sing psalms” (87).

• Homilia I in Oziam seu de Seraphinis I, refers to the Gloria and Sanctus, # 193: “Above, the hosts of angels sing praise; below, men form choirs in the churches and imitate them by singing the same doxology. Above, the Seraphim cry out the Tersanctus (); below, the human throng sends up the same cry. The inhabitants of heaven and earth are brought together in a common solemn assembly; there is one thanksgiving, one shout of delight, one joyful chorus” (89).

• David is first and middle and last - Pseudo-Chrysostom, de poenitentia, #195: “In the churches there are vigils, and David is first and middle and last. In the singing of early morning hymns David is first and middle and last. In the tents at funeral processions David is first and last. In the houses of virgins there is weaving, and David is first and middle and last. What a thing of wonder! Many who have not even made their first attempt at reading know all of David by heart and recite him in order. Yet it is not only in the cities and the churches that he is so prominent on every occasion and with people of all ages; even in the fields and deserts and stretching into uninhabited wasteland, he rouses sacred choirs to God with greater zeal. In the monasteries there is a holy chorus of angelic hosts, David is first and middle and last. In the convents there are bands of virgins who imitate Mary, and David is first and middle and last. In the deserts men crucified to this world hold converse with God, and David is first and middle and last. And at night all men are dominated by physical sleep and drawn into the depths, and David alone stands by, arousing all the servants of God to angelic vigils, turning earth into heaven and making angels of men” (90).



Callinicus (fl. Mid-fifth century), wrote a biography of his mentor, St. Hypatius (d. 446), abbot of a monastery near Chalcedon, #200: “And during Lent he ate every second day, confining himself, and chanting psalms and praying at daybreak, the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, the lighting of lamps, late evening, and the middle of the night, according to the saying, ‘Seven times a day I have praised thee for the judgments of thy righteousness’ (Ps 118:164). Chanting pslams, then, seven times in the course of the day and night, he completed one hundred psalms and one hundred prayers” (92).



Ephraem Syrus (c. 306-73) was famous for training choirs of virgins and boys to sing his hymns, “purportedly in answer to a similar practice by the heretic Bardesanes.” He is alleged to have employed a cithara in doing so, by Werner. It is difficult to know with certainty how his songs were employed liturgically. McKinnon gives four examples of his hymns (#201-204, pp. 93-5).



The great church historian Eusebius of Caesarea (260-340) has “several remarks about actual psalmody and hymnody.” In Ecclesiastical History II, xvii, 22, referring to Philo’s de vita contemplativa, he gives a clear description of responsorial psalmody, #208: “The above mentioned man [Philo] has given a description of all this in his own writing - which agrees precisely with the manner observed up to now by us alone - of the vigil celebrations on the great feast, the practices associated with them, the hymns we are accustomed to recite, and how as an individual sings in comely measure, the rest listen in silence and join in singing only the refrains of the hymns; how on certain days they sleep on the floor on straw pallets, abstain entirely from wine…” (98).

• In Ecclesiastical History V, xxviii, 5, Eusebius “speaks of non-biblical psalms and songs written by Christians ‘from the beginning’. The context of the remarks is a defense of the divinity of Christ against Paul of Samosata,” #210 - “For who does not know the books of Iranaeus, Melito and the others which pronounce Christ to be both God and man, and all the psalms and songs written from the beginning by faithful brethren, which hymn Christ as the Word of God, and address him as God?” (99).



