fully or impartially investigated.
Much of it being drawn from personal recollection or from unpublished
records, its solo value consists for us in its accuracy. I have
compared a small section of the work with the manuscript source used by
Foxe and have made the rather surprising discovery that though there
are wide variations, none of them can be referred to partisan bias or
to any other conceivable motive. In this instance, which is too small
to generalize, it is possible that Foxe either had supplementary
information, or that he wrote from a careless memory. In any case his
work must be used with caution.

[Sidenote: Knox]

Much superior to the work of Foxe was John Knox's _History of the
Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland_ (written
1559-71). In style it is rapid, with a rare gift for seizing the
essential and a no less rare humor and command of sarcasm. Its
intention to be "a faithful rehearsal of such personages as God has
made instruments of his glory," though thus equivocally stated, is
carried out in an honorable sense. It is true that the writer never
harbored a doubt that John Knox himself was the chiefest instrument of
God's glory, nor that "the Roman Kirk is the synagogue of Satan and the
head thereof, called the pope, that man of sin of whom the apostle
speaketh." If, in such an avowed apology, one does not get
impartiality, {587} neither is one misled by expecting it. Knox's
honor consists only in this that, as a party pamphleteer, he did not
falsify or suppress essential facts as he understood them himself.

[Sidenote: Bullinger]

In glaring contrast to Knox's obtrusive bias, is the fair appearance of
impartiality presented in Henry Bullinger's _History of the
Reformation_ 1519-32. Here, too, we meet with excellent composition,
but with a studied moderation of phrase. It is probable that the
author's professions of fairness are sincere, though at times the
temptation to omit recording unedifying facts, such as the
sacramentarian schism, is too strong for him.

[Sidenote: Sleidan]

Before passing judgment on anything it is necessary to know it at its
best. Probably John Sleidan's _Religious and political History of the
reign of Charles V_ [Sidenote: 1555] was the best work on the German
Reformation written before the eighteenth century. Bossuet was more
eloquent and acute, Seckendorf more learned, Gilbert Burnet had better
perspective, but, none of these writers was b