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Charlotte Yonge's own Preface to English Church History

THE brief history here given is an attempt to make the growth of our Church, and of the Prayer Book; comprehensible to young minds. It is hoped that it may be found useful in the senior classes of Sunday and Saturday Schools, as well as to pupil teachers, and that it may help to establish in their minds the essential fact that our own is a branch of the One Catholic and Apostolic Church, built on the One Foundation. The continuity of the Church and the origin of the Prayer Book have therefore been made special subjects; and there has also been an endeavour to show the causes of whatever still comes under the eye of our young people. Some of the greatest difficulties of our time have been caused on the one hand by the loyal assumption that whatever is is right, and on the other by the belief that whatever is old must be better than the new, both parties being alike ignorant of the principle and cause of the customs which they attack or defend, and thus not knowing whether they are, or are not, important.

A knowledge of our own Church history would have some effect in lessening this inconvenience, and with this view these chapters have been drawn up. Some acquaintance with English history has been presumed in the readers, as they will probably be going through some school history which will enable them to understand who are the kings mentioned.

C; M. Yonge

September 23rd, 1882

Chapter titles for English Church History