This volume has been prepared at the suggestion of the American Society of Church History, and valuable suggestions have been gained from the discussions of that society. To Professor W. W. Rockwell, of Union Theological Seminary, New York, Professor F. A. Christie, of Meadville Theological School, the late Professor Samuel Macauley Jackson, of New York, and Professor Ephraim Emerton, of Harvard University, I have also been indebted for advice. The first two named were members with me of a committee on a Source-Book for Church History appointed several years ago by the American Society of Church History.
That the book now presented to the public may be of service to the teacher and student of ecclesiastical history is my sincere wish. It may easily happen that no one else would make just the same selection of sources here made. But it is probable that the principal documents, those on which the majority would agree and which are most needed by the teacher in his work, are included among those presented. There are, no doubt, slips and defects in a book written at intervals in a teacher's work. With the kind co-operation of those who detect them, they may be corrected when an opportunity occurs.
General Bibliographical Note
Under each period special collections of available sources are to be found. The student is not given any bibliography of works bearing on the topics, but is referred to the following accessible works of reference of recent date for additional information and bibliographies:
The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge, edited by S. M. Jackson, New York, 1908-12.
The Catholic Encyclopædia, New York, 1907-12.
The Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, Cambridge, 1910.
The Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, edited by J. Hastings, Edinburgh and New York, 1908 ff. (In course of publication.)