There is much obscurity in the few first paragraphs.  The historical or biographical part begins at Lesson the First, and continues throughout, only interspersed with canticles in general referring to the incidents in the narrative preceding each.

* * * * *

THE SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET[70].

[Footnote 70:  The copies which I have chiefly consulted for the purposes of the present inquiry, are two large folio manuscripts, in good preservation, No. 1512 and No. 2785 of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum.  The service commences about the 49th page, B. of No. 2785.  This MS. is considered to be of a date somewhere about 1430.  The first parts of the service are preserved also in a Breviary printed in Paris in 1556, with some variations and omissions.  There are various other copies in the British Museum, as well printed as in manuscript.]

Let them without change of vestments and without tapers in their hands, proceed to the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, chanting the requiem, the chanter beginning,

Req. The grain lies buried beneath the straw;
The just man is slain by the spear of the wicked;
The guardian of the vine falls in the vineyard,
The chieftain in the camp, the husbandman in the threshing-floor.

Then the prose is said by all who choose, in surplices before the altar.

“Let the Shepherd sound his trumpet of horn.”

Let the choir respond to the chant of the prose after every verse, upon the letter [super litteram]. {202}

That the vineyard of Christ might be free,
Which he assumed under a robe of flesh,
He liberated it by the purple cross. 
The adversary, the erring sheep,
Becomes bloodstained by the slaughter of the shepherd. 
The marble pavements of Christ
Are wetted, ruddy with sacred gore;
The martyr presented with the laurel of life. 
Like a grain cleansed from the straw,
Is translated to the divine garners.

But whilst the prose is being sung, let the priest incense the altar, and then the image of the blessed Thomas the Martyr; and afterwards shall be said with an humble voice:  Pray for us, Blessed Thomas.

The Prayer[71]. O God for whose Church the glorious {203} high-priest and martyr Thomas fell beneath the swords of the wicked, grant, we beseech thee, that all who implore his aid may obtain the salutary effect of their petition, through Christ.

[Footnote 71:  This Collect is still preserved in the Roman ritual, and is offered on the anniversary of Becket’s death.  In a very ancient pontifical, preserved in the chapter-house of Bangor, and which belonged to Anianus, who was Bishop of that see (1268), among the “Proper Benedictions for the circuit of the year,” are two relating to Thomas Becket; one on the anniversary of his death, the other on the day of his translation.