Pope Gregory 1 (540-604) was the greatest of a number of pioneering Popes, who sent out missionary teams of monks across Europe to evangelise, to encourage the faithful and to standardise forms of worship. He made a collection of 3,000 tunes that were in common use which musically and historically form the most important single body of melodies ever written. Now known as Gregorian chant or Plainchant (cantus planus) they influenced church music until the 17th Century and are still at its heart today.
The early Christians were unsure of using music in worship because of its associations with pagan entertainment but finally agreed that singing with devout words was a good thing. In the words of St Basil (330-387) ‘ God blended the delight of melody with doctrines in order that through the pleasantness and softness of the sound we might unawares receive what was useful in the words…..for this purpose these harmonious melodies of the psalms have been ...
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