Piers Plowman

In a summer season , when softe was the sun

Commentaries

Bennett

Vaughan

1 The opening lines offer verbal resemblances to certain passages in Somer Soneday, a stanzaic alliterative poem in the W. Midland dialect, which is assigned by its editors to the period 1327-50: v. C. Brown, Studies in English Philology (Minneapolis 1929, pp. 362-74, and R. H. Robbins, English Historical Poems (1959), no. 38. The stanzas begin, 'Opon a somer soneday se I þe sonne'; the poet 'warp on [his] wedes' and soon 'in launde under lynde me leste to lende'; "So wyde I walkede', he says, 'þat I wax wery of þe way'. There follows a visionary hunting scene, which apparently alludes to the death of Edward II (1327). It is not necessary to infer that L knew this particular poem (which does not include a dream proper); but the similarities of phrasing suggest that a convention for beginning such alliterative poems had been established before his time. Two other alliterative poems datable c. 1350 have similar openings: (i) The Parlement of the Thre Ages, which begins: In the monethe of Maye when mirthes ben fele And the sesone of somere when softe bene the wedres Als I went to the wodde, my werdes to dreghe, ... and describes a hunt in a wood: the sun grows so warm that the poet 'slomerede a while' and 'dremed a ful dreghe swevyn' (102). (ii) Wynnere and Wastoure (ed. I. Gollancz), which after a Prologue of 30 ll. introduces the poet as 'wandrynge myne one / Bi a bonke of a bourne, bryghte was the sone'; he lies down, but cannot sleep, 'for dyn of the depe water and darylling of foullys': Bot as I laye at þe laste þan lowked myn eghne, And I was swythe in a sweuen sweped belyue. Me thoghte I was in the werlde, I ne wiste in whate ende [quarter], On a loueliche lande þat was ylike grene ... (45-8) L possibly alludes to this poem at ll. 22 and v. 24-5 below. Of the relevant conventions that were evidently common by L's time, the chief is that which associates a dream with a fine May morning, trees and birds, flowers and flowing water. This is as old as the Roman de la Rose, and is adopted by Chaucer in the Book of the Duchess and the Legend of Good Women. In the first two of these poems the May morning and its setting are part of the dream itself; PPl, like LGW and Parlement of the Thre Ages, makes the May morning the occasion of the dream. In casting his Prologue into this form L is appealing to an audience well-read in fashionable secular literature both French and English. The convention requires that the persona of the dreamer should be fictional, whether a purely passive spectator, or the protagonist. In L's persona the roles alternate: in the Prologue he is the spectator, in the following passus the interlocutor.

1 as I south wente: This reading (supported by only three MSS: Ra, U, and T2) cannot be explained away as derived from the more commonly attested ' whanne soft was the sonne ' (cf. Kane, 433 n.1). Since the latter could be explained by contamination from the universal reading in the B/C MSS, and since no other argument would contest the conclusion that ' as I south wente ' may well be the harder reading, I have opted to favor the more unusual reading found in these three MSS, two of which (Ra and U) have (in Knott-Fowler's 'family' and Kane's 'well established .... genetic ... large group' [39]) a persistent and close relationship to MS T, the base manuscript chosen for both of the twentieth-century critical editions. The third (T2) is often aligned with Ra and U in what Kane characterizes as one (along with RaUD) of the 'two major discrepant groups' (Kane 97) among the persistent affiliations of MSS. Ra's ' whenne ' may offer some slight testimony to the direction of 'contamination' here.

I shaped me in-to a shroud , as I a sheep were;

Commentaries

Vaughan

Bennett

2 In view of the ' unholy of werkis ' in line 3, possible ambiguities of this line are worth considering. Dressing in woollen clothes (' shroud ') means one thing if ' shepe ' means 'sheep,' and something else if it means 'shepherd.' And the force of ' as ' will vary, depending on whether it is taken as a simple statement of similarity ('like') or whether it suggests an intentional, or even innocent, deception or misrepresentation: 'as if.'

2. shepe. Skeat argues, and other editors assume, that the poet purports to be a shepherd; and indeed shepherde is the reading of at least one C MS. (HM 137). But the spelling shepe should indicate [ē;]; shep, 'shepherd', [∫ep] is a different form: cf. OED, s.v. shep. The word for 'sheep' is regularly shepe in the Laud MS., e.g. xv. 354, though variant spellings are certainly to be found in other MSS. In fact l. 3 indicates that the garment resembles a hermit's, not a shepherd's; and shepe may simply indicate that this garment is of sheep's wool, or russet; cf. viii. 1: 'Thus yrobed in russed I romed about'óreferring to this passage; cf. also xviii. 1: 'wolleward and wete-shoed'. The Romaunt of the Rose, 6480-1 shows that a hermit's (woollen) dress was distinctive: 'For as thyn abit sheweth wel / Thou semest an hooly heremite'. There Amour is addressing Faux-Semblant, and his point is that 'l'abis ne fet pas l'ermite'; Faux-Semblant is a hypocrite, revelling in his hypocrisy. The narrator perhaps means to suggest that his dress made him resemble those hypocritical hermits who went about beggingówolves in sheep's clothing (cf. C x. 140-1, 240 ff.).

