Edward Gibbon was born May 8 April 27, 1737, Putney, England he died January 16, 1794 in London. English rationalist historian and scholar best known as the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88). A narrative from the 2nd century to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Gibbon’s grandfather had made a considerable fortune and his father was able to live an easygoing life. He married Judith, a daughter of James Porten, whose family had originated in Germany. Edward, also had independent means throughout his life. Edward was the oldest and the only kid to live out of seven children the rest of his siblings died in infancy. Gibbon’s childhood was a series of illnesses. More than once in his life he almost died. …show more content…
He early became an omnivorous reader and could indulge his tastes the more fully since his schooling. He started to attend a day school in Putney and in 1746 he went to Kingston grammar school where he was to note in his Memoirs at the expense of many tears and some blood. He had purchased a knowledge of Latin syntax.” In 1749 he was transferd to Westminster School. In 1750 he was taken to Bath and Winchester to for health and after an unsuccessful attempt to return to Westminster was placed for the next two years with tutors from who he learned very little about. His father took him on visits to country houses where he had libaries filled with old foolios. He had noted his 12th year as one of his great intellectual development and says in his Memoirs that he had discovered his “proper food “history. By his 14th year he had already covered the main fields of his masterpiece and applying his mind as well to difficult problems of chronological. The keynote of these early years of study was self-sufficiency. Apart from his aunt’s initial guidance, Gibbon had followed his intellectual bent in solitary independence. This characteristic remained with him throughout his …show more content…
Gibbon himself was not militant. He did not cry with Voltaire, “Écrasez l’Infâme!” (“Crush the Infamy!”) because in his England and Switzerland he saw no danger in the ecclesiastical systems. His concern was history. One may say, however, with confidence, that he had no belief in a divine revelation and little sympathy with those who had such a belief. While he treated the supernatural with irony, his main purpose was to establish the principle that religions must be treated as phenomena of human experience. In this his successors have followed him and added to the collateral causes of Christianity’s growth those that he had overlooked or could not know of, such as the various mystery religions of the empire and particularly the Mithraic cult. Although Gibbon’s best known treatment of Christianity is found mainly in the 15th and 16th chapters, no less significant are later chapters in which he traced the developments of theology and ecclesiasticism in relation to the breakup of the empire. When he died he left a legacy Modern knowledge of history, in Gibbon’s field alone, has increased conspicuously. Economic, social, and constitutional history have grown