Wm. Jno. Blew. H. G. Morse.
J. H. Blunt. James Parker.
Wm. Cooke. Thos. W. Perry.
C. L. Courtenay. James Baden Powell.
J. Fuller Russell. R. F. Wilson.
R. F. Littledale. Chr. Wordsworth.
INTERPRETATIONS OF THE RUBRICS OF THE PRAYER-BOOK.
THE PREFACE.
1. It hath been the wisdom of the Church of England, &c.
It is important to bear in mind, in interpreting the prefaces and rubrics of the Prayer-Book, that they were written at various times, and that their language is not generally the current language of our own day, but the technical language of the times at which they were respectively written.
The first section, headed "The Preface," was added in 1662 to the second, entitled "Concerning the Service of the Church," which is the original Preface to the Prayer-Book of 1549, with some important additions and slight omissions made in 1552.
The "Order how the Psalter is appointed to be read," dates mainly from 1549.
The "Order how the rest of Holy Scripture is appointed to be read," with the Tables of Proper Psalms, and Lessons, and the Calendar—originally forming part of the book of 1549—was adopted with slight alteration in 1662, but was much varied in 1871.
CONCERNING THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH.
2. There was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, &c.