PREFACE THE use of original sources in the teaching of mediæval history is still hampered by the scarcity of material adapted to the needs of the student. This situation is sufficient excuse for the publication of a new book of translations of important mediaval documents, if such a book does more than reedit old material-if it presents, along with the usual and familiar sources, documents not elsewhere translated or brings together documents not otherwise easily accessible. We believe the present work does that, and that it also makes the use of this material more practicable by giving fuller notes and explanations than has usually been attempted. Our purpose in general has been to present material touching only what may be called the most important matters (persons, events, movements, institutions, and conditions) of the whole medieval period. We have not tried to make a complete source-book for the period, but only to offer in usable form illustrative material which may be of service to both teacher and student in general or information courses. Each document is meant to illustrate or illumine one particular thing. While it may throw light on many other things, the teacher should be warned not to attempt to deduce from these few documents the whole history and life of the Middle Age. We are fully aware that in the choice of documents we shall not please all. Many of the documents here given are clearly essential and must be found in such a book as we have tried to make. Concerning all such there can be no question. As to the others, there are hundreds of documents which would serve our purpose quite as well as those we have used, perhaps even better. In making our selections we have been guided by a great variety of considerations which it would be useless to enumerate. While another would have made a different selection, we believe that the documents which we present really illustrate the matter in question, and therefore will be found satisfactory. With this we shall be quite content. The necessity of selection has also led us to omit the political history of France and England. We felt that we could properly leave out English documents, because there are already several excellent collections |