PREFACE. IX
On removing to the Western Theological seminary, the author found its librarian, Professor James A. Kelso, most ready to fill up the shelves of the mediaeval department so that it now possesses all the more im portant works both original and secondary. To the librarians of the two Roman Catholic libraries of Cincinnati and to other librarians the author is indebted for the courtesy of the free use of their collections.
An explanation is due for devoting an entire volume to the middle period of the Middle Ages, 1050-1294, when it was the intention of Dr. Philip Schaff to embrace it and the third period of the Middle Ages, 1294-1517, in a single volume. It is doubtful whether Dr. Schaff, after proceeding with his studies, would have thought it wise to attempt to execute his original purpose. However this might have been, to have confined the treatment of 500 years to the limits of a single volume would have meant to do a relative injustice and, in the light of recent study, to have missed a proper proportion. To the first 600 years, 1-590, the HISTORY devotes three volumes. Dr. Schaff intended to devote three volumes to the Protestant Reformation, two of which he lived to prepare. The intervening 900 years deserve an equal amount of space. The period covered by this volume is of great importance. Here belong the Cru sades, the rejuvenation of monasticisrn by the mendicant orders, the development of the canon law, the rise of the universities, the determined struggles of the papacy with the empire, the development of the Inquisi tion, the settlement of the sacramental system, and some of the most notable characters the Christian Church has produced. No one can fully understand the spirit and doctrinal system of the Roman communion without knowing this period. Nor can any one, without such knowl edge, fully understand the meaning of the Protestant Reformation, for the Reformation was a protest against the mediaeval theology and mediae val practices. The best evidence for the truth of the latter statement is found in the work of the learned Dominican Denifle, entitled Luther und Lutherihum, and the Protestant rejoinders to its assaults.
A partial list of the more modern works show the amount of study that has recently been spent upon this period. Among the great collections of mediaeval documents, besides the older ones by Mabillon, Muratori, and Migne, are the MONUMENTA GERMANIC, intended to give an ex haustive collection of mediaeval German writers, the series of collections of the papal documents called the RKGKSTA, edited by Jaffe', Potthast, Auvray, Berger, and others, the CHARTULARIUM UNIVERSITATIS PARI- SIENSIS, a collection of documents edited by Denifle and Chatelain of the highest importance for the study of the university system, the RECUEIL DES HISTORIENS DBS CROiSADES, the remarkable collection of mediaeval sacred poetry edited by Dreves and Blume filling about 15 volumes, the Boehmer-Friedberg edition of the Canon Law, and the Rolls Series, con taining the writers of mediaeval England. To such works must be added the new editions of Schoolmen, Albertus Magnus by Borgnet,
X PREFACE.
Bonaventura by Peltier, Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, and the editions of such writers as Cresar of Heisterbach, De Voragine, Salimbene, and Etienne de Bourbon. Among the recent students who have made a specialty of this period are Giesebrecht, Gregorovius, Scheffer-Boichorst, Karl Miiller, Hauck, Deutsch, Lempp, and other Protestants of Germany, and among German Catholic scholars Dollinger, Father Denifle, Ehrle, Knopfler, Schwane, Schulte, Funk, arid Felder. In France we have R£musat, Haureau, Chevalier, Vacandard, Sabatier, Alphande'ry. In England and America, we have Dr. Henry Charles Lea, wrho deserves to be mentioned first, the late Bp. Stubbs, R. L. Poole, Rashdall, Bridges, the editors of the Rolls Series, such as Brewer and Luard, and Prof. D. C. Munro, O. T. Thatcher, and Shailer Mathews.
Except in rare cases, the quotations are taken from the original works, whether they were written in the Middle Ages or are modern discussions. An exception is the History of the City of Rome by Gregorovius. It has required severe discipline to check the inclination to extend the notes to a far greater length than they have been carried, especially in such chap ters as those on the sacramental system and the Schoolmen. In the tables of literature, the more important modern works have at times been indicated by a star, *.
In the preparation of the volume for the press, efficient aid has been rendered by the Rev. David E. Culley, fellow and tutor in the Western Theological seminary, whose literary and historical tastes and sober judgment have been confirmed by studies abroad.
The second part of this volume, carrying the history from Boniface VIII. to the Reformation, is in an advanced stage of preparation.
In closing, the author indulges the hope that Dr. Philip Schaff's spirit of toleration may be found permeating this volume, and its gen eral historic judgments to be such as Dr. Schaif himself would have expressed.