In the fourth century, St. Ambrose introduced the chant known by his name, at Milan, of which he was the bishop, and some reformation took place in church music; and when the Gregorian chant was composed, about two centuries later, a still greater advance was made. The Anglo-Saxons, after their conversion, preserved their fondness for religious music, it being a common practice in their guilds that each member should sing two psalms daily, one for the dead, and the other for the living members. Particular hymns were appropriated to particular feasts; the Nativity, therefore, especially had its own. When the Anglo-Normans obtained the government, they equally encouraged music, and introduced greater pomp into their ceremonies. In the twelfth century, or sooner, the monks composed legends in verse, of the lives of the saints, &c., for the proper holidays; and religious pieces suited to the time, with appropriate hymns, were recited at Christmas; some Latin hymns of this description of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, being still extant. King John, in 1201, gave 25_s._ to the clerks who chanted “Christus vincit” before him on Christmas Day; and these spiritual songs were gradually introduced into the palace, and private houses, together with others for the same purpose, of a lighter description, which were found acceptable, and thus the carol had its origin. The theatrical exhibitions at this season, of which the subjects were originally taken from the Holy Scriptures, as they gradually ripened into maturity, also occasionally had songs incidental to them. The angels’ song to the Shepherds, in the Towneley mysteries, may be taken as a carol. “Herkyn, hyrdes, awake, gyf lovyng ye shalle, He is borne for youre sake, Lorde perpetualle; He is comen to take and rawnson you alle, Youre sorowe to slake, Kyng imperialle, He behestys; That chyld is borne At Bethlehem this morne, Ye shalle fynde Hym beforne Betwix two bestys.“ In the Coventry pageant of the Shearmen and Tailors, towards the beginning of the fifteenth century, there are three songs which are in the nature of carols. One, by the women, is a lullaby song, on our infant Saviour, beginning, “Lully lulla, thou littell tine’ child,” and referring to Herod’s wrath. One by the Shepherds is short, and may serve as an example. “As I out rode this endenes (last) night, Of thre ioli sheppardes I saw a sight, And all a bowte there fold a star shone bright, They sange terli terlow, So mereli the sheppards ther pipes can blow.” In the same pageant one of the prophets says— “Novellis, novellis of wondrfull mrvellys, Were ’hy and defuce vnto the heryng, Asse scripture tellis these strange novellis to you I bryng.”