Edward Gibbon
1737 – 1794 English historian
The historian of Rome's fall, a master of English prose.
- Religion
- Raised Anglican, briefly converted to Catholicism, then returned as a skeptic who treated Christianity's rise with cool, critical detachment.
- Affiliations
- Member of Parliament and of Samuel Johnson's Literary Club. No secret society.
Gibbon wrote The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, a sweeping and skeptical account across more than a thousand years. His treatment of Christianity as a historical force, not just a faith, caused a storm. The work remains a landmark of history and of English style.