On Divine Psalmody

[This discourse is concerned with disputing the practice of singing HYMNS -- that is, newly composed "psalms" which are not scripture perse. Evidently someone had been advocating this practice and Agobard is writing against it. Of interest is the footnote below which quotes Pope Gregory and his admonition against apointing singers solely on the basis of their "melodious voice."]

A stupid and wicked sophist, well known to everyone for his very stupidity and wickedness,[1] has lately sallied forth and does not cease[2] to torture our holy church of Lyons by word and by writings as though it were not performing the solemnities of divine praise in the correct manner or according to the custom and usage of the fathers.

It has therefore become necessary to assemble and arrange the entire sequence of sacred offices which are celebrated in church meetings by the accustomed ministry of singers throughout the whole cycle of the year, as it is, by the grace of God, carefully and fully preserved in the same church in the book which is usually designated by the term antiphonary. The formula was established earlier by the pious and orthodox father [3] whose most approved faith and teaching in the service of our Lord God was made known to all as declared weightily and frequently. Thus all the peace-loving and farsighted sons of the church, into whose hands the text of the same book has come, most truly and clearly recognize that the aforesaid church of Christ has, under the governance and protection of the same Lord Christ, by no means deviated from the straight path of the faith. On the contrary, it guards the custom of the fathers which ecclesiastical appointment requires and thereby differs in no wise from the ancient use of the church of God, yet does not despise a different custom of anyone if certain that it is commendable.

According to the apostle, however, it follows those things which are most useful and excellent. For he says, "It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ." In another place: "That you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.'' Elsewhere: "But earnestly desire the better gifts." And again: "Do not be children in thoughts." Moreover, the venerable councils of the fathers decree that vulgar psalms[4] should not at all be sung in the church and that "nothing put together in poetic fashion"[5] should be employed in the divine praises.

Among others blessed Pope Gregory [the Great] teaches that things should not be loved for the sake of their locations, but rather places for the sake of the good things there. Recommending to us very strongly that as we ought not to strive after things because of their locations, so also not because of any persons or customs of the times, he was not afraid to restrain under the threat of anathema certain things in the Roman church itself which were reprehensible in its holy offices and services, as his decrees plainly show.[6] But if the aforesaid sophist would strive humbly and obediently to ponder, he would not be reduced to the folly of defending as though they were Holy Scripture the words of any men whose names and thought and faith he did not know, and of trying to explain them by fanciful and facetious allegories. Surely if he wished to meditate on something sound, it would suffice to correct and silence him that as day by day at Mass nothing but divine rhetoric is generally uttered, so also night by night at the sacred vigils offered to God the same rule ought certainly to be observed.

Surely the same Almighty Lord is praised at both times and each time serves the one Lord to whom it is said "Thine, O Lord, is the day, thine also the night; thou hast framed the dawn and the sun." But the stupid and vain labor of that one casts into the prudent, less disputatious, God-fearing ones a major anxiety, so that to avoid growths and errors of that kind they cling more vigorously and more carefully to divine authority and statutes of the church. This very wholesome care for the faith and method of observance, namely, that in God's temple and before the divine altar only the melody of divine eloquence be rehearsed, is most strongly commended to us also by the authority and examples of the Old Testament, as in the book of Chronicles where one reads that blessed David, king and prophet of God, first established in tabernacle or temple the choirs of Levites praising the Lord, and delivered to them by divine providence inspired utterances, psalms, hymns, and canticles; his own as well as those of others who prophesied along with him, and decreed that they should be sung both morning and evening amid the divine burnt offerings and sacrifices.

It is fitting that this custom, handed down from the holy prophets, preserved most carefully by the fathers who came afterward, even to the time of the New Testament, when it was necessary for that temple to be destroyed, it is fitting that this custom be continued with devout reverence. It is therefore especially needful that we truly desire to celebrate the divine praises without even the least offense and hesitation. Let us apply ourselves wholly to divine words in which there is no error, no ambiguity; as the same book of Chronicles reveals of the aforesaid Levites, the ancient singers of divine praise: "The Levites also, that they stand every morning for the purpose of thanking and praising the Lord, and likewise at evening, as well for the offering of the whole burnt offering as on sabbaths and new moons and other feast days."

