Canon LIX.
No
psalms composed by private
individuals nor any uncanonical books may be read in the church, but
only the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon
LIX.
Psalms of private origin, or books uncanonical are not
to be sung in temples; but the canonical writings of the old and new
testaments.
Hefele.
Several heretics, for instance Bardesanes, Paul of
Samosata, and Apollinaris—had composed psalms,
i.e
.,
Church hymns. The Synod of Laodicea forbade the use of any
composed by private individuals, namely all unauthorized Church
hymns. Lüft remarks that by this it was not intended to
forbid the use of all but the Bible psalms and hymns, for it is known
that even after this Synod many hymns composed by individual
Chris
tians, for instance,
Prudentius, Clement, Ambrose, came into use in the Church. Only
those not sanctioned were to be banished.
This idea was greatly exaggerated by some Gallicans in
the seventeenth century who wished that all the Antiphons, etc., should
be in the words of Holy Scripture. A learned but somewhat
distorted account of this whole matter will be found in the
Institutions Liturgiques
by Dom Prosper Guéranger, tome
ij., and a shorter but more temperate account in Dr. Batiffol’s
Histoire du Bréviaire Romain
, Chap. vj.