In habit as an hermit, unholy of works ,

Commentaries

Fowler

Vaughan

3. unholy of werkis. That is, a false hermit, one that leaves his cell and wanders about. See Introduction, Hermits, and cf. pr. 50-54.

3 Since not all hermits are unholy of works (see Pro.28), and presumably one's moral status cannot be determined from one's ' abite ,' what determines this particular hermit's unholy works is the fact that he travels around with his ears open for 'wondris.' As a specific category of devout religious, hermits were expected to keep to certain sites and often performed useful services in remote places, for which they would qualify for donations from travelers and be accorded protection by civil and ecclesiastical authorities. In Passus 7.133, Piers will specifically state that he will work to provide alms for those anchorites and hermits who keep to their 'sellys.' See K-F's Introduction (44-45), and Bennett's <a href=<a href="bennett%27s%20notes/prologue.note.28.html">note a>.

I went wide in this world , wonders to hear .

But on a May morning on Malvern hills

Me befell a ferly, of fairy me thought.

I was weary forwandered and went me to rest

Under a broad bank be a burn's side ;

And as I lay and leaned and looked on the waters ,

I slumbered in a sleeping, it swayed so merry.

Thanne began I mete a marvelous sweven ,

That I was in a wilderness , wist I never where;

Ac as I beheld the east , on high to the sun ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

13 wildernesse : like ' ferly ,' this points to something beyond the ordinary. It's possible, of course, that in the poet's day the Malvern hills themselves were something of a 'wild,' uncultivated place.

13ff. In the east the dreamer sees a tower (heaven), opposite which is a dungeon (hell), and in between a field full of folk (the world). Skeat (Parallel Texts, II, 4), Jusserand (MP VI, 310), and others have thought that this passage reflects the author's familiarity with the medieval drama. Jusserand refers to an illustration in the MS of the Valenciennes Passion, which shows, on one side, God's Tower or Palace; on the opposite side, the devil's castle; and between the two, a space where the main action takes place. Skeat calls attention to a sketch of the staging of the Castle of Perseverance (a reproduction of which may be conveniently found in J. Q. Adams, Chief Pre-Shakespearian Dramas, 264). This sketch shows the castle located in the center of the platea , or circular stage, surrounded by a moat or ditch, with the scaffold of God situated to the east of the castle, that of the World to the west, Flesh to the south, Belial to the north, etc. It has also been argued that Piers the Plowman itself influenced the later drama (cf. PMLA, XXVI, 339 ff.); and of course the Castle of Perseverance, though it is one of the earliest moralities, is much later than our poem; it was probably composed about 1425. But references to the so-called pater noster plays (first referred to in 1378) indicate that plays something like the Castle of Perseverance and Mankind were probably being produced prior to our earliest surviving moralities. If this be the case, the striking picture that our author here presents may owe something of its concrete visualization to the medieval stage.

I saw a tower on a toft , truly ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

14 If the dream landscape corresponds at all to the Malvern Hills of the waking scene, then he is apparently on the Hereford side of the hills, and looking eastward, up the hillside, on one of the summits (' on a toft ') of which he sees the tower. triʒely: the word's root meaning is 'excellent' or 'exceptional' and, like other words in these opening lines of the dream, point to a construction that is out of the ordinary.

A deep dale beneath , a dungeon there in ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

15 dungeoun: a castle keep: the chief, or most secure, tower in a medieval castle. Modern dungeon suggests this tower was often the place to secure prisoners.

With deep dikes and dark, and dreadful of sight .

A fair field full of folk found I there between ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

17 fair feld: a field, presumably relatively flat and open, on which a fair or market was being held. Perhaps the presence of numerous people would itself suggest the idea of a 'fair.'

Of all manner of men, the mean and the rich,

Working and wandering , as the world asks .

Commentaries

Vaughan

19 ' as the world askith ': the folk are engage in the ordinary activities of life. The following lines detail some of those activities and do not immediately suggest the the 'world' here must be taken as in opposition to some higher realm. The fair field is placed between the tower and the dungeon; it is not inevitably associated with either of the extremes (heaven and hell) with which those two constructions can be connected.

Some put them to the plow , and played full seldom,

In setting and sowing swonke full hard

That many of these wasters with gluttony destroy .

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

22 Wonne þat: replaces K-F's 'That many of.' The many variants in the MSS suggest an early uncertainty about the syntax here and the awkwardness of K-F's 'swonke ... That,' as well as its weaker <a href="file:///D:/Piers%20Edition/Fowler%27s%20Notes/Prologue.note.22.html"> alliteration a> suggests Kane's '[Wonne] þat' is a more likely original.

