In the same way that the work of instruction proper took a fixed form, so that of preaching was fashioned on a well-understood and well-recognized model. A short exordium, following upon the chosen text of Scripture, led almost invariably to a prayer for Divine guidance and assistance, which concluded with the _Pater_ and _Ave_, and only then did the preacher address himself to the development of his subject. For the most part, until comparatively recent times, which have introduced somewhat strange themes into the sacred pulpit, the sermon was based almost entirely upon the Bible, and generally upon the Gospel or other Scripture proper for the day. This practice, whilst it imbued the minds of those who listened with a thorough knowledge of the sacred writings, gives the sermons, as we read them now, so great a similarity that we are apt to regard them as generally dull and uninteresting. With rare exceptions it is clear that, in England at least, brilliant, startling, and sensational sermonizing was not regarded with favour, but, on the contrary, was looked on with suspicion, as savouring of the “treatise” or method of the schools, and founded on the practice of heretics. Surveying the ground of parochial preaching, one or two facts seem to stand out from the background of much that is still vague and uncertain. First, it is certain that popular and vernacular teaching was by no means neglected by the parish priests in pre-Reformation pulpits. Next to this is the prominence given to homely and familiar instruction, as distinct from formal sermons, and the importance which in those days was attached to the constant reiteration of the same old, yet ever new, lessons of faith and practice. On the part of the people hearing of sermons was taught as a duty, and they had to examine their consciences as to whether they had tried to shirk the obligation. As Myrc puts it-- “Has thou wythowte devocyone I-herde any predicacyon? Hast thou gon or setten else where When thou myghtest have ben there?” Besides the sermon, which followed upon the reading or singing of the Gospel in the Mass, there were several other Sunday practices connected with the pulpit. First may be mentioned the reading of the _Bede-roll_. This was of two kinds, general and particular, and Dr. Rock has printed an interesting specimen of the first and several examples of the second. From the first a few quotations will make the nature and intention of the Church in the “Bidding of Bedes” quite clear. It begins--