er"_.--"Common Prayer"[4] was the
name given to public worship in the middle of the sixteenth century.
The Book of Common Prayer is the volume in which the various services
were gathered together for common use. It is many books in one book.
As the Bible is one book made up of sixty-six books, so the Prayer Book
is one book made up of six books. These books, revised and abbreviated
for English "Use," were:--

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(1) The Pontifical.
(2) The Missal.
(3) The Gospels.
(4) The Gradual.
(5) The Breviary.
(6) The Manual.

Before the invention of printing, these books were written in
manuscript, and were too heavy to carry about bound together in one
volume. Each, therefore, was carried by the user separately. Thus,
when the Bishop, or _Pontifex_, was ordaining or confirming, he carried
with him a separate book containing the offices for Ordination and
Confirmation; and, because it contained the offices used by the Bishop,
or _Pontiff_, it was called the _Pontifical_. When a priest wished to
celebrate the Holy Eucharist, he used a separate book called "The
Missal" (from the Latin _Missa_, a Mass[5]). When, in the Eucharist,
the deacon read the Gospel for the day, he read it from a separate book
called "The Gospels". When he {44} went in procession to read it, the
choir sang scriptural phrases out of a separate book called "The
Gradual" (from the Latin _gradus_, a step), because they were sung in
_gradibus_, i.e. upon the steps of the pulpit, or rood-loft, from which
the Gospel was read. When the clergy said their offices at certain
fixed "Hours," they used a separate book called "The Breviary" (from
the Latin _brevis_, short), because it contained the brief, or short,
writings which constituted the office, out of which our English Matins
and Evensong were practically formed. When services for such as needed
Baptism, Matrimony, Unction, Burial, were required, some light book
that could easily be carried _in the hand_ was used, and this was
called "The Manual" (from the Latin _manus_, a hand).

These six books, written in Latin, were, in 1549, shortened, and, with
various alterations, translated into English, bound in one volume,
which is called "The Book of Common Prayer".

Alterations, some good and some bad, have from time to time been
adopted, and revisions made; but the Prayer Book is now the same in
substance as it always has been--a faithful reproduction, in all
essentials, of the worshi