Langland's 'lewed vicory' reconsidered. (William Langland)

A figure in Piers Plowman who has received undeservedly scant attention is the "rewed vicory."(1) Some scholars focus upon the vicar's denunciation of the corrupt pope and cardinals and so interpret him as a trustworthy voice.(2) To Derek Pearsall, for example, the vicar's role "seems to be to test and challenge the ecclesiastical orthodoxy of Conscience, and also to confirm it in significant ways."(3) Priscilla Martin claims that in contrast to Conscience the vicar offers a point of view which is "realistic" and "concrete."4 Yet to focus upon the vicar's criticisms of the institutional Church is to overlook the roles he plays in the structure and themes of Piers Plowman as a whole. He is a linch-pin in the structural connections between several scenes and characters, most noticeably in Passus 8 and Passus 21 and 22, and he serves to pull together several expansive themes such as learning, salvation, "clergie," rule, and criticism. He is especially important for understanding the confrontation between Piers and the priest over the pardon. In many a sense he acts as Langland's dry comment upon the failures of feudal society and the institutional Church, while still holding out hope for better days to come.

Two facts about the vicar are immediately noteworthy. First, he is a vicar who criticizes a vicar--the pope, the vicar of Christ. Second, he is a contradiction, since as an ignorant, unlettered "rewed vicory" he is a clergy man without "clergie."(5) "Lewed" is the point to start an examination of the vicar since it is the primary linguistic signal that something is not entirely right about him. By far the most common usage of "lewed" in Piers Plowman is to describe people, most often in opposition to "lered" or sometimes to "clerk" or "lettred."(6) In this ordinary sense it means "illiterate" (in Latin) or "lacking education" and denotes a lack of book-learned sophistication. Used thus it is simply a substantive adjective synonymous with "laity." However, when used of clergy, "lewed" takes on a very different force for it calls into question the very nature of the clergy involved. The vicar is not the only cleric labelled as "lewed," merely the last in a series of such contradictions. In the B-text, the priest who argues with Piers is mocked as a "lewed lorel" (B.7.137). This priest who offers to translate and gloss the Latin text of Truth's pardon can hardly be described as "lewed" in the usual senses of illiterate or ignorant. His "lewedness" is spiritual, thus he cannot grasp the essential truthfulness of the pardon. Another character associated with "lewed" clergy is Lady Meed, who vows "Shal no lewedenesse lette pe clerke pat y louye" (C.3.35) and who is later accused of blessing "this bischopes thow thei teen ny lewede" (C.3.185). "lewed" members of the clergy are thus associated with spiritual inadequacy and incompetence excused owing to bribery and simony.

A final demonstration of Langland's derisive use of "lewed" with clergy is found in the C-text's condemnation of "lewed ermytes" (C.5.4; 9.140, 192, 240)

pat loken louhliche to lache men almesse,

In hope to sitte at euen by he hote cores,

Vnlouke his legges abrood or ligge at his

ese, Reste hym and roste him and his rug

turne, Drynke druie and depe and drawe hym thenne to bedde.

(C.9.141-45)

The sense of "lewed" here is not, as Wendy Scase suggests, just "extra regular."(7) It connotes the sinfulness of their actions as well, because their opposites are "holy" (C.9. 187, 190). Obviously then, Langland intends something more by the "lewed" vicar in Passus 21 and 22 than simply the exposure of vice within the upper levels of the Church hierarchy.

"Lewed" points to several of Langland's themes, the most obvious being learning. It is easy to list bad "lered" men such as Mahomet and the friars. It is simplistic, however, to state that Langland has a negative view of education and that the "lewed" vicar must be an admirable character unfettered by the constraints of clerical training. Imaginatif's exempla of the learned man swimming the Thames and the learned men who escape hanging at Tyburn promote learning, even if irony lurks here as well. If Mahomet is the educated man who misuses learning, the Magi are his opposites, and counterpoised to the friars are learned men like Augustine, Jerome, and Bernard. Langland's thoughts on learning are clearly complex.

One sign of this complexity is that learned men are rarely granted respect in the poem. Piers Plowman is rife with conflict in fact between the "lered" and the "lewed." Will alone argues with Holy Church, with the two friars at the start of his quest for Dowel, and with the Master of Divinity. This sense of tension is central to an understanding of the vicar for he is after all one of many "lewed" characters who dispute with the "lered," in his case Conscience. In the C-text Langland works out this tension between "lewed" and "lered" in his handling of three major figures--Rechelesnesse, Imaginatif, and Liberum Arbitrium. Each represents a different aspect of the narrator Will. Each is concerned with learning, salvation, and "clergie." Each is also associated with the adjective "lewed," Rechelesnesse using it seven times, Imaginatif fifteen, and Liberum Arbitrium ten. "Lewed" implies, however, that the vicar is linked to these sections. Through him Langland comments one last time upon the issues they raise.

Rechelesnesse's ambiguous nature has been recognized since Donaldson's treatment.(8) Like Will and the vicar, he is a "lewed" character who argues with "lered" ones, in his case Scripture and Clergy. The negative Rechelesnesse is careless about spiritual effort and so begins by rejecting Scripture and Clergy's terms for salvation. The thief on the Cross proves to Rechelesnesse that salvation is predestined. His passivity has other…