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The Medieval Scene, an Informal Introduction to the Middle Ages
ix 165p green paperback, plates, a slightly ages and worn copy, this copy published in the year 1964
Paperback
First published January 1, 1930
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About the author
George Gordon Coulton
69 books1 followerGeorge Gordon Coulton was a historian. In 1877 he won a scholarship to St Catharine's College, Cambridge, but a severe case of blood poisoning meant he was awarded an aegrotat degree. After leaving Cambridge, Coulton was briefly a master at a school in Malvern before being ordained deacon in 1883. By 1885 his beliefs led him to forsake his entry into the priesthood and he instead turned to teaching, holding a number of posts in various public schools. In 1896 his employment at a coaching establishment in Eastbourne allowed him time to develop his medieval studies, and he became an expert on the primary sources of the period. From 1900 Coulton began to publish works on the medieval period, probably the most important being two anthologies of medieval sources, 'A Medieval Garner' (1910) and 'Social Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation' (1918). In 1911 Coulton returned to Cambridge to become Birkbeck Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at Trinity College, and in 1919 he was elected to a lectureship in the English faculty and to a Fellowship at St John's College. He now had the means to concentrate on his scholarship and subsequently published a number of important works, among them 'The Medieval Village' (1925), 'Art and the Reformation' (1928), 'Inquisition and Liberty' (1938), 'Medieval Panorama' (1938), and 'Five Centuries of Religion', published in four volumes between 1923 and 1950, the last appearing posthumously. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1929.
Coulton was something of a controversialist and much of his work was directed at Roman Catholic historians, whom he accused of having a flagrant disregard for historical accuracy. For Coulton historical truth, which he placed in contemporary sources, accurately cited, was the cornerstone of historical study. Something of a modernist, he considered it his duty as an historian to confront those who proffered what he believed to be a less than accurate view of the past. Coulton, though, is remembered for more than this confrontational reputation. His extensive scholarship, which extended much further than many historical works at the turn of the century, is rightly seen as important. He also contributed to a widening of the range of medieval studies by his attention to social and economic issues. Furthermore, Coulton was keen to extend his learning to a much wider audience than just those in academic circles, being a fine public speaker and a clear and lucid writer.
Coulton was something of a controversialist and much of his work was directed at Roman Catholic historians, whom he accused of having a flagrant disregard for historical accuracy. For Coulton historical truth, which he placed in contemporary sources, accurately cited, was the cornerstone of historical study. Something of a modernist, he considered it his duty as an historian to confront those who proffered what he believed to be a less than accurate view of the past. Coulton, though, is remembered for more than this confrontational reputation. His extensive scholarship, which extended much further than many historical works at the turn of the century, is rightly seen as important. He also contributed to a widening of the range of medieval studies by his attention to social and economic issues. Furthermore, Coulton was keen to extend his learning to a much wider audience than just those in academic circles, being a fine public speaker and a clear and lucid writer.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 4, 2014
Coulton's strength is writing is a very clear, non-academic style that is easy to digest, especially for lay audiences. This short overview of Medieval England is informative and clear. Unlike some of his works, the brevity of this book is such that it is not too out-dated.
He was writing as long ago as the 1900s. Some of his conclusions are controversial, especially his attitudes towards the church. However, he couches his sweeping generalizations with vague references to primary sources, even if proper citations are lacking. For those interested in more complete references and developed arguments, one can read Coulton's more thorough works on villages and monasteries.
This work has an unusual feel to the writing. It is both formal and informal. Part of the writing makes the reader feel as though they are sitting in a comfortable chair alongside Coulton; and then he makes his casual references to primary sources. The writing style is something like a contemporary outsider - like someone from Medieval France - looking across the channel and commenting on social conditions in England. This casual and unique approach makes reading that much easier and more comfortable.
He was writing as long ago as the 1900s. Some of his conclusions are controversial, especially his attitudes towards the church. However, he couches his sweeping generalizations with vague references to primary sources, even if proper citations are lacking. For those interested in more complete references and developed arguments, one can read Coulton's more thorough works on villages and monasteries.
