The epoch1 of the apostles and their immediate2 successors is that around which the most vigorous controversies3 have been waged ever since modern criticism recognized the supreme4 importance of that epoch in the history of doctrine5 and ecclesiastical government. Hardly a form of belief or polity but has sought to obtain its sanction from the teaching and usages of those churches that received their systems most directly from the personal disciples6 of the Founder7. A curiosity less productive of contention8, but hardly less persistent9, attaches to the forms and methods of worship practised by the Christian10 congregations. The rise of liturgies11, rites13, and ceremonies, the origin and use of hymns15, the foundation of the liturgical16 chant, the degree of participation17 enjoyed by the laity18 in the offices of praise and prayer,—these and many other closely related subjects of inquiry19 possess far more than an antiquarian interest; they are bound up with the history of that remarkable20 transition from the homogenous21, more democratic system of the apostolic age, to the hierarchical organization which became matured and consolidated22 under the Western popes and Eastern patriarchs. Associated [37] with this administrative23 development and related in its causes, an elaborate system of rites and ceremonies arose, partly an evolution from within, partly an inheritance of ancient habits and predispositions, which at last became formulated24 into unvarying types of devotional expression. Music participated in this ritualistic movement; it rapidly became liturgical and clerical, the laity ceased to share in the worship of song and resigned this office to a chorus drawn25 from the minor26 clergy27, and a highly organized body of chants, applied28 to every moment of the service, became almost the entire substance of worship music, and remained so for a thousand years.
In the very nature of the case a new energy must enter the art of music when enlisted29 in the ministry30 of the religion of Christ. A new motive31, a new spirit, unknown to Greek or Roman or even to Hebrew, had taken possession of the religious consciousness. To the adoration32 of the same Supreme Power, before whom the Jew bowed in awe33-stricken reverence34, was added the recognition of a gift which the Jew still dimly hoped for; and this gift brought with it an assurance, and hence a felicity, which were never granted to the religionist of the old dispensation.
The Christian felt himself the chosen joint-heir of a risen and ascended35 Lord, who by his death and resurrection had brought life and immortality36 to light. The devotion to a personal, ever-living Saviour38 transcended39 and often supplanted40 all other loyalty41 whatsoever,—to country, parents, husband, wife, or child. This religion was, therefore, emphatically one of joy,—a joy so [38] absorbing, so completely satisfying, so founded on the loftiest hopes that the human mind is able to entertain, that even the ecstatic worship of Apollo or Dionysus seems melancholy42 and hopeless in comparison. Yet it was not a joy that was prone43 to expend44 itself in noisy demonstrations45. It was mingled47 with such a profound sense of personal unworthiness and the most solemn responsibilities, tempered with sentiments of awe and wonder in the presence of unfathomable mysteries, that the manifestations48 of it must be subdued50 to moderation, expressed in forms that could appropriately typify spiritual and eternal relationships. And so, as sculpture was the art which most adequately embodied51 the humanistic conceptions of Greek theology, poetry and music became the arts in which Christianity found a vehicle of expression most suited to her genius. These two arts, therefore, when acted upon by ideas so sublime52 and penetrating53 as those of the Gospel, must at last become transformed, and exhibit signs of a renewed and aspiring54 activity. The very essence of the divine revelation in Jesus Christ must strike a more thrilling note than tone and emotional speech had ever sounded before. The genius of Christianity, opening up new soul depths, and quickening, as no other religion could, the higher possibilities of holiness in man, was especially adapted to evoke55 larger manifestations of musical invention. The religion of Jesus revealed God in the universality of his fatherhood, and his omnipresence in nature and in the human conscience. God must be worshipped in spirit and in truth, as one who draws men into communion with him by his immediate action upon the heart. This [39] religion made an appeal that could only be met by the purification of the heart, and by reconciliation56 and union with God through the merits of the crucified Son. The believer felt the possibility of direct and loving communion with the Infinite Power as the stirring of the very bases of his being. This new consciousness must declare itself in forms of expression hardly glimpsed by antiquity57, and literature and art undergo re-birth. Music particularly, the art which seems peculiarly capable of reflecting the most urgent longings59 of the spirit, felt the animating60 force of Christianity as the power which was to emancipate61 it from its ancient thraldom62 and lead it forth63 into a boundless64 sphere of action.
Not at once, however, could musical art spring up full grown and responsive to these novel demands. An art, to come to perfection, requires more than a motive. The motive, the vision, the emotion yearning65 to realize itself, may be there, but beyond this is the mastery of material and form, and such mastery is of slow and tedious growth. Especially is this true in respect to the art of music; musical forms, having no models in nature like painting and sculpture, no associative symbolism like poetry, no guidance from considerations of utility like architecture, must be the result, so far as any human work can be such, of actual free creation. And yet this creation is a progressive creation; its forms evolve from forms pre?xisting as demands for expression arise to which the old are inadequate66. Models must be found, but in the nature of the case the art can never go outside of itself for its suggestion. And although Christian music must be a development and not [40] the sudden product of an exceptional inspiration, yet we must not suppose that the early Church was compelled to work out its melodies from those crude elements in which anthropology67 discovers the first stage of musical progress in primitive68 man. The Christian fathers, like the founders69 of every historic system of religious music, drew their suggestion and perhaps some of their actual material from both religious and secular70 sources. The principle of ancient music, to which the early Christian music conformed, was that of the subordination of music to poetry and the dance-figure. Harmony was virtually unknown in antiquity, and without a knowledge of part-writing no independent art of music is possible. The song of antiquity was the most restricted of all melodic71 styles, viz., the chant or recitative. The essential feature of both chant and recitative is that the tones are made to conform to the metre and accent of the text, the words of which are never repeated or prosodically modified out of deference73 to melodic phrases and periods. In true song, on the contrary, the words are subordinated to the exigencies74 of musical laws of structure, and the musical phrase, not the word, is the ruling power. The principle adopted by the Christian fathers was that of the chant, and Christian music could not begin to move in the direction of modern artistic75 attainment76 until, in the course of time, a new technical principle, and a new conception of the relation between music and poetry, could be introduced.
