052189607X cambridge university press lay piety and religious discipline in middle english literature feb 2009

This page intentionally left blank LAY PIETY AND RELIGIOUS DISCIPLINE IN MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE In late fourteenth-century England, the persistent question of how to live the best life preoccupied many pious Christians One answer was provided by a new genre of prose guides that adapted professional religious rules and routines for lay audiences These texts engaged with many of the same cultural questions as poets like Langland and Chaucer; however, they have not received the critical attention they deserve until now Nicole Rice analyses how the idea of religious discipline was translated into varied literary forms in an atmosphere of religious change and controversy By considering the themes of spiritual discipline, religious identity, and orthodoxy in Langland and Chaucer, the study also brings fresh perspectives to bear on Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales This new juxtaposition of spiritual guidance and poetry will form an important contribution to our understanding of both authors and of late medieval religious practice and thought nicole r rice is Associate Professor of English at St John’s University cambridge studies in medieval literature general editor Alastair Minnis, Yale University editorial board Zygmunt G Bara´nski, University of Cambridge Christopher C Baswell, University of California, Los Angeles John Burrow, University of Bristol Mary Carruthers, New York University Rita Copeland, University of Pennsylvania Simon Gaunt, King’s College, London Steven Kruger, City University of New York Nigel Palmer, University of Oxford Winthrop Wetherbee, Cornell University Jocelyn Wogan-Browne, University of York This series of critical books seeks to cover the whole area of literature written in the major medieval languages – the main European vernaculars, and medieval Latin and Greek – during the period c – Its chief aim is to publish and stimulate fresh scholarship and criticism on medieval literature, special emphasis being placed on understanding major works of poetry, prose, and drama in relation to the contemporary culture and learning which fostered them recent titles in the series Nicolette Zeeman Piers Plowman and the Medieval Discourse of Desire Anthony Bale The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms 1300–1500 Robert J Meyer-Lee Poets and Power from Chaucer to Wyatt Isabel Davis Writing Masculinity in the Later Middle Ages John M Fyler Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante and Jean de Meun Matthew Giancarlo Parliament and Literature in Late Medieval England D H Green Women Readers in the Middle Ages Mary Dove The First English Bible: The Text and Context of the Wycliffite Versions Jenni Nuttall The Creation of Lancastrian Kingship: Literature, Language and Politics in Late Medieval England Laura Ashe Fiction and History in England, 1066–1200 J A Burrow The Poetry of Praise A complete list of titles in the series can be found at the end of the volume LAY PIETY AND RELIGIOUS DISCIPLINE IN MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE NICOLE R RICE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521896078 © Nicole R Rice 2008 This publication is in copyright Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press First published in print format 2009 ISBN-13 978-0-511-46402-7 eBook (EBL) ISBN-13 978-0-521-89607-8 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate For my parents, for Howard, and for Lana l” z Contents Preface Acknowledgments Abbreviations page ix xvi xviii Introduction   Translations of the cloister: regulating spiritual aspiration   Dialogic form and clerical understanding   Lordship, pastoral care, and the order of charity   Clerical widows and the reform of preaching Conclusion: Spiritual guides in fifteenth-century books: cultural change and continuity      Notes Bibliography Index vii Index rejection of claustral isolation in, –,  rural clerical context,  shared learning in, ,  sources of spiritual authority in, –, ,  and textualized approach to self-reform, ,  Tobias as exemplar in,  traditionalist view of women in,  Virgin Mary as exemplar in, – books of hours, –,  See also devotional texts Bourdieu, Pierre, , , , ,  Bridget, St.,  Brut, Walter, –,  Burgess, Clive,  Burgh, Isabel,  Bynum, Caroline,  Caesarius of Heisterbach, stories from, – Canon  of Lambeth Council,  Canterbury Tales (Chaucer) See also Prologue to The Wife of Bath’s Tale; the Shipman’s Tale criticisms of clergy in,  satires of piety, ix capital, spiritual and chantry endowment and support, – and corrodies, –,  desire for, by wealthy, ,  and involvement in parish life,  and the maintenance of social stability,  relation to concept of “symbolic capital,”  and religious and craft guilds, – and vows of chastity,  Carey, Hilary, ,  