ITS PURPOSE AND ITS HISTORY BY THE REV. WALKER GWYNNE, D.D. AUTHOR OF "Manual of Christian Doctrine," "The Gospel in the Church," etc. NEW IMPRESSION LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO. 55 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK LONDON, TORONTO, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS 1926 Copyright, 1915 BY LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. First Edition, February, 1915 MADE IN THE UNITED STATES G-995 INTRODUCTION THE lack and the need of a popular manual on the Christian Year were forced on the attention of the writer when he undertook to teach a class in the Newark Diocesan Training School for Teachers. His aim in the present volume is to provide such a book as an intelligent teacher would desire, giving, not merely the bare facts concerning the different festivals and fasts, but also some account of the practical and devotional reasons which the whole Catholic Church has had from the beginning for adopting the system of her Christian Year and Calendar. So far as defence or apologia is concerned, Hooker with his lofty philosophical treatment of the subject is of course unexcelled. But Hooker is not accessible to the average student, and his somewhat antiquated style, in spite of its nobility and charm, is not likely to attract the ordinary reader of to-day. There are only a few monographs in English on the Christian Year, intended chiefly for candidates for Holy Orders, of which the latest and most useful are 66 The Church Year and the Calendar" by the late Bishop Dowden of Edinburgh, and "The Liturgical Year" by the Rev. Vernon Staley. Of the latter there is an abridgment entitled "The Seasons, etc., of the Christian Year." "Heortology, a History of the Christian Festivals from their Origin to the present Day," by Professor Kellner of the Univer |