"A New Song."

For some centuries before the Protestant Reformation, those attending worship were there to listen and observe, but they did not participate actively. Luther, Zwingli and Calvin felt that part of the reform should change this state of affairs. But what should they ask people to do? Before too long, congregational song became part of the answer. Here's how it started:

"The persecution of Protestants began at the Diet of Worms in 1521. Charles V. issued from that city the first of a series of cruel enactments, or "placards," for the extermination of the Lutheran heresy in his hereditary dominion of the Netherlands. In 1523 two Augustinian monks, Henry Voes and John Esch, were publicly burnt, as adherents of Luther, at the, stake in Brussels. After the fires were kindled, they repeated the Apostles’ Creed, sang the "Te Deum laudamus," and prayed in the flames, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon us." The heroic death of these Protestant proto-martyrs inspired Luther’s first poem, which begins, —

"Ein neues Lied wir heben an."

When Luther discovered that people readily sang this song, it became clear to him that congregational singing might be part of the answer to the quandary of involving people in services of worship. And this was the beginning of Luther's career as a hymn writer.