clergye' and the action of the third vision

8/3/2019 'Clergye' and the Action of the Third Vision

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"Clergye" and the Action of the Third Vision in "Piers Plowman"Author(s): Britton J. HarwoodSource: Modern Philology, Vol. 70, No. 4 (May, 1973), pp. 279-290Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/436348 .Accessed: 19/09/2011 20:59

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Mo dernMAY 1973

VOLUME 70NUMBER 4

0

"CLERGYE" AND THE ACTION OF THE THIRD VISION INPIERS PLOWMANBRITTONJ. HARWOOD

None of the visions in Piers Plowmanpresents more difficulties of meaning thanthe third (B.8.67-12.293).' The search ofWill, the dreamer, is intensified as well asredirectedby the Pardon scene, and there-fore Nevill Coghill is probably wrong inthinkingthat the poetic action is suspendeduntil this third vision has glossed otherparts of the poem.2 On the other hand,Will's quest seems fruitless in this dream.After his interview with Imaginative, he isevidently little the wiser,3and it is hard toagreewith R. W. Frank, Jr., that this visionshows Will he can know the moral law,just

as the nextvision will show him that he canperformit.4If all the parts of the poem are to beunderstoodwithin the context of the natureof Will's quest, then it is well to recall hisinitial statementof it, made at the momenthe discovered he was in the presence ofHoly Church:

ThanneI courbedon my knees andcryedhir of grace,And preyedhir pitousely preyfor mysynnes,And also kenneme kyndelion cristetobileue,That I mi3teworchenhis wille that wrou3teme to man;"Techeme to no tresore but telle me thisilke,How I may saue my soule .... " [B.1.79-84]He wishes to believe in Christ and seeks a"kynde knowyng" of him.5 Quite simply,then, the action of the thirdvision is Will's

1 See R. W. Frank, Jr., "The Number of Visions in PiersPlowman," Modern Language Notes 66 (1951): 309. The B andC texts are quoted from The Vision of William concerningPiers the Plowman, in Three Parallel Texts, ed. W. W. Skeat(Oxford, 1886). "The most serious doubts about [the] authen-ticity" of A.12 cause me to leave it out of account in thefollowing discussion (see George Kane, ed., Will's Visionsof Piers Plowman and Do-Well... [the A text] [London,1960], pp. 51-52). I follow the action of the B text becausethat is the most familiar for most readers, and even the mostdistinguished student of C subscribes ("in general and withreservations") to the superiority of B. Although I occasion-ally use a change from B to C as incidental corroborationfor an assertion, I do not believe any interpretation of sucha change could constitute sufficient proof in itself.2 See Nevill Coghill, "The Character of Piers PlowmanConsidered from the B Text," Medium Evum 2 (1933):112-14.3 After the third vision (i.e., at the beginning of B. 13),Will is nearly out of his wits and goes about begging, appar-ently little better off than earlier in the poem, when he kneltbefore the cross and beat his chest, "Sykinge for [his] synnes,... / Wepyng and wailinge" (C. 6.107-8).

4 See R. W. Frank, Jr., "Piers Plowman" and the Scheme ofSalvation (New Haven, Conn., 1957), pp. 46-67.sI sketch the nature and outcome of this search andinvestigate the chief obstacles to it in "Piers Plowman, Four-teenth-Century Skepticism, and the Theology of Suffering,"Bucknell Review 19, no. 3 (1971): 119-36.

[Modern Philology, May 1973] 279


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280 BRITTON. HARWOODprobing several ways of knowing--Thought, Wit, Study, Imaginative-inorder to find the way to know Christ. Whathappens in the vision should be understoodwithin the context of a crisisof belief. I wishto illustrate this by focusing first on thecharacter "Clergye," who personifies anobject of knowledge identifyinga power ofthe mind.6 Then I shall try to show howClergy as a mode of knowledge, by failingto yield the belief sought by the dreamer,becomes an important motive for much ofthe dreamer'spuzzling behavior.

IIn late medievalEngland, for exampleinthe "Literature of the Estates of the

World," "clergy," of course, meant both"learning and men of learning.7 Thelearning may have been only the Latinrequired for minor orders,8 and in PiersClergy presupposesLatin.9Yet Clergygoesbeyond this-even beyond learning in amore general sense."' Dame Study never

doubts that Clergy knows Dowel;" and,although the dreamer at first delights tobelieve this, he later expresses his dis-appointment by (in B) making a joke ofClergy'sself-regardingcritiqueof waywardclerics. That is, having raised an ideal ofthe cloister true to his nature as we shalltrace it, Clergy threatens those who fallshort-"the abbot of Abyndoun and allehis issu." Because none of this is much tothe purpose of the dreamer,who seeks thevision of God only to hear of kings givingknocks and Dowel's beating down Cain,Will mischievouslydrawsout the reductio:"Thanne is Dowel and Dobet... dominusand kni3thode"(B.10.331). In C, Scripturestrangely follows Clergy's shorter andmuch different speech by deploring Willwith "multi multa sapiunt, et seipsosnesciunt." To this, Recklessnessfirstreactsby denying(fearfully,I think)thatScriptureand Clergy have the whole truth,12 andlater, more temperately, by denying thatClergy is as good as even a jot of God'sgrace.13 Why does the dreamer allege atthis point that Clergy has preached pre-destination?4 Why is Will disillusionedwith Clergy? If he merely resents Scrip-ture's injunction to reform himself beforeexercising his ingenuity abroad, why willhe be echoed by Conscience, who tellsClergy,"Me wereleuer,by owre lorde ... /Haue pacience perfitlich than half thypakke of bokes" (B.13.200-201)? What, inshort, is the meaningof Clergy'sknowledgeof Dowel, whatever that may be?While Imaginative only comes close tomaking grace the perquisite of clergy (a

