Corpus of Latin Ecclesiastical Writers, Vol. LXV: Hilary's Treatise on the Mysteries, Fragments, and Hymns

In order to make the overview of both books of the Tractatus and their arguments more transparent, we have divided the two books into individual chapters.

Hardly anyone, except Adolphus Ebert¹ (1889), has denied that the Tractatus mysteriorum were written by Hilary of Poitiers, and Hubert Lindemann² has most clearly proven the Hilarian origin. We believe that Hilary composed the work in Gaul after returning from exile (360), and indeed after he had completed his Tractatus super psalmos Treatise on the Psalms. From the extensive knowledge of Origen's works, which is evident from the Tractatus mysteriorum as well as from the Tractatus super psalmos, we are certain that the Tractatus mysteriorum were not written before the exile, during which Hilary acquired a fuller knowledge of Origen’s books. Furthermore, that he did not write his work during the exile itself is shown by the calm and peaceful tone, which is free from the emotional agitation with which Hilary speaks of this very exile and of the disputes that arose regarding the faith in the books written during his exile. Finally, we suspect that the Tractatus mysteriorum were composed after the commentaries on the Psalms, as can be concluded from a certain passage in that work (on Ps. 138, 4)³. For after the author has recalled the words of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans 5, 3 sq. and added of his own: "and we recognize this to have been in the life and works of all the saints, so that, tossed by many passions and tribulations, they became acceptable to God," he illustrates this statement of his with the examples of Abraham, Jacob, and Moses, and promises that he will treat these and similar examples in another place, saying: "it is long to recall the passions of the other patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, but it is more opportune and full that these be treated in their proper places."

¹ Allgemeine Geschichte der Literatur des Mittelalters im Abendlande General History of the Literature of the Middle Ages in the West I² (1889) 142.
² l. c. 36 sqq.
³ cf. Watson-Pullan, St. Hilary of P. (1899) XLV.