E-text prepared by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/sourcebookofmedi00oggfuoft Transcriber's note: Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). A SOURCE BOOK OF MEDIAEVAL HISTORY Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance Edited by FREDERIC AUSTIN OGG, A.M. Assistant in History in Harvard University and Instructor in Simmons College [Illustration] New York .:. Cincinnati .:. Chicago American Book Company Copyright, 1907, by Frederic Austin Ogg Entered at Stationers' Hall, London W. P. 4 PREFACE This book has been prepared in consequence of a conviction, derived from some years of teaching experience, (1) that sources, of proper kind and in carefully regulated amount, can profitably be made use of by teachers and students of history in elementary college classes, in academies and preparatory schools, and in the more advanced years of the average high school, and (2) that for mediaeval history there exists no published collection which is clearly adapted to practical conditions of work in such classes and schools. It has seemed to me that a source book designed to meet the requirements of teachers and classes in the better grade of secondary schools, and perhaps in the freshman year of college work, ought to comprise certain distinctive features, first, with respect to the character of the selections presented, and, secondly, in regard to general arrangement and accompanying explanatory matter. In the choice of extracts I have sought to be guided by the following considerations: (1) that in all cases the materials presented should be of real value, either for the historical information contained in them or for the more or less indirect light they throw upon mediaeval life or conditions; (2) that, for the sake of younger students, a relatively large proportion of narrative (annals, chronicles, and biography) be introduced and the purely documentary material be slightly subordinated; (3) that, despite this principle, documents of vital importance, such as _Magna Charta_ and _Unam Sanctam_, which cannot be ignored in even the most hasty or elementary study, be presented with some fulness; and (4) that, in general, the rule should be to give longer passages from fewer sources, rather than more fragmentary ones from a wider range.