[41]
In theory, style, usage, and probably to some extent in actual melodies also, the music of the primitive Church forms an unbroken line with the music of pre-Christian antiquity. The relative proportion contributed by Jewish and Greek musical practice cannot be known. There was at the beginning no formal break with the ancient Jewish Church; the disciples assembled regularly in the temple for devotional exercises; worship in their private gatherings77 was modelled upon that of the synagogue which Christ himself had implicitly78 sanctioned. The synagogical code was modified by the Christians79 by the introduction of the eucharistic service, the Lord’s Prayer, the baptismal formula, and other institutions occasioned by the new doctrines80 and the “spiritual gifts.” At Christ’s last supper with his disciples, when the chief liturgical rite12 of the Church was instituted, the company sang a hymn14 which was unquestionably the “great Hallel” of the Jewish Passover celebration.[29] The Jewish Christians clung with an inherited reverence to the venerable forms of their fathers’ worship; they observed the Sabbath, the three daily hours of prayer, and much of the Mosaic81 ritual. In respect to musical usages, the most distinct intimation in early records of the continuation of ancient forms is found in the occasional reference to the habit of antiphonal or responsive chanting of the psalms83. Fixed84 forms of prayer were also used in the apostolic Church, which were to a considerable extent modelled upon the psalms and the benedictions85 of the synagogue ritual. That the Hebrew melodies were borrowed at the same time cannot be demonstrated, but it may be assumed as a necessary inference.
[42]
With the spread of the Gospel among the Gentiles, the increasing hostility86 between Christians and Jews, the dismemberment of the Jewish nationality, and the overthrow87 of Jewish institutions to which the Hebrew Christians had maintained a certain degree of attachment88, dependence89 upon the Jewish ritual was loosened, and the worship of the Church came under the influence of Hellenic systems and traditions. Greek philosophy and Greek art, although both in decadence90, were dominant91 in the intellectual life of the East, and it was impossible that the doctrine, worship, and government of the Church should not be gradually leavened92 by them. St. Paul wrote in the Greek language; the earliest liturgies are in Greek. The sentiment of prayer and praise was, of course, Hebraic; the psalms formed the basis of all lyric93 expression, and the hymns and liturgies were to a large extent colored by their phraseology and spirit. The shapeliness and flexibility94 of Greek art, the inward fervor95 of Hebrew aspiration96, the love of ceremonial and symbolism, which was not confined to any single nation but was a universal characteristic of the time, all contributed to build up the composite and imposing97 structure of the later worship of the Eastern and Western churches.
The singing of psalms formed a part of the Christian worship from the beginning, and certain special psalms were early appointed for particular days and occasions. At what time hymns of contemporary origin were added we have no means of knowing. Evidently during the life of St. Paul, for we find him encouraging the Ephesians and Colossians to the use of “psalms, hymns, [43] and spiritual songs.”[30] To be sure he is not specifically alluding98 to public worship in these exhortations99 (in the first instance “speaking to yourselves” and “singing and making melody in your hearts,” in the second “teaching and admonishing101 one another”), but it is hardly to be supposed that the spiritual exercise of which he speaks would be excluded from the religious services which at that time were of daily observance. The injunction to teach and admonish100 by means of songs also agrees with other evidences that a prime motive for hymn singing in many of the churches was instruction in the doctrines of the faith. It would appear that among the early Christians, as with the Greeks and other ancient nations, moral precepts102 and instruction in religious mysteries were often thrown into poetic103 and musical form, as, being by this means more impressive and more easily remembered.
It is to be noticed that St. Paul, in each of the passages cited above, alludes104 to religious songs under three distinct terms, viz.: ψαλμο?, ?μνοι, and ?δα? πνευματικα?. The usual supposition is that the terms are not synonymous, that they refer to a threefold classification of the songs of the early Church into: 1, the ancient Hebrew psalms properly so called; 2, hymns taken from the Old Testament105 and not included in the psalter and since called canticles, such as the thanksgiving of Hannah, the song of Moses, the Psalm82 of the Three Children from the continuation of the Book of Daniel, the vision of Habakkuk, etc.; and, 3, songs composed by the Christians themselves. The last of these three classes [44] points us to the birth time of Christian hymnody. The lyric inspiration, which has never failed from that day to this, began to move the instant the proselyting work of the Church began. In the freedom and informality of the religious assembly as it existed among the Hellenic Christians, it became the practice for the believers to contribute impassioned outbursts, which might be called songs in a rudimentary state. In moments of highly charged devotional ecstasy106 this spontaneous utterance107 took the form of broken, incoherent, unintelligible108 ejaculations, probably in cadenced109, half-rhythmic110 tone, expressive111 of rapture112 and mystical illumination. This was the “glossolalia,” or “gift of tongues” alluded113 to by St. Paul in the first epistle to the Corinthians as a practice to be approved, under certain limitations, as edifying114 to the believers.[31]
Dr. Schaff defines the gift of tongues as “an utterance proceeding115 from a state of unconscious ecstasy in the speaker, and unintelligible to the hearer unless interpreted. The speaking with tongues is an involuntary, psalm-like prayer or song uttered from a spiritual trance, in a peculiar58 language inspired by the Holy Spirit. The soul is almost entirely116 passive, an instrument on which the Spirit plays his heavenly melodies.” “It is emotional rather than intellectual, the language of excited imagination, not of cool reflection.”[32] St. Paul was himself an adept117 in this singular form of worship, as he himself declares in 1 Cor. xiv. 18; but with his habitual118 coolness of judgment119 he warns the [45] excitable Corinthian Christians that sober instruction is more profitable, that the proper end of all utterance in common public worship is edification, and enjoins120 as an effective restraint that “if any man speaketh in a tongue, let one interpret; but if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the Church; and let him speak to himself and to God.”[33] With the regulation of the worship in stated liturgic form this extemporaneous121 ebullition of feeling was done away, but if it was analogous122, as it probably was, to the practice so common in Oriental vocal123 music, both ancient and modern, of delivering long wordless tonal flourishes as an expression of joy, then it has in a certain sense survived in the “jubilations” of the Catholic liturgical chant, which in the early Middle Age were more extended than now. Chappell finds traces of a practice somewhat similar to the “jubilations” existing in ancient Egypt. “This practice of carolling or singing without words, like birds, to the gods, was copied by the Greeks, who seem to have carolled on four vowels124. The vowels had probably, in both cases, some recognized meaning attached to them, as substitutes for certain words of praise—as was the case when the custom was transferred to the Western Church.”[34] This may or may not throw light upon the obscure nature of the glossolalia, but it is not to be supposed that the Corinthian Christians invented this custom, since we find traces of it in the worship of the ancient pagan nations; and so far as it was the unrestrained outburst of emotion, it must have been to some extent musical, and only needed regulation and the application of a definite key-system to become, like the mediaeval Sequence under somewhat similar conditions, an established order of sacred song.
