had long formed a necessary element in the due performance of the
services of the Romish church. During the reign of Henry VIII. few
alterations were made in public worship; and the service continued to be
sung and carried on in the Latin language, as before. From Strype's
account of the funeral of this monarch, it appears that all the old
ceremonies were observed, and that the rupture with Rome had caused no
alteration in the obsequies performed on such occasions. In the reign of
his successor, the church service was entirely changed, and the
Protestant liturgy was first published for general use. Four years after
this event, on the accession of Mary, the "old worship" was again
restored. But when, at length, the reformed religion was firmly
established by Elizabeth, and the ritual permanently changed, the music
of the old masses, suited to the genius and structure of the Romish
service, was no longer available for the simpler forms of worship by
which it was replaced. During the holiest and most solemn portions of
the ancient worship, the organ had for centuries been heard in the
cathedrals, while the choruses of praise and adoration resounded through
the aisles. Men's opinions may undergo a change, but the feelings and
ideas created by early association, and fostered by habit, are far more
lasting and enduring. The poet must have lamented the loss of the music,
which, in the stern ascetic spirit of Puritanism prevailing at a later
period of our history, he assisted to banish from our churches, as he
sang--

"But let my due feet never fail
To walk the studious cloisters pale,
And love the high embowed roof,
With antique pillars, massy proof,
And storied windows richly dight,
Casting a dim religious light,