6 On the fact that Clergy is an object of knowledge "orelse the result of a mental activity rather than the activityitself or the faculty which exercises it," see A. V. C. Schmidt,"Langland and Scholastic Philosophy," Medium ,Evum 38(1969): 153.7 Ruth Mohl, The Three Estates in Medievaland RenaissanceLiterature (New York, 1933), p. 15. For "clergy" in the senseof "a particular group of clerics," see MED, s.v. "clergie,"n., 1 (a). "Clergy" means this three times in B (3.15, 164;12.123), but each time C revises to "clerkus" (or "clerkes").Of the eighty-one instances of "clergy" which I count, four(B. Prol. 116, C.1.151, C.16.169, B.19.464) indicate just apolitical class-MED, n., 1 (b)-and are presently, therefore,of no interest.8Viz., the lectorate, the most ancient of the minor ordersand the usual entry into the clergy (see Joseph Tixeront,L'ordre et les ordinations [Paris, 1925], pp. 96-97).9The C text (14.129) replaces "lewed prestes" with anironic "clergie" after Recklessness has raged against "clerkes.../ That conneth nat sapienter nother synge ne rede"(C. 14.125-26). Latin is suggested also when Sloth, having been"prest and person" for more than thirty years, confessesnevertheless that he "can nouht constrye Catoun ne clergi-alliche reden" (C.8.34).10 For "clergye" as knowledge generally, see B.20.227-30.Compare B.15.374 (omitted from the C text-hereafter OFC)and one sense of "clergye" at B.15.203. See also B.12.157.Although there is thus little evidence that the poet meant"clergye" simply as knowledge, this is the way that mostcritics have construed the term (see H. W. Wells, "The Con-struction of Piers Plowman," PMLA 44 [1929]: 125; R. W.Chambers, Man's Unconquerable Mind [London, 1939], p.127; A. H. Smith, "Piers Plowman" and the Pursuit of Poetry[London, 1951], p. 11; Frank, "Piers Plowman" and theScheme of Salvation, p. 55; M. W. Bloomfield, "Piers Plow-man" as a Fourteenth-Century Apocalypse [New Brunswick,N.J., n.d.], pp. 117, 120, 142; David Fowler, "Piers thePlowman": Literary Relations of the A and B Texts [Seattle,1961], pp. 17, 74-77; and John Lawlor, "Piers Plowman":An Essay in Criticism [London, 1962], pp. 99-100, 116). G. H.Gerould calls it "acquired knowledge in all fields" ("The

Structural Integrity of Piers Plowman B," Studies in Philology45 [1948]: 64). Otto Mensendieck thought that the way toClergy allegorized monastic vows and that, from Clergy, Willreceives instruction suitable to a future priest. Clergy, then,would represent Will's experience in clerical orders (seeCharakterentwickelung und ethischtheologische Anschauungendes Verfassers von "Piers the Plowman" [London, 1900], pp.27, 25).11 See the occurrences at B.10.148, C.12.101, C.12.113,and B.10.216.12 See C.12.201.13 See C.12.226; cf. B.12.442 ff. (C.12.274 ff.).14 See B.10.374 ff.; C.12.204 ff.


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"CLERGYE" AND THE ACTION OF THE THIRD VISION IN "PIERS PLOWMAN" 281quality, after all, of the literateclass),15thedreamer already considers himself "vn-writen for somme wikkednesse"(B.10.377)because he cannot believe as Clergy does.True, in both texts predestinationis one ofalternativeexplanations:And that I man made was and my nameyentredIn the legendeof lyf longe er I were,Orelles vnwriten or sommewikkednesseas holywritwytnesseth,Nemo ascenditad celum,nisiquide celodescendit.I leue it wel ....16But on the evidence of Will's reaction,neither Clergy's warning to monks norScripture's to the rich'7 gives Will theexperience of Christ. If Will has no faith,then moral suasion is merely vexatious.Like Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews whoquestions Jesus (as recordedin the chapterof John which the dreamercites-"Nemoascendit"-and which Imaginative willrepeatedly cite), the dreamer "does notbelieve [and consequently] is alreadyjudged."1I Grace, whichgoes whereit will,is necessaryfor belief in Christ, but Christdeclares that Nicodemus lacks it: "If I havespoken of earthly thingsto you, and you donot believe, how will you believe if I speakto you of heavenly things?" The force of"Nemo ascendit ad celum, nisi qui de celodescendit" is that faith in Christ is the in-dispensable condition for salvation, asAugustine's commentary on the versemakes clear.19In this retort to Scripture

(B.10.372 ff.), the dreamer appears tocontradict himself: Solomon and otherslike him were damned because their worksdid not incorporate the goodness theytaught; yet evil deeds did not damn MaryMagdalene. No contradiction exists, how-ever, if Will is maintaining the necessity ofbelief: because of it, the Magdalene, Paul,Dismas, even the rich, are saved. In thedreamer's unbelief, Clergy and Scripture,representing a mode of faith to which wesee him unresponsive, become merelybooklearning. Although the dreameras Recklessstates that predestination can work eitherto write his name in "the legende of lif" orto create him "inparfit,ypult out of grace,"he plunges into oblivious debauchery be-cause he cannot believe what Clergy hastold him and concludes that he has beenpredestined to damnation. This is the viewof Clergy from the outside. As Will feelshimself to be, the "cunnynge clerkes thatconne many bokes" (B.10.457) are un-gracious and damned. If Clergy is a way tobelieve, it is inoperative for them, nomatter how they may claim the name andimitate the method of Clergy. The poetmanages to characterize Clergy-throughImaginative, to give it a hearing-and yetto show the dreamer and Conscience for-saking it as inadequate.We may consider the evidence tending toestablish Clergy's nature. First of all,Clergy is intimately related to Scripture.Allegorically, they are married. Holy Writitself is twice called by the name"clergye."20 That ClergyrequiresScriptureis allegorized at Reason's dinner, when"Cleregiecalde after mete and thennecamScripture," apportioning the four gospels,Augustine, and Ambrose (C.16.43-45). Atother points, Clergy's knowledge of Scrip-ture is clearly implied: for instance, thedreamer declares what "Clergie seith thathe seih in the seynt euangelie"(C.17.204).

is See B.12.141-43, 171 ff., 186 ("Wo was hym markedthat wade mote with the lewed!"), 187-91, 270-73.16 B.10.375-78. The lines in C (12.204-9) seem to medifficult. I think they can be paraphrased thus: "Clergy saysthat he saw in the Holy Gospel that I as a man had beenconceived long before I actually lived-and my name enteredin the Book of Life. Preachers who say this preach [that I am]predestined [for life]; or [otherwise they] preach [that I ampredestined to be] imperfect, deprived of grace, and [conse-quently, predestined] to be left out of the Book of Life forsome wickedness [I was to do]."17 B.10.267-330 (either OFC altogether or transferred toReason's sermon in C.6), 333-44 (OFC).is John 3:18.19 See De peccatorum meritis et remissione, bk. 1. chap. 31, inPatrologia Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1844-90), 44:144-45. 20 See A.10.104 and C.17.240.


