within the bounds of uniformity as regards both liturgy and musical settings, and gave to these results of his labors all the permanency that the solemn law of the church could command. The liturgical portion was called _Sacramentarium Gregorianum_ and the musical portion _Antiphonarium Gregorianum_, and from the seventh century these two books are always met with side by side. The interesting and fanciful stories of Pope Gregory’s labors as composer of chants and as teacher in the _Schola Cantorum_ must be discarded as wholly unproven legends, and to the same category belongs the tradition that after compiling the Antiphonary he caused a copy of it to be chained to the altar of St. Peter’s, as containing the only music authorized by the church. One of the direct results of his reorganization of the singing school, however, was the establishment on a permanent basis of the Sistine Chapel,[2] or papal choir, at Rome. This organization, the oldest choral body in the world, was for centuries the court of final resort in all matters pertaining to the traditions of Gregorian chant and it maintained a practically continuous existence from that far-off age until the temporal power of the pope came to an end in 1870, when it was practically disbanded. Since that date, however, its members have from time to time been called together to sing in the Sistine Chapel on occasions of special significance. The Gregorian collection or antiphonary, which was the musical law of the Roman Church until the Renaissance period, was probably not settled in final form until the time of Gregory II (pope 715-731) or Gregory III (pope 731-741). However much Gregory the Great may have accomplished in establishing methods of permanency and universality in the ritual-music, the processes of selection, accretion, and assimilation went on for more than a century after his death. This collection, which was written in the vague neumes of the period, became the most important factor in the music of the Western church and by the end of, the eleventh century had practically superseded all other bodies of ritual-music--such as the African, Celtic, Gallican, and Spanish[3] (Mozarabic)--which had previously gained ascendency in the various countries which acknowledged spiritual allegiance to Rome.