Schwenkfeld himself seems to have written but little verse. Of course he recognized the irresistible power of congregational singing as an agency in the establishment of the Reformation cause, and was looking on with the warmest approval as all Germany, awakened by the song of "the nightingale of Wittenberg" began to sing itself into Protestantism. It was he who, in 1534, requested Katharina Zell to publish a new edition of the first German hymn-book of the Bohemian Brethren.[1] True, it is possible that some hymns of his may have been suppressed along with other literature from his pen. However, a few treasured verses of his composition have been preserved. We give here three pairs of rhymed couplets by Schwenkfeld. The first appears in all the editions of the Schwenkfelder hymn-book, on the reverse of the title-page. The other two strophes appear on a broadside published by Daniel Sudermann. This broadside contains a contemporary portrait of Schwenkfeld, of the year 1556. The verses in question appear just below the portrait. They are a metrical amplification of Schwenkfeld's motto : "Niltriste Christo recepto." On the same broadside are twenty-eight lines of verse written, according to Schneider,[2] by Sudermann. They begin: "Herr Caspar Schwenckfelds leib und G'stalt."[3] Following are the strophes by Schwenkfeld:
"Wenn singt im Hertzen Gottes Geist,
In Christo Gott wird recht gepreiszt;
Wenn aber singt der fleischlich Christ,
Solch Lob fiir Gott ein Greuel ist.
Wer Iesum christv vor im hat
der rhvet sanfte frve vnd spat
er ist getrost in aller nott
