Christianity into | | and musician. In his writings Ireland by St. | | he endeavours to reconcile the musical Patrick (110). | | theories of Pythagoras and | | Aristoxenus. He reduces the fifteen | | Modes of the Greeks to seven. Fingal (Ossian) in | 200 | Scotland (200). | | Persecutions of | | From about the year 150 to 200, the Christians | | above a dozen authors are known in during the third | | whose works some account is given of century. | | the music of the ancients. Artaxerxes, king | | of Persia, conquers | | the Parthians, & | | founds | | the dynasty of | | the Sassanidae | | (226). | | Probus, Roman | 250 | The Fathers of the Church who give Emperor, | | the first account of the sacred songs causes the vine | | of the early Christians are to be planted | | Tertullian, Clemens of Alexandria, on the banks | | and Origen. Their writings date from of the Rhine | | the first half of the third century. and the Moselle | | The Christian communities had already (276). | | during the first century in their | | religious observances, which in the | | beginning were held secretly, hymns | | sung alternately by a single voice | | and a chorus in unison. The melodies | | of the hymns were probably similar | | to those of the Greeks. At all | | events, the Modes in which they | | were sung, and the notation by letters | | of the alphabet, had been derived from | | the Greeks. | | Constantine, Emperor, | 330 | Silvester I., Pope, institutes in is converted | | Rome the first school for Church-song. to Christianity, | | and | | transfers the | | seat of his empire | | from Rome | | to Byzantine, | | henceforth | | called Constantinople | | (330). | | | | Division of the | 350 | Damasus, Bishop of Rome, born at Roman Empire | | Madrid in the year 314, introduces in