Editing Edward Gibbon (section)

== Career ==
===Oxford, Lausanne, and a religious journey: 1752–1758===
[[File:Magdalen College, Oxford (7958644740).jpg|thumb|[[Magdalen College, Oxford]]]]
Following a stay at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]] in 1752 to improve his health at the age of 15, Gibbon was sent by his father to [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], where he was enrolled as a [[gentleman-commoner]]. He was ill-suited, however, to the college atmosphere, and later rued his 14 months there as the "most idle and unprofitable" of his life. Because he says so in his autobiography, it used to be thought that a penchant from his aunt for "theological controversy" bloomed under the influence of the deist or rationalist theologian [[Conyers Middleton]] (1683–1750), the author of ''Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers'' (1749). In that tract, Middleton denied the validity of such powers; Gibbon promptly objected, or so the argument used to run. The product of that disagreement, with some assistance from the work of Catholic Bishop [[Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet]] (1627–1704), and that of the Elizabethan Jesuit [[Robert Persons|Robert Parsons]] (1546–1610), yielded the most memorable event of his time at Oxford: his conversion to Roman Catholicism on 8 June 1753.  He was further "corrupted" by the 'free thinking' deism of the playwright and poet [[David Mallet (writer)|David Mallet]];<ref>Pocock, ''Enlightenments of Edward Gibbon''. for Middleton, see pp. 45–47; for Bossuet, p. 47; for the Mallets, p. 23; Robert Parsons [or Persons], ''A Christian directory: The first booke of the Christian exercise, appertaining to resolution'', (London, 1582). In his 1796 edition of Gibbon's ''Memoirs'', Lord Sheffield claims that Gibbon directly connected his Catholic conversion to his reading of Parsons.&nbsp; Womersley, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 9.</ref> and finally Gibbon's father, already "in despair," had had enough. David Womersley has shown, however, that Gibbon's claim to having been converted by a reading of Middleton is very unlikely, and was introduced only into the final draft of the "Memoirs" in 1792–93.<ref>Womersley, ''Gibbon and the 'Watchmen of the Holy City': The Historian and His Reputation, 1776–1815'' (Oxford University Press, 2002), as cited by G. M. Bowersock in ''The New York Review of Books'', 25 November 2010, p.&nbsp;56.</ref>

Within weeks of his conversion, he was removed from Oxford and sent to live under the care and tutelage of Daniel Pavillard, Reformed pastor of [[Lausanne]], [[Switzerland]]. There, he made one of his life's two great friendships, that of [[Jacques Georges Deyverdun]] (the French-language translator of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe's]] ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]''), and that of [[John Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield|John Baker Holroyd (later Lord Sheffield)]]. Just a year and a half later, after his father threatened to disinherit him, on Christmas Day, 1754, he reconverted to Protestantism. "The various articles of the Romish creed," he wrote, "disappeared like a dream".<ref>John Murray (ed.). ''[https://archive.org/stream/autobiographies00gibbgoog?ref=ol#page/n12 The Autobiographies of Edward Gibbon]''.  (London: John Murray, 1896), p. 137.</ref>

===Thwarted romance===
[[File:Duplessis - Suzanne Curchod, Madame Necker.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Suzanne Curchod]]]]
He also met the one romance in his life: the daughter of the pastor of Crassy, a young woman named [[Suzanne Curchod]], who was later to become the wife of [[Louis XVI]]'s finance minister [[Jacques Necker]], and the mother of [[Germaine de Staël|Madame de Staël]]. The two developed a warm affinity; Gibbon proceeded to propose marriage,<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', p. 2; &nbsp; ''Letters'', vol. 1, p. 396. a concise summary of their relationship is found at 396–401.</ref> but ultimately this was out of the question, blocked both by his father's staunch disapproval and Curchod's equally staunch reluctance to leave Switzerland. Gibbon returned to England in August 1758 to face his father. No refusal of the elder's wishes could be allowed. Gibbon put it this way: "I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son."<ref>Murray, p. 239. The phrase, "sighed [etc.]" alludes to the play ''Polyeucte'' by "the father of French tragedy," [[Pierre Corneille]]. Womersley, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 11.</ref> He proceeded to cut off all contact with Curchod, even as she vowed to wait for him. Their final emotional break apparently came at [[Ferney]], France, in early 1764, though they did see each other at least one more time a year later.<ref>Womersley, 11–12.</ref>

