THE HISTORY AND CLAIMS OF THE CONFESSIONAL. A SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF WITH AN APPENDIX CONTAINING THE CHIEF AUTHORITIES. BY CHARLES PARSONS REICHEL, D.D., D.LITT., Dean of Cionmacnois. [PUBLISHED BY REQUEST]. London: LONGMANS AND CO. 1884. PREFACE. I MAY be allowed to introduce a long-delayed publication with a few words of excuse and explanation. The sermon was hurriedly written during the week before the Sunday on which it was preached, at the request of some eminent men in the University; at their request likewise the publication of it was undertaken.. But, though hurriedly, it was not thoughtlessly composed. It is the outcome of years devoted in great measure to an examination of the subject which it treats. The long delay in publishing has been due partly to the pressure of other and various business, during a period of ill health; partly to a trivial and yet very serious obstacle,-a bad hand-writing which puzzled the compositors, especially in the Greek and Latin extracts given in the Appendix. For assistance in carrying it through the press, in spite of this drawback, I am chiefly indebted to my good son, Mr. H. R. Reichel, Fellow of All Souls' and Principal of the New University College in North Wales; as also to Robert Potts, Esq., of Trinity College, Cambridge, through whose hands the sheets have passed, and who has aided in the detection of many blunders which had escaped my defective eye-sight. The assertions in the Sermon are amply proved by the authorities quoted in the Appendix. Some of these, e. g. especially the Greek Services, will, I believe, be new to most, even of those who have studied Theology. For while the Greek Liturgies have been introduced to the notice of the English public both in their originals and in a translation (not always to be relied on), the Greek ordination offices have been as carefully kept out of sight. |