Berta Joncus and Melania Bucciarelli (eds.

), Music as Social and

Cultural Practice: Essays in Honour of Reinhard Strohm
(Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2007), 86–102

• 5 •
How to Sin in Music:
Doctor Navarrus on Sixteenth-Century Singers
Bonnie J. Blackburn

H ow many ways are there to sin while singing? Very many, according to
the sixteenth-century Spanish canonist Martín de Azpilcueta. In chap-
ter 16 of his Enchiridion sive manuale de oratione et horis canonicis, published
first in Spanish in 1545 and then in Latin, both reprinted many times in the
sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, he sets out in considerable detail
a panoply of sins committed by singers, all of which cause distraction to lis-
teners and therefore disrupt devotion. These include mispronunciation of
words, anticipation of antiphonal responses, singing too fast or too slowly,
talking and laughing in choir, singing counterpoint ineptly, singing chant
without any variation, and failing to pause between verses. Special atten-
tion is devoted to singers of polyphonic music, who prize music over words,
vaunt their voices, and insinuate lascivious and other secular songs into the
mass.
None of this is new: churchmen had been inveighing against unruly singers
for centuries. But do they sin, or do they merely err? ‘Peccare’ can mean either.
For Azpilcueta it is clear that they do sin, though not mortally. The author of
an anonymous treatise of the ninth or tenth century invokes Augustine in this
context: ‘The blessed Augustine maintains that he sins so as to incur penance
who enjoys the loudness [or height] of the voice more than the meaning of the
words; for one must sing not with the voice but with the heart.’ That, the author
says, is the reason for the institution of psalmody, for as David in playing the
harp soothed the spirit of Saul, so through singing or jubilating singers purge
diabolical desires from the hearts of the listeners. The conflict between music
as sensual pleasure and music as an aid to devotion has been debated through
  ‘Beatus Augustinus perhibet, quia penaliter peccat, qui in divinis canticis alti-
tudinem vocis magis quam sensum verborum delectat; quia ideo non voce, sed
corde cantandum est. Ad hoc enim usus psalendi constitutus est; ut sicut David
in citharizando nequam spiritum in Saule compescebat, ita cantores modulando
vel iubilando quaelibet diabolica desideria de cordibus audiencium expellant, et
celestibus armoniis interesse persuadeant.’ The brief treatise has been re-edited by
Michael Bernhard in Clavis Gerberti: Eine Revision von Martin Gerberts Scriptores
ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum, i (Munich, 1989), pp. 33–5; it begins with
this quotation. Bernhard refers to Augustine, Ennar. in ps. 18. 2. 1, but it might be
Confessions 10 (see below).

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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music 87

the centuries. Music, on biblical authority, was appropriate for praising God,
but it needed to be regulated, in style as well as performance. By the sixteenth
century, one might think, the argument had been all but settled, at least for
music in the Catholic Church: were not the rites of the papal chapel and St
Peter’s celebrated with polyphonic splendour?
Contrary voices abounded in northern Europe, however; one has only to
think of Erasmus. Yet reforming voices were known in the Catholic Church as
well before the Council of Trent, where the question of the place of polyphonic
music in the divine rite was aired. The Spanish contribution to the debate is
less well known. Azpilcueta’s comments draw us into the world of a canonist
who seeks a church music that is fitting for his time, not the masterworks of a
Morales or Palestrina but the modest elaboration of plainchant condoned by
Pope John xxii in his famous decretal of 1324–5, Docta sanctorum. This prefer-
ence casts an interesting light on Azpilcueta’s attitude to the musical work, one
that he must have shared with a number of his contemporaries whose voices
until recently have not been given much credence, when noticed: we prize the
elaborate finished compositions of Renaissance masters, and thus it comes as
somewhat of a shock and a disappointment to find a sixteenth-­century ­figure
who does not. For Azpilcueta the true music of devotion is not the musical
work, the opus completum et absolutum, but plainchant; as long as that is
preserved and decorously clothed, this churchman will condone polyphonic
music in church. Hence his emphasis on performance practice, which focuses
on the text as much as the music.
Martín de Azpilcueta (1492–1586), born in Navarre (hence his appellation
Doctor Navarrus), studied philosophy at Alcalá and law at Toulouse, eventu-
ally becoming a renowned moralist and jurist who had taught at Toulouse,
Cahors, Salamanca and Coimbra. While at Coimbra he was also Cantor at
the cathedral, and was thus occupied with chant in the Divine Office. He was
a counsellor of Philip ii in canon law between 1555 and 1567, but his defence
  For various opinions in the period preceding Azpilcueta’s comments, see Rob C.
Wegman, The Crisis of Music in Early Modern Europe 1470–1530 (New York and
London, 2005).
  See, most recently, ibid., pp. 108–21, 133–65.
  See in particular the comments on singers’ abuses by Friedrich Nausea von
Waischenfeld, bishop of Vienne, in De praecipuis quibusdam clericorum et laico-
rum abusibus pro ecclesia reformanda tollendis, Liber quintus (1543), excerpted in
Craig A. Monson, ‘The Council of Trent Revisited’, Journal of the American Musi-
cological Society 55 (2002), pp. 1–37, at pp. 28–9; for earlier figures see pp. 4–5.
  And thus during the time when Philip issued the letter of foundation of El ­Escorial,
prohibiting the monks to sing polyphony, though fabordón was permitted. See
Michael Noone, Music and Musicians in the Escorial Liturgy under the Habsburgs,
1563–1700 (Rochester, NY, 1998), pp. 87–96.

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 88 Music as Social and Cultural Practice

of the Archbishop of Toledo, Bartolomé de Carranza, against charges of her-

esy led to the loss of the king’s favour. The last nineteen years of his long life
were spent in Rome, where he was consultant to the Sacred Penitentiary. An
indefatigable scholar who slept no more than five hours a night, he published
prolifically on canon law, including a frequently cited tract on usury, and on
moral instruction; his justification of mental reservation was to become a hall-
mark of the Jesuits.
The Enchiridion sive manuale de oratione et horis canonicis was originally
published in Spanish in 1545 with the title Commento en romance a manera de
repeticion latina y scholastica de Iuristas, sobre el capitulo Quando de consecra-
tione dist. prima. On prayer and the canonical hours, it was later followed by
his manual for confessors, Enchiridion seu manuale confessariorum et poeni-
tentium (first edition in Spanish, 1553), likewise published frequently in the
sixteenth century. In the latter manual he treats music under two headings,
blasphemy and the seven mortal sins. Citing Cardinal Cajetan (the Dominican
Tommaso de Vio, 1469–1534), who deems it a mortal sin to introduce secular
music, whether sung or played on the organ or other instruments, into the
divine rite, Azpilcueta remarks that it does not seem to him a mortal sin unless
the songs are ‘dishonest’, vain and profane, and sung by those who have been
warned against it.
The treatise on prayer and the canonical hours is much more expansive
on the occasions to sin in church. During his long experience of divine serv-
ice, Azpilcueta had plenty of occasions to wince. In the preface to the first
edition, he says that he had prayed for over forty years, said mass for thirty,
and ‘frequently heard sung and sometimes have sung in various kingdoms and
cathedrals, and collegiate and simple churches’. Chapter 16 (pp. 257–97 in the

