hristians, he says that, as a part of their service
at sunrise, they chanted a hymn, antiphonally, to Christ as a God.[82]
Speculation as to the identity of this hymn has never ceased among
students. Leclercq summarizes the theories as follows: It is a morning
hymn later attributed to Hilary. It is the morning hymn of the Greek
liturgy. It is the morning hymn of the _Apostolic Constitutions_. It is
the Great Doxology.[83] Since they are all unsatisfactory as
identifications, we remain in ignorance on this point. A recent study of
Pliny's letter by Casper J. Kraemer, a classicist, proposes the
translation of the words _carmen dicere_, "to chant a psalm."[84] This
most interesting suggestion is in thorough harmony with our knowledge of
the continuity of the use of the psalms in public worship at this time.

VII. Conclusion

Reviewing the total pagan influence, both Greek and Latin, upon Christian
hymnody, it must be understood that, in comparison with Semitic pressure
in its wider implication, as well as the strictly Hebraic, pagan
influence was relatively slight. It was a matter of centuries before the
Hebrew psalms were permitted any rivals whatever in the usage of worship,
except other biblical citations or such poems as might be produced by
unquestioned churchmen. Even these were sparingly used, for _psalmi
idiotici_, as the novel and original compositions were called, were
forbidden by the Church and a new hymnody was thus stifled at its very
birth. In a period of confusion marked by the rival use of hymns on the
part of the orthodox and non-orthodox, it was felt that worship must be
safeguarded. Only after the appearance of the modern vernacular languages
in Europe in the period of the ninth century, when the liturgy had been
set apart in the Latin tongue, was any real freedom permitted in the
composition of new hymns. By that time the clergy were the poets and
Latin their chosen medium of expression.[85]

By the time of Ambrose in the fourth century, however, Greek and oriental
elements had long since merged in other aspects of civilization and, in
the course of time, Christian hymns felt the effect of a universal
development. There was a certain departure from biblical models and an
emancipation from the old poetic forms in favor of the trend toward
accent and rhyme. After all, a new religion had come into existence which
demanded an authentic expression of a spiritual aspirati