It was Luther who first suggested that congregations should sing the Psalms. Luther specified in his Formula missae (1523) the use of German hymns in the still Latin mass. In a letter to Georg Spalatin he described his plan to develop vernacular psalmody. His reason for doing so is typical of the whole program of reform: “so that the Word of God may be among the people also in the form of music.”35 For this Luther can be called both the “father of congregational hymnody” and the “inventor of the
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