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Langland's Elusive Plowman

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Samuel A. Overstreet*
Affiliation:
Maryville College

Extract

Among the persistent problems of Piers Plowman criticism, that of defining the meaning of the poem's title figure still holds a prominent place. The problem is largely one of finding or forging a unity out of the bewildering multiplicity of Piers's roles in the poem. Skeat, the poem's first modern editor, proposed three discrete meanings for Piers in three parts of the poem: in his first appearance (B 5–7) he is ‘the type of the ideal honest man’; in the second (B 15–18), Christ; in the third (B 19–20), Peter and his worthy successors in the papal office. Later critics, searching for a means of unifying these three, have fallen roughly into three traditions, each with its own approach to the ‘problem of Piers.’

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References

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55 Dorothy Owen has noted the similarity of Jean de Meun's episode to Langland's, though without drawing interpretive conclusions for Langland's poem, in Piers Plowman: A Comparison with Some Earlier and Contemporary French Allegories (London 1912) 75.Google Scholar

56 Roman de la Rose 7,201–7,764.Google Scholar

57 Voie 43, 69, 150; Roman de la Rose 7,873–74, 7,867. Cf. Piers Plowman B 5.578, ‘Leve hem on þi lift half and loke noӡ3t þerafter.’Google Scholar

58 Voie 35–48.Google Scholar

59 Roman de la Rose 7,876.Google Scholar

60 Ibid. 7,875–82.Google Scholar

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67 Ibid. 8,205–14.Google Scholar

68 Ibid. 8,251–76, 8,159–226.Google Scholar

69 Ibid. 8,421.Google Scholar

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71 Cf. Gower's description of this class in Vox clamantis 5.9.557–654 and in Miroir de l'omme 26,425–84, in his Complete Works, ed Macaulay, G. C. (Oxford 1899–1902; rptd. Pointe, Grosse, Mich. 1968).Google Scholar

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91 Ibid. 368–74, 390.Google Scholar

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101 Chambers, R. W. devotes four pages to the tearing and three sentences to the rest of the passus in Man's Unconquerable Mind (London 1939) 117–22. Coghill's treatment focuses on Truth's sending the pardon at the beginning of the passus as well as on the tearing, but ignores the long piece of estates satire in the middle — ‘The Pardon of Piers Plowman,’ Gollancz Memorial Lecture, Proceedings of the British Academy 30 (1944) 316–22, 356–57, rptd. (abridged) in Blanch, ed., Style and Symbolism (cit. n. 16 supra) 50–54, 85–86.Google Scholar

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105 Ibid. Google Scholar

106 Susan Mc, H.Leod, The Tearing of the Pardon in Piers Plowman,’ Philological Quarterly 56 (1977) 19. Trower, K. B. also sees the estates-satire as a gloss on the pardon: Temporal Tensions’ 396.Google Scholar

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108 De Venus la deesse d'amor, ed. Wendelin Foerster (Bonn 1880) 300309, 313–14.Google Scholar

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119 Roman de la Rose 19,339ff. Dorothy Owen has noted this similar use of the allegorical document in the Roman de la Rose, but again without drawing conclusions for Langland's poem — Comparison (v. n. 55 supra) 112–13.Google Scholar

120 Bozon, Nicholas, La Lettre de l'Empereur Orgueil, in Deux poèmes de Nicholas Bozon, ed. Johan Vising (Göteborgs Högskolas Arsskrift 3; Göteborg 1919) 6182.Google Scholar

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125 Rolle, Ps.-Richard, Symboli Athanasii expositio clarissima, in Pia opuscula (Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum 26; Lyon 1677) 627. Cf. also the earlier Troy es and Bouhier commentaries, appendices G and I in George Druce Wynne Ommaney, A Critical Dissertation on the Athanasian Creed (Oxford 1897) 513, 530.Google Scholar

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127 John Baldwin, W., The Medieval Theories of the Just Price,’ Transactions of the American Philosophical Society N.S. 49.4 (1959) 6364.Google Scholar

