. Gregory."

[Illustration: St. Gregory, from Antiphoner of Hartker of St. Gall]

THE
GREGORIAN TRADITION.

The tradition that St. Gregory reformed the Plainsong of his day,
especially that of the Antiphonale Missarum, seems to have been held
universally till 1675, when Pierre Gussanville brought out an edition of
Gregory's works, in which he threw doubts on the tradition. He was
followed in 1729 by George, Baron d' Eckhart, a friend of Leibnitz, who
put forward the theory that it was Gregory II., and not Gregory I., who
had done this work. In 1772, at Venice, a new edition of Gregory's works
was published by Gallicciolli; and in this were reproduced the arguments
of Eckhart, leaving the question open for future investigation. Nothing
more was heard of the theory till 1882, when, at the Congress of Arezzo,
some speakers reproduced the doubts of Eckhart and Gallicciolli.

This did not attract much attention at the time, and the question was
again reopened in 1890 by M. Gevaert in a lecture given in the presence
of the Academie and of the King of the Belgians. The earlier "doubters"
had argued the question from a purely historical standpoint: M. Gevaert
lays stress especially on the musical side of the question. Theirs was
chiefly negative; he proposes a theory of his own. He wishes to
substitute Gregory II. or III. for Gregory I. The traditional view has
been upheld against him by Dom Morin, Dr. Peter Wagner, and Rev. W. H.
Frere.

_The Historical Evidence_ may be summarized as follows, working backwards
from a time when the Gregorian tradition was in existence beyond all
question:--

I.--John the Deacon (_c._ 872), _Vita St. Gregorii, lib._ II., _cap._
vi., _Antiphonarium Centonizans, Cantorum Constituit Scholam_. "In the
house of the Lord, like a most wise Solomon, knowing the compunction
which the sweetness of music inspires, he compiled for the sake of the
singers the collection called 'Antiphoner,' which is of so great
usefulness. He founded also the School of Singers who to this day
perform the sacred chant in the Holy Roman Church according to
instructions received from him. He assigned to it several estates, and
had two houses built for it, one situated at the foot of the steps of
the Church of the Apostle St. Peter, the other in the neighbourhood of
the buildings of the patriarchal palace of the Lateran. There to-