A. G. Dickens and the late medieval Church

Abstract

Abstract In this article A. G. Dickens's writings about late medieval religion are located in the context of early twentieth-century English historiography, in particular the controversies between Cardinal Aidan Gasquet and Dr. G. G. Coulton. The article argues that despite his desire for judicious objectivity, and despite also his innovatory use of hitherto neglected types of archival material, Dickens's essentially negative assessment of the state of the late medieval Church was shaped by his own early religious formation, and by a Protestant/whig outlook which he shared with Coulton. As a consequence, he understood some mainstream Tudor religious emphases and convictions as ‘medieval’, by which he meant backward-looking minority concerns.