HEAR MY PRAYER
Hymns and Anthems
While hymns of one kind or another, songs of praise, have
for centuries had their place in Christian worship, whether as part of the
liturgy or in a more popular form, both hymn and anthem took on a new
complexion with the religious changes of the sixteenth century. In England these changes were reflected in the The Booke of the Common Prayer of 1549,
issued in the early reign of Edward VI, who had been strongly influenced by his
Protestant tutors and guardians. As in the Catholic Counter-Reformation,
attempts were made to simplify church music, for the better understanding of
the people, but music always retained some place in the worship of what was now
the Church of England, amid all the confusing changes that were taking place.
The brief reign of Queen Mary, with a return of allegiance to Rome, did much to
save church music that might otherwise have suffered under an increasingly
Calvinistic government, and on th