The first part of our Prayer-book which came out was the _Litany_. But it came out _with_ its beautiful and simple Ritual _Music_. It was thus _originally intended_ to be _sung_; but to music so plain and straightforward that a child may join in it. (It is the same melody as is still generally used for the Litany.) _Only_ the melody was published at first; no harmony: therefore it would be sung in unison. But a month afterwards a _harmonised_ edition was published for the benefit of those choirs which were more skilled in music. It was set in five-part harmony, according to the notes used in the "Kynge's Chapel." Tallis's more elaborate version was published twenty years afterwards. But this English Litany was harmonised over and over again in different ways, by different composers; the very variety of setting incidentally proving how very general its musical use had become. It was in the following year (1545) that Cranmer wrote his well-known letter to Henry respecting the "Processions" and Litany Services, which it was in contemplation to set forth in English for festival days; requesting that "some devout and solemn _note_ be made thereto," similar to that of the published Litany: "that it may the better excitate and stir the hearts of all men to devotion and godliness:" the Archbishop adding that, in his opinion, "the song made thereto should not be full of notes, but as near as may be for every syllable a note." Four years after came out Edward's First Prayer-book, and almost simultaneously with it (at least within the year) the _musical notation_ of the book, published "cum Privilegio," and edited by John Merbecke. There seems no doubt in the world that this book was edited under Cranmer's supervision; and was intended as a quasi-authoritative interpretation of the musical rubrics.