John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834-1902), was a major English scientific historian and Catholic philosopher. His work is distinguished by the application of rigorous standards of accuracy and ethical principles to history.

John Acton was born on Jan. 10, 1834, in Naples. He was educated in England at Oscott College and in 1848 went to Munich, then a center for the general revival of Catholic scholarship. Ignaz von Döllinger, a member of the Munich group and follower of Leopold von Ranke, introduced Acton to Ranke's new scientific history and to recent developments in Catholic scholarship.

When Acton returned to England in 1859, he succeeded John Henry Newman as editor of the Catholic monthly Rambler (after 1862 the Home and Foreign Review). Acton advocated the application of scientific historical methods to Christianity, believing it possible to reconcile Christianity with the findings of history and thus to strengthen the Roman...