Henry Charles Lea
| Henry Charles Lea | ||
 Lea c. 1870 | ||
| Background information | ||
| Born | Nov 19, 1825 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US | |
| Died | Oct 24, 1909 - age 84 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US | |
| Spouse(s): | Anna Caroline Jaudon (27 May 1850 - ) | |
| Children: | 4 | |
| Relatives: | Mathew Carey Lea (brother) | |
| Nationality: | American | |
Henry Charles Lea (✦September 19, 1825 – †October 24, 1909 (aged 83)) was an American historian, civic reformer, and political activist. Lea was born and lived in Philadelphia.
Career
In 1843 Henry Charles Lea joined his father in business and continued with the firm (renamed Lea, Brothers & Co. and even later Lea & Febinger) until 1880 when his sons took over the business.
In 1847, after working in the family publishing firm for four years, Lea suffered a nervous breakdown and the twenty-two-year-old abandoned his intellectual and scientific work for some time. Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, one of the country's most prominent doctors in the field of nervous disorders, treated Lea and became a family friend. During his convalescence, Lea began reading French memoirs of the medieval period. They kindled his interest in medieval history and changed his career course from scientist to historian.
Historian
Thereafter Lea focused on history, mainly on church history in the later Middle Ages, and on institutional, legal, and ecclesiastical history, as well as magic and witchcraft. He also did significant work on the history of the Italian city-states. His active writing career on historical subjects spanned more than fifty years, during which Lea published ten books and numerous articles. His literary reputation rests largely on those books. Highly disciplined work habits (and the ability to purchase manuscripts in Europe and Latin America and have them shipped to Philadelphia) led Lea to continue writing despite even headaches and eye problems. His productivity increased during his final twenty-five years after he retired as a publisher and built an extension to his house at 2000 Walnut Street, for his extensive manuscript collection.
Lea became an authority on the Spanish Inquisition, and his multi-volume work was considered groundbreaking, though opinionated. Although some criticized him for anti-Catholic bias,[6] Lea received honorary degrees from universities including Harvard, Princeton, Pennsylvania in the United States, as well as the Giessen and Moscow. His study of the Inquisition was also criticized for anti-Spanish bias, which Julián Juderías in 1914 termed the 'leyenda negra' (a/k/a Black legend).
Lea became a member of the newly formed American Historical Association in 1884, contributed several articles to its American Historical Review, and was elected its president in 1903. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1888.[7] When the second annual meeting of the newly formed American Folklore Society was held in Philadelphia in 1889, Lea met with some of the founders, sent an article for publication in the Society's journal, and became the first life-member of the organization.
Civic activist
During the American Civil War Lea was a member of the Union League of Philadelphia and headed its publication committee, writing many of the League's published pamphlets. In 1863 Lea was appointed one of the Bounty Commissioners under the Enrollment Act and served until 1865, working closely with Provost Marshal General James B. Fry accounting for the city's quotas of enlisted men. He thus he became involved with recruiting African American regiments to fight in the Union army.
Outspoken about public works and health projects in Philadelphia, Lea founded the public hygiene program at the University of Pennsylvania. He strongly opposed the building of City Hall at the Penn Square location at the intersection of Broad Street and Market Street (then known as High Street) where it now stands, preferring instead that it be built in Washington Square, near Independence Hall. Lea believed that the project cost too much, and was angered by the political corruption involved in the awarding of contracts and purchase of building materials. Lea planned and held a large public meeting to recruit support for his alternative to the Penn Square project.
The National Republican League chose Lea as its president in 1880 (the year he retired from his publishing business) and five years later, Lea served as president of the Association of Republicans and Independents. In 1891 he helped found "The Reform Political League of Pennsylvania", with Herbert Welsh as president, himself and Justus C. Strawbridge as vice-presidents, and Charles E. Richardson as secretary.
Lea joined with others in 1884 and filed a lawsuit to oppose building a large slaughterhouse on the Schuylkill River at Thirtieth and Spruce streets on land owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, citing the pollution of the river, the stench, and devaluation of properties near the plant. He also opposed the construction of the Market Street elevated train, over properties he owned on Market Street, as well as building the "boulevard" from City Hall northwest to Fairmount Park, where the Philadelphia Museum of Art was later built.
Death and legacy
The tomb of Henry Charles Lea tomb at Laurel Hill Cemetery is adorned with a sculpture of Clio, the muse of history, by Alexander Stirling Calder. Lea died in Philadelphia and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
His children ultimately conveyed his collection of purchased manuscripts and incunabula as well as other early printed books to the University of Pennsylvania. In 1925, the University dedicated a library, which it named in his honor and which includes much of that personal collection of books and manuscripts. Speakers at the dedication included Professor George Lincoln Burr of Cornell University, who worked to complete the manuscript of Lea's Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft; Professor Dana C. Munro of Princeton University, vice president of the American Historical Association, who had used Lea's collections as a young scholar; and Hampton L. Carson, Philadelphia historian and former attorney general of Pennsylvania.
Works
- Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, Torture Henry C. Lea, 1866.
- Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy, J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1867.
- Studies in Church History. The Rise of the Temporal Power - Benefit of clergy - Excommunication, Henry C. Lea, 1869.
- Translations and Other Rhymes, Privately Printed, 1882.
- A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, The Macmillan Company, 1906 [1st Pub. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1887].
- Chapters from the Religious History of Spain Connected with the Inquisition, Lea Brothers & Co., 1890.
- A Formulary of the Papal Penitentiary in the 17th Century, Lea Brothers & Co., 1892.
- The Absolution Formula of the Templars, The Knickerbocker Press, 1893.
- A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church, Volume II, Volume III, Lea Brothers & Co., 1896.
- The Indian Policy of Spain, n.p., 1899.
- The Dead Hand; a Brief Sketch of the Relations between Church and State with Regard to Ecclesiastical Property and the Religious Orders, William J. Dornan, 1900.
- The Moriscos of Spain; their Conversion and Expulsion, Lea Brothers & Co., 1901.
- Léo Taxil, Diana Vaughan et l'Église Romaine: Histoire d'une mystification, Paris, France: Sociéte Nouvelle de Librairie et d'édition, 1901.
- Ethical Values in History, n.p., 1904.
- A History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, 1906–1907.
- The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies, The Macmillan Company, 1922 [1st Pub. 1908].
- Memoir, Privately printed, 1910.
- Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1939.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Henry_Charles_Lea ]
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