Ethics And Power In Medieval English Reformist Writing

This page intentionally left blank E t h ic s a n d Pow e r i n M e di e va l E ngl ish Re for m is t W r i t i ng The late medieval Church obliged all Christians to rebuke the sins of others, especially those who had power to discipline in Church and state:€priests, confessors, bishops, judges, the Pope. This practice, in which the injured party had to confront the wrongdoer diÂ�rectly and privately, was known as fraternal correction. Edwin Craun examines how pastoral writing instructed Christians to make this Â�corrective process effective by avoiding slander, insult, and hypocrisy. He explores how John Wyclif and his followers expanded this established practice to authorize their own polemics against mendicants and clerical wealth. Finally, he traces how major English reformist writing€– Piers Plowman, Mum and the Sothsegger, and The Book of Margery Kempe€– expanded the practice to justify their protests, to protect themselves from repressive elements in the late Ricardian and Lancastrian Church and state, and to urge their readers to mount effective protests against religious, social, and political abuses. e dw i n d. c r au n is Henry S. Fox, Jr. Professor of English at Washington and Lee University. c a mbr idge st udies in medieva l liter at ur e gener al editor Alastair Minnis, Yale University editor i al boar d Zygmunt G. Barański, 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, Fordham University 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. 1100–1500. 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. r ecent titles in the series Jenni Nuttall The Creation of Lancastrian Kingship:€Literature, Language and Politics in Late Medieval England Laura Ashe Fiction and History in England, 1066–1200 Mary Carruthers The Book of Memory:€A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture J. A. Burrow The Poetry of Praise 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 D. H. Green Women and Marriage in German Medieval Romance Peter Godman Paradoxes of Conscience in the High Middle Ages:€Abelard, Heloise and the Archpoet Edwin D. Craun Ethics and Power in Medieval English Reformist Writing Anthony J. Hasler Court Poetry in Late Medieval England and Scotland:€Allegories of Authority A complete list of titles in the series can be found at the end of the volume. E t h ic s a n d Pow e r i n M e di e va l E ngl ish Re for m is t W r i t i ng E dw i n D. C r au n CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo 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/9780521199322 © Edwin D. Craun 2010 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 i