In addition to this place of the legend in the offices of the church, it came later to be read within, or instead of the sermon, after the _Evangelium_ during the mass, and in the popular language. From very early times it was permitted to the clergy, in place of original productions to read the homilies of others, and to this usage, no doubt, we owe such collections as the Blickling Homilies, Bede’s _Homiliae de tempore_, Aelfric’s collections, the Ormulum, etc. That the early legends were intended to be delivered as sermons, or in sermons, is apparent from the frequent direct appeals to the congregation, and from their association, in the MSS., with homilies.
During the 11th and 12th centuries the homily, the older element, continued to prevail even on saints’ days, but in the 13th and 14th centuries the homily came to be in great measure displaced by the legend on the festival days of the saints, and was used only for Sundays and for the _Festae Christi_. To make a complete _liber festivalis_, either to the book of homilies was joined a legendary for saints’ days, or later the legendary, on the other hand, absorbed the book of homilies, as happened for instance in the case of the _Legenda aurea_, which marks the final step in the development of the Latin legendary, and which presents the homilies of the _Festae Christi_, perhaps the remains of the book of homilies, side by side with the legends. In the north of England the collection of _Evangelia dominicalia_, that is to say the gospels for Sundays and _Festae Christi_, which, according to the original plan, embraced only the Sunday gospel readings with their _expositio_ and a _narratio_ (_i.e._ a legendary narrative as an illustration) came in later MSS. to be supplemented by a collection of legends, evidently intended to complete the work by providing also for the saints’ days something in the place of the _proprium sanctorum_ (_i.e._ gospels for saints’ days). In the South of England, on the other hand, the complete _liber festivalis_ grows out of the legendary, which comes to include the homilies.
To sum up, the place of the _evangelium_ in the mass for saints’ days comes to be filled by the legend, while in the mass on Sunday, the _evangelium_ is still retained, though probably often supplemented by an _expositio_ and a _narratio_, or legendary tale as illustration for the _expositio_. In consequence the _liber festivalis_ falls into two parts, the _temporal_ (for Sundays and _Festae Christi_) and the _sanctoral_, or legendary for the saints’ days.