This work has an unusual feel to the writing. It is both formal and informal. Part of the writing makes the reader feel as though they are sitting in a comfortable chair alongside Coulton; and then he makes his casual references to primary sources. The writing style is something like a contemporary outsider - like someone from Medieval France - looking across the channel and commenting on social conditions in England. This casual and unique approach makes reading that much easier and more comfortable.
Read
September 14, 2014Coulton's writing style is casual and easily digested. However, his tendency to inject axiology into history can be grating (e.g. drawing the conclusion that the Church's suppression of academics was good for society long term) and serves no purpose but to draw inadvertent attention to the moral failings of the medieval mindset.
His treatment of the evolution of feudalism is simplistic but fascinating and provides a much more abstract understanding for the reader. In particular, his description of vassalage as a tree structure is helpful, though he either didn't have the knowledge or the inclination to call it such.
In all, for anyone who has ever entertained the fantasy of living in medieval society, this book peels back some of the mystique surrounding the era. In its place, Coulton shows what the Middle Ages really were: Western society reeling from the loss of Empire and struggling to figure out how to go on.
His treatment of the evolution of feudalism is simplistic but fascinating and provides a much more abstract understanding for the reader. In particular, his description of vassalage as a tree structure is helpful, though he either didn't have the knowledge or the inclination to call it such.
In all, for anyone who has ever entertained the fantasy of living in medieval society, this book peels back some of the mystique surrounding the era. In its place, Coulton shows what the Middle Ages really were: Western society reeling from the loss of Empire and struggling to figure out how to go on.
August 26, 2021
G.G. Coulton is mostly remembered today for his debates with Hilaire Belloc or Arnold Henry Moore Lunn, and judging from this book from a Cambridge scholar, with good reason.
Coulton is a boring author, not because his writing style is bland, in fact it is rather classically eloquent. He is a boring author because, like Noam Chomsky, he is incredibly predictable. If you want to know Chomsky's opinion on any topic, just assume whatever America does is wrong. For Coulton, the predictability is the same, only the target is different.
The book is a diatribe against the Catholic Church with each aspect of the Middle Ages carefully selected to paint Medieval life as negatively as possible and all the fault of the Catholic Church.
In the first chapter, Chaos and Reconstruction, Coulton essentially argues that "The Church had taken the mould of the Empire, as a hermit-crab takes the mould of its shell...[and] many pagan ideas sheltered themselves under the wing of the medieval Church" (p. 8-21). Such damning with faint praise is a theme throughout the book.
In the second chapter, The Medieval Village Coulton makes the claim that "the negro slave-trade had its origins in two Papal bulls" (p. 24) and has one of his few footnotes to support the unsubstantiated claim "See my Medieval Village. pp. 171, 495 ff" This is only one of his frequent self-referrals, in fact, 17 of the 34 footnotes are self-referential. An ugly and non-scholarly habit to say the least.
Another chapter that deserves some mention was the chapter on Monasticism, but the chapter is nothing but a collection of negative impressions reminiscent of English Monks and the Suppression of the Monasteries, "the main cause of the Dissolution lay in the undeniable decay" (p. 78). I checked The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 to see if Eamon Duffy made any reference to any of Coulton's (numerous) writings, given that they were both affiliated with St. John's, Cambridge, but Duffy doesn't even bother to argue against Coulton. He is ignored, a fate worse than death for an academic historian.
Overall, the reader is left with the impression that the Medieval person was dirty, poor, superstitious, ignorant, violent and repressed by the Church to a degree that I wonder is Coulton ever looked at the monasteries and cathedrals, the monumental works of art and architecture, the very University where he taught itself.
