Five Centuries of Religion

by George Gordon Coulton

Excerpt from Five Centuries of Religion, Vol. 4: The Last Days of Medieval MonachismBy this time, however, most of my books and papers are inaccessible, and I must apologize at once for shortcomings which must be practically inevitable in a work of this size, with notes of such complexity. Now and then, at Toronto, I dis covered misplaced references. Here then, at home, with failing eyesight and waning energies, I cannot hope to guard against similar slips. But I must throw myself on the mercy of a public.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

4 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1949

About the author

George 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.