Jacob Clemens non Papa

Little is known of his life. Around 1544 he worked at the Bruges cathedral. Thereafter and until 1549 he was choirmaster at the court of Charles V, where he preceded Nicolas Gombert. Later he was employed by the Marian Brotherhood in 's Hertogenbosch.

His nickname non Papa was jokingly added to distinguish him from the contemporaneous Pope Clement VII.

Clemens was one of the chief forerunners of Palestrina and Orlandus Lassus. He was a prolific composer, writing:

• 15 parody masses (published 1555-80 by Petrus Phalesius in Leuven)
• c. 233 motets
• 80 chansons
• 159 Souter Liedekens (published 1556-7 by Tylman Susato in Antwerp), i.e. Dutch settings of the psalms, using popular song melodies as cantus firmus.