First to compose music for the burial service in English was Thomas Morley (1557-1603). The verbal text that he followed was that of the second Book of Common Prayer, pubhshed in 1559, one year after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I. The splendor of this piece of literature exalted Morley's genius to an equally magnificent piece of music.

About a century and a half afterward, his manuscript came to the hands of Doctor Maurice Greene (c. 1695-1755). In 1718 Greene became organist of St. Paul's, a position that Morley once occupied. In 1727 he was elected to the Chapel Royal, of which Morley had been a member. Three years later he was made Doctor of Music at Cambridge; Morley had been Bachelor of Music at Oxford.