PREFACE

The following pages contain the substance of several lectures delivered in the course of the last few years at various places. I have been induced to publish them in this form at the request of several friends who heard them delivered. I am well aware that many of the subjects treated are far from being fully discussed, but I have thought it better to leave them as they were originally written rather than to expand them into a more formal treatise.

The reader will find that the first three lectures deal with the early history of the Church, while the remainder are devoted to the consideration of its development in later times. My object has been throughout to show how the Great Council was formed and how its decisions were reached.

I have also to express my thanks to those who have assisted me in the preparation of this volume. I must especially mention the Reverend Canon Bright for many valuable suggestions and for the kind interest he has taken in the work.

I have also to thank the officials of the British Museum and of the Bodleian Library for the facilities they have afforded me in my researches. If this little book should lead any to a further study of the subjects here treated, I shall feel that my labor has not been in vain.

October, 1890.

Henry R. Percival.