Carruthers, Mary,  chantries, chantry priests, – chapels, endowed, – Charite (Piers Plowman), ,  charity See also covetousness (“covetise”) and devotion, in the Mixed Life, xiii–xiv, , , –, –,  false, criticisms of,  in pastoral model, – provided by chantry founders,  provided by religious guilds, – relation to clerical lordship, Langland’s view, – and lay–clerical cooperation, – St Augustine on,  charter of Christ,  The Charter of the Abbey of the Holy Ghost, , , , ,   chastity apostolic precedents, – condemnation of by Lollards, – and female spiritual authority, , –,  Wife of Bath’s rejection of, ,  Chaucer, Geoffrey, x, xii–xiii See also The Shipman’s Tale; The Wife of Bath’s Prologue ambivalence about religious discipline, x as social commentator,  Christ See also imitatio Christi as book,  as embodied conversation,  and God’s law (lex Christi),  humanity of,  images of, xiii “mixed life” of, ,  as model for clerical behavior,  Passion of, meditations on, ,  as “pastor bonus,”  as scripture, xiii, –, – spiritual marriage to, – as teacher and model,  Church Brut’s description,  early, as ideal, – Wyclif’s definition,  church of the elect,  claustral/contemplative models,  See also disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion) apostolic, clerical interpretation of in Book to a Mother, – in Bodleian MS Laud Misc  texts,  in Book to a Mother,  and concerns about lay isolation, ,  during fifteenth century,  in Harley version of The Abbey,  Hilton’s view of, –,  ideal of discipline,  in L’Abbaye vs The Abbey, – lay discipline through, in The Abbey and Fervor Amoris, xi–xiii, ,  in Life of Our Lady, – in life of St Dorothy,  in Love’s Mirror,  monastic building allegory,  overlaps with clerical models, xi “para-monastic forms of spirituality,” – in the Shipman’s Tale, xiii, – “clerc,” Middle English meanings,  “clergie,” Middle English meanings,   Index clergy, priests See also friars; prelates the “bonus pastor,”  at chantries, following the plague,  conflicts with friars, role of “covetise,”  criticisms of, , –, , , ,  didactic texts for, – Langland’s criticisms of, , , – marriage of, Lollard position,  mixed life of, –, , –,  office-holding by, Lollard position,  role in confession and penitence, , ,  secular, defined,  secular, Wyclif’s concept of, –,  sin of covetousness, – clerical authority.See also claustral/contemplative models; lordship, clerical in The Abbey, –,  and Arundel’s Constitutions,  in Book to a Mother, , , , – demystification of,  female/lay participation in, xiii–xv in Fervor Amoris, , , , – during fifteenth century, –,  in The Mirror,  in The Life of Soul vs The Abbey or Fervor Amoris, – personal virtue as source of,  in Piers Plowman, – in The Prick of Conscience,  and the privilege of preaching, –,  in the Shipman’s Tale, –, ,  in the Wycliffite Bible, – clerical discipline See also claustral/contemplative models; disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion); pastoral models in dialogic spiritual guides, – overlaps with claustral models, xi in Piers Plowman, ,  in prose sermon cycles in prose spiritual guides, x–xi textualized approaches to, – Coleman, Janet, ,  Coletti, Theresa,  The Commandment (Rolle),  confession in The Abbey,  in Book to a Mother, – in Fervor Amoris, –,  mandated,  priest’s role, ,  as shared point of reference,  in the Shipman’s Tale,  stages of,  confraternity,  Conscience (Piers Plowman), – conscience, as book,  consumption imagery.See ingestion/consumption imagery contemplation, contemplative life advocacy of in Fervor Amoris,  as a component of the mixed life, ,  and concerns about lay isolation, , , ,  and demands of the mixed life,  in fifteenth-century manuscripts, , ,  in Hilton’s letters of guidance, – in L’Abbaye vs The Abbey, – in life of the pastor,  Love’s characterization of,  rejection of in Fervor Amoris,  Rolle’s praise for,  Virgin Mary as exemplar for, – Copeland, Rita, , , ,  correction, personal.See self-discipline, self-regulation corrodies, –,  courtesy literature,  Covetise (Piers Plowman), ,  covetousness (“covetise”) See also material aspirations, materialism among clergy, criticisms of,  Hilton’s spiritualization of, –, – Langland’s efforts to spiritualize, , – craft guilds,  Curry Woods, Marjorie,  Dame Studie (Piers Plowman),  Daun John (Shipman’s Tale), , , – de Certeau, Michel,  De Civili Dominio (Wyclif ), , –,  De Imagine Peccati (Hilton), ,  De Officio Regis (Wyclif ),  De Utilitatibus Tribulationis (Bodleian MS Laud Misc ), –,  De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae (Wyclif ), , – Deanesly, Margaret, ,  devotional practice.See aspiration, lay spiritual; disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion) dialogic spiritual guides See also specific spiritual guides audience for, , – as model for lay–clerical cooperation,  orthodox spiritual conversation in, ,  pedagogical intent, –,  and textualized approach to