A paste-pot, a pair of scissors, the mechanical precision of a copying clerk, are all useful in their way; but they no more make an historian than a cowl makes a monk.
Polloi men narthekophoroi Bakchoi de te pauroi ["There are many officials, but few inspired." Zenobius, 5.77] There are many writers of history, but very few historians.

Froude wrote with a definite purpose, which he never concealed from himself, or from others.

He believed, and he thought he could prove, that the Reformation freed England from a cruel and degrading yoke, that the things which were Caesar's should be rendered to Caesar, and that the Church should be restricted within its own proper sphere.

Those, if such there be, who think that an historian should have no opinions are entitled to condemn him.

Those who simply disagree with him are not.