Customer Reviews

Medieval Underworld (Sutton History Classics)

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The Medieval Underworld, first published in 1979, caught my eye because of its very intriguing title and cover artwork. Although its subject matter will attract a lot of casual readers, I found the text to be at the level of a graduate student in Medieval studies. Andrew McCall's writing style does not help the less knowledgeable reader gain more wisdom on this subject as he often writes in very long and complex sentences. One sentence on page 53 is 124 words long! The author assumes quite a bit of previous knowledge on the part of the reader. Students of Medieval times will no doubt find this book very useful as it touches on fringe groups of Medieval society that may not be covered as thoroughly in other works. For casual readers, the book is very interesting but challenging. It is not a book to read on a lunch break at the office or in a noisy waiting room. It is a type of book that demands full concentration.

Briefly, this is what the book offers: The first chapter (8 pages) briefly examines two obvious questions stemming from the title: what are the Middle Ages and who consists of the "underworld"? McCall describes the underworld as "people unwilling or unable to comply with the laws of Medieval society" (p. 11). The second chapter (22 pages) examines church, state, and sin; in particular, Canon law versus secular law. Next is a 41-page look at crime and punishment. Such forms of punishment examined are compurgation (public swearing on oath), ordeal by boiling water, fire, and cold water, trial by battle (with several cool examples of its use), torture, and corporal punishment. Chapter four describes bandits, freebooters, and outlaws (51 pages). Many of such criminals were professional soldiers not paid during peacetime and hiding in the woods and wreaking havoc on unfortunate travelers who encountered them. Chapter five (46 pages) looks at thieves and beggars, including lepers, fake medicine men, counterfeiters, and other scam artists. Prostitutes are examined next. The Medieval names for brothel areas is one interesting (and humorous) footnote to this chapter (pg. 191). The next two chapters are on homosexuals (11 pages) and heretics (28 pages). The latter chapter includes a look at flagellants who would endure public displays of self-mutilation. Chapter 19 (21 pages) covers sorcerers and witches and chapter 10 is a very interesting examination of anti-Semitism (26 pages). The last chapter is a very brief look at Hell through Dante's Divine Comedy (4 pages).

The book has many illustrations, footnotes, a bibliography section, and an index. Although the text is difficult at times and could have been written more clearly, if a reader is up to the challenge, this book is very interesting and can be quite entertaining.

A very accessable work to both the casual reader and the lay historian alike. But serious scholars of medieval European history will doubtless enjoy this book far more. McCall doesn't offer an in-depth analysis of the "fringe" elements of medieval Europe so much a brief description of the society that produced them and recounts many of the escapades of some of the more colorful individuals of the time. This is a fun book that left me laughing out loud at times and furthers the historian's creed: "The more things change the more they stay the same."

This book looks at all those who were down and out, out of sorts, out of synch, and generally malcontent with the life and times of the Middle Ages. Subjects include crime and punishment, bandits and outlaws, beggars and thieves, prostitutes, homosexuals, heretics, witches and, of course, Jews. (This list is almost the table of contents verbatum.) The writing style can be a tad challenging: some of the sentences go half a page with innumerable colons, semi-colons and commas dropped into them seemingly at random, and as a result it takes a while to settle in to the text. If one is able to put up with this, though, the rewards are considerable. I immensely enjoyed the author's dry, tongue-in-cheek British humor--some of the stories of crime and mayhem are fabulously funny--and after a while one comes to see that the language itself is part of the humor. As for the information, well, for someone interested in the underbelly of medieval society, it stands as a veritable goldmine. The details are marvelous, the stories--as noted--rich, and I found my ideas flowing like dog spittle over a plate full of meat. A worthy and informative read.

While this book contains a great deal of information, sifting it from the confused writing style used to explain the information is the major challenge. The information is good and often illuminating, however it reads like a legal document. As noted above it badly needed an editor.

Fascinating book on criminals and those considered outside the normal in the MIddle Ages. The book is divided into different crimes, such as robbery and murder and on to prostitution and other deviant behaviors outside of the church. It delves into matters of restitution and the punishments applied, which were extreme and awful. In spite of this, people continued to work outside of the boundaries of the law. Interesting look into the minds of our Medieval ancestors, and how not much has changed over the years.

Interesting look at various elements on the fringes of medieval society. Criminals, bandits, prostitutes, so called witches and sorcerors, Jews, homosexuals among others all have chapters dedicated to them in Medieval Underground. There is also quite a bit in here about punishment for various offenses in medieval society. Really harsh and gruesome stuff!

You could certainly go into further depth with virtually all of the subjects covered in this book but as far as an entertaining overview this is very good.

What could be more interesting than a look at medieval outcasts in a time of conform or get roasted on a spit? The subject deserves a better telling than this collection of run-on sentences. The text is cobbled together from contemporary accounts of crime and punishment lifted from the annals of history. The chapters are laid out as if there is meant to be some coherency to the subject matter. There is a bit but not much as the subject of heretics, for example, can jump from treatment in the year 850 to 1450 with little regard to the subtleties of cultural change during the interim period. It's as if the book was written by a scholar who forgot to take his Ritalin. The information is so poorly organized that it is hardly memorable. I came away with a few nuggets but I wouldn't recommend the book.