22. As it stands, this line is weak in alliteration; but see the variant readings in the TEXTUAL NOTES. For the words "That many of" Skeatis B- and C-texts have "And wonnen that." Probably "with" is intended to alliterate; cf. 2.30, 5.25, and 7.88; and see MLR, XVII, 403 ff.

And some put them to pride, apparelled them there after ,

In countenance of clothing come disguised .

Commentaries

Vaughan

24 In cuntenaunce of clothing: 'in a display of [fine] clothing; in ostentatious dress'

In prayers and penance put them many ,

All for love of our Lord lived full strait ,

In hope for to have heaven-reich bliss ,

As anchorites and hermits that hold them in their cells ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

Bennett

28 Anchorites and hermits were devout solitaries, participants in a long-standing tradition which sought religious benefits by retreating from the ordinary world to devote themselves to ascetic denial, meditation, and contemplation. Anchorites and anchoresses lived and enclosed life in prison-like cells, sometimes attached to churches or houses in towns. Hermits tended to be less firmly enclosed, but often in caves or primitive huts more or less removed from inhabited settlements. Some, for example, lived near rivers where they could direct travelers to fords or maintain bridges. Aside from any practical benefit they could offer, many hermits (as did anchorites/esses) attracted people to their cells because of their reputation for prayer and holiness.

28. This refers to the good hermits, who stayed in their cells (see note to pr. 3 above, and cf. 7.133). It is of interest to note that the author is not simply satirizing the evils of his day in this picture of the field full of folk, but includes good hermits, as well as hard workers that "pleighede ful selde" and honest minstrels who were rewarded legitimately for their entertainment. Cf. Dunning, Piers Plowman: An Interpretation of the A-text, 26 ff.

28 The ME Ancrene Wisse conveys a vivid impression of the life of enclosed anchoresses--sometimes actually walled up in their cell or ankerhold (cf. holden), as was the anchoress who once live on the site of Mob Quad in Merton College, Oxford (and cf. VCH London, i. 585); a hermit, on the other hand, was left more free to wander. Richard Rolle (ob . 1349) displays the effectiveness of a hermit's life at its best; but often hermits lived by roads, fords, or bridge (as at Cambridge), where they received alms or tolls, and were liable to temptation. Piers is prepared to give alms to those of either vocation who 'eten by at nones' (vi. 147) but not to those who had no genuine calling (cf. C x. 188 ff.). See further R. M. Clay, The Hermits and Anchorites of England (1914) with its supplement in Journal of the Brit. Archaeological Assoc., 3rd ser. 16 (1953), 74; and the LIfe of St. Christina of Markyate, a Twelfth Century Recluse, ed. C. H. Talbot (1959).

Covet not in country to carry about,

For no lecherous livelihood their likam to please.

And some chose chaffare, they achieve the better ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

31 chosen hem to chaffare: 'took up buying and selling.' The 'semith to oure sight' in the next line suggests that the success (cheven the betere) of these people is more apparent than real to the narrator's (and poet's?) way of thinking.

As it seems to our sight that such men thrive .

And some mirths to make, as minstrels can ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Bennett

33 menstralys: This is the first mention of another group which, like hermits, is associated with the poem's narrator and whose moral status is not necessarily determined by the choice of vocation: the 'synneles, I trowe' in the next line may be a left-handed compliment, but it is strongly contrasted with a firm rejection of 'Judacys chyldryn' in the following lines.

33 mynstralles. The precise occupation covered by the term has been the subject of dispute ever since the time of Percy and Ritson. They were clearly specialized entertainers, and essentially instrumentalists rather than singers. R. L. Greene claims that they are never represented as singing (and in any case only harpers or drummers would be able to sing as they made music): in that case it is inaccurate to speak of 'minstrels' song-books' and so forth. L may have in mind those gleemen who were attached to noble households or visited them regularly (cf. C x. 128 f.)1as distinct from the vagabond jongleurs who are 'Judas children' (a phrase found later in Jack Upland's Rejoinder , 348) inasmuch as they practise deceit for money, Judas being the prototype of the 'feigner' (cf. xvi. 155), iangelers (35) evidently includes tellers of 'off-colour' or obscene stories. For similar charges and similar phrasing v. Jacob's Well, p. 134. It is noteworthy that the poet-here inserting a personal opinion-approves (with good scholastic warrant) of 'clean' secular entertainment, as well as of the ascetic life. This balance between various ways of life, religious and secular, is characteristic of the poem: cf. esp. xix. 224-45. 1 Note, e.g., the payments recorded in BPR, iii. 317 to ministral and a rymour.

And get gold with their glee, sinless, I trowe.

Ac japers and janglers , Judas children ,

Found them fantasies and fools them make ,

And have wit at will to work if them list .

