Publisher's Synopsis
This is a two volume set. This is volume 1 Volume 1 covers heresies from the first to the sixteenth century, even touching briefly on the heresy of Islam. Mohammed "composed the Koran, assisted, as some think, by Sergi us, a monk. It is a collection of precepts, taken from the Mosaic and Christian Law, together with many of his own, and interspersed with fables and ridiculous revelations. He recognizes the Divine Mission of Moses and Jesus Christ, and admits many parts of the Scriptures; but his law, he says, is the perfection of the Jewish and Christian law, and he is the reformer of these codes, though, in truth, it is totally different from both one and the other." Volume 2 begins with the schism of England under Henry VIII and continues through the sixteenth century heresies to Saint Alphonsus' own time. A supplementary chapter has been added, which even considers Mormonism. Then commences the refutation of heresies. This volumes closes with an exhortation to Catholics, which begins: "Leave heretics in their wilful blindness-I mean wilful when they wish to live deceived-and pay no attention to the fallacies by which they would deceive you. Hold on by the sure and firm anchor of the Catholic Church, through which God has promised to teach us the true faith." The Holy Author was induced to write this work, to meet the numbers of infidel publications, with which Europe was deluged in the latter half of the last century. men's minds were then totally unsettled; dazzled by the glare of a false philosophy, they turned away from the light of the Gospel. The heart of the Saint was filled with sorrow, and he laboured to avert the scourge he saw impending over the unfaithful people. He implored the Ministers of his Sovereign to put the laws in force, preventing the introduction of irreligious publications into the Kingdom of Naples; and he published this work, among others, to prove, as he says, that the Holy Catholic Church is the only true one-the Mistress of Truth-the Church, founded by Jesus Christ himself, which would last to the end of time, notwithstanding the persecutions of the infidel, and the rebellion of her own heretical children. He dedicates the book to the Marquis Tanucci, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom, whom he praises for his zeal for Religion, and his vigorous execution of the laws against the vendors of infidel publications. He brings down the History from the days of the Apostles to his own time, concluding with the Refutation of the Heresies of Father Berruyer. I have added a Supplementary Chapter, giving it succinct account of the Heretics and Fanatics of the last eighty years. It was, at first, my intention to make it more diffuse; but, then, I considered that it would be out of proportion with the remainder of the work. This nook may be safely consulted, as a work of reference: the Author constantly quotes his authorities; and the Student of Ecclesiastical History can at once compare his statements with the sources from which he draws. In the latter portion of the work, and especially in that portion of it, the most interesting to us, the History of the English Reformation, the Student may perceive some slight variations between the original text and my translation. I have collated the work with the writings of modern Historians-the English portion, especially with Hume and Lingard-and wherever I have seen the statements of the Holy Author not borne out by the authority of our own Historians, I have considered it more prudent to state the facts, as they really took place; for our own writers must naturally be supposed to be better acquainted with our History, than the foreign authorities quoted by the Saint. The reader will also find the circumstances, and the names of the actors, when I considered it necessary, frequently given more in detail than in the original.
