34. They declare also that the people have been led astray by the strains of my hymns. St. Augustine speaks of this introduction of hymns into the services of the Church at Milan (Confess. IX. 7): “Then was it first instituted that after the manner of the Eastern Churches, hymns and psalms should be sung, lest the people should wax faint through the tediousness of sorrow.”—Eng. Trans. Such a hymn as “The eternal gifts of Christ the king,” etc., written by St. Ambrose, was perhaps first sung there. I certainly do not deny it. That is a lofty strain, and there is nothing more powerful than it. For what has more power than the confession of the Trinity which is daily celebrated by the mouth of the whole people? All eagerly vie one with the other in confessing the faith, and know how to praise in verse the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So they all have become teachers, who scarcely could be disciples.