work had as a set principle the grand old liturgical idea of the weekly
recitation of the whole psalter. The quick and almost universal demand
for Quignonez's Breviary indicated the need of a reform and the outline
of such a reform. The Pope, who commissioned Quignonez to take up
breviary reform, requested the Theatines to take up similar work. The
Council of Trent (1545-1563) took up the work of reform. But the Council
rose before the work had made headway, and the matter of reform was
finally effected by St. Pius V. (1566-1572), by his Constitution, _Quod
a nobis_ (1568).

The Reformed Breviary of 1568 is, in outline, the Breviary in our hands
to-day. The great idea in the reform was to restore the weekly
recitation of the whole psalter. Theoretically, the Breviary made such
provision, but practically the great number of saints' offices
introduced into the Breviary made the weekly recitation of the psalter
an impossibility. The clergy were constantly reading only a few psalms
out of the 150 in the psalter. The rubrics, too, were in a confused
state. Changes were made in the calendar by suppression of feasts, by
restoring to simple feasts the ferial office psalms, and by reducing the
number of double and semi-double feasts. But in the body of the Breviary
the changes were few and slight. The lives of some saints drawn from
Quignonez's work were used, St. Gregory's canon of scripture lessons was
adopted and the antiphons, verses, responses, collects and prayers were
taken from the old Roman liturgy. The antiphons and responses were given
in the older translation of St. Jerome owing to their suitability for
musical settings. And the text of the psalms was the _Psalterium
Gallicanum_, which had been in use in the Roman Curial Breviary,

But the Pian reform was soon to be followed by a reform of the Breviary
text, in accordance with the Sixtine Vulgate, the Clementine Vulgate,