A few times over the years, when he had bowed his head at the Consecration of the Host at Mass, he had realized how hard it would be for an archaeologist of the future, on finding the ruins of a Catholic church, to guess what the faithful had believed. The scholars would just have the arches, the pillars, the tiled floor, the outline of the building, perhaps some of the items used on the altar. But if they did not have the prayer books, then they would know nothing about the prayers that were said, or the rituals that were performed.