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282 BRITTON. HARWOODMore than this, however, Clergyis some-

thing "done with" Scripturaltexts, for theworse or better. In a passage added to C,Dame Study regretsthat"is no wit worthnow bote hit of

wynnyngesoune,And cappedwithclergie to conspirewronge.For-thi," quathhue to Wit, "be warholywrit to sheweAmongeshem that hauenhawesattewille .... ." [C.12.79-82]"Wit" here evidently names such biblicalapothegms as the one Study has just culledfrom Tobit, ones which can be perverselyconstrued.Accordingly, "clergie" ndicatesthe construing itself.21This interpretativequality Imaginativealmost certainlyhas inmind when he says, "Kynde-wittede menhan a cleregieby hem-selue; / Of cloudesand of custumes thei contreuede menythynges."22A third characteristic s Clergy's presentincompatibilitywith the seven arts. For thepoet, living afterOckham,scientific knowl-edge as restricted to particular sensoryobjects no longer took all its value fromparticipatingin theology, as it had for theVictorines.Clergyisreluctant now to defineDowel until he and his "seuene sones" can"acorden"(B.13.121).These three qualities-none of which isparticularly stressed-cannot really beplaced apart from the treatment of Clergyby Imaginative. In both texts, Imaginativeuses the story of the woman taken inadulteryto exalt clergyover "Kind Wit":In the olde lawe, as the lettretelleth,thatwas the lawe of Iewes,... what woman were in auoutrie taken,wereshe riche or pore,

With stones men shulde hir strykeandstone hir to deth.A womman,as we fynden,was gulty ofthat dede,Ac crysteof his curteisye thorwclergyehir saued;For thorwcarectusthat Crystwrot thelewes knewehemseluenGultieras afor god and gretter n synneThanthe woman that therewas andwentenaweyfor schame.The clergyethat there was confortedthewomman.Holykirkeknoweth this that Crysteswrityngsaued;So clergyeis conforte to creatures hatrepenten,And to mansed men myschiefat herende.For-thiI conseillethe for CristessakeClergyethat thow louye ....[B.12.75-86, 94]The passage is shortened in C and itsbeginningrevised:"ForMoyses wittnesseththat god wrot in stoon with hus fynger /Lawe of loue oure lorde wrot, longe erCristwere"(C.15.37-38). In both passages,Christ himself is an exegete. As earliercommentators had done,23 the poet juxta-poses the Mosaic law forbidding adulterywith the "sygne" (C. 15.40)-the markwithan occult meaning-written simultaneouslywith Christ's enacting the "lawe of loue."However, the "lawe of loue" had existed"longe er Crist were" as the symbolizedmeaning of the Old Law; hence it is theOld Law as symbolic that is shown inChrist'swritinga sign. Becausehis speakingand writing expose the truth of the OldLaw and complete it, they begin andjustifythe tradition of the gloss.The perception, then, of the law of loveessential to all Scripturegoes here by the21 In a related sense, Clergy at C.12.114 is someone whooversees books. Compare C.12.278-80, where "clerkes of thelawe," who apparently have mastery of the letter, can besilenced by those who have been given the grace to explainthe sentence--"Connynge and clergie to conclude hem alle."22 C.15.72-73. A source for this, not previously pointedout, I think, is Luke 12:54-57.

23 E.g., Bede: "Quantum etiam ad historiam pertinet, perhoc quod digito scripsit in terra, illum se fore monstravit quiquondam legem in lapide scripsit" (cited by Thomas Aquinasin the Catena aurea in quatuor evangelia [Savona, 1889], 6:285).


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"CLERGYE" AND THE ACTION OF THE THIRD VISION IN "PIERS PLOWMAN" 283name of clergy.24Medieval exegetes knewit as allegoria, the first of the three concen-tric understandings of the sensus.25 The"connynge of heuene" (B.12.68), Clergyisa mode of vision: it "cometh bote ofsiht."28 Lubac quotes two sentences fromGregory's Moralia explaining this: "Haecper historiam facta credimus, sed perallegoriam jam qualiter sint'implendavideamus"; and "Si vero cuncta haecjuxtahistoriam tractando discurrimus,per alle-goriae quoque mysteria perscrutemur."27Events, not words, are allegorical: humanhistory is a kind of poem, and the exegetesees through the earlierevents recorded inScripture to the oneness of the divineordonnance. The thing becomes a type,signifying "tant6t le Christ, et tant6tl'Eglise, et tantot l'un et l'autre."That thechurch is typified by the phenomenonexplains some otherwise puzzling words inthe C text: "Cristcam and confermede[theNew Law, that is] and holy kirke made, /And in sond a sygne wrot" (C.15.39-40,italics added). If the dreamerseeks to knowChrist, then it is pertinent to Piers thatallegoria is conceived as a perception of adivine dispensation in which a series ofsingular facts lead "jusqu'd un autre Fait