  Information drawn from the article by Marciano Vidal in the Gran Enciclo­pedia
RIALP, <http://www.canalsocial.net>, accessed 25 January 2003.
  For this reason he has sometimes been called a Jesuit, though others make him a
Dominican. In fact he was neither; in his youth he became an Augustinian.
  ‘S’ ei procurò di mescolare al culto divino, canti profani, & brutti con voci humane,
o di organi, o di altri stromenti, è peccato mortale, perché si fa ingiuria al culto
Ecclesiastico, & a Dio … Ma hora diciamo, che non mi par peccato mortale; salvo
che quando le canzoni sono disoneste, vane, & profane, & cantate mentre si dice
l’ officio divino da quelli, che sono avisati, che non sono lecite …’. I quote from
the Italian translation, Manuale de’ confessori, nel quale si contiene la universale,
& particolare decisione de tutti i dubbij, che nelle confessioni de’ peccati sogliono
­occorrere (Venice, 1579), p. 145. A similar statement occurs on p. 641, in the section
on the seven mortal sins. On Cajetan, see below.
  ‘muchos oydo cantar y a las vezes cantado en diversos reynos & yglesias ­cathedrales,
colegiales y simples’; Commento en romance, fol. +iiiv. He himself translated the
treatise into Latin; I use the edition published in Rome in 1578. I quote from the

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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music 89

1545 edition) deals with impediments to attention in the context of the divine
service, with no fewer than eighty conclusions. Many of these are directed at
the celebrants and their assistants and therefore involve recitation or liturgi-
cal actions, but a number indict the singers and the organist. Some, however,
are directed at worshippers, who are admonished, for example, not to bring
dogs, hawks, crying children and the insane into church (§4). Throughout
Azpilcueta cites the statements of church councils as authority, particularly
the council of Basel.
Mispronunciation of words disturbed the Doctor Navarrus. One can make
a mistake in pronouncing ‘Jácobus’ rather than ‘Jacóbus’, but if one persists,
it is a sin (§4[bis]).10 Various ways of pronouncing ‘Kyrie’ and ‘Christe’ are
denounced (§6). Christe, meaning ‘annointed’, should be aspirated; otherwise
criste means bird crests. It is wrong to say ‘kyrieleyson’ and ‘Cristeleyson’, drop-
ping a syllable – a practice that indeed reflects contemporary pronunciation
since we often find it notated that way in choirbooks.11 Other mispronuncia-
tions are ‘Kyrghalayson’ and ‘Cristalayson’, and even ‘Kyson’ and ‘Criston’.12 But
it is not enough to pronounce words correctly; the pauses indicated by the
punctuation must also be observed, especially in the Salve Regina and Pater
noster (§7). It is also a sin to say mass too quickly, which some call the ‘Missa
de caçadores’, or too slowly, which others call ‘gastadores de cirios’ (§8).
When there is a sung mass, with a lengthy sermon and polyphony, bishops
and other celebrants err in censing leisurely and drawing out the preface and
Pater noster (§9). Requiem masses should not be sung too fast (§10). A grave

Spanish edition because it proves that what seem to be post-Tridentine concerns

were in fact current in the early 1540s, but the Latin is given in parallel in the
­passages quoted in the appendix.
10 This section and the next are misnumbered in the 1545 edition; the Rome, 1578
edition combines 4[bis] and 5.
11 On the problems in underlaying these words in modern editions, see Howard
Mayer Brown, ‘ “Lord Have Mercy on Us”: Early Sixteenth-Century Scribal Prac-
tice and the Polyphonic Kyrie’, Text: Transactions of the Society for Textual Schol-
arship 2 (1985), pp. 93–110. In the Spanish edition Azpilcueta cites Erasmus in
this context (annotations on John 14, ‘Paracletus’), reflecting the admiration for
the Dutch scholar in sixteenth-century Spain, but all references to Erasmus are
dropped in the 1578 edition. The Commento, according to Marcel Bataillon, was
based on Erasmus’ Modus orandi; see Érasme et l’Espagne, new edn, ed. Daniel
Devoto and Charles Amiel, 3 vols. (Geneva, 1991), i. 622–9.
12 According to a contemporary anecdote, Queen Isabella of Castile was so atten-
tive to mispronunciation in her chapel that she ‘made a note of it, and later, as
master to pupil, she emended and corrected it’; see Tess Knighton, ‘Francisco de
Peñalosa: New Works Lost and Found’, Encomium musicae: Essays in Memory
of ­Robert J. Snow, ed. David Crawford and G. Grayson Wagstaff (Hillsdale, NY,
2002), pp. 231–57, at p. 249.

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 90 Music as Social and Cultural Practice

sin, in singing antiphonally, is to anticipate the verse by beginning on the last

syllable of the previous verse (§13); here he cites declarations of the councils
of Vienne (1311–12) and Basel (1431–49).13 Other actions that distract attention
are laughing, joking, or telling stories during mass (§15), and making unusual
movements, such as beating one’s breast at ‘Domine non sum dignus’ or draw-
ing one’s sword at the Gospel (§16).14 It is a sin to sing badly, making people
laugh, and age is no excuse (§17). Worse are those who sing counterpoint with-
out knowing how to do it, because they distract themselves as well as others
(§18; see the appendix).
Section 19 (see the appendix) brings us to the longest discussion so far, con-
cerning singers of polyphony (canto de órgano) and those who let them get
away with their bad practices. They talk when they are not singing, and they
make gestures when they are. Although, Azpilcueta says, popes have allowed
singing during the Divine Office to increase attention and devotion, poly­phony
has the effect that one cannot hear the words, let alone understand them. Here
he explicitly faults German, Flemish and French singers, who do not ‘explain’
(1578: ‘barely explain’) the text; they claim that it is through the force of the
music alone that they move listeners. Azpilcueta responds that this is con-
trary to what has been permitted and is an abuse and a sin. Moreover, almost
all the singers get up out of their seats and talk and joke together, especially
when a verse is being played in alternation on the organ. They neither hear the
words nor understand them. Azpilcueta quotes the famous remark of Augus-
tine on this point: ‘When it happens to me that the singing moves me more
than the thing being sung of, I confess that I sin so as to incur penance, and
then I should prefer not to hear the singer.’15 Two conditions are necessary for
music to be permitted in mass, according to the Doctor: first, one should not
sing for the sake of giving or receiving pleasure; secondly, one should not sing
with the idea that it pleases God more than prayer, again referring to Cardinal
Cajetan.
The problem is not caused by music per se; it is polyphony that is at fault.
The remedy for this situation is ‘contrapuncto’, in its original sense of a voice

13 The passage concerning music in the decretal of the Council of Vienne is given
in Helmut Hucke, ‘Das Dekret “Docta Sanctorum Patrum” Papst Johannes’ xxii’.,
Musica Disciplina 38 (1984), pp. 119–31, at pp. 125–6.
14 On this practice see Flynn Warmington, ‘The Ceremony of the Armed Man: The
Sword, the Altar, and the L’homme armé Mass’, Antoine Busnoys: Method, Meaning
and Context in Late Medieval Music, ed. Paula Higgins (Oxford, 1999), pp. 89–130;
it was properly reserved for the emperor or the king.
15 Confessions 10. 33. 50: ‘Cum mihi accidit, ut me amplius cantus, quam res, quae
cantatur moveat: penaliter me peccare confiteor, & tunc mallem non audire
­cantantem.’

