Schwenkfelder Hymnology/Chapter IV

by Allen Anders Seipt

CHAPTER IV.
Hymns Used by the Schwenkfelders Before 1762.

In our account of the hymns sung by the Schwenkfelders prior to the appearance of the Saur edition, we are concerned chiefly with the American period. Among the followers of Schwenkfeld there have always been hymn-lovers, who have sought to preserve the hymns written by Schwenkfelders. Thus, in 1537, Valentin Ickelsamer^[1] published at his own expense a letter of consolation received from Schwenkfeld during a serious illness, and with the letter Reissner's hymn: "In dich hab ich gehoffet, Herr." Thus about the middle of the century, Reissner wrote his Teglichs Gesangbuch, in which he preserved hundreds of the hymns of the earliest Schwenkfelder writers. Thus half a century later, Sudermann set forward the same work. Thus in the Seventeenth Century the hymns of Sudermann, Oelsner, Anna Hoyer, Heydrich and Martin John, Jr., were saved; and in the next century, despite the menace of persecution in Europe and the hardship of pioneer-life in America, Caspar Weiss, George Weiss, Balthaser Hoffmann, Christopher Kriebel, Hans Christoph Hiibner, Christopher Hoffmann, and Christopher Schultz all produced large transcripts of Schwenkfelder hymns.

These hymns, excepting such as were not suitably arranged to be sung, were preserved for use. To be sure, the early Schwenkfelders could not. like those who settled in America, as a sect establish churches, adopt an order of worship and prepare a hymn-book for general use. In these matters each community of Schwenkfelders was usually independent of all others, because of the state measures decreed to prevent religious conferences and public worship among them. In the Sixteenth Century, followers of Schwenkfeld were found, not only in Silesia, but in many parts of Germany and in Moravia, Switzerland and Holland. Strassburg, Augsburg and Ulm were leading centres. In the Royal Library, Berlin, is a manuscript containing hymns sung by the Schwenkf elders in Ulm, ca. 1560-1580. In 1583 this congregation was dispersed, some settling in Soeflingen and others in Justingen. In their affliction they had a hymn-book printed for their own use and consolation:^[2] G. M. D.^[3] Ein Christlich Psalter-Gebett der Betrengten Kirchen Gottes zn Trost gestellet und auss den CL. Psalmen Dauids susamengezogen. Ulm, Johann Anton Ulhart, MDLXXXV."

In America there was from the first a gradual increase in the practice of using hymns collected by Schwenkf elders. These collections, as noted, included the best hymns of Schwenkfelder authorship. In numbers XXV. and XXVI. of our Descriptive Bibliography, which were written in Saxony and brought to America in 1734, and which together comprise the earliest transcription of the collection of George Weiss, there are unmistakable evidences that this manuscript furnished many of the hymns sung in their public worship. Again, soon after the death of George Weiss (1740), and during the ministry of Balthaser Hoffmann, a number of smaller manuscript hymn-books arranged for church use and based on the Weiss hymn-book appeared. The largest of these is extant in two volumes, quarto. It was completed in 1747 and is the work of Christopher Kriebel, later the catechist of the Schwenkfelders. Indeed, this activity began in the first years following the landing of the Schwenkfelders. There is preserved a hymn-book of this kind inscribed: "Written for Rosina Yeakel. Anno 1735." It contains hymns for the Sundays and holy-days and for some of the Saints' Days, beginning with the first Sunday of Advent. A careful comparison has shown that the collection in question is an abridgment of the Weiss hymn-book. It is supplied with an index of first lines, and throughout bears manifest marks of having rendered service.^[4] This is true of most of these hymn-books, which shed much light upon a portion of the chronicle recorded for the year 1759 in the Historischc Anmerkungen^[5] by Rev. Christopher Schultz. The passage runs thus: "For years we have had under consideration the question of publishing a hymn-book for our own use, believing that it would prove a welcome work, because the hymns which we are using—excepting those which chance to be preserved by transcription and compilation—have a scattered existence."

