The importance of music in the Lutheran service was greatly enhanced by Luther’s relentless war on the worship of images and pictures. The arts of painting and sculpture practically disappeared from the church edifices or were put under almost prohibitive restrictions. Music thus became almost the sole artistic accessory to religion in the service of the Reformed Church. But in music Luther recognized that there was no real conflict between Protestant and Catholic ideals; hence he retained the principal features of the musical system of the ancient Church, and readjusted them in accordance with his altered conception of worship. We have observed how he exalted the German hymn, which had existed in pre-Reformation times only as an occasional religious utterance and then always in extra-liturgical services, to a place of chief importance in congregational worship. In his enthusiasm for congregational song, however, there was no antagonism to the choir; on the contrary, he made ample provision for it and urged every encouragement of the use of contrapuntal music. Luther introduced only one real innovation into his musical system--the congregational chorale; for the rest it was based squarely on existing methods, adopting with no essential changes the three chief features of the Roman system: (1) the principles of the old polyphony as developed by the Netherlanders and Italians; (2) the use of borrowed subjects (_canti firmi_) as the basis of the church polyphony, the subjects being taken from chorales, however, instead of from plain-song as in the Roman system; and (3) a few Gregorian melodies and priestly chants for certain parts of the service. Until the church-cantata developed as a distinguishing feature under Bach’s guiding hands, the motet, with Latin or German words and identical in form and style with the motet of the old Church, was the chief representative of contrapuntal vocal music in the Reformed Church. The important place which contrapuntal organ music occupied in the service will be treated in the chapter in which the early organ masters are discussed. The first result of Luther’s efforts to bring about a reform in the liturgy was the _Formula Missæ_ of 1523. In reality this was simply an abridged form of the Roman Mass and was intended only as a temporary expedient; everything repugnant to the fundamental principles of the new faith was omitted, but Latin was retained as the language of worship. In the _Deutsche Messe_ of 1526 he completed his long contemplated and carefully thought out revision of the liturgy, in which the process of simplification was carried still further and the mother-tongue substituted for Latin in nearly all the offices.