>John E. Sharp, a historian at Hesston College, the two-year college of the Mennonite Church USA, located in Hesston, Kansas, recently gave a lecture on the history of the organ in the Anabaptist tradition.

Sharp told his audience “that opposition to instrumental music in worship was as much a factor in the founding of the Anabaptist movement as were believers’ baptism, voluntary membership, rejection of the sword, and separation of church and state.”

According to Sharp,

The Anabaptist movement was born in Zurich Switzerland in 1525 during a time of iconoclastic fury (literally, demolishing icons). Conrad Grebel and Felix Mantz’s spiritual mentor, Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli led Zurich in its rejection of all things Catholic—ceremonies, rituals, liturgy, images, and instrumental music. Though he was a musician of extraordinary talent, Zwingli said the New Testament taught none of those popish mockeries; thus they were rejected and forbidden. Sharp said a prime example of what was rejected and forbidden was the organ.

Sharp also said that “the reformers dismissed Old Testament commands to praise God with harp and lyre as childishness; and beside, the Old was superseded by the New Testament. “

Sharp’s lecture is very illuminating. According to him to Sarah Davies he organ was also called the “Devil’s Bagpipe,” the “Pope’s Bagpipe,” the “Devil’s Trumpet,” and a “Seducer to the Worship of the Roman Anti-Christ.” How times have changed!

I am sure Jim West will be glad to know this information about Zwingli’s view on the use of the organ in church and on music in the Old Testament.

To read the news report about the lecture, click here.

To watch a video of the lecture, click here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Music, Organ, Zwingli

UPDATE

Recently, I received an email from John in which he makes a public apology to Sarah Davies for failing to give proper credit to her work which he used in the preparation of his presentation.

John’s email was sent to me and to the editor of the History News Network. Since there is no way for me to express John’s apologies to those who have read my post, I have decided to make John’s email available to the readers of this blog as a way for John to express his apology to the readers.

What follows is John’s email:

Rick Shenkman
Editor, History News Network

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

I am writing to report my lack of judgement and integrity in a presentation I made recently, and to apologize publically to the author of an excellent source I used. The author to whom I owe the apology is Sarah Davies, musicologist and organist, New York City. My written version was properly cited, but I neglected to do the same in my oral presentation, which then appeared on YouTube. My presentation was entitled “The Devil’s Bagpipe or God’s Voice: The Organ in Historic Context” given on the eve of the dedication of a new organ at Hesston College and Hesston Mennonite Church, March 1, 2008. Davies’ paper given at the 2000 International Musicological Society is listed below. It was subsequently published as also noted below. I deeply regret my error in properly citing what is a most excellent and insightful source. Her sources included the work of a Zurich scholar, Friedrich Jakob. In addition she used primary sources from six Swiss archives and libraries. Primary sources in the U. S. included the Goshen (Ind.) Archive. Her secondary sources were also largely German. She has translated the Swiss and German sources making the research accessible to English-speaking historians and musicologists. Davies should be recognized for her outstanding work which follows:

“Destroying the Devil’s Bagpipe: Iconoclasm and the Fate of the Organ in Reformation Switzerland” September 2000: International Musicological Society. Liszt Academy, Budapest.

2003 Published in the Conference Proceedings, “The Past in the Present” (Budapest, Liszt Academy) July 2000: American Guild of Organists, National Convention. Seattle WA.

You apparently made reference or linked to this presentation on your site. Please make corrections where you have quoted me, or delete reference to me entirely, and use instead Sarah Davies’ paper/chapter.

My presentation on YouTube has been removed.

Sincerely and humbly,

John Sharp
Centennial History Writer, Instructor in History
Hesston College
Hesston, Kansas 67062
620-327-8248

I want to thank John for sending me this email. I appreciate his candor and honesty. It is easy for people who write and speak to consult and use many sources and at times, failing to acknowledge the use of a source. I am glad that John took the time to ratify his omission,

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary