14 
Introduction 
and seventeenth centuries, there is no one place where the world-movement of 
history is so well reflected as in the archives of the Church. The vital struggle 
of European nations, so profoundly affecting the future of America, might 
almost be written from them, and can not be completely written without them. 
The history of the East, which begins to link itself so closely with that of 
America, is nowhere else so well represented; Japan, China, and the Philip¬ 
pines all having received, to the beginning of the nineteenth century, more 
attention than the territory covered by this study. For South America, more¬ 
over, there is more material than for North, and the history of the West 
India islands, particularly of those belonging to France, is profusely illus¬ 
trated. For America the first requisite is a Bullarium , but the limits of such 
a work should be seriously considered, that duplication may be saved. Prob¬ 
ably there is no logical method of excluding any section, with the possible 
exception of Portuguese America. The Archives of the Propaganda afford 
material for just such a study of the organization and control of the mission¬ 
ary movement as a whole, as is needed, and such would afford a basis for 
works on the several orders, if their materials come to be more generally 
available. The neglect of their opportunity by Spanish scholars, with the bril¬ 
liant exception of Hinojosa, affords a chance, if it does not create a duty, for 
American scholars to exploit the great masses of material relating to Spain, 
and so, indirectly, to great portions of America. Even where no special con¬ 
tribution is intended, a reasonable time spent in reading in the archives would 
afford the most valuable basis for an historian’s career, which I can imagine. 
With regard to the archives of the Italian states, the outstanding fact is the 
enormous amount of material on the history of the American Revolution. 
While this material is for the most part secondary in character, its possibil¬ 
ities are too great to warrant neglect. 
A 
