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., L.L.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
1909
First Edition 1907
Reprinted 1909

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 Bridgnorth 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

Portrait of Lord Acton

Chronicle

Introduction

• The History of Freedom in Antiquity
• The History of Freedom in Christianity
• Sir Erskine May's Democracy in Europe
• The Massacre of St. Bartholomew
• The Protestant Theory of Persecution
• Political Thoughts on the Church
• Introduction To L.A. Burd's Edition Of Il Principe by Machiavelli
• Mr. Goldwin Smith's Irish History
• Nationality
• Döllinger on the Temporal Power
• Döllinger's Historical Work
• Cardinal Wiseman and the Home and Foreign Review
• Conflicts With Rome
• The Vatican Council
• A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. By Henry Charles Lea
• The American Commonwealth. By James Bryce
• Historical Philosophy in France and French Belgium and Switzerland. By Robert Flint

Appendix

Index

CHRONICLE

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, born at Naples, 10th January 1834, son of Sir Ferdinand Richard