Reformist Apocalypticism and Piers Plowman

269 Pages·2007·8.81 MB·English

by  Kathryn Kerby-Fulton

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE 7
Reformist Apocalypticism and Piers Plowman
This is the first scholarly book to pay attention to alternative non-Augustinian
views of eschatology and their implications for the study of Piers Plowman.
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton discusses the major prophets and visionaries of
alternative traditions of apocalyptic thought, which are characterized by the
denunciation of clerical abuses, the urging of religious reform and an ultimate
historical optimism. Her book offers an original proposal for the importance
of such traditions, particularly as represented in the writings of Hildegard of
Bingen, to the understanding of Langland's visionary mode and reformist
ideology. Dr. Kerby-Fulton also explores the relevance of the prophetic
mentality fostered by Joachite thought, and the reactionary response it
triggered in anti-mendicant eschatology. Above all, this book provides a
stimulating challenge to recent assumptions that Langland's views of the
course and end of history are wholly conventional, or easily explained by
Augustinian eschatology. The outcome of this fresh study of contexts for Piers
Plowman suggests that Langland's position in relation to different apocalyptic
traditions was at once more sophisticated and more original than scholars have
hitherto realized.

CAMBRIDGE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
General Editor: Professor Alastair Minnis, Professor of Medieval Literature,
University of York
Editorial Board
Professor Piero Boitani (Professor of English, Rome)
Professor Patrick Boyde, FBA (Serena Professor of Italian, Cambridge)
Professor John Burrow, FBA (Winterstoke Professor of English, Bristol)
Professor Peter Dronke, FBA (Professor of Medieval Latin Literature
Cambridge)
Tony Hunt (Reader in French, St Andrews)
Dr Nigel Palmer (Lecturer in Medieval German, Oxford)
Professor Winthrop Wetherbee (Professor of English, Cornell)
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. i ioo—c. 15 00. 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.
Titles published
Dante's Inferno: Difficulty and Dead Poetry, by Robin Kirkpatrick
Dante and Difference: Writing in the Commedia, by Jeremy Tambling
Troubadours and Irony, by Simon Gaunt
Piers Plowman and the New Anticlericalism\ by Wendy Scase
The Cantar de mio Cid: Poetic creation in its economic and social contexts, by
Joseph Duggan
The Medieval Greek Romance, by Roderick Beaton
Reformist Apocalypticism and Piers Plowman, by Kathryn Kerby-Fulton
Other titles in preparation
The Genesis of Piers Plowman, by Charlotte Brewer
The Book of Memory: A study of memory in medieval culture, by Mary Carruthers
Rhetoric, Hermeneutics and Translation in the Middle Ages: Academic traditions and
vernacular texts, by Rita Copeland
Medieval Dutch Literature in its European Context, edited by W.P. Gerritsen,
E.S. Kooper and F.P. Oostrom
Literary Theory in the German Middle Ages, by Walter Haug (translated from
the German)
Chretien de Troyes and Arthurian Romance: Once and future fictions, by Donald
Maddox
Women and Literature in Britain, IIJO-IJOO, edited by Carol Meale
Dante and the Medieval Other World, by Alison Morgan
The Early History of Greed: The sin of avarice in early medieval thought and
literature, by Richard Newhauser
Chaucer and the Tradition of the Roman Antique, by Barbara Nolan
The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New research in early drama, edited by Eckehard
Simon
Richard Rolle and the Invention of Authority, by Nicholas Watson
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Hildegard of Bingen's vision of the faithful triumphant and
Satan bound (Scivias n, 7, from the Eibingen manuscript).
Reformist Apocalypticism and
Piers Plowman
KATHRYN KERBY-FULTON
University of Victoria
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 1990
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1990
This digitally printed version 2007
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn.
Reformist apocalypticism and Piers Plowman / Kathryn Kerby-Fulton.
p. cm. - (Cambridge studies in medieval literature; 7)
Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral—York)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-521-34298-8
1. Langland, William, 13307-1400? Piers the Plowman.
2. Apocalyptic literature - History and criticism. 3. Langland,
William, 13307-1400? - Religion. 4. Reformation - Early movements.
I. Title. II. Series.
PR2017.A65K4 1990
821'.l-dc20 89-9807 CIP
ISBN 978-0-521-34298-8 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-04146-1 paperback
To Gordon

Contents
Acknowledgments page xi
hist of abbreviations xii
1 Introduction i
The new apocalyptic theory of the later Middle Ages 4
Prophecy in Piers Plowman and the case for reformist
apocalypticism in the poem 9
Sources of apocalyptic thought in medieval Britain 23
2 The visionary prophecy of Hildegard of Bingen in relation to
Piers Plowman 26
Introduction: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) and the
dissemination of her prophecies 26
Hildegard's apocalypticism and her prophecy of clerical reform:
"visionary denunciation of ecclesiastical abuses" 31
Chronicling the future: the apocalyptic program 45
Why vision? Style in medieval apocalyptic vision literature 56
Visionary self-image 64
3 Piers Plowman and the medieval visionary tradition 76
Introduction: the apocalyptic visionary tradition 76
Allegory or apocalypse? Apocalyptic form in Piers Plowman
and some of the pre-medieval apocalypses 79
"Visionary denunciation of ecclesiastical abuses": Robert of
Uzes and Bridget of Sweden 96
Piers Plowman and some psychological, literary and spiritual
aspects of medieval visionary tradition 112
4 Leaven of malice: false apostles in the anti-mendicant
apocalypticism of later medieval England 133
Introduction: "ordo" prophecy in medieval apocalyptic
thought 133
The ideology of William of St. Amour and Piers Plowman 13 5