TO THE READER. AFTER six years of ceaseless labor the translators and editors of Dr. Alzog's Universal Church IIistory have the satisfaction of presenting the work complete to their subscribers and to the general public. They feel confident that they have not only redeemed their plighted faith with their kind patrons, but given them a great deal more than they had first intended to do. Their work is not a mere rendition of the original text, but a homogeneous enlargement, suited to the wants of the civilized world, now headed by the Englishspeaking community. Whilst the revered German author, the late Dr. Alzog, was followed with scrupulous fidelity throughout the work, and his own amendments down to our own day faithfully embodied in this volume, a due regard to the ninety millions of English-speaking Christians required a fuller and more independent treatment of our own ecclesiastical affairs, and hence the Church History of America, Great Britain, and Ireland, and the history of the Vatican Council, and of Christian Missions, both Catholic and Protestant, had to be rewritten. As in the two preceding volumes, so also in this, synoptical tables of the leading events and of Councils were added to the original. As to an essential improvement upon the original we point to the Ecclesiastical Maps, gratuitously superadded to the Manual of Universal Church History. Ten months of patient labor on the part of the constructor and engraver of the maps were required for their completion. The maps, subordinate one to the other, are not only illustrative of the present manual, but, moreover, supply welcome information to every (vii) student of ecclesiastical history, geography, and statistics. The information concerning the hierarchical organization of the Catholic World is absolutely complete; the localities of all the higher educational establishments of the Catholic Church in America, and of the universities in Europe, have been carefully pointed out; and the circumscription of all the dioceses of North America has been accurately traced. Want of space, however, precluded the possibility of being equally full in giving similar information concerning other parts of the world. It will be seen that foreign missions, both Catholic and Protestant, have received such attention in these maps as the paramount importance of the subject obviously demands. The latest edition of the Gerarchia Cattolica (Rome, 1878); the American Catholic Almanac of 1878; James Neher's Ecclesiastical Geography and Statistics; Dr. Grundemann's General Missionary Atlas; A. K. Johnston's National Atlas of Geography, Black's Modern Atlas, and Gray's Atlas of the United States, besides many other sources of information have been extensively used in the preparation of these hierarchical, hiero-scholastic, and Christian Missionary Maps. The topography of the "Orthodox" Greek Church is complete for all countries except the Turkish Empire; and even there, seventy-two sees out of ninety-three in Turkey Proper in Europe, and the patriarchates, with the chief metropolitan sees in Turkey in Asia, have been located. The number of bishoprics belonging to each patriarchate has also been given. Of the Protestant Episcopal sees some are indicated in the maps, and the remainder given in the table at p. 1092. The Catholic sees whose suppression was occasioned by the Reformation have also been specified. THE TRANSLATORS. SYNOPTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS ? 299. Luther's Manifest against Indulgences-His First Adversaries...... 300. Negotiation between Rome and Luther-Disputation at Leipsig- 334. General Causes of the Kapid Spread of Protestantism................ |