===First fame and the Grand tour: 1758–1765===
[[File:Keep of Portchester Castle, 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Portchester Castle]] came under Gibbon's command for a brief period while he was an officer in the South Hampshire Militia.<ref>{{harvnb|Goodall|2008|p=38}}</ref>]]
Upon his return to England, Gibbon published his first book, ''Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature'' in 1761, which produced an initial taste of celebrity and distinguished him, in Paris at least, as a man of letters.<ref>In the ''Essai'', the 24-year-old boldly braved the reigning philosoph[e]ic fashion to uphold the studious values and practices of the ''érudits'' (antiquarian scholars). Womersley, p. 11; and ''[[Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon#The Miscellaneous Works|The Miscellaneous Works]]'', 1st ed., vol. 2.</ref> 

On 12 June 1759 Gibbon was commissioned as a [[Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)|Captain]] in the [[South Hampshire Militia]] when that regiment was embodied during the [[Seven Years' War]] (his father served as the regiment's [[Major (United Kingdom)|Major]]). For the next three years he commanded the regiment's Grenadier Company in home defence. The militia was disembodied in December 1762 but he remained an officer in the regiment, resigning as a [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant-Colonel]] in 1770. Gibbon later credited his militia service with providing him "a larger introduction into the English world." There was further, the matter of a vast utility: "The discipline and evolutions of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion of the phalanx and the legion; and the captain of the Hampshire grenadiers (the reader may smile) has not been useless to the historian of the Roman empire."<ref>Murray, p. 190.</ref><ref>Lloyd-Verney, pp. 144, 151, 164–74.</ref><ref name = Womersley11>Womersley, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', pp. 11, 12.</ref> 

In 1763 he returned, via Paris, to Lausanne, where he made the acquaintance of a "prudent worthy young man" William Guise. On 18 April 1764, he and Guise set off for Italy, crossed the Alps, and after spending the summer in Florence arrived in Rome, via Lucca, Pisa, Livorno and Siena, in early October.<ref>[[Edward Chaney]], "Reiseerlebnis und 'Traumdeutung' bei Edward Gibbon und William Beckford", ''Europareisen politisch-sozialer Eliten im 18.Jahrhundert'', eds. J. Rees, W. Siebers and H. Tilgner (Berlin 2002), pp. 244–245; cf. Chaney, "Gibbon, Beckford and the Interpretation of ''Dreams''," pp. 40–41.</ref> In his autobiography, Gibbon vividly records his rapture when he finally neared "the great object of [my] pilgrimage":

<blockquote>...at the distance of twenty-five years I can neither forget nor express the strong emotions which agitated my mind as I first approached and entered the ''eternal City''.  After a sleepless night, I trod, with a lofty step the ruins of the Forum; each memorable spot where Romulus ''stood'', or [[Cicero|Tully]] spoke, or Caesar fell, was at once present to my eye; and several days of intoxication were lost or enjoyed before I could descend to a cool and minute investigation.<ref>Chaney, p. 40 and Murray, pp. 266–267.</ref></blockquote>

Here, Gibbon first conceived the idea of composing a history of the city, later extended to the entire [[Roman Empire|empire]], a moment he described later as his "Capitoline vision":<ref>Pocock, "Classical History," ¶ #2.</ref>

<blockquote>It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the [[Capitoline Hill|Capitol]], while the barefooted fryars were singing [[vespers]] in the [[Santa Maria Aracoeli|temple]] of [[Jupiter (god)|Jupiter]], that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind.<ref>Murray, p. 302.</ref></blockquote>

Womersley<ref name = Womersley11/> notes the existence of "good reasons" to doubt the statement's accuracy. Elaborating, Pocock ("Classical History," ¶ #2) refers to it as a likely "creation of memory" or a "literary invention", given that Gibbon, in his autobiography, claimed that his journal dated the reminiscence to 15 October, when in fact the journal gives no date.