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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music 91

or voices added above the chant (also known as singing super librum or ‘alla
mente’), which does not disturb the plainchant in the way conventional poly­
phony does. Here Azpilcueta quotes the decretal of Pope John xxii in Latin,
followed by a Spanish translation; this permits, especially on solemn feasts,
some consonances that have a melodious quality to them (‘que tengan sabor
de melodia’), that is octaves, fifths and fourths and similar intervals above
the plainchant, so that ‘the integrity of the chant remains uncorrupted and
­nothing of its old music is lost’, for these consonances ‘gratify hearing, promote
devotion, and prevent those singing from becoming lethargic’ (an interesting
admission concerning chant). Azpilcueta praises as worthy of emulation the
nuns of Coimbra, who ‘move the listeners to greater devotion the more atten-
tively, modestly, humbly, devoutly and harmoniously they sing together in dif-
ferent voices, not corrupting or changing a note of the plainchant’. And yet, he
admits that he would not wish to be so strictly limiting of polyphonic music in
church as John xxii, for there are ‘some singers who with humility and devo-
tion sing a motet or something else that is not obligatory, or something that is,
equally well or even better, so that one hears and understands the words and is
moved by them’.16
Here we see the jurist torn between an ecclesiastical decree that still held
force in the sixteenth century and his own personal experience.17 If the objec-
tion of John xxii was that singers obfuscated the chant with the superimposi-
tion of many voices, small notes and hockets, ignoring the modes (in effect
making it sound too much like secular music),18 that did not need to be true
of all polyphonic church music; therefore one should be more lenient. The
decretal was not concerned with the importance of understanding the text;
this is the major difference in Azpilcueta’s time: the delivery of the words is of
foremost importance. Music may enhance the text, but it must never take pre­
16 Azpilcueta refers to further remarks in the chapter ‘de hymnis supra eadem
­ istinctionem’, which I have so far not discovered in his works. It may never have
d
been published, since the 1578 edition submits the matter to the judgement of God
instead.
17 On the continued validity of the decretal, see Franz Körndle, ‘Was wusste Hoff-
mann? Neues zur altbekannten Geschichte von der Rettung der Kirchenmusik
auf dem Konzil zu Trient’, Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch 83 (1999), pp. 65–90.
Körndle provides excerpts from §§18, 19 and 21 of the 1578 edition of Azpilcueta’s
treatise with a German translation.
18 The relevant passages are quoted in Hucke, ‘Das Dekret “Docta Sanctorum
Patrum” ’, whose article begins with a sample of the misunderstandings of this
decretal over the centuries since Burney, mostly interpreting it as a ban on
polyphony. Reinhard Strohm has pointed to two Credos in the Apt MS that seem
to ‘advertise their compatibility’ with the decretal by labelling the intervals of a
fifth, octave and twelfth and refraining from naming the voice parts; see The Rise
of European Music, 1380–1500 (Cambridge, 1993), p. 35.

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 92 Music as Social and Cultural Practice

cedence. This is a well-known post-Tridentine preoccupation, but ­Azpilcueta

is ­writing in 1545. He says no more about the style appropriate to church music,
but we may posit that he approved of the widespread Spanish practice of sing-
ing fabordón, four-voice note-against-note harmonisations of the chant (there-
fore akin to falsobordone rather than faburden or fauxbourdon).19 True, fabor-
dón allows more intervals above the tenor than envisaged by John xxii, but
the chant remains prominent and the words are intelligible. This same chordal
style, which I have termed the ‘devotional style’, can also be written without
plainchant, as in the Elevation motets of the Milanese motetti missales, and it
is characteristic of the music Azpilcueta would have known in his youth.20
The remainder of chapter 16 of Azpilcueta’s Commento is concerned with
performance. In §20 he criticises those laymen who favour singers, giving
preference to music over the divine service; there are some who are happy to
have prolix Kyries, Glorias, Alleluias and Credos but cannot bear an hour-long
sermon. They sleep during the sermon and wake up during the music, vaunt-
ing their own musicality, gushing about how wonderful this or that singer is.
Some spend hundreds of ducats on singers ‘who know no Latin’ and are ‘frivo-
lous, dissolute and foolish’. In §21 he defends music in the mass, if abuses are
removed, and would regret the loss of its benefits. Section 22 reproves cus-
toms associated with Christmas: replying to those who beg for blessing with
rude words so that everyone laughs, and ‘singing secular and profane songs;
even if they are not dishonest or vain in themselves, during Divine Office they

19 For some late fifteenth-century examples from the Iberian Peninsula see Murray C.
Bradshaw, The Falsobordone: A Study in Renaissance and Baroque Music, Musico-
logical Studies and Documents xxxiv (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1978), pp. 21–30. In
these examples the psalm tone is in the highest voice and a fermata marks the end
of the first half of the psalm verse. The earliest reference to fabordón dates from
the mid-fifteenth century, where it is referred to being sung ‘por uso’ (New Grove
ii, viii, p. 615). Kenneth Kreitner points out that five of the six earliest sources for
fabordón come from the Iberian Peninsula and Aragonese Naples, thus making
it likely that the genre originated there; Kenneth Kreitner, The Church Music of
Fifteenth-Century Spain (Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music 2; Wood-
bridge, 2004), p. 52. Bernadette M. B. A. Nelson, ‘The Integration of Spanish and
Portuguese Organ Music within the Liturgy’ (D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University,
1987), discusses fabordón on pp. 280–312; while it originated as and remained a
vocal genre, it became especially widespread as an organ verset based on psalm
tones.
20 See Bonnie J. Blackburn, ‘The Dispute about Harmony c. 1500 and the Creation
of a New Style’, Théorie et analyse musicales 1450–1650/Music Theory and Analysis,
ed. Anne-Emmanuelle Ceulemans and Bonnie J. Blackburn (Louvain-la-Neuve,
2001), pp. 1–37. For Spanish examples, see Kreitner, The Church Music, pp. 87, 123,
131, 144, 146.

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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music 93

­distract from attention’. The reference is to Christmas villancicos, such as the

well-known Ríu, ríu, chíu.
Section 23 takes up the displeasure it must be to God when one mixes
­profane things with the spirituality and seriousness of the Divine Office. Here
he mentions ‘a French invention, very popular in Spain, in which singers imi-
tate the sounds of drums and trumpets, the noise of riding horses, taking up
of lances, fighting, the shots of the artillery and the tumult of war’, which are
­better reserved for secular festivities. The reference is clearly to Janequin’s
Missa super La bataille, published in 1532 (the 1597 Latin edition adds ‘La guerre
vocatur’); the song on which it was based provided the model for a number of
parody masses in the sixteenth century, above all in Spain, and these masses
were specifically criticised at the Council of Trent.
In §25 Azpilcueta turns his attention to organists, who are subject to
many of the same faults as the singers. They tend to go on at length, some-
times extending the mass by an hour, and when famous organists and sing-
ers compete with each other, seeing who can go on the longest, the psalms
and canticles expire.21 Organ music should not take any more time than the
chant it replaces, and if the singers and organist alternate, the third verse
should preferably be ‘in devout and unhurried plainchant sung by the whole
choir’.22
In the following chapter, treating the occasions for praying well, Azpil-
cueta goes over some of the same material. Lest it be thought that he has too
negative an attitude to music in the Divine Office, he cites Ambrose, Scrip-
ture, John xxii, Augustine, Thomas Waldensis,23 and Thomas Aquinas on the
positive effects of music in worship, but counsels that no more should be sung
than is sufficient for arousing devotion. The purpose of music is not to give
pleasure, and even if the words cannot be understood or clearly heard, some
good may still come of it, for one may meditate on the Creator and Saviour
(§14). The same is true of organ music, and here he remarks that there is no

