The English historian and polemicist George Gordon Coulton (1858-1947) was the leading medievalist of his day. His primary interest was ecclesiastical history.

George Coulton, the son of John James and Sarah Coulton, was born on Oct. 15, 1858, in King's Lynn. In 1877 Coulton entered St. Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he obtained his degree. He then studied for holy orders in the Anglican Church and was ordained deacon in 1883 and priest in 1884. The following year he resigned from the priesthood and began teaching at various private schools. In 1895 he sustained a nervous breakdown; after his recovery he left the academic life to work with a friend who ran a coaching company at Eastbourne. Spending 13 years there in relative financial security gave him the opportunity to pursue his own studies.

During this period Coulton decided to devote his life to the study of medieval life and thought, with special emphasis on the...