imitatio Christi, , – dialogic textual forms,  See also in didactic texts anti-clerical dialogues,  Index in didactic texts,  implications of dialogic structure, –, – Langland’s exploration of,  in The Life of Soul, Book to a Mother and Mixed Life, xiii in Prologue to Pauline and Catholic epistles, – use in spiritual guides,  disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion), x, xii See also aspiration, lay spiritual; claustral/contemplative models; imitatio Christi; pastoral models; rule (“reule,” “reulen,” regula); stability (stabilitas) active forms of,  for active laypeople, in Fervor Amoris, –,  chaste widowhood as form of, – as educational process (paideia),  and Hilton’s concept of charity,  materialism vs in Fervor Amoris,  in mixed life,  and model of the mother-reader in Book to a Mother,  monastic, –,  as obedience to law,  “para-monastic forms” of, – preaching as,  as punishment,  by religious guilds, – role of regulation and stability, – as rule of Christian life (disciplina Christiana),  in the Shipman’s Tale, – textualized approach to, x through devotional reading, – disendowment Langland on,  Wyclif on, ,  “distinction” (Bourdieu),  Dives and Pauper,  Dohar, William J., ,  Donation of Constantine,  Dorothy, St., life of, – Dove, Mary,  Dowel, Dobet, Dobest (Piers Plowman),  Doyle, A I., , – dread in Fervor Amoris,  in the Shipman’s Tale, – Duffy, Eamon,  Dutton, Elisabeth, ,  Dymmok, Roger,   Ecclesiasticus :,  Ego Dormio (Rolle), , ,  rule and stability in, – Ellis, Roger,  enclosure and female spiritual purity in Book to a Mother, ,  internalized, in The Abbey, , –,  monastic, appeal of for women, – and stabilitas, ,  endowment.See capital, spiritual; disendowment Epistle of James, – An Epistle of Salvation,  Epistola ad Quemdam Seculo Renunciare Volentem (Hilton),  Epistola de Utilitate et Prerogativis Religionis (Hilton), , ,  epistolary form, – Erler, Mary, ,  evangelical teaching.See teaching evangelism, Wyclif’s view of, – Evans, G R.,  fabliau form,  Fasciculi Zizaniorum Magistri Johannis Wyclif Cum Tritico, , ,  fathers, as preachers/teachers in Book to a Mother, , ,  intellectual and spiritual authority,  Wyclif’s view, –,  female preachers arguments against,  Brut’s arguments for, – as heretics,  ordination of, debates about,  Wife of Bath as,  Fervor Amoris audience for, –, –, , ,  chapter structure,  claustral model in, xi–xiii,  confession in, –,  context and intent, xii–xiii criticisms of contemplative elitism in, ,  dating of,  degrees of love, – dread and penitence in,  influence of Rolle’s works on,  male clerical authority in, – monastic copies of,  obedience to rules in,  penitential discipline in,  self-discipline, self-regulation in, – social stability and piety in, – “fervor amoris,” meanings/sources for,   Fitzgibbons, Moira, , ,  FitzRalph, Richard, ,  Fletcher, Alan,  The Form of Living (Rolle), xiii adaptation of in Fervor Amoris,  in Bodleian MS Laud Misc ,  contemplation in,  degrees of love in, ,  as guide for women,  mystical experience in,  penitence in,  “reule” and stability in, – Forma Praedicandi (Basevorn), – Fourth Lateran Council, , ,  Francis, St., Rule of,  friars after the plague,  and apostolic superiority,  conflicts with clergy, role of “covetise,”  criticisms of, by the Wife of Bath,  criticisms of, in Book to a Mother, , – lay third orders, ,  mendicancy,  threat to parish priests from, – Gabriel, Angel, – Galloway, Andrew, , ,  Ghosh, Kantik Gilchrist, Roberta, ,  Gillespie, Vincent, , , , , ,  Good Samaritan (in Piers Plowman),  grammars, school books,  Gregory the Great, St influence on Hilton,  on pastoral care, , –, – portrait of Christ’s life,  on prelates and worldly affairs, ,  habitus (Bourdieu),  Hanawalt, Barbara,  Hanna, Ralph, , , , ,  Haukyn the Active Man (Piers Plowman),  Havens, Jill C.,  Heffernan, Thomas,  Hereford (West Midlands), ,  Higden, Ralph,  Hilton, Walter See also Mixed Life (Hilton) background, ,  De Imagine Peccati, ,  goals of spiritual advice,  Latin letters of spiritual guidance, – on lay readers’ spiritual goals, x Index as model for lay reader,  portrait of Christ’s life,  recent critical opinions of,  and reformism, xiii–xiv Holy Ghost, as male authority in The Abbey, – in Fervor Amoris,  holy writ.See the Bible, scripture Horsley, Adam, Hilton’s advice to,  Hudson, Anne,  Hussey, S S.,  hybridity of degree.See mixed life imitatio Christi See also the Bible, scripture; Christ; disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion) in Bodleian MS Laud Misc ,  in Book to a Mother, , –,  imitatio Mariae as, – prelate as ideal, – textualized approach to, – through chastity, – through evangelical learning and teaching, , , – through ingesting and incorporating scripture, ,  imitatio clerici See also claustral/contemplative models; clergy, priests; pastoral models in didactic texts,  Hilton’s pastoral model, , – as imitatio Christi, xiii, – in