PREFACE. V.3 WE take pleasure in congratulating Rev. Doctor Pabisch, President of St. Mary's Seminary, and Rev. Thomas S. Byrne, on the completion of their great work, the translation into English of the Manual of Universal Church History, by Rev. Dr. John Alzog, Professor of Theology in the University of Freiburg, Brisgan, Baden. The "Additions" and Notes appended to this confessedly great work by our American translators give it, in the judgment of Catholic and non Catholic readers and scholars, a character of originality, and stamp it as worthy of taking rank with the best productions on the important subject of which it treats, and of supplying a want which, we say it with due reverence, our best historians, or biographers, or hagiographers have, for various reasons and circumstances, left unsatisfied. IIe It has been unwisely said that an historian, in order to be truthful, just, and reliable, should have neither country nor religion, or that he should be entirely free from prejudice. As well might it be exacted, that he should not be a human being. A Catholic is required by his holy faith to be just and truthful in all his dealings with his fellow man. knows that his religion, the work of God, has no need of the support or advocacy of falsehood, which it spurns and condemus. The inspired writers of the Old and New Testament have set Church Historians the example, which they follow, of stating the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth-no suppression, no concealment, no reticence. If we disclaim the guidance of writers of the highest note, when we detect them perverting the facts of history, or seeking to substitute for them their own opinions or fancies, their errors |