JAN UTENHOVE'S PSALMS IN THE LOW COUNTRIES

by DR. HOWARD SLENK Grand Rapids (Mich.). U.S.A.

The metrical psalm in the vernacular was a conspicuous literary by- product of the Reformation. Wherever the doctrines of Luther or Calvin were accepted, poets rhymed the psalms of David in the vul- gar tongue, and musicians set the poems to simple melodies so that the newly-formed congregations could sing psalms. In Protestant centers like Wittemberg, Strasbourg, and Geneva, printers issued almost as many psalters as Bibles, frequently combining them as one publication. In the Low Countries, Protestants were active from 1520 on, but the tight control exercised by the Imperial Inquisition discouraged the printing of any clearly Protestant material. Only five vernacular psalters were printed in the Low Countries before the actual outbreak of rebellion against Spain in 1567. Three of these psalters are in French and were issued by Antwerp publishers. Psalmes de David was published by Antoine des Gois in 1541 and contains the Trente Pseaulmes of C16ment Marot plus some by lesser poets. Jean Ver- withagen printed Marot's Cinquante Pseaulmes in 1554.1 The com- plete psalter of Marot and Theodore de B?ze was printed by Chris- tophe Plantin in 1564, two years after its initial publication in Geneva. Unlike the two earlier Antwerp publications, Plantin's psalter contains melodies, and was probably designed for use in Protestant worship.2 The two remaining psalters are in Dutch, and although both contain melodies, neither seems to have been designed for use by a Protestant congregation. The first Dutch psalter printed in the Low Countries was the Souterliedekens, a volume of rhymed psalms set to Dutch and French

1 For a study of these two psalters see Chapter One of my doctoral dissertation: The HuguenotPsalter in the Low Countries:A Study of Its Monophonicand PolyphonicMani- festations in the Sixteenth Century (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, The Ohio State University, 1965),pp. 11-36. 2 There is a detailed examination of this publication in ibid., pp. 37-63. My article ,,Christophe Plantin and the Genevan Psalter," in Tijdschrift van de Verenigingvoor NederlandseMuziek Geschiedenis, XX-4 (1967), isa slightly revised version of the material in the dissertation. 156 folk tunes. Printed by Symon Cock of Antwerp in 1540, this psalter was the first publication in the Low Countries to use movable music type. The question of the confessional character of the Souterliede- kens has occupied several scholars. The most recent investigation has produced evidence of Lutheran influence in the prologue, and has shown that many psalms take the Dutch Lutheran Bible of 1526 as textual basis.' In fact, several heretical expressions from the marginal glossary of this Bible found their way into the Souteyliede- kens.22 The second Dutch psalter printed on Netherlandish soil was the work of Lucas de Heere, a Ghent artist who was also a fervent Calvi- nist. His Psalmen Davids na d'Ebyeeusche waerhyt ... op de voysen en mate, van Clement Marots Psalmen was published in Ghent in 1565. As its title implies, this psalter contains translations of Huguenot psalms with their respective melodies maintained. De Heere used the complete Genevan psalter of 1562 as his source, and although only Marot is acknowledged in his title, eight of De Heere's thirty-six translations are of De B6ze texts. He not only used the poetic struc- ture of the French texts so that his psalms could be sung to the Genevan melodies, but in most cases translated literally from the French. 3 There is no evidence that De Heere's psalms were ever used by Dutch-speaking Calvinist congregations, which had been meeting secretly in the Low Countries for about a decade. The probable rea- son why De Heere's psalter was not adopted is that Dutch Calvinists already had one. Since 1551, printers in London and Emden had issued twelve editions of the psalms of Jan Utenhove.4 Utenhove was of noble birth, but fled his home city of Ghent in 1544 because of his Protestant beliefs.5 His first psalms, published by Steven Mierdman of London, were meant for the exiled Dutch Protestant church that Utenhove and others had founded in the British capital. In 1553 Mary Tudor's accession to the throne made England unsafe

1 See S. J. Lenselink, De NederlandsePsalmberijmingen van de Souterliedekenstot Datheen (Assen, 1959),pp. 223-224. 2 See Henry Bruinsma, The "Souterliedekens"and Its Relation to Psalmody in the Netherlands(unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Michigan,1949), pp. 100-103. 3 Lenselink,op. cit., pp. 451-466. 4 For an analysis of each edition see ibid., pp. 250-403. 5 The most detailed biography of Utenhove is F. Pijper, Jan Utenhove,Zijn Levenen Zijne Werken (Leiden, 1883).See also the article "Utenhove, Jean," by Charles Debaive n Biographienationale ... de Belgique(Brussels, 1866 -), XXV, pp. 995-999.