singulier;une s6rie d'interventionsdivines,dont la r6alit6 meme est significative,achemine aune autre sorte d'interventiondivine, 6galement r6elle, plus profonde etplus d6cisive. Tout culmine dans un grandFait... le Fait du Christ."28It is just as pertinent that allegoria isunavailable to the natural man. As Christwas merely human to the eyes of Nico-demus, so the divinity hidden everywherein Holy Writ is perceived only with "lesyeux spirituels,.... qui sont en r6alit6 lesyeux regus de Dieu."29 In Imaginative'sview, clergy(allegoria),presupposinggraceand faith, unlocks the Scriptures which"lerede" men (C.15.55) can simply readand which the illiterate can do nothingwithat all (C.15.58-71). "Crystendome," orfaith,30 is "the coffre of Crystes tresore"(B.12.111) because it yields a good hope,"mercy for.. . mysdedes if men it woleaske"(B.12.113).The imageof the "coffre"is continued with the archa-dei, whichparallels both the commandment againstadultery and the bread of the Eucharist.Only Levites can touch the Ark with im-punity; analogously, only clerks (thosepossessing "clergy") can see love in thecommandment against adultery and thebody of God lying "under" the bread. Inexegetical tradition, allegoria, of course,does not remain cognitive and extrinsic-something that can be used or not, like abook of logarithms. Rather, made possibleby the graceto believein the divinityof thehistorical Christ,31it builds the whole offaith in the believer. Lubac writes: "LeGentil, en tout cas, 6tait normalementappel&, la foi par d'autresvoies, gracea lapredication directe de 1'Evangile et auxsignes qui l'accompagnaient; apris coupseulement, il pouvait voir sa foi confirm6e

24 D. W. Robertson, Jr., and B. F. Hupp& define "clergy"at one point as "spiritual learning" ("Piers Plowman" andScriptural Tradition [Princeton, N.J., 1951], p. 124). In com-menting on B. 12.141-43, they interpret"clerkes" as allegorists(p. 152). Yet elsewhere they write that "clergy which is basedon Christ's love is good" (p. 152)-as if either allegoria couldarise from something other than "Christ's love" or clergy bemore general than allegoria. Finally, they appear to under-stand clergy simply as "clerical learning" (pp. 153, 157).Helmut Maisack equates clergy with theological knowledge,but does not specify what that might be (William LanglandsVerhdltnis zum Zisterziensischen Monchtum [Toibingen diss.,Balingen, 1953], p. 52).25 Which, I suggest, is represented by Scripture. Nothing inthis paper is intended to endorse the view (as once expressedby Robertson) that "medieval Christian poetry... is alwaysallegorical when the message of charity or some corollary ofit is not evident on the surface" ("Historical Criticism," inEnglish Institute Essays, 1950, ed. Alan S. Downer [NewYork, 19511, p. 14).26 C.15.30. Where C has clergy come only from sight,which is consistent with the character of allegoria, B hadstated that "Of quod scimus cometh clergye and connynge ofheuene, / And ofquod vidimus cometh kynde witte of si3te ofdyuerse peple." These lines are altogether revised for C,and the attendant scriptural quotation-" Quod scimus,loquimur; quod vidimus, testamur"-omitted. The text whichthey echo, 1 John 1:1-2, treats the fact of conversion-ofparamount interest to the dreamer, I would argue, but pre-supposed by allegoria. This may be one of the reasons C omitsit. 27 Henri de Lubac, Exdgese mddidvale (Paris, 1959), 1:489.

28 Lubac, p. 515.29 Cf. B.12.101-4.30 See MED, s.v. "Cristendom," n., 2 (a).31 Accordingly, the first of two articles of belief invoked byClergy in C.12 is the divinity of Christ (the other is theTrinity).


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284 BRITTON. HARWOODpar les t6moignages multiformes qu'on end6couvre dans les anciennes Ecritures.""2While Clergy "cometh bote of siht," itsorigin is "Crystes loue" (B.12.73). Clergysprings thence not only because Christ isthe first cleric, as we have seen, but alsobecause Christ's love is what is perceived.Imaginative more than allows himself anepithet in urging the love of Clergy "forCristes sake" (B.12.94). Because "clergy"generically signifies priests, "Cleregie isCristesvikery" so far as they are apostolic;but it is "Cristes vikery to conforte and tocuren"33in the furthersense that, by beingthe perception of a good hope, it continuesChrist's own teaching:For the heihe holigoste heuene shal to-cleue,And loue shal lepe out after in-to this loweerthe,S.. and clerkesshullenit fynde.[B.12.141-43]The Magi ("clerkes") surpass merelylearned men because they can see Christ'slove.Even when Imaginative, the associatedfaculty of the mind, is absent, Clergy asobject of knowledge still speaks of himselfas allegoria. Thus, to detain Conscience hesays, "I shal brynge 30w a bible, a boke ofthe olde lawe, i And lere 30w, if 3ow lyke,the leest poynte to knowe" (B.13.185-86).Clergy'sexegetical labors requirethe wholeapparatus of the seven arts,34 refractorythough they may sometimes be. LikeAugustine, the poet shows this mode of

vision to require humility and to issue inrighteousness. The ascetic approach toClergy described by Dame Study parallelsAugustine's advice that the student shouldapproach Holy Scripture as if anointedwith hyssop, "a meek and humble herb,and yet nothing is stronger or more pene-trating than its roots" ;35 and, at the end ofpassus 11, Imaginative's advice covers theway to both Clergy and Reason: "Had-destow suffred... , / Thow sholdest haueknowen that Clergye can and conceiuedmore thorugh Resoun."36

Clergyis relatedto Reason37or a meansfor coming to Reason38 since the mostimportantmoral sense of "resoun"in Piersis rectitude.One who "knoweth clergyecansonner aryse"Out of synneand be sauf though he synneofte,If hym lykethand lest than any lewedlelly. [B.12.172-74]Because, as we saw, allegoria is thought toedify the believer, one sense of "clergy"appropriately mplies the inclusion of "loreand ... letterure,... lawe and ... reson""-in short, doctrinal content.40 All that iswanting for rectitude, then, is contritionitself, and once exegesis also providedthis.41At the end of the poem, this is putalmost schematically.FriarFlattererhaving

