| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/historyofreforma05merluoft |
PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF GENEVA, AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE
SOCIETE EVANGELIQUE.
TRANSLATED BY H. WHITE,
B.A. TRINITY COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, M.A. AND PH. DR. HEIDELBERG.
THE TRANSLATION CAREFULLY REVISED BY DR. MERLE D'AUBIGNE.
PRINTED BY ARRANGEMENT WITH MESSRS. OLIVER AND BOYD, FROM THE
AUTHOR'S OWN ENGLISH EDITION.
VOL. V.
GLASGOW:
WILLIAM COLLINS, PUBLISHER & QUEEN'S PRINTER.1862.
In the four previous volumes the author has described theorigin and essential development of the Reformation of theSixteenth Century on the Continent; he has now to relate thehistory of the Reformation in England.
The notes will direct the reader to the principal sourceswhence the author has derived his information. Most of themare well known; others, however, had not been previouslyexplored, among which are the later volumes of the StatePapers published by order of Government, by a Commission ofwhich the illustrious Sir Robert Peel was the first president.Three successive Home Secretaries, Sir James Graham, SirGeorge Grey, and the Honourable Mr. S. H. Walpole, havepresented the author with copies of the several volumes of thisgreat and important collection: in some instances they werecommunicated to him as soon as printed, which was the case inparticular with the seventh volume, of which he has made muchuse. He takes this opportunity of expressing his sincere gratitudeto these noble friends of literature.
The History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Centurywas received with cordiality on the Continent; but it has had afar greater number of readers in the British dominions and inthe United States. The author looks upon the relations whichthis work has established between him and many distant Christians,as a precious reward for his labours. Will the presentvolume be received in those countries as favourably as theothers? A foreigner relating to the Anglo-Saxon race the historyof their Reformation is at a certain disadvantage; andalthough the author would rather have referred his readers toworks, whether of old or recent date, by native writers, all ofthem more competent for the task than himself, he did notthink it becoming him to shrink from the undertaking.
[4]At no period is it possible to omit the history of the Reformationin England from a general history of the Reformation ofthe Sixteenth Century; at the present crisis it is less possiblethan ever.<