A desire to recover the lost treasures of
breviaries and service books of the ancient Greek and Latin churches emerged in the 1830s as part of the
Oxford Movement. Chandler, wanting to see the ancient prayers of the Anglican liturgy matched with hymns from a corresponding date, compiled
The Hymns of the Primitive Church, which he published in 1837. A later edition,
The Hymns of the Church, mostly Primitive, following in 1841. Included were hymns such as 'On Jordan's banks the Baptist's cry', 'As now the sun's declining rays' and 'The heavenly child in stature grows'. Sources for his work included
The Parisian Breviary (from its famous 1736 edition), a compilation of Latin hymns by
George Cassander (Cologne, 1556), and other old books of hymns, from which he selected and translated the texts of over 100 hymns, organized according to the Christian year. As a result of his work, and that of younger contemporaries such as
John Mason Neale,
Thomas Helmore,
Edward Caswall,
Jane Laurie Borthwick and
Catherine Winkworth, Greek, Latin and even German hymns in translation entered the mainstream of English hymnody. Besides the translation of medieval hymns and use of
plainsong melodies, the Oxford Reformers, inspired by
Reginald Heber's work, also began to write original hymns, which led to the publication of the broader
Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861, including music. ==Later life and family==