It was undoubtedly believed at the time of the fourth Council of Toledo that he had written many pieces “in favor of God, and of the triumphs of apostles and martyrs;” and both Jerome and Isidore of Seville declare him to have been the first among the Latins to write Christian verse. But to show how uncertain is the conjecture that is thus started, I may mention that the _Ut queant laxis_ of Paul Winfrid, the “Deacon,” is credited to Hilary by the _Histoire Litteraire_. The same authority also claims for him the first _Pange lingua_ (_Pange lingua gloriosi, praelium certaminis_), which is sometimes assigned to Claudianus Mamertus, but is the well-authenticated composition of Venantius Fortunatus, the troubadour and friend of Radegunda, the wife of Clotaire. We may as well admit that a great man did not necessarily do all the great things of his day. Besides, the search after truth in this matter is complicated marvellously by the trade of the hymn-tinkers, who put new bottoms and tops and sides to a great many religious lyrics. Here is a case in point in Mone (vol. iii., p. 633). The hymn begins _Christum rogemus et patrem_—“We call on Christ and on the Father.” It has seven stanzas. The _first_ stanza is from a morning hymn, supposed to be by Hilary. The _second_ is from an Ambrosian hymn. The _third_ and _fourth_ are from another Ambrosian hymn to the Archangel Michael. The _fifth_ is from a very noble Ambrosian hymn—the _Aeterna Christi munera_—of which Daniel says that it itself has been “wretchedly torn to pieces by the Church” (_ab ecclesia miser e dilaceratum_). The _sixth_ and _seventh_ stanzas are also Ambrosian—from the _Jesu corona virginum_. Thus this single hymn of seven stanzas is mere patchwork, gathered from that Ambrosian hymnody which the Breviaries supply. And finding all the rest of it credited to Ambrose and to his century, we are inclined to doubt that Hilary should be considered as the author of any portion at all.