more recent, but much less technical, work by another specialist,
Roland H. Bainton, The Travail of Religious Liberty ( Philadelphia,
1951). One of the rare and valuable comprehensive studies is
that of W. K. Jordan on the development of tolerance in England
between 1550 and 1660: The Development of Religious Toleration in
England ( London, 1932- 1940, 4 vols.). It is based on much
research into a vast polemical literature of which only some out-
standing features were previously known.

The other, more general, attempts are too summary in treat-
ment. Even if they go beyond the over-simplified and caricature-
like idea of opposing 'tolerant' and 'intolerant' as the 'sheep' and
the 'goats' at Doomsday, they treat only superficially of the
political and theological theses of the various controversial
writings. A few are of some value, however. Among these are the
volume produced by Francesco Ruffini, La Libertà religiosa
(Tome I, the only one published, Turin, 1901), and the study
by Monet-Maury on the Liberté de conscience en France depuis l'Édit
de Nantes jusqu'd la Séparation ( 2nd edn., Paris, 1909). On the
other hand, the Histoire de la Tolérance religieuse of A. Matagrin
( Paris, 1905) calls only for passing mention.

In topical works on religious freedom and tolerance, the
history of the subject is usually considered. There are sound
remarks on this aspect in the excellent treatise of A. Vermeersch,
La Tolérance ( 2nd edn., Paris, 1922), in the psychological and
sociological essay of J. Mispelblom Meyer, Tolerantie en Fanatisme.
Een studie over verdraagzaamheid ( Arnhem, 1948), and in the general
study of Searle Bates, Religious Liberty. An Enquiry ( New York,
1945). But in these works history is studied merely in a subsidiary
way, in order to introduce a doctrinal or sociological study.

I believe, therefore, that some historical research work on
tolerance--beyond the scope of a monograph, yet limited to a
clearly defined period--will be useful to theologians of our time.
It may also enrich general history by treating it from a new
point of view. With that aim in view I have, after many years
of preparatory labour, written this present work. I have chosen
the century of the Reformation. The break-up of medieval
Christianity indeed created, in a singularly acute way, the prob-
lem of religious pluralism within the State. In the sixteenth
century not only the Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinist, and
Anglican denominations clashed, both with each other and with

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