Bodleian MS Laud Misc ,  pastoral model as, – self-interested, in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue,  Incendium Amoris (Rolle),  ingestion/consumption imagery as approach to imitatio Christi, xiii as approach to imitatio clerici, xiii use of in dialogic spiritual guides, – intercessory activities, –,  Jacob’s Well,  Jelosie (The Abbey),  Jeremiah (prophet),  John :,  John the Baptist, ,  Joliffe, P S.,  jubilation, in L’Abbaye vs The Abbey, – Justice, Steven, – Keiser, George, , ,  Krug, Rebecca,  Index L’Abbaye du Saint Esprit audience for, ,  claustral model in, – comparison with English translation, xiii, – contemplation in, – jubilation in,  monastic building meditation in,  self-discipline in,  stability in,  Lambeth Council,  Langland, William, x See also Piers Plowman ambivalence about religious discipline, x background,  critiques of clergy, xi–xii reformist perspective, –,  use of dialogue,  views on clerical lordship, – Latin spiritual texts in fifteenth-century collections,  prayer books,  vernacular translations,  Lawler, Traugott, ,  Lawton, David,  The Lay Folks’ Catechism, , – lay piety See also aspiration, lay spiritual; capital, spiritual; claustral/contemplative models; mixed life; pastoral models Chaucer’s satire of,  as disruptive social force, xi–xiii hypocritical, critiques of, ,  marital piety, Sara as exemplar of, – social stability and, – textual models for, x, –,  lay spiritual authority and chastity,  and debates about lay/women preachers, xiv, – Dymmok’s concept of,  female, Lollard support for,  Mary as example of, – pastoral model, – redefinition of, in dialogic spiritual guides, – from scriptural studies, –, –,  sources for, in Book to a Mother, ,  in Piers Plowman,  through evangelical teaching, –, ,  lay–clerical boundaries See also claustral/contemplative models; clerical authority  conversations about, in spiritual guides, xi–xii in BL MS Harley ,  in Bodleian MS Ashmole , – during fifteenth century, ,  in Love’s Mirror,  Wyclif’s views on,  lay–clerical cooperation See also pastoral models in Book to a Mother, –,  in dialogic spiritual guides, xi, xiii, – in didactic texts,  in The Life of Soul, – in Mixed Life, ,  in Piers Plowman, , – and shared spiritual aspirations, – as shared teaching and preaching, – sharing of books, , –,  lay–clerical learning, shared See also literacy, lay; translation, vernacular in Book to a Mother, , ,  in The Life of Soul, –, – in Mixed Life, – in Piers Plowman,  in Prologue to Pauline and Catholic epistles, – Leicester, Marshall,  “lewed” vs learned categories, – lex Christi (God’s law),  Liber Contra XII Errores et Hereses Lollardorum (Dymmok),  Life of Our Lady (Lydgate), – The Life of Soul audience for, xiii,  clerical understanding in, – dating of,  dialogic structure, implications, – didactic purpose and approach, –,  in Bodleian MS Laud Misc , ,  manuscripts of,  St James and St John as exemplars, – teacher–learner relationships, –, –, – light-keeping activities, – Lincoln Cathedral MS  (Thornton manuscript),  Caesarius of Heisterbach stories in, – claustral model/contemplation in,  contents, , –,  lay spiritual boundaries in,  readership, ,  literacy, lay See also translation, vernacular books of hours, –,  and desire for intellectual authority,   Index literacy, lay (cont.) lay ownership/use of devotional books, , – privatization of devotional reading practices, – and self-transformation through reading, – sharing of books, , –,  and social structure,  and spiritual aspirations, xiii and spiritual understanding,  and structure of Fervor Amoris,  Little, Katherine, ,  lives of saints,  Lollards, Lollardy See also Wyclif, John; Wycliffite Bible and Arundel’s Constitutions, xiv, , , ,  condemnation of priestly chastity, – criticisms of clergy by,  on cult of saints,  early vernacular works,  historical context for,  ideas from in Bodleian MS Laud Misc , – and lay–clerical cooperation,  and lay preaching,  on marriage of clergy,  and non-hierarchical learning,  Pierce the Plowman’s Creed, – reaction against, impact on religious writing, xiv, – use of orthodox devotional texts,  views on scriptural authority, xiii, – lordship, clerical Hilton’s construction of,  Langland on, – Wyclif’s/Lollard views on, , – love, degrees of and devotional practice,  in Fervor Amoris, – in Rolle’s work, – love of God and devotion, in Fervor Amoris,  and devotion, in Mixed Life,  in Rolle’s work, – and self-discipline, in Fervor Amoris, – love, mother’s,  love of neighbor, as spiritual duty,  Love, Nicholas borrowings from Mixed Life, – Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ, xiv, – Lydgate, John, – manuscript anthologies,  Mark :–,  Mark :–,  marriage as barrier to spiritual experience,  of clergy, Lollard position,  contemporary views on, relevance of Tobias story,  piety in, Tobias story as exemplar of, – Wife of Bath’s “sermon” on,  marriage at Cana,  