The work now presented to the Members of the Ælfric Society, the first fruit of its praiseworthy attempt to rescue from oblivion the literary remains of our forefathers, was selected for the earliest publication of the Society, on account both of its valuable matter and the beautiful medium by which it is conveyed. Of the author of the Sermones Catholici we know nothing with certainty beyond his name, though from the words of his own preface, where he speaks of king Æthelred’s days as past, and informs us that in those days he was only a monk and mass-priest.