This practice delayed the beginning of the Office in choir, and a rule
was made that those who wished to say this prayer must say it in their
stalls, in a low tone. Of course, in the Breviary of Pius V. (1568) this
practice became obligatory on each person bound to read the Hours.

_Ave Maria_. This is a leading prayer amongst the great prayers of the
Mass and the Office. It, too, is excellent in its authors, its form
(clear, short devotional), in motive (in honouring Mary, Mother of God,
and in begging her intercession). It is divided into three parts, the
words of the angel, of St. Elizabeth and of the Church, Devout thoughts
on this prayer have been penned by countless clients of Mary in every
age. Priests are familiar with many such writings, great and small, but
_A Lapide_ (St. Luke I.) bears reading and re-reading. The prayer, as it
stands in the Breviary to-day, is not of very ancient date. "In point of
fact there is little or no trace of the Hail Mary as an accepted
devotional formula before 1050.... To understand the developments of the
devotion, it is important to grasp the fact that the _Ave Maria_ was
merely a form of greeting. It was, therefore, long customary to
accompany the words with some external gesture of homage, a genuflexion,
or at least an inclination of the head.... In the time of St. Louis the
_Ave Maria_ ended with the words _benedictus fructus ventris tui_: it
has since been extended by the introduction both of the Holy Name and of
a clause of petition.... We meet the _Ave_ as we know it now, printed in
the Breviary of the Camaldolese monks and in that of the Order de
Mercede C. 1514. ... The official recognition of the _Ave Maria_ in its
complete form, though foreshadowed in the Catechism of the Council of
Trent, was finally given in the Roman Breviary of 1568" (Father
Thurston, S.J., _Cath. Encyclopedia_, art. "Hail Mary.")

_Credo_. The Apostles' Creed is placed at the beginning of Matins,