===Late career: 1765–1776===
====Work====
In June 1765, Gibbon returned to his father's house, remaining there until the latter's death in 1770.<ref>Cecil, Algernon. ''Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon, John Henry Newman, R.W. Church, James Anthony Froude, Walter Pater, Lord Morley of Blackburn.'' London: John Murray, 1909, p. 59.</ref> These five years were considered by Gibbon as the worst of his life, but he tried to remain busy by making early attempts at full histories. His first historical narrative, known as the ''History of Switzerland'', representing Gibbon's love for Switzerland, was never finished nor published. Even under the guidance of Deyverdun, his German translator, Gibbon became too self-critical and completely abandoned the project after writing only 60 pages of text.<ref>Cecil, Algernon. ''Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon, John Henry Newman, R.W. Church, James Anthony Froude, Walter Pater, Lord Morley of Blackburn.'' London: John Murray, 1909, p. 60.</ref>

Soon after abandoning his ''History of Switzerland'', Gibbon made another attempt towards completing a full history. His second work, ''Memoires Litteraires de la Grande Bretagne'', was a two-volume set describing the literary and social conditions of England at the time, such as [[George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton|Lord Lyttelton]]'s history of Henry II and [[Nathaniel Lardner]]'s ''The Credibility of the Gospel History''.<ref>Cecil, Algernon. ''Six Oxford thinkers: Edward Gibbon, John Henry Newman, R.W. Church, James Anthony Froude, Walter Pater, Lord Morley of Blackburn.'' London: John Murray, 1909, p. 61.</ref> Gibbon's ''Memoires Litteraires'' failed to gain any notoriety and was considered a flop by fellow historians and literary scholars.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morley |first1=John |title=English Men of Letters |date=May 1878 |publisher=Macmillan and Co. |pages=61–62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m10LAAAAIAAJ&q=Gibbon%27s+Memoires+Litteraires&pg=PA62 |access-date=3 May 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Blue Plaque - Edward Gibbon.jpg|thumb|left|Blue plaque to Gibbon on [[Bentinck Street]], London]]

After he tended to his father's estate&mdash;which was in poor condition&mdash;enough remained for Gibbon to settle fashionably in London at 7 [[Bentinck Street]] free of financial concern. By February 1773, he was writing in earnest, but not without the occasional self-imposed distraction. He took to London society quite easily, joined the better social clubs (including [[Samuel Johnson|Dr. Johnson]]'s [[The Club (dining club)|Literary Club]]), and looked in from time to time on his friend Holroyd in Sussex. He succeeded [[Oliver Goldsmith]] at the Royal Academy as 'professor in ancient history', an honorary but prestigious position. In late 1774, he was initiated as a [[Freemasonry|Freemason]] of the [[Premier Grand Lodge of England]].<ref>i.e., in London's ''Lodge of Friendship No. 3''. See [http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/gibbon_e/gibbon_e.html Gibbon's freemasonry].</ref>

He was also, perhaps least productively in that same year, returned to the House of Commons for [[Liskeard (UK Parliament constituency)|Liskeard]], Cornwall through the intervention of his relative and patron, [[Edward Craggs-Eliot, 1st Baron Eliot|Edward Eliot]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/gibbon-edward-1737-94|title= Gibbon, Edward (1737–94), of Bentinck St., London; Buriton, Hants; and Lenborough, Bucks|publisher= History of Parliament Online|access-date = 10 May 2016}}</ref>  He became the archetypal back-bencher, benignly "mute" and "indifferent," his support of the [[Whig (British political party)|Whig]] ministry invariably automatic. Gibbon lost the Liskeard seat in 1780 when Eliot joined the opposition, taking with him "the Electors of Leskeard [who] are commonly of the same opinion as Mr. El[l]iot." (Murray, p.&nbsp;322.) The following year, owing to the good grace of Prime Minister [[Lord North]], he was again returned to Parliament, this time for [[Lymington (UK Parliament constituency)|Lymington]] on a by-election.<ref>Gibbon's Whiggery was solidly conservative, in favour of the propertied oligarchy, while upholding the subject's rights under the rule of law&mdash;though staunchly against ideas such as the natural rights of man and popular sovereignty, which he referred to as "the wild & mischievous system of Democracy" (Dickinson, "Politics," 178–179).</ref>

