The example thus set produced in England the translation commonly known
as the "Old Version" of the Psalms. It was begun by Thomas Sternhold,
whose position in the household of Henry VIII., and afterwards of Edward
VI., was similar to that of Marot with Francis I., and whose services to
the former of those kings were rewarded by a substantial legacy under
his will. Sternhold published versions of nineteen Psalms, with a
dedication to King Edward, and died soon afterwards. A second edition
appeared in 1551, with eighteen more Psalms added, of Sternhold's
translating, and seven others by John Hopkins, a Suffolk clergyman. The
work was continued during Queen Mary's reign by British refugees at
Geneva, the chief of whom were William Whittingham, afterwards dean of
Durham, who succeeded John Knox as minister of the English congregation
there, and William Kethe or Keith, said by Strype to have been a
Scotsman. They published at Geneva in 1556 a service-book, containing
fifty-one English metrical psalms, which number was increased, in later
editions, to eighty-seven. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, this
Genevan Psalmody was at once brought into use in England--first
(according to a letter of Bishop Jewell to Peter Martyr, dated 5th March
1560) in one London church, from which it quickly spread to others both
in London and in other cities. Jewell describes the effect produced by
large congregations, of as many as 6000 persons, young and old, women
and children, singing it after the sermons at St Paul's Cross--adding,
"Id sacrificos et diabolum aegre habet; vident enim sacras conciones hoc
pacto profundius descendere in hominum animos." The first edition of the
completed "Old Version" (containing forty Psalms by Sternhold,
sixty-seven by Hopkins, fifteen by Whittingham, six by Kethe and the
rest by Thomas Norton the dramatist, Robert Wisdom, John Marckant and
Thomas Churchyard) appeared in 1562.
In the meantime, the Books of Common Prayer, of 1549, 1552 and 1559,
had been successively established as law by the acts of uniformity of
Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth. In these no provision was made for the
use of any metrical psalm or hymn on any occasion whatever, except at
the consecration of bishops and the ordination of priests, in which
offices (first added in 1552) an English version of "Veni Creator"
(the longer of the two now in use) was appointed to be "said or sung."
The canticles, "Te Deum," "Benedicite," the Nicene and Athanasian
Creeds, the "Gloria in Excelsis," and some other parts of the
communion and other special offices were also directed to be "said or
sung"; and, by general rubrics, the chanting of the whole service was
allowed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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