21 ‘Lo otro, porque quando cantores famosos con tañedores yguales se topan, y
­porfian sobre qual dellos sera mas prolixo en su verso, tanto mas perdido va todo
el cantico u psalmo quanto mejor a su opinion volado y venteado’ (1578: ‘quo
magis coram hominibus flatu ventoso, & voce theatrica tractatur’) (pp. 280–1).
22 ‘en canto llano devoto y reposado por todo el choro’. For more on Azpilcueta’s
comments on organ playing, including a transcription of §25, see Franz Körndle,
‘ “Usus” und “Abusus organorum” im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert’, Acta Organologica 27
(2001), pp. 223–40, esp. pp. 230–1 and 232–7.
23 The theologian and Carmelite friar Thomas Netter (c.1370–1430) of Walden in
Essex. An opponent of Lollardry, he is best known for his Doctrinale fidei ecclesiae,
refuting the ideas of John Wyclif. Azpilcueta refers to the sixth volume, De sacra-
mentalibus, which was published in the sixteenth century. On Netter’s comments
on discant, see Wegman, The Crisis of Music, pp. 149–50, and 218, n. 73.

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 94 Music as Social and Cultural Practice

organ in the Sistine Chapel. He firmly opposes the use of vihuelas, harps, flutes,
bagpipes, trumpets, shawms and other similar musical instruments (‘vihue-
las, harpas, flautas, çamproñas, trompetas, chirimias, y otros ­ semejantes
instrumentos musicos’;§15; 1578: ‘violas, cytharas, fistulas, lyras, tubas, ­tibias,
& alia non absimilia instrumenta musica’), condemning a very Spanish
custom.24
Diversity in chant and the tones of psalms, antiphons, responses, chapters,
hymns, verses and prayers is a good thing because it refreshes attention, as
different foods do the palate. A steady unison in sermons puts listeners to
sleep; the faculty of hearing is the most delicate of all the senses, and rejoices
in variety (§17). One should pause at the beginning and middle of each psalm
verse, but it should be neither a short pause nor a very long pause, such as
some ­ religious make, which gives listeners cause to murmur (§18). For the
same ­reason, Azpilcueta says he never liked the long pause between the con-
secration of the host and the chalice, especially at High Mass or other masses
where the organ is played at the elevation.25
Azpilcueta’s treatise is arranged as a commentary on a question in Thomas
Aquinas’s Summa theologiae, iia iiae, q. 91, ‘De assumptione divini nominis
ad invocandum per laudem’ [On the assumption of the Divine Name to be
invoked through praise].26 This is divided into two articles: in the first, ‘Utrum
Deus sit ore laudandus’ [Whether God should be praised by the mouth], Aqui-
nas considers whether, if God is above all praise (Ecclus. 43: 33), he should be
praised with the mouth (Ps. 62: 6), distinguishing between the worship that
is God’s due and the praise that is due for his effects, the things that he has
done for us. However, vocal praise is useless unless it comes from the heart;
external praise must call forth interior affect and induce others to praise God.
Moreover, God should not be praised for his own sake but for ours. In the
second article, ‘Utrum cantus sint assumendi ad laudem divinam’ [Whether
songs are to be adopted for praising God], having cited passages from Scrip-
ture and Jerome that suggest music should not be used, Aquinas counters with
the example of St Ambrose and then, adducing Aristotle, Boethius and Augus-
tine, asserts that spiritual praise can also lead to devotion when sung. Jerome

24 The mention of vihuelas and harps in 1545 is surprising (though not in the seven­
teenth century), since the ministrels normally played wind instruments; see
­ enneth Kreitner, ‘Minstrels in Spanish Churches, 1400–1600’, Early Music 20
K
(1992), pp. 533–46.
25 ‘nunca me agrado aquella tan grande tardança, de que algunos usan entre la
c­ onsagration de la hostia y del caliz, mayormente en la Missa mayor u otra, do se
tañe quando se alça’ (p. 317).
26 Sancti Thomae Aquinatis Doctoris Angelici Opera omnia, Cum Commentariis
Thomae de Vio Caietani Ordinis Praedicatorum, ix (Rome, 1897), pp. 294–7.

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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music 95

criticised only theatrical song; simple song is permitted. Explicating Aristotle

(Politics 8. 1341a18–20), Aquinas states that the use of instruments moves the
soul more to delight than to a good internal disposition. Instruments were
used in the Old Testament ‘because the people were rather hard and carnal’.
Finally, delight in song removes the soul from the consideration of what is
sung; thus ‘if ­anyone should sing out of devotion, let him consider attentively
what he is singing’. Cajetan, taking these two articles together in his commen-
tary (1507–22), stresses that one should not sing with the idea that the song
itself is pleasing to God, nor should one sing for one’s own or another’s delight
during the Divine Office. As to instruments, he remarks (rather surprisingly)
that in Aquinas’s day organs were not used, as they still were not used in the
Pope’s presence. From the Aristotelian quotation it would follow that organs
may not be used in church; however, the long-standing custom may be tol-
erated if they are used to increase devotion, but they are illicit if they are a
cause of delight, as with song. But what if the organs play secular songs? Is it
a mortal sin? Some think it is. Others say that the sound abstracts the mind
from the material; the sound that one person applies to vain material, another
may apply to spiritual material. Now it is possible, Cajetan says, to introduce
secular melodies in two ways, either per se, for the sake of playing secular
music, or per accidens, that is, merely for the sake of the sound. As to the first,
if the matter is not only vain but provocative of indecency, it is manifestly a
mortal sin, not only in church but outside it. If it is merely vain, then the sin
of superstition, whose first ­species is worship in an inappropropriate manner,
is not entirely lacking, and superstition is a mortal sin. But if the material
is played only for the sake of its consonances, then the organist is excused
from that sin if he would not have played it had he known. However, a very
grave and perhaps mortal sin of sacrilege is committed by those who inten-
tionally mix in such worldly things that if expressed in words could not be
excused; when that intention is lacking, the act is not inherent sinful, but may
become so by reason of use, if such sounds are normally used for music unbe-
fitting a service, such as theatrical music, or of outcome, if listeners’ minds
are usually aroused by it to bad or vain things. The sin may be mortal if some
sound somewhere commonly incites to lust or distracts from things divine,
especially the clerics. If played with a pious intention, such as to console the
sick or make the souls of the evil-minded more inclined to divine things, the
sin is alleviated, though not totally excused, for evil is not to be done that
there may come good (Rom. 3: 8). Cajetan’s remarks are directed at organ-
ists, but they would have equal validity if applied to singers who introduce
secular music into the Divine Office by singing masses on secular cantus firmi
and parody masses based on love songs; even contrafacta could fall into this
category.