32 P. 527. Cf. Jean Leclercq, The Love of Learning and theDesirefor God,trans. C. Misrahi (New York: Mentor paper-back, 1962; 1st French ed., 1957), pp. 86-90, 219. My discus-sion of allegoria in this paragraph eans heavily on Lubac, pp.493, 495, 501, 510-11, and 527-28.33 C. 5.70. The lines in B read: "For Clergyeis kepere vnderCryst of heuene; / Was there neuere no kny3te but Clergyehym made." Later on, Christ as conqueror creates knights.This may refer to conversion. For a possible historical clarifi-cation, see H. O. Taylor, TheMediaevalMind, 4th ed. (London1930), 1:543.a4 See Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 2 and 3. BerylSmalley reviews Hugh of Saint Victor's attempt to press thenew sciences, particularly history and geography, into theservice of exegesis; likewise the twelfth-century masters ofthe sacred page (e.g., Peter Comestor) tried to adapt theartes to spiritual exposition (see The Study of the Bible in theMiddle Ages, 2d ed. [New York, 1952], pp. 86-87, 216-17).

3. On Christian Doctrine, 2.62, trans. D. W. Robertson,Jr. (Indianapolis, 1958),p. 77.36 B.11.403-4; cf. C.14.232-34. See also B.11.417-24, wherefear and shame are prerequisite for caring about Clergy orReason-or, in C, even Kynde Wit.37 See B.11.405andsecondarysensesof "clergy"at B.11.404,414 (cf. C.14.234), 420, and C.16.26.38 See C.16.26. Presumably for those in a state of grace,clergy would be meaningful. This may be why it is known toLiberum-arbitrium nd to Charity (C.17.159, 319).39 C.12.100. Cf. a similar secondary sense of "clergy" atB.13.118 and B.13.183 (OFC).40See C.12.201, 224-29, B.I1.139, 160, and B.12.172. Thisdoctrinal knowledge is implied by allegoria. When clergy isnamed either by Will or by personified mental faculties forwhom it is inoperative (does not, that is, give the vision ofDowel), this sense of doctrinal content becomes central (seeB.10.442, C.12.280, C.13.97, B.13.119, C.16.177, B.15.76). Onone occasion, Clergy describes himself as giving instructionthrough the medium of literacy in specifically Christianbeliefs. But both occurrences of "clergy" in this connectionare OFC (see B.13.202, 211).41 See Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 2.10, p. 39 inRobertson translation.


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"CLERGYE" AND THE ACTION OF THE THIRD VISION IN "PIERS PLOWMAN" 285been so complaisant that Contrition ceasesto be contrite, it is Clergy whom Con-science sends for "And also Contricioun"(B.20.374). This is a paratacticexpression,I believe, of a causal relationship.The poem, however, seems nowhere elseto propose that "clergye"actually impliescontrition. If the latter means hope, then,far from clergy's being operative for thedreamer, it evidently incites despair."Psalme one or tweyne,"says Imaginative,"conforteth vch a clerkeand keuerethhymfram wanhope."42 Although the twopsalms chiefly limn the inflexibility ofdivine justice, hope can doubtless under-stand the speaker of the second to be theperfect, and therefore justifying, Son tocome. But for the dreamer,clergy,remain-ing unrealized, is the occasion for adesperate (B.10.431-41) licentiousness.43While Clergy perhaps defines Dowel,Dobet, and Dobest in the B text "just asThought had done,... in terms of theActive, Contemplative and 'Mixed'lives," 44 Clergy's interest (in C) lies nearlyall with Dowel, which in both texts seemsentirely predictable from Clergy's natureas we have discernedit. Dowel is belief-inthe Old Law (to which only one line isgiven),45 the Incarnation (three or fourlines), and finally the whole Christianfaithas it is built within the exegete, allegorist,cleric. Referring to the Nativity, Clergysays that

Her-of Austin the olde made bokes andbokes;Ho was hus autor and him of god tauhte?Patriarkesand prophetes,apostelesandangelesAnd the holy trinite to Austynappeirede,And he ous seide as he seih and so ichby-leyue,That he seih the syre and the sone andseynte spirit togederes,And alle thre bote on God and her-ofmade he bokes,3e, busiliche bokes; ho bethhuswytnesses?

Ego in patre et pater in me est: et qui mevidit, patrem meum uidit qui in celis est.Alle the clerkesvnderCrist ne couthe thisasoile;Bote thus by-longethto by-leyue alle thatlyketh dowel. [C.12.149-581Clergy discloses his own nature here byattributing to Augustine two acts of per-ception in one. First, his written exegesismerely embodies the whole fabric of beliefbuilt within him upon his spiritual inter-pretation of the Nativity. Second, he seesthe historical Christ to have been triunelydivine. The second perception is a stage ofthe first. The vision of God which Clergyattributes to Augustine depends on theillumined eye of the soul. The veryfear andpiety requisite for this vision may resultfrom grace, but can hardly guaranteegrace."Alle the clerkes vnder Crist ne couthe thisasoile": clerics cannot explain how theyhave come to be clerics.46The dreamer, however, cannot now seeGod as Augustine did and infers from thisthat he is without grace. But neither, itseems, do Conscience and Patience. Thetheory that a puzzle about clergy causedthe poet to break off the A text encoun-ters some difficulty when, despite Clergy's

42 B.12.177, 179. Cf. "Cleregie"at C.16.62. The inability to"see" things unseen leaves Will with the preeminentlyvisible:Pride-of-Life "badde me, for my contenaunce, acounteClergye li3te" (B. 11.15).43 Rose Bernard Donna considers that Will's succumbingto the three temptations is indulgence resulting in despair(Despair and Hope: A Study in Langland and Augustine[Washington, D.C., 1948], p. 21). I think it is an attempt toput despair out of his mind.44 T. P. Dunning, "Piers Plowman": An Interpretation ofthe A-Text (Dublin, 1937), p. 179. In C, Dobet and Dobestare "Leaute and Loue" (12.161), to be provisionally equatedwith rectitude, to which, for the exegete, allegoria can lead.Perhaps because Clergy'sreal interestis with exegesis, Dobetand Dobest in C get no more than two lines.45Clergy in the B text teachesDowel verynearly as he doesin C. Dobet, the choice by the will of what Dowel knows, isalready implied by belief (Dowel); cf. Dobet and Dobest in Cas rectitude. In B, Dobest quickly moves into the concernsnot of exegetes, but of bishops, and deals with ecclesiasticalreform. The omission of all this from C is consistent with thecentral concept of Clergy as allkgoria.46Similarly, see B.12.225, where Clergy is described asunable to explain the rectitude of all things but man, andB.12.268, where it signifies an ignorance of whether any givenman is saved.


