asily through the Prayer
Book. The progressive inventions of printing, and of fine paper, have
made it possible for him to have the books always with him.

Before the reign of Edward VI. the Services, though printed, were not
contained in one book. Before the invention of printing the books were
of necessity numerous. We may mention some of them.

A book of Lessons--Legenda; of Antiphons--Antiphonarium; of Psalms--the
Psalter: these were required for the Day Hours. As an abbreviation of
them, sufficient for practical purposes, the Breviary was arranged. A
portable form of it was called Portiforium. The Breviary was printed
in four volumes on the Continent, but in England had only a Winter
Volume and a Summer Volume.

For the Occasional Services,--the Services which mark the great events
of a Christian's life, beginning with Baptism and ending with Burial,
they had the Manual.

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For the Holy Communion, they had the Missal; including (1) the Gradual,
which was an Antiphoner, or book of the musical parts of the Service;
(2) the Lectionary, or book of the Epistles; (3) the Evangelistarium,
or book of the Gospels; and (4) the Sacramentary. The Sacramentary
contained, amongst other things, the Collects.

We have already referred to the combination and simplification of the
Breviary Services, which have given us our Morning and Evening Prayer.
We must now observe that many of our Collects come from the
Sacramentaries.

Three celebrated Sacramentaries.

Three of the Sacramentaries deserve here special mention.

I. Gregory the Great, who was Pope of Rome from 590 to 604, was the
author of one of them. The English Church owes him gratitude for
sending missionaries to this country at a time when the older British
Church was deficient in missionary zeal: and we must here notice our
debt to him for a number of our best-known collects, as well as other
improvements in the Services. Canon Bright gives a list of 32 or 33
taken from Gregory's Book. Some of them may perhaps have been added
after Gregory's time; for it is often difficult to distinguish between
the original passages of an ancient Service-book and the additions
which were quickly made to it.

Twenty-eight Collects in that list are in our book amongst the Epistles
and Gospels. Besides these there are: one in the Baptism
Service--_Almighty and {136} immortal God_: the first part of _We
humbly beseech thee_ in the Litany: _O God, whose nature an