Event—Public Programming

Psalms for the Idle, the Occupied, and the Devout

Psalms were everywhere in Renaissance England. Reformers advised laypeople to sing psalms at every occasion--ploughing, weaving, traveling--and as a response to every emotion. Publishers responded by printing collections of psalms in verse for every circumstance, from household leisure to daily business to serious study. These experiments with the form of the psalm show the surprising ways laypeople integrated holy writing into their lives.