The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
At the present time the attention, not only of CathoHcs, but
of the whole world, is more than ever directed to the Holy
See, which stands out as the one solid rock amid the subversive
and anarchical tendencies of our day. For the proper under-
standing of this, the most ancient, yet still so vigorous inter-
national power, it is above all necessary fully to understand
her historical development. To set this forth, since the close
of the Middle Ages, in accordance with the facts drawn from
the best authorities, and in the most objective form possible,
is the task to which I have set myself. For the latter half
of the XVIth century I have had to make use of unpublished
documents to an even greater extent than in the preceding
volumes, since the subject which had to be treated in man}'
ways resembled fallow land, which has first to be broken up
with the plough before its actual cultivation can be begun.
I have been actively occupied in procuring, examining and
preparing all the documents available in Archives, and also
in taking the fullest advantage of the immense amount of
literature which is to be found in so many publications. The
material increased to such an extent in this method of dealing
with it that the original plan of uniting the closely related
pontificates of Pius IV. and Pius V. had to be abandoned, and
a division made. Both volumes were almost completed when
the international war broke out and rendered their publication
impossible. The literature which has since appeared, though
not amounting to very much, has been added.
The dedication of the present volume to the eminent
historian of the Council of Trent may serve as a remem-
brance of the twenty-five years which we spent in the Eternal
City in close fraternal research and happy mutual labour in
the same field. It is also, however, an expression of gratitude
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