As a matter of fact, in the interval between and including the fourth and the eleventh centuries, the Latin hymn, considered in its literary implications and in its liturgical usage, was founded for the ages. Attaching to the word hymn its strictest sense and narrowest function, that of the office hymn, the student perceives the great significance of this department of medieval hymnology as compared with the sequence, processional and extra-liturgical hymns of the Middle Ages. It becomes more evident that here is the core and heart of Latin hymnody. The Church could and did in the event, dispense with much of its medieval collection, but never with the hymnal. Here was preserved the ethics of the Christian life, the intimacy of the scriptural narrative, the presentment of the Christian feasts and the praise of God and of his saints.
Appendix
Later Hymnal (See Anal. Hymn., 51, Introduction p. xx-xxi)
Ad parvas horas Iam lucis orto sidere Nunc sancte nobis spiritus Rector potens verax Deus Rerum Deus tenax vigor
Ad vesperas Lucis creator optime Immense caeli conditor Telluris ingens conditor Caeli Deus sanctissime Magnae Deus potentiae Plasmator hominis Deus Deus creator omnium (In Old Hymnal) O lux beata trinitas (Mozarabic)
Ad nocturnas horas Primo dierum omnium Somno refectis artubus Consors paterni luminis Rerum creator optime Nox atra rerum contegit Tu trinitatis unitas Summae Deus clementiae
Ad matutinas laudes Aeterne rerum conditor (In Old Hymnal) Splendor paternae gloriae (In Old Hymnal) Ales diei nuntius Nox et tenebrae et nubila Lux ecce surgit aurea Aeterna caeli gloria Aurora iam spargit polum
Ad completorium Christe qui lux es et dies (In Old Hymnal; Mozarabic) Te lucis ante terminum
Proprii de tempore Ad cenam agni providi (In Old Hymnal) Aurora lucis rutilat (In Old Hymnal)
De communi sanctorum Martyr Dei qui unicum Rex gloriose martyrum Aeterna Christi munera (In Old Hymnal) Sanctorum meritis inclita gaudia Virginis proles opifexque Iesu corona virginum Summe confessor sacer