We do not wish to convey the idea that the Schwenkfelders have at no time used printed hymn-books other than those intended for the sect. The Silesian Schwenkfelders knew and used all the editions of the German hymn-book of the Bohemian Brethren (Moravians), admitting possibly a single exception. For a period of about thirty years beginning 1535, this hymn-book was not generally in favor among Schwenkfelders, because of a change in Schwenkfeld's attitude to this religious body. But after the appearance of the edition of 1566 and until the emigration from Silesia (1726) the Schwenkfelders of the principalities of Liegnitz and Jauer continued to use these hymns. A number of copies of this hymn-book were brought to America by the Schwenkfelder immigrants. Twelve of these copies have come under the observation of the present writer. Some of the copies, which were rebound when still in use, were supplied with blank leaves on which were added in manuscript the hymns used by the sect but not contained in the Bohemian hymn-book.^[6] This fact is a striking corroboration of our thesis, that the Schwenkfelders probably at no time used only the hymns of the Bohemian Brethren.

We are not disposed, however, to depreciate the significance of the splendid service which Bohemian hymnody performed for Schwenkfeldianism. Indeed, of the bequest left to Christendom by the Bohemian hymn-writers, most of the Protestant churches of Germany and Great Britain have in some measure been beneficiaries. The German hymn-book of the followers of John Huss was a manual of devotions in hundreds of Schwenkfelder families during the weary years of unyielding persecution. The copies brought to America include all the editions issued from Schwenkfeld's death (1561) to the end of the Seventeenth Century. According to a Schwenkfelder chronicle written in Silesia in the Seventeenth Century by Hans Seibt, and supplemented and extended in America, Melchior Dehnst, a pious Schwenkfelder writer and transcriber was occupied (1660 ca. ) with the revision of a number of hymns in the Bohemian hymnal—his aim being to adapt them to Schwenkfeld's Confession of Faith. Balthaser Hoffmann also records, in a document which we shall quote in our next chapter, that this hymn-book was still in common use among the Schwenkfelders at the opening of the Eighteenth Century. Indeed, in the matter of arrangement, the hymn-books of the Schwenkfelders printed in America all retain the stamp of the quarto editions of the Bohemian hymnal.

We list here the various editions of the German hymn-book of the Bohemian Brethren since it served as an important source for the Schwenkfelder collections discussed in the remaining chapters of this work:

1531. Ein New Gcseng buchlen. Jungen Buntzel durch Georgen Wylmschwerer. 1531. 6to. Was the largest collection of German church hymns yet published. Contained 162 hymns, of which 143 were translations from the Bohemian, by Michael Weiss (e). Other editions: Ulm, 1538, and Ulm, 1539 (two editions').

1544. Ein Gesangbuch der Brüder in Behemen und Merherrn. Nürnberg, 1544. 8vo. Contained 181 hymns: 149 hymns of Michael Weiss and 32 hymns added by Johann Horn. Of these, 26 had been translated into German by Horn, who edited this hymn book.

1566. Kirchengeseng. First quarto edition of Bohemian hymn book (German). Contained 343 hymns. Of the hymns of the edition of 1544, only 15 are omitted. This edition has an appendix with 106 hymns by Lutheran authors.

1580. Kirchengesang. The preceding edition (1566) republished without alteration. Nürnberg, 1580.

1606. Kirchenaäsange. The edition of 1566 revised and enlarged. Martin Polycarp was the editor. Published in Moravia.

1639. Kirchensänge. A new edition. Published at Lissa, Poland. Contained 360 hymns written by Bohemian Brethren. Of these, 141 are hymns of Michael Weisse. This edition contains a biographical list "of those (14) persons who translated the Bohemian hymns into German verse". This is the only edition in this series which furnishes biographical information concerning these hymn writers. We shall have occasion to mention this list again, in our discussion of the Schwenkfelder hymn-book of 1762.

1661. Another edition of the German hymn-book of the Bohemian Brethren was published at Amsterdam in 1661. The editor was the noted educational reformer John Amos Comenius.^[7]

1. Cf. Schneider, loco citato, p. 7.
2. Cf. Schneider, loco citato, p. 8f. Koch, II, 421f
3. Votum: "Gott mit dir": "God be with you."
4. In the possession of Rev. J. H. Dubbs, D. D., LL. D., Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster. Pa., who kindly allowed the present writer to compare this manuscript with its original. The book seems to have been written by Rev. George Weiss.
5. Published by Prof. M. D. Learned, Ph. D., L. H. D., in Americana Germanica, Vol. II, No. 1.
6. The most interesting copy of this description known to the writer is the copy which was owned and used by David Seibt. It is in the possession of Hon. S. W. Pennypacker, Former Governor of Pennsylvania.
7. Cf. Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, p. 156.