[46]
Out of a musical impulse, of which the glossolalia was one of many tokens, united with the spirit of prophecy or instruction, grew the hymns of the infant Church, dim outlines of which begin to appear in the twilight125 of this obscure period. The worshipers of Christ could not remain content with the Hebrew psalms, for, in spite of their inspiriting and edifying character, they were not concerned with the facts on which the new faith was based, except as they might be interpreted as prefiguring the later dispensation. Hymns were required in which Christ was directly celebrated126, and the apprehension127 of his infinite gifts embodied in language which would both fortify128 the believers and act as a converting agency. It would be contrary to all analogy and to the universal facts of human nature if such were not the case, and we may suppose that a Christian folk-song, such as the post-apostolic age reveals to us, began to appear in the first century. Some scholars believe that certain of these primitive hymns, or fragments of them, are embalmed129 in the Epistles of St. Paul and the Book of the Revelation.[35] The magnificent description of the worship of God and the Lamb in the Apocalypse has been supposed by some to have been suggested by the manner of worship, already become liturgical, in the [47] Eastern churches. Certainly there is a manifest resemblance between the picture of one sitting upon the throne with the twenty-four elders and a multitude of angels surrounding him, as set forth in the Apocalypse, and the account given in the second book of the Constitutions of the Apostles of the throne of the bishop130 in the middle of the church edifice131, with the presbyters and deacons on each side and the laity beyond. In this second book of the Constitutions, belonging, of course, to a later date than the apostolic period, there is no mention of hymn singing. The share of the people is confined to responses at the end of the verses of the psalms, which are sung by some one appointed to this office.[36] The sacerdotal and liturgical movement had already excluded from the chief acts of worship the independent song of the people. Those who assume that the office of song in the early Church was freely committed to the general body of believers have some ground for their assumption; but if we are able to distinguish between the private and public worship, and could know how early it was that set forms and liturgies were adopted, it would appear that at the longest the time was very brief when the laity were allowed a share in any but the subordinate offices. The earliest testimony132 that can be called definite is contained in the celebrated letter of the younger Pliny from Bithynia to the Emperor Trajan, in the year 112, in which the Christians are described as coming together before daylight and singing hymns alternately (invicem) to Christ. This may with some reason be held to refer [48] to responsive or antiphonal singing, similar to that described by Philo in his account of the worship of the Jewish sect133 of the Therapeutae in the first century. The tradition was long preserved in the Church that Ignatius, bishop of Antioch in the second century, introduced antiphonal chanting into the churches of that city, having been moved thereto by a vision of angels singing in that manner. But we have only to go back to the worship of the ancient Hebrews for the suggestion of this practice. This alternate singing appears to have been most prevalent in the Syrian churches, and was carried thence to Milan and Rome, and through the usage in these cities was established in the permanent habit of the Western Church.
Although the singing of psalms and hymns by the body of worshipers was, therefore, undoubtedly134 the custom of the churches while still in their primitive condition as informal assemblies of believers for mutual135 counsel and edification, the steady progress of ritualism and the growth of sacerdotal ideas inevitably136 deprived the people of all initiative in the worship, and concentrated the offices of public devotion, including that of song, exclusively in the hands of the clergy. By the middle of the fourth century, if not earlier, the change was complete. The simple organization of the apostolic age had developed by logical gradations into a compact hierarchy137 of patriarchs, bishops138, priests, and deacons. The clergy were no longer the servants or representatives of the people, but held a mediatorial position as the channels through which divine grace was transmitted to the faithful. The great Eastern [49] liturgies, such as those which bear the names of St. James and St. Mark, if not yet fully139 formulated and committed to writing, were in all essentials complete and adopted as the substance of the public worship. The principal service was divided into two parts, from the second of which, the eucharistic service proper, the catechumens and penitents140 were excluded. The prayers, readings, and chanted sentences, of which the liturgy141 mainly consisted, were delivered by priests, deacons, and an officially constituted choir142 of singers, the congregation uniting only in a few responses and ejaculations. In the liturgy of St. Mark, which was the Alexandrian, used in Egypt and neighboring countries, we find allotted143 to the people a number of responses: “Amen,” “Kyrie eleison,” “And to thy spirit” (in response to the priest’s “Peace be to all”); “We lift them up to the Lord” (in response to the priest’s “Let us lift up our hearts”); and “In the name of the Lord; Holy God, holy mighty144, holy immortal37,” after the Trisagion; “And from the Holy Spirit was he made flesh,” after the prayer of oblation145; “Holy, holy, holy Lord,” before the consecration146; “Our Father, who art in heaven,” etc.; before the communion, “One Father holy, one Son holy, one Spirit holy, in the unity147 of the Holy Spirit, Amen;” at the dismissal, “Amen, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
In the liturgy of St. James, the liturgy of the Jerusalem Church, a very similar share, in many instances with identical words, is assigned to the people; but a far more frequent mention is made of the choir of singers who render the Trisagion hymn, which, in St. [50] Mark’s liturgy, is given by the people: besides the “Allelulia,” the hymn to the Virgin148 Mother, “O taste and see that the Lord is good,” and “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.”
A large portion of the service, as indicated by these liturgies, was occupied by prayers, during which the people kept silence. In the matter of responses the congregation had more direct share than in the Catholic Church to-day, for now the chancel choir acts as their representatives, while the Kyrie eleison has become one of the choral portions of the Mass, and the Thrice Holy has been merged149 in the choral Sanctus. But in the liturgical worship, whatever may have been the case in non-liturgical observances, the share of the people was confined to these few brief ejaculations and prescribed sentences, and nothing corresponding to the congregational song of the Protestant Church can be found. Still earlier than this final issue of the ritualistic movement the singing of the people was limited to psalms and canticles, a restriction150 justified151 and perhaps occasioned by the ease with which doctrinal vagaries152 and mystical extravagances could be instilled153 into the minds of the converts by means of this very subtle and persuasive154 agent. The conflict of the orthodox churches with the Gnostics and Arians showed clearly the danger of unlimited155 license156 in the production and singing of hymns, for these formidable heretics drew large numbers away from the faith of the apostles by means of the choral songs which they employed everywhere for proselyting purposes. The Council of Laodicea (held [51] between 343 and 381) decreed in its 13th Canon: “Besides the appointed singers, who mount the ambo and sing from the book, others shall not sing in the church.”[37] The exact meaning of this prohibition157 has not been determined158, for the participation of the people in the church song did not entirely cease at this time. How generally representative this council was, or how extensive its authority, is not known; but the importance of this decree has been exaggerated by historians of music, for, at most, it serves only as a register of a fact which was an inevitable159 consequence of the universal hierarchical and ritualistic tendencies of the time.
