Henry Charles Lea

Henry Charles Lea (1825–1909) was an American historian of the medieval church and its institutions. Born in Philadelphia into a publishing family, he ran the firm of Lea Brothers for much of his life and taught himself medieval history in the evenings, buying manuscripts and transcripts from European archives. Superstition and Force (1866), on ordeals, judicial combat and torture, was followed by A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (1888), A History of the Inquisition of Spain (1906–07) and studies of confession, indulgences and clerical celibacy. Working entirely outside the universities, he became the leading American medievalist of his generation and a critic of the Catholic Church's past.