XVII. We introduce singing as part of divine worship in accordance with Holy Scripture as doctrine and encouragement (1 Cor. 14:26):¹² teaching and exhorting one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19); Col 3:16). But let them be sung in a language that is understood, for by the testimony of the apostle those that teach and sing in the assembly without being understood act foolishly and do harm, [as] they that bawl in an unknown language in the presence of idiots and barbarians. The Apostles’ Creed, prayers, or angelic songs and antiphons can be sung in devout fashion. The musical instruments, however, adopted for the pantomime (saltatrici) Mass of Antichrist,² together with images, we abhor. There is no use for them in the church, and indeed they are marks and occasions of idolatry.

—The Debrecen Synod (1567) in Reformed Confessions of the 16th and 17th Centuries in English Translation, ed. James T. Dennison, Jr., 4 vol. (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books), 3.111.

NOTES

1. Congregational singing was not a feature of the medieval mass. Monastic choirs sang but the congregants watched the performance. The Apostolic church and early Christian congregations sang in worship. The Reformation re-introduced congregational singing into public worship.
2. The Latin noun saltatrix refers to a dancing girl. Thus “pantomime” would seem to be a euphemism for something a little more bawdy.