Before the vestments are put on for the mass the priest must wash his hands, and prepare the chalice, placing over it the purificator or napkin used for wiping the sacred vessels. Above the purificator he places the paten, with an unbroken host, and covers it with a small linen cloth, over which he puts the burse. This done, he takes the vestments one by one; he first receives the amice, takes it by its ends and strings, and kisses the middle of it where there is a cross. A prelate, it should be noticed, always puts on a surplice before vesting. The amice being put in its place, the alb and girdle are then assumed, then the maniple and chasuble. Each vestment is kissed before being put on, and a prayer said with the assumption of each; these prayers differ little in style from those said in the similar ceremony in the Eastern Church, and it has therefore been thought unnecessary to give them here. In an inventory of the Vestry of Westminster Abbey,[98] the following directions are given in a late fifteenth-century hand: _The Revestyng of the abbot of Westmʳ att evensong._—Fyrst the westerer shall lay the abbots cope lowest opon the awter wᵗ in the sayd westre, nex opon hys gray Ames, then hys surples, after that hys Rochett and uppermost his Kerchure. Hys Myter & crose beyng Redy wᵗ hys glovys and pontyfycalls. _The Revestyng of the sayd abbot att syngyng hy Masse._—Fyrst the westerer shall lay lowest the chesebell, above that the dalmatyke and the dalmatyk wᵗ yᵉ longest slevys uppermost & the other nethermost then hys stole & hys fanane and hys gyrdyll, opon that his albe theropon his gray Ames a bove that hys Rochett and uppermost hys kerchur wᵗ a vestry gyrdyll to tukk up his cole. Hys Miter & crose beyng Redy wᵗ hys glovys and pontyfycalls And a fore all thys you muste se that hys sabatyns & syndalls be Redy at hys first cūyng whan he settyth hym downe in the travys. This direction is important in one respect. It shows us the order in which the vestments were put on, it is true; that, however, one would naturally infer from the order in which they are seen in the monuments. But it tells us also that a canon wore his canonical habit underneath his mass habit at high mass, but so arranged that it should be, as far as possible, out of sight; hence the direction to have 'a vestry girdle to tuck up his cowl.' At Wells, Hereford, and Norwich Cathedrals are to be seen figures of canons, the almuce or amess appearing at the neck, although they are vested in eucharistic habit.