The history of the music of the Christian Church properly begins with the establishment of the priestly liturgic chant, which had apparently160 supplanted the popular song in the public worship as early as the fourth century. Of the character of the chant melodies at this period in the Eastern Church, or of their sources, we have no positive information. Much vain conjecture161 has been expended162 on this question. Some are persuaded that the strong infusion163 of Hebraic feeling and phraseology into the earliest hymns, and the adoption164 of the Hebrew psalter into the service, necessarily implies the inheritance of the ancient temple and synagogue melodies also. Others assume that the allusion165 of St. Augustine to the usage at Alexandria under St. Athanasius, which was “more like speaking than singing,”[38] was an example of the practice of the Oriental and Roman churches generally, and that the later chant [52] developed out of this vague song-speech. Others, like Kiesewetter, exaggerating the antipathy166 of the Christians to everything identified with Judaism and paganism, conceive the primitive Christian melodies as entirely an original invention, a true Christian folk-song.[39] None of these suppositions, however, could have more than a local and temporary application; the Jewish Christian congregations in Jerusalem and neighboring cities doubtless transferred a few of their ancestral melodies to the new worship; a prejudice against highly developed tune167 as suggesting the sensuous168 cults169 of paganism may have existed among the more austere170; here and there new melodies may have sprung up to clothe the extemporized171 lyrics172 that became perpetuated173 in the Church. But the weight of evidence and analogy inclines to the belief that the liturgic song of the Church, both of the East and West, was drawn partly in form and almost wholly in spirit and complexion174 from the Greek and Greco-Roman musical practice.
But scanty175 knowledge of Christian archaeology176 and liturgies is necessary to show that much of form, ceremony, and decoration in the worship of the Church was the adaptation of features anciently existing in the faiths and customs which the new religion supplanted. The practical genius which adopted Greek metres for Christian hymns, and modified the styles of basilikas, scholae, and domestic architecture in effecting a suitable form of church building, would not cavil177 at the melodies and vocal methods which seemed so well suited to be a musical garb178 for the liturgies. Greek music was, [53] indeed, in some of its phases, in decadence at this period. It had gained nothing in purity by passing into the hands of Roman voluptuaries. The age of the virtuosos179, aiming at brilliancy and sensationalism, had succeeded to the classic traditions of austerity and reserve. This change was felt, however, in instrumental music chiefly, and this the Christian churches disdained180 to touch. It was the residue181 of what was pure and reverend, drawn from the tradition of Apollo’s temple and the Athenian tragic182 theatre; it was the form of vocalism which austere philosophers like Plutarch praised that was drafted into the service of the Gospel. Perhaps even this was reduced to simple terms in the Christian practice; certainly the oldest chants that can be traced are the plainest, and the earliest scale system of the Italian Church would appear to allow but a very narrow compass to melody. We can form our most accurate notion of the nature of the early Christian music, therefore, by studying the records of Greek practice and Greek views of music’s nature and function in the time of the flowering of Greek poetry, for certainly the Christian fathers did not attempt to go beyond that; and perhaps, in their zeal183 to avoid all that was meretricious184 in tonal art, they adopted as their standard those phases which could most easily be made to coalesce185 with the inward and humble186 type of piety187 inculcated by the faith of the Gospel. This hypothesis does, not imply a note-for-note borrowing of Greek and Roman melodies, but only their adaptation. As Luther and the other founders of the music of the German Protestant Church took [54] melodies from the Catholic chant and the German and Bohemian religious and secular folk-song, and recast them to fit the metres of their hymns, so the early Christian choristers would naturally be moved to do with the melodies which they desired to transplant. Much modification188 was necessary, for while the Greek and Roman songs were metrical, the Christian psalms, antiphons, prayers, responses, etc., were unmetrical; and while the pagan melodies were always sung to an instrumental accompaniment, the church chant was exclusively vocal. Through the influence of this double change of technical and Aesthetic189 basis, the liturgic song was at once more free, aspiring, and varied190 than its prototype, taking on that rhythmic flexibility and delicate shading in which also the unique charm of the Catholic chant of the present day so largely consists.
In view of the controversies over the use of instrumental music in worship, which have been so violent in the British and American Protestant churches, it is an interesting question whether instruments were employed by the primitive Christians. We know that instruments performed an important function in the Hebrew temple service and in the ceremonies of the Greeks. At this point, however, a break was made with all previous practice, and although the lyre and flute191 were sometimes employed by the Greek converts, as a general rule the use of instruments in worship was condemned192. Many of the fathers, speaking of religious song, make no mention of instruments; others, like Clement193 of Alexandria and St. Chrysostom, refer to them only to denounce them. Clement says: “Only one instrument [55] do we use, viz., the word of peace wherewith we honor God, no longer the old psaltery, trumpet194, drum, and flute.” Chrysostom exclaims: “David formerly195 sang in psalms, also we sing to-day with him; he had a lyre with lifeless strings196, the Church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre, with a different tone, indeed, but with a more accordant piety.” St. Ambrose expresses his scorn for those who would play the lyre and psaltery instead of singing hymns and psalms; and St. Augustine adjures197 believers not to turn their hearts to theatrical198 instruments. The religious guides of the early Christians felt that there would be an incongruity199, and even profanity, in the use of the sensuous nerve-exciting effects of instrumental sound in their mystical, spiritual worship. Their high religious and moral enthusiasm needed no aid from external stimulus200; the pure vocal utterance was the more proper expression of their faith. This prejudice against instrumental music, which was drawn from the very nature of its aesthetic impression, was fortified201 by the associations of instruments with superstitious202 pagan rites, and especially with the corrupting203 scenes habitually204 represented in the degenerate205 theatre and circus. “A Christian maiden,” says St. Jerome, “ought not even to know what a lyre or a flute is, or what it is used for.” No further justification206 for such prohibitions207 is needed than the shameless performances common upon the stage in the time of the Roman empire, as portrayed208 in the pages of Apuleius and other delineators of the manners of the time. Those who assumed the guardianship209 of the [56] morals of the little Christian communities were compelled to employ the strictest measures to prevent their charges from breathing the moral pestilence210 which circulated without check in the places of public amusement; most of all must they insist that every reminder211 of these corruptions212, be it an otherwise innocent harp213 or flute, should be excluded from the common acts of religion.
The transfer of the office of song from the general congregation to an official choir involved no cessation of the production of hymns for popular use, for the distinction must always be kept in mind between liturgical and non-liturgical song, and it was only in the former that the people were commanded to abstain214 from participation in all but the prescribed responses. On the other hand, as ceremonies multiplied and festivals increased in number, hymnody was stimulated216, and lyric songs for private and social edification, for the hours of prayer, and for use in processions, pilgrimages, dedications217, and other occasional celebrations, were rapidly produced. As has been shown, the Christians had their hymns from the very beginning, but with the exception of one or two short lyrics, a few fragments, and the great liturgical hymns which were also adopted by the Western Church, they have been lost. Clement of Alexandria, third century, is often spoken of as the first known Christian hymn writer; but the single poem, the song of praise to the Logos, which has gained him this title, is not, strictly218 speaking, a hymn at all. From the fourth century onward219 the tide of Oriental hymnody steadily220 rose, reaching its culmination221 in the eighth and ninth centuries. The Eastern hymns are [57] divided into two schools—the Syrian and the Greek. Of the group of Syrian poets the most celebrated are Synesius, born about 375, and Ephraem, who died at Edessa in 378. Ephraem was the greatest teacher of his time in the Syrian Church, and her most prolific222 and able hymnist. He is best remembered as the opponent of the followers223 of Bardasanes and Harmonius, who had beguiled224 many into their Gnostic errors by the charm of their hymns and melodies. Ephraem met these schismatics on their own ground, and composed a large number of songs in the spirit of orthodoxy, which he gave to choirs225 of his followers to be sung on Sundays and festal days. The hymns of Ephraem were greatly beloved by the Syrian Church, and are still valued by the Maronite Christians. The Syrian school of hymnody died out in the fifth century, and poetic inspiration in the Eastern Church found its channel in the Greek tongue.