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286 BRITTON . HARWOODrehabilitationby Imaginative in passus 12,he receives such diffident treatment inpassus 13. Clergy had been useless to saveTrajan. At the banquet at Conscience'shouse, the sybaritic friar now seems toillustrate the indispensabilityof grace evento Clergy. The friar is a cleric himself, anallegorist or exegete: the dreamer expectshim to show that the dainties, allegoricallyunderstood, are "fode for a penaunte";Conscience calls him one of "3e deuy-nours"; and the friar's version of Dowel,Dobet, and Dobest is a kind of pr6cis ofClergy's in passus 10. Here is the friar'sclergy, then, not offering the vision ofChrist, but demonstrating in his extrava-gant hypocrisy the absence of grace. EvenClergy in the abstract is abashed, for hedeclines to discourse in deferenceto Piers.Although the friar wishes to ally withConscience and Clergy, Conscience findsPatience more promising and bids farewellto Clergyby saying,If Paciencebe owrepartyngfelawe andpryuewith vs botheTherenys wo in this worlde that we neshuldeamende,And confourmenkyngesto pees and alkynneslondes,Sarasenesand Surre and so forth alle theIewesTurnein-to the trewefeithe and in-til onebyleue. [B.13.206-10]Here, however, Clergy is envisioned as akind of indoctrinator arriving after thebattle; and C, by eliminating the passagealtogether, does not hold out to Clergyeven this measure of pertinence." Onemight suggesthistorical reasonswhyClergydoes not always, or perhapsjust no longer,offer the vision of God: in the history ofbiblicalstudy, the triumphof the letterover

the spiritual meaning;48 in the Zeitgeist,the decline of allegory to the status, as thepoet shows in the clerical gourmand, of aparlor game;49 or in philosophy, the con-sequences of Ockhamist epistemology,which justified the possibility of anintuition of something which in actualitydid not exist.50 Clergy is offered as thevision of Christwhere,in at least one sense,Christ does not exist-in the letter ofScriptureor in the phenomenal universe.51

IIThat grace acts independently of clergymeans that clergy, as a way of knowing,does not convert Will by providing theknowledge of Christ.Recklessness52(in C)insists first that, without grace, one can be"witty in feith" without performing goodworks and then that good works do notguaranteeheaven. This arguesin effectthatclergy is not so good as grace even if it didresult in good works; and Recklessness

proceeds to point out that Christ nevercommended clergy. At this point thedreamertries to compensate for the failureof clergy53 by praisingand loving the poor.He can "proclaim"poverty, which he firstmakes heuristic and then sufficientin itselffor salvation. The action of the eleventhpassus embodies the turn to the second of

47 Similarly, two occurrenceswhich signify an approach toClergy through Conscience are OFC (see B.13.23, 24).

48See Smalley, esp. pp. 281 ff., 292-94, 308-28. WhileAquinas allows that assigning multiplemeaningsto a text maybe useful, e.g., in homiletics, he denies that any single word inScriptureproperly has a number of senses (cf. Ceslaus Spicq,Esquissed'une histoirede 1'exigdse latine au moyendge [Paris,1944],p. 280).Paul de Vooght remarks he generaldisaffectionwith Scripture among fourteenth-century theologians, as ifthe full study of Scripture and tradition had already beenaccomplished(Les sourcesde la doctrinechritienned'aprOsesthdologiensdu XIVe sidcle et du debut du XVe... [Brussels,1954],pp. 256-58).49See J. Huizinga, The Waningof the Middle Ages, trans.F. Hopman (New York: Doubleday Anchor paperback,n.d.;first published 1924),pp. 213-14, 221, 284.5o See Constantin Michalski, Les courants critiques etsceptiquesdans la philosophiedu XIVe siecle (Cracow, 1927);reprinted n his Laphilosophieau XIVesiecle, ed. Kurt Flasch(Frankfurt, 1969), p. 189. Likewise, the dreamer will objectthatcharity now can be found only "figuratifliche" C.17.294).51 See C.14.131-33.

52 Recklessnessshould not be interpretedas simply a speciesof immorality.He is reckless because he is desperate.5a Faith is the continuous theme; hence the easy transitionto Dismas (B.10.414). Since the dreamer fears that he lacksgrace,cannot believe,and isdamned,the "smug complacency"attributed to him here by J. A. Longo is hard to see ("PiersPlowman and the Tropological Matrix: Passus XI and XII,"Anglia 82 [1964]:298, 301).


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"CLERGYE" AND THE ACTION OF THE THIRD VISION IN "PIERS PLOWMAN" 287the two ways seen by Gabriel Biel, afifteenth-century nheritorof Ockham whoalso wrestledwith the problem of knowingGod, as leadingto forms of God's presence."The first, to God's presence in others:God has made himself known by revelationand inspiration to some, on whoseauthority we believe. The second, to thepresence of God in the effects of his ownacts of creation."54Betweenthe closing ofthe first avenue-the absence of God'sgrace from such facets of auctoritas asDame Study, Scripture, and Clergy-andWill's attempt at the second, there is theinterlude of the Three Temptations, inwhich he tries to settle for what Bonhoefferwould have called "cheapgrace":55Coueytise-of-eyghesonforted me ofte,And seyde,"haue no consciencehow thowcome to gode;Go confessethe to sumfrere and shewe

