More important than his prior claim is the motive which actuated him, the defense of the Trinitarian doctrine, to which he was aroused by his controversy with the Arians. A period of four years as an exile in Phrygia for which his theological opponents were responsible, made him familiar with the use of hymns in the oriental church to promote the Arian heresy. Hilary wrested a sword, so to speak, from his adversaries and carried to the west the hymn, now a weapon of the orthodox. His authentic extant hymns, three in number, must have been a part of the _Liber Hymnorum_. _Ante saecula qui manens_, “O Thou who dost exist before time,” is a hymn of seventy verses in honor of the Trinity; _Fefellit saevam verbum factum te, caro_, “The Incarnate Word hath deceived thee (Death)” is an Easter hymn; and _Adae carnis gloriosae_, “In the person of the Heavenly Adam” is a hymn on the theme of the temptation of Jesus.[3] They are ponderous in style and expression and perhaps too lengthy for congregational use since they were destined to be superseded. In addition to these the hymn _Hymnum dicat turba fratrum_, “Let your hymn be sung, ye faithful,” has been most persistently associated with Hilary’s name. The earliest text occurs in a seventh century manuscript. It is a metrical version of the life of Jesus in seventy-four lines, written in the same meter as that of _Adae carnis gloriosae_.[4] Pope Damasus, a Spaniard by birth (c. 304-384), is believed to have written hymns in addition to the _Epigrams_ on the martyrs which constitute his authentic poetry. It would seem probable that his activities in identifying and marking the sites associated with the Roman martyrs might have been supplemented by the production of hymns in their honor. Two hymns bearing his name are extant, one in praise of St. Andrew the Apostle and one for St. Agatha. Upon internal evidence the ascription is dubious for they bear the mark of authorship too late to be considered among the poems of this famous Pope.