Another ancient historian Socrates (c. 380-450), continued the work of Eusebius, writing seven books corresponding to seven emperors (305-439AD). He writes with historical objectivity “rare in his time,” McK. Tells us. In his Ecclesiastical History VI, 8, #218 - “The Arians, as I have said, conducted their assemblies outside the city. Each week when the festivals took place - I refer to the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day on which the synaxes were accustomed to be held in the churches - the gathered within the gates of the city about the porticoes and sang antiphonal songs composed in accordance with Arian doctrine. This they did for the greater part of the night. At dawn, after reciting the same sort of antiphona they passed through the middle of the city and went out through the gates and came to the places where they were wont to assemble. Now since they did not cease to speak in provocation of those who held the homoousian position - often they even sang some song such as this: ‘Where are they who tell of the three as one power?’ - John, concerned let any of the more simple be drawn away from the church by such songs, set in opposition to them some of his own people, so that they too, by devoting themselves to nocturnal hymnody, would obscure the efforts of others in this regard, and render their own people steadfast in their faith. But while John’s purpose appeared to be beneficial, it ended in confusion and peril. Since the homoousian hymns proved to be more splendid in their nightly singing - for John devised silver crosses, bearing light from wax tapers, provided at the expense of the Empress Eudoxia - the Arians, numerous as they were and seized by jealousy, resolved to avenge themselves and to instigate conflict. Due to their inherent strength, they were anxious to do battle and despised the others. Without hesitation, then, they struck one night and threw a stone at the forehead of Briso, a eunuch of the Empress, who was leading the singers at the time. A number of people from both sides were also killed. The emperor, moved by these occurrences, forbade the Arians to perform their hymnody in public. And such were the events narrated. It must further be told whence the custom of antiphonal hymns had its beginning in the Church. Ignatius of Antioch in Syria, the third bishop after the Apostle Peter, and an acquaintance of the Apostles themselves, saw a vision of angels, hymning the Holy Trinity with antiphonal hymns, and passed on to the church of Antioch the manner of singing he saw in the vision. Whence the same tradition was handed down to all the churches. This then, is the account of antiphonal hymns” (102).



Sozomen (fl. Second quarter of fifth century) was another historian. His nine books covered 323-425 AD. #219 is from his Ecclesiastical History III, 20, reporting on factions in Antioch: “As was their custom, they assembled in choruses when singing hymns to God, and at the end of the songs they declared their individual positions. Some praise the Father and the Son as equally worthy of honor, while others praised the Father in the Son, indicating by insertion of the preposition that the Son played a secondary role” (103).



Theodoret of Cyrus (c. 393-466) wrote about “Flavinus and Diodorus,” still laymen, who organized “dual choir” singing (a different kind of antiphonal song), in his Eccl. Hist. II, 24, 8-9, # 224, “Flavianus and Diodorus…urged on all, night and day, in the pursuit of piety. They were the first to divide into two the choruses of psalm singers, and to teach them to sing the Davidic song in alternation. And what was introduced at Antioch spread everywhere, reaching to the ends of the earth. They gathered lovers of holy things into the shrines of the martyrs and spent the entire night with them singing hymns to God” (104).

• It is Theodoret who reports how “Julia, a respected widow of Antioch, established a convent there. She is remembered for this anecdote in which she has her choir of virgins taunt the idolatrous Julian [the Apostate] with selected verses of the Psalter” (McK.). # 225. I’ll not copy in the actual quotation.



The Apostolic Constitutions appear to have been written c. 380 by a “Syrian of Arian tendencies.” It draws upon the Didascalia (books one to six) and the Didache (in book seven), and from Hippolytus’ Apostolic Tradition in book eight. References to the gradual psalm the Sanctus and the communion psalm follow:

• #223 (A.C. II, lvii, 3-7): “…In the middle the reader is to stand upon something high and read the books of Moses, of Joshua…, of Judges and Kings, of Chronicles and those from after the return, and in addition to those of Job, of Solomon and of the sixteen Prophets. After two readings let someone else sing the hymns of David, and let the people respond with verses (akrosticia). After this let our Acts be read and the epistles of Paul our fellow worker, which he sent to the churches under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; and after these let a deacon or priest read the Gospels, which I, Matthew, and John have transmitted to you, and which the co-workers of Paul, Luke and Mark, have received and passed on to you” (108-9).

• #234 (A.C.VIII, xii, 27)- “’The Cherubim and six-winged Seraphim, their feet covered with two, their heads with two, and flying with two'’ saying together with thousands times thousands of archangels and ten-thousand times ten-thousands of angels, without ceasing and in a loud voice; and let the people say with them, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord of Sabaoth, heaven and earth are full of his glory; blessed be he forever; Amen’” (109).

