Evening star., 1934-12-25
CHRISTMAS SONGS
IN UNUSUAL BOOK
Sister John Elizabeth Crea-
mer Gives Work to Cath
oIiC University.
By JAMES WALDO FAwCErT.


In the Catholic University Library
there Is a little book Of 66 typewriter
pages which deserves to be better
known as part of the growing litera-
ture of the Christmas season. Its title
is English Fifteenth Century Christ
mas Carols-Their Origin, Develop
ment and Relation to the Liturgy OF
the Christmas Cycle" and the author
is Sister John Elizabeth Creamer, re-
ligious of the Holy Union Of the Sa-
cred Hearts, Fall River, Mass.
The work was submitted to the uni
versity faculty "in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree Of
master Of arts"
1.-THE popular ballad Of q country,
the carol, the favorite melody and the
dance" the writer says, ARE just as
truly q symptom and gauge Of its
mental and esthetic activity as the
noblest outpourings of the epic and
lyric poet, and perhaps more - In
addition to their literary value, these
carols, songs of the people, offer an
attractive field Of research to the stu
dent of social history.
Not Cultured Work.
"These verses are not the cultured
| work of a superior class of poets alone,
but they belong to the people at large
and, as such, breathe the spirit which
animated their lives. Their beauty is
not so much that of the nobler lyric as
it was practiced and described by
Dante, but it is that undeniable beauty
of an art which has laws of its own"
In the carols, it is argued, there is
"a definite reflection of the vital in
fuence exercised by religion and re-
ligious observances over the minds and
heart of the people. In them We see
how thoroughly the mysteries of the
liturgical year were understood by the
layfolk and how readily these were
made part of their everyday expert
ence.'
Most of the better known carols
were first written in the fifteenth
century, but Sister John Elizabeth
says they evidently had been pre-
served in oral form for considerable
time"
Contain Religious Impulse.
Carols, it Is explained, ARE songs
with q religious impulse, that are
simple, hilarious, popular and mod
ern. - The religious impulse is fun
damental, because these songs are the
outgrowth of popular festivities,
which from earliest times have
formed an integral part of religious
devotions. They are simple and spon-
taneous because no literary artifices,
conscious art, elaborate metres or
forced emotions are employed. They
are hilarious because the dancing
element, which the term "carol' once
implied, is always present, not as a
remnant of the purely pagan idea of
revelry, but as an echo of the truly
Christian spirit of holy joy.
They are popular because they give
voice to common emotions of healthy
people in language that can be under
stood and music that can be shared by
all. Finally, they are modern because
sincerely and vitally In accord with the
period in which they are written, they
breathe the modern spirit of humanism
which dawned upon the middle ages"
The Gloria In Excelsis Dec" of the
angels over Bethlehem, according to
tradition, was the beginning of the
carol custom, and Sister John Eliza
beth has found that in the year 129
AID, Telesephorus, Pope and martyr,
commemorated in the Roman liturgy.
January S, instituted the custom Of
celebrating "the holy mysteries during
the night and decreed that the Gloria
In Excelsis" be sung at mass"