The Lutheran Church retained in its liturgy many of the prominent features of the Roman liturgy. Among them were portions of the mass, the custom of chanting certain parts of the service, the singing of ancient hymns and traditional tunes, and the observance of special church days and festivals. The calendar of the church year was largely the same in the two faiths, and in the Lutheran Church, as in the Roman, the order and character of the different portions of the service were carefully prescribed by church law. Each Sunday and special day had its own appropriate Bible lesson, versicles and prayers, and its own chorales, the words of which would illustrate the Bible texts of the day, commenting upon them and applying their lessons to the common experience of the devout worshippers. This intimate relation of chorales to a definite church-day was of obvious advantage to composers in that it enabled them to construct, around the chorales as central points, compositions which would amplify the sentiment of the stanzas of the chorales and serve as musical commentaries on the religious significance of the various days of the church calendar. The cantata thus became the chief musical feature of the Lutheran liturgy, and the words brought to the attention of the congregation some particular feature of the religious thought that received special emphasis in the order of the day. The great popularity of the cantata with both church authorities and congregation in Germany was undoubtedly due in part to the many opportunities it offered for satisfying the universal craving for greater individualization, for freer utterance of individual emotion and sentiment. The opera of the period, which consisted largely of solo-singing, gave free rein to the expression of personal feeling, as the spirit of the times demanded. Yet nothing that was really permanent or artistic could arise from this foundation, since the subjects of opera were drawn almost exclusively from far-removed classical and mythological sources. These subjects held little or no real interest for the masses, and the singers who impersonated the legendary characters were actuated almost solely by professional vanity. The opera was thus inevitably surrounded with an atmosphere of insincerity and moral indifference. While the people applauded, they remained untouched except on the surface, and only partly satisfied. When the element of personal expression was transferred to church performances, the situation was radically changed. Their religious experiences were real and vital and tangible. The important part that the congregation was encouraged to take in the singing of hymns and chorales gave to the zealous worshippers a feeling of individual responsibility in the services. Even in those more elaborate musical portions assigned to the choir, they could follow, in fancied participation, the religious emotions set forth in a language that they could readily understand and