Hymn
a sacred composition in poetry intended to be sung with or without the aid of a musical instrument, and not being versified from the book of Psalms, HYPATIA else it is called a Psalm, or directly from any other part of Scripture, or else it is a paraphrase. Hilary, Bishop of Arles, is said to have composed the first hymn for Christian worship about A. D. 431, but as early as the time of Pliny the Younger the Christians are said to have habitually sung one to Christ as God. On Dec. 9, 633, the Council of Toledo sanctioned the use of hymns in churches. Luther did much to popularize hymnody in the infant Protestant Church in Germany. Of the hymns now in use many were composed by Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, John Wesley, Cowper, John Newton, James Montgomery, John Henry Newman, Frederick William Faber, and Frances Ridley Havergal. Prominent among Americans who have written hymns are Oliver Wendell Holmes, Phœbe Cary, P. P. Bliss, Ira D. Sankey, Julia Ward Howe, who wrote "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," Samuel Francis Smith, author of the national hymn "America," Timothy Dwight, Ray Palmer, who wrote "My Faith Looks up to Thee," Joseph Henry Gilmore, etc.
HYMNOLOGY (-nol'ō-ji), a collection of hymns; hymns collectively; the hymns used by any particular Church or body.