brings down the History from the days of the Apostles to his own time, concluding with the refutation of the Heresies of Father Berruyer. I have added a Supplementary Chapter, giving a succinct account of the Heretics and Fanatics of the last eighty years. It was, at first, my intention to make it more diffuse; but, then, I considered that it would be out of proportion with the remainder of the work. This book may be safely consulted as a work of reference: the Author constantly quotes his authorities and the student of Ecclesiastical History can at once compare his statements with the sources from which he draws. In the latter portion of the work, and especially in that portion of it the most interesting to us, the History of the English Reformation, the student may perceive some slight variations between the original text and my translation. I have collated the work with the writings of modern historians—the English portion, especially, with Hume and Lingard—and wherever I have seen the statements of the Holy Author not borne out by the authority of our own historians, I have considered it more prudent to state the facts, as they really took place; for our own writers must naturally be supposed to be better acquainted with our history, than the foreign authorities quoted by the Saint. The reader will also find the circumstances and the names of the actors, when I considered it necessary, frequently given more in detail than in the original.
In the style, I have endeavoured, as closely as the genius of our language will allow, to keep to the original. St. Alphonsus never sought for ornament; a clear, lucid statement of facts is what he aimed at; there is nothing inflated in his writings; he wrote for the people; and that is the principal reason, I imagine, why not only his Devo-