hym thi synnes." [B.11.51-53]But Will knows that only "costly grace"will do. This is shown first through a kindof meiosis, when his confessor withholdsabsolution until the dreamer can find themoney to make a cash "restitution."Scripturemakes the point again by preach-ing that, while many are called to the feast,only a few are admitted. The dreamer re-asserts the sufficiency of "cheap grace":"on Holicherche I thou3te, / That vnder-fonge me atte fonte for one of goddischosen; / For Cryste cleped vs alle" (B.11.112-14). It is impossible to renounce this"Crystenedome," by which he means notChristian wisdom, acquiescence to God's"redeeming impact... pro nobis,"56 but

simply baptism, the assurance that onecannot be fired into hell out of hand. Andwe hear the dreamer asserting the possi-bility of contrition without faith. In purga-tory, temporal punishment for his sins willwringcontrition from him at last.57Unprepared to deny the supremacy ofGod's mercy, Scripture hesitantly grantsthis unorthodox version of purgatory. Butthe uneasysolution is dissipatedat once byTrajan, who, ignorant of clergy, has beensaved because he satisfied the Law.58Forthe dreamer,this for a while will seem tobe the opening of the second avenue. Heseizes upon Trajanbecause Trajan'swill isso good that it is as if he believed. Trajandeclares he was not an ordinary believer;he received grace "wyth-outen any bede-byddynge"(he repeatsthis threelines later)or "syngyngof masses"(B.11.144ff.); in C,he is explicitly without "leel by-leyue"(13.86).This point Imaginative will contradict.At the end of Imaginative's apology forclergy, the dreamer, in effect, hopefullysuggests that clergy might not be indis-pensable, since no pagan possessed it; and(so his impliedpremisegoes) some of themare saved. Imaginative responds un-pleasantly with the case in point, Trajan,who, to be sure, was both unbaptized andsaved; yet this does not mean that Trajandid not believe:For there is fullyngof fonte and fullyngin blodeshedynge,And thorughfuire is fullyng and that isfermebileue;Aduenit gnisdiuinus,noncomburens,edilluminans, tc.Ac trewththat trespassedneuerenetransuersed 3eineshis lawe,But lyuethas his lawe techeth and leueththere be no bettere,

a4H. A. Oberman, paraphrasing Gabriel's 2 Sent., D. 23,Q. 1, A. 3, Dub. 2 G in The Harvest of Medieval Theology:Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Cambridge,Mass., 1963),p. 62.55See Dietrich Bonhoeffer,TheCost of Discipleship,2d ed.,trans. R. H. Fuller (New York, 1959; firstGerman ed. 1937),p. 35. Even the dreamer's question about whether he isentitled to criticize the friars publicly (B.11.85-102) is a redherring, an attempt to evade the necessity of this "costlygrace." Scripture passes over it (B.11.103-4).aeOberman, p. 73. Biel distinguishes "acquired faith" in"the objective factuality of God's revealing acts in history"

from "infusedfaith,"sacramentally ransforming"intellectualfaith into living faith" (ibid., pp. 73-74).67Contrast Augustine, Epistolae,classis 3, 13; PL 33:714.58 See B.11.161-64. In C, he also serves to deflate the hopefor "cheap grace" in "Cristendome":see C.13.78.


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288 BRITrrTON. HARWOODAnd if therewere,he wolde amende andin suche wille deyeth,Ne wolde neueretrewegod but treuthwereallowed;And whereit worth or worthnou3t thebileue is grete of treuth ... [B.12.282-88]I cannot agree with Frank that the poetshows Trajan's salvation to lie in hismorality."9 Dunning shows convincinglythat in the poet's own time "the majorityof theologians taught that God makes itpossible for all men of good will to attainto the degree of faith necessary for salva-tion." soWhere the dreamerhasemphasizedthe generosity of this "vncristenecreature,"Imaginative stresses, unhappily for Will,the miracle that Trajan, invincibly ignorantof the Trinity and Incarnation,neverthelesswas saved by his faith. Trajan's leute,Will's point of departure, is essentially theconformity of Trajan'swill to the best lawthat he knows. This is living in truth. Notonly does Aquinas, as Dunning quotes him,hold this to be enough to evoke from Godsufficient revelation of Christian truth forsalvation, but also Imaginative clearlythinks that Trajan's perseverance in thehighest belief of which he was capableissued in further belief.61 The baptismal"fuire" is the remorse following theChristian faith infused within the manobedient to whatever law he knows and

disposed to believe in a higher "if therewere" (B.12.286). Because the remorsefollows faith, Imaginative speaks of thefire as "non comburens, sed illuminans."When Imaginative claims that "thorughfuire is fullyng and that is ferme bileue"(B.12.283), the last half-line is ambiguous:one is entitled to "ferme bileue" in thepossibility of Trajan's conversion, sinceGod wills the salvation of all men; and yet"ferme bileue" is a "fullyng," in theorthodox view. Imaginativegoes on to saythat "the bileue is grete of treuth, / And anhope hangyng ther-inne."Again the line isambiguous, for not only does Imaginativebelieve greatly in the efficacyof truth; truthitself can yield belief, from which hopealways proceeds.Finally,faith is thesubjectof the Scriptural quotations with whichImaginative concludes: by believing in thebest law he knew, Trajanwas superpaucafidelis; and it is to thefidelibus that eternallife is given.Trajan's "lyuyng in treuthe"(B.11.146),which Imaginative perceivesas belief, wasconstrued by the dreamer as benevolence.If he is arguing against the necessity ofclergy by contending that leute is enoughfor salvation, this tactic would account forthe omission from C of a passage (B.11.213-17) taking the contraryposition, whichis reserved for Imaginative.62 Otherwisethe dreamerstrategicallyequatesgenerosityto the poor with "byleue"in Christ. In the"lyknesse" of the poor "owre lorde oftehath ben y-knowe." Someone treating apoor man well is entitled to hope that, likeCleophas, he may find that the poor manis actually Christ.The dreamer's strategy of avoidancetakes him to a view of poverty resemblinghis hopeful view of purgatory.When a manis poor, then he will have to be faithful:patient poverty "maketh a man to hauemynde in gode and a gretewille I To wepe