That Paul preaches of them I dare not prove it here:

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

38 Most, following Skeat, take this as an allusion to 2 Thess. 3:10 (Si quis non vult operari nec manducet: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat).

38. That Poule prechith of hem. Perhaps, as Skeat thought, the poet has in mind 2 Thess. 3:10. "...if any would not work, neither should he eat."

Qui loquitur turpiloquium is Lucifer's hyne.

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

39 Qui loquitur turpiloquium: 'he who speaks evil.' The idea, though not the exact phrase apparently, does appear in St. Paul (cf. Ephesians 5:4 and Colossians 3:8). The syntax does not require 39 to be in apposition to Paul's preaching in 38; it may be the narrator's reason for (rationalization of) his own reticence here, and indicate that 'preve'-ing it here may be lowering himself to the level of those he is criticizing. The word 'turpiloquium' is not limited in meaning to 'slander'; the phrase may amount to little more than 'say bad things about.' The narrator, as himself a species of 'minstrel,' may be avoid appearing to be a pot calling a kettle black: judge not lest you be judged!

39. Qui Loquitur turpiloquium. "He who speaks slander" (cf. Eph. 5:4; Col. 3:8). Our author seems to have been fond of this mixture of Latin and the vernacular, a phenomenon known as macaronic verse. Cf. 1.50-51, 84, 4. 126-27, 5.42, etc. See Sullivan, The Latin Insertions and the Macaronic Verse in Piers Plowman, especially chapters IV and V.

Bidders and beggars fast about yede,

Till their bellies and their bags were bretful crammed ;

Fayteden for their food, fought at the ale;

Commentaries

Vaughan

42 Kane make as fairly convincing case for Flite here. I am less convinced that Ch's 'Fliten þan' is to be preferred over the manuscripts which favor 'þei fliten' (U) and its variants.

In gluttony , God wot, go they to bed,

And rise up with ribaldry , those robber's knaves ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

44 robertes knavys: cf.Bennett, note to Prol. 44

Sleep and sloth sues them ever.

Pilgrims and palmers plight them together

Commentaries

Fowler

46ff. The medieval pilgrimage, initiated for purely devotional purposes, had degenerated till in the fourteenth century we find it unquestionably prompted, for the most part, by worldly motives. In Chaucer's prologue to the Canterbury Tales, the pilgrims are actuated by little more than the desire to indulge in the equivalent of our modern summer vacations. Seint Jame. Aside from Rome itself, one of the most popular holy places in Christendom was the famous shrine of Saint James at Compostella in Spain. Chauceris well-traveled Wife of Bath had been, among other places, "In Galice at Seint Jame." We are told that "hermits" went to Walsyngham, which was an English shrine in Norfolk , second only to that of St. Thomas at Canterbury, where Chaucer's pilgrims were going. It seems clear that the pilgrimages of these false hermits, with "here wenchis aftir," were mere debauches.

For to seek Saint James and saints at Rome;

Commentaries

Vaughan

47 Seint Jame: The pilgrimage to Santiago (St. James) de Compostela in Galicia (NW Spain) was (next to Rome) the most popular in Europe in the Middle Ages, with a series of diverse routes threading their way across France and the Pyrenees and west across N. Spain. The scallop shell was the 'sign' of this pilgrimage, attesting to the appeal of the seafood in that region. See Fowler, note to l. 46.

Went forth in their way with many wise tales ,

And had leave to lie all their life after .

Hermits on an heap with hooked staves

Went to Walsingham, and their wenches after .

Commentaries

Vaughan

51 Walsyngham: the shrine of 'Our Lady of Walsingham' in Norfolk (about 100 miles north of London, and about five miles from the North Sea coast) was one of the most popular (and wealthy) pilgrimage sites in England. An Augustinian monastery there had a chapel representing the home of Mary and Joseph in Nazareth. Often called a Loreto, the Nazareth house was a model for devotional chapels at a number of sites in Europe.

Great lubbers and long, that loath were to swink,

Clothed them in copes to be known from others;

Commentaries

Vaughan

53 It is difficult to miss noticing, in this criticism of 'Hermytes,' the similarities they have to the dreamer of the opening lines, who 'schop' himself 'In abyte as an ermyte unholy of werkys' (3)e

Shaped them hermits, their ease to have.

Commentaries

Textual

55 There is a blank space (room for approx. 9 letters) at the beginning of this line in Ra. This and the following line are unique to Ra and E, and 'Vicars' is supplied from the latter, which has two unique lines preceding the two found also in Ra: 'Persons with þair p[ro]curases p[er]mutyn þair chirches / With al þe besynes of þair body þe bett[er] to haue' (copied from Kane, 49).

