Two Anglo-Saxon Pontificals (the Egbert and Sidney Sussex Pontificals)

This book presents editions of two of the best known Anglo-Saxon pontificals the so-called `Egbert Pontifical' (Paris BN lat. 10575) and the `Sidney Sussex Pontifical' (Cambridge Sidney Sussex College 100). The pontifical was a bishop's book which contained the various ceremonies which ony a bishop could perform: consecration of a church or cemetary consecration of all orders of clergy and of abbots and abbesses and the coronation of a king. The various pontifical services in these two manuscripts therefore help to illustrate the nature of these solemn ceremonies in Anglo-Saxon England and are a valuable index of the state of the English chuch in the 10th century.