Down to the Reformation, the music of the Church was thus pretty much surrendered to the clergy and trained musicians, and there were obstacles besides the mere ordinances of the Church. The words of the songs were in Latin, a tongue foreign to the people. The music was of a nature so elaborately complex that none could take part in it unless they had studied music as a science. Yet psalmody was not entirely lost during the dark ages. The study of sacred music received peculiar attention in the 6th century, schools for instruction in this important art having been established and patron- ized by Gregory the Great, under whom they obtained great celebrity. From these schools originated the fa- mous Gregorian Chant, which the choir and people sang in unison. Such schools rapidly increased in number, and at length became common in various parts of Eu- rope, particularly in France and Germany. The prior, or principal, of these schools was held in high estimation, and possessed extensive information. In the 8th cen- tury pope Adrian, in return for the services which he had rendered to Charlemagne in making him emperor of the West, stipulated for the introduction of the Gre- gorian Chant into the Gallic Church; and the emperor, having paid a visit to Rome, where he kept Easter with the pope, received from the hands of his holiness the Roman Antiphonary, which he promised to introduce into his dominions. About the end of this century all opposition to cathedral music ceased, and for several centuries thereafter Church music underwent little or no change in the Church of Rome. It is a remarkable fact, however, that from the 8th till the middle of the 13th century, not only was it considered a necessary part of clerical education to understand the principles of harmony and the rudiments of singing, but the clergy were generally proficients both in vocal and instrumen- tal music.
In the Eastern Church, where sacred music, as we have seen, had its origin, there arose in the 8th century a remarkable man, John of Damascus (q.v.), who was not only a noted theologian, but a most accomplished musician. On account of his great skill in the art of vocal music, he was usually styled Melodos. To this noted master of music the Eastern Church is indebted
for those beautiful airs to which the Psalms of David are sung in our day. The Greek word ^/ciXXw is ap- plied among the Greeks of modern times exclusively to sacred music, which in the Eastern Church has never been any other than vocal, instrumental music being unknown in that Church, as it was in the primitive Church. Sir John Hawkins, following the Romish writers in his erudite work on the History of Music, makes pope Vitalian, in A.D. 660, the first who intro- duced organs into churches. But students of ecclesias- tical archteology are generally agreed that instrumental music was not used in churches till a much later date; for Thomas Aquinas, A.D. 1250, has these remarkable words : " Our Church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize." From this passage we are surely warranted in concluding that there was no eccle- siastical use of organs in the time of Aquinas. It is al- leged that Marinus Sanutus, who lived about A.D. 1290, was the first that brought the use of wind-organs into churches, and hence he received the name of Torcellus. In the East, the organ was in use in the emperor's courts, probably from the time of Julian, but never has either the organ or any other instrument been employed in public worship in Eastern churches; nor is mention of instrumental music found in all their liturgies, ancient or modern. Towards the time of the Reformation, a general partiality for sacred music prevailed throughout Europe, owing, as is generally supposed, to the encour- agement which pope Leo X gave to the cultivation of art. It is no doubt true that Leo was himself a skilful musician, and attached a high importance to the art as lending interest, solemnity, and effect to the devotional services of the Romish Church. But to no single indi- vidual can be traced the prevailing love for sacred mu- sic in the 16th century, for, besides Leo X, we find Charles V in Germany, Francis I in France, and Henry VIII in England, all countenancing sacred music, and treating musicians at their court with peculiar favor.
At the Reformation a greater part of the services of the Romish Church was sung to musical notes, and on the occasion of great festivals the choral service was performed with great pomp by a numerous choir of men and boys. That abuses of the most flagrant kind had found their way into this department of Romish wor- ship is beyond a doubt, as the Council of Trent found it necessary to issue a decree on the subject, in which they plainly state that in the celebration of the mass, hymns, some of a profane and others of a lascivious nature, had crept into the service, and given great scandal to pro- fessors of the truth. By this decree the council, while it arranged the choral service on a proper footing, free- ing it from all extraneous matter, gave it also a sanc- tion which it had hitherto wanted. From this time the Church of Rome began to display that profound vener- ation for choral music which she has continued to man- ifest down to the present day.