"There is hardly a branch of theological science which has till quite recently been brought to so little certain and recognised results as the history of the Christian Liturgy. This arose in the main from the practical necessity that the Catholic doctrine of the Holy Eucharist in the representative continuance and application of the sacrifice of Christ, in opposition to the Protestant polemic, should be shown to be the primitive Christian form. But in a period of more than three centuries little more was done than to collect the material, which recently from their great numbers, critical inquiry rather tended to confuse than to enlighten."