Henry Charles Lea must be considered one of the most remarkable men in the American scholarly community of the nineteenth century. His reputation rests chiefly upon voluminous histories of the medieval Church. To the distinguished contemporary English historian Lord Acton, who reviewed Lea's History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages for the English Historical Review in 1888, the American had produced a work which "will assuredly be accepted as the most important contribution of the new world to the religious history of the old." Various of Lea's books were translated into German, French, and Italian. He received honorary degrees, memberships, and offices in learned societies in the U.S. and Europe and was elected president of the American Historical Association in 1903. Lea also is notable in the history of American historical writing for being among the leaders in applying and promoting the new scientific methodological techniques of documentary...