I found there friars , all the four orders ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

57 freres: The title 'brother' (Lat. frater; Fr. frere; Engl. friar) was given to members of a new type of religious order founded in the early thirteenth century. The four main fraternal orders were the Franciscan (Minorites, or grey friars), Dominicans (Preachers, or black friars), Carmelites (white friars), and Augustinians (Austin friars). In the fourteenth century the fraternal orders were expanding greatly and were subject to much criticism from secular clergy (i.e., clergy responsible to bishops and looking after geographical parishes) since they felt the friars were trespassing on their prerogatives and income, and by being 'easy' in granting absolution in confession weakening the moral atmosphere, and the local social control exerted by resident praish clergy. This poem reflects many features of this anti-fraternal criticism.

57 (= K-F, 55). friars. The four orders were: 1) The Franciscans, also called Minorites (cf. 9.9), or Grey Friars, because of their garb; 2) the Dominicans, also known as the preaching friars, because of their zeal in combating heresy, or the Black Friars, because of their dress, or the Jacobins, after a Dominican House located in Paris on the Rue St. Jacques; 3) the Carmelites, or White Friars; and 4) the Austins, or Augustine Friars. See INTRODUCTION, Friars.

Preaching the people for profit of their womb ,

Glossed the gospel as them good liked ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

57 Gloside: The basic meaning is 'interpret,' 'translate,' 'comment upon.' However, since all translations in one way or another alter or 'spin' the meaning the connotations of the original word, 'glossing' frequently carries connotations of deceit and self-serving. Cf. OED

For coveting coveting of copes construed it as they would.

Many of these masters may clothe them at liking ,

For their money and their merchandise meet together .

Since charity has been chapman, and chief to shrive lords,

Commentaries

Fowler

61-64. "Since love has become a merchant (and chiefly to shrive lords), many wonders have occurred in a few years; and unless the Church and they hold better together, the greatest mischief on earth is rapidly approaching." This may be a veiled reference by our poet to some recent event that has impressed him. The "hy" of line 63 seems clearly to refer to the friars; "holy chirche" must, as Skeat noted, refer to the secular clergy. There was, of course, much bitter dissension between these two groups, which can largely be traced to the friars' exaggerated claims about their power of confession. It will be recalled that Chaucer's friar . . . hadde power of confessioun, As seyde hym self, moore than a curat. (pr. 218-19) One critic has suggested (cf. Dunning, 20) that the "Manye ferlies" of line 62 refers to the quarrel between the friars and Richard Fitz-Ralph, Archbishop of Armagh, who delivered a series of sermons against the Mendicants, which were preached in English at St. Paul's Cross in the winter of 1356-7 (cf. Studies, XXVI (1937), 50-52).

Many ferlis have fallen in a few years ;

But holy church and they hold better together ,

The most mischief on mould is mounting up fast.

There preached a pardoner, as he a priest were,

Commentaries

Vaughan

67 pardoner: an individual licensed to proclaim an 'indulgence' or 'pardon.' He is not, strictly speaking, a member of the clergy, and therefore the critical qualification here that he preached 'as if he were a priest.' Most pardoners were quite laymen, who had been granted the right to make known the existence of a grant of indulgence, and were authorized to take up collections on behalf of the institution to whom the indulgence had been granted. So, for example, Chaucer's Pardoner is licensed to go about announcing an indulgence being granted individuals in return for contributions to the activities of the religious house of Roncevals which ran a hospital (?) in London, and was one of the house of a monastery headquartered in Roncevals in the Pyrenees. Presumably, these 'salesmen' retained portions of these donations for their own expenses, and some of them were no doubt charlatans. However, nothing aside from a complete rejection of the idea of pardons, which was questioned by some in the period of Piers Plowman , could automatically condemn Chaucer's Pardoner as a 'fraud.' There is no over doubt cast on the authenticity of his 'bulles,' the formal documents issued from Rome which identify the terms of the indulgence. Here, the 'bulle with bisshopis selis' indicates that the bishop issued (or, more likely, at this date, publicized) the indulgence. At the root of the later medieval Church's practice of issuing indulgences lay the doctrine of the 'treasury of merit.' The principle behind the 'treasury' is that as the earthly representatives of Jesus Christ, the Church had access to the inexhaustible merits achieved by Jesus's passion and death. To use a banking metaphor, the Church had the power to draw on an endowment whose funds it could distribute as it saw fit. And these 'funds' could be used to pay off debts accumulated on earth and remaining to be paid by souls who would have to undergo punishment for their sins in Purgatory, These benefits could, of course, be granted gratis , but the Church insisted on some sign of reformed character and good intention in return for which the benefits of the indulgence could be granted (or, actually, assumed by the recipient). So writs of indulgence spelled out terms in return for which the effects of the indulgence would apply: going on a pilgrimage, performing certain devotions, contributing to the care of the sick or to the maintenance of bridges, making donations in support of sanctioned activities of religious groups). Because the Sacrament of Penance (Confession) would absolve (l. 67: 'assoile') the guilt ('culpa'), but not the 'temporal punishment' ('poena') due for sins, sinners were directed to make 'satisfaction' for their sins through certain penitential acts, which would remove the 'poena' remaining after absolution. And if all was not removed by acts in this life it would be purged by sufferings in the next. To avoid fear of these sufferings in Purgatory after death, sinners could gain 'indulgences' which would reduce (or do away entirely with) those accumulated penalties. For sinners this became an attractive option, and for the church, and confidence men, a lucrative business. Indulgences, to begin with, were partial, releasing souls from certain days (e.g., seven or forty) in Purgatory. Eventually, the value of these declined and inflation set in, which resulted in the proliferation of full (or 'plenary' indulgences, which would remove all the accumulated penalties due for one's sins. These were sometimes (improperly) called pardons 'a poena et a culpa' (from penalty and from guilt). In strict terms, no indulgence could remove the 'culpa,' but because the efficacy of any pardon depended on the prior grant of sacramental absolution following a full and complete confession, it was common to refer to this cumulative effect by this phrase. There were, of course, without doubt many who misunderstood, and misrepresented, these indulgences, and the Roman Church properly reformed the entire practice in response to the Protestant reformers who decried the abuses as beyond reform and attacked the fundamental principle of the 'treasury of merit.' The Roman Catholic Church still holds to the doctrine of the 'treasury of merit' and of 'indulgences,' but the granting of the latter in return for monetary contributions is no longer permitted, as it was in the later Middle Ages. The pardoner here is clearly misrepresenting his powers, and it is only the illiterate ('lewide') who believed him. He is not a 'prest,' and therefore does not have the right to absolve ('assoile') anyone's sins. Indeed, even a priest did not have that power, except in cases of necessity. In strict canon law (after the Fourth Lateran Council), it was the parish priest who was authorized to hear his parishioners confession and grant absolution, and one of the central points in the controversies surrounding the fraternal orders was that they repeatedly claimed the right to absolve anyone whose confession they heard.

