The Latin Works

of

Huldreich Zwingli

Translated for the late

Samuel Macauley Jackson

and Published under the Auspices of the

American Society of Church History

Volume Two

Edited, with Introductions and Notes, by

William John Hinke

With a Preface by

William Walker Rockwell

Philadelphia

The Heidelberg Press

1922

Copyright, 1922

by the

American Society of Church History

Preface

EFFORTS to publish the Latin works of Zwingli in English translations have extended over a number of years. In 1908, the Rev. Prof. Samuel Macauley Jackson, D.D., of New York University, offered translations of certain Latin works of Zwingli in Ms. form to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in the United States, convened at York, Pennsylvania, for publication. The offer was referred to a special committee, consisting of the Rev. Drs. Good and Richards and of the Elders Loucks, Siebert and Wood. They were instructed “to make special efforts to carry the proposal into execution.”1 At the next meeting of the General Synod of the Reformed Church, held in 1911, at Canton, Ohio, the committee reported that, owing to their failure to secure a sufficient number of advance subscribers, they felt unable to proceed, but that Dr. Jackson himself would publish these works in a different form, for which undertaking he asked the co-operation of the General Synod.2

In September, 1912, the first volume of this series left the press. The page proof had been read by Dr. Jackson; but he died at Washington, Connecticut, on the second of August, 1912, a month before the bound copies were delivered.

In a circular issued by Messrs. G. P. Putnam’s Sons and signed by Dr. Jackson, under the date of March 29, 1912, he had announced: “The undersigned has made arrangements that in case his own editorial labors should be interfered with by invalidism or death, the work will be brought to completion under the supervision of the American Society of Church History and under the immediate direction of the Secretary of this Society, the Rev. Professor Wm. Walker Rockwell.”

At its annual meeting in December, 1912, the American Society of Church History took action recorded in the following extract from its minutes: “The Society gave its formal approval to the plan of the late Dr. Jackson as laid down in the circular which he issued in March, 1912, concerning the continuance of the publication of the translation of the Latin Works, etc. of Zwingli, under the auspices of this Society and under the editorship of its present Secretary. It was, however, voted that this should not be considered a publication of the Society, as in that case the Constitution would demand its free distribution to all members. It was further voted that the Society should assume no financial responsibility whatever for the undertaking.”1 Had the Society possessed an endowment, it would have been able to act with greater freedom.

Dr. Jackson’s executors, Professor George T. Jackson, M.D., and Frederick W. Jackson, Esq., brother and nephew ...