versity

Copyright, 1920
by
Henry Holt and Company

VITA
CARIORI
FILIOLAE
PRISCILLAE
SACRUM

PREFACE

The excuse for writing another history of the Reformation is the need
for putting that movement in its proper relations to the economic and
intellectual revolutions of the sixteenth century. The labor of love
necessary for the accomplishment of this task has employed most of my
leisure for the last six years and has been my companion through
vicissitudes of sorrow and of joy. A large part of the pleasure
derived from the task has come from association with friends who have
generously put their time and thought at my disposal. First of all,
Professor Charles H. Haskins, of Harvard, having read the whole in
manuscript and in proof with care, has thus given me the unstinted
benefit of his deep learning, and of his ripe and sane judgment. Next
to him the book owes most to my kind friend, the Rev. Professor William
Walker Rockwell, of Union Seminary, who has added to the many other
favors he has done me a careful revision of Chapters I to VIII, Chapter
XIV, and a part of Chapter IX. Though unknown to me personally, the
Rev. Dr. Peter Guilday, of the Catholic University of Washington,
consented, with gracious, characteristic urbanity, to read Chapters VI
and VIII and a part of Chapter I. I am grateful to Professor N. S. B.
Gras, of the University of Minnesota, for reading that part of the book
directly concerned with economics (Chapter XI and a part of Chapter X);
and to Professor Frederick A. Saunders, of Harvard, for a like service
in technical revision of the section on science in Chapter XII. While
acknowledging with hearty thanks the priceless services of these
eminent scholars, it is only fair to relieve them of all responsibility
for any rash statements that may have escaped their scrutiny, as well
as for any conclusions from which they might dissent.

For information about manuscripts and rare books in Europe my thanks
are due to my kind friends: Mr. P. S. Allen, Librarian of Merton
College, Oxford, the so successful editor of Erasmus's Epistles; and
Professor Carrington Lancaster, of Johns Hopkins University. To
several libraries I owe much for the use of books. My friend,
Professor Robert S. Fletcher, Librarian of Amherst College, has often
sent me volumes from that excellent store of books. My sister,
Professor Winifred Smith, of Vassar College, has added to many loving
s