In the heart of the Dark Ages, popularly considered, western European civilization was in confusion and its fate problematical. One could scarcely expect the fruits of peace and security to flourish. Yet in these very centuries there were created and circulated many of the best loved hymns of Christianity, a number of which have been in unbroken use to the present day. Among them are the illustrations inserted above and _Lucis Creator optime_, “O blest creator of the light;” the Advent hymns, _Verbum supernum prodiens_, “High Word of God who once didst come,” and _Conditor alme siderum_, “Creator of the stars of night;” the Easter hymn, _Claro paschali gaudio_, “That Easter day with joy was bright;” for the dedication of a church, _Urbs beata Jerusalem_, “Blessed city, heavenly Salem” with the more familiar second part, “Christ is made the sure foundation.” Two hymns honoring the Virgin date from this period: _Ave maris stella_, “Hail, Sea-Star we name Thee,” and _Quem terra pontus aethera_, “The God whom earth and sea and sky,” initiating the Marian hymnology of the Middle Ages.[19] (See Illustrative Hymns, VII. _Ave maris stella_, “Hail, Sea-Star we name Thee.”) Created and preserved in a clerical and for the most part a monastic environment these hymns express the Christian thought and faith of the era which was thus treasured up for wider circulation and influence in a later and more settled society. The words of the late Canon Douglas, a great American hymnologist, are memorable in this connection: “What does have a practical bearing on our subject is, that whatever may have been the older cycle, it was enriched to an extraordinary degree in the early medieval centuries. What began in Milan, and achieved its permanent recognition at Monte Cassino, was soon to bring about a Mozarabic Hymnal in Spain, a Gallican hymnal in northern Europe, an Anglo-Irish cycle in Britain: and from all these various increments not only enlarged the growing Hymnal but also richly diversified it.”[20] Appendix _Old Hymnal_ (_See Anal. Hymn., 51, Introduction_ p. xx). _Ad nocturnas horas_ _Mediae noctis tempus est_ (Mozarabic; in Bangor Antiphonary) _Rex aeterne Domine_ _Magna et mirabilia_ _Aeterne rerum conditor_ _Tempus noctis surgentibus_ _Ad matutinas laudes_ _Deus qui caeli lumen es_ _Splendor paternae gloriae_ _Aeternae lucis conditor_ (Mozarabic) _Fulgentis auctor aetheris_ (Mozarabic) _Deus aeterni luminis_ (Mozarabic) _Christe caeli Domine_ _Diei luce reddita_ _Ad parvas horas_ _Postmatutinis laudibus_ _Certum tenentes ordinem_ (Mozarabic) _Dicamus laudes Domino_ (Mozarabic) _Perfectum trinum numerum_ (Mozarabic) _Ad vesperas_ _Deus creator omnium_ _Deus qui certis legibus_ (Mozarabic) _Deus qui claro lumine_ _Sator princepsque temporum_