Even if congregational singing was not practiced, the use of Latin hymns in private devotion is well authenticated. The _Horae_ which were included in the liturgical collections listed above, were circulated among laymen from the fourteenth century onward, and often used as text books or Primers from which children were taught to read. The variant title, _Lay Folks Prayer Book_, also bespeaks its popular availability. While it would be unsound to infer a universal knowledge of Latin hymnody among the laity of Europe upon any or all of the evidence here assembled, it is logical to suppose that this treasury of verse lay within the boundaries of average education and cultural ability. Combined with the effectiveness of visual means of conveying religious truths through architecture, sculpture and stained glass, popular acquaintance with the teachings of Christian hymnody must be supposed to have overflowed the limits of clerical restriction, if indeed, any such existed. VI. Characteristics To close this somewhat rambling account of the Latin hymn and sequence in the later medieval centuries, which is necessarily discursive even as the civilization itself was everywhere expanding, the characteristics of this poetry should be reviewed in comparison with those of earlier Latin hymns. An increasing variety of subject matter is first to be noted, to accompany the diversification of worship brought about by new feasts and the appearance of new religious agencies. Hymns for the festivals of saints provide the best illustrations of this tendency which has been amply treated above. A marked trend toward the compilation of local liturgical collections and the differentiation of service books accompanies the unification of rites in various European lands. This tendency was observed in earlier centuries, particularly in Spain where the Mozarabic hymnal prevailed. St. Gall had provided a monastic center of influence in German-speaking lands in its day. Now, the great diocesan and monastic centers, on a much larger scale, are furnished with a full complement of ritual books and guides to hymnody. In England, the Sarum collection achieved great prominence, acquiring national rather than diocesan proportions.