NICHOLLS, Who printed the originals of many of our collects from the Sacramentary of Gregory, no one, I believe, has yet published any part of the English Offices in their original languages. My own attention was called to this fact, when, in the course of preparation for holy orders, it became my duty to study our Ritual: and while I was endeavouring to ascertain the precise meaning of some expressions, I experienced such difficulties in referring to the originals, as induced me to seek some commentary resembling that which the reader has now before him, and subsequently to resolve, as far as was in my power, to supply the deficiency. The propriety of such an undertaking does not, I am happy to say, rest on my opinion alone. The late Bishop of Oxford, (DR. LLOYD,) whose authority should have weight on such a subject, was so convinced of its expediency, that he was himself collecting ma cause it is here that we are to look more especially for analogy with the ancient liturgies. In the course of these remarks it has been necessary to refer so very frequently to the primitive liturgies, which bear the names of MARK, JAMES, BASIL, CHRYSOSTOM, and other Fathers, that I have been induced to place a Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies at the beginning of the present volume, which may be useful in explaining the authority of documents subsequently referred to, and may contribute to turn the attention of others to these most important and venerable remains. In conclusion, it becomes my duty gratefully to acknowledge the liberality with which the Delegates of the Oxford University Press have undertaken to publish this work. |