51 See "Piers Plowman" and the Scheme of Salvation (n. 4above), pp. 64-65.60Dunning, "Langland and the Salvation of the Heathen,"Medium Evum 12 (1943): 48. Cf. R. W. Chambers, "LongWill, Dante, and the Righteous Heathen," in Essays andStudies by Members of the English Association (Oxford, 1924),9:63-64. To the references given by Frank, p. 65 n., andDunning should be added R. V. Turner, "Descendit adInferos:Medieval Views on Christ'sDescent into Hell and theSalvation of the Ancient Just," Journal of the History of Ideas27 (1966): 173-94; and G. H. Russell, "The Salvation of theHeathen: The Exploration of a Theme in Piers Plowman,"Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 29 (1966):101-16.I"Contrast P. M. Kean, "Justice, Kingship and the GoodLife in the Second Part of PiersPlowman," in "Piers Plowman":CriticalApproaches,ed. S. S. Hussey (London, 1969), p. 103.In taking issue with Dunning, Frank claims that the poet"hasthe righteous heathensaved, if he is saved,riotby knowingthe principles of faith through divine inspiration, but byadhering obediently to the best faith he knows" (p. 65 n.).But those are not, as Dunning showed, mutually exclusive;rather, the second is the cause of the first. 62 See B.11.210-12.


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"CLERGYE" AND THE ACTION OF THE THIRD VISION IN "PIERS PLOWMAN" 289and to wel bydde, wher-of wexeth mercy"(B.11.255-56). To be perfectly poor means(so the inference seems to go) to beperfect.63To be cold and hungry in thewinter is to be as if, converted by Christ,one had bestowed all his possessions uponthe poor and followed him. By a subtleshift, the dreamer(now Recklessness in theC text, which expands here upon B) movesfrom conversion, with which he had begunin justifying poverty,"64 to martyrs andconfessors, whose faith is merely assumed;and then contraststhem with the rich, withtheir many opportunities to sin. When herevertsto the poor, they are far from beingthe rich young ruler now divested of histhings. Their only claim upon God is theirpoverty. The poor messenger makes goodtime simplybecause he avoids thejustice ofthe Old Law by owning nothing:The messagersarenthe mendinans thatlyuethby mennealmesse,Beth nat yboundeas beth the riche to

bothe the two lawesTo lene ne to lere ne lentenesto faste,And otherepryueypenaunces the whichethe preestwot welThat the lawe 3eueth eue suche lowefolke to be excused;For yf he louethand by-leyueth as thelawe techeth,

Qui crediderit & baptizatus fuerit, saluuserit, &c.,Knowelechethhym Cristene and of holykirkeby-leyue,Theris no lawe,as ich leyue,wol lette hymthe gate .... [C.14.79-91]The lettercarriedby the messenger mattersonly because it has no commercial valueand the thieveslet him alone (C.14.60). It isa naive affirmation-he "sheweth by seel

and sitthe by lettere with what lord hedwelleth, / Knowelecheth hym Cristeneand of holy kirke by-leyue" (C.14.89-90)-and contrasts ironically with Piers's an-guishing pardon and with the costly"writte" to be borne by Spes (B.17.3). Onthe road to Jericho in the Vita de Dobet,Everyman will be beaten and robbed, notjust the lawless and rich. Uncritical faith,acceptance of the sacraments, sinlessnessfor want of opportunity, attention to Godas the only source of relief-this is thealternative with which "Rechelessnesse ina rage a-resonede clergie" (C.14.129). ForRecklessness, it is an ersatz faith ("Acleueth nouht, 3e lewede men, that ich lackerichesse"), offering as a relief from hisfailure to respond to clergy first the searchfor God among his humbler creatures andthen the compassionate hypostatization,from their point of view, of a kind ofbelief. The effort, however, to sustain thiselaborate structure of assertion, raising ina disguised form the same "cheap grace"that Scriptureonce had spoiled, gives wayat last when Kynde comes "Clergie tohelpen" by making the dreamer scrutinize"the myrour of Myddel-erde" (C.14.132).The ensuing scene puts the preceding onein an ironic perspective: given the oppor-tunity, men surfeit themselves.Poverty wasa piece of good luck. Where the dreamer'sstrategy in the eleventh passus had been tomove from poverty scripturallyenjoined topoverty imposed by circumstance andenforcing virtue and belief, the universalhuman unrighteousness he sees thereafterpresses again the necessityfor Dowel-andhe comes humbly to Imaginative,as he hadearliermoved from Dame Study to Clergy.Because the search for God among hiscreatures has left Will with merely aheightened sense of human sin, Imaginativedevotes himself to defending authority-those illumined by the light coming throughbooks:See B.11.267, C.14.99.6 See C.13.153 ff.


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290 BRITTON . HARWOODForas a manmaynou3t e thatmyssethhiseyghen,Namore anno klerke,butif hecau3ttfirst horugh okes.

[B.12.101-2]Clergy, hen,as he discloseshimselfandasImaginative oeson to describehim,is thevision of Christwhere,so far as Will cansee,hedoesnot exist.This ackof objectiveevidencewould be nothing,of course,ifthe voice of Clergycould be takenas a cryrevealinga presence.Thenthe absenceofobjective videncewouldconstituteonlyakindof "tensionbetween hevocal and thevisual" "in a universe ... where sight is at

one or more removes rom full reality.""6But Clergy's trinitariandogmatics andImaginative'sreatingclergyas a processthat can be usefullymastered, ike swim-mingorpronouncinghe neckverse,meanthatclergys notapresenceWillstartlinglydiscoverswithinhimself.Like reason, wit, thought, study, andkind wit, clergyas a mode of knowledgedoes not-at laston his ownadmission-offer hedreamerhevisionof God.MIAMI UNIVERSITY

65 Walter Ong, "Voice as Summons for Belief," in Litera-ture and Belief: English Institute Essays, 1957, ed. M. H.Abrams (New York, 1958), pp. 97, 101.

clergye' and the action of the third vision

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