What is "book of homilies"

Homily \Hom"i*ly\, n.; pl. Homilies. [LL. homilia, Gr. ? communion, assembly, converse, sermon, fr. ? an assembly, fr. ? same; cf. ? together, and ? crowd, cf. ? to press: cf. F. hom['e]lie. See Same.]

1. A discourse or sermon read or pronounced to an audience; a serious discourse.
   --Shak.

2. A serious or tedious exhortation in private on some moral point, or on the conduct of life.

   As I have heard my father Deal out in his long homilies.
   --Byron.

   Book of Homilies. A collection of authorized, printed sermons, to be read by ministers in churches, esp. one issued in the time of Edward VI., and a second, issued in the reign of Elizabeth; -- both books being certified to contain a ``godly and wholesome doctrine.''