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Objection 1: It would seem that God should not be praised with
song. For the Apostle says (Col. 3:16): "Teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual canticles."
Now we should employ nothing in the divine worship, save what is
delivered to us on the authority of Scripture. Therefore it would
seem that, in praising God, we should employ, not corporal but
spiritual canticles.
Objection 2: Further, Jerome in his commentary on Eph.
5:19, "Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord,"
says: "Listen, young men whose duty it is to recite the office in
church: God is to be sung not with the voice but with the heart. Nor
should you, like play-actors, ease your throat and jaws with
medicaments, and make the church resound with theatrical measures and
airs." Therefore God should not be praised with song.
Objection 3: Further, the praise of God is competent to little and
great, according to Apoc. 14, "Give praise to our God, all ye
His servants; and you that fear Him, little and great." But the
great, who are in the church, ought not to sing: for Gregory says
(Regist. iv, ep. 44): "I hereby ordain that in this See the
ministers of the sacred altar must not sing" (Cf. Decret., dist.
xcii., cap. In sancta Romana Ecclesia). Therefore singing is
unsuitable to the divine praises.
Objection 4: Further, in the Old Law God was praised with
musical instruments and human song, according to Ps. 32:2,3:
"Give praise to the Lord on the harp, sing to Him with the
psaltery, the instrument of ten strings. Sing to Him a new
canticle." But the Church does not make use of musical instruments
such as harps and psalteries, in the divine praises, for fear of
seeming to imitate the Jews. Therefore in like manner neither should
song be used in the divine praises.
Objection 5: Further, the praise of the heart is more important
than the praise of the lips. But the praise of the heart is hindered
by singing, both because the attention of the singers is distracted
from the consideration of what they are singing, so long as they give
all their attention to the chant, and because others are less able to
understand the thing that are sung than if they were recited without
chant. Therefore chants should not be employed in the divine praises.
On the contrary, Blessed Ambrose established singing in the Church
of Milan, a Augustine relates (Confess. ix).
I answer that, As stated above (Article 1), the praise of the
voice is necessary in order to arouse man's devotion towards God.
Wherefore whatever is useful in conducing to this result is becomingly
adopted in the divine praises. Now it is evident that the human soul
is moved in various ways according to various melodies of sound, as the
Philosopher state (Polit. viii, 5), and also Boethius (De
Musica, prologue). Hence the use of music in the divine praises is
a salutary institution, that the souls of the faint-hearted may be the
more incited to devotion. Wherefore Augustine say (Confess. x,
33): "I am inclined to approve of the usage of singing in the
church, that so by the delight of the ears the faint-hearted may rise
to the feeling of devotion": and he says of himself (Confess. ix,
6): "I wept in Thy hymns and canticles, touched to the quick by
the voices of Thy sweet-attuned Church."
Reply to Objection 1: The name of spiritual canticle may be given
not only to those that are sung inwardly in spirit, but also to those
that are sung outwardly with the lips, inasmuch as such like canticles
arouse spiritual devotion.
Reply to Objection 2: Jerome does not absolutely condemn singing,
but reproves those who sing theatrically in church not in order to
arouse devotion, but in order to show off, or to provoke pleasure.
Hence Augustine says (Confess. x, 33): "When it befalls me
to be more moved by the voice than by the words sung, I confess to
have sinned penally, and then had rather not hear the singer."
Reply to Objection 3: To arouse men to devotion by teaching and
preaching is a more excellent way than by singing. Wherefore deacons
and prelates, whom it becomes to incite men's minds towards God by
means of preaching and teaching, ought not to be instant in singing,
lest thereby they be withdrawn from greater things. Hence Gregory
says (Regist. iv, ep. 44): "It is a most discreditable custom
for those who have been raised to the diaconate to serve as choristers,
for it behooves them to give their whole time to the duty of preaching
and to taking charge of the alms."
Reply to Objection 4: As the Philosopher says (Polit. viii,
6), "Teaching should not be accompanied with a flute or any
artificial instrument such as the harp or anything else of this kind:
but only with such things as make good hearers." For such like
musical instruments move the soul to pleasure rather than create a good
disposition within it. In the Old Testament instruments of this
description were employed, both because the people were more coarse and
carnal---so that they needed to be aroused by such instruments as
also by earthly promises---and because these material instruments
were figures of something else.
Reply to Objection 5: The soul is distracted from that which is
sung by a chant that is employed for the purpose of giving pleasure.
But if the singer chant for the sake of devotion, he pays more
attention to what he says, both because he lingers more thereon, and
because, as Augustine remarks (Confess. x, 33), "each
affection of our spirit, according to its variety, has its own
appropriate measure in the voice, and singing, by some hidden
correspondence wherewith it is stirred." The same applies to the
hearers, for even if some of them understand not what is sung, yet
they understand why it is sung, namely, for God's glory: and this
is enough to arouse their devotion.
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