Note 4 — Chapter VIII · THE POST-APOSTOLIC HYMN
Reading edition
This transfer of the song to clerical singers soon had its inevitable result. Jerome begins to be apprehensive that the form of singing would come to have too exclusive consideration. He complained that those who led the song, like comedians, “smoothed their throats with soft drinks in order to render their melodies more impressive, and that the heart alone can properly make melody to God.“