Again at the dedication of the Temple under Solomon it is said: "So the king and all the people dedicated the house of the Lord. The priests stood at their posts; the Levites also, with instruments for songs to the Lord, which King David made for praising the Lord--for his mercy is forever--singing the hymns of David by their hands." Similarly, at the repairing and purification of the same Temple under Hezekiah, it is written, "Hezekiah and the princes commanded the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer who praised him with great gladness." Likewise, under Josiah at the celebration of the Passover, the book says, "Moreover the singers, the sons of Asaph, stood in their places according to the command of David and Asaph and Heman, and Jeduthun, the king's prophets."

How solemnly and conscientiously this was established, how sweetly and reverently it was to be imitated among the other eminent things of the blessed David, the book of Ecclesiasticus thus recites in praise of him: "In every work he made confession to the holy and most high one with the word of glory; with his whole heart he praised the Lord and loved God who made him and gave him power against enemies. He caused singers also to stand before the altar and caused sweet melodies by their voice. He also gave beauty to the festivals, and adorned the times until the end of his life, that they might praise the Lord's holy name and extol God's holiness every morning." In the book of Samuel also this spiritual grace of singing is prophesied by the same most holy king: "David the son of Jesse spoke, the man on whom appointment rested as the anointed of the God of Jacob, the illustrious psalmist of Israel, 'The Spirit of the Lord has spoken by me, and his word is upon my tongue."

There is therefore no doubt that each instructed believer will freely assent to such holy authority and such evident truth. But if any contentious and stubborn person attempts to disagree, and should wish to drink from a muddy stream rather than from the purest spring,. he should take care that he not become ill with that most ruinous debility which a certain one of the ancient fathers wisely and briefly warned should be avoided,' observing that when truth has been despised the one who imagines he is complying with custom is either envious and spiteful toward the brethren to whom truth is revealed or ungrateful toward God by whose inspiration His church is set in order.

Notes

1. Amalarius of Metz, locum tenans of the see of Lyons during Agobard's exile, 834 (or 835)- 838.

2. "Nupher...erupit...sed etiam...lacerare non cessat..."These words imply that Agobard was still in exile and that Amalarius was still in control of the church of Lyons, hence between the years 834 and 838.

3. Leidrad, bishop of Lyons, c. 798-815, under whose tutelage Agobard began his ecclesiastical career.

4. Canon LIX, Synod of Laodicea, A.D. 381: "No psalms composed by private individuals nor any noncanonical books may be read in the church, but only the Canonical books of the Old and New Testaments." Because not all of the churches were uniform in enforcing this decree, it has been assumed that the decree refers to psalms composed by unrecognized people or people without an office in the church, rather than all uninspired songs. We must protest: both the private psalms and noncanonical books were to be replaced by "the Canonical books of the Old and New Testaments." So understood by Agobard above, so also Canon XII, First Council of Braga, A.D. 561. Baluze's note (Migne's Latin Patrology, 104.327D) agrees, however, we believe the comments he mentions concerning certain passages in Eusibeus are unwarranted.

5. Canon XII, First Council of Braga, A.D. 561.

6. Gregory the Great, Decreta, IV, indict.13, epist. 44: "In this holy Roman church over which divine Providence has willed to set me, a most reprehensible practice has arisen, whereby certain singers are chosen for the ministry of the sacred altar and serve in the diaconate because of the melodious quality of their voice. It was agreed that they be relieved of the obligation of preaching and concern for the charitable work of the church. Whence it comes to pass very often that in the sacred ministry a pleasing voice is sought while a harmonious life is neglected, and the singer as servant of the Lord vexes the laity by his morals although he charms them by his voice. Therefore by this present comtltution I decree that in this diocese ministers at the sacred altar must not sing at all, excepting only that they may render the lesson from the Gospel at solemn Mass. I decree that psalms and other lections be offered by subdeacons or, in case of necessity, by those in minor orders. And if anyone shall attempt to oppose this my decision, let him be anathema." Cited by Agobard, De correctione antiphonarii, XV (MPL 104.336BD).