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053 - 22 Christian Worship · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter twenty two of Short History of the
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  Speaker 1: Christian Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain, Chapter twenty two. Christian worship, the
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  Speaker 1: pilgrimages to the Holy Land and the progress of the
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  Speaker 1: Crusades increased the importance of church building. The relics brought
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  Speaker 1: back to every part of Christendom awakened a desire to
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  Speaker 1: construct beautiful chapels and even great cathedrals as fit depositories
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  Speaker 1: for such priceless memorials of early Christian life. And when
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  Speaker 1: these places were erected, the images were adorned with such
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  Speaker 1: stores of gold, silver, and precious stones as to bewilder
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  Speaker 1: the worshipper the sermon. The prevalence of monasticism added largely
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  Speaker 1: to the importance of this part of public worship. To
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  Speaker 1: establish a new order, or to found a new crusade,
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  Speaker 1: there must be a vigorous appeal to the people. The
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  Speaker 1: monks were close students of human nature and were acquainted
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  Speaker 1: with all the mysteries of popular oratory. Many of them
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  Speaker 1: could sway an audience in the edge of a great forest,
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  Speaker 1: on the shore of a lake, or in the market
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  Speaker 1: place with infinite ease. The religious fervor added vastly to
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  Speaker 1: the rhetorical effect. Peter the Hermit, when preaching his crusade,
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  Speaker 1: placed religious motives in the foreground. His audiences consisted of
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  Speaker 1: many thousands. He would preach until so wearied that he
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  Speaker 1: was compelled to lie upon the ground. He would then
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  Speaker 1: gasp his words, and these inaudible speeches were even more
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  Speaker 1: powerful in awakening sympathy for his cause than his loudest utterances.
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  Speaker 1: He was venerated as a saint while yet alive. His
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  Speaker 1: very hairs were preserved by the peons and regarded with
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  Speaker 1: peculiar sanctity. Bernard also was a celebrated preacher, and the
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  Speaker 1: people never tired of listening to his magnetic appeals. Berthold
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  Speaker 1: of Ratisbon died twelve seventy two, however, was the greatest
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  Speaker 1: of all the medieval preachers. His audience sometimes amounted to
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  Speaker 1: one hundred thousand people. He was a voice crying in
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  Speaker 1: the wilderness. Like Towler of a later period, he declared
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  Speaker 1: in favor of a revival of spiritual life. He renounced
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  Speaker 1: indulgences and many Romish errors, with all the fire and
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  Speaker 1: indignation of Luther. The general preaching in the sacred buildings
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  Speaker 1: was in the Latin tongue, but the crusades and the
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  Speaker 1: advocacy of the orders, and all the preaching to the
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  Speaker 1: great outdoor audiences were in the vernacular. As in art,
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  Speaker 1: so in sacred music there was the same disposition in
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  Speaker 1: the Latin church to depart from Eastern models. The Gregorian chants,
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  Speaker 1: so long in use, grew into neglect in the West.
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  Speaker 1: The music became more varied and involved. The Ambrosian melodies
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  Speaker 1: took the place of the older models. Duets became common.
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  Speaker 1: Constant improvements were going on, and the choral service in
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  Speaker 1: the cathedrals was cultivated to such an extent that it
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  Speaker 1: eclipsed all other parts of the devotional exercises. Huebald, who
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  Speaker 1: lived about nine hundred Reginus nine twenty, Odo Abbot of Klugni,
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  Speaker 1: and Guido of Arezzo one thousand to ten fifty stood
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  Speaker 1: in the front rank as leaders in the development of
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  Speaker 1: sacred music in Western Christendom. Hymnology increased in importance commensurately
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  Speaker 1: with the melody. There was not only a copious recasting
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  Speaker 1: of the earlier Greek hymns into the Latin, but also
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  Speaker 1: into the popular languages. There was besides a disposition towards
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  Speaker 1: original compass physician, the tendency towards sacred hymns was promoted
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  Speaker 1: by the mina singers, many of whose popular rhymes were
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  Speaker 1: interwoven with religious threads. Among the best Christian poets of
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  Speaker 1: the medieval period, we may mention Robert King of France, Ablard,
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  Speaker 1: Saint Bernard, Adam of Saint Victor, Thomas, Aquinas Bonaventura, Thomas
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  Speaker 1: of Solano, and Jacopanas. Thomas of Solano wrote the celebrated
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  Speaker 1: dies Eira da sirae d s Ela solvet saeclum in
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  Speaker 1: favilla teste david cum Sibilah. Jacopanas wrote the Sabat Mater
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  Speaker 1: sabat mater dolrosa juxta crusom lacrymosa dum pennebat phileas kujus
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  Speaker 1: animam gementum contristatum ac dolentum Pertrancevit Claudius, end of Chapter
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  Speaker 1: twenty two