Acts of the Saints and the Fathers of the Church. In the primitive church,
books afterwards excluded from the canon were often read, _e.g._ the
letters of Clement of Rome and the _Shepherd of Hermas_. In later days the
churches of Africa, having rich memorials of martyrdom, used them to
supplement the reading of Scripture. Monastic influence accounts for the
practice of adding to the reading of a biblical passage some patristic
commentary or exposition. Books of homilies were compiled from the writings
of SS. Augustine, Hilary, Athanasius, Isidore, Gregory the Great and
others, and formed part of the library of which the Breviary was the
ultimate compendium. In the lessons, as in the psalms, the order for
special days breaks in upon the normal order of ferial offices and
dislocates the scheme for consecutive reading. The lessons are read at
Matins (which is subdivided into three nocturns).

The _little chapters_ are very short lessons read at the other "hours."

The _versicles_ are short responsories used after the little chapters.

The _collects_ come at the close of the office and are short prayers
summing up the supplications of the congregation. They arise out of a
primitive practice on the part of the bishop (local president), examples of
which are found in the _Didach[=e]_ (Teaching of the Apostles) and in the
letters of Clement of Rome and Cyprian. With the crystallization of church
order improvisation in prayer largely gave place to set forms, and
collections of prayers were made which later developed into Sacramentaries
and Orationals. The collects of the Breviary are largely drawn from the
Gelasian and other Sacramentaries, and they are used to sum up the dominant
idea of the festival in connexion with which they happen to be used.

The difficulty of harmonizing the _Proprium de Tempore_ and the _Proprium
Sanctorum_, to which reference has been made, is only partly met in the
thirty-seven chapters of general rubrics. Additional help is given by a
kind of Catholic Churchman's Almanack, called the _Ordo Recitandi Divini
Officii_, published in different countries and dioceses, and giving, under
every day, minute directions for proper reading.

Every clerk in orders and every member of a religious order must publicly
join in or privately read aloud (_i.e._ using the lips as well as the
eyes--it takes about two hours in this way) the whole of the Breviary
services allotted for each day. In large churches the ser