CHAPTER I

THE BAY PSALM BOOK

"BEING thus . . . brought safe to land; they fell upon their knees and blessed the GOD of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof."

Thus wrote Governor Bradford, in telling the story of how he and his fellow pilgrims in the Mayflower found a refuge on these western shores. The little book of devotion which they brought with them to their new home, and from which they sang praises to "the God of heaven" during the long and stormy voyage, bore the title: "The Booke of Psalms: Englished both in Prose and Metre." It had been published at Amsterdam in 1612, by Henry Ainsworth, an English clergyman who had separated from the Church of England, and who for a number of years had been living in exile. Most of the company that came over in the Mayflower were likewise Separatists who had fled to Holland for safety, and naturally they brought with them the Psalms which had been prepared by their fellow exile.

They held this small book in tender affection

and were loath to exchange it for a new version. In Plymouth, where it was first used, it was retained for more than two generations. Among the village maidens doubtless there was more than one Priscilla whom a John Alden might have found in meditation while "Open wide on her lap lay the well-worn psalm-book of Ainsworth."

On the other hand, the Puritans who crossed in the great migration of 1630, and founded Boston, came direct from England. While they deplored the corruptions of the Established Church, they hoped for reform from within, and had continued their membership in the historic fold, looking askance upon the Separatists. They brought with them the version of the Psalms by Sternhold and Hopkins. This version had been in general use in the homeland for many years and continued to be for years to come, yet at no time did it give anything like complete satisfaction. The metrical renderings were in many cases utterly wretched. Samuel Wesley, father of John, referred to them in disgust as "scandalous doggerel." But what gave particular offense to the stricter Puritans was the fact that the translation from the Hebrew was so free and easy that in some cases it was regarded as a positive misrepresentation of the sacred writers. There were those who caustically referred to this current

version as "Hopkins his Jigges." The dissatisfaction was especially pronounced among the Puritans who came to New England, and it was soon determined to prepare an entirely new Psalm Book whose chief merit should be its close adherence to the Hebrew original.

The work began about 1636, and there was no lack of scholars to undertake the task. Nothing could better illustrate the high standard of intelligence in that company of early Puritans than the fact that already among them were thirty clergymen, all of them "pious and learned ministers," university-trained and able to handle the Scriptures in the original tongues. A portion of the work was supposed to be assigned to each of the thirty, but the bulk of it seems to have been committed to those three worthy scholars: Richard Mather, minister of the Church of Dorchester; Thomas Welde, and John Eliot, associate ministers of the church in Roxbury, Eliot afterward becoming known to fame as apostle to the Indians.

In the meantime, while the work was in progress, a printing press, or "printery," as it was called, was brought over from England and set up in the house of President Dunster, head of the recently founded Harvard College. This was at the time that Governor Berkeley, of Virginia, fearful lest learning might breed all manner of

heresies, was exclaiming, "Thank God! there are no free schools nor printing presses [in Virginia], and I hope there will be none for one hundred years.'

On the other hand, the New England colonists were very glad when they learned that their worthy friend, Joseph Glover, a dissenting clergyman in England, possessing considerable means, had contributed of his own funds and had gathered enough from others to purchase a press and type; that he had engaged an experienced printer, Stephen Daye, and that the Glover and Daye families, accompanied by three men helpers, had embarked for Boston. But the old chronicle adds the sad item that Mr. Glover fell ill "of a feaver" and "died on the sea hitherward." However, in due course of time, President Dunster married the widow and received her and the printery into his own home. Here it was that the Bay Psalm Book was printed in 1640, a year memorable in our colonial history as witnessing the appearance of the first book printed in British America, and also as marking the birth of American psalmody.

An edition of seventeen hundred copies was issued, a large number considering the slim population of those days, and showing the perfect faith that was felt in the undertaking. The records tell us that the cost of the paper was £29,

and of the typesetting and printing, £33. The book sold for twenty pence, and the total receipts were a little over £141, leaving a handsome profit. It should be remembered that money then was worth several times what it is now. It is interesting to know that the printer was liberally rewarded, as we learn from this item: "Att a General Court held at Boston on the eighth day of the eighth moneth 1641, Steeven Daye being the first that sett upon printing, is graunted three hundred acres of land, where it may be convenient without prejudice to any town."

One of the most interesting parts of this book is the preface, written by Richard Mather, and no doubt expressing the convictions of the other ministers. He takes up the various questions then being discussed:

"First. what psalmes are to be sung in Churches? whether David's and other scripture psalmes, or the psalmes invented by the gifts of godly men in every age of the church. Secondly, if scripture psalmes, whether in their owne words, or in such meter as english poetry is wont to run in? Thirdly by whom are they to be sung? whether by the whole churches together with their voices? or by one man singing alone and the rest joyning in silence and in the close saying amen." These questions were under vigorous