historical criticism

noun2

1. •
   The systematic study of received texts, especially the Bible, as documents composed in a particular historical context with varying reliability as sources.
2. •
   (no longer used) The systematic, reasoned study of history and critique of received historical traditions in general.

   • Our genealogical writers have given a fair pedigree of the family of Seton in the fourteenth century. […] This pedigree, however, will not stand the test of historical criticism. — 1779