uator of Prosper. Is it
surprising, then, that there is a still more profound silence on a fact
less calculated to attract outside attention, such as is the recasting of
the liturgical books peculiar to the Church at Rome?

In the second place, care must be taken not to apply the ideas of to-day
to another age. It must not be supposed that the Gregorian Reform was
promulgated throughout the Western Churches in the same manner, for
instance, as the Reform of Pius V. The modern system of centralization
did not then exist. When Gregory took the liturgical books in hand, he
had at first in view only the Papal chapel, and the churches at Rome
under his immediate supervision. It was their importation into England in
the lifetime of St. Augustine, and into the Frankish Empire two hundred
years after, under the pressure exerted by the first Carlovingians, which
gave the greatest impetus to their universal use. In Italy, on the
contrary, and even at Rome, it came about gradually only through the
insistence of such Popes as Leo IV. and Stephen X. that the Gregorian
Chant in the end completely supplanted that in use in early times in the
Peninsula. This explains why the first witnesses in favour of the
Gregorian tradition come to us from England and Carlovingian Gaul.

[Illustration: St. Gregory, from MS. of The Dialogues of St. Gregory
at the British Museum]

Again, one ought not to expect to find the chroniclers laying stress on
the Gregorian origin of the Roman books in the lifetime of those who were
contemporaries and disciples of the great Pope, and who had themselves
introduced the book from Rome. The fact would be taken as a matter of
course. It would not be till these had passed away that a tradition would
begin to form, and stress be laid on the fact; and this brings us to the
date of Archbishop Egbert.

Besides, who would have suspected the full importance of this Gregorian
form, and, in particular, have foreseen that it would put a limit to the
period of elaboration of the Western liturgy? So many Popes had already
taken the matter in hand. The great work of Gregory was to organize, set
in order, and fix. But only time can show what is really fixed. The
greatness of his work is only apparent after having remained unaltered
for centuries.

These considerations tend to show that there is no cause for surprise
that it should have taken so long for people to realize the greatness of
Gregory's work in setting in order t