128 Luke 16.9, cf. Piers Plowman B 8.88–90. Major commentaries such as the Glossa ordinaria and Hugh of St. Cher's postilla held that the parable of the unrighteous steward in Luke 16 followed the three parables in Luke 15 because three lessons on repentance are rightly followed by a lesson on almsgiving. Hugh of St. Cher proposes several reasons why this order is appropriate, among them that ‘per poenitentiam culpa, per eleemosynam poena relaxatur, et prius est culpa, quam poena’ — Opera omnia in universum Vetus et Novum Testamentum (Lyon 1669) VI 227va. Cf. Glossa ordinaria in Biblia Sacra cum Glossa interlineari, ordinaria et Nicolai Lyrani Postilla ac moralitatibus, Burgensis additionibus, et Thoringi replicis (Venice 1588) V 166ra. In creating an allegorical pardon a pena et a culpa Langland did not necessarily have the parable of the unrighteous steward in mind (since he does not refer to it explicitly), but he certainly did have in mind almsgiving as a prominent work of satisfaction following penance.Google Scholar

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142 Biblia cum Glossa III 117rb. The similar comment by Ludolph, of Saxony makes even clearer the idea of evangelical perfection here: 'super semitas iustitiae, id est artiora precepta et perfectionis consilia hominem iustificantia’ — In Psalterium expositio (Paris n.d. [1506?]) 32vb.Google Scholar

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148 William of St. Amour, in his famous tract concerning the mendicants at Paris, reports the mendicants’ use of the verse from Matthew. Commenting on 2 Thess. 3.10, ‘If any man will not work, neither let him eat,’ he writes: ‘Dicunt quidam de operibus spiritualibus hoc apostolus praecepisse; alioquin, si de opere corporali hoc dicerit, in quo vel Agricolae, vel Opifices laborant, videretur sentire adversus Dominum, qui dicit in Evangelio NOLITE SOLLICITI ESSE DICENTES, QUID MANDUCABIMUS; sed superflue conantur, et sibi, et caeteris caliginem obducere’ — De periculis novissimorum temporum, in Opera omnia quae reperiri potuerunt (Constance 1632) 49. I am grateful to the late Kaske, R. E. for making available his microfilm of this work.Google Scholar

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153 One such modern reader is Aers, ‘Imagination’ (v. n. 107 supra) 13–14.Google Scholar

154 14.164–65; more widely, 14.102–217, cf. 7.100–106.Google Scholar

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164 Barney, sees the sowing here as spiritual sowing in the heart — ‘Plowshare’ 287. He is interpreting the C-version, though, which does not include the reference to ‘taillours craft and tynkeris craft.’ At this point an allegoresis of the agricultural imagery is more possible for C than for B; a similar reading of Piers's role here in B would require some exegetical meaning for each of his activities.Google Scholar

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183 Wyclif, John, Tractatus de benedicta Incarnatione, ed. Edward Harris (London 1886) 3.Google Scholar

184 Ibid. 182–83.Google Scholar

185 Netter, Thomas (Thomas Waldensis), Doctrinale fidei Catholicae (Venice 1757; rptd. Westmead 1967) I 231–32. Wyclif was by no means the first or only theologian to advocate the appropriateness of this latria toward the homo assumptus in Deo. But his rigorous Realism led him to make statements which were viewed as lacking necessary safeguards. Bonaventure, for instance, had argued that the humanity of Christ was to be worshiped inasmuch as it was united to the eternal Word, but not as considered by itself. However, he goes on to note that since that humanity is always conjoined to the Word, it should always be thus considered, and is therefore always to be adored with latriaCommentaria in quatuor libros Sententiarum III d.9 a.1 q.1, Opera omnia (Quaracchi 1882–1902) III 199–200. Most later scholastics follow this distinction between the human nature considered as separate and as united to the eternal Word, though sometimes they introduce other aspects: Pierre de Tarentaise and Durand de Saint-Pourçain speak of the humanity and the flesh of Christ as deserving latria not per se, but per accidens, as accidents in a supposit — Pierre de Tarentais (Petrus de Tarantasia / Pope Innocent V), In IV libros Sententiarum commentaria III d.9 q.1 a.2 (Toulouse 1642–52; rptd. Ridgewood, N.J. 1964) III 67; Durand de Saint-Pourçain (Durandus a Sancto Porciano), Petri Lombardi Sententias commentariorum libri IIII III d.9 q.2 (Venice 1571; rptd. Ridgewood, N.J. 1964) II 229v. Duns Scotus defines the question more conservatively: ‘Utrum Christo debeatur Latria solum secundum naturam divinam.’ His answer is threefold, considered under various aspects. (1) The divine nature is a sufficient reason for latria, so the answer is ‘yes.’ (2) The human nature of Christ is not to be excluded from the object of latria, so the answer from another viewpoint is ‘no.’ (3) The human nature of Christ, as a principle of human redemption, does not provide a reason for latria, but only for hyperdulia, so from a third standpoint the answer is ‘yes’ — Quaestiones in IV libros Sententiarum (Commentaria Oxoniensia) III d.9 q.1 a.3, in Opera omnia (Paris 1891–95; rptd. Farnborough 1969) XIV 389–97. Against the background of this third point, the polemical value of one of Wyclif's syllogisms becomes clearer: ‘the humanity of Christ redeems; therefore, the humanity of Christ is God’ — and thus the humanity of Christ as a principle of redemption deserves latria. In contrast, Gabriel Biel in the fifteenth century takes a position more conservative than that of Bonaventure. Biel summarizes the state of the argument thus: ‘omnium in hoc concordat sententia, quod humanitati Christi in se considerate non ut unite Verbo ypostatice non debetur adoratio latrie proprie dicta sed dulia. Considerata autem ut a Verbo assumpta, sic de eius adoratione tres sunt opiniones. Una tenet quod ut sic considerata est adoranda dulia maiori sive yperdulia…. Secunda opinio tenet quod humanitas Christi considerata ut a Verbo assumpta est, et ei suppositaliter unita latrie est adoranda…. Tertio opinio, quod humanitas Christi ut Verbo unita adoratur latria non proprissime sed large sumpta.’ Biel agrees with the third opinion, denying latria strictly defined to even the human nature of Christ as united to the Word, but granting a lesser sort of latria: ‘Accipiendo latriam communiter humana natura in Christo adoranda est latria, patet quod hec adoratio nihil aliud est quam recognitio eius ut summe et singulariter unite deo, et eius ut sic dilectio’ — Biel, Collectorium in IV libros Sententiarum Guillelmi Occam III d.9 a.1 n.3 sect. C, and III d.9 a.2 concl. 4 sect. H (Tübingen 1501; rptd. Hildesheim 1977). For other scholastics on this question, see the following: Aquinas, Commentum in libris I–IV Sententiarum III d.9 q.1 a.2 quaestiuncula 7, in Opera omnia, edd. Fretté, S. E. and Maré, P. (Paris 1874–89) IX 154–55; Richard of Middleton (Ricardus de Media Villa), Super quatuor libros Sententiarum III d.9 q.1 (Brescia 1591; rptd. Frankfurt a. M. 1963) III 89; Egidio Colonna (Ægidius Romanus), In tertium librum Sententiarum d.9 p.1, q.2 a.1 (Rome 1623; rptd. Frankfurt a. M. 1968), 368.Google Scholar