Mary, Virgin, in Book to a Mother, , – material desire, materialism See also covetousness (“covetise”) in The Abbey,  among clergy, Langland’s criticisms of, , –,  of clergy, Wyclif’s concerns about,  in Fervor Amoris,  Hilton’s treatment of,  and lay spiritual aspirations, – parody of in the Shipman’s Tale, , – “perfect love” vs.,  reconciliation with the spiritual, in Mixed Life, –, , – spiritual poverty as counter to,  vows of chastity as counter to,  Matthew of Vendˆome,  McCarthy, Adrian, – McGalliard, John C.,  “medeled liyf,”  See also mixed life, hybridity of degree Meditationes Vitae Christi, ,  adaptation of,  in Bodleian MS Ashmole ,  Love’s translation, – mendicants, mendicant orders.See friars merchant (Shipman’s Tale), – Middleton, Anne,  Minnis, Alastair, , ,  Mirror (prose sermon cycle),  The Mirror of St Edmund,  Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ (Love) anti-Wycliffite stance of, – audience for, xiv,  clericalized version of “mixed life” in, – monastic model in, xiv Mixed Life (Hilton) audience for, ix, x, xiii, ,  author, – charity in, , , , , – clerical, scriptural models in, xiii, –,  covetousness in, –, – dating and context, ,  dialogic structure, –, –, – Index in fifteenth-century manuscripts, , – and imitatio Christi, xiii–xiv, , ,  ingestion of scripture in, – Love’s borrowings from, – pastoral model in, xi, –, –,  readership, –,  rhetorical structures in,  and textualized approach to self-reform,  in Vernon manuscript,  mixed life, hybridity of degree See also Mixed Life (Hilton); pastoral models in Bodleian MS Ashmole ,  in Bodleian MS Laud Misc ,  in Book to a Mother, – Dymmok’s “ambidexter” concept,  Hilton’s early views on, – Langland on, ,  pastoral model for, ,  St Augustine on,  secular authority as religious vocation,  self-regulation as component of,  texts supporting, in Bodleian MS Laud Misc , – in the Thornton manuscript, – monasteries, cloisters,  See also friars; monks; nuns allegorical use of in The Abbey vs L’Abbaye,  criticisms of, in Book to a Mother, – devotional practice in,  stabilitas and enclosure,  female enclosure in, as ideal in Periculoso,  and female spiritual authority,  lay patronage of, –, – patronage by, in rural areas, – and ritual discipline/self-improvement, –,  vernacular translations of concepts of regula and stabilitas, – vowesses,  Wyclif’s arguments against, – monastic rule.See claustral/contemplative model of piety monks See also clergy, priests; friars authority of, in Fervor Amoris,  and mendicant orders,  satire of, in the Shipman’s Tale,  Moralia in Iob (Gregory the Great),  Moran, Jo Ann Hoeppner,  mother-reader (Book to a Mother) active “reading” by, as spiritual discipline, – and audience,   and authority of scripture, – intellectual and spiritual authority, , , ,  male clerical authority over,  shared lay–clerical learning, , , – mystical experience, in Rolle’s work,  Nisse, Ruth,  nuns bequests of books to,  as brides of Christ,  enclosure of, –,  literary culture of,  vowesses and,  obedience See disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion); rule (“reule,” “reulen,” regula) Office, monastic,  Office of the Virgin, – orders, religious.See monasteries, cloisters orthodox texts See also reformist texts dialogue in,  evangelical teaching and,  limited role of female authority in, ,  and orthodox/heterodox distinctions in fifteenth century,  prose spiritual guides as, x, xi, ,  Oxford translation debates, ,  Pantin, W A.,  parish churches, parish life association with religious guilds, ,  and friars, – lay involvement in, ,  as site for lay spiritual authority,  Parkes, M B.,  Passion meditations,  “An ABC Poem on the Passion of Christ,”  in Book to a Mother,  in Lincoln Cathedral MS ,  pastoral models in Bodleian MS Ashmole ,  chantries and,  coexistence with wealth, Hilton’s view,  coexistence with wealth, Langland’s view, – concept of the pastor,  and debates about concept of “prelates,” – in dialogic spiritual guides, xi Dymmok’s concept of,  in fifteenth-century manuscripts,  Gregory the Great’s concept of, –  Index pastoral models (cont.) and Hilton’s “mixed life,” –, ,  as ideal, in Piers Plowman,  as inspiration for layman, in Hilton’s view,  lay–clerical cooperation in, – St Gregory’s concept of, , – patronage, monastic,  Patterson, Lee,  Paul, St.,  pedagogy and anticlerical dialogue,  in dialogic spiritual guides,  penance, sacrament of in Book to a Mother, –,  as mandated practice,  in Piers Plowman, – Wyclif’s views on,  penitential discipline in Bodleian MS Ashmole ,  in The Abbey, xi,  in Fervor Amoris, xi, –, – and para-monastic forms of spirituality,  perfect love, – perfection, spiritual, ix Periculoso (Boniface), ,  Peter, St.,  Pierce the Plowman’s Creed, –,  Piers (Piers Plowman) as apostolic man,  as embodiment of the mixed life, – failure to embody mixed life,  Piers Plowman (Langland) audience, intended, xii,  “bonus pastor” concept,  