• #235 (A.C. VIII, xiii,14-xiv.1a)- “And after this let the bishop receive, then the priests, and the deacons, and the subdeacons, and the readers, and the cantors (), and the ascetics; and among the women the deaconesses, and the virgins, and the widows; then the children, and then all the people in good order with reverence and piety and without commontion. And let the bishop give the oblation saying, ‘Body of Christ’, and let the one receiving say, ‘Amen’. And let the deacon take the chalice and in giving it say, ‘Blood of Christ, the chalice of life’, and let the one drinking say, ‘Amen’. Let the thirty-third psalm be sung while all the rest receive. And when all have received, men and women, let the deacon take what remains and carry it into the sacristies. And when the singer () is finished, let the deacon say…” (109)

• #236 (A.C. II, lix, 1-3) - “As you teach, O bishop, order and exhort the people always to assemble in the church, morning and evening of each day…For it is said not only of priests, but rather each of the laity must hear it and consider it for himself…But you must assemble each day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the houses of the Lord, saying the sixty-second psalm in the morning, and in the evening the one hundred and fortieth, especially on the day of the Sabbath; and on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, the Lord’s Day, meet still more earnestly…” (110).



Egeria (a Spanish nun, visiting Jerusalem around the beginning of the fifth century) gives report of her pilgrimage. In Itinerarium Egeriae XXIV. 4-6, she tells: “But at the tenth hour - what they call here licinicon, and what we call lucernare - the entire throng gathers again at the Anastasis, and all the lamps and candles are lit, producing a boundless light. The light, however, is not carried in from outside, but brought from the inner cave, that is from within the railings, where night and day a lamp burns always. And the psalmi lucernares, as well as antiphons, are sung for a long time. And behold the bishop is called and comes down and takes the high seat, while the priests also sit in their places, and hymns and antiphons are sung. And when these have been finished according to custom, the bishop arises and stands before the railings, that is before the cave, and one of the deacons makes the commemoration of individuals as is customary. And as the deacon pronounces the individual names, a great number of children, whose voices are very loud, stand there and respond Kyria eleison, or as we say, miserere Domine. And when the deacon has finished all that he has to say, the bishop first says a prayer, praying for all, and then all pray, both faithful and catechumens at the same time. Then the deacon calls out that every catechumen, wherever he stands, should bow his head, and then the bishop stands and recites the blessing over the catechumens. Then follows a prayer and again the deacon calls out and admonishes everyone of the faithful to stand and bow his head; again the bishop blesses the faithful and thus the dismissal is given at the Anastasis. And everyone begins to approach the bishop to kiss his hand” (113-4). Egeria has a number of rich liturgical details, though she seldom gives the specific psalms sung.



Canons of Laodicea- a collection of 60 canons from second half of fourth century. Gives a number of details. Drawn loosely from McKinnon (pp. 118-119): Canon 15: No one to sing in church, “besides the canonical cantors, who ascend the ambo and sing from a parchment” (#255); 17 - The psalms “ought not to be sung one after the other in the assemblies, but a reading should be interpolated after each psalm” (#256); Canon 59 - “One must not recite privately composed psalms () nor non-canonical books in the church, but only the canonical books of the Old and New Testament” (261).



Canons of Basil - 106 Alexandrian canons, late fourth century, or earlier. Not the genuine Canonical Epistles of St. Basil. From McKinnon 119-120. #265. Canon 97 - “When they begin to celebrate the mysteries, they should not do so in disorder, but should wait until the entire congregation has gathered; as long as they are coming in they should read psalms. Then after the congregation is assembled, there should be readings from the Apostles, then from the Acts and from the Gospel. If the deacons read well, they should read the Gospel. If they do not read well, the oldest lectors should read the psalms, and the deacons the Gospel. Only a deacon or a presbyter should read the Gospel in a catholic church; none should overstep his rank.” Canon 97 continues, “Those singing psalms at the altar shall not sing with pleasure, but with understanding; they should sing nothing other than psalms…The congregation shall respond with vigor after every psalm. If anyone is physically sick, so that he answers after the others, no blame resides in him; but if he is healthy and keeps quiet, then one leaves him alone; he is not worthy of blessing.”



Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315-367) is called the Athanasius of the West for his opposition to Arianism. He is the earliest composer of hymns in the west , and wrote a psalm commentary in the allegorical style of Origen. (McKinnon pp. 121-125). In his Tractatus in psalmum lxv, 3, he writes: “In Latin manuscripts we read: ‘Rejoice (iubilate) in God, all ye earth’. Now, according to the conventions of our language, we give the name jubilus (iubilum) to the sound of a pastoral and rustic voice, when the sound of a voice prolonged and expressed forcefully is heard in the wilderness either answering or asking, in point of sense. In Greek books, however, which are closer to the Hebrew, it is not written with the same sense, for what they have is: ‘Shout () unto God, all ye earth’. Now, among the Greeks, the term shout (which is rendered in Latin as jubilus) means the cry of an army in battle, either when it routs the enemy, or else proclaims a victorious outcome in a shout of joy. We gain a clearer understanding of this occurrence, that is, how translation weakens meaning, in another psalm, where we read: ‘Clap your hands, all people, praise god in a shout of joy’ (Ps 44:2). Now, a shout of joy (vox exultationis) does it mean the same thing as jubilus; but for the purpose of translation, since a proper term for ‘shout of joy’ is not available, ‘shout of joy’ is rendered by what is called jubilus” (124-5).



