The opening of Preface
With this volume we complete the publication of the work of M. Merle d'Aubigné on the history of the Reformation. The ten volumes published by the author himself and the three posthumous volumes are the fruit of his long labors, begun in 1817, and continued almost uninterruptedly until 1872.
It was in 1817, immediately after his ordination to the ministry, and in the course of a visit to Germany undertaken to perfect his theological studies, that M. Merle d'Aubigné conceived the project of writing this history. Germany was at that time celebrating at Eisenach the third centenary of the Reformation. The people were in a state of great excitement. Humiliated by long-continued oppression and irritated by severe suffering, Germany, which had so long been the theatre and the victim of the sanguinary wars of the Empire, had at length risen with an impetuous energy and a fervor of feeling which were irresistible, and had powerfully contributed to the overthrow of the imperial warrior who had appeared to be invincible.