186 Wyclif, John, Sermones, ed. Johann Loserth (London 1887–90) III 55.Google Scholar

187 Ibid. III 368.Google Scholar

188 Kaske, , ‘Defense’ (v. n. 18 supra) 43–44.Google Scholar

189 Aers, , Allegory 108.Google Scholar

190 Ibid. Google Scholar

191 Murtaugh, , Image (v. n. 15 supra) 120.Google Scholar

192 On Luke 2.52, ‘Et Jesus proficiebat aetate et sapientia et gratia apud Deum et hominis’: ‘Et licet Jesus in se non proficiebat sapientia et cognitione habituali, quia haec in eo augmentata non sunt, ab instanti enim conceptionis plenitudinem huius habuit: proficiebat tamen et in se cognitione sensuali et experimentali, quia sensus ejus convertebatur de novo ad aliquid ad quod antea non convertebatur. Unde secundum Apostolum: Didicit ex his quae passus est obedientiam [Hebrews 5.8]. Non tamen de novo aliquid didicit quod prius nesciret, quia quod didicit, prius noverat scientia divina et inspirata. Unde Bernardus: Ut ab alienam miseriam cor miserum habeas, oportet ut tuam prius cognoscas, ut proximi mentem in tua invenias, et ex te noveris qualiter illi subvenias. Verus quippe Dei filius priusquam se exinanivisset formam servi accipiens [Philippians 2.7], sicut miseriam et subjectionem expertus non erat, sic misericordiam vel obedientiam experimento non noverat. Sciebat quidem per naturam, non autem sciebat per experientiam. At ubi minoratus est [Hebrews 2.9.] usque ad illam formam in quam et pati et subiici posset, in passione expertus est miseriam, et in subjectione obedientiam. Per quern tamen experientiam, non illi scientia, sed nobis fiducia crevit, dum in hoc misero genere cognitionis, is a quo longe erraveramus factus est propinquior nobis. Quando enim illi appropinquare auderemus in sua impassibilitate manenti? nunc autem monemur cum fiducia adire ad thronum gratiae ipsius [Hebrews 4.16], quern nimirum languoros nostros tulisse, et dolores portasse cognoscimus [Isaiah 53.4–5] et in eo, in quo passus est ipse, nobis compati non dubitamus. Haec Bernardus.’ — Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Iesu Christi (Augsburg 1729) 74 col. 1.Google Scholar

193 Kaske, , ‘Defense’ 47.Google Scholar

194 Ibid. 47–48.Google Scholar

195 Aers, , Allegory 109.Google Scholar

196 Murtaugh, , Image 119.Google Scholar

197 Ibid. Google Scholar

198 Et quidem. Hic consequenter ostendit, quod in christus fuit maxima misericordia, quae debet esse in pontifice: quia cum esset deus ab eterno, in qua natura pati non poterat, ex sua pietate et misericordia, qua visitavit nos oriens ex alto, assumpsit naturam humanam passibilem, et ex passionis experientia ad compatiendum nobis quodammodo aptior redderetur. Et hoc est quod dicit Apostolus: Et quidem cum esset filius dei, id est ab eterno existens in natura divina’ — Nicholas of Lyra, Postilla super totam Bibliam, in Biblia cum Glossa VI 142rb. Cf. also Alcuin, , PL 100.1054, Rabanus Maurus, PL 112.743, Hatto of Vercelli, PL 134.755, Bruno Carthusiensis, PL 153.514, Peter Lombard, PL 192.437, and Haymo of Auxerre, PL 117.856.Google Scholar

199 PL 117.856. Cf. Alcuin, , PL 100.1055, Rabanus Maurus, PL 112.744, and Hatto of Vercelli, PL 134.755.Google Scholar

200 PL 192.438.Google Scholar

201 Anderson, Judith, The Growth of a Personal Voice: Piers Plowman and The Faerie Queene (New Haven 1976) interprets Piers here as representing Christ's human will, one particular aspect of His human nature. This view works well for the leechcraft episode, which stresses Christ's voluntary learning through suffering, and it also accords with the replacement of Piers by Liberum Arbitrium in that one passage. However, Anderson encounters an obstacle in Piers's grasping the second stave just before the Incarnation: ‘It could look like a form of the Nestorian heresy … with the likely implication that a human being somehow earned, or initiated, the Hypostatic Union’ (136). Ultimately she interprets the grasping of the second stave as representing Christ's free love of the Father by which, from the instant of His conception, He merited blessing on the believer's behalf (138–39). However, she does not sufficiently explain the fact that this symbolic action precedes rather than follows Langland's account of the Annunciation and the Incarnation. Christ's meritorious actions performed from the instant of His conception should follow the Incarnation. If, however, Piers here represents a divine quality of character rather than a human will, the divine choice to take on human frailty naturally precedes the Incarnation. Furthermore, C's substitution of Liberum-Arbitrium-Dei for this divine quality of character is natural, and preserves a meaning similar to that of B. In contrast, Anderson sees a shift here from Christ's human will (in B) to the divine will (in C) — a more radical change of meaning designed, she proposes, to avoid the suggestion of heresy (139–40).Google Scholar

