Excerpt from General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. 4: Comprising the Fifth Volume of the Original I here present to the public the first part of the history of that important period, so rich in materials, the flourishing times of the Middle Ages thanking God that he has enabled me to bring this laborious work to an end, while engaged in discharging the duties of a difficult calling. I must beg the learned reader would have the goodness to suspend his judg ment respecting the arrangement and distribution of the matter till the whole shall be completed. Notwithstanding that M. H in his recension of the two pre ceding volumes, in the literary leaves of the Darmstadt Church Gazette, has expressed himself so strongly, I have still thought proper, in this volume also, to incorporate the history of Monachism with that of the church constitution. No one, doubtless, except M. H will believe me to be so childish or so stupid as to have done this merely because it is customary to speak also of a constitution of Monachism. The reasons which have induced me to adopt the plan I have chosen, will readily present themselves to the attentive reader; though I am free to confess that another arrangement is possible, and that the reference to the Christian life is made prominent by me in the second section also, as it belongs indeed to the special point of view from which I write my Church History. I should have many things to answer to the above-mentioned reviewer, if the judgment of a reviewer were really anything more than the judgment of any other reader or non-reader. That the remark concerning Claudius of Turin was neither unimportant nor superfluous, every one may easily convince himself, who takes the least interest in a thorough scientific understanding of the history of doctrines. As to my theological position, I demand for that the condescending tolerance of no man, but shall know very well how to defend it on scientific grounds. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.