Gower, Chaucer and the "Treuth of Prestehode."
- Author/Editor
- Kuczynski, Michael P.
- Title
- Gower, Chaucer and the "Treuth of Prestehode."
- Published
- Kuczynski, Michael P. "Gower, Chaucer and the 'Treuth of Prestehode'." In Studies in the Age of Gower: A Festschrift in Honour of R. F. Yeager. Ed. Susannah Mary Chewning. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2020. Pp. 173-88.
- Review
- This essay examines the "conversation" between Gower and Chaucer's ideas of the priesthood (174). Both poets share a disregard for the fraternal orders, focusing instead on the figures of Genius and the Parson, "both of them secular priests," who are described "almost exclusively in terms of their relationships with the lay people in their care, whom they shrive and teach with integrity" (175). Kuczynski takes issue with readings that have suggested that the priesthood of Genius is meant to be seen as limited or marred by his connection to Venus or his role as a household chaplain in her court, arguing instead that his devotion to his office and the sharpness of his corrections of Amans are meant to present him as an example of "the hard work of good priests" (185). As such, Genius is an ideal image, representing Gower's belief that "if priests would only return to an ideal ministry based in the example of Christ and his apostles, their office and Holy Church herself will not have to undergo extreme reinvention" (188). [EK. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2020
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations