David Gregor Corner

David Gregor Corner, (1585 – 9 January 1648) was a German Benedictine abbot, hymn writer and theologian best known for his influential 1631 ''Gross Catholisches Gesängbuch'' ("Great Catholic Hymnal"). Born in Hirschberg, Germany (now Jelenia Góra, Poland), he studied theology at Prague, Graz and Vienna, where he earned a doctorate. He became a pastor in Retz in 1614. In 1628 he became a novice monk at Göttweig Abbey. By 1636, Corner was the abbot of Göttweig, where he became a leading figure of the Counter-Reformation, and was made Rector of the University of Vienna in 1638.''The Presbyterian hymnal companion'', (Westminster John Knox Press, 1993) , 229 He died 9 January 1648 at Göttweig.

His magnum opus, the ''Gross Catholische Gesängbuch'' was published in 1625, and a later publication from 1631 contained 546 hymns and 276 melodies (including 76 Latin hymns), one of the largest song books of the 16th and 17th century. This collection featured devotional Catholic hymns for use in church, church festivals and processions.

The collection was derived from a large variety of sources - earlier Jesuit hymn collections, manuscripts, and even Protestant writers. In the introduction to his work, he notes that he initially considered leaving out "all hymns found in heretical collections" but decided that they should be included after a colleague reminded him that many of the hymns of Martin Luther and other Protestant composers were derived from earlier Catholic melodies, and "it was in no way desirable to leave out such good old hymns...simply because they have been used by the enemies of the true faith and falsely ascribed to them."A. M. Christie, M. A. Mitchell, Johanne Janssen, ''History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages'', Volume 15, , 277

A separate collection, ''Geistliche Nachtigal'' ("Holy Nightingale") was published in 1649, perhaps posthumously. This contained 363 hymns and 181 melodies (including 42 Latin hymns), and was essentially a retitled and revised version of his original collection. After his death, editions of ''Geistliche Nachtigal'' were published in 1658, 1674 and 1676.The Enchiridion
accessed 13 December 2010

References

External links

Biography
at the German Wikisource.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corner, David Gregor
1585 births
1648 deaths
16th-century German Catholic theologians
German male non-fiction writers
German Benedictines
Benedictine abbots
17th-century German Catholic theologians
German Roman Catholic hymnwriters
17th-century German writers
17th-century German male writers