The Age of the Reformation

The Age of the Reformation, by
Preserved Smith

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Preserved Smith
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Title: The Age of the Reformation
Author: Preserved Smith

Release Date: July 20, 2006 [eBook #18879]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE AGE OF THE REFORMATION
by
PRESERVED SMITH, Ph.D.

New York Henry Holt and Company

American Historical Series General Editor Charles H. Haskins
Professor of History in Harvard University
Copyright, 1920 by Henry Holt and Company

VITÂ 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