Original documents in which the causes, motives, or results of great historical movements have been crystallized, at least partially. We say partially; for it would be a grave error to consider any one historic document as having been penned with perfect sincerity. Yet, with all the shortcomings of historic documents, there still remains in many of them something of that "atmosphere" which was perhaps the real moving force of the events or institutions recorded in the documents. The documents have been left in their original languages; that is, in Latin, Greek, English, French, German and Dutch. The present work comprises the Middle Ages, and with regard to some documents relating to Christianity, even the fourth century A.D., and modern times up to 1871. Emil Reich, J.D., was the author of Foundations of Modern Europe and a number of other works on history.