(Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter), and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Ascension and
Pentecost), with the concluding festival of the Holy Trinity. They constitute the nucleus of the
Christian year, and a sort of chronological creed for the people. The Lutheran Church retained also
(at least in some sections) the feasts of the Virgin Mary, of the Apostles and Evangelists, and of
All Saints; but they have gradually gone out of use.
Luther held that church festivals, and even the weekly sabbath, were abolished in principle,
and observed only on account of the requirements of public worship and the weakness of the laity.^629
The righteous need no laws and ceremonies. To them all time is holy, every day a day of rest, and
every day a day of good work. But "although," he says, "all days are free and alike, it is yet useful
and good, yea, necessary, to keep holy one day, whether it be sabbath or Sunday or any other day;
for God will govern the world orderly and peacefully; hence he gave six days for work, and the
seventh for rest, that men should refresh themselves by rest, and hear the word of God."^630
In this view all the Reformers substantially agree, including Calvin and Knox, except that
the latter made practically less account of the annual festivals, and more of the weekly festival. The
Anglo-American theory of the Lord’s Day, which is based on the perpetual essential obligation of
the Fourth Commandment, as a part of the moral law to be observed with Christian freedom in the
light of Christ’s resurrection, is of Puritan origin at the close of the sixteenth century, and was first
symbolically sanctioned by the Westminster standards in 1647, but has worked itself into the flesh
and blood of all English-speaking Christendom to the great benefit of public worship and private
devotion.^631
§ 82. Beginnings of Evangelical Hymnody.
I. The "Wittenberg Enchiridion," 1524. The "Erfurt Enchiridion," 1524. Walter’s "Gesangbuch,"
with preface by Luther, 1524. Klug’s "Gesangbuch," by Luther, 1529, etc. Babst’s "Gesangbuch,"
1545, 5th ed. 1553. Spangenberg’s "Cantiones ecclesiasticae," 1545. See exact titles in
Wackernagel’s Bibliographie, etc.
II. C. v. Winterfeld: Luther’s geistl. Lieder nebst Stimmweisen. Leipz. 1840. Ph. Wackernagel:
Luther’s geistl. Lieder u. Singweisen. Stuttgart, 1848. Other editions of Luther’s Hymns by
Stip, 1854; Schneider, 1856; Dreher, 1857. B. Pick: Luther as a Hymnist. Philad. 1875. Emil.
Frommel: Luther’s Lieder und Sprüche. Der singende Luther im Kranze seiner dichtenden und
bildenden Zeitgenossen. Berlin, 1883. (Jubilee ed. with illustrations from Dürer and Cranach.)
L. W. Bacon and N. H. Allen: The Hymns of Luther set to their original melodies, with an
English Version. New York, 1883. E. Achelis: Die Entste-hungszeit v. Luther’s geistl. Liedern.
Marburg, 1884. Danneil: Luther’s geistl. Lieder nach seinen drei Gesangbüchern von 1524,
1529, 1545. Frankf. -a-M., 1885.
III. Aug. H. Hoffmann von Fallersleben: Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenlieds his auf Luther’s
Zeit. Breslau, 1832; third ed., Hannover, 1861. F. A. Cunz: Gesch. des deutschen Kirchenlieds.
(^629) "Propter necessitatem Verbi Dei" and "propter infirmos."
(^630) On Luther’s views of Sunday, see his explanation of the third (fourth) commandment in his catechisms, and Köstlin, Luthers
Theologie, II. 82 sqq.
(^631) On the history of Sunday observance, see Hessey, Sunday; its Origin, History, etc. (Oxford, 1860); Gilfillan, The Sabbath (Edinb.
1861); and the author’s essay on the Christian Sabbath in "Christ and Christianity" (New York and London, 1885, pp. 213-291).