L'homme armé
"L'homme armé" is especially well remembered today because it was so widely used by Renaissance composers as a cantus firmus for the Latin Mass. It was probably used for this purpose more than any other secular song: over 40 settings are known. Many composers of the Renaissance set at least one mass on this melody; the two settings by Josquin, the "Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales", and the "Missa L'homme armé sexti toni" are among the best known. Other composers who wrote more than one setting include Matthaeus Pipelare, Pierre de La Rue, Cristóbal de Morales, Guillaume Du Fay and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. A cycle of six settings, all anonymous but probably by the same composer, survives in a Neapolitan manuscript which was supposedly a gift to Beatrice of Aragon of some of the favorite music of Charles the Bold.