Edward Gibbon

From Philosopedia

Painting by Joshua Reynolds, 1779

Gibbon, Edward (27 April 1737 (O.S.) 8 May 1737 (N.S.) - 16 January 1794)

A young convert to Catholicism, Gibbon later formally reconverted to Protestantism. But in writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (6 volumes, 1776 - 1788), he became a skeptic and offended the pious by his including historical criticism of Christianity in his mammoth work. Macaulay, for example, thought Gibbon “most unfair” to religion.

Less than five feet tall in height and bulbously fat, he was a figure of ridicule, even while serving as a member of Parliament. He opposed the American Revolution but looked with some favor upon the later French Revolution, which he found to be more radical.

His Outlook

“Religion,” he wrote concerning why babies are “born” into a church,

• is a mere question of geography.

In 1783, the Vatican prohibited his work from being read. Gibbon wrote in History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,

• A state of scepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude that, if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision. . . . So urgent on the vulgar is the necessity of believing, that the fall of any system of mythology will most probably be succeeded by the introduction of some other mode of superstition.

J. M. Robertson emphasizes Gibbon’s beginning a new era of historical writing, “not merely by its sociological treatment of the rise of Christianity, but by its absolutely anti-theological handling of all things.” Gibbon was recognized internationally for the scope and quality of his work, and, adds Robertson, “the sheer solidity of [his] work has sustained it against a hundred years of hostile comments.”

Not all appreciated Gibbon. Samuel Coleridge once observed, “Gibbon’s style is detestable, but it is not the worst thing about him.”

His views on Christianity are indicated in a famous fifteenth chapter, called by George William Foote a masterpiece of grave and temperate irony. When Gibbon wrote that “it was not in this world that the primitive Christians were desirous of making themselves either agreeable or useful,” every sensible reader understood his meaning, Foote added. In 1994, two versions of the Gibbon history were issued, the first with an introduction by Hugh Trevor-Roper, the second edited by David Womersley. The former includes Oliphant Smeaton’s editorial footnotes in addition to Gibbon’s own. The latter leaves Gibbon’s text but includes the “Vindication” in which Gibbon trounced critics of his treatment of Christianity.

Lord Bertrand Russell also believed Gibbon is a major historian because of his historic exposure of the crimes and futility of Christianity. In his Understanding History (1957), Russell wrote:

• His chief virtue is that, although his portraits of individuals are often disappointing, his sense of the march of great events is sure and unerring. No one has ever presented the pageant of history better than he has done. To treat in one book the whole period from the second century to the fifteenth was a colossal undertaking, but he never lost sight of the unity of his theme, or of the proportions to be presented among its several parts. This required a grasp of a great whole which is beyond the power of most men, and which, for all his shortcomings, puts Gibbon in the first rank among historians.

A similar view was expressed by Robert D. Kaplan, who wrote of the three volumes that “they constitute a general theory of history, a controversial interpretation of the birth of Christianity, an extended essay on military elites and the fickleness of public opinion, and an unequaled geographical and cultural primer on Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.” Gibbon, whom Joseph McCabe labeled a deist “on the way to agnosticism,” died of dropsy, in London. After being tapped in November, he removed to the house of his devoted friend, Lord Sheffield. The last volumes of the Decline and Fall had been published in May of 1788, and a week before he expired in 1794 he returned to his lodgings in St. James Street, London."

His Death

Lord Sheffield described Gibbon's final moments:

• During the evening he complained much of his stomach, and of a feeling of nausea. Soon after nine he took his opium draught and went to bed. About ten he complained of much pain, and desired that warm napkins might be applied to his stomach. He almost incessantly expressed a sense of pain till about four o’clock in the morning, when he said he found his stomach much easier. About seven the servant asked whether he should send for Mr. Farquhar (the doctor). He answered, no, that he was as well as the day before. At about half-past eight be got out of bed and said he was “plus adroit” than he had been for three months past and got into bed again without assistance, better than usual. About nine he said he would rise. The servant, however, persuaded him to remain in bed till Mr. Parquhar, who was expected at eleven, should come. Till about that hour be spoke with great facility. Mr. Farquhar came at the time appointed, and he was then visibly dying. When the valet-de-chambre returned, after attending Mr. Farquhar out of the room, Mr. Gibbon said, “Pourquoi est-ce que vous me quittez?” (Why do you leave me?) This was about half-past eleven. At twelve o’clock he drank some brandy and water from a teapot, and desired his favourite servant to stay with him. These were the last words he pronounced articulately. To the last he preserved his senses; and when he could no longer speak, his servant having asked a question, he made a sign to show that he understood him. He was quite tranquil, and did not stir, his eyes half shut. About a quarter before one he ceased to breathe.

Other

(The valet-de-chambre observed that he did not, at any time, evince the least sign of alarm or apprehension of death: Last Days of Gibbon, in Milman’s edition of Gibbon, Vol. I., Introduction.)

(See entry for John XII [[1]], a pope whom Gibbon described as an adulterer.)

{BDF; CE; FO; FUK; ILP; JMR; JMRH; Robert D. Kaplan, The Atlantic Monthly, March 1997; PUT; RAT; RE; TRI; TYD}