With regard to the service-books of the Roman Church in particular, we find a rubric in the Gelasian sacramentary, directing that the Holy Cross be placed on the altar, and then that the priests and attendant clerics take their position at the altar in silence and begin the solemn intercessions for the whole Church, for all estates of men, etc.; the intercessions being prefaced by the summons to kneel (_flectamus genua_). The genuflection seems at that time to have been made also before the prayer for the Jews, for the rubric directs the deacon to proceed “_ut supra_.”[161] The prayers are the well-known Good Friday prayers. There is no mention at this point of the _Adoratio Crucis_, but at the conclusion of the intercessions, the sacred Species, in both kinds, which had been consecrated the previous day were brought from the sacrarium by the deacons and placed on the altar. The priest consumed them, having first adored and kissed the Cross. Whereupon all present adored the Cross and communicated. It must not be forgotten, in this connection, that the Gelasian sacramentary does not represent the Roman rite in its purity, but embellished with numerous Gallican additions, which probably owe their origin to Alcuin or his contemporaries. The same is true of the edition of the Gregorian sacramentary employed in France. In this last we find the general intercessions recurring twice in Holy Week, on Wednesday and again on Good Friday,[162] but they are not placed at the beginning of the liturgy, as they are in the Gelasian sacramentary. After the bishop has taken his seat, the tract, _Domine audivi_, a lection from the Scriptures, and then another tract followed in succession. The Passion according to St John came next, and then the prayers in question. At their conclusion the altar was stripped. The solemn adoration of the Cross before the altar by clergy and people took place at the time of vespers, and, during it, the antiphon, _Ecce lignum crucis_, was sung. The _missa præsanctificatorum_ proceeded in essentially the same manner as at present, except that the elevation is not expressly mentioned. The altar remained bare from the afternoon of Maundy Thursday until Good Friday morning. The Gregorian sacramentary in its original form knew nothing of these rites. It proscribed nothing more for Good Friday than the nine prayers still in use and a blessing of the catechumens.