Although the name of the writer of the letterpress of this book is the only one that appears on the title-page and cover, he is by no means sure that the name of Mr Francis Bond, the General Editor of the series, ought not to have been bracketed with it, as to him these pages are indebted for all the labour and scholarly insight involved in the selection and arrangement of the vast number of choice illustrations of pulpits, lecterns, organ cases, and other consonant details within the covers; moreover, the letterpress also is indebted to his arrangement, advice, and corrections.<br><br>The writer had long wished to produce a monograph on pulpits, and the suggestion that the subject should form one of the Oxford University Press' noteworthy series of books on the Church Art of English Churches was eagerly welcomed by him. Up to the present time, the only work on this essential branch of English ecclesiology has been Mr Dollman's Examples of Ancient Pulpits published in 1849, and long ago out of print. The pulpit of mediæval days was evidently intended to take an unmistakably prominent part among the fittings of a church, for the best of sculpture and carving was usually employed in its construction, as is vividly demonstrated in the following pages; moreover, bright colouring was not infrequently employed, both in stone and wood examples, to make the pulpits still more distinctive.<br><br>There are few subjects upon which mistakes are more common, even amongst those who have some knowledge of Church lore, than those of preaching and pulpits. It is to be hoped that this book may do something to correct several popular delusions. The bounden duty of preaching was insisted upon with constant reiteration by the mediæval Church, and was by no means a special appanage of the Reformation period. The Anglo-Saxon priest, from the seventh century onwards, was bound to preach at least every Sunday and Saint's day. Upwards of one hundred and fifty sermons assigned to the Venerable Bede, and certainly of the eighth century, are extant. These sermons are almost entirely concerned with the gospel of the day, as they were usually preached at High Mass.