During the sixteenth century the genre of paraphrasing Old Testament
Psalms in classical Latin metres became very popular in most parts of
Europe. The act of paraphrasing falls into two parts, one mainly meant to
facilitate memorising important Christian learning, the other rather an
expression of the Latin poet’s personal need to interpret and internalise
the prophet’s thoughts. The paraphrases by Helius Eobanus Hessus (1537)
and George Buchanan (1566) are referred to as examples of the two
trends respectively.