Preface
These Lectures have, in substance, been delivered on Sabbath evenings from a provincial pulpit by Lecturers who are ministers of the same branch of our Scottish Church, and graduates of the same University. It was deemed seasonable, as the five hundredth anniversary of the death of Wyclif was approaching, thus to commemorate the service which he and his successors rendered to spiritual Christianity, and to the cause of civil and religious liberty.
The selection made from among the Reformers was determined by the desire to trace the general history of the Reformation, from its distant beginnings in Wyclif and Hus, down to its accomplishment by Luther and its formulation by Calvin, taking account by the way of kindred upheavals as represented by Savonarola, and of the influence of the Renaissance as represented by Erasmus; and then to sketch the peculiar history of the Scottish Reformation from its earlier and later precursors, through its two most illustrious martyrs, to its consummation under John Knox.
Each Lecturer, in dealing with the subject assigned to him, has been left free to select his standpoint and method of treatment, and is responsible only for his own lecture.
St. James’ Manse,
Paisley, 8th December, 1884.
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