Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

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The introduction of the Psalter in the vernacular was a most important
feature, and the beginning of a long and heroic chapter in the history of
worship and Christian life. The Psalter occupies the same important place
in the Reformed Church as the hymnal in the Lutheran. It was the source of
comfort and strength to the Huguenot Church of the Desert, and to the
Presbyterian Covenanters of Scotland, in the days of bitter trial and
persecution. Calvin, himself prepared metrical versions of Psalms 25, 36,
43, 46, f520 91, 113, 120, 138, 142, together with a metrical version of the
Song of Simeon and the Ten Commandments. f521 He afterwards used the
superior version of Clément Marot, the greatest French poet of that age,
who was the poet of the court, and the psalmist of the Church (1497–
1544). Calvin met him first at the court of the Duchess of Ferrara (1536),
whither he had fled, and afterwards at Geneva (1542), where he
encouraged him to continue his metrical translation of the Psalms. Marot’s
Psalter first appeared at Paris, 1541, and contained thirty Psalms, together
with metrical versions of the Lord’s Prayer, the Angelic Salutation, the
Creed, and the Decalogue. Several editions, with fifty Psalms, were printed
at Geneva in 1543, one at Strassburg in 1545. Later editions were enlarged
with the translations of Beza. The popularity and usefulness of his and
Beza’s Psalter were greatly enhanced by the rich melodies of Claude
Goudimel (1510–1572), who joined the Reformed Church in 1562, and
died a martyr at Lyons in the night of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
He devoted his musical genius to the Reformation. His tunes are based in
part on popular songs, and breathe the simple and earnest spirit of the
Reformed cultus. Some of them have found a place among the chorals of
the Lutheran Church.
§ 88. CALVIN AS THEOLOGICAL TEACHER AND AUTHOR.
The Reformers of Strassburg, aided by leading laymen, as Jacob Sturm and
John Sturm, provided for better elementary and higher education, and
founded schools which attracted pupils from France as early as 1525.
Gérard Roussel, one of the earliest of the refugees, speaks very highly of
them in a letter to the bishop of Meaux. f522 A Protestant college
(gymnasium), with a theological department, was established March 22,
1538, and placed under the direction of John Sturm, one of the ablest
pedagogues of his times. It was the nucleus of a university which continued
German down to the French Revolution, was then half Frenchified, and is
now again German in language and methods of teaching. The first teachers