resurrection-Henry de la Chastre, &c. &c."Such was the illustrious historian Thuanus.'

In the history of the Swiss reformation, besides the Works of Zwingle, (four volumes folio, Zuric, 1581,) and the scarce volume, "D. D. Joannis Ecolampadii et Huldrici Zwinglii Epistolarum libri quatuor, Basileæ, 1536," folio; I have chiefly followed Ruchat and Gerdes; consulting also the Historia Ecclesiastica of J. H. Hottinger, and the biographical accounts of Zwingle by Oswald Myconius, his contemporary and friend, and the modern writer J. G. Hess.

Of" Abraham Ruchat, M.D.S. E.," I am able to give little further account, than that he was a clergyman, professor of the belles lettres in the university of Lausanne; and that his "Histoire de la Réformation de la Suisse" was printed at Geneva, 1727-8, in six volumes, 12mo. It is a work highly esteemed on the continent, and is much referred to. It appears to have been compiled with great care from the best authorities, both printed and manuscript-of which the author gives an account in his preface, pp. xxi-xxviii. It is written upon good principles, and, as will appear from some passages quoted, with a becoming spirit of piety. I shall here add an extract from the preface, both for the sentiments which it contains, and to illustrate the principles and temper of the author. "I have endeavoured to write with all possible impartiality. But by impartiality I do not understand an indifference to religion nor do I think that this virtue consists in writing with such coldness, as leaves the reader

1 My notice of him is drawn from his Life by the Rev. John Collinson, Svo, London, 1807: which again is derived chiefly from the collections respecting him, annexed to the above-mentioned edition of his history.

at a loss to divine what the religion of the historian is. I think that an honest man ought never to dissemble his religion, or to be backward to speak according to its principles; if only he does it with temper. For example, when the ancient historians of the church spoke of the propagation of the gospel throughout the world, I doubt not that the Pagans esteemed them partial: but where is the Christian who thinks them blameable on that ground? So, for my own part, I am a reformed Christian, and a minister of the evangelical profession: I am of this religion not only through the privilege of my birth, but from knowing the grounds of it, and without a blind obstinacy. I regard the Romish religion as an idolatrous one, or rather (with many learned moderns,) as a confused mass of vain superstitions-at once puerile and dangerous; and as a faction, which supports itself only by ignorance and self-interest, by violence and fraud. The reformation, on the contrary, I regard as the most precious boon which God has ever granted to my country since the first introduction of Christianity into it. I can speak of these subjects in no other tone or language than this. If this is called partiality, I cannot help it. I believe that I ought not either to think otherwise, or to disguise my sentiments. -But, under the indulgence of the critics, I am of opinion, that genuine historic impartiality consists in the observance of the two following rules 1. To report facts with entire fidelity, without suppressing or dissembling any thing through favour for the party espoused, and without overcharging, adding, or altering any thing to prejudice the opposite party: for it frequently, and indeed generally, happens that the single circumstance of more or less," some apparently

trifling addition or subduction in the narrative, "alters the whole character of an action.-The second rule is, to speak of opponents with moderation and, with respect to them, to abstain from all bitterness, and from every injurious and offensive expression.-Whenever a Roman-catholic historian observes these two rules, I regard him as sincere and impartial: and such is the character which the illustrious president de Thou has gained for himself, by observing them in his noble history . . . This is what I flatter myself I have done in the following work. I can perfectly well distinguish between the persons of Roman catholics and their religion, and render to honourable men, such as there are among them, the justice which is their due. I can also distinguish between protestants and the religion they profess; report their faults with fidelity, and blame them without ceremony when I think they deserve it. But I feel myself at liberty also to defend them, though with calmness, when they appear to me to be unjustly censured. This is what I consider as the second rule.-With respect to the first, my readers may rest assured that I religiously observe what the truth of history demands. Truth is the very soul of historic writing. Without it, it is not a history, but a romance. write a romance and give it the name of a history is the proceeding of a dishonest man—especially when it is done with a malicious design: it is a criminal tissue of lying, of which an account must be rendered to the great Judge of the world. Persuaded of this truth, I have always written as one that must another day be answerable for whatever has passed his pen."-These are the sentiments of good sense, of genuine protestantism, and of true Christianity; and it is

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deeply to be lamented, that, in this "enlightened age, so many should have widely departed from some of them.

Daniel Gerdesius, or Gerdes, was a professor of divinity at Groningen. He was born at Bremen in 1698, and died in 1765. He was the author of several learned works, of which it may suffice here to mention two, "Historia Reformationis, sive Annales Evangelii seculo xvi passim per Europam renovati, Doctrinæque reformatæ," four volumes 4to, Groningen, 1744-1752; and "Scrinium Antiquarium, sive Miscellanea Groningana nova, ad historiam Reformatæ Ecclesiæ præcipue spectantia"-a very curious collection, likewise in four volumes 4to, Groningen and Bremen, 1749 -1765. The former is the work referred to in this volume. It is learned and accurate, and contains much important matter and many valuable documents; but is dry: and, like most of my other authorities, it has rather wearied and embarrassed me, by the constantly recurring review, to which the form of annals naturally leads, of the progress of the reformation in the several states of the Helvetic republic, instead of the comprehensive digest of the whole.

The name of Hottinger is common to two writers, a father and son, who both treat of subjects connected with our history. The former, John Henry Hottinger, a learned orientalist and divine, was born at Zuric in 1620, and drowned, with part of his family, in 1667, when setting out for Leyden, to take possession of a professorship which he had been allowed by his country to accept in that city. Among many other works he wrote "Historia Ecclesiastica Novi Testamenti,' in nine volumes 8vo. The sixth, seventh, and eighth, which I have had occasion to use, were

printed at Zuric, 1665-1667. He has preserved many valuable documents; but he rather collects materials for a history, than is at the pains to compose one.

John James Hottinger, the son, was, like his father, a professor at Zuric: born 1652, died 1735. His Ecclesiastical History of Switzerland, in the German language, ("Helvetische Kirchen-Geschichten,") three volumes 4to, Zuric, 16981707, appears to be a very valuable work. The last volume extends from the year 1515 to 1700, and, of course, details the history of the Swiss reformation. But this work I have never been able to procure-a disadvantage to which I have perhaps more patiently submitted, from the consideration that I should have needed the assistance of an interpreter to make me acquainted with its contents; and under which I have been consoled by the hope, that, from the closeness with which Ruchat appears to follow this author, I have in his volumes every thing most valuable to be found in the other. I shall here transcribe Ruchat's observation on J. J. Hottinger's History. "This work must have cost the illustrious author an infinity of research; and I think it well deserves to be translated into some language more generally understood. To the third volume my references are perpetual; and I acknowledge that I have drawn more from it than from all other books taken together."

The

With Myconius the reader will become acquainted as we proceed. His brief biography of Zwingle is prefixed to the Letters of Ecolampadius and Zwingle, already mentioned. modern Life of Zwingle by J. G. Hess was written in French, during the rule of Bonaparte. My copy is an English translation by Miss Lucy