charity in, ,  clerical privilege in, – clerical understanding and self-transformation in,  covetousness in, , – criticisms of friars, clergy in, , –,  criticisms of hypocritical piety in, ix, xiii, , – dating of,  lay–clerical cooperation in, – lay–clerical hybridity in, – as a reformist text, ,  role of scripture in, xiii,  use of dialogue in, ,  piety, lay.See aspirations, lay spiritual; lay piety the plague, impact on clergy chantry priests,  lay religious education and, xii mendicants, , – parish priests,  and patronage by monasteries,  Polychronicon (Higden),  The Pore Caitif, , ,  poverty See also material desire, materialism; wealth as barrier to spiritual experience,  clerical, Wyclif’s views on, – spiritual, in The Abbey, – spiritual, in Book to a Mother, – Wife of Bath’s rejection of,  The Powers of the Holy (Aers and Staley), xi preaching effective, components of, – moral preaching,  as privilege, –,  teaching vs.,  by women, Brut’s arguments for, – by women, debates about,  Wyclif’s views on, , – prelates See also clergy, priests apostolic, Hilton’s characterization of, –,  and Langland’s concept of the “bonus pastor,”  meaning of word, debates about, – mixed life of, as model for lay piety, – in Piers Plowman, –, , – sources of spiritual authority,  The Prick of Conscience, – Prologue, Canterbury Tales (Chaucer), outrider Monk in,  Prologue to Pauline and Catholic epistles, – Prologue, Wycliffite Bible, – prose sermon cycles,  psalters, – Purvey, John, – Rachel and Leah story, in Mixed Life, – readership The Abbey, , , ,  BL MS Harley , ,  Bodleian MS Ashmole , ,  Bodleian MS Laud Misc , ,  Book to a Mother, –,  Lambeth Palace MS ,  Lincoln Cathedral MS , ,  Mixed Life, –,  reading scripture aloud, as preaching,  reformist texts Book to a Mother, xiv, , , ,  defined,  Mixed Life, xiii–xiv Piers Plowman, xiii–xiv, ,  prose spiritual guides as, xi view of Bible in,  Index R`egle des Fins Amans, ,  Regula Pastoralis (Gregory), , ,  religion of the heart in The Abbey of the Holy Ghost, – and contemplation,  as a lay religious order, rules governing,  and spiritual poverty, enclosure, – religious guilds association with parish churches, ,  concepts of rule and stability, – guild widows,  role of laity in, – rules governing social degree, hierarchy,  spiritual and liturgical practices, – Richard of St Victor, ,  Richardson, Janette, ,  Riddy, Felicity,  Robert of Gretham,  Rolle, Richard See also Ego Dormio; The Form of Living audience, –,  contemplation in, ,  evocation of, in The Abbey,  guides for religious women,  influence on Fervor Amoris,  Passion meditations,  on penitence,  on rule and stability, – rule (“reule,” “reulen,” regula) See also claustral/contemplative models in The Abbey, – application to pious laity, – definition of,  in Fervor Amoris, –, –,  meanings associated with, – in The Prick of Conscience,  of religious guilds,  Rolle’s views on, – social degree and hierarchies as, – Rule of Benedict (Sancti Benedicti Regula Monachorum), , ,  rule of Christian life (disciplina christiana),  Saenger, Paul,  saints, cult of, Lollard rejection of,  Sara, as exemplar of marital piety, – Sargent, Michael G., , , ,  The Scale of Perfection (Hilton), ,  Scase, Wendy, –,  Schirmer, Elizabeth,  scripture.See the Bible, scripture secular clergy defined,  Wyclif’s view, –  self-discipline, self-regulation in The Abbey, ,  in Book to a Mother,  as component of the mixed life,  in Fervor Amoris, –, – as luxury for the wealthy,  in Mixed Life, –,  monastery as locus for,  penance as mandated form of,  in Piers Plowman,  in The Prick of Conscience,  textualized approach to, x, ,  through private devotional reading, – Wyclif’s views on,  service books,  Shipman’s Tale (Chaucer) materialism and spiritual ambition in, – mercantile/monastic hybrid in, – monastic, contemplative model in, xiii, – satire of lay piety in,  Simpson, James, ,  social degree, hierarchy See also mixed life, hybridity of degree; rule (“reule,” “reulen,” regula) in Fervor Amoris, – hybridity of, in the “mixed life,”  as impediment to spiritual fulfillment,  in ordinances of religious guilds,  Somerset, Fiona, –,  Song of Songs,  Speculum Christiani audience,  covetousness in, , ,  on teaching vs preaching,  warnings about covetousness, – Spencer, Helen,  spiritual education, lay See also The Life of Soul; Mixed Life devotional books,  impact of lay literacy on, – instructional texts for women, – translation of clerical texts, – spiritual guides, prose See also specific spiritual guides in Bodleian MS Ashmole ,  Book of Tobit/Book of Susannah,  clerical versus claustral models in, x–xi,  dialogue structures, implications, –,  impact of Arundel’s Constitutions on, xiv, ,  lay demand for, x, , –, –,  in Lincoln Cathedral MS , – links with canonical poetry, xiv–xv and literary form, x in manuscript anthologies,   Index spiritual guides, prose (cont.) orthodox-reformist