As soon as the text became a matter of solicitous care on the part of composers, there can be discovered a number of distinct groups of motets, distinguished from each other by the character of the texts employed, each group possessing certain individual peculiarities. There was a numerous class based on selections from the Gospels dealing with the various parables, as the Pharisee and Publican. The Passion of our Lord as given in the different Gospels formed the basis of another large group. One of the earliest of these Passion motets is Hobrecht’s, a work filled with deep pathos and tender sadness. The Passion motets of Loyset Compère (about 1450-1518) are spoken of as possessing extraordinary beauty. The Magnificat was frequently treated in motet form, the oldest known example of which is Dufay’s. A vast number of texts were drawn from the Book of Canticles, while the Lamentations of Jeremiah inspired the writing of numberless compositions in motet style. Carpentrasso’s Lamentations were sung in the Sistine Chapel once each year until 1587, when they were superseded by Palestrina’s superb compositions. Several of the sequences were also set as motets, among which must be especially noted two by Josquin des Prés--a _Victimæ Paschali_, in which he used parts of the old plain-song melody intermingled with two popular airs, and a _Stabat Mater_, the subject for which he borrowed from a secular air of the time, _Comme femme_. Less interesting were the laudatory motets inscribed to princes and nobles by the composers attached to their individual courts, and the countless motets written for the greater festivals and special occasions in the church calendar. Reverence for the Virgin-mother inspired some of the most beautiful of all motets and a multitude of these fine compositions, delicate in texture and of impressive beauty, might be cited; such are Dufay’s _Ave Regina, Salve Virgo_, and _Flos florum, fons amorum_; Brassart’s _Ave Maria_; Bianchoys’ _Beata Dei genetrix_; Arcadelt’s _Ave Maria_, which is now probably one of the best known of sixteenth-century motets and which sounds wonderfully modern with its compact chords, sweet tunefulness, and simple pathos; Gombert’s _Vita dulcedo_; Josquin’s _Ave vera virginitas_. There remains to be mentioned the large group of funeral motets or _Næniæ_, comprising some of the finest examples of the pure motet style. One of the most celebrated of these is the dirge written by Josquin in memory of his friend and teacher Okeghem, which is scarcely exceeded in beauty by anything which this master has produced.