In the modern period, plainsong epitomized clerical society but was also largely practiced by lay people, and for this reason it is a shared field. The esthetical reflections of Church theorists on this subject lead them to define the conditions of vocal beauty in ecclesiastical singing and to expound them in widely distributed treatises. Their project consisted also of an effort to define the sonorous and physical reality of lay cantors, whose supposed savagery is not compatible with musical civility as conceived of by these authors. Thus, domesticating the singing bodies was essential to the fulfillment of their pastoral and musical expectations and appeared to be the main challenge of plainsong theorists in the 18th century.