One of the most notable and popular of the Venetian composers was Giovanni Croce (about 1560-1609), whose masses, written in a style of noble simplicity, are still favorites with Catholic church choirs. VI The century which culminated in the ‘Golden Age of Ecclesiastical Music’ was also the period of greatest glory for the madrigal. In the first half of the century its leading exponents were Jacques Arcadelt (about 1514-about 1555), Philippe Verdelot (dates of birth and death unknown), Huberto Waelrant (about 1518-1595), and especially Adrian Willaert (about 1480-1562), in the madrigals of all of whom there are revealed a lucidity of style, a graceful melodic flow, and, when the character of the words demanded, a simplicity of treatment, which together constituted the true sixteenth-century madrigalian style. Arcadelt, a Netherlander by birth and education, lived for many years in Italy, where his madrigals became so popular that his First Book, published in Venice in 1538, passed through sixteen editions in eighty years, the first to win marked success. Though he wrote much church music, his fame rests on his charming madrigals, only a few of which, unfortunately, are accessible in modern form. Waelrant’s _Vorrei morire_ (published with English words ‘Hard by a fountain,’ which, however, have no relation to the Italian text) is a beautiful example of this type. Orlandus Lassus was the last of the great Netherland madrigalists and he left many books of splendid compositions in this style.