nature of, x, ,  regulation and stability in,  and structure of Fervor Amoris,  as textualized approach to scripture, imitatio Christi, x, –, ,  spiritual perfection.See aspiration, lay spiritual; disciplina (ritual discipline, devotion); rule (“reule,” “reulen,” regula) stability (stabilitas) See also clerical authority; rule (“reule,” “reulen,” regula) as component of lay piety, – definition of,  in Fervor Amoris, , –,  meanings associated with, – monastic models, –, –,  Rolle’s views on, – Staley, Lynn, xi,  Strohm, Paul,  Syllabus for Christian education in Bodleian MS Laud Misc ,  standardization and translation of, for lay readers, – table of contents, Fervor Amoris,  Tanner, Norman,  teachers, lay evangelical, authority for,  teaching, lay domestic context,  evangelical, –, , , –, , ,  female vs male, and imitatio Christi,  preaching vs.,  public vs private,  temporal authority as religious vocation, in Mixed Life, ,  Wyclif’s view on, – textualized approach to piety See also dialogic textual forms; in didactic texts; specific spiritual guides the book as scripture,  eclectic nature of, ,  pedagogical intent,  role of the Bible,  and structure of Fervor Amoris,  third orders, ,  Thoresby, Archbishop,  Thornton, Robert, – Thornton manuscript.See Lincoln Cathedral MS   Timothy,  Tobias story, in Book to a Mother contemporary relevance,  didactic version emphasizing chastity, – and lay teaching, ,  translation, vernacular “Englishing the Bible” tradition,  following Arundel’s Constitutions, ,  Oxford translation debates, ,  prohibition of,  and shared lay–clerical learning,  Trevisa, John,  Trialogus (Wyclif ),  Trillek, Bishop,  The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards, – Ullerston, Richard,  Vauchez, Andr´e,  “vernacular theology,”  Vernon manuscript, contents, , , , ,  Visio section (Piers Plowman), portrayal of prelates in,  Visitacio infirmorum, in Bodleian MS Laud Misc ,  “vita mixta,”  See also mixed life, hybridity of degree vow of chastity, vowesses benefits to widows,  in Book to a Mother,  daily activities,  vowing ceremony,  Warren, Nancy Bradley, ,  Waters, Claire, ,  Watson, Nicholas, , , –, , , , ,  the wealthy access to spiritual capital,  access to spiritual understanding, , ,  as audience for L’Abbaye,  materialism of, Langland’s criticisms of,  relationships with monasteries, – spiritual opportunities and responsibilities, Hilton’s view, , –, ,  spiritual opportunities and responsibilities, Langland’s view, – West Midlands Book to a Mother manuscripts,  heresy trials in,  Whitehead, Christiania,  Whitfield, D W.,  widows, widowhood See also vows of chastity, vowesses in Book to a Mother, , –, , – guild widows,  Index insecure status of, – mother-widow, ,  preaching by, concerns over, xiv spiritual authority, – Wife of Bath (Wife of Bath’s Prologue), xiv,  appropriation of clerical voice by,  “mother” in Book to a Mother vs.,  rejection of imitatio Christi by, – textual literalism of,  The Wife of Bath’s Prologue (Chaucer) dating and context,  satire of lay/women preachers in,  Will (in Piers Plowman), – criticism of clergy by,  dialogue with clerical/scholastic figures,  wisdom (sapientia), Wyclif’s concept of, ,  women See also nuns; vow of chastity, vowesses; widows, widowhood bequests of books,  literacy of and spiritual aspirations, – ordination of,  reformist view of, in Book to a Mother,  religious, books written for,  Rolle’s guides for,  semi-religious life for,  as teachers,  women, as preachers Brut’s arguments for, – Chaucer’s satire of, –  debates about, xiv Wycliffite/Lollard arguments for, ,  Wyclif, John, x, xiii See also Lollards, Lollardy advocacy of disendowment, ,  arguments for a secular clergy, –,  on Christ as book and scripture, xiii, –,  on church and preaching, xiii, , , , – concept of dominion,  concerns about clerical lordship, – De Civili Dominio, , –,  De Officio Regis,  De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae, , – influence of, in Book to a Mother, – on lay spiritual authority and responsibility, – reactions to Wycliffite criticisms, xiii,  rejection of didactic texts,  rejection of monastic models, , – Trialogus,  view of spiritual capital,  Wycliffite Bible context and intent, , – Prologue, – reading of, in fifteenth century,  versions of,  Ymaginatif (Piers Plowman),  cambridge studies in medieval literature  Robin Kirkpatrick Dante’s Inferno: Difficulty and Dead Poetry  Jeremy Tambling Dante and Difference: Writing in the “Commedia”  Simon Gaunt Troubadours and Irony  Wendy Scase “Piers Plowman” and the New Anticlericalism  Joseph Duggan The “Cantar De Mio Cid”: Poetic Creation in its Economic and Social Contexts  Roderick Beaton The Medieval Greek Romance  Kathryn Kerby-Fulton Reformist Apocalypticism and “Piers Plowman”  Alison Morgan Dante & the Medieval Other World  Eckehard Simon (ed.) The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Research in