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 96 Music as Social and Cultural Practice

At the end of the sixteenth century, Giovenale Ancina recalled the words of
Cajetan in the preface to his collection of three-voice laude, Tempio armonico
della Beatissima Vergine (1599), but not the Cardinal’s spirit, for he claimed
that removing ‘obscene, lascivious or filthy’ words from a composition and
substituting a sacred text would make the music entirely suitable.27 But all
the theological pronouncements in the world will not vouch for the heart and
mind of the listener: for some, the music of Arcadelt’s Il bianco e dolce cigno
will evoke no more than a dying swan; for others, remembering the words
‘di mille mort’il dì sarei contento’, another type of death will come to mind;
for the musically innocent, the consonances may waft their souls heavenward.
­Sinning is as sinning does.

•  I offer this essay in homage to Reinhard Strohm, not that he has ever,
to my knowledge, dealt with the topic, but his work is so wide-ranging that
perhaps he has, in some small corner. At any rate, there is no entry for sin
in the index of his magnum opus The Rise of European Music. In writing
this article, Franz Körndle was most helpful; I owe him thanks for sending
me offprints of two articles, and especially for giving me a photocopy of the
1578 edition of the relevant pages in Azpilcueta’s treatise. I owe thanks too
to Tess Knighton, Kenneth Kreitner, Bernadette Nelson, Michael Noone and
Owen Rees, who kindly offered comments and suggestions. As always, I have
benefited from Leofranc Holford-Strevens’s critical reading.

appendix
Parallel passages concerning polyphonic music in Martín de Azpilcueta,
Commento en romance (Coimbra, 1545) and Enchiridion sive manuale, de
oratione et horis canonicis (Rome, 1578, with variants in the Lyons, 1597
edition), chapter 16. The footnotes appear in the margin in the original; they
are numbered irregularly in the Spanish text.

El .xviii. peccar tambien los, que por mostrar xviii. Peccare eos, qui ut vocem suam
su voz, y porque sean oydos, sin saber ostentent, & ut audiantur, non callentes
contrapunto, ni por arte, ni por uso cantan, y arte nec usu cantum, quem contrapunctum
como dizen chantrean contra todo punto y vocant, canunt illud, & ut aiunt, cantillant
toda buena consonantia en los officios divinos, contra omne punctum, & omnem bonam
dando que reyr a los unos, y que murmurar harmoniam in divinis officijs alijs ridendi,
a los otros, y por conseguiente dando, y alijs vero obmurmurandi ansam præbentes;
tomando occasion de distraher a si mismos, y & per consequens dantes, & sumentes
a los que occasionem distrahendi se ipsos, & auditores
los oyen … a debita attentione …

27 See Marco Bizzarini, Luca Marenzio, trans. James Chater (Aldershot, 2003),
p. 232.

STROHM.indb 96 9/5/07 11:12:10 am

 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music
[p. 272] El .xix. peccar oy comunmente
los mas de los que a las horas canonicas, y
Missa cantan canto de organo. Peccar iten
por conseguiente los que esto procuran, sin
el remedio dello devido. Lo uno, porque
comunmente oy los cantores mientra non
cantan parlan y hazen tanto ruydo, que a todo
el choro desasossiegan, y no solamente no
dan, pero quitan la attention al officio devida,
y la contemplation de Dios, y sus cosas
celestiales, y mientra cantan hazen tantos, y
tan diversos gestos, y tan poco devotos, que
mas distrahen a los que los miran con ellos
que con su melodia atrahen. Lo otro, porque
para aumentar la attention, y devotion
propria, o agena se permittio el canto en el
officio divino segun los papas,r y S. doctores
lo determinan.s y este canto de organo es
comunmente causa, que non se oya la letra
que se canta, y menos se entienda, y por
conseguiente quita las dos de las tres maneras
de attender que ay sobredichas, mayormente
entre aquellos Alemanes, Flamencos, y
Franceses, que non explican la letra, diziendo
que por solo el canto, sin las fuercas della los
buenos cantores han de mover a sus oyentes.
A lo qual es conseguiente obrar oy este canto
comunmente lo contrario de aquello, para
que se hallo, y permittio el canto en los
officios divinos, y por conseguiente, ser abuso,
y peccado.y Lo otro, porque dan ocasion a
que quasi todos los choristas se salgan de
sus sillas, y entre si uno con otro se hablen,
burlen, rian, y negocien, mayormente quando
el un verso tañe el organo, y el otra cantan los
cantores de su canto. Ca como non oyen bien
lo que se canta [p. 273] y menos lo pueden
entender y no es facil de subir a la altura de
la conversacion divina sin alguna escalera, o
cuerda de algun buen dicho leydo u oydo,
baxan a la humana, por no poder estar los
entendimientos mayormente agudos sin
pensar en algo. Lo otro, por que esta vedado
en derecho que ningun canto de organo se
cante a Missa, y a las otras horas canonicas,
como lo muy largamente prove arriba.c Lo
otro porque aquel vedamiento hizo por
muchas razones, que con mucha elegantia, y
no menos providencia toco el Papa Iohan .22.
en el decreto,d do esto vedo enseñandonos
de camino, porque el canto se permitte en
el officio divino, y es bueno a pesar de los
STROHM.indb 97
97
xix. Peccare hodie communiter aliquot
cantores, qui in horis canonicis, & Missa
canunt cantum organicum. Eos item
per consequens, qui eum non adhibito
remedio, ne peccetur, procurant. Tum
quod comuniter hodie cantores, dum non
canunt, fabulantur, & tantum strepitum
excitant, ut totum chorum inquietent, &
non modo non excitant, verum adimunt
attentionem, & devotionem officio debitam, &
contemplationem Dei, rerumque Divinarum,
quin & dum canunt, tam parum, modestis
gestibus utuntur, ut magis eos aspicientes
distrahunt, quam sua melodia attrahant.
Tum quia, ut augeretur attentio, & devotio
propria, vel aliena, permissus fuit cantus
in officio divino, uti Pontifices,a & Sancti
Doctores determi[p. 251]nant,b præsertim
Ioannes xxij.c in hęc verba. Ideo [1597:
Inde] etenim in ecclesijs Dei psalmodia
cantanda pręcipitur, ut fidelium devotio
excitetur. In hoc nocturnum, diurnumque
officium, & Missarum celebritates assidue
a Clero, ac populo sub maturo tenore,
distinctaque gradatione cantantur, ut eadem
distinctione, & maturitate collibeant, &
[1597: collibeant, & maturitate] delectent:
hęc ille [hęc ille not in 1597]. At is cantus
organicus communiter est causa, ut non
audiantur, minusque intelligantur voces,
quę canuntur, & consequenter adimit duas
species supradictarum trium attentionum,
præsertim apud Germanos, Flandros, &
Gallos, qui vix explicant verba, asserentes
solo cantu, citra vim & significationem
ullam verborum, peritos cantores movere
debere auditores. Cui consequens est, hodie
communiter cantum operari contrarium
ei, ob quod inventus, & in officijs divinis
permissus fuit, ac proinde frequenter esse
abusum, & peccatum.d Tum quia dant
occasionem, ut fere omnes alii, qui in choro
sunt, relictis suis sedilibus, ad alienas se
approximent, & mutuo colloquantur, iocentur,
rideant, & negotientur, potissimum cum
alternatim versum unum organa, et alterum
cantores cantus organi concinunt. Nam
cum non bene audiant, & minus intelligant
id, quod canitur, cumque non sit facile ipsis
ascendere ad fastigium conversationis divinæ
sine verborum quæ canuntur intellectu (qui
serviat pro scala, & gradu) descendunt ad
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 98 Music as Social and Cultural Practice
herejes antiguos en nuestro tiempo por
nuestros peccados renovados,e que antes
del toco. S. Aug.f y despues S. Tho.g Lo otro,
porque deleytarse hombre mas, o querer a
otro mas deleytar con el canto en los officios
divinos, que con la letra peccado es segun
S. Augustin confessoh por estas palabras:
Cum mihi accidit, ut me amplius cantus,
quam res, quæ cantatur moveat: penaliter
me peccare confiteor, & tunc mallem non
audire cantantem. Quando me acontece
moverme mas por el canto que por la cosa
cantada, confiesso que penalmente pecco, y
entonces mas queria no oyr al que canta. Lo
otro, porque para ser licito el canto en los
divinos officios dos cosas son necessarias.
La una, que non se cante por dar o tomar
delectation. La otra que no se cante con
pensamiento de que lo cantado por si agrada
mas a Dios, que lo rezado, como lo bien provo
aquel car[p. 274]denal doctissimo.i Entiendo
empero lo primero del fin principal, que no
ha de ser el deleyte. Ca con tanto que el fin
principal del que canta, o lo procura sea de
espertar la devotion propria, o agena, bien
puede menos principalmente, querer agradar
a si, o a los otros oyentes para algun buen fin,
segun lo arribah a otro proposito dezia, y en
otra parte provava.i
No sin causa dixe al comienço deste
corollario del canto de organo. Porque el
contrapunto, que non estorva el llano licito
es, conforme a lo que el mismo papa Iohan
.22. despues de vedar el canto de organo
dezia por aquellas palabras: Per hoc autem
non intendimus prohibere, quin interdum
diebus festis precipue, sive solemnibus in
missis, & præfatis divinis officijs aliquæ
consonantiæ, quæ melodiam sapiunt, puta
octavę, quintæ, quartæ, & huiusmodi supra
cantum ecclesiasticum simplicem proferantur
sic tamen, ut ipsius cantus integritas
illibata permaneat, & nihil ex hoc de bene
memorata musica immutetur: maxime
cum huiusmodi consonantiæ auditum
demulceant, devotionem provocent, &
psallentium Deo animos torpere non sinant.
Por esto empero no queremos vedar, que
no se pronuncien a las vezes, mayormente
las fiestas principales, o solemnes, en las
STROHM.indb 98
humanam, quia intellectus [1597: intellectum]
potissimum acuti, quales sunt ut plurimum
ecclesiasticorum, ad aliquid semper agendum
sunt propensi, nequeuntque esse ociosi. Tum
quia vetitus est cantus organicus in Missa, &
alijs horis canonicis per prædictum Ioannem
xxii.e de Illustrissimorum Cardinalium
consilio, per multa, & magna verba nervosis
innixa rationibus: Tum quod delectari, aut
alium delectare velle in officiis divinis
magis cantu, quam verbis, est peccatum, uti
confitetur B. Augustinusf in hęc verba: Cum
mihi accidit, ut me amplius cantus, quam
res quæ cantatur [1597: canitur] moveat,
poenaliter me peccare confiteor, & tunc
[p. 252] mallem non audire cantantem.
Tum quia ut sit licitus cantus in divinis
officijs duo sunt necessaria. Alterum, ut non
canatur delectationis dandæ, vel accipiendę
gratia. Alterum ne canatur existimando, quo
cantantum per se magis arrideat Deo, quam
recitatum, uti recte probavit Cardinalis
Caietanus.g Intelligo tamen horum prius
de fine principali, id est, quod delectatio
non debet esse finis principalis cantus. Nam
si finis principalis canentis, aut cantare
