SOME explanation may be needed of the history of this book, and of its relation to other writings of mine. For many years it was my duty constantly to lecture on Christian doctrine. In connection with my lectures, it was my custom to read as fully as circumstances permitted what has been written in different periods on the subjects which I had to treat, so that I might be able in lecturing to state briefly the salient points of the teaching of representative men and important times. In some cases this led to my forming lists of passages which seemed to be of special importance. One such list was in regard to the Eucharist. Parts of the materials thus collected on this subject were utilised in a series of articles, entitled The Holy Eucharist: An Historical Inquiry, which I was allowed to contribute to the Church Quarterly Review in the years 1901, 1902, 1903, and 1904; and these articles in turn lay behind the much briefer treatment of the history of the doctrine in the volume, The Holy Communion, in the Oxford Library of Practical Theology. Since the publication of that volume in 1904, I have spent much time on the verification and revision and supplementing and arrangement of the materials to which I have referred; and the result of the work is published in this book. It will be seen that a plan of quoting at considerable length has been adopted. In so acting, it has been my aim to show as well as is possible what the meaning of the writers quoted is; and I hope that my own personal dislike of scanty quotations and unexplained allusions and generalisations which leave readers at the mercy of authors may not have caused me to make the passages unnecessarily long. In the part of the book which deals with the period beginning in the sixteenth century, the work of selection has not been easy, in consequence of the vastness of the literature: I have tried to choose writers and works which are really representative, and to cite fully and frankly opinions which I do not share: if I have failed in this, the failure has been due not to lack of will, but to human infirmity.
My thanks are due to the Editor of the Church Quarterly Review for allowing me to use the substance and very occasionally the language of the series of articles already mentioned, and also of an article contributed to the Review in October, 1908, entitled Eucharistic Doctrine and the Canon of the Roman Mass. My indebtedness to others is shown in some footnotes; and my special gratitude is due to my friend, the Rev. C. O. Becker, Vicar of St. Botolph’s, Aldersgate Street, who most generously read this book before it was in print, and gave me the help of much valuable advice and many useful suggestions.
The book is, as it is called, a history: the foundation of it was formed, as has been stated, in study undertaken for purposes of my own: if it should help any to a better understanding of the great doctrine of which it treats, or if it should do anything to promote the cause of peace, such a practical result will be in accordance with my best hopes.
D. S.
January 25, 1909.