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.