It remains to say a few words about my own part in the present work. I have not included all of Luther's extant letters, but have omitted a few which were either unimportant or repetitious or which were already translated in my Life and Letters of Martin Luther The original of the greater part of the epistles is Latin, and may be understood to be so when not otherwise stated. Other letters from the Ger man, English, Greek, Italian and Spanish have been included, the original language being duly stated in every case. I have not translated directly from the Italian and Spanish, but have used either the English version offered by Bergenroth and Brown in the Calendars of State Papers, where available, or else have retranslated from the German of Kalko? despatches relating to Luther written from the Diet of Worms. When convenient, I have, however, compared my transla tion with the original. Adopting Luther's own wise principle (see below, ep. No. I have not tried to give a slavishly literal rendering; I trust that I have never altered the sense or the Spirit of my original, but the means employed have been such as were, in my judgment and according to my powers, the best adapted to reproduce in our idiom the liter ary quality, ?avor and effect of the document in question. The fact that in some cases, particularly in Bucer's letters, the text is uncertain and the phrasing at times ungrammatical, has given me the more justification for rather drastic treat ment.