"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely". This is the most widely quoted aphorism by "the magistrate of history" Lord Acton. "The History of Freedom. And Other Essays" contains two volumes of his numerous writings and gives an excellent introduction into the thinking of this eminent thinker who is considered to be one of the most learned Englishmen of his time and who made the history of liberty his life's work. Indeed, he considered political liberty the essential condition and guardian of religious liberty. This volume also contains an introduction by the editors, John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence as well as essays by American historian, civic reformer and political activist Henry Charles Lea, British jurist, historian and politician James Bryce and the Scottish theologian and philosopher Robert Flint.