Excerpt from The History of the Popes, Vol. 2: From the Close of the Middle Ages, Drawn From the Secret Archives of the Vatican and Other Original Sources Professor Pastor's "History of the Popes form the close of the Middle Ages," comes to us with a singular and exceptional weight of authority. First, because of the ample encouragement conveyed by the brief of Leo XIII. when the first volume of the history was completed. Such letters of his Holiness do not, indeed, convey a critical approval of the work, but an abundant testimony to the fitness and learning of Dr. Pastor for the accomplishment of his undertaking. Secondly, because this history may be regarded as the first-fruits of the action of the Holy Father, which, a little time ago, so surprised the writers of anti-Catholic history. Lew XIII., as it will be remembered, addressed a letter to the five Cardinals whom he had appointed as a commission to oversee the publication of historical matters contained in the Vatican Archives. The Holy Father charged them to see that the history of the Holy See and of the Church should be written with absolute truth on the only just and imperishable principle that the historica veritas ought to be supreme, of which we have a divine example in Holy Writ, where the sins, even of Saints, are as openly recorded as the wickedness of sinners. 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.