WHO ARE THE CHURCH ROBBERS?
Tile: present is not a political week. Its leading interest is musi- cal. Let us take the opportunity whieh the great topic of the Festival, together with Dr. Honoiss' Apology,* afIlards us, of re- lieving our muds a little on the subject of Church music and the apereprize ion of musical funds:.
Music, almost every Csrm, has been a prominent subject of attack with bigots and fanatics of all ages; and the music of our Church has ex pei ienctil their bitter vituperation from the time of TAWS to tho pressnt day. But it is something new to find any educated portion ref Caurelenen joining in this tirade, and espe- cially to hear the organ of the Conservative High Church party for, neat in the cry. It is the appropriate vocation of the Record; but when the Slendard volunteers an attack upon chinch music, Dr. ilonoas may well exclaim, "Et tu, Brute!" Let us see how this has come to pass.
At the aura of the Reformation, which in England cannot be considered us established before the reign of EamABETII, that shrewd and sensible princess, aware of the prejudices in favour of Popish forms mid ceremonies among a large class of her subjects, and of the attachment to Puritanism in another numerous body of filial, preserved the cathedral worship for the one, and enjoined psalm-singing to please the other. Aware also of the necessity of providing a succession of men instructed in music, as well as learnedly educated, in order to carry en the cathedral ani colle- giate service of the Church, she published an injunction, from which the following is an extract.
"For the continuance of the use of singing in the Church of England, it is enjoined, that no alterations he made of such assignments of living as heretofore have been appointed to the use of singing or music in the church, but that the same so timid:a: and that them be a modest and distinct song so used in all the common players, that the same may he plainly understood: and yet, neverthe- less, for the comforting of such as take delight in music, that in the common prayer, either morning or evening, there be sung a hymn or such like song, in the best melody and music that may be convenimtly devised."
"According to which order," says HEYLIN," as plain song was retained in most parish churches, so in her own chapels and in the quires of all cathedrals and some colleges, the Lyn ms were sung after a more melodious manner, with organs commonly, and sometimes with musical instruments."
• An Apology for Church Music and Musical Festivals. in answer to the Standard and the &curd. Ily Edward Hodges, Mos. Dec Published by ltivingtuns. The Catholic Church had made ample provision for the musical education of its clergy and for the support of choirs. ELIZAVETH wished and ordered the appropriation of this provision entire to the service of the Reformed Church, in language as strong and pre- cise as could be employe 1. In furtherance of the same object, the charters of the Royal Schools provided for the classical and mu• sisal instructiou of the singing-boys : see, for example, what those of Eton ordain—" Item, statuimus, &c. quad in dicto nostri regale collegio sit futuris tetnporibus lulus magister informator in gram- matieto euflicienter eruditus, qui scholarcs dial collegii nostri ac poems choristas scholar penult:nic' exercentes," &u. &e. The statutes further enjoin, that the choristers shall succeed to rho vacant scholurehips, iu prefereace to all other candidates; and that an honest and virtuous clergyman, well instructed in sing- ing and in playing the organ, " et aliis here ac sufficienter in- st 'Tato," shall keel' them nno ie. To the same end, the statutes of lawny of the colleges iu Oxford and Cambridge provide for the elocution of choristers and the mainteuance of choirs,—that of New College fur more than thirty, including priests and lay vicars; to the same end, professors wt to uppoiated and music-schools founded in the liiiiveraities; and to the same end ample provision was made in every cathedral im the kingdom. All these facts prove that music was regarded as a liberal art, and an important portion of the Church service. And what was the result ? Our PURCELLS, ALDRICBEs, Cnorrs, GitEENS, and Bovess; and the production of a body of sacred music: which, for true sublimity, de- votional feeling, and variely of character, may be safely pro- 110Uneed U1IIIVLII:ed. For awhile the ordinances of ELIZABETH and the endowments of founders were respected ; but, by degrees, the clergy began to lay their unhallowed hands on the property of which they were the guardian,: instead of trustees, they be- came plunderers, until they have, at length, appropriated to their owl' use all but the scanty and miserable pittance which they dole out to the few subservient and often wholly incompetent vassals whom they admit into the colleges and cathedrals under pretence of perfnaning the Church service. In St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, it is notoriaus that the choir is paid from the "show- money :" a tiisgracefid tax being levied on the public that its re- venues may go into the pockets if Int dignitaries ; while at Eton and the tither public schools, the boys have long since been, unjustly and in defiance uf the statutes, deprived of the education miginally designed and provided fur them. No :., in this state of things, the faint t ics in and out of the Church assail its musical service. This is nothing new : they did so two centuries ago. But in what position are the soi-disant Conserva- tive party in the Church pluced? They who see nothing but de- struction in every efihrt to amend its discip!ine or correct its abuses —they who am for keeping every thing as it is--who denounce innovation as heresy, and anathematize reformers as blasphemers —they who, with brazen effrontery, exclaim against "alienation' of the rev, ills of the Churelve—in what situation do these men stand when this yell of bigotry ia ebreail ? Their language to one another must be this—" We hava violated our trust; we have approptiated to our own private use and benefit that which was left for the worahip of the Chinch ; and we these not, we cannot put ourselves in array agairist these men. We cannot defend the musical service of the Chinch, fur we have alienated and daily pocket the revenues by which it should be supported. We have may one course left—we must join the fanatics and attack it.- And they do. Hence the new light and the new logic. hence the discovery,that "S nsuality of every kind, whether culi- nary cr mush-al, ought to be for ever excluded from the seats of learning and religion." Ileece the " persuasion,- that "the great majority, if they dare centess it, feel even the very small infusion of music usually- milted in cur liturgical service an obstruction, rather than an all to religious cot:tempt:taints:** Perhaps the re- sult of this oew light w iii be a motion Oulu the Bishop of LONDON to draw oil' even " the very small infusion" which thus imbitters the Conservative cup. And why not follow up the anti-sensual war by despoiling our cathedrals mid abbeys of their monuments and relics, and convening them J uscfulc ash? Finally, why not rase
these cosily and toeless and sell the materials? Why should the enjoyments of the eye be preserved, while those of the car are to cease?
