This saying (often overrated as an axiom), is attributed to Lord John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron of Acton (1834-1902). This historian, writer, and moralist did not invent the cliché. That may have been William Pitt who uttered something nearly identical in a speech to the House of Lords in 1770. If power in itself corrupted then all human authority would be corrupt, which is anarchic. Power “can” corrupt, even moreso when it is democratic. Absolute power, however, also known as the divine right of kings, is a English Protestant invention. It is a corruption of authority. This post, however, is not intended to be a lede into an essay on authority. It is intended for Catholics, mostly traditional-minded Catholics, who quote the phrase recklessly.
Acton, who was himself a Catholic, penned these words in a letter he had written in 1887 to the Protestant Bishop of London, whom he had appropriately addressed as Mr. Mandell Creighton. And what was this “absolute power” that his letter aimed its guns at? The papacy. Mind you, this was only eighteen years after Pope Pius IX defined papal infallibility at Vatican I in 1870.
Bishop Creighton, in his writings of history, tended to excuse leading figures, especially kings, and popes as well, of culpability in their unjust actions as leaders. Lord Acton took umbrage with this, criticizing past popes with a prejudice that matched that of the most biased heretics.
I am posting this letter with a caveat. Lord Acton had an ax to grind and what he hurls out as papal corruption is tainted with the typical Protestant distortions and exaggerations. Although it may seem that I am giving the floor to Lord Acton (as I am not providing rebuttals such are readily available from the writings of Catholic apologists) my purpose is simply to point out that Catholics should not be favorably quoting the likes of Baron Acton, especially considering that the oft-quoted “adage” is a half-truth. Well, that said, here is Lord Actons’s letter:
Dear Mr. Creighton,The point is not whether you like the Inquisition . . . but whether you can, without reproach to historical accuracy, speak of the later mediaeval papacy as having been tolerant and enlightened. What you say on that point struck me exactly as it would strike me to read that the French Terrorists were tolerant and enlightened, and avoided the guilt of blood. Bear with me whilst I try to make my meaning quite clear. Read the full letter here.
