MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO Reformation in England An Historical Survey BY JAMES GAIRDNER, C.B. HON. LL.D. EDIN. VOL. I MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED PREFACE It is now some years since I was asked by my friend Dr. Hunt, now President of the Royal Historical Society, on behalf of himself and the late Dean Stephens of Winchester, to contribute a volume to the English Church History planned by them, dealing with the first half of the sixteenth century down to the death of Mary. Interesting as the task assigned to me was, I confess I shrank from it at first, feeling that anything like adequate treatment of it, in the light of new materials and evidences better arranged than they had been, made demands upon my leisure which it was doubtful whether I had a right to concede while still engaged in other work, which I could not delay or set aside. Moreover, I knew too well not only that it was no holiday task, though it could perhaps be pursued at intervals, but that the result would certainly be to present many things in a very different light from that in which they had been hitherto regarded. Nor was it, perhaps, altogether encouraging that the plan of publication hardly admitted of elaborate justification of these views, or even of specific citation of authorities for separate statements. Yet I was anxious to say, within the V |