202 Sanderlin, George, The Character Liberum Arbitrium in the C-text of Piers Plowman,’ Modern Language Notes 56 (1941) 453.Google Scholar

203 Lombard, , Sententiae IV d.14 c.1, ed. cit. II 315–16; cf. Bonaventure, , In Sent. IV d.14 dubia 1, ed. cit. IV 328.Google Scholar

204 Welter, J. Th., La tabula exemplorum secundum ordinem alphabeti: Recueil d'exempla compilé en France à la fin du XIII e siècle (Paris 1926) 60 no. 223. This same admonition was well known to the schools through the Lombard's Sentences themselves: ‘Quid enim interest ad naufragium, an uno grandi fluctu navis operiatur et obruatur, an paulatim subrepens aqua in sentinam per negligentium culpam impleat navem et submergat?’ (IV d. 16 c.5, ed. cit. II 341). For another example, the Dominican Hugh of St. Cher, in a discussion of various types of fear that in varying degrees fall short of the Christian's due confidence, identifies venial sins with ‘guttas aquae’ entering a boat which has not yet been shipwrecked — Opera VII 47vb, at Rom. 8.15.Google Scholar

205 William of Auxerre (Guilermus Altissiodorensis), Summa aurea in IV libros Sententiarum III tr. 6 c.4 (Manuscripta microfilms List 9, no. 38) 158ra.Google Scholar

206 Michael Landgraf, Artur, Dogmengeschichte der Frühscholastik (Regensburg 1952–56) I ii 111–12.Google Scholar

207 For scholastic treatments of this question later than that of William of Auxerre, cf. Bonaventure, , In Sent. III d. 30 a.1 q.1, ed. cit. III 656–58; and Colonna, Egidio, In III Sent. d.30 q.1 a.1, ed. cit. 618–21.Google Scholar

208 Pierre de Tarentaise gives a good summary of opinions on the question ‘An liberum arbitrium per se possit peccatum vitare.’ Having specified that he is speaking of free will not in the state of innocence (e.g., Adam) or of grace, but in statu culpae, he writes, ‘de mortali vero differentes sunt opiniones. Nam quidam dicunt quod potest peccatum mortale vitare in particulari, sed non in universali, quia non potest vitare quin cadet in aliquod mortale…. Ideo dicunt alii quod potest vitare omne, sed non diu…. Ideo dicunt alii quod potest vitare peccatum committendum sed non commissum: non enim potest facere quin habeat peccatum, sed potest vitare quod non faciat peccatum’ — In Sent. II d.28 q.2 a.1, ed. cit. II 244. Pierre ultimately favors the first opinion. Cf. Aquinas, Thomas, In Sent. II d.28 q.1 a.2, ed. cit. VIII 376–78; Richard of Middleton, In Sent. II d.28 a.2 q.2, ed. cit. II 359; Colonna, Egidio, In secundum librum Sentenitarum d.28 q.2 a.2 (Venice 1581; rptd. Frankfurt a. M. 1968) 2.373–74; de Saint-Pourçain, Durand, In Sent. II d.28 q.3, ed. cit. I 179va; Duns Scotus, John, Commentaria Oxoniensia ad IV libros Magistri Sententiarum II d.28, ed. Marianus Fernandez Garcia (Quaracchi 1912–14) II 728–33. Egidio takes a more strictly Augustinian view; the Nominalist Durand distinguishes between sins violating natural precepts and those violating supernatural ones.Google Scholar