procurantis sit excitare devotionem propriam,
vel alienam, recte potest minus principaliter
velle sibi, vel alijs audientibus aliquo bono
fine placere, uti suprah ad aliud propositum
diximus & alibii probavimus.
Non abs re vero in principio huius corollarij
dixi de cantu organico, contrapunctus [1597:
2 words] enim qui non turbat Gregorianum,
sive planum licitus et, iuxta ea, quę ipsemet
Ioan. xxij. postquam vetuisset cantum
organicum, in hęc verba dixit. Per hoc autem
non intendimus prohibere, quin interdum
diebus festis pręcipue, sive solennibus, in
Missis, & præfatis divinis officijs aliquę
consonantiæ, quę melodiam sapiunt, puta
octavę, quintę, quartæ, & huiusmodi, supra
cantum ecclesiasticum simplicem proferantur;
Sic tamen, ut ipsius cantus integritas
illibata permaneat, & nihil ex hoc de bene
memorata musica immutetur: maxime cum
huiusmodi consonantiæ auditum demulceant,
devotionem provocent, & psallentium Deo
animos torpere non sinant, hęc ibi [hęc ibi
not in 1597]. Dixi supra (aliquot cantores)
quia multi adeo modeste devoteque canunt,
ut de Deo, deque hominibus bene mereantur,
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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music
missas, y en los otros officios divinos algunas
consonantias que tengan sabor de melodia .s.
octavas, quintas, quartas y otras semejantes
sobre el canto ecclesiastico, y llano con
tanto, que la entereza, quede incorrupta y
nada de su antigua musica se mude. Porque
tales consonantias ha[p. 275]lagan al oydo,
provocan a devotion, y los animos de los que
cantan no los permitte entorpecer. Esto me
parece, que platican las religiosas desta ciudad
[marginal note: Cantoras de los monasterios
de Coymbra dignas ser de loor et imitacion.]
dignas de ser por todo el mundo imitadas,
que a tanto mayor devocion mueven a los
oyentes, quanto mas attenta, mesurada,
callada, devota, grave y concertadamente
cantan a vozes diversas, sin corromper ni
mudar un punto de lo llano. Dixe tambien
comunmente al dicho comienço deste
corollario. Porque algunas vezes se ayuntan
cantores tambien callados, tan mesurados,
tan devotos, tambien compuestos, que con
humildad y devotion cantan un mote u otra
cosa, que no es de obligation, o de tal manera
cantan lo obligatorio, que tambien o mejor
se oye, entiende y mueve la letra cantandola
ellos assi, que llanamente en el qual caso por
ventura se podria limitar el dicho decreto del
dicho Papa Iohan .22. que aqui no determino,
remittiendome a lo que mas largo escrivo
sobre esto en otra parte.m
r Ioan. xxii. dici potest. Quod tamen, ut cætera
Extravag. 1. Johan .22. de vit. et ho. cleri.
s
Thom. 2. Sec. q. 91. art. 2
y Arg. 1. Legata in utiliter. ff. de admi. leg. et. c.
Ad nostram. de appella.
c In. c. de hymnis supra ead. dist.
d In extravag. 1. Johan .22. de vi. et hon. cleri.
e Quod late aperi et persequitur Thomas
vualdensis de sacramentalibus. c. 17. 18. et 19.
f Lib. 9. confess.
g 2. Sec. q. 91. ar. 2.
h Lib. 10. confess.
i 2. Sec. q. 91. art. 1
h In notabili. 6. n. 12
i c. Inter verba. xi. q. 3. pag. 8. n. 280. et pag. 89
n. 390
m In c. de himnis supra ead. d.
STROHM.indb 99
99
præsertim in urbe, & maxime in capella
Papę, ad quam de cuiusque gentis artis
musicæ callentissimis, & de huiusmodi
callentissimis moribus probatissimi
deliguntur, & tali cantu organico utuntur,
ut eum minime comprehendere videantur
rationes, quibus pręfatus Ioan. xxij. cantum
organicum prohibuit. Quæ videtur ratio
germana, quare in tota urbe non obstante
dicta extravagante, usitatur cantus organicus,
qui nec au[p. 253]ditum, nec intellectum
verborum, quæ cantantur, impedit, ut
postquam in urbem appuli animadverti. *
Istud videtur in usu esse Sanctimonialibus
huius civitatis [1597: Conimbricensibus
instead] dignis, quas universus orbis imitetur,
quę ad tanto maiorem devotionem excitant
auditores, quo attentius, modestius, humilius,
devotius, gravius, & convenientius canunt
vocibus diversis, non corrupto, vel immutato
puncto cantus Gregoriani. Dixi etiam in dicto
principio huius corollarii, (Communiter)
quia aliquando conveniunt cantores tam
modesti, tam compositi, & devoti, qui cum
humilitate canunt unum motettum, vel aliud
quippiam, quod non est obligatorium, aut
ita canunt obligatorium, ut ęque bene, vel
melius audiatur, intelligatur, & moveat litera,
eis sic canentibus, quam si Gregorianum, &
planum cantum canerent. In cuiusmodi cantu
non habere locum dictum decretum pręfati
omnia, Sanctissimi Do. Nos. iudicio submitto.
a Extrav. 1. Io. 22 de vita & honest. cler. inter
communes
b Thom. 2. sec. q. 91 art. 2
c in dicta extravag.
d Arg. 1. legata inutiliter ff. de adimen. leg. &c.
Ad nostram de appellat.
e In prædicta extrava.
f Lib. 10. Confession. [1597: cap. 33]
g 2. sec. qu. 91. art. 1
h In notab. 6 nu. 12
i c. Inter verba 11. q. 3. n. 280 & pag. 89 nu. 390
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 100 Music as Social and Cultural Practice
El xx. corollario, es ser causa de gran lastima
ver tantos yerros como se hazen oy cerca
del canto, assi por los cantores, como por
los oyentes en los officios divinos. Ca unos
mas estiman el saber cantarlos, que el saber
entendellos. Otros piensan ser el canto por si
cosa muy agradable a Dios, con no ser mas
de una cerimonia inventada para despertar
la devotion del que canta u oye. Otros antes
permittiran y mandaran dexar o acortar
una predication, que un buen canto, vereys
procurar a una parte, que los [p. 276] kyries,
la gloria, la Alleluya, y el Credo se canten
muy prolixos, y a otra mueren, porque el
sermon dura una hora, y aun ay quien sale a
almorzar de la predication, quien se duerme
en ella, o no la escucha, y esta muy attento al
canto, no para tomar lo por escalera y medio
de subir a la contemplation de Dios, como se
devria, sino para apascentar sus oydos que se
iacta tenerlos muy musicos, y para dezir: O
como canta hulano. Otros vereis gastar ciento,
quinientos, mil ducados, y aun un cuento en
cantores, que no saben latin, livianos, viciosos,
y desatinados, y dudan de dar ciento a un
predicador doctissimo, grave, virtuoso, y
muy concertado, valiendo mastres sermones
suyos delante de Dios, que quanto todo el
año cantan los otros, y aun oxala no valiesse
nada, con tanto que no dañassen al choro,
y a las almas de los mismos, que cantan, y
oyen con las parlas, gestos, y desassosiegos
que Dios sabe. Otros vereis que mientra
cantan tienen gran cuydado de no perder un
punto de su canto. Pero de pensar en lo que
cantan, y poner los ojos en Dios y tenellos en
el ahincados ninguno, y mientra non cantan
parlan, rien o riñen, y andan tanto, que ni
oyen oration, ni epistola, ni Evangelio, ni
aun prefation, ni Pater noster, sino para solo
effecto de responder al sacerdote, en lo qual
aun muchas vezes se descuydan. Y estos van
muy contentos de si, y de que han servido
a Dios mucho aquel dia, con non haver
cumplido aun el mandamiento de oyr la
Missa. Pues no basta oyrla desta manera por
lo arriba dicho.
STROHM.indb 100
xx. Corollarium est, magnæ miserationis
causam esse errores, qui hodie circa cantum
tam a cantoribus, quam auditoribus in
officiis Divinis fiunt. Alii enim pluris faciunt
nosse canere, quam cantata intelligere, Alii
existimant cantum per se esse rem Deo
valde gratam, quum tamen non sit aliud,
quam coeremonia quædam ad excitandam
devotionem canentium, vel audientium
inventa. Alii, qui potius permittunt, &
iubent omitti, vel abbreviari unam bonam
concionem, quam bonum cantum. Videas
quosdam, qui procurant, ut (Kyrie, Gloria,
Alleluia, & Credo) valde prolixe canantur,
qui tamen non ferunt, quod concio unam
horam duret: Sunt item, qui egrediuntur
concione ad ientandum, & qui in ea
dormiant vel illam male auscultent, qui
tamen ijdem sunt attentissimi ad cantum,
non quatenus est scala, & gradus ascendendi
ad divina contemplandum, uti oportet, sed
ad pascendum suas aures, quas iactitant
