Worship, Revised and Expanded Edition: Reformed according to Scripture

by Hughes Oliphant Old

Not too long after the close of the New Testament period the church began to cultivate psalmody as the preferred expression of Christian praise. More and more the orthodox became weary of new hymns supposedly inspired by the Holy Spirit. In the Eastern churches the writing of Christian hymns enjoyed some popularity in orthodox circles, but it was more characteristic of various gnostic sects. In the West the church sang psalms and canticles almost exclusively until the time of Ambrose of Milan (ca. 339–97) toward the end of the fourth century. The hymns of Ambrose were so popular that other Christian poets began to try their hand at writing hymns. We find hymns by Prudentius (348–410), Venantius Fortunatus (530–610), and Gregory the Great (540–604). Prudentius, born and raised in Roman Spain, was a lawyer by profession. He was surely the most prolific of the Latin hymnodists of the patristic age. His hymns were widely used in the Spanish church until the Muslim conquest in the eighth century. These Latin hymns, however, never replaced the psalms during the patristic period either in cathedral churches or in monasteries. Both hymnody and psalmody continued to be cultivated. Gregory the Great did much to develop both hymnody and psalmody with the music that today we call Gregorian chant.