Time, space, and truth are the bread and butter of the historian’s profession. Regardless of our diverse chronological, geographical, and methodological specializations, we are all interested in uncovering some form of truth about what happened somewhere at some point in the past. Finding the truth about something that happened far away in time or space is not easy, as Thucydides realized. In his opinion, all too often those authors who, like Herodotus, tried to write about events that had occurred in distant places and times ended up producing “fables” rather than history. To avoid the same fault, Thucydides decided to focus on the present and to write only about those acts “whereat I was myself present and those of which with all diligence I had made particular inquiry.” As Arnaldo Momigliano noted, historians working today have overcome the limitations that had hindered Thucydides’s research and have managed to “conquer the past as an object of historical discovery” by developing methods to critically interrogate archival documents and other kinds of primary sources. We do not need to invoke the modern or postmodern skepticism toward the truth-finding capability of history writing, however, to see that historical documents are not foolproof tools and that archives are not timemachines that can transport the historian directly into the place and time of her research. In fact, all historians, to a

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17 世纪天主教会的历史真实性和不断扩大的视野

时间、空间和真相是历史学家职业的面包和黄油。不管我们在时间顺序、地理和方法论方面的专业性如何，我们都对揭示过去某个时间点发生的事情的某种形式的真相感兴趣。正如修昔底德所意识到的那样，要找出发生在遥远时空的事情的真相并不容易。在他看来，那些像希罗多德一样试图写发生在遥远地方和时代的事件的作者，往往最终产生了“寓言”而不是历史。为了避免同样的错误，修昔底德决定专注于当下，只写那些“我自己在场的行为，以及那些我尽最大努力特别调查过的行为”。正如阿纳尔多·莫米利亚诺指出的那样，今天工作的历史学家已经克服了阻碍修昔底德研究的局限性，并通过开发批判性地审问档案文件和其他类型的原始资料的方法，设法“征服了作为历史发现对象的过去”。然而，我们不需要援引现代或后现代对历史写作的真相调查能力的怀疑，而是看到历史文献不是万无一失的工具，档案也不是可以将历史学家直接传送到历史地点和时间的时间机器。她的研究。事实上，所有的历史学家，对于一个 然而，我们不需要援引现代或后现代对历史写作的真相调查能力的怀疑，而是看到历史文献不是万无一失的工具，档案也不是可以将历史学家直接传送到历史地点和时间的时间机器。她的研究。事实上，所有的历史学家，对于一个 然而，我们不需要援引现代或后现代对历史写作的真相调查能力的怀疑，而是看到历史文献不是万无一失的工具，档案也不是可以将历史学家直接传送到历史地点和时间的时间机器。她的研究。事实上，所有的历史学家，对于一个