Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

by J. H. Middleton

4. For occasions, such as Marriage, Visitation of the Sick, Burial, &c., said as occasion required.

Of these four all have their counterparts, more or less, in the English Service of modern times, as follows:

1. The Hour-Services, of which the principal were Mattins and Vespers, correspond to our Morning and Evening Prayer.

Processions.

Processions.2. The Procession Services correspond to our Hymns or Anthems sung before the Litany which precedes the Communion Service in the morning, and after the third Collect in the evening, only no longer sung in the course of procession to the Churchyard Cross or a subordinate Altar in the Church; the only relic (in common use) of the actual Procession being that used on such occasions as the Consecration of a Church, &c.

3. The Mass answers to our Communion Service.

Occasional Services.

Occasional Services.4. The Occasional Services are either those used by a Priest, such as Baptism, Marriage, Visitation and Communion of the Sick, Burial of the Dead, &c., or those reserved for a Bishop, as Confirmation, Ordination, Consecration of Churches, &c.

All these Services but the last mentioned are contained in our "Prayer-book" with all their details, except the lessons at Mattins and Evensong, which are read from the Bible, and the Hymns and Anthems, which are, since the sixteenth century, at the discretion of the authorities. This concentration or compression of the Services into one book is the natural result of time, and the further we go back the more numerous are the books which our old inventories show. To take the four classes of Services and Service-books mentioned above:

The Breviary.