Interesting stuff Don. The Catholic church specialized in polyphony, which puritans found too seductive for their taste. Who knows what message might be found in those interweaving voices? Like the black magic scares in contemporary rock music where some might hear 'set fire to your underwear' in a Motorhead lyric - that's if you can still find a turntable to play in reverse - the big collar guys knew the devil was in the detail.

Anyway, the reformation eventually bought us the marvel of unaccompanied three and four part harmony in shape notes which was abandoned by the rest of civilisation as 'unscientific' but hung on in the southern states to enlighten us all. For anyone interested in religion/belief's role in schooled singing I recommend Warren Steel and Richard Hulan's book "The Makers of the Sacred Harp".