209 Bonaventure, , In Sent. II d.28 a.1 q.2, ed. cit. II 677.Google Scholar

210 Ibid. 678.Google Scholar

211 Cf. de Tarentaise, Pierre, In Sent. II d.28 q.2 a.2, ed. cit. II 244–45, and Richard of Middleton, In Sent. II d.28 a.2 q.3, ed. cit. II 360. Egidio Colona again dissents, ruling out the possibility even of resisting the devil apart from grace: In II Sent, d.28 dub. 1 lateralis, ed. cit. II ii 375–76.Google Scholar

212 Lombard, , Sententiae II d.43 c.1, ed. cit. I 574.Google Scholar

213 Ibid. Google Scholar

214 Alexander of Hales, Summa Theologica II ii inq. 3 tr. 5 sect. 2 q.3 c.3 a.1 (Quaracchi 1924–48) III 668.Google Scholar

215 Aquinas, , In Sent. II d.43 q.1 a.4, ed. cit. VIII 577–78.Google Scholar

216 Scotus, Duns, Comment. Oxon. II d.43 q.2, ed. Garcia II 906.Google Scholar

217 Bonaventure, , In Sent. II d.43 a.2 q.2, ed. cit. II 989.Google Scholar

218 The relative view of irremissibility accords with Langland's treatment of the question at B 17.299–320, where remission fails ‘Noght of the nounpower of god, þat he ne is myghtful / To amende al þat amys is, and his mercy gretter / Than alle oure wikkede werkes,’ but because of despair and wanhope — in short, not from lack of grace but from lack of the disposition to penance and restitution.Google Scholar

219 Ludolph, , Vita Iesu 307b.Google Scholar

220 E.g., Hugh of St. Cher, Opera VI 46vb at Matt. 12.31.Google Scholar

221 Wenzel, Siegfried, The Three Enemies of Man,’ Mediaeval Studies 29 (1967) 4766.Google Scholar

222 Britton Harwood, J., ‘Liberum-Arbitrium in the C-Text of Piers Plowman,’ Philological Quarterly 52 (1973) 689–90.Google Scholar

223 Robertson, and Huppé, , Scriptural Tradition 194.Google Scholar

224 Lottin, Odon, Psychologie et morale aux XII e et XIII e siècles (Gembloux 1948–60) V 245–48, no. 312.Google Scholar

225 Ibid. V 250, no. 314.Google Scholar

226 Wyclif, John, Tractatus de civili dominio 3.25, edd. Reginald Lane Poole and Johann Loserth (London 1885–1904) IV 589.Google Scholar

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228 Biblia cum Glossa V 42va.Google Scholar

229 Hugh of St. Cher, Opera VII 356vb at 1 John 5.16.Google Scholar

230 Heiko Oberman, A., The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Cambridge, Mass. 1963) 131–45.Google Scholar

231 OED s.v. penance 2.Google Scholar

232 Bonaventure, , In Sent. II d.28 a.2 q.1, ed. cit. II 682.Google Scholar

233 Oberman, , Harvest 463.Google Scholar

234 Even the fifteenth-century Nominalist theologian Gabriel Biel, one of those most inclined to grant large powers to the will, who could write, ‘Liberum arbitrium ex suis naturalibus sine dono gratie potest quodlibet peccatum mortale noveum cavere’ (Epitome et collectorium ex Occamo circa quatuor Sententiarum libros [Tübingen 1501; rptd. Frankfurt a. M. 1965] II d.28 concl. 2, sect. K), nevertheless speaks with more gravity of the threat posed by each of the three temptations: ‘Secundo considerando quod licet voluntas humana sit libera ut cogi non possit, ut supra distinctione XXV, potest tamen modis variis ad varia volenda aut nolenda inclinari, trahi et persuaderi…. Quis enim fraudes et fallacias spiritualium nequitiarum diaboli, scilicet mille artificis, eius quoque temptationes occultissimas deprehendere; quis se de pugna sensualitatis continua sustinere et a carnis inclinatione semper avertere; quis totuplices mundi laqueos evadere potest?’ (ibid. II d.28 dub. 2, sect. N).Google Scholar