His frequent enemy Belloc summarized Coulton's writing and personality thus: (from Six Studies In Quarrelling)
"Yet he [Coulton] is no more an historian than a man throwing great quantities of stones at his neighbour is an architect." (p.110)
"He [Coulton] always seems to me the sort of man who would be invaluable as a proof corrector but is of no value as a judge and presenter of the past." (p.129)
But one last quotation, from Coulton, must be the funniest of all and suggests his ability to interpret historical trends (writing in 1930 England), "In this matter of toleration [which marks the division between the intolerant Middle Ages and the modern world], one of the most important for human progress, the world has turned away, to all appearance for ever, from the mind that was natural to medieval Europe." (p. 163). Darn straight...the 1930s would go down as a beacon of toleration in contrast the the barbarism of the Medieval Europeans. He hit the nail on the head.
Coulton is a boring author, not because his writing style is bland, in fact it is rather classically eloquent. He is a boring author because, like Noam Chomsky, he is incredibly predictable. If you want to know Chomsky's opinion on any topic, just assume whatever America does is wrong. For Coulton, the predictability is the same, only the target is different.
The book is a diatribe against the Catholic Church with each aspect of the Middle Ages carefully selected to paint Medieval life as negatively as possible and all the fault of the Catholic Church.
In the first chapter, Chaos and Reconstruction, Coulton essentially argues that "The Church had taken the mould of the Empire, as a hermit-crab takes the mould of its shell...[and] many pagan ideas sheltered themselves under the wing of the medieval Church" (p. 8-21). Such damning with faint praise is a theme throughout the book.
In the second chapter, The Medieval Village Coulton makes the claim that "the negro slave-trade had its origins in two Papal bulls" (p. 24) and has one of his few footnotes to support the unsubstantiated claim "See my Medieval Village. pp. 171, 495 ff" This is only one of his frequent self-referrals, in fact, 17 of the 34 footnotes are self-referential. An ugly and non-scholarly habit to say the least.
Another chapter that deserves some mention was the chapter on Monasticism, but the chapter is nothing but a collection of negative impressions reminiscent of English Monks and the Suppression of the Monasteries, "the main cause of the Dissolution lay in the undeniable decay" (p. 78). I checked The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 to see if Eamon Duffy made any reference to any of Coulton's (numerous) writings, given that they were both affiliated with St. John's, Cambridge, but Duffy doesn't even bother to argue against Coulton. He is ignored, a fate worse than death for an academic historian.
Overall, the reader is left with the impression that the Medieval person was dirty, poor, superstitious, ignorant, violent and repressed by the Church to a degree that I wonder is Coulton ever looked at the monasteries and cathedrals, the monumental works of art and architecture, the very University where he taught itself.
His frequent enemy Belloc summarized Coulton's writing and personality thus: (from Six Studies In Quarrelling)
"Yet he [Coulton] is no more an historian than a man throwing great quantities of stones at his neighbour is an architect." (p.110)
"He [Coulton] always seems to me the sort of man who would be invaluable as a proof corrector but is of no value as a judge and presenter of the past." (p.129)
But one last quotation, from Coulton, must be the funniest of all and suggests his ability to interpret historical trends (writing in 1930 England), "In this matter of toleration [which marks the division between the intolerant Middle Ages and the modern world], one of the most important for human progress, the world has turned away, to all appearance for ever, from the mind that was natural to medieval Europe." (p. 163). Darn straight...the 1930s would go down as a beacon of toleration in contrast the the barbarism of the Medieval Europeans. He hit the nail on the head.
June 11, 2025
This is a very nice overview work for anyone looking to learn about Medieval England. Coulton's work is very digestible and introduces an overarching concept of the period in each chapter (Chaos and Reconstruction, Medieval Village, Chivalry, Monasticism, etc). A timeline to follow along with could be helpful if you don't already know when the events described happen in relation to one another, as it is organized by topic, not chronology. Some of his conclusions, especially about the Church and the peasantry, are outdated, but a discerning reader can probably pick up on what's what. I do wish he had taken more time to discuss feudal ties, but for a work so brief I can't really fault it. Highly recommend!
June 29, 2020
Despite the word "informal" in the title, this is actually an extremely dry, dense and academic textbook on the Middle Ages in general.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews