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THE favourable reception which this work has experienced from the author's friends and the public, having encouraged him to present it a second time at the bar of their tribunal, it now makes its appearance in a somewhat less imperfect state than it originally did. A careful revision has suggested the necessity of correcting some inaccuracies which had escaped his notice, both in point of style and of historical fact; a few paragraphs which upon more mature consideration appeared not so immediately connected with the subject, have been removed and their places supplied with more interesting occurrences; but the additional information now introduced is so copious that it would be no easy task to specify it in detail, even in a general way. It may however be remarked that, in ch. ii. sect. 3. the narrative of the persecution at Carthage, and the account of Origen;-a considerable part of ch. iii.. sect. 4.-with the APPENDIX to that chapter; the note respecting Charlemagne, p. 377, together with much of the third, and the whole of the fourth section of ch. iv. are additions to that part of the work which constitutes the first

volume. In the second, the augmentations are still more ample; and it is chiefly in reference to them that the author grounds his opinion of the superior value of the present edition. Concise, and consequently imperfect, as was the narrative of the Waldenses contained in the former edition, he has been gratified at finding that it excited an unusual degree of interest in the minds of Christians of every denomination; and the anxiety expressed by many to be as fully informed as possible concerning this remarkable people, whose memory the lapse of a century was rapidly sinking into oblivion, has stimulated him to spare no pains or exertions to gratify this laudable curiosity. Since its first publication the author has availed himself of every source of information within his reach; and those who are at the pains to compare the two editions will at least give him credit for some portion of industry in research, whatever may be their opinion of his judgment and skill in the disposition of his materials. From the elaborate works of SLEIDAN and THUANUS, he has been enabled to enrich his narrative with several valuable extracts, illustrative of the history of the Waldenses in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The whole of the eighth section of ch. v. in which is sketched the history of Wickliff, Huss, and Jerome; of the Lollards, and Bohemian brethren, now first makes its appearance in this work. The same may be remarked concerning ch. vi. sect. 3. in which a view of the dreadful cruelties inflicted

Preface to the Second Edition.

xvii

on the friends of reform, particularly in Spain and the Netherlands, about the middle of the sixteenth century, is now introduced, chiefly for the sake of keeping alive the reader's attention to the spirit and operation of the inquisition. And should it appear to any, that this section is a digression from the history of the Waldenses, the author flatters himself that he shall find some apology for its introduction, in the aspect of the present times—the revival of the lately expiring cause of antichrist-the restoration of the Society of the Jesuits--and the recent persecution of the Protestants in the south of France. For although the cause of civil and religious liberty never had a more decided friend, however much he may rejoice to think that it has had many abler advocates; and though he trusts he shall never act the inconsistent part of wishing to deprive a Catholic of any right or privilege which he would be disposed to claim for himself; yet he considers it perfectly congenial with this, to do every thing in his power, consistent with truth and by an impartial statement of facts, to inculcate upon his fellowprotestants a due consideration of the persecuting spirit of Popery-and to warn them of the insidious artifices of all the Jesuitical emissaries of the court of Rome. If the Catholics of the present day can vindicate their forefathers from the black catalogue of crimes, with which they stand charged in the following pages, the press is fairly open to them, and no one will rejoice in witVOL. I..

nessing their exculpation more than the author of these volumes. He fears, however, that it is now too late to make the attempt with the smallest hope of success.

Towards the close of the second volume, several additional letters of our great Milton's are now given, to complete the series of his StatePapers relative to the Waldenses; the narrative of their extirpation from the vallies of Piedmont is greatly enlarged; and an Appendix of fifty pages is also subjoined, containing authentic copies of the Duke of Savoy's edicts for their expulsion, and his correspondence with the court of France which had compelled him to the sanguinary proceedings that issued in the ruin of his Protestant subjects, with various other interesting documents that were deemed of sufficient importance to be rescued from oblivion. And upon the whole, though the author is fully sensible that numerous imperfections still attend this work, and that much remains to be done before it can be considered as at all worthy of the subject, he contents himself with the persuasion that he has achieved something towards it; and that, imperfect as it is, the friends of truth and genuine Christianity may learn more of its real history from these volumes than from any other work in our language.

PENTONVILLE,

January 25, 1816.

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