Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3
Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950., Ed.

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[194] varying degrees they cherished the notion that history should have literary merits. In all of them the new school triumphed but the old yielded slowly. It was only with Mahan and Henry Adams that style became an unconscious expression of clearly formed ideas. That it was always good is too much to assert; but at its best it was a subordinate part of the historian's purpose. The men of this group, the most conspicuous of our recently deceased historians, all worked in constant fear of inaccuracies.

Henry Charles Lea (1825-1909) may be placed at the head of the group. He was a prosperous Philadelphia publisher, the grandson of Mathew Carey,¹ the publisher, nephew of Henry C. Carey,² the economist, and son of Isaac Lea, a naturalist notable in his day. To this family inheritance add a general Quaker background and we may understand the origin of his desire to describe some of the most striking phases of the history of religious zeal. In two book—reviews published in 1859 he managed to introduce a great deal about compurgation, the wager of battle, and ordeals. His interest in the subject was so much aroused that he subsequently revised the essays in a volume called Superstition and force (1866). It was followed by The history of Sacerdotal celibacy (1867) and Studies in Church history (1869). These books were written in such hours as he could snatch from business. Convinced that the two kinds of labour could not be carried on jointly with perfect success, he gave up authorship for a time. In 1880 he was able to retire from active business and devote himself to literature. The books written in this second period are richer in the evidences of research and broader in plan and judgment. They are The history of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages (3 vols., 1888), Chapters from the religious history of Spain connected with the Inquisition (1890), History of Auricular confession (3 vols., 1896), The Moriscoes in Spain (1901), History of the Inquisition in Spain (4 vols., 1906-1908), and History of the Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies (1908). When Lea died he was Preparing a history of witchcraft.

These works are monuments of industry and learning, and they deal with a most difficult class of phenomena in a scientific spirit. They have encountered the opposition of most Catholic