Cacophonies

As for the psalms, we praise them as the divine thing that they are, and we have good translations, whereas yours is horribly corrupt, even though the awful “Council” of Trent has preferred it above all others. And we have translated them into the vernaculars, German, French, and English, and we often sing them, not only in churches but also in houses and in the streets, in order to rejoice in the glory of God. And we understand what we are singing, whereas your tonsured ones do not understand a thing, not even you who are listening to them. Would you perhaps understand the line sung in polyphony? Another one of the stupid practices of your refined deceivers is how the word of God, which should be preached clearly and understood, is kept buried and hidden among you, not only in those symbols and figures, as I have shown, not only because it is spoken in Latin, but also [buried] underneath the notes of your polyphony, and inside the pipes of your organs, and sometimes under the sounds of bagpipes, cornetti, and cornamuses all mixed together.

—Pier Paolo Vergerio, Operetta nuova

(from Singing Jeremiah: Music and Meaning in Holy Week,

 Robert L. Kendrick, Indiana University Press, 2014)