This did not attract much attention at the time, and the question was again reopened in 1890 by M. Gevaert in a lecture given in the presence of the Académie and of the King of the Belgians. The earlier "doubters" had argued the question from a purely historical standpoint: M. Gevaert lays stress especially on the musical side of the question. Theirs was chiefly negative; he proposes a theory of his own. He wishes to substitute Gregory II. or III. for Gregory I. The traditional view has been upheld against him by Dom Morin, Dr. Peter Wagner, and Rev. W. H. Frere. _The Historical Evidence_ may be summarized as follows, working backwards from a time when the Gregorian tradition was in existence beyond all question:-- I.--John the Deacon (_c._ 872), _Vita St. Gregorii, lib._ II., _cap._ vi., _Antiphonarium Centonizans, Cantorum Constituit Scholam_. "In the house of the Lord, like a most wise Solomon, knowing the compunction which the sweetness of music inspires, he compiled for the sake of the singers the collection called 'Antiphoner,' which is of so great usefulness. He founded also the School of Singers who to this day perform the sacred chant in the Holy Roman Church according to instructions received from him. He assigned to it several estates, and had two houses built for it, one situated at the foot of the steps of the Church of the Apostle St. Peter, the other in the neighbourhood of the buildings of the patriarchal palace of the Lateran. There to-day are still shown the couch on which he reposed while giving his singing lessons; and the whip with which he threatened the boys is still preserved and venerated as a relic, as well as his authentic Antiphoner. By a clause inserted in his deed of gift, he laid down under pain of anathema that these estates should be divided between the two portions of the School in payment for the daily service."--(_Patr. Lat._, lxxv., 90.) This extract may be taken to prove that-- 1. In 872 at Rome Gregory I. was believed to be the author of the Antiphoner which bears his name. 2. The Schola Cantorum looked upon Gregory I. as its founder and endower. 3. The Schola was still believed to possess his "authenticum Antiphonarium" and certain other objects connected in the popular mind with the memory of what Gregory had done for the cause of the ecclesiastical chant. It is certainly an important point that the Schola itself attributed its foundation to Gregory I. Such a tradition would be carefully preserved in an important corporation like this. A further witness to the existence of St. Gregory's couch is to be found in _Notitia Ecclesiarum Urbis Romæ_, an itinerary assigned by de Rossi to the seventh century, (de Rossi, _Rom. Sot._, _vol._ i., _pp._ 138-143.)