First Epoch

FIRST EPOCH.

A.D. 360 . . . A.D. 726.

It is not my intention to dwell on the hymn writers of this period, such as S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Sophronius, because their works have not been employed in the Divine Office, are merely an imitation of classical writers, and, however occasionally pretty, are not the stuff out of which Church-song is made. There is but one writer in this epoch who gives spring-promise of the approaching summer, and that is S. Anatolius.