=Reform of Church Music=.—The year marking the climax of his life was 1565. The Council of Trent, by a unanimous vote, decided to prohibit the use of music in the Church unless some means could be devised to make it more devotional and suited to its purpose. Naumann says that it was the desire of the Council of Trent to simplify the music so that the people might take part in the services; but Grove claims that it was because of the use of secular music in the composition of the masses. It seems that it was customary, for part of the singers at least, to sing in services not only the _melodies of_ the _popular songs_, but _also_ the _words_, thus producing confusion and defeating the very purpose of the music. In all probability, both of these reasons had something to do with the edict. It is plain that the fundamental principle at stake was the lack of the personal devotional note (which caused this action by the Council of Trent), and it was the supplying of this want that made Palestrina the saviour of music in the Church. A committee of Cardinals was appointed to see if proper music for the service could be found. They commissioned Palestrina to write a mass and submit it for trial. When the trial came, at the home of Cardinal Vitellozzi, Palestrina submitted three masses, the last of which was the best; this he afterwards called the “Missa Papæ Marcelli.” =Palestrina’s Style=.—In these masses Palestrina had succeeded so well in subordinating technic to expression, and in eliminating all extraneous matter, that he was hailed as the greatest musician of the Church, and honors were showered upon him. From this it would be supposed that Palestrina had shown an entire change in style, yet this was not the case. Goudimel, his master, shows traces of the so-called Palestrina style, and Palestrina himself was gradually growing into that simplicity which marked the music of his later days. This simplicity was not only simplicity of emotion but also simplicity of technic; only a man with a most consummate skill could have written such great music with such little use of showy technic. Palestrina wrote in all of the polyphonic forms, complex and simple, but he reached his highest point in his most simple works; and those works were written for his Church.