235 Robertson, and Huppé, , Scriptural Tradition 191–95; Ben Smith, H., Jr., Traditional Imagery of Charity in Piers Plowman (The Hague 1966).Google Scholar

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237 PL 176.646; Smith, , Charity 67. The relevance of the lignum vitae tradition to Langland's Tree is somewhat limited by the fact that in the former the tree is most often likened to Christ as the source of life rather than to the individual Christian. Even the tree of Ps. 1, which describes the man who delights in God's law, is identified by medieval commentators predominantly with the lignum vitae and with Christ, though sometimes with one ‘Christo similis’: PL 9.231, 14.921, 26.1355, 70.9, 93.477, 116.191, 131.145, 142.49, 152.637, 164.695, 165.1141, 172.269, 191.55, 193.619. The lignum crucis tradition founded on Ephesians 3.16–19, though strongly emphasizing charity, seems likewise to have limited relevance, for the cross bears little explicit resemblance to the living, blossoming, fruit-bearing tree, which in turn does not treat the notions of breadth, length, and height central to the allegorical explication of the cross.Google Scholar

238 Holkot, Robert, In librum Sapientiae Regis Salomonis praelectiones CCXIII ([Basel] 1586) 168.Google Scholar

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242 The Desert of Religion, ed. Walter Hübner, Archiv fur das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 126 (1911) 5874, lines 619–32. Morton Bloomfield, W. notes an iconographic tree of chastity that has a threefold division of fruit and therefore more resembles Langland's Tree: ‘Piers Plowman and the Three Grades of Chastity,’ Anglia 76 (1958) 245–53.Google Scholar

243 Simmons Greenhill, Eleanor, The Child in the Tree: A Study of the Cosmological Tree in Christian Tradition,’ Traditio 10 (1954) 346; cf. Watson, Arthur, The Speculum Virginum with Special Reference to the Tree of Jesse,’ Speculum 3 (1928) 451.Google Scholar

244 For a similar purpose in a different type of tree-allegory, see Fleischer, Wolfgang, Untersuchungen zur Palmbaumallegorie im Mittelalter (Münchner Germanistische Beiträge 20; Munich 1976). Cf. also the fifteenth-century Tree and xii Frutes of the Holy Goost, ed. Vaissier, J. J. (Groningen 1960). Among vernacular tree-allegories, besides that of Deguilleville noted by Smith, , there is the thirteenth-century work by de l'Omme, Robert, ‘Le Miroir de vie et de mort,’ ed. Långfors, Arthur, Romania 47 (1921) 511–31.Google Scholar

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252 Anselm, , Cur Deus Homo 2.8, in Opera omnia, ed. Schmitt, F. S. (Edinburgh 1938–61) II 102–103.Google Scholar

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254 Anselm, , Opera III 86–88.Google Scholar

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263 Yves.-J. Congar, M., ‘Aspects ecclésiologiques de la querelle entre mendiants et séculiers dans la seconde moitié du XIIIe siècle et le debut du XIVe siècle,’ Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du moyen ǎge 36 (1961) 63.Google Scholar

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270 Wyclif, John, Select English Works, ed. Thomas Arnold (Oxford 1869–71) I 104, cited by Barney, , ‘Plowshare’ 282 n. Wyclif uses the same analogy to complain about bishops’ serving in governmental offices: the emperor, he says, has made bishops ‘haywardis of þe world’ (III 436).Google Scholar

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275 Ibid. 266–67.Google Scholar

276 Ibid. 269–79.Google Scholar

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278 Ibid. 330–34.Google Scholar

279 Ibid. 343–59.Google Scholar

280 Ibid. 360–420.Google Scholar

281 Ibid. 425–61.Google Scholar

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290 Wyclif, John, Tractatus de Officio Regis, edd. Pollard, Alfred W. and Sayle, Charles (London 1887) 13; cf. 137.Google Scholar