se habere valde musicas, & ut dicant. O
qualiter ille canit. Sunt qui insu[p. 254]munt
centum, quingentos, vel mille aureos, quin &
myriadem in cantores latini sermonis ignaros,
vanos, vitiosos, & fatuos, & renuunt dare
centum alicui concionatori doctissimo, gravi,
virtutibusque prædito, & valde composito,
cuius tres conciones coram Deo pluris sunt,
quam aliorum totius anni cantus & garritus.
Atque utinam solum nullius valoris foret, &
non noceret choro, & animabus ipsorum,
& canentium, & audientium, ut sileam
loquacitates, gestus, & inquietudinem, quæ
Deus novit. Sunt qui dum canunt magnopere
solliciti sunt, ne vel unius puncti sui canctus
[sic] iacturam faciant, qui tamen nil cogitant
de eo, quod cantant, nec oculos suos in
Deum defigunt, imo dum cessant a cantu,
fabulantur, rident, aut rixantur, & huc illuc ita
vagantur, ut neque satis audiant orationem,
quę collecta dicitur, neque epistolam, neque
evangelium, imo nec præfationem, neque
Pater noster, nisi duntaxat, ut respondeant
sacerdoti, quod etiam facere non satis curant.
Hi tamen sibi suffeni, [note added in small
type at end of conclusion in 1597: Hi tamen
sibi suffeni. Suffenus poeta fuit qui licet in suis
esset versibus ineptissimus, mirum tamen
in modum sibi ipsi in eis placebat, unde
transfertur ad eos qui in quelibet arte sibi
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 Blackburn  • How to Sin in Music 101
p. 277. El .xxi. que los herejes antiguos en
nuestro tiempo renovados non han quitado
del todo el canto de los officios divinos sin
gran occasion. Porque los peccados que del
abuso del canto y cantores nacen son tantos
y tan patentes, que una sin fin de vezes seria
menos mal dezirlos rezados, que cantados
en tal manera, y con tal intention y tantos
yerros. No tienen empero justa causa ni razon.
Lo uno, porque aun que cierto es necessario
emendar, y quitar tales faltas. Pero no es para
ello necessario quitar del todo el canto. Ca
basta quitar su abuso, de que ellas nacen.
Lo otro, porque quitado del todo el canto,
quitadas quedanr daslas commodidades y
provechos, que del nacen grandes.s Por lo
qual conviene mucho al servicio de Dios, y
honrra de la sancta madre yglesia que los
cantores sean modestos devotos, concertados,
callados, y que teman de offender a Dios,
a cuya magestad, y su servitio endereçan
principalmente su canto, y no al paladar y
oydos del pueblo, conforme a aquello se S.
Pablo:t Cantantes & psalentes in cordibus
vestris domino. cantando y tañiendo en
vuestros coraçones al señor. Lo qual luego lo
haran los cantores si conocieren por obras y
mercedes de los principes y prelados, que el
canto desacompañado de la virtud y devotion
tienen en poco, y al acompañado dellas en
mucho.
r Arg. 1. Si servum § 1. ff. de acti. emper. c.
Veniens de presbit. non bap.
s Extravag. 1. de vit. et hon. cleri. Joh. 22. dixi in
c. de himnis. supra ead.
t Ad Ephes. 5. et ad Colocens. 3.
STROHM.indb 101
mirum in modum placent, & quoscumque
dios præ se contemnunt. Inde Catullus in
epigram. sic scripsit. Quem non in aliqua re
vedere Suffenum, Possis.] & contenti, videntur
magnum eo die obsequium Deo pręstitisse,
quum ne pręceptum quidem de audiendo
Missam adimpleverint, quando quidem non
sufficit illam ita audire, per supradicta.k
k in ca. 13
xxi. Quod hæretici veteres nostro hoc sęculo
renovati, & ab inferis revocati, qui omnino
sustulerunt cantum Divinorum officiorum,
iniustissima id de causa fecerunt: Tum
quia licet multi cantores modis præfatis
peccent, non tamen sunt pauci, qui debita
cum reverentia cantent. Tum quia satis erat
emendare, & tollere abusus, & errores, &
defectus cantus, eo minime sublato, sufficiebat
enim removere abusum, bono usu relicto.
Tum quia tollere omnino cantum, esset tollere
magnas commoditates ex eo manantes,l
quas Ioan. xxij.m insinuavit, & nos supran
explicavimus. Quocirca convenientissimum
foret cultui Divino, & honori S. Matris
Ecclesiæ, cantores esse modestos, devotos,
& bene compositos, & timentes offendere
Deum, cuius Maiestati, & obsequio cantum
[p. 255] suum potissimum devoverent, non
autem gustui, oblectationi, & auditui populi,
iuxta illud S. Paulio Cantantes & psallentes, in
cordibus vestris Domino, quod facile facerent
cantores, si per opera, & beneficia Principum,
& Prælatorum, cognoscerent parvi eos facere
cantum virtute & devotione destitutum, &
magni eius comitatum.
l Arg. 1. si servum §. 1. ff. de actio, empt. c.
veniens de presbyt. non baptizato.
m Extravag. 1. de vita & honest. clerico. inter
communes
n In c. de hymnis supra eadem
o Ad Ephes. 5 & ad Colos. 3
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 102 Music as Social and Cultural Practice
El .xxii. que peccan los que el dia de la
navidad del redemptor a los que piden
bendition para dezir sus litiones les dizen
pullas, o una maldition de chocarreria, que
a todo el choro, y pueblo provoque a risa.
Peccar tambien los, que aquel dia, u otros
cantan cantiones vulgares, y prophanas,
[p. 278] aunque de suyo non sean desonestas,
u vanas durante ell [sic] officio divino. Porque
todo esto distrahe de la attention al officio
divino devida, como de suyo se esta claro, y
lo determino el concilio de Basilea,z y aun
que la intention pia de regozijar la fiesta, y
hazella mas alegre adelgaza el peccado, pero
no lo quita del todo, segun lo bien determina
un Cardenala hablando del son, y añadiendo,
que non solamente peccan los que esto hazen,
pero aun los, que en ello consienten y lo
procuran.
z In sess. 21. tit. 8 bis qui in missa
a In 2. Sec. q. 21 art. 1
El .xxiii. ser poco agradable a Dios cantar en
las yglesias y mezclar con la spiritualidad, y
gravedad del officio divino la prophanidad
y liviandad de una invention Francesa muy
recebida ya en españa, con que cantando
reprehesentan el son de los atambores y
trompetas, el cavalgar, el tomar de la lança,
el pelear y los golpes dellartileria, con
ellaluoroto dela guerra. Ca aunque esta
representation de suyo no sea deshonesta, y
para convites, y passatiempos seglares sea
buena, Pero muy agena es de los divinos
officios, y su fin, que es levantar las almas y
spiritus a pensar, contemplar, y afficionarse a
Dios, y amarlo mas, que a todo lo al amable,
y aborrecer el peccado mortal, que del nos
aparta mas que a todo lo al aborrecible.
STROHM.indb 102
xxii. peccare illos qui ipso die Nativitatis
Redemptoris petentibus benedictionem
ad dicendum suas lectiones iocose male
imprecantur, ita ut totum chorum, &
populum provocent ad risum. Peccare etiam
eos, qui eo die, aut aliis canunt cantiones
vulgare, & prophanas: licet de se non sint
inhonestæ, aut vanæ, durante officio Divino,
omnia enim hæc distrahunt ab attentione, &
devotione officio divina debita, ut de se patet,
& determinavit statutum Gallicanæ Ecclesię.
p Et licet intentio pia celebrandi festum, &
solemnizandi illud extenuet peccatum, non
tamen tollit omnino illud, uti determinavit
recte quidam cardinalis Caiet. [1597:
Cætanus]q loquendo de sono, & addendo,
quod non solum peccant qui hoc agunt,
verum etiam, qui consentiunt, &
procurant.
p tit. de his qui in Miss.
q In 2. sec. q. 91 ar. 1
xxiii. parum placere Deo miscere spirituali
gravitati divini officii prophanum quandam,
& levem in Galliis inventam cantilenam
[1597 edition adds ‘que La guerre vocatur’],
iam nimis in Hispaniis receptam, qua fere
ad vivum repręsentatur tumultus praelii
cum sonitu tympanarum & tubarum, & toto
strepitu bellico. Nam licet hæc repręsentatio
de se non sit inhonesta, & conviviis,
recreationique sæculari sit apta, inepta tamen
valde est officiis divinis quieta mente dicendis,
& eorum fini, qui est erigere animas & spiritus
ad meditandum divina, & ad Deum super
omnia diligibilia diligendum, & peccatum
mortiferum (quod nos ab eo separat) super
omnia odibilia odio habendum, ad quæ
parum promovet strepitus ille bellicus magis
ferociens, quam leniens audientium animos.
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