====''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'': 1776–1788====
{{Main|The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire}}
After several rewrites, with Gibbon "often tempted to throw away the labours of seven years," the first volume of what was to become his life's major achievement, ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', was published on 17 February 1776. Through 1777, the reading public eagerly consumed three editions, for which Gibbon was rewarded handsomely: two-thirds of the profits, amounting to approximately £1,000.<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', pp. 37, 45. Gibbon sold the copyrights to the remaining editions of volume 1 and the remaining 5 volumes to publishers Strahan & Cadell for £8000.  The great ''History'' earned the author a total of about £9000.</ref>

Volumes II and III appeared on 1 March 1781, eventually rising "to a level with the previous volume in general esteem." Volume IV was finished in June 1784;<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', pp. 49, 57. Both Norton and Womersley (''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', p. 14) establish that vol. IV was ''substantially'' complete by the end of 1783.</ref> the final two were completed during a second Lausanne sojourn (September 1783 to August 1787) where Gibbon reunited with his friend Deyverdun in leisurely comfort. By early 1787, he was "straining for the goal" and with great relief the project was finished in June. Gibbon later wrote:

{{blockquote|It was on the day, or rather the night, of 27 June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last lines of the last page in a summer-house in my garden...I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken my everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that, whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.<ref>Murray, [https://archive.org/stream/autobiographies00gibbgoog?ref=ol#page/n366 pp. 333–334]</ref>}}

Volumes IV, V, and VI finally reached the press in May 1788, their publication having been delayed since March so it could coincide with a dinner party celebrating Gibbon's 51st birthday (the 8th).<ref>Norton, ''Biblio'', p. 61.</ref> Mounting a bandwagon of praise for the later volumes were such contemporary luminaries as [[Adam Smith]], [[William Robertson (historian)|William Robertson]], [[Adam Ferguson]], [[Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden|Lord Camden]], and [[Horace Walpole]]. Adam Smith told Gibbon that "by the universal assent of every man of taste and learning, whom I either know or correspond with, it sets you at the very head of the whole literary tribe at present existing in Europe."<ref>{{cite book|title=The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon, the Historian|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B-cETgg1h2MC|year=1869|publisher=Alex. Murray|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_B-cETgg1h2MC/page/n348 345]}}</ref>
In November 1788, he was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]], the main proposer being his good friend Lord Sheffield.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=2&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27gibbon%27%29|title= Fellow Details|publisher= Royal Society|access-date= 10 May 2016|archive-date= 16 November 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181116082704/https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Catalog&dsqPos=2&dsqSearch=%28%28text%29%3D%27gibbon%27%29|url-status= dead}}</ref>

In 1783 Gibbon had been intrigued by the cleverness of Sheffield's 12-year-old eldest daughter, [[Maria Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley|Maria]], and he proposed to teach her himself. Over the following years he continued, creating a girl of sixteen who was both well educated, confident and determined to choose her own husband. Gibbon described her as a "mixture of just observation and lively imagery, the strong sense of a man expressed with the easy elegance of a female".<ref name=maria>{{Cite ODNB|title=Stanley [née Holroyd], Lady Maria Josepha (1771–1863), letter writer and liberal advocate|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-74489|access-date=4 January 2021|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/74489|last1=Stern|first1=Marvin}}</ref>