John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton 1st Baron Acton

John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton, 1st Baron 1834-1902, English historian, b. Naples; grandson of Sir John Francis Edward Acton and of Emmerich Joseph, duc de Dalberg. Denied entrance into Cambridge because of his Roman Catholicism, he traveled to Munich, where he studied with Fr. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger . Acton became (1859) a Liberal member of Parliament and editor of the Rambler, a Roman Catholic monthly. William E. Gladstone , his close friend, nominated him to the peerage (1869), and in 1892, Acton was made lord-in-waiting. Acton's genuine and ardent liberalism gave frequent offense to Roman Catholic authorities. His hatred of arbitrary power and all forms of absolutism led him to oppose the syllabus of errors issued by Pius IX and the promulgation of the dogma of papal infallibility, but he accepted them after their pronouncement rather than risk excommunication.

In 1895 Acton was appointed professor of modern history at Cambridge and in the following years planned the Cambridge Modern History, of which only the first volume appeared before his death. Acton never completed a book. Rather, his influence was felt through his lectures, his writings for periodicals, and his personal contacts with the leading historians of his time. Many articles, essays, and lectures were brought together after his death in Lectures on Modern History (1906), History of Freedom (1907), and Historical Essays and Studies (1907). Some of these were reprinted in Essays on Freedom and Power (1948) and Essays on Church and State (1952). His impressive personal library, consisting of more than 59,000 volumes, was bought by Andrew Carnegie after his death and donated to Cambridge.

Bibliography: See his correspondence with Richard Simpson, ed. by J. L. Altholz (2 vol., 1970-73); biographies by H. Tulloch (1989) and R. Hill (2000).

Acton, John Emerich Edward Dalberg, first Baron Acton (1834–1902), historian. In 1859 he became editor of the RC Rambler; under the threat of a Papal veto he suspended it in 1864. He sought to resist the movement towards Ultramontanism in the RC Church. In 1869 he went to Rome to organize resistance to the definition of Papal Infallibility at the Vatican Council, collaborating with J. J. I. von Döllinger in publishing the series of letters under the signature ‘Quirinus’. From 1895 he was Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge.

Acton, Sir John Emerich Edward Dalberg, first Baron Acton (1834–1902), was Whig MP for Carlow (1859–65) and formed a friendship with Gladstone. He was strenuous in his opposition to the definition by the Catholic Church of the dogma of papal infallibility, and published his views in his Letters from Rome on the Council (1870). His literary activity was great, and took the form of contributions to the North British Review, the Quarterly Review, and the English Historical Review (which he helped to found), besides lectures and addresses. Lord Acton was appointed Regius professor of modern history at Cambridge in 1895, on which occasion he delivered a remarkable inaugural lecture on the study of history (reprinted in Lectures on Modern History, 1906). One of his principal works was the planning of the Cambridge Modern History (1899–1912).