John Dalberg Acton, a German-educated historian, rose to prominence in late Victorian England is an editor of The Rambler and a leader of the Liberal Catholic Movement. His struggle against Ultramontanism reached its climax at the Vatican Council, 1869-1870, which endorsed the dogma of Papal Infallibility and effectively ended the Liberal Catholic Movement. Acton's position on the Vatican Decrees remained equivocal until the Gladstone controversy of 1874 forced him to take a stand, but even his statement of submission failed to satisfy some Ultramontanists. This study, based largely on Acton's published letters and essays, concludes that obedience to Rome did not contradict his advocacy of freedom of conscience, which also placed limits on Papal Infallibility.