EDITORS' PREFACE. PROBABLY at no period, since the Reformation, has the national Church occupied the attention of intelligent men in foreign lands and of all classes in our own land, to so large an extent as she does at the present day. Her internal strength has, of late years, been marvellously recruited; and, as a consequence, her energies have rapidly expanded. But her growing activity, encouraging as it is to her faithful members, has stimulated the attacks of opponents, who have exaggerated the peculiarities of her ritual into defects or distorted them into blemishes. On the one hand she has been assailed as inclining too much to the practices and doctrines of the Church of Rome; on the other as having too little sympathy with the primitive usages of Christianity. In each of these cases her Prayer-book is made the chief object of attack. Hence we are of opinion that an intimate acquaintance with the history of the formation of the Prayerbook, as well as with the contents of its Offices, is a most desirable, we had almost said an indispensable, element in the education of all churchmen. Many volumes, illustrating the different Services of the Prayerbook, are to be found on the shelves of theological libraries. But these stores of knowledge are not, generally, within reach of the ordinary lay members of our Church, and are, sometimes, not easy of access even to the clergyman. Under these circumstances it has appeared to us that a portable edition of the Prayer-book, accompanied by compendious notes, arranged, as far as possible, face to face with the text illustrated, was wanted in our ritualistic literature. We have tried to supply this want by the present work. In the notes we have endeavoured to shew the position which our Service-book holds iv EDITORS' PREFACE. relatively to the Service-books of other Communions, and also of our own Church at an earlier period of her national life: and, with this end in view, we have given a short account of the origin, development, and alterations of the various Services. Our commentary does not much affect originality. We have consulted the ritual collections of Martene and Mabillon, the York and Sarum Uses, and the present Service-books of the Greek Church; and we have freely used the works of Bingham, Palmer, Keeling, Stephens, Freeman, and Procter. In explaining the rules for finding Easter we have borrowed largely from De Morgan. The emblems of saints have been extracted from the work of Husenbeth. We are much indebted to the Rev. H. J. Hotham, M. A. Fellow of Trinity College, for many valuable hints, and especially for the tables of Psalms according to the Latin ritual. In order to render the commentary generally useful, passages, quoted from Greek or Latin authors, have been translated, except where our object was the comparison of the English form with that from which it is said to have been derived. As a popular explanation of many matters ordinarily apprehended with some vagueness, and also as a sort of syllabus to the student of Church ritual, we ask for an indulgent acceptance of the Interleaved Prayer-book. CAMBRIDGE, Christmas, 1865. W. M. CAMPION. V EDITORS' PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IN issuing a second edition of the Prayer-Book Interleaved, we have availed ourselves of several hints given in reviews of the first edition, and have added a few supplementary illustrations. Thus a short account of the origin and use of the vestments prescribed in the First Prayer-Book of Edward VI. has been întroduced; the notes on the words, Anthem, Ember, and Whitsunday have been enlarged; the institution of Trinity Sunday and the adoption of the clause, 'Filioque,' into the creed of the Western Church have been discussed with somewhat more fulness. It has likewise been thought a suitable complement to the notes on the Psalter that the superscriptions of the Psalms, taken from the Bible Version, together with brief explanatory comments, should be added. Further historical details respecting the course followed in making the successive revisions of the Prayer-Book have also been given. We trust therefore that the second edition will be found more complete than the first. Whitsuntide, 1866. W. M. CAMPION. W. J. BEAMONT. EDITORS' PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE call for a third edition of the Prayer-Book Interleaved has enabled us to present it to the public still further revised and enlarged. Many additional illustrations from the Service Books of the Greek Church have been inserted; an alphabetical index of the Greek Psalter, with the Septuagint titles annexed, has been added; and a notice of the Order of Readers, recently revived, has been prefixed to the Ordination Services. We have also given, in the Communion Office, a more detailed account of the Scotch Liturgy of 1637, and of the Liturgy of the American Church. The Report on Vestments of the Ritual Commission will be found in an Appendix. 31st August, 1867. W. M. CAMPION. vi EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE FOURTH THE Second Report of the Ritual Commission has been added to the Appendix. Before the arrangements for the issue of this fourth edition could be completed, my dear friend and fellow-editor was removed from among us. On the 6th of August, after an illness of but two days' duration, he entered into his rest. Those only who had the opportunity of witnessing his unceasing toil in the furtherance of every good work can justly estimate the loss which our Church has sustained by the cessation of his labours. His favourite maxim was, that life was given us for work. His own manner of life shewed how the Christian may apply that maxim to the promotion of God's glory and man's welfare. "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." Rev. xiv. 13. 1st October, 1868. W. M. CAMPION. |