le so far had opposed all attempts to change their beloved old
songs. Their defects by now had become so conspicuous, however, that even
the more conservative admitted the desirability of at least a limited
revision. And the only man for the undertaking of such a task was, of
course, Kingo.

In March, 1683, King Christian V, therefore, commissioned Thomas Kingo to
prepare and publish a new church hymnal for the kingdom of Denmark and
Norway. The carefully prepared instructions of his commission directed
him to eliminate undesirable hymns; to revise antiquated rhymes and
expressions; to adopt at least two new hymns by himself or another for
every pericope and epistle of the church year, but under no circumstances
to make any changes in Luther's hymns that would alter their meaning.

Kingo would undoubtedly have saved himself a great deal of disappointment
if he had conscientiously followed his instructions. But the draft of the
first half of the hymnal, which was sent to the king six years later,
showed that, intentionally or otherwise, he had ignored them almost
completely. The draft contained 267 hymns of which 137 were his own and
the remainder those of various authors, both old and new. Though Kingo
might reasonably have been criticized for adopting such a proportionally
large number of his own compositions, it was not, however, his selection
of new hymns but his treatment of the old hymns that provoked the
greatest opposition. For he had not contented himself with merely
revising the latter but in many instances had rewritten them so
completely that they were unrecognizable. And it mattered not that the
new texts were on the whole much finer than the old, for people were not
yet ready to relinquish these. The opposition grew so strong that the
king, though he had already approved the proposed hymnal, a few weeks
later revoked not only his approval but Kingo's commission.

This summary action came as an almost stunning blow to Kingo, affecting
seriously both his pride and his finances. On the strength of the king's
approval, he had already bought a printing press, acquired large
quantities of material and printed a large edition of the book. And these
investments, which represented a large part of his private fortune, were
now apparently lost. It helped but little that the king, in order to
salve the wound he had inflicted upon one of his most distinguished
subjects, elevated him to the nobility, for the hurt was to