rated in the papal
capital on account of his superior science and method of teaching, and
afterward murdered at Lyons on the day of the Paris massacre. Palestrina
grasped the essential doctrines of the school without adopting its
mannerisms. At the age of thirty he published his first compositions,
and dedicated them to the reigning pontiff, Julius III. In the formation
of his style, which moved with such easy, original grace within the old
prescribed rules, he learned much from the personal influence and advice
of Orlando di Lasso, his warm friend and constant companion during these
earlier days.

Several of his compositions, written at this time, are still performed
in Rome on Good Friday, and Goethe and Mendelssohn have left their
eloquent tributes to the impression made on them by music alike simple
and sublime. The pope was highly pleased with Palestrina's noble music,
and appointed him one of the papal choristers, then regarded as a great
honor. But beyond Rome the new light of music was but little known.
The Council of Trent, in their first indignation at the abuse of church
music, had resolved to abolish everything but the simple Gregorian
chants, but the remonstrances of the Emperor Ferdinand and the Roman
cardinals stayed the austere fiat. The final decision was made to rest
on a new composition of Palestrina, who was permitted to demonstrate
that the higher forms of musical art were consistent with the
solemnities of church worship.

All eyes were directed to the young musician, for the very existence
of his art was at stake. The motto of his first mass, "Illumina oculos
meos," shows the pious enthusiasm with which he undertook his labors.
Instead of one, he composed three six-part masses. The third of these
excited such admiration that the pope exclaimed in raptures, "It is John
who gives us here in this earthly Jerusalem a foretaste of that new song
which the holy Apostle John realized in the heavenly Jerusalem in his
prophetic trance." This is now known as the "mass of Pope Marcel," in
honor of a former patron of Palestrina.

A new pope, Paul IV., on ascending the pontifical throne, carried his
desire of reforming abuses to fanaticism. He insisted on all the papal
choristers being clerical. Palestrina had married early in life a Roman
lady, of whom all we know is that her name was Lucretia. Four children
had blessed the union, and the composer's domestic happiness became a
bar to his temporal preferment