Ambrose of Milan (c. 339-397) was noted as a composer of Latin metrical hymns, and later liturgical documents refer to office hymns as ambrosiana. Yet few have surpassed his praise of the Psalter! His Explanatio psalmi I, 6 serves as an introduction to the psalter, #274: “Yet it is David who was especially chosen by the Lord for this office, so that what in others seems to stand out only rarely in their words would in his shine forth continually and without ceasing. We read but one song (canticum) in the Book of Judges, while the rest runs its course in the manner of history, relating the deeds of the ancients. Isaiah wrote one song, in which he soothes the heart of his readers, whereas elsewhere he rages with the fearsome trumpet of rebuke. Not even those very enemies who persecuted him to the death because of the other things he said could reproach him for this song. Daniel and Habakkuk each wrote one. And Solomon, himself, David’s son, although he is said to have sung countless songs, has left only one which the Church accepts, the Song of Songs; he did write Proverbs however. Among others, then, one can encounter only isolated examples” (125-6).

• Explanatio psalmi I, 9 #276 reads, “What is more pleasing than a psalm? David himself puts it nicely: ‘Praise the Lord’, he says, ‘for a psalm is good’ (Ps 146:1). And indeed! A psalm is the blessing of the people, the praise of God, the commendation of the multitude, the applause of all, the speech of every man, the voice of the Church, the sonorous profession of faith, devotion full of authority, the joy of liberty, the noise of good cheer, and the echo of gladness. It softens anger, it gives release from anxiety, it alleviates sorrow; it is protection at night, instruction by day, a shield in time of fear, a feast of holiness, the image of tranquillity, a pledge of peace and harmony, which produces one song from various and sundry voices in the manner of a cithara. The day’s dawning resounds with a psalm, with a psalm its passing echoes. The Apostle admonishes women to be silent in church, yet the do well to join in a psalm; this is gratifying for all ages and fitting for both sexes. Old men ignore the stiffness of age to sing [a psalm], and melancholy veterans echo it in the joy of their hearts; young men sing one without the bane of lust, as do adolescents without threat from their insecure age or the temptation of sensual pleasure; even young women sing psalms with no loss of wifely decency, and girls sing a hymn to god with sweet and supple voice while maintaining decorum and suffering no lapse of modesty. Youth is eager to understand [a psalm], and the child who refuses to learn other things takes pleasure in contemplating it; it is a kind of play, productive of more learning than that which is dispensed with stern discipline. With what great effort is silence maintained in church during the readings (cum lectiones leguntur)! If just one person recites, the entire congregation makes noise; but when a psalm is read (legitur), it is itself the guarantor of silence because when all speak [in the response] no one makes noise. Kings put aside the arrogance of power and sing a psalm, as David himself was glad to be observed in this function; a psalm, then, is sung by emperors and rejoiced in by the people. Individuals vie in proclaiming what is of profit to all. A psalm is sung at home and repeated outdoors; it is learned without effort and retained with delight. A psalm joins those with differences, unites those at odds and reconciles those who have been offended, for who will not concede to him with whom one sings to God in one voice? It is after all a great bond of unity for the full number of people to join in one chorus. The strings of the cithara differ, but create one harmony (symphonia). The fingers of a musician (artificis) often go astray among the strings they are very few in number, but among the people the Spirit musician knows not how to err” (126-7).

• Explanatio psalmi xlv, 15, #277: “Hence what was sung today as a response to the psalm (psalmi responsorio decantatum est), considerably corroborates our point: ‘With expectation I have waited for the Lord, and he was attentive to me’ (Ps. 39:2) (127).

