The Leofric missal, as used in the Cathedral of Exeter during the episcopate of its first bishop, A.D. 1050-1072

'Dignum judico qui ab Ecclesiasticæ Historiæ studiosis a capite ad calcem perlegatur.' WANLEY, Thesaurus, p. 82.

'To the shame of this country, much of what belongs to our ancient ecclesiastical history has been snatched from forgetfulness, and given to the world through the press, not by Englishmen nor by English patronage, but by foreigners, such as those truly great and truly learned ecclesiastics, Mabillon, Martene, Muratori, and the Bollandists. Let us, however, hope that a new and a brighter day may dawn upon England; and while she learns to appreciate her own vast wealth in the remains of her ancient literature, she will hearten forwards all those among her sons who are now ready and wishful to toil upon the national stores, and bring to light these islands' literary riches which still lie hidden in manuscripts.'-Rock, The Church of our Fathers, iii. 1. 191.

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PREFACE.

THE object of the publication of this volume is to render generally accessible the text of the Liturgy of the Church of England during the Anglo-Saxon period. The Liturgy of the Anglo-Norman period has been popularized by recent reprints of the Sarum, York, and Hereford Missals. With the Leofric Missal before him, a student will now be able to trace the alterations and modifications which gradually took place in the text of the Canon and in the structure of Masses. The almost entire absence of rubrics from the Leofric, in common with all early Sacramentaries, will unfortunately prevent him from ascertaining how far the peculiar directions of the later Uses as to the position and manual acts of the priest, the sequence of colours, and other ritual details, are of mediæval origin, or a perpetuation of earlier English usage.

In the course of publication the Editor has become indebted to many known, and to some unknown, friends, for much valuable assistance and information. His thanks are especially due to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press for undertaking a publication which would have been too costly for individual enterprise; to the chief Librarians and other members of the Library Staff in the University Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge, the National Library at Paris, and the Public Library at Rouen, for much courtesy and assistance; to Henry Bradshaw, Esq., for help in deciphering faded passages in early Missals belonging to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and freely put at the Editor's disposal through the Rev. S. S. Lewis; to Professor Westwood for advice and help in reproducing some of the faded designs in the Kalendar; to J. B. Davidson, Esq. and the Rev. C. W. Boase, for help in the identification of Obits, and of Anglo-Saxon names of places and persons; to E. Bishop, Esq., for help in tracing the history of a lost Leofric Missal; to the Rev. W. C. Bishop, jun., for aid in attempting to discover an ancient Missal of the Church of England, stated to have been at Cologne in the sixteenth century; to Falconer Madan, Esq., Miss Wyndham, and others, for much general assistance in correcting proof sheets, verifying references, etc.

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