Cambridge Modern History vol 1 & 2 - Renaissance and Reformation (Annotated)

- Annotated with further suggested reading and in-line links to additional web content

PREFACE to Volume 1
THE plan of this History, as is indicated on the title-page, was conceived and mapped out by the late Lord Acton. To him is due, in its main features, the division of the work into the volumes and chapters of which it consists; and it was at his request that most of the contributors agreed to take a specified part in the execution of his scheme. In the brief statement which follows, intended to set forth the principles on which that scheme is based, we have adhered scrupulously to the spirit of his design, and in more than one passage we have made use of his own words. We had hoped during the progress of this work to be encouraged by his approval, and perhaps to be occasionally aided by his counsel; but this hope has been taken away by an event, sudden at the last, which is deeply mourned by his University and by all students of history.
The aim of this work is to record, in the way most useful to the greatest number of readers, the fulness of knowledge in the field of modern history which the nineteenth century has bequeathed to its successor. The idea of a universal Modern History is not in itself new; it has already been successfully carried into execution both in France and Germany. But we believe that the present work may, without presumption, aim higher than its predecessors, and may seek to be something more than a useful compilation or than a standard work of reference.

Preface to Volume 2
IN accordance with the scheme of the Cambridge Modern History, this volume takes as its main subject a great movement, the Reformation, and follows this theme to a fitting close in its several divisions. No attempt is made to fix a single chronological limit for the whole range of European history. In international politics the battle of Marignano made an appropriate close to our first volume; the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis forms a still more conspicuous landmark for the conclusion of our second. The religious history of the Reformation period opens with the abortive Fifth Lateran Council, and Luther’s Theses follow close. Some sort of religious settlement was reached in Germany by the Treaty of Augsburg, in England by the great measures of Elizabeth, for the Roman Church by the close of the Council of Trent; and the latter two events are nearly contemporaneous with the death of Calvin. Before his death Calvin had done his work, and the Reformed Church was securely established. On the other hand, the Religious Wars in France had just begun. Further developments of Lutheranism and Calvinism are left to be treated in subsequent volumes.
In this period the scene of principal interest shifts from Italy to Germany and Central Europe. Geneva, very nearly the geographical centre of civilised Europe at the time, becomes also the focus of its most potent religious thought, supported by her like-minded neighbours, Zurich, Strassburg, Basel, and the free imperial cities of southern Germany. As the scene shifts, the main stream of European life broadens out and embraces more distant countries, Scotland, Scandinavia, Poland. The Turkish danger, though still a grave preoccupation to the rulers of eastern Europe, had been checked; and limits had been set to the Ottoman advance.