Before the age of the Greek Christian poets whose names have passed into history, the great anonymous226 unmetrical hymns appeared which still hold an eminent227 place in the liturgies of the Catholic and Protestant Churches as well as of the Eastern Church. The best known of these are the two Glorias—the Gloria Patri and the Gloria in excelsis; the Ter Sanctus or Cherubic hymn, heard by Isaiah in vision; and the Te Deum. The Magnificat or thanksgiving of Mary, and the Benedicite or Song of the Three Children, were early adopted by the Eastern Church. The Kyrie eleison appears as a response by the people in the liturgies of St. Mark and St. James. It was adopted into the Roman liturgy at a very early date; the addition of the [58] Christe eleison is said to have been made by Gregory the Great. The Gloria in excelsis, the “greater doxology,” with the possible exception of the Te Deum the noblest of the early Christian hymns, is the angelic song given in Luke ii. 14, with additions which were made not later than the fourth century. “Begun in heaven, finished on earth.” It was first used in the Eastern Church as a morning hymn. The Te Deum laudamus has often been given a Western origin, St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, according to a popular legend, having been inspired to improvise228 it in alternate verses at the baptism of St. Augustine by the bishop of Milan. Another tradition ascribes the authorship to St. Hilary in the fourth century. Its original form is unknown, but it is generally believed to have been formed by accretions229 upon a Greek original. Certain phrases contained in it are also in the earlier liturgies. The present form of the hymn is probably as old as the fifth century.[40]
Of the very few brief anonymous songs and fragments which have come down to us from this dim period the most perfect is a Greek hymn, which was sometimes sung in private worship at the lighting230 of the lamps. It has been made known to many English readers through Longfellow’s beautiful translation in “The Golden Legend:”
[59]
“O gladsome light
Of the Father immortal,
And of the celestial231
Sacred and blessed
Jesus, our Saviour!
Now to the sunset
Again hast thou brought us;
And seeing the evening
Twilight, we bless thee,
Praise thee, adore thee
Father omnipotent232!
Son, the Life-giver!
Spirit, the Comforter!
Worthy233 at all times
Of worship and wonder!
Overlapping234 the epoch of the great anonymous hymns and continuing beyond it is the era of the Greek hymnists whose names and works are known, and who contributed a vast store of lyrics to the offices of the Eastern Church. Eighteen quarto volumes, says Dr. J. M. Neale, are occupied by this huge store of religious poetry. Dr. Neale, to whom the English-speaking world is chiefly indebted for what slight knowledge it has of these hymns, divides them into three epochs:
1. “That of formation, when this poetry was gradually throwing off the bondage235 of classical metres, and inventing and perfecting its various styles; this period ends about A. D. 726.”
2. “That of perfection, which nearly coincides with the period of the iconoclastic236 controversy237, 726-820.”
3. “That of decadence, when the effeteness238 of an effeminate court and the dissolution of a decaying empire reduced ecclesiastical poetry, by slow degrees, to a stilted239 bombast240, giving great words to little meaning, heaping up epithet241 upon epithet, tricking out commonplaces in diction more and more gorgeous, till [60] sense and simplicity242 are alike sought in vain; 820-1400.”[41]
The centres of Greek hymnody in its most brilliant period were Sicily, Constantinople, and Jerusalem and its neighborhood, particularly St. Sabba’s monastery243, where lived St. Cosmas and St. John Damascene, the two greatest of the Greek Christian poets. The hymnists of this epoch preserved much of the narrative244 style and objectivity of the earlier writers, especially in the hymns written to celebrate the Nativity, the Epiphany, and other events in the life of Christ. In others a more reflective and introspective quality is found. The fierce struggles, hatreds245, and persecutions of the iconoclastic controversy also left their plain mark upon many of them in a frequent tendency to magnify temptations and perils247, in a profound sense of sin, a consciousness of the necessity of penitential discipline for the attainment of salvation249, and a certain fearful looking-for of judgment. This attitude, so different from the peace and confidence of the earlier time, attains250 its most striking manifestation49 in the sombre and powerful funeral dirge251 ascribed to St. John Damascene (“Take the last kiss”) and the Judgment hymn of St. Theodore of the Studium. In the latter the poet strikes with trembling hand the tone which four hundred years later was sounded with such imposing majesty252 in the Dies Irae of St. Thomas of Celano.
[61]
The Catholic hymnody, so far at least as concerns the usage of the ritual, belongs properly to a later period. The hymns of St. Hilary, St. Damasus, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, Prudentius, Fortunatus, and St. Gregory, which afterward253 so beautified the Divine Office, were originally designed for private devotion and for accessory ceremonies, since it was not until the tenth or eleventh century that hymns were introduced into the office at Rome, following a tendency that was first authoritatively254 recognized by the Council of Toledo in the seventh century.
The history of Christian poetry and music in the East ends with the separation of the Eastern and Western Churches. From that time onward a chilling blight255 rested upon the soil which the apostles had cultivated with such zeal and for a time with such grand result. The fatal controversy over icons256, the check inflicted257 by the conquests of the Mohammedan power, the crushing weight of Byzantine luxury and tyranny, and that insidious258 apathy259 which seems to dwell in the very atmosphere of the Orient, sooner or later entering into every high endeavor, relaxing and corrupting—all this sapped the spiritual life of the Eastern Church. The pristine260 enthusiasm was succeeded by fanaticism261, and out of fanaticism, in its turn, issued formalism, bigotry262, stagnation263. It was only among the nations that were to rear a new civilization in Western Europe on the foundations laid by the Roman empire that political and social conditions could be created which would give free scope for the expansion of the divine life of Christianity. It was only in the West, also, that the motives264 that were adequate to inspire a Christian art, after a long struggle against Byzantine formalism and [62] convention, could issue in a prophetic artistic progress. The attempted reconciliation of Christian ideas and traditional pagan method formed the basis of Christian art, but the new insight into spiritual things, and the profounder emotions that resulted, demanded new ideals and principles as well as new subjects. The nature and destiny of the soul, the beauty and significance that lie in secret self-scrutiny and aspiration kindled265 by a new hope, this, rather than the loveliness of outward shape, became the object of contemplation and the endless theme of art. Architecture and sculpture became symbolic266, painting the presentation of ideas designed to stimulate215 new life in the soul, poetry and music the direct witness and the immediate manifestation of the soul itself.