• sermo contra Auxentium de basilicis tradendis xxxiv gives an apparent reference to congregational singing of Ambrose’s hymns, #298: “They also say that the people are lead astray by the charms of my hymns. Certainly; I do not deny it. This is a mighty charm, more powerful than any other. For what avails more than the confession of the Trinity, which is proclaimed daily in the mouth of all the people? All vie eagerly among themselves to profess the faith; they know how to praise Father, Son and Holy Spirit in verse. All them are rendered masters, who had scarcely managed to be disciples” (132-3).



Niceta of Remesiana (d. after 414). In present day Yugoslavia, he was ordained bishop c. 370AD. Some scholars attribute the Te Deum to Niceta, though this is not universally accepted (McK.134). In de utilitate hymnorum 2, #303, we read: “I know that there are some, not only in our area but in the regions of the east, who consider the singing of psalms and hymns to be superfluous and little appropriate to divine religion. They think it enough if a psalm is spoken in the heart and frivolous if it is produced with the sound of one’s lips, and they appropriate to this opinion of theirs the verse of the Apostle which he wrote to the Ephesians: ‘Be filled with the Spirit, seeking in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts.’ Look, they say, the Apostle specifies that one must make melody in their heart, and not babble in the theatrical manner with sung melody (vocis modulatione), for it is sufficient to God ‘ who searches hearts’ (Rom 8:27) that one sings in the secrecy of his heart. None the less, if the truth be told, just as I do not blame those who ‘make melody in their heart’ (for it is always beneficial to meditate in one’s heart upon the things of God), so too do I praise those who glorify God with the sound of their voice. Now before I offer testimony drawn from numerous Scriptural passages, by way of a preliminary objection I will refute their foolish talk by appealing to that very verse of the Apostle that many use against the singers. Certainly the Apostle says, ‘be filled with the Spirit as you speak’, but I believe also that he frees our mouths, loosens our tongues and opens our lips, for it is impossible for men ‘to speak’ without these organs; and just as heat differs from cold so does silence differ from speech. And since he adds, ‘speaking in psalms and hymns and songs’, he would not have mentioned ‘songs’ if he had wished those ‘making melody’ to be altogether silent, for no one can sing by being absolutely quiet. When he says, then, ‘in your hearts’, he admonishes one not to sing with the voice alone and without attention of the heart; as he says in another place, ‘I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding’ (I Cor 14:15), that is with both voice and thought” (134-5).

• De utilitate hymnorum 9-10, #309 gives the precedents for sacred song in the NT: “Therefore in the Gospel you will first find Zachary, father of the great John, who ‘prophesied’ in the form of a hymn after his long silence. Nor did Elizabeth, so long barren, fail to ‘magnify’ God from her soul when her promised son had been born. And when Christ was born on earth, the army of angels sounded a song of praise, saying, ‘Glory to God on high’, and proclaiming ‘peace on heart to men of good will’… And not to prolong this discourse, the Lord himself, a teacher in words and master in deeds, went out to the Mount of Olives with the disciples after singing a hymn… 10 The Apostles also are known to have done likewise when even in prison they did not cease to sing. And Paul, in turn, admonishes the prophets of the Church: ‘When you come together,’ he says, ‘each one of you has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation; let all things be done for edification’. And again in another place: ‘I will sing with the spirit’, he says, ‘I will sing with the mind also’. And James puts it thus in his epistle: ‘Is anyone among you sad? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing.’ And John reports in Revelations that, as the Spirit revealed to him, he saw and heard the voice of the heavenly army ‘ like the sound of many waters and the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying, Alleluia!’”(137).



The great translator of the Vulgate, Jerome (341-420) has many references to song in worship, #312-335. In his Commentarium in epistulam ad Ephesios III, v,19, Jerome writes: “’Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (canticis), singing and making melody (psallentes) to the Lord with all your heart.’ He who has abstained from the drunkenness of wine, in which is luxury, and in place of this has been filled with the Spirit, this one is able to take all things spiritually - psalms, hymns and songs. How psalms, hymns and songs differ among themselves we learn most thoroughly in the Psalter. But it must be said here briefly that hymns are those that proclaim the strength and majesty of God and ever express wonder over his favors and deeds - something all psalms do, to which Alleluia has been superscribed or appended. Psalms, however, apply properly to the ethical seat, so that by this organ of the body we might know what is to be done and what avoided. But he who treats of higher things, the subtle investigator who explains the harmony of the world and the order and concord existing among all creatures, this one sings a spiritual song. For certainly (to speak more plainly than we wish for the sake of the simple), the psalm pertains to the body and the song to the mind. And we ought therefore to sing, to make melody and to praise the Lord more with spirit than with the voice. This in fact what is said: ‘singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord’. Let youth hear this, let them hear it whose duty it is to sing in the church, that God is to be sung to, not with the voice but with the heart - not in daubing the mouth and throat with some sweet medicine after the manner of the tragedians, so that theatrical melodies and songs are heard in the church, but in fear, in work and in knowledge of the Scriptures. Although one might be, as they are wont to say, kakophonos, if he has performed good works, he is a sweet singer before God. Thus let the servants of Christ sing, so that not the voice of the singer but the words that are read give pleasure; in order that the evil spirit which was in Saul be cast out from those similarly possessed by it, and not introduced into those who have made of God’s house a popular theatre” (144-5).



