62 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IX AMERICA 



Marot's 

 Psalms 



Widespread 



Influence 



A Rallying^ 

 Cry 



XI 



One of the most powerful influences of the Reformation 

 in France, as in Switzerland, was Clement Marot' s Psalms. 

 The young Clement, whose father was a poet, was at- 

 tached to the family of the Duke D' Alenyon about 1520. 

 He was led to translate some of the Psalms into French 

 verse. Having put them into lively ballad measure, he 

 printed about twenty translations, dedicating them to the 

 king. The sweetness of the poetry won a great success 

 at the court, the king was pleased with the dedication, 

 and the demand for copies was large. The ecclesiastical 

 authorities censured the book, but the king and court 

 carried the day, and Marot's hymns began to be sung 

 everywhere. At all times and in all places the Psalms 

 might be heard sung to lively baUad tunes. They took 

 for a time the place of national songs. Marot paraphrased 

 thirty more of the Psalms, and the fifty were printed in 

 Geneva in 1543 with a preface by Calvin, and had a wide 

 circulation. No one then realized what part these Psalms 

 were to play later, when the persecutions came. In the 

 Netherlands they were sung in the field meetings of the 

 Reformed, and the effect on the crowds was electric and 

 resistless. The difierent Psalms were fitted to tunes ac- 

 cording to the popular taste, and were sometimes accom- 

 panied by musical instruments. Calvin got two excel- 

 lent musicians to set the whole number of Psalms to mu- 

 sic, and words and music were printed together. That 

 was the original church hymn book, and oddly enough 

 for a time Roman Catholics as well as Protestants carried 

 and used the book. The Psalms were sung in private and 

 in company, and the effect was marked. Fearing that 

 the court would become too religious, the evil-disposed 

 tried to counteract their influence by translations of Latin 

 odes ; but the influence of the Marot Psalms long contin- 

 ued even in those fashionable circles. 



As for the Protestants, they found their rallying cry in 

 these hymns. The adoption of them as a part of public 