With the edicts of Constantine early in the fourth century, which practically made Christianity the dominant religious system of the empire, the swift dilation267 of the pent-up energy of the Church inaugurated an era in which ritualistic splendor268 kept pace with the rapid acquisition of temporal power. The hierarchical developments had already traversed a course parallel to those of the East, and now that the Church was free to work out that genius for organization of which it had already become definitely conscious, it went one step farther than the Oriental system in the establishment of the papacy as the single head from which the subordinate members derived269 legality. This was not a time when a democratic form of church government could endure. There was no place for such in the ideas of that age. In the furious tempests that overwhelmed the Roman [63] empire, in the readjustment of political and social conditions all over Europe, with the convulsions and frequent triumphs of savagery270 that inevitably attended them, it was necessary that the Church, as the sole champion and preserver of civilization and righteousness, should concentrate all her forces, and become in doctrine, worship, and government a single, compact, unified271, spiritual state. The dogmas of the Church must be formulated, preserved, and guarded by an official class, and the ignorant and fickle272 mass of the common people must be taught to yield a reverent273, unquestioning obedience274 to the rule of their spiritual lords. The exposition of theology, the doctrine of the ever-renewed sacrifice of Christ upon the altar, the theory of the sacraments generally, all involved the conception of a mediatorial priesthood deriving275 its authority by direct transmission from the apostles. Out of such conditions and tendencies proceeded also the elaborate and awe-inspiring rites, the fixed liturgies embalming276 the central dogmas of the faith, and the whole machinery277 of a worship which was itself viewed as of an objective efficacy, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and designed both for the edification of the believer and as an offering of the Church to its Redeemer. In the development of the outward observances of worship, with their elaborate symbolic ceremonialism, the student is often struck with surprise to see how lavishly278 the Church drew its forms and decorations from paganism and Judaism. But there is nothing in this that need excite wonder, nothing that was not inevitable under the conditions of the times. Says Lanciani: “In [64] accepting rites and customs which were not offensive to her principles and morality, the Church showed equal tact279 and foresight280, and contributed to the peaceful accomplishment281 of the transformation282.”[42] The pagan or Jewish convert was not obliged to part with all his ancestral notions of the nature of worship. He found his love of pomp and splendor gratified by the ceremonies of a religion which knew how to make many of the fair features of earthly life accessory to the inculcation of spiritual truth. And so it was that symbolism and the appeal to the senses aided in commending Christianity to a world which was not yet prepared for a faith which should require only a silent, unobtrusive experience. Instruction must come to the populace in forms which would satisfy their inherited predispositions. The Church, therefore, establishing itself amidst heathenism, adopted a large number of rites and customs from classical antiquity; and in the externals of its worship, as well as of its government, assumed forms which were contributions from without, as well as evolutions from within. These acquisitions, however, did not by any means remain a meaningless or incongruous residuum of dead superstitions283. An instructive symbolism was imparted to them; they were moulded with marvellous art into the whole vesture with which the Church clothed herself for her temporal and spiritual office, and were made to become conscious witnesses to the truth and beauty of the new faith.
[65]
The commemoration of martyrs284 and confessors passed into invocations for their aid as intercessors with Christ. They became the patron saints of individuals and orders, and honors were paid to them at particular places and on particular days, involving a multitude of special ritual observances. Festivals were multiplied and took the place in popular regard of the old Roman Lupercalia and Saturnalia and the mystic rites of heathenism. As among the cultivated nations of antiquity, so in Christian Rome the festival, calling into requisition every available means of decoration, became the basis of a rapid development of art. Under all these conditions the music of the Church in Italy became a liturgic music, and, as in the East, the laity resigned the main offices of song to a choir consisting of subordinate clergy and appointed by clerical authority. The method of singing was undoubtedly not indigenous285, but derived, as already suggested, directly or indirectly286 from Eastern practice. Milman asserts that the liturgy of the Roman Church for the first three centuries was Greek. However this may have been, we know that both Syriac and Greek influences were strong at that time in the Italian Church. A number of the popes in the seventh century were Greeks. Until the cleavage of the Church into its final Eastern and Western divisions the interaction was strong between the two sections, and much in the way of custom and art was common to both. The conquests of the Moslem287 power in the seventh century drove many Syrian monks288 into Italy, and their liturgic practice, half Greek, half Semitic, could not fail to make itself felt among their adopted brethren.
[66]
A notable instance of the transference of Oriental custom into the Italian Church is to be found in the establishment of antiphonal chanting in the Church of Milan, at the instance of St. Ambrose, bishop of that city. St. Augustine, the pupil and friend of St. Ambrose, has given an account of this event, of which he had personal knowledge. “It was about a year, or not much more,” he relates, “since Justina, the mother of the boy-emperor Justinian, persecuted289 thy servant Ambrose in the interest of her heresy290, to which she had been seduced291 by the Arians.” [This persecution246 was to induce St. Ambrose to surrender some of the churches of the city to the Arians.] “The pious292 people kept guard in the church, prepared to die with their bishop, thy servant. At this time it was instituted that, after the manner of the Eastern Church, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should pine away in the tediousness of sorrow, which custom, retained from then till now, is imitated by many—yea, by almost all of thy congregations throughout the rest of the world.”[43]
The conflict of St. Ambrose with the Arians occurred in 386. Before the introduction of the antiphonal chant the psalms were probably rendered in a semi-musical recitation, similar to the usage mentioned by St. Augustine as prevailing293 at Alexandria under St. Athanasius, “more speaking than singing.” That a more elaborate and emotional style was in use at Milan in St. Augustine’s time is proved by the very interesting passage in the tenth book of the Confessions294, in which he analyzes295 the effect upon himself of the music [67] of the Church, fearing lest its charm had beguiled him from pious absorption in the sacred words into a purely296 aesthetic gratification. He did not fail, however, to render the just meed of honor to the music that so touched him: “How I wept at thy hymns and canticles, pierced to the quick by the voices of thy melodious297 Church! Those voices flowed into my ears, and the truth distilled298 into my heart, and thence there streamed forth a devout299 emotion, and my tears ran down, and happy was I therein.”[44]
Antiphonal psalmody, after the pattern of that employed at Milan, was introduced into the divine office at Rome by Pope Celestine, who reigned300 422-432. It is at about this time that we find indications of the more systematic302 development of the liturgic priestly chant. The history of the papal choir goes back as far as the fifth century. Leo I., who died in 461, gave a durable303 organization to the divine office by establishing a community of monks to be especially devoted304 to the service of the canonical305 hours. In the year 680 the monks of Monte Cassino, founded by St. Benedict, suddenly appeared in Rome and announced the destruction of their monastery by the Lombards. Pope Pelagius received them hospitably306, and gave them a dwelling307 near the Lateran basilica. This cloister308 became a means of providing the papal chapel309 with singers. In connection with the college of men singers, who held the clerical title of sub-deacon, stood an establishment for boys, who were to be trained for service in the pope’s choir, and who were also given instruction in [68] other branches. This school received pupils from the wealthiest and most distinguished310 families, and a number of the early popes, including Gregory II. and Paul I., received instruction within its walls.
