Chanting has been used in religious ceremonies since mankind first learnt to vocalise. All ancient people have used chanting as a way of altering consciousness and putting themselves in touch with the Divine. The flowering of the chant was reaching in the early 9th century when Pope Gregory the Great made a collection of Roman chants and assigned them specific places within the liturgy. These are known as Gregorian Chants and there are over three thousand different Gregorian chants extant today.