The following study deals with "the whig interpretation of history" in what I consider to be the accepted meaning of the phrase. It is astonishing to what extent the historian was Protestant, progressive and cruel, and the very model of the nineteenth-century gentleman. Precisely because of his dissimilarity to ourselves, Aquino is the more attractive subject for the historical imagination; for the main purpose of the historian is the.
It is something that intervenes between the work of the historical specialist and that work, partly of organization and partly of. It is nothing less than the whole of the past, with its complexity of movement, of itself. It is a lesson that is sure to be lost in abridgement, and that is why abridgements of history are sometimes calculated to propagate the opposite of the truth of history.
The fallacy of the Whig historian lies in the way he cuts his way through this complexity. The adoption of this principle and this method commits us to a certain organization of the whole of historical history. It describes the attitude with which Renaissance men seem to have approached the Middle Ages.
THE HISTORICAL PROCESS
We shall see that, in fact, precisely because they were so similar in the exclusivity of their claims, they presented the world with one of the most fruitful problems it had to face. Here we come to the second error in the whig method of approach; for by over-dramatizing the story it diverts our attention from what is the real historical process. In reality, it is the result of the constant interplay and constant collision of the two.
In the most concrete sense of the words, our constitution is not simply the work of people and parties. Then the process of historical transition will be recognized to be nothing like what the whipping historian seems to assume—much less like the procedure of a logical argument, and perhaps too much. It meant the overthrow of Martin Luther's idea of religious society, the destruction of the new Calvinist.
When the great map of the ages is traced and the mind sweeps over wide ranges of shortened history, the whig fallacies. It may even be plausible to claim that Protestantism contributed to the rise of the capitalist. All this exemplifies the fact that for the compilation of profound history there is nothing like being satisfied with half the truth.
Just where the Whig historian ascribes influence, the Reformation itself came most obviously under the influence of the trends of the time. But greater dangers lurk here, and we border on heresy more blasphemous than the scourges, for we may fall into the opposite fallacy and say that the Reformation did nothing at all. A fallacy must be avoided, and once again it is the opposite of the Whigs.
For all these and many other reasons, the Reformation is the most interesting example one can find for the study of the Reformation. 34; Capitalism is the social counterpart of Calvinist theology'; and the world of the historian would come to resemble much more the world as it appears in life.
HISTORY AND JUDGEMENTS OF VALUE
It is interested in the way ideals move and turn events, rather than in the ultimate validity of the ideals themselves. They have usually been content to accept common views about history's place in the scheme of things. The value of history lies in the richness of its recovery of the concrete life of the past.
What was the feeling of the old men when the young forgot their gods, and in the next day, when the calamity fell, some men did not take up their Christianity with a qualm. The last word of the historian is therefore not some good fixed general statement; it is a piece of detailed research. Above all, it is not the role of the historian to arrive at what might be called value judgments.
Columbus's discovery of America included the execution of Charles I, the War of the Spanish Succession, and the French Revolution. The Reformation so often regarded as a result and continuation of the Renaissance – a parallel movement of man. Luther and Calvin were both similar in that they attacked the papal and medieval conception of religious society.
It can be argued that what Luther rebelled against was not the strictness of the Popes, but laxity. It is the reassertion of the rights of society and the rights of this world against religions which, by their warfare and by the absoluteness of their claims, acted contrary to social consequences. Some people had to eventually come to the view that all persecution even in the name of truth was ungodly.
Ideas emerged such as those of the Independents in England, who advocated a parochial system that allowed for religious diversity within the state. Instead of the old ideal of the state as one uniform and coherent religious society – the ideal of Lutheran, Calvinist.
THE ART OF THE HISTORIAN
It is in this sense that history must always be written from the perspective of the present. It is necessary to call forth from the springs of our nature all the things which divert the thought of the scientist, but which combine to enrich the thought of the poet. It cannot be denied that the whipping historian has performed this part of his function admirably, but he has done it for what may be described as only one side of the historical record.
The Whig historian is an example of the emotional drive necessary to make us question conclusions that seem foregone. He is an example of how prejudice and passion can in themselves contribute to historical understanding. The Whig historian pulls back the stakes for the men who need it most.
The zeal of the whig historian very often comes from what the transfer really is. But the true historical zeal is the love of the past for the sake of the past. This is the ardor which was awakened in Gibbon and Gregorovius by the sight of the ruins of ancient Rome.
It creates a pleasant excitement in the mind because of the facility with which it allows us to move over large areas and exercise ourselves on important subjects. It would seem that abridgements are often falsified by the assumption that the essentials of the story can be told, leaving out the complications; an assumption that ignores the fact that history is the entire network produced by countless complications that involve one constantly. It is the selection of facts with the aim of preserving the impression – the preservation of, despite omissions, the inner relations of the whole.
All this is true, and it is certain that the real value of a piece of history writing will come from the richness and fullness of the mind which the historian brought to his work; but that is to say that such comments and such judgments are those of the. The conclusions will be richer because of the distance that had to be traveled to reach them.
MORAL JUDGEMENTS IN HISTORY
An undefined region is left to the subjective decision of the historian, in which he will choose not to explain, but simply declare that there is sin. This is perhaps the highest possible form of the Whig tendency to elevate historical study. However, Acton did not exactly set out to defend the moral function of the historian against the unbeliever.
Our only refuge from the impossible dilemma and the impossible idea that his theories present to us lies in the frank recognition of the fact that there are limits to what history and the historian can do. But even in this case, only the form of the question needs to be asked again; he will now be driven to look at the story of man. The historian gives us the picture of the world as it is in history.
The historian serves the economist, the politician, the diplomat, the musician; he is likewise at the service of the strategist and the. Acton, who, though a Roman Catholic by race and training, was deeply hostile to the arbitrary power of the Pope, owed his existence to a papal dispensation. He was no debater; he only made a single short speech and asked two questions while a member of the house.
At the time, Acton informed his constituents in Bridgnorth that he belonged more to the soul than the body of the Catholic Church. This expressed very clearly the distinction which prevailed in his mind between membership in the Roman church and trust in the Roman court. When "Kronika" ceased publication at the end of 1868, he again became interested in the journalistic endeavors of the previous imprint.
Acton was in Rome to help the small minority of prelates who resisted the proclamation of the dogma. In 1899 and 1900 much of his energy was absorbed by the Cambridge Modern History project. The design of the entire twelve volumes and the authorship of many even later chapters was his decision.
He edited Harpsfield's Narrative of the Divorce (book ii.) and Letters of James II to the Abbot of La Trappe (1872-6) for the Philobiblon Society, and Les Matinées Royales, a hitherto unpublished work by Frederick the Great (London and Edinburgh). , 1863).
