non-conformists and brought into English religious life something of the enthusiasm of the old German Reformation days. A revival of spiritual life took place in sections of England that let loose a great creative force of sacred verse and song, which operated not only to swell the ranks of Methodism with converts whose hearts were filled with exuberant song, but to bring into England real congregational singing and into English hymnody some of its richest gems of sacred lyrics. Thus the century closed with a distinct uplift in the religious song of the people, which did not bear full fruit in the Church of England, however, till the dawning years of the next century. VII After the glories of the Palestrina epoch, in which all forms of ecclesiastical music attained their highest point of perfection, the motet led a rather checkered existence. The English contemporaries of the great Roman had cultivated it with such success that the _cantiones sacræ_ (collections of Latin motets) of Tallis and Byrd are held to be second only to those of Palestrina himself. We have seen that the full anthem with English words superseded the Latin motet in the service of the Anglican Church, but, though the name was changed, the true motet style persisted until the Restoration; indeed, many of the anthems were actually written as Latin motets and afterward adapted to English words, as, for example, Byrd’s _Civitas sancti tui_, which is always sung to the words ‘Bow thine ear, O Lord.’ The last of the great motet writers in the Roman school were Vittoria, Morales, the two Anerios, the two Naninis, Luca Marenzio, and Suriano, all of whom closely approached the excellence of Palestrina’s superb motets; Orlandus Lassus sustained the reputation of the Netherlanders throughout his long career; while in Venice Willaert, de Rore, the two Gabrielis, and Giovanni Croce, the greatest of this school, produced compositions of wonderful delicacy and beauty. But after the first quarter of the seventeenth century the splendor of motet-writing disappeared. The solidity and grandeur of the old style of mass, motet, and madrigal were thoroughly undermined by the secularity of the monodic style, which now became all-pervasive. The same influences, in slightly varying degrees, crept into Catholic and Protestant church music alike. The rapid development of instrumental music toward the latter part of this century brought about the abandonment of unaccompanied motets in favor of those with instrumental accompaniment, and at the same time the modern major and minor keys gradually supplanted the old ecclesiastical modes. In Italy the best composers--Alessandro Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Durante, Leo, and others--strove earnestly to reconcile the new style with church ideals and succeeded in producing effective works, though by no means always churchly.