The History of Freedom and Other Essays

by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM
AND OTHER ESSAYS

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THE

HISTORY OF FREEDOM

AND OTHER ESSAYS

BY

JOHN EMERICH EDWARD DALBERG-ACTON

FIRST BARON ACTON

D. C. L., LL. D., ETC. ETC.

REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

 

EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY

JOHN NEVILLE FIGGIS, Litt.D.

SOMETIME LECTURER IN ST. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

AND

REGINALD VERE LAURENCE, M.A.

FELLOW AND LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

 

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON

1922

COPYRIGHT

First Edition 1907
Reprinted 1909, 1919, 1922

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

PREFATORY NOTE

The Editors desire to thank the members of the Acton family for their help and advice during the preparation of this volume and of the volume of Historical Essays and Studies. They have had the advantage of access to many of Acton's letters, especially those to Döllinger and Lady Blennerhasset. They have thus been provided with valuable material for the Introduction. At the same time they wish to take the entire responsibility for the opinions expressed therein. They are again indebted to Professor Henry Jackson for valuable suggestions.

This volume consists of articles reprinted from the following journals: The Quarterly Review, The English Historical Review, The Nineteenth Century, The Rambler, The Home and Foreign Review, The North British Review, The Bridgworth Journal. The Editors have to thank Mr. John Murray, Messrs. Longmans, Kegan Paul, Williams and Norgate, and the proprietors of The Bridgnorth Journal for their kind permission to republish these articles, and also the Delegacy of the Clarendon Press for allowing the reprint of the Introduction to Mr. Burd's edition of Il Principe. They desire to point out that in Lord Acton and his Circle the article on "The Protestant Theory of Persecution" is attributed to Simpson: this is an error.

J. N. F.

R. V. L.

August 24, 1907.

CONTENTS
		page
Portrait of Lord Acton		Frontispiece
Chronicle		viii
Introduction		ix
I.	The History of Freedom in Antiquity	1
II.	The History of Freedom in Christianity	30
III.	Sir Erskine May's Democracy in Europe	61
IV.	The Massacre of St. Bartholomew	101
V.	The Protestant Theory of Persecution	150
VI.	Political Thoughts on the Church	188
VII.	Introduction to L. A. Burd's Edition of Il Principe by Machiavelli	212
VIII.	Mr. Goldwin Smith's Irish History	232
IX.	Nationality	270
X.	Döllinger on the Temporal Power	301
XI.	Döllinger's Historical Work	375
XII.	Cardinal Wiseman and the Home and Foreign Review	436
XIII.	Conflicts with Rome	461
XIV.	The Vatican Council	492
XV.	A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. By Henry Charles Lea	551
XVI.	The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce	575
XVII.	Historical Philosophy in France and French Belgium and Switzerland. By Robert Flint	588
Appendix		597
Index		599