DEPARTMENT OF HISTORICAL, RESEARCH. II5 



of historical societies, the inventory should be of great service if the im- 

 portance of the subject is properly appreciated and if it is properly followed 

 up by documentary publications on the part of the various denominations. 

 Proper estimate of the subject depends on the perception that American 

 religion has been chiefly an affair of the laity, and therefore pervades our 

 social and intellectual history ; if in any age or time ecclesiastical history can 

 be properly treated as merely the history of ecclesiastics, it is not so with the 

 history of the United States. 



As to the publication of volumes of texts illustrating our religious history, 

 it is a duty which should be most seriously felt by our Protestant theological 

 seminaries. Relatively to what they have to do and to the cost of doing it, 

 the older among them are notoriously the richest general institutions of their 

 respective churches, and their work stands nearest to the denominations' 

 higher intellectual life. The volume now spoken of was planned largely in 

 order to give them the opportunity to engage in broader documentary his- 

 torical work. At the present time both the Catholics and the Jews of 

 America surpass the Protestant denominations in such scientific services to 

 American religious history. 



Besides the two manuscripts already mentioned as having been finished, 

 those of Messrs. Fish and Allison, the Department has in final form that 

 of a "List of documents from Spanish archives, relating to the history of 

 the United States, which have been printed or of which transcripts are pre- 

 served in American libraries." This work was begun nearly four years ago, 

 as a natural complement to Professor Shepherd's "Guide to the materials in 

 Spanish archives for United States history." The first part of the work was 

 performed by Miss Mary F. Grifiin. After her resignation, little was done 

 upon it until this last December, when it became possible to utilize for its 

 completion the expert knowledge of Dr. James A. Robertson, joint editor of 

 the documentary series called "The Philippine Islands." He has devoted 

 most of the past nine months to completing it, chiefly in the Library of Con- 

 gress, but also in the New York Public Library and those libraries of Bos- 

 ton and Cambridge in which Spanish transcripts falling within the scope of 

 the work were found. 



The volume is intended to include a mention of every document derived 

 from any Spanish archive which relates to the history since 15 12 of any 

 portion of the continental United States. The material is arranged chron- 

 ologically, in two divisions, the one listing those documents which may be 

 found in print, the other those which may be found in the shape of tran- 

 scripts in any accessible collection in the eastern part of the United States. 

 The great collection of Spanish transcripts in the Bancroft Library at the 

 University of California is understood to be not yet in shape for complete 

 listing or convenient use. 



