The purpose of The Cambridge Handbooks of Liturgical Study is to offer to students who are entering upon the study of Liturgies such help as may enable them to proceed with advantage to the use of the larger and more technical works upon the subject which are already at their service.

The series will treat of the history and rationale of the several rites and ceremonies which have found a place in Christian worship, with some account of the ancient liturgical books in which they are contained. Attention will also be called to the importance which liturgical forms possess as expressions of Christian conceptions and beliefs.

Each volume will provide a list or lists of the books in which the study of its subject may be pursued, and will contain a table of Contents and an Index.

The editors do not hold themselves responsible for the opinions expressed in the several volumes of the series. While offering suggestions on points of detail, they have left each writer to treat his subject in his own way, regard being had to the general plan and purpose of the series.

H. B. S.
J. H. S.

[The manuscript of the present volume was sent to the press only a few weeks before the lamented death of the author, and therefore the work did not receive final revision at his hands. In its original draft the manuscript contained a somewhat fuller discussion of some of the topics handled, e.g. the work of the mediaeval computists, and such technical terms as ‘Sunday Letters,’ ‘Epacts,’ etc., as well as a fuller treatment of the various Eastern Kalendars. Exigencies of space, however, and the scope of the present series, made it necessary for the author to curtail these portions of his work, while suggesting books in which the study of these topics may be pursued by the student. The Editors have endeavoured, as far as possible, to verify the references and to supplement them, where it seemed necessary to do so. In a few cases they have added short additional notes, enclosed in brackets, and bearing an indication that they are the work of the Editors.]