Expediency Versus Ethics: The Problem of Bribery in Late Medieval England.
- Author/Editor
- Hole, Jennifer.
- Title
- Expediency Versus Ethics: The Problem of Bribery in Late Medieval England.
- Published
- Parergon 37 (2020): 113-31.
- Review
- This article offers a helpful comparison of literary condemnations of bribery by John Gower, William Langland, and others with what can be known about real cases of bribery from laws against it, actual prosecutions under the laws, and contemporary letters (chiefly the Pastons') showing the attitudes of litigants toward the need for bribery to achieve success in their cases. For Gowerians, the part on "Moral Arguments against Bribery" includes the passage from the "Confessio Amantis" where the chaplain of Venus tells Amans about the court of Lady Avarice with her servant Covoitise and his procurers Falswitnesse and Perjurie. Hole also describes how "Mirour de l'Omme" includes Lady Avarice's daughter Covetousness who bribes jurors and judges with silver and gold. In another passage, Gower accuses judges of being influenced by a letter from a great lord to go against justice. In "Different Forms of Bribery" Hole tells how in "Mirour de l'Homme" [sic] Gower described sheriffs being bribed to manipulate trials; he also said sheriffs might take money from both sides in a trial. Jurors were reported to be influenced by corrupt foremen. However, Hole expresses doubt whether Gower's claim to know a false juror who supported himself and his household from bribes was literally true or only an exemplum. Hole then moves on to real-life cases, and concludes from these that there "could be some truth" in Gower's claim that there were people who could make a living off bribery. Bribery arose because some legal personnel were underpaid--citing Gower's contempt for apprentice lawyers who learned to take their "hound's reward"--and because, pragmatically, many litigants felt bribery was unavoidable to compete against rivals who used it. [JL. Copyright. The John Gower Society. eJGN 40.2.]
- Date
- 2020
- Gower Subjects
- Confessio Amantis
Mirour de l'Omme (Speculum Meditantis)