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Church historians agree that the first recorded example of a musical instrument in Christian worship was an organ introduced in about 670 in a Roman Catholic Church in Rome by Pope Vitalianus.  In France, in 757, nearly one hundred years after the first organ appeared in Rome, Emperor Constantine V sent an organ as a gift to King Pepin.  This organ was to be used in the king’s court and not in a church.  The organ was still so uncommon in Europe at that time that when this gift arrived it was regarded as a great novelty.  The second occasion of an instrument’s being used in church worship occurred in 812, when Pepin’s son, Charlemagne, had a copy of this organ made for the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle.  By the 9th century, only two organs had been used in Christian worship.  In the churches of England, the organ probably made its first appearance in the 9th century, and through the influence of St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, it became more common by the end of the 10th century.  The organ, however, continued to face strong opposition and remained only isolated in its use for hundreds of years.  There was no general acceptance of it in the churches until at least the late 1200s.

Old Light on New Worship, John Price, pages 83, 84