About this time, too (the year 1000), the epoch at which, according to
prediction, the world was to be at an end, men began to make fresh
researches, and to build new churches, to repair the old ones, and to
invent novelties. The prophecy of Daniel, which says, "Tempus, tempora,
dimidium temporis," proving by experience to be inapplicable to the
interpretation which the monks and ecclesiastics had generally given it,
produced a new energy in the human mind: and if at first, the wealth of
the churches were aggrandized by profuse largesses, we shall hereafter
see them struggling to preserve it. A disposition also to study was now
induced: and a certain Guido, a monk of Pomposa, being called to Rome as
a music-master, whilst very young, invented the scale or gamut of C
notes, which was then esteemed miraculous.[4] Happily for him the matter
took this turn; for otherwise he would have suffered death. The
religious superstition was so strong, that any unusual effects of human
nature were attributed to diabolical operations; and, in such instances,
the reputed authors were either beheaded or burnt.
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