Mozart's education was calculated to make him a good Catholic; a conscientious observance of all that the Church prescribes and reverence for her usages were combined in him with a clear and penetrating intellect.[35] After his betrothal he wrote to his father (August 17, 1782), that he had heard mass and been to confession with his Constanze: "It seems to me that I have never prayed so earnestly, or confessed and communicated so devoutly as by her side--and it is the same with her."[36] I find no trace whatever of Mozart's having looked with disdain upon church music. His way of expressing himself to Padre Martini directly disproves the assertion; he took his church music with him on his journeys, expecting to gain credit by it; and sent for some of it from Vienna that it might be heard by Van Swieten, a severe critic. So far from giving himself out as a mere operatic composer, who has a mean opinion of church compositions, he recommends himself for the post of under-kapellmeister, by saying, "The learned kapellmeister Salieri has never devoted himself to church music, while I have made it my peculiar study from my youth up." It is an unjust reproach also that Mozart robbed his masses for his operas. Among his numerous compositions of both kinds, a single Agnus Dei (317 K.)--a soprano solo--contains in its opening bars a slight suggestion of the aria "Dove sono," from "Figaro." Next in importance to masses must be reckoned litanies and vespers; and here we find the influence of the opera much more decided. The words did not readily lend themselves to musical expression, nor to the arrangement of {CHURCH MUSIC.} (268) the movements. If the severity of ecclesiastical form was once relaxed, the easier and more pleasing forms were most likely to be employed in those places where the words were most opposed to musical expression. The dissimilarity of the different parts was increased by the supposed necessity of also representing the severe style, and of balancing a _tour de force_ of counterpoint by a _tour de force_ of execution. In this way certain conventional rules had become law, leaving little scope for variety or originality. Common to all litanies are the Kyrie with which they begin, and the Agnus Dei with which they close; that which lies between (the petitions varying according to the circumstances under which the litany was composed) determines its musical character. In the Kyrie, other petitions are added to the "Kyrie eleison" and "Christe eleison," which give scope for a broader and more varied treatment, whereby the Kyrie becomes one of the most important and impressive movements. The Agnus Dei does not close with "Dona nobis pacem," but with "Miserere nobis," which prevents any suggestion of cheerfulness; the expression of anxious beseeching was generally softened into deep solemnity at the close.