John Cassian (c.360-435), born in modern Rumania, was in Bethlehem and Egypt, but established monastic houses in Marseilles c. 415, where he introduced the Egyptian system with western modifications. He gives out the order of psalms to be sung in monastic offices. In De institutis, II, 8, he mentions the doxology, #340: “and what we have seen in this province, that after one sings to the end of the psalm all stand and sing aloud, ‘Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit’, we have never heard throughout the entire east. Instead, when the psalm is finished, there follows a prayer by one who sings, all the others remaining silent, and only the antiphon is ordinarily terminated with this glorification of the Trinity” (148).

• De institutis II, 11, #342: “And therefore they do not even try to complete the very psalms which they sing at their assembly in an unbroken recitation, but they work through them section by section, according to the number of verses, in two or three segments with prayers in between… This also is observed among them with great care, that no psalm is sung with the response Alleluia unless Alleluia appears inscribed in its title. They divide the aforementioned number of twelve psalms in this manner: if there are two brothers, each sings six; if three, four; and if four, three. They never sing less than this number when assembled, so that however large a group has come together, never more than four brothers sing in the synaxis” (148).



Augustine (354-430), the best known of all the Fathers.. Here is a great quote from his Confessions is worth our attention for many reasons (emphasis added):

• The delight of the ear drew me and held me more firmly, but you unbound and liberated me. Now I confess that I repose just a little in those sounds to which your words give life, when they are sung by a sweet and skilled voice; not such that I cling to them, but that I can rise out of them when I wish. But it is with the words by which they have life that they gain entry into me, and seek in my heart a place of some honor, even if I scarcely provide them a fitting one. Sometimes I seem to myself to grant them more respect than is fitting, when I sense that our souls are more piously and earnestly moved to the ardor of devotion by these sacred words when they are thus sung than when not thus sung, and that all the affections of our soul, by their own diversity, have their proper measures (modo) in voice and song, which are stimulated by I know not what secret correspondence. But the gratification of my flesh - to which I ought not to surrender my mind to be enervated - frequently leads me astray, as the senses do not accompany reason in such a way as patiently to follow; but having gained admission only because of it, seek even to run ahead and lead it. I sin thus in these things unknowingly, but afterwards I know. 50 Sometimes, however, in avoiding this deception too vigorously, I err by excessive severity, and sometimes so much so that I wish every melody of the sweet songs to which the Davidic Psalter is usually set, to be banished from my ears and from the church itself. And safer to me seems what I remember was often told me concerning Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who required the reader of the psalm to perform it with so little inflection (flexu) of voice that it was closer to speaking (pronuntianti) than to singing (canenti). However, when I recall the tears which I shed at the song of the Church in the first days of my recovered faith, and even now as I am moved not by the song but by the things which are sung, when sung with fluent voice and music that is most appropriate (conuenientissima modulatione), I acknowledge again the great benefit of this practice. Thus I vacillate between the peril of pleasure and the value of the experience, and I am led more - while advocating no irrevocable position - to endorse the custom of singing in church so that by the pleasure of hearing the weaker soul might be elevated to an attitude of devotion. Yet when it happens to me that the song moves me more than the thing which is sung, I confess that I have sinned blamefully and then prefer not to hear the singer. Look at my condition! Weep with me and weep for me, you who so control your inner feelings that only good comes forth.. And you who do not behave thus, these things move you not. You however, O Lord my God, give ear, look and see, have pity and heal me, in whose sight I have become an enigma unto myself; and this itself is my weakness. (McKinnon, 154-5)

[[Note that the kind of Church singing to which Augustine refers involves a solo recitation, or cantillation, of the psalm by the precentor, or cantor. It was Athanasius’ reader had to be told to chant less melodiously.]]

