[33] A widespread explanation is that Irish hymns were often composed with no other rhythm than equality between lines in the number of syllables. Even the support of W. Meyer (see especially _Spanisches zur Geschichte der ältesten mittellateinischen Rythmik_) and of Blume seems insufficient to establish this theory against two grave objections. The first objection is that _mere_ equality in number of syllables hardly constitutes a pattern. It does not provide recurrences marked enough to guide either composer or hearer. It is hardly verse. The idea that a practise so mechanical actually became a habit is repugnant. The second objection is that on this theory Irish Latin verse ignored not only quantities, but word-accent—ignored, that is, either speech-tune. The Irish monks of all men, the best linguists of Europe in this period, were hardly the ones to write Latin verse by ignoring the habit of the language. And in fact the following of the word-accent will often reveal a stress rhythm sufficient for the ruder mnemonic verses and satisfying in the better ones. Moreover this consideration is fortified by what we know of the music (see note 27 above), which leaned on the word-accent. True, such rendering sometimes involves two unstressed syllables in succession, or conversely two stresses without intervention; but this variation is a natural means against monotony. The pattern is kept by the unvarying number of stresses in each line; variety is secured by occasionally shifting their places. The idea that in this period iambic or trochaic _rhythmi_ admitted no effects similar to the substitution of dactyl or anapest in a _metrum_, or to a spondee, is an assumption unwarranted by either theory or fact. [34] Dreves (_Aurelius Ambrosius, der Vater des Kirchengesanges, eine hymnologische Studie_, Freiburg, 1893) settles on the following eighteen hymns, of which he prints the text and indicates the melodies. (1) Æterne rerum conditor, (2) Splendor paternæ gloriæ, (3) Iam surgit hora tertia, (4) Nunc sancte nobis Spiritus, (5) Rector potens verax Deus, (6) Rerum, deus, tenax vigor, (7) Deus, creator omnium, (8) Intende, qui regis Israel, (9) Amore Christi nobilis, (10) Inluminans altissimus, (11) Agnes, beatæ virginis, (12) Hic est dies verus Dei, (13) Victor, Nabor, Felix, pii, (14) Grates tibi, Iesu, novas, (15) Apostolorum passio, (16) Apostolorum supparem, (17) Æterna Christi munera, (18) Iesu, corona virginum. [35] Compare _Ignis creator igneus_ above, page 114, and the latter part of note 33. [36] Above, page 111. [37] Blume _ad loc._ notes that this opening is not unusual. The hymn is mentioned by Cæsarius of Arles. [38] So is that of the commemorative Bangor hymn _Sáncta sanctórum óperá_ at the end of the manuscript (folio 36 _verso_; AH 51: 357).