The Communion Service, or Liturgy proper, was derived from the Missal, expurgated of course. The second Prayer Book of Edward, in that respect, was a decided improvement on the first. It omits even an implied _oblation of the consecrated elements_, and simply expresses the _oblation of the worshippers_--the difference of oblation being one grand difference between the Romish and Protestant Eucharist. The second Book also omits the commemoration of "the most blessed Virgin Mary," with the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, contained in the first. Other alterations were made of a decidedly Protestant character in the time of Edward. The Prayer Book of 1559 indicates certain retrograde changes. The omission of the thoroughly Protestant declaration respecting the Lord's Supper in the Book of 1552, is very significant. It may be added, however, that Bishops Grindal and Horn, when writing to Bullinger and Gaulter, assured them that the declaration "continued to be most diligently declared, published and impressed upon the people."[287] The Baptismal Service was founded upon formularies, priestly and pontificial, in the Sarum offices. Certain idle ceremonies were omitted, but the order of making catechumens, the blessing of the font, and the form of baptizing, as constituted in the mediæval Church, were adopted by the Reformers. There are also in the service plain traces of the influence of Bucer and Melancthon, through Hermann's _Consultation_. The first prayer was originally composed by Luther. The thanksgiving after the rite is a much stronger expression of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, than the ancient Gallic form of words from which it seems to be derived.[288] [Sidenote: 1661.]