By the middle or latter part of the sixth century, the mediaeval epoch of church music had become fairly inaugurated. A large body of liturgic chants had been classified and systematized, and the teaching of their form and the tradition of their rendering311 given into the hands of members of the clergy especially detailed312 for their culture. The liturgy, essentially313 completed during or shortly before the reign301 of Gregory the Great (590-604), was given a musical setting throughout, and this liturgic chant was made the law of the Church equally with the liturgy itself, and the first steps were taken to impose one uniform ritual and one uniform chant upon all the congregations of the West.
It was, therefore, in the first six centuries, when the Church was organizing and drilling her forces for her victorious314 conflicts, that the final direction of her music, as of all her art, was consciously taken. In rejecting the support of instruments and developing for the first time an exclusively vocal art, and in breaking loose from the restrictions315 of antique metre which in Greek and Greco-Roman music had forced melody to keep step with strict prosodic72 measure, Christian music parted company with pagan art, threw the burden of expression not, like Greek music, upon rhythm, but upon melody, and found in this absolute vocal melody a new art principle of which all the worship music of modern Christendom [69] is the natural fruit. More vital still than these special forms and principles, comprehending and necessitating316 them, was the true ideal of music, proclaimed once for all by the fathers of the liturgy. This ideal is found in the distinction of the church style from the secular style, the expression of the universal mood of prayer, rather than the expression of individual, fluctuating, passionate317 emotion with which secular music deals—that rapt, pervasive318, exalted319 tone which makes no attempt at detailed painting of events or superficial mental states, but seems rather to symbolize320 the fundamental sentiments of humility321, awe, hope, and love which mingle46 all particular experiences in the common offering that surges upward from the heart of the Church to its Lord and Master. In this avoidance of an impassioned emphasis of details in favor of an expression drawn from the large spirit of worship, church music evades the peril248 of introducing an alien dramatic element into the holy ceremony, and asserts its nobler power of creating an atmosphere from which all worldly custom and association disappear. This grand conception was early injected into the mind of the Church, and has been the parent of all that has been most noble and edifying in the creations of ecclesiastical music.
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1
epoch
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| n.(新)时代；历元 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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controversies
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| 争论 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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liturgies
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| n.礼拜仪式( liturgy的名词复数 )；（英国国教的）祈祷书 | |
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rite
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| n.典礼，惯例，习俗 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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hymn
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌 | |
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hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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liturgical
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| adj.礼拜仪式的 | |
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participation
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| n.参与，参加，分享 | |
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laity
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| n.俗人；门外汉 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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homogenous
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| adj.同类的，同质的，纯系的 | |
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consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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immortality
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| n.不死，不朽 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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transcended
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| 超出或超越（经验、信念、描写能力等）的范围( transcend的过去式和过去分词 )； 优于或胜过… | |
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supplanted
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| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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42
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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prone
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| adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的 | |
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expend
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| vt.花费，消费，消耗 | |
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demonstrations
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| 证明( demonstration的名词复数 )； 表明； 表达； 游行示威 | |
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46
mingle
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| vt.使混合，使相混；vi.混合起来；相交往 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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49
manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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50
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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51
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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52
sublime
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| adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的 | |
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53
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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54
aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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55
evoke
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| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
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56
reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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57
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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58
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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longings
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| 渴望，盼望( longing的名词复数 ) | |
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animating
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| v.使有生气( animate的现在分词 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命 | |
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61
emancipate
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| v.解放，解除 | |
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62
thraldom
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| n.奴隶的身份，奴役，束缚 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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64
boundless
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| adj.无限的；无边无际的；巨大的 | |
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yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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66
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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67
anthropology
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| n.人类学 | |
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68
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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founders
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| n.创始人( founder的名词复数 ) | |
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secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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71
melodic
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| adj.有旋律的，调子美妙的 | |
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72
prosodic
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| adj.作诗法的 | |
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73
deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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74
exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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75
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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76
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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77
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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78
implicitly
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| adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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79
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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80
doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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81
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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82
psalm
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| n.赞美诗，圣诗 | |
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83
psalms
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| n.赞美诗( psalm的名词复数 )；圣诗；圣歌；(中的) | |
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84
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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85
benedictions
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| n.祝福( benediction的名词复数 )；（礼拜结束时的）赐福祈祷；恩赐；（大写）（罗马天主教）祈求上帝赐福的仪式 | |
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86
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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87
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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88
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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89
dependence
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| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
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90
decadence
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| n.衰落，颓废 | |
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91
dominant
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|
| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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92
leavened
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| adj.加酵母的v.使（面团）发酵( leaven的过去式和过去分词 )；在…中掺入改变的因素 | |
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93
lyric
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|
| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
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94
flexibility
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| n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性 | |
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95
fervor
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| n.热诚；热心；炽热 | |
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96
aspiration
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| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
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97
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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98
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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99
exhortations
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|
| n.敦促( exhortation的名词复数 )；极力推荐；（正式的）演讲；（宗教仪式中的）劝诫 | |
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100
admonish
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| v.训戒；警告；劝告 | |
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101
admonishing
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| v.劝告( admonish的现在分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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102
precepts
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| n.规诫，戒律，箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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103
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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104
alludes
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| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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105
testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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106
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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107
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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108
unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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109
cadenced
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| adj.音调整齐的，有节奏的 | |
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110
rhythmic
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| adj.有节奏的，有韵律的 | |
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111
expressive
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| adj.表现的，表达…的，富于表情的 | |
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112
rapture
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| n.狂喜；全神贯注；着迷；v.使狂喜 | |
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113
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
edifying
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| adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 ) | |
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115
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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116
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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117
adept
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| adj.老练的，精通的 | |
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118
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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119
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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120
enjoins
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| v.命令( enjoin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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121
extemporaneous
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| adj.即席的，一时的 | |
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122
analogous
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| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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123
vocal
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| adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目 | |
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124
vowels
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| n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 ) | |
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125
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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126
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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127
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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128
fortify
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| v.强化防御，为…设防；加强，强化 | |
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129
embalmed
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| adj.用防腐药物保存（尸体）的v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的过去式和过去分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气 | |
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130
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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131
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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132
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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133
sect
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| n.派别，宗教，学派，派系 | |
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134
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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135
mutual
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|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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136
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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137
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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138
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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139
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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140
penitents
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| n.后悔者( penitent的名词复数 )；忏悔者 | |
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141
liturgy
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| n.礼拜仪式 | |
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142
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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143
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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144
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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145
oblation
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| n.圣餐式；祭品 | |
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146
consecration
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| n.供献，奉献，献祭仪式 | |
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147
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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148
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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149
merged
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| （使）混合( merge的过去式和过去分词 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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150
restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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151
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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152
vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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153
instilled
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| v.逐渐使某人获得（某种可取的品质），逐步灌输( instill的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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154
persuasive
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| adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的 | |
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155
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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156
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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157
prohibition
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| n.禁止；禁令，禁律 | |
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158
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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159
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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160
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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161
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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162
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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163
infusion
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| n.灌输 | |
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164
adoption
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| n.采用，采纳，通过；收养 | |
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165