Brought forth a bull with bishop's seals ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

66 bullys wyth busschopys selys: documents authorizing the preaching of an 'pardon' would be authenticated by having official seals from the local bishop.

And said that him self might absolve absolve them all

Commentaries

Vaughan

67 assoile: since it's clear from 65 that the pardoner is not in fact a priest, he has no power to absolve ('assoile') anyone of anything.

Of falseness of fasting and of vows broken .

Commentaries

Bennett

68 From the times of Jean de Meun, in France, of Dante, in Italy ( v. Paradiso, 5. 79), and Chaucer, in England, down to Sir David Lindsay ( v. The Poor Man and the Pardoner), the figure of the pardoner was the constant object of criticism and satire; and L's charges can be substantiated in many contemporary documents ( v. J. Jusserand, 'Chaucer's Pardoner and the Pope's Pardoner' in Essays on Chaucer, pt. v, Chaucer Soc. Pubcns. (2nd ser., 1884)). But two points must be borne in mind: (i) At least two 14th-c. popes (Gregory IX and Urban VI) and manyh lesser churchmen spoke strongly against the abuses of the system of quæ stores . The University of Oxford proposed the abolition of the office of pardoner in 1414, thought this was not carried out till 150 years later. (ii) However scandalous the traffic became, the doctrine on which it was based was not palpably false or irrational: a pardon, or writ of indulgence, was simply, at first, a commutation of the temporal punishment due to sin in this life; a specific number of days could be named becuase orginally these were deductible from a period of penance imposed by the Church. An indulgence did not secure salvation and the pardoner was simply the authorized channel through which the Church dispensed indulgences out of the inexhaustible treasury of the merits of Christ, the B.V.M., and the saints. Nor was the money given by the faithful at the time of receiving these indulgences originally regarded as payment for them, but as a contribution to the work of the universal church. The system was not abused until these payments began to be regarded as the price of a pardon and the pardoner began to claim power (as in l. 70) to absolve from sins without confession or contrition; v. Southern, pp. 136-42 for further discussion, and 99 n below. L's pardoner is-as many were-a layman, or at least only in minor orders. His bull is presumably a papal bull, i.e. a formal statement of the indulgence carrying the seals of various bishops stating that they had given him licence to preach the indulgence in their diocese: he should also have had a licence from the king, bearing the royal seal (cf. CT, C 335-7). But L's pardoner represents his bull as giving him powers to absolve his hearers himself, a pena et a culpa, though such absolution ought to be given only by a priest, after hearing confession; and even a priest would require a special licence (no know as faculty papers). The Oxford petition of 1414 notes especially that 'although not in holy orders the shameless pardoners preach publicly and pretend falsely that they have full power of absolving both living and dead alike from punishment and guilt.' The climax of the first part of the poem (vii. 116 ff.) is to be nothing esle than a dispute over the validity of pardons.