The attack of the Bishop of LONDON on Festivals is also the result of the situation in which he and his party are placed. He is no fanatic, but a sharp and shrewd man of the world. He has no distaste for music; and as for his cant about "desecration" (that is the new word), every one laugha at the notion of his at- tachitig any superstitious reverence to bricks and stones, or any impiety to a performance of sacred music in the walls of a church. He knows better, and such absurdities are not in accordance with- his character. But he is pressed on by fanatics; and, feeling that he and his party in the Church occupy but ticklish ground, thinks it politic to join in their cry: his noise is the result of cowardice, not conviction.
"It is asserted by the opponents of Musical Festivals," says Dr. Honoas, "that the moral and religious character of the per- formers is not such as to justify their being employed in a church:" Our reply is, let characters of notoriously immoral and profli- gate habits be excluded. Some knowledge of the profession enables us to state that none such need be admitted. But the habits of our Aristocracy (taking a very recent example as analog.-- 1. See the speeches of the Archbishop of CANTERBURY and the Bishops of Loran% mud EXETER is the Houseuf Lords, June 6th. See the quotations from the Standard in Dr. Moors' Apology, p. 5-6.
tration) lead them to flock in crowds to support an individual whose presence all the respectable part of the profession avoid as they would a pestilence, and whose touch they would regard a con- tamination. But are these the men to cast the stone at musicians? —they who have deprived them of the mewl and religious train- ing which the piety and good sense of their Ihrefathers provided ! They shut up our schools, they turn adrift our masters and scholars, they exclude us from Universities, they degrade and vilify the practice and the profession of mush., and then insult us with our ignorance and our profligacy. Is this Christian charity- -is it common justice?
It seems that we have been made parties in this controversy. "The .Speclator," says Dr. I Ionaes, " gravely stestaated to the managers .of the approaching Festival a wish that Moamar's celebrated Re- quiem, "Missy pro deftmetis," might be heard in Westminster Abbey. The editor of the Standard did not fail to take advantage from this circumstance to allege that the words are not taken into account by musical people, but that the pleasure they ex- perience is solely derived from the music. But how knew lie but the writer in the Spectateor might be a devout Roman Catholic, by whom the expression of such a wish might be by no means im- proper ?" We beg to assure 1)r. lloaaas, that, whatever be our religious creed, we have no desire to insinuate Popery into the ears either of the Royal or vulgar auditors who may chance to attend the Festival. We saw that, with the Royal sanction, music for the service of the Catholic Church was to be perforated there- Psaraoaasi having written no other ; and the height and front of our offending is that (such being the case) we preferred Mozsav to PERGOLESI. To our ears the dogrel Latin rhymes of the Requiem have no great charm ; but the 011bstorium alone contains any religious sentiment that a Protestant Episcopalian need startle at ; and even this might be retained, as Dr. Hormas suggests, by the substitution of " nobis " fur " cis ,- wherever the latter word occurs in the prayers for the di ad.
Dr. Iloaaas, on the authority of many eminent divines of the English Church, successfully repels the barbarian attack which is thus levelled at her simple and elevating form of wor- ship by these her pretended friends. Perhaps we have unra- velled the mystery which he sought in vain to dispel, and laid bare the motives which prompted this ruthless attempt at spolia- tion and desecration. The really weak point in the arrangements of the approaching Festival is (in part) its uncharitable object. We repeat uncharitable—for every shilling that goes into the pockets of the Directors of the Tenterden Street School is so much taken from " decayed musicians or their widows and orphans." Whatever be this amount, it might as well be given to the Zoolo- gical (lindens, or the Linmean Society. Of this fact the Dukes of NEWCASTLE and CUMBERLAND either were or chose to be ig- norant, in their skirmish on this subject in the House of Lords.
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