Early Drama  Mary Carruthers The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture  Rita Copeland Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic Traditions and Vernacular Texts  Donald Maddox The Arthurian Romances of Chr´etien de Troyes: Once and Future Fictions  Nicholas Watson Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority  Steven F Kruger Dreaming in the Middle Ages  Barbara Nolan Chaucer and the Tradition of the “Roman Antique”  Sylvia Huot The “Romance of the Rose” and its Medieval Readers: Interpretations, Reception, Manuscript Transmission  Carol M Meale (ed.) Women and Literature in Britain, 1150–1500  Henry Ansgar Kelly Ideas and Forms of Tragedy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages  Martin Irvine The Making of Textual Culture: Grammatica and Literary Theory, 350–1100  Larry Scanlon Narrative, Authority and Power: The Medieval Exemplum and the Chaucerian Tradition  Erik Kooper Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context  Steven Botterill Dante and the Mystical Tradition: Bernard of Clairvaux in the “Commedia”  Peter Biller and Anne Hudson (eds.) Heresy and Literacy, 1000–1530  Christopher Baswell Virgil in Medieval England: Figuring the “Aeneid” from the Twelfth Century to Chaucer  James Simpson Sciences and Self in Medieval Poetry: Alan of Lille’s “Anticlaudianus” and John Gower’s “Confessio Amantis”  Joyce Coleman Public Reading and the Reading Public in Late Medieval England and France  Suzanne Reynolds Medieval Reading: Grammar, Rhetoric and the Classical Text  Charlotte Brewer Editing “Piers Plowman”: The Evolution of the Text  Walter Haug Vernacular Literary Theory in the Middle Ages: The German Tradition in its European Context  Sarah Spence Texts and the Self in the Twelfth Century  Edwin Craun Lies, Slander and Obscenity in Medieval English Literature: Pastoral Rhetoric and the Deviant Speaker  Patricia E Grieve “Floire and Blancheflor” and the European Romance  Huw Pryce (ed.) Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies  Mary Carruthers The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400–1200  Beate Schmolke-Hasselman The Evolution of Arthurian Romance: The Verse Tradition from Chr´etien to Froissart  Siˆan Echard Arthurian Narrative in the Latin Tradition  Fiona Somerset Clerical Discourse and Lay Audience in Late Medieval England  Florence Percival Chaucer’s Legendary Good Women  Christopher Cannon The Making of Chaucer’s English: A Study of Words  Rosalind Brown-Grant Christine de Pizan and the Moral Defence of Women: Reading Beyond Gender  Richard Newhauser The Early History of Greed: The Sin of Avarice in Early Medieval Thought and Literature  Margaret Clunies Ross Old Icelandic Literature and Society  Donald Maddox Fictions of Identity in Medieval France  Rita Copeland Pedagogy, Intellectuals, and Dissent in the Later Middle Ages: Lollardy and Ideas of Learning  Kantik Ghosh The Wycliffite Heresy: Authority and the Interpretation of Texts  Mary C Erler Women, Reading, and Piety in Late Medieval England  D H Green The Beginnings of Medieval Romance: Fact and Fiction 1150–1220  J A Burrow Gestures and Looks in Medieval Narrative  Ardis Butterfield Poetry and Music in Medieval France: From Jean Renart to Guillaume de Machaut  Emily Steiner Documentary Culture and the Making of Medieval English Literature  William E Burgwinkle Sodomy, Masculinity, and Law in Medieval Literature  Nick Havely Dante and the Franciscans: Poverty and the Papacy in the “Commedia”  Siegfried Wenzel Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England  Ananya Jahanara Kabir and Deanne Williams (eds.) Postcolonial Approaches to the European Middle Ages: Translating Cultures  Mark Miller Philosophical Chaucer: Love, Sex, and Agency in the “Canterbury Tales”  Simon Gilson Dante and Renaissance Florence  Ralph Hanna London Literature, 1300–1380  Maura Nolan John Lydgate and the Making of Public Culture  Nicolette Zeeman Piers Plowman and the Medieval Discourse of Desire  Anthony Bale The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms 1300–1500  Robert J Meyer-Lee Poets and Power from Chaucer to Wyatt  Isabel Davis Writing Masculinity in the Later Middle Ages  John M Fyler Language and the Declining World in Chaucer, Dante and Jean de Meun  Matthew Giancarlo Parliament and Literature in Late Medieval England  D H Green Women Readers in the Middle Ages  Mary Dove The First English Bible: The Text and Context of the Wycliffite Versions  Jenni Nuttall The Creation of Lancastrian Kingship: Literature, Language and Politics in Late Medieval England  Laura Ashe Fiction and History in England, 1066–1200  J A Burrow The Poetry of Praise  Mary Carruthers The Book of Memory, Second Edition  Andrew Cole Literature and Heresy in the Age of Chaucer  Suzanne M Yeager Jerusalem in Medieval Narrative  Nicole R Rice Lay Piety and Religious Discipline in Middle English Literature