Women's Hymns in Mid-Sixteenth-Century England: Elisabeth Cruciger, Miles Coverdale, and Lady Elizabeth Tyrwhit

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 In referring to a newly composed song, German reformers use the terms “geistliche Lied” (spiritual song), “evangelisch Gesang” (evangelical song), or “Lobsanck” (song of praise); they appear to reserve the term “hymnus” for translations of Latin hymns. Because English language scholarship refers to these works as “hymns,” I will follow suit. Cruciger's hymn also circulated in Scotland; see note 10. Felch demonstrates that although copies of Tyrwhit's text are from 1574 and 1582, the volume draws on materials printed in the 1530s, 1540s, and 1550s and has affinities with the works of Queen Katherine Parr, whom she served as a lady of the Privy Chamber, and Parr's associates. It is thus appropriate to approach Tyrwhit's work in terms of late Henrician and Edwardian religious culture. Felch also argues that the 1582 text is likely closest to Tyrwhit's original work, while the 1572 text was probably abbreviated and rearranged in the 1570s (59–64). I will thus draw on the 1582 text. 2 Discussions of hymns in Tudor England are found in Leaver and Quitslund. Kimberly A. Coles stresses Anglo-Calvinist hostility to creative treatments of Scripture. 3 Luther refers to poets in Formula Missae et Communionis (1523), 36–37. In a letter to Spalatin (1523), he writes “we are seeking poets everywhere” (Letters 131). 4 These hymns were reprinted in primers by Marshall and Godfray (STC 15986; 15988; 15988; 15998; 15988a). 5 For more biographical information, see Elisabeth Schneider-Böklen. 6 In the Rostock volume it is introduced as “Eyn geystlick ledt van Christo. Elizabeth Crützigeryn” (Wiechmann-Kadow Diii). See “A New Preface” in Luther's Works, vol. 53 (n. 3), 317–18. A full investigation of the early circulation and attribution of Cruciger's hymn needs to be undertaken. A preliminary study indicates that it appeared unattributed in early hymnals such as the Erfurt Enchiridion (1524); Johann Walter's part-book, Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (Wittenberg, 1524); and Geistliche Lieder auffs new gebessert zu Wittemberg D. Mart. Luth.(Wittenberg: Klug, 1533). It may have been attributed to Cruciger in the now-lost (Klug, 1529) edition, which was the source for the Rostock. It is attributed to “Elisabeth M.” (her maiden name was von Meseritz) in hymnals from Zwickau (Schönsperger,1528) and Leipzig (Blum, 1530), and to Elisabeth Cruciger in hymnals from Rostock (Dietz, 1531), Erfurt (Rauscher, 1531), Magdeburg (Walther, 1534), Magdeburg (Lotter, 1536), Hamburg (1558), and Lübeck (1564). It is unattributed in the Geystliche Lieder (Leipzig: Babst, 1545). Mary Jane Haemig examines the multifaceted, long-running debate about Cruciger's authorship that began with David Chytraeus' attribution of the hymn to Andreas Knoepken in 1599. 7 See The ‘Erfurt Enchiridion,’ 10. I have transcribed this 1524 version because the Rostock version is in low German and is more difficult to read. I have expanded ligatures. In her article, Haemig prints a modern version of Cruciger's hymn, but it differs from the original. This dense hymn is difficult to translate and I offer only a line-by-line, literal translation. I thank my colleague Johannes Wolfart for his assistance. 1. Lord Christ, the only son of God / of his father in eternity/ From his heart sprouted / As it is written / He is the morning star / who extends his radiance further / than other bright stars.2. For us a person born / in the last part of time / The mother did not lose / her maidenly chastity / He broke death open for us / unlocked heaven / brought life again.3. Let us in your love / and knowledge increase / That we may remain in faith /and serve in the spirit so / that we here may taste / your sweetness in our hearts /and thirst constantly for you.4. You creator of all things / you fatherly power / Reign from end to end / mighty in your own power / Turn our heart to you / and turn away our senses / so that they do not err (or wander) from you.5. Kill us with your goodness / awake us through your grace / Sicken the old man / so the new one may live / And here on this earth / all senses and all desires / and thanks will go to you. 8 Leaver suggests that Cruciger's hymn is “based on” Prudentius' Christmas hymn, Corde natus ex parentis, but I find that it is more intertextual than that. He notes that the melody is derived from a mid-fifteenth century love song (Marshall and Leaver). Prudentius' hymn is printed in Moorsom, 45–47. 9 See Matthew Britt and Samuel Willoughby Duffield. 10 Coverdale's translation of Cruciger's hymn also appears (in Scottish dialect) in the “Dundee Psalms,” Ane Compendious buik of godlie Psalmes and spirituall sangis, a work attributed to John Wedderburn (MS by 1546, first printing from 1565; STC 2996.3–2998); Leaver 84–86. This book was apparently known to John Knox and thus perhaps to Anne Lock. 11 Joachim Slüter, Wiechmann-Kadow (see n. 6), F3–G3. In Coverdale the Psalms are 12, 2, 46, 124, 137, 128 (two versions), 51 (two versions), 130, 25, 67, 14, 147, and 133. This ordering is different than the ordering in the Rostock text, and it does not correspond to the groupings found in traditional or reformist primers. 12 My emphasis. The phrase is drawn from Ps. 22.22. Leaver argues that Coverdale no doubt hoped that hymns would eventually “find a place in English churches” (81). 13 See Leaver, Goostly, and Quitslund, Reformation. The exception is Robert Wisdom's version of Ps. 67, a work that is indebted to Coverdale's translation. 14 Susan E. James 329–33. In 1546, the year Coverdale's books were banned, Tyrwhit and Parr were suspected of hiding banned books in their “closet & coffers” (John Foxe 1423). 15 In “Appendix A,” 157–86, Felch provides identification numbers and sources for the items in the prayer book. 16 I believe that Tyrwhit's “An Hymne of the state of all Adams posteritie” (#37) is related to Lazarus Spengler's “Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt” (1524). Spengler's hymn is much longer than Tyrwhit's, but the themes are identical. Coverdale translated this hymn in his Goostly Psalmes, and there are echoes of his translation in Tyrwhit's piece. The relation between these three texts requires further investigation. 17 There are morning songs in Michael Weisse's Ein New Gesengbuchlen (Jungbunzlau, 1531), and two are printed in the Geystliche Lieder (Leipzig: Babst, 1545). There are many “Morgengesänge” printed in Julius Mützell, 1137. I would make the same argument about #44 “Another Hymne or praier to be said when ye go to bed,” which is attributed to M. W. in the 1582 version of Tyrwhit's book and which resembles the “Abendlieder” found in German Hymnals. Mützell,Geistliche Lieder, 1138. 18 These hymns are available in the texts cited in note 9. 19 The Primer set forth by the King's Majesty, and his clergy, to be Taught, Learned, and read: and none other to be used throughout all his dominions (1545; STC 16034), Div. My emphasis. Leaver posits that Cranmer was largely responsible for the Primer and that these hymns were sung in some communal settings (109–16). 20 These lines are repeated at the end of her versification of Psalm 134 (# 43). 21 Thomas Sternhold, Certayne Psalmes chose[n] out of the Psalter of David (London, 1548), Aiii. It is noteworthy that Tyrwhit tinkered with the stress patterns in her transcription of hymn #8 from Toye (and Marshall) so that it appears in common meter in her book (76). 22 In her common meter version of Psalm 134 (#43), Tyrwhit uniquely introduces the idea of singing (“night singers in Gods courts”), a detail that reveals an interest in devotional singing.

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