J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNÉ
MARTIN LUTHER BEFORE THE DIET AT WORMSNEW YORK
R CARTER 58 CANAL STREET.
HISTORY
OF THE
GREAT REFORMATION
OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY
IN
GERMANY, SWITZERLAND, &c.
BY J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE,
PRESIDENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL OF GENEVA, AND MEMBER OF
THE "SOCIETE EVANGELIQUE."
ASSISTED IN THE PREPARATION OF THE ENGLISH ORIGINAL
BY H. WHITE,
B.A. TRIN. COLL. CAMBRIDGE, M.A. AND PH. DR. HEIDELBERG.
VOL. IV.
NEW YORK:
ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET;
AND PITTSBURG, 56 MARKET STREET.
1846.
PREFACE.
When a foreigner visits certain countries, as England, Scotland, orAmerica, he is sometimes presented with the rights of citizenship. Suchhas been the privilege of the "History of the Reformation of the SixteenthCentury." From 150,000 to 200,000 copies are in circulation, in the Englishlanguage, in the countries I have just mentioned; while in Francethe number hardly exceeds 4000. This is a real adoption,—naturalizingthis Work in the countries that have received it with so much favour.
I accept this honour. Accordingly, while the former Volumes of myHistory were originally published in France; now that, after a lapse of fiveyears, I think of issuing a continuation of it, I do so in Great Britain.
This is not the only change in the mode of publication. I did not thinkit right to leave to translators, as in the cases of the former Volumes, thetask of expressing my ideas in English. The best translations are alwaysfaulty; and the Author alone can have the certainty of conveying his idea,his whole idea, and nothing but his idea. Without overlooking the meritthat the several existing translations may possess, even the best of them isnot free from inaccuracies, more or less important. Of these I have givenspecimens in the Preface to the New Translation of the former Volumes byDr. White, which has been revised by me, and which will shortly be publishedby Messrs. Oliver and Boyd. These inaccuracies, no doubt mostinvoluntary, contributed in giving rise to a very severe contest that tookplace in America, on the subject of this Work, between the Episcopaliansand the Baptists on the one hand, and the Presbyterians on the other,—acontest that I hope is now terminated, but in which (as a New York correspondentinformed me) one of the most beneficial and powerful ChristianSocieties of the United States had been on the brink of dissolution.
With such facts before me, I could no longer hesitate. It became necessaryfor me to publish, myself, in English; and this I accordingly do.But although that language is familiar to me, I was desirous of securing,to a certain extent, the co-operation of an English literary gentleman.Dr. Henry White, a Graduate of Cambridge, and Member of a Continental