PREFACE TO VOLUME II.



  IN this Volume, I have endeavored to trace the history of the Protts.
tant Reformation in the principal European countries outside of Gcr many
and Swvitzerland.
  As, among these, England and its dependencies possess most interest
for the American or Engdiszh reader, more space in proportion has been
devote'] to the history of the Anglican Schism than to that of any other
European country. Besides an introduction, in which the religious his-
tory of England preliminary to the Reformation is discussed, four Chap-
ters are devoted to the English Reformation, besides separate Chapters
on the Reformation in Scotland, and Ireland. The statements of the great
Englih historian, Lingard, are show n to be substantially confirmed by
Hallam, Mfacaulay, Bihop Short, Sir James Mackintosh, Agnes Strick-
land, and other accredited Protestant historians; and, unless I am greatly
mistaken, it will be seen from the comparison of authorities, that not one
important fact alleged by Lingard has ever been successfully contro-
verted, even by the most determined opponents of the Catholic Church.
  The excellent Miss Strickland, in her Lives of the English and Scottish
Queens, has incidentiy thrown much additional light on what may be
calle1i the internal history of the Anglican and Scottish Reformation.
Though a decided Protestant, she has done justice to the memory of
Mary of England and of Mary of Scotland: and also, in another sense,
to Queen Elizabeth and John Knox. Availing herself with much indus-
try and fidelity of her ample opportunities for investigation, she has
published several new documents from the English State Paper Office;
and, what is still better and more commendable, she has dared tell a
considerable portion of the truth, in spite of fashionable obloquy and
stereotype misrepresentation. She has drawn, what might be called a
Daguerreotype likeness of John Knox in his relations with Mary Stuart,
whom the Scottish -eformer fiercely hunted to death in the name of the
Religion of love I
  In the Chapter on the fruitless attempts to thrust the Reformation on
Ireland, I have endeavored to present, on the most unexceptional Pro-
testant authority, together with a summary of the principal facts, a con-
densed but somewhat detailed account of the truly infamous Penal Code
enacted by the British parliament against the members of the ancient
Church in that faithful Island, which, in spite of almost incredible hard-
ships and the most atrocious persecutions, has preserved untarnished the
precious jewel of faith bequeathed to her by St. Patrick.
  The Chapter on the Reformation in the Netherlands is a Review of
Prescott's Philip II.; and it presents an appreciation of the stern Spanish
monarch and of his cruel lieutenant Alva, together with a portraiture of
the atrocities committed against the Catholics by the Dutch Calvinists,
who are shown to have raged more fiercely than Alva himself. The
history of the French Huguenots, together with that of the great central