THE

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

THE latitudinarian and infidel habits which ranged with unusual boldness over most of the eighteenth century, and gained a perfect mastery over France about its close, have now been stopped in their pernicious course by a decided reaction. It is true, that no one any longer advocates intolerance, and that legal restraints upon liberty of conscience are very generally abandoned. But it is equally true that public opinion has not forsaken the narrow maxims of an earlier day from the prevalence of a shallow, supercilious contempt for all religions, as alike undeserving of notice from enlightened minds. On the contrary, religious questions are among those which most extensively engage a liberal curiosity. Nor is there any department of them more generally circulated than the historical. Men are become fully aware that the history of religion must be known by all who would understand its doctrines critically, or estimate its bearing upon passing events with sufficient accuracy. Hence works upon this branch of learning have recently appeared with unwonted profusion. Numerous contributions of considerable value have been made to the stock of ecclesiastical biography, and many able authors have illustrated the history of insulated churches and periods. Thus much interesting and important information, of this practical and solid kind, has been generally diffused, producing, among

other wholesome fruits, an appetite for more extensive acquisitions of the same description.

But although particular branches of ecclesiastical history have severally their peculiar claims upon the attention of certain communities and individuals, a general knowledge of the whole subject is also plainly indispensable. This has long been chiefly sought in England, from Mosheim. His great work is known for a degree of research and impartiality which cannot be found in any similar publication of the same size. Yet it long remained very far from popular. Most English readers of such books were in the habit of consulting and applauding it: still, few turned from its pages without regretting that so much valuable matter was not to be found in some more attractive form. Such regret might seem to have arisen from three causes the author's arrangement, his deficiencies in British ecclesiastical history, and objections to his original English translator, Dr. Maclaine. The first of these is irremediable, unless the Institutes were wholly re-cast; unless, therefore, a new work were written, embodying the labours of Dr. Mosheim. Even in case, however, of entering upon such a task, it might admit of serious doubt, whether Mosheim's arrangement could be much improved in an ecclesiastical history meant chiefly to aid a scholar in research, or supply occasional information. For the mere purpose of continuous reading, unquestionably such a distribution of the narrative is injudicious. But as the author thought principally of supplying students with references, and a general view of the subject, he has arranged his materials with sufficient skill for such purposes. Reference, however, is the end for which his work will ever be most used. It is a compilation which will not often be read regularly through more than once, but which any clergyman, or other person, able to appreciate historical knowledge, would gladly store among his books, and would be likely to consult habitually. A much more serious objection to English readers of Mosheim, was the insufficient information that he gave upon most subjects of national interest. Many particulars afforded by him upon the

later history of Lutheranism, and other continental systems of religion, have no great value with a native of the British isles. But such a reader cannot fail of disappointment when he sees little upon matters that most concern himself. He does not wish to feel constantly that his author was a German Lutheran, calculating upon readers chiefly among his own countrymen, and the holders of his own religious opinions. Nothing is more desirable than such a direction of the writer's thoughts, when he is detailing the first steps of the Reformation; because these concern religious history generally, and are highly interesting to Englishmen in particular, from the part which their country took so early in the glorious struggle for emancipation from Rome. Nor, probably, is a native of Britain so well calculated for tracing Luther's progress, as one of that illustrious reformer's own countrymen. But when the continental stages of the Reformation have been related with sufficient fulness, the English reader naturally looks for a corresponding degree of information upon the religious affairs of his own country. He may, indeed, be aware, that such a knowledge of his national ecclesiastical history as becomes a native, and is necessary for a due acquaintance with domestic questions, is not to be acquired from a comprehensive work of no great extent, like Mosheim's. He is, however, fully justified in expecting to see a compilation generally consulted by his countrymen upon ecclesiastical history, as full upon British branches of it, as it is upon German. For its palpable deficiencies here, the author, undoubtedly, is by no means chargeable, as he could never have thought himself likely, even in his most sanguine moments, to become the principal authority upon ecclesiastical history among Englishmen, and to retain that proud position during many years. Such has, however, proved his enviable fortune, and he may long retain possession of the ground so honourably won. His excellences are undisputed and indisputable; and the difficulties of superseding his labours by a new summary with equal claims to confidence, are such as readers who have never tried or witnessed historical composition little suspect. To say nothing of the requisite

ability, an undertaking of that kind would make demands of time and money that very few scholars are able to answer. An English compiler, too, would find it very difficult to escape from a party bias, and scarcely possible to rise above the depreciation which would infallibly assail him from the various parties which he had disobliged either by censure, neglect, or neutrality. When Dr. Maclaine, therefore, discerned an opening for his industry, in the national want of a good ecclesiastical history, he was perfectly right in supplying it by the very able work of a learned foreign protestant. He thus kept clear of the suspicion which party spirit was pretty sure to fasten upon any similar undertaking from a native, and of that which the great majority of Englishmen reasonably entertain against historical statements prepared under any degree of Romish prejudice. He saw, however, the deficiencies of Mosheim upon all British questions, and accordingly wrote many valuable notes to supply them. Still the work, although deservedly welcomed by the public, did not bear a character sufficiently English for the country. Members of the national church very naturally complained that Maclaine, as might be expected from his presbyterian opinions, had been very far from doing it justice. Every English reader was struck with the meagre notice that his own country received, after all the translator's additions. The history remained essentially German. It might be well enough that its pages should continue to offer all the information supplied by Mosheim upon his own country. This could not fail of being found occasionally useful, and even interesting. But then a like quantity of information was fairly required as to domestic affairs. Now this Dr. Maclaine had been very far from supplying; nor has the new American translator made up for his deficiencies in this respect. When, therefore, the care of this edition was undertaken, the editor considered himself first bound to consider how the work might be rendered more useful in the British isles. For this purpose, whole chapters appeared necessary; and more of these were written, at greater lengths