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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166
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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167
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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168
sensuous
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| adj.激发美感的；感官的，感觉上的 | |
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169
cults
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| n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体 | |
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170
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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171
extemporized
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| v.即兴创作，即席演奏( extemporize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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172
lyrics
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| n.歌词 | |
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173
perpetuated
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| vt.使永存（perpetuate的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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174
complexion
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| n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格 | |
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175
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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176
archaeology
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| n.考古学 | |
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177
cavil
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| v.挑毛病，吹毛求疵 | |
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178
garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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179
virtuosos
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| n.艺术大师( virtuoso的名词复数 )；名家；艺术爱好者；古董收藏家 | |
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180
disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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181
residue
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| n.残余，剩余，残渣 | |
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182
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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183
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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184
meretricious
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| adj.华而不实的，俗艳的 | |
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185
coalesce
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| v.联合，结合，合并 | |
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186
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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187
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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188
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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189
aesthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的，有美感 | |
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190
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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191
flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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192
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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193
clement
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| adj.仁慈的；温和的 | |
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194
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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195
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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196
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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197
adjures
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| vt.（以起誓或诅咒等形式）命令要求（adjure的第三人称单数形式） | |
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198
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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199
incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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200
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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201
fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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202
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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203
corrupting
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的现在分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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204
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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205
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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206
justification
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| n.正当的理由；辩解的理由 | |
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207
prohibitions
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| 禁令，禁律( prohibition的名词复数 )； 禁酒； 禁例 | |
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208
portrayed
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| v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画 | |
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209
guardianship
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| n. 监护, 保护, 守护 | |
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210
pestilence
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| n.瘟疫 | |
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211
reminder
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| n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示 | |
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212
corruptions
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| n.堕落( corruption的名词复数 )；腐化；腐败；贿赂 | |
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213
harp
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| n.竖琴；天琴座 | |
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214
abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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215
stimulate
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| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
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216
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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217
dedications
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| 奉献( dedication的名词复数 )； 献身精神； 教堂的)献堂礼； （书等作品上的）题词 | |
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218
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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219
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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220
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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221
culmination
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| n.顶点；最高潮 | |
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222
prolific
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| adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的 | |
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223
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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224
beguiled
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| v.欺骗( beguile的过去式和过去分词 )；使陶醉；使高兴；消磨（时间等） | |
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225
choirs
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| n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 )；唱诗队；公开表演的合唱团；（教堂）唱经楼 | |
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226
anonymous
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| adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的 | |
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227
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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228
improvise
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| v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成 | |
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229
accretions
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| n.堆积( accretion的名词复数 )；连生；添加生长；吸积 | |
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230
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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231
celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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232
omnipotent
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| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
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233
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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234
overlapping
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| adj./n.交迭（的） | |
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235
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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236
iconoclastic
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| adj.偶像破坏的，打破旧习的 | |
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237
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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238
effeteness
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| 性能 | |
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239
stilted
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| adj.虚饰的；夸张的 | |
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240
bombast
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| n.高调，夸大之辞 | |
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241
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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242
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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243
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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244
narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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245
hatreds
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| n.仇恨，憎恶( hatred的名词复数 )；厌恶的事 | |
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246
persecution
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| n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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247
perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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248
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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249
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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250
attains
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的第三人称单数 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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251
dirge
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| n.哀乐，挽歌，庄重悲哀的乐曲 | |
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252
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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253
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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254
authoritatively
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| 命令式地，有权威地，可信地 | |
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255
blight
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| n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残 | |
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256
icons
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| n.偶像( icon的名词复数 )；（计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的）符号，图像 | |
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257
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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258
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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259
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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260
pristine
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| adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的 | |
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261
fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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262
bigotry
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| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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263
stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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264
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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265
kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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266
symbolic
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| adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的 | |
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267
dilation
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| n.膨胀，扩张，扩大 | |
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268
splendor
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| n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌 | |
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269
derived
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| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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270
savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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271
unified
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| (unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的 | |
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272
fickle
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| adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的 | |
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273
reverent
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| adj.恭敬的，虔诚的 | |
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274
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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275
deriving
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| v.得到( derive的现在分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
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276
embalming
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| v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的现在分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气 | |
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277
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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278
lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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279
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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280
foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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281
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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282
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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283
superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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284
martyrs
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| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
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285
indigenous
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| adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的 | |
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286
indirectly
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| adv.间接地，不直接了当地 | |
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287
Moslem
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| n.回教徒，穆罕默德信徒；adj.回教徒的，回教的 | |
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288
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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289
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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290
heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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291
seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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292
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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293
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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294
confessions
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| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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295
analyzes
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| v.分析( analyze的第三人称单数 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析 | |
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296
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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297
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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298
distilled
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| adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 )；从…提取精华 | |
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299
devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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300
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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301
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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302
systematic
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| adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的 | |
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303
durable
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| adj.持久的，耐久的 | |
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304
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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305
canonical
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| n.权威的；典型的 | |
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306
hospitably
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| 亲切地，招待周到地，善于款待地 | |
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307
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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308
cloister
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| n.修道院；v.隐退，使与世隔绝 | |
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309
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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310
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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311
rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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312
detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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313
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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314
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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315
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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316
necessitating
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的现在分词 ) | |
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317
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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318
pervasive
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| adj.普遍的；遍布的，(到处)弥漫的；渗透性的 | |
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319
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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320
symbolize
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| vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表 | |
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321
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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