Lewd men believed him well, and liked his speech,

Came up kneeling to kiss his bull ;

He bonked them with his brevet, and bleared their eyes ,

And reached with his rageman rings and brooches .

Thus ye give your gold gluttons to help ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

75 The direct address to his audience/readers here ('ye') is the first striking instance of the kind of immediate relevance this poem at times asserts. The critical issue being addressed here are not set off in some distant world, unconnected to the lives of those listening to or reading this poem. Like the geographical reality of the Malvern HIlls, the characters being described, and castigated, in this poem are not limited to the realms of 'fantasye' or 'faerie' but are denizens of the everyday world of fourteenth-century England.

And leave it losels that lechery haunt!

But were the bishop blessed and worth both his ears ,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

Bennett

77 worth bothe hise eris: Is there any possibility that this is a punning reference to a bishop's miter and crozier, two signs of his office?

75. worth bothe hise eris. Fit to keep both his ears, i. e., not have them cut off as a form of punishment. Cf. MLN, LVIII, 48.

78. yblissed. The bishop is blessed at the consecration ceremony, cf. vii. 13 and OED, s.v. bless, v.1 sup> I. 1† b. s.a. 1154, 1420. 'If the bishop were doing his work properly, and remembered his consecration vows...' worth bothe his eres : probably a colloquial equivalent of 'worht his salt' or 'on the spot', 'alert to what is going on' (G. K. Johnston (N & Q 204 (1959), 243) cites a similar phrase from the Towneley Plays); but possibly = 'worthy to keep his ears', i.e. not to lose them in the pillory as the accomplce of a cheat (which he is, in so far as he allows the pardoner to practise this fraud): so Fancy in Skelton's Mafnyficence fears 'to lose myn eres twayne (349)'. Yet this particular punishment could hardly befall a bishop. bothe in any case is simply emphatic: cf. CT, D 1941.

His seal should not be sent to deceive the people.

It is not all by the bishop that the boy preaches ;

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

79 Though he has 'busschopys selys' on his writ, he is here said not to have authorization from the bishop to preach the indulgence. And the following line asserts collusion between the pardoner and the parish priest in the effort to squeeze money out of the people, money that would otherwise go to support of the poor. The passage as a whole implies ideals of religious leadership and social responsibility that are being betrayed. If the bishop allows his seal to be used, even if he does not give a licence to preach, he is nonetheless implicated in the deception that occurs. The narrator sees a range of unconcious and conscious corruption at various levels of the ecclesiastical institution. Some (like the bishop's) contributed to the corruption through ignorance and indifference; others (like the pardoner and parish priest) are motivated by greed.

77-79. Collusion between the parish priest and the pardoner seems to have been fairly common. See G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England, 103: "The indefatigable Grandisson [Bishop of Exeter in the first half of the fourteenth century] lays bare, in a document glowing with indignation, the system he has detected at work in his diocese, by which a whole army of false questors, many of whom were laymen [cf. "as he a prest were," line 65], were being encouraged by the archdeacon's officials, who pocketed the proceeds that came their way" (quoted by Dunning, Piers Plowman, 29, note 5).

But the parish priest and the pardoner part the silver

That the poor people of the parish should have they not were.

Parsons and parish priests complained them to their bishop ,

That their parish were poor since the pestilence time,

Commentaries

Bennett

Fowler

83 (i.e. B Pr.84) The line describes one of the worst effects of the Black Death--the plague (probably bubonic) that overspread Europe in a few years and reached England in 1348, recurring in 1361, 1369, and later. Not only did priests and parsons (as well as monks and friars) die off in great numbers: the cost of living rose and the clergy found that the number of their parishioners was so diminished that they could no longer live on their tithes and oblations. Hence many priests abandoned their parishes--not always waiting for their bishop's permission--to seek more lucrative duties in London. The post most often sought htere was that of chantry priest, whose function it was to chant the office for the dead and to say or sing mass for the souls for the dead founder of the chantry who bequeathed a fund or property (sometimes including a dwelling) for the support of the clerk or priest thus engaged. By the middle of the century the merchant guilds, now growing rapidly in wealth, were endowing such chapels for their members. They became especially common in London, where each decade saw some thirty established, and especially numerous at St. Paul's, where they were greatly abused-as L evidently knew-until Bishop Braybrook reformed them in 1381. A typical instance of a chaplain who refused to change his easy chantry post for a parish, because a pestilence (that of 1361-2) was afflicting the East Riding district to which he had been assigned is noted by Thompson, p. 123 n. 1. For the evils of non-residence v . Pantin, pp. 27, 98-9, 115. [*v. Addenda, p. 226.] ---- Addenda, p. 226: On chantries v . Rosalind Hill in The Reign of Richard II: Essays in Honour of May McKisack (1971), pp. 242-5.

