l to think of his Schola Cantorum in this connection. The
foundation of this must have had a profound effect both on the standard
of the performance of the chant, and on the spread of the Gregorian
reform. Books were scarce in those days, and musical notation defective.
Teaching was chiefly by word of mouth. The Director of the Choir had his
manuscript to teach from, and his pupils had to learn the melodies by
heart. The chief singer also had his _liber cantatorius_ from which to
sing the solos, such as the Graduals and Tracts. The School was,
necessarily, not merely for teaching correct versions of the chant, but
for preserving the correct tradition of the method of performance. Most
of the seventh century popes were connected with the School or proceeded
from it.

The skilled musicians belonging to this School may have helped to carry
out the reform under Gregory's direction. But no tradition appears to
have been preserved to that effect, and the unity and uniform
characteristics seem to point to the work of one genius, even in the
smallest details; and the characteristics there displayed seem to fit in
with what we know from other sources of his character, in his writings
and in his actions.

In conclusion it is submitted that the evidence here put forward, though
in some respects rather scanty, yet, in the absence of any strong
evidence to the contrary, is quite sufficient to justify the tradition
that St. Gregory was the organiser, reformer, and to some extent the
author of the Antiphoner of the Mass. It is, of course, more difficult to
say definitely what his work actually was in these three divisions, but a
quite sufficient amount of certainty has been attained for us to realize
the extent and the nature of the debt which succeeding ages have owed to
the great Pope, and so far the attacks that have been made on the
tradition have only resulted in setting it on a firmer and more definite
basis.

THE PORTRAITS OF ST. GREGORY.

The oldest portrait of which we have a record is one of which a very full
description was given by John the Deacon, Gregory's biographer. This
likeness was to be seen in John's day (in the latter part of the ninth
century) in Gregory's house, which he had converted into a monastery, in
a small room behind the brethren's store-room or granary. It was
surrounded by a circular plaster frame. Probably the whole figure was not
represented; at all events, the following