TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
The ardent wish manifested by the Faithful for an acquaintance with the valuable writings of St. Liguori, induced me to undertake the Translation of his History of Heresies, one of his greatest works. The Holy Author was induced to write this work, to meet the numbers of infidel publications with which Europe was deluged in the latter half of the last century. Men's minds were then totally unsettled; dazzled by the glare of a false philosophy, they turned away from the light of the Gospel. The heart of the Saint was filled with sorrow, and he laboured to avert the scourge he saw impending over the unfaithful people. He implored the Ministers of his Sovereign to put the laws in force, preventing the introduction of irreligious publications into the Kingdom of Naples; and he published this work, among others, to prove, as he says, that the Holy Catholic Church is the only true one—the Mistress of Truth—the Church, founded by Jesus Christ himself, which would last till the end of time, notwithstanding the persecutions of the infidel, and the rebellion of her own heretical children. He dedicates the book to the Marquis Tanucci, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, whom he praises for his zeal for religion, and his vigorous execution of the laws against the venders of infidel publications. He