83 (= K-F 81). pestilence tyme. This is the first mention by our poet of the Black Death. It is later referred to directly in 5.13, 10.185, and 11.59, and perhaps indirectly in 5.32-33. See INTRODUCTION, The Pestilence. Although from 1348 to 1370 there were three especially violent epidemics--first in 1348-49, then in 1361-62, and 1368-69--there seems to be no reference to any particular one of these; our author simply says "the pestilence" or "the pestilence tyme."

To have a licence and leave at London to dwell,

Commentaries

Vaughan

82 Lundoun: as a major population center it would provide more occasions for rural priests to gain greater income. As a result of the Black Death in the 1340s, there had been a proportionately large loss in the ranks of the clergy, and the laws of supply and demand would have bearing on that profession as much as it did on 'laborers' whose freedom of movement various government regulations attempted to restrain.

To sing there for simony, for silver is sweet.

Commentaries

Vaughan

83 symonye: simony is the name given to the sin of exchanging money for spiritual office or other items of spiritual value. The term goes back to Simon Magus who in the Acts of the Apostles (8:18ff.) who offers Philip money in exchange for some of the power he displays.

There houide an hundred in houvis of silk ,

Sergeants , it seemed , that served at the bar;

Commentaries

Vaughan

87 Serjauntis: 'sergeants of the law' are the equivalent of crown prosecutors??

Plead for pennies and pounds the law,

Commentaries

Vaughan

88 penis and poundis: pennies/pence and pounds, standard coins of English currency. There were 240 pence in a pound (=twenty shillings; four crowns). Like the American 'dollars and cents,' the phrase is a common one for 'money.'

And nought for love of our Lord unloose their lips once.

You might better mete the mist on Malvern hills

Than get a mum of their till money were showed .

I saw bishops bolde and bachelors of divine

Commentaries

Vaughan

92 As nearly the only ones with university education, clergy were often employed in governmental service and administration. The narrator here, however, clearly wants to maintain a distinction between church and state and to insist that the positions ('dignites') to which clergymen are preferred are first and foremost to 'preach to the people and feed the poor. Their seeking to advance in the royal service will lead to the destruction ('shende') of the country.

Become clerks of accounts , the king for to serve ;

Archdeacons and deans , that dignity have

Commentaries

Fowler

92. Archideknes and denis. The archdeacon was next in rank below a bishop, and acted as the latter's delegate in judicial duties in a certain area of the diocese. The dean exercised a similar function in the rural deanery, which was a subdivision of the archdeaconis sphere of jurisdiction. These offices are still maintained in the Anglican church. On this whole passage see INTRODUCTION, Clerks in Worldly Office.

To preach the people and poor men to feed,

Been loped to London , by leave of their bishops ,

And be clerks of the king's bench, the country to shende .

Barons and burghers , and bondsmen also ,

I saw in that assembly , as you shall hear after ,

100

Bakers and butchers , and brewers many ,

Commentaries

Fowler

100f (= K-F, 98 f.) The OE endings -estre, -istre, -ystre were the feminine terminations of nouns. In ME the ending -stre or -ster originally preserved the OE meaning, but later became confused with words of OF origin ending in -stre, -ster, such as ministre, maister; cf. Chaucer's ydolastre. It is not clear whether our author had in mind the earlier feminine denotation in such words as baxteris, bocheris, and websteris. Cf. 3.67 f., where of "Breowesters and bakeris, bocheris and cokesi" it is said that "thise arn men on thise molde that most harm werchith." On the other hand, see 5.128, "my wyf was a wynstere," as opposed to the common form wynnere (but see variant readings on 5.128 in Textual Notes).

Woolen websters , and weavers of linen ,

Tailors and tuckers , and tollers both,

Masons and miners , and many other crafts ,

As dikers and delvers , that do their deeds ill ,

105

And drive forth the long day with "Dieu save , dame Emme ."

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

103 'deusa dammeme' (i.e., 'Douce Dame Emme' or possibly 'Douce Dame') is presumably a line from a song, or else a common phrase used to make excuses for not doing what one should. It appears again at VII.109.

103. Dieu save, dame Emme. "God save you, dame Emme." Probably from a popular song of the day. Cf. Skeat's B-text, 13.340.

Cooks and their knaves cry , "Hot pies, hot!

Good geese and gris , go dine, go !"

Commentaries

Vaughan

107 gris: piglets go we dyne, go we (more likely than K-F's 'gowe'): '[let us] go eat,' perhaps equivalent to 'Come and get it' as a call to meals.

Taverners to them told the same,

With white wine of Alsace , and wine of Gascony,

Commentaries

Vaughan

Fowler

107-8 Imported wines (from Alsace (?Auxerre), Gascony, the Rhine, and La Rochelle) were plentiful and attractive aids to the digestion ('defye') of hearty meals.

107 f. These are all wines exported from France -- from Alsace, Gascony, Rhine, and Rochelle.

110

Of the Rhine and of the La Rochelle, the roast to defy .

All this I saw sleeping , and seven sithes more.