• In his psalm commentary In psalmum xl,I, #357, Augustine writes, “First, what we have sung in response to the reader (legenti), although it is from the middle of the psalm, we will take the beginning of our discourse from it: ‘My enemies have spoken evil against me: when shall he die and his name perish?’ (Ps. 40:6)” (157).

• In In psalmum lxxii, I Augustine defines a hymn (#360), “Hymns are praises of God with song; hymns are songs containing the praise of God. If there be praise, and it is not of God, it is not a hymn; if there be praise, and praise of God, and it is not sung, it is not a hymn. If it is to be a hymn, therefore, it must have three things: praise, and that of God, and song” (158).

• In Sermo CCCLII, de utilitate agendae poenitentiae II, 1, #374, “The voice of the penitent is recognized in the words with which we respond to the singer (psallenti): ‘Hide thy face from my song [sic.], and blot out all my iniquities’ (Ps 50:11)” (162). [[I suspect a typo on McKinnon’s part of song for sin…]]

• He puts down the heretics in #377, Epistle LV, 34-5: “But if the objection is so slight that greater benefits are to be expected for those who are earnest than damage to be feared from slanderers, then the practice ought without hesitation to be maintained, especially when it can be defended from the Scriptures, as can the singing of hymns and psalms, since we have the example and precepts of the Lord himself and of the Apostles. There are various ways of realizing this practice, which is so effective in stirring the soul with piety and in kindling the sentiment of divine love, and many members of the church in Africa are rather sluggish about it, so that the Donatists reproach us because in church we sing the divine songs of the prophets in a sober manner, while they inflame their revelry as if by trumpet calls for the singing of psalms composed by human ingenuity. When, then, is not the proper time for the brethren gathered in church to sing what is holy - unless there is reading or discourse or prayer in the clear voice of bishops or common prayer led by the voice of the deacon? 35 And at other times I simply do not see what could be done by Christian congregations that is better, what more beneficial, what more holy” (163-4).

• In Epistle CCXI, 7, #379: “Be instant in prayer at the appointed hours and times. Let no one do anything in the oratio other than that for which it was made and from which it derives its name, so that if nuns who have the free time wish to pray even outside the regular hours, others who wish to do something else there will not prove an obstacle to them. When you pray to God in psalms and hymns, let what is pronounced by the voice be meditated upon in the heart; and do not sing something unless you read that it is to be sung, for what is not thus noted to be sung, ought not to be sung” (164).

• In Liber retractationum I, 20, reference to a wide-spread usage of an Ambrosian hymn is inferred, #384: “In one passage of this book I said about the Apostle Peter that ‘on him as upon a rock the Church was built’. The same idea is sung from the mouth of many in the verse of the most blessed Ambrose, where he says of the crowing of the cock: ‘This man himself, rock of the Church at the cockcrow washed away his guilt’.” (166).

• [Pseudo?]-Augustine, Sermo CCCLXXII, De natiuitate Domini IV, 3: “Thus it is written: ‘And he rejoices as a giant in running his course’ (Ps 18:6). For he descended and he ran, he ascended and he sat. You know that you are accustomed to proclaim this: ‘After he had arisen, he ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the Father’. Blessed Ambrose has sung very concisely and most beautifully of this journey of our giant in the hymn which you sang a short while ago. In speaking of the Lord Christ he said: ‘His going out from the Father, his re-entrance to the Father; his excursion to the very depths, his return to the seat of God’.” (167-8).



Pope Celestine I (d. 432), in a sermon fragment quoted by Arnobius Junior, Conflictus Arnobii catholici cum Serapione aegyptio de Deo trino et uno XIII: “I recall that on the day of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ Ambrose of blessed memory had all the people sing with one voice, Veni redemptor gentium…” (169-70).



Gennadius, De uiris illustribus 80, writing about 480, gives us clear testimony to the concept that psalms relate thematically to readings: “Musaeus, priest of the church of Marseilles, a man learned in the Divine Scripture and refined by the most subtle exercise of its interpretation, schooled also in language, selected, at the urging of the holy bishop Venerius, readings from the Holy Writings appropriate to the feast days of the entire year and responsorial psalms (responsoria psalmorum capitula) appropriate to the season and to the readings. This most necessary task is ratified by the lectors in Church.