THE HISTORY O F THE FAMOUS PREACHER FRIAR GERUN Dio DE CAMPA ZAS: OTHERWISE GERUND ZOTE S. TRANSLATED FROM THE SPANISH. IN TWO VOLUME S. VOL. I. LONDON, Printed for T. DAVIES, in Ruffel-Street, Covent Garden ; MDCCLXXII. ADVERTISEMENT. I N an account of the Original of the following tranflation, amongst other things it is faid-That the Hiftoria del Fray Gerundio, published (the firft volume) in Madrid in 1758, was written [under the name of Francis Lobòn de Salazar, minifter of the parish of St. Peter in Villagarcia, &c.] by the Father Joseph Francis Illa, a Jefuit, with the laudable view to correct the abuses of the Spanish pulpit by turning the bad preachers into ridicule-That his book was decorated with the approbations of several of the most learned and refpectable people in Spain to whom he had communicated it in manufcript-That the Inquifitors themselves encouraged him to the publication, and bore teftimony in writing to the laudableness of the work, which they were of opinion would in a great measure bring about the wished-for reformation-That one of the revisors for the Inquifition fays, "it is one of thofe lucky expedients that indignation and hard neceffity fuggeft when the beft means have proved ineffectual," and; "nor are we to find fault if the dofe of caustic and corrofive falts is fomewhat too ftrong, as Cancers are not to be cured with Rofe-water." That notwithstanding the approbation of the Inquifition and of feveral of the most learned amongst the Spanish clergy, fome Orders, efpecially the Dominican and Mendicant, rofe up against this book as foon as it was printed, representing to the king that the refpect due to the minifters of the Gospel would be too much diminished by fuch a piece of mercilefs criticism, and all religious Orders rendered ridiculous in the eyes of the vulgar; the confequence of which would be a relaxation, if not a fubverfion of the religion of the country-That this and other fuch arguments urged by the Friars with the greateft vehemence, and |