Revelation and the Apocalypse in Late Medieval Literature , livre ebook

REVELATION AND THE APOCALYPSE
JUSTIN M. BYRON-DAVIES
IN LATE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE
Revelation
This interdisciplinary book breaks new ground by systematically
examining ways in which two of the most important works of
late medieval English literature – Julian of Norwich’s Revelations and the Apocalypse
of Love and William Langland’s Piers Plowman – arose from
engagement with the biblical Apocalypse and exegetical in Late Medieval Literaturewritings. The study contends that the exegetical approach
to the Apocalypse is more extensive in Julian’s Revelations
The Writings of Julian of Norwich and William Langland
and more sophisticated in Langland’s Piers Plowman than
previously thought, whether through a primary textual
infuence or a discernible Joachite infuence. The author
considers the implications of areas of confuence, which both
writers reapply and emphasise – such as spiritual warfare and
other salient thematic elements of the Apocalypse, gender g issues, and Julian’s explications of her vision of the soul as city reli on i
of Christ and all believers (the fulcrum of her eschatologically- &cu ture l focused Aristotelian and Augustinian infuenced pneumatology). in
The liberal soteriology implicit in Julian’s ‘Parable of the Lord themiddle
and the Servant’ is specifcally explored in its Johannine and ages
Scotistic Christological emphasis, the absent vision of hell, and
the eschatological ‘grete dede’, vis-à-vis a possible critique of Series editors:
the prevalent hermeneutic.
Denis Renevey
Diane Watt ‘This is a most welcome and timely intervention in the feld
of late medieval visionary literature. With its careful analysis of
the Apocalypse’s infuence upon William Langland and Julian of
Norwich, Byron-Davies makes a strong case for far more widespread
apocalyptic concerns imbricating late medieval socio-religious texts
and their epistemologies than have hitherto been considered. Linking
For a complete list exegetical tradition with more immediate socio-religious apocalyptic
of titles in the Religion hermeneutics, this book skilfully unpicks the complex entanglement
& Culture in the of theology, eschatology, soteriology, textual poetics and gender
Middle Ages series construction articulated in both subtle and complex ways in the
see www.uwp.co.uk writings under scrutiny.’
Professor Liz Herbert McAvoy, Swansea University
Justin M. Byron-Davies completed his PhD at the University of
Surrey, where he worked as an associate tutor in English literature
and lectured on late medieval writings. His research interests
include medieval theology and anchoritic, revelatory and
apocalyptic texts.
The cover image shows a detail from the twelfth-century wall
painting in the church of St Peter and St Paul at Chaldon, Surrey, JUSTIN M. BYRON-DAVIES
depicting the ways of salvation. By permission Keith Heron/Alamy.
Cover design: Olwen Fowler
revelation_PPC.indd 1 09/01/2020 12:03RELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Revelation and the Apocalypse in Late Medieval Literature
00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 1 13-Jan-20 1:37:29 PMSeries Editors
Denis Renevey (Université de Lausanne)
Diane Watt (University of Surrey)
Editorial Board
Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London)
Jean- Claude Schmitt (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris)
Fiona Somerset (Duke University)
Christiania Whitehead (University of Warwick)
00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 2 13-Jan-20 1:37:29 PMRELIGION AND CULTURE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Revelation and the Apocalypse
in Late Medieval Literature

THE WRITINGS OF JULIAN OF NORWICH
AND WILLIAM LANGLAND
JUSTIN M. BYRON-DAVIES
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
2020
00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 3 13-Jan-20 1:37:29 PM© Justin M. Byron-Davies, 2020
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form
(including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether
or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the
written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Applications for the copyright owner’s written
permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to University
of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardif CF10 3NS.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-78683-516-1
e- ISBN 978-1-78683-517-8
The right of Justin M. Byron-Davies to be identifed as author of this work has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
Typeset by Eira Fenn Gaunt, Pentyrch, Cardif
Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Melksham, Wiltshire
00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 4 13-Jan-20 1:37:29 PMContents
Series Editors’ Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Author’s Notexi
Introduction 1
1 A Comparison of the Apocalypse and the Writings of Julian of Norwich 27
2 Orthodox and Heterodox Currents in the Writing of Julian of Norwich 63
3 Langland’s Poetics 103
4 Personifcation and Allegorisation in Piers Plowman 131
Epilogue 175
Notes 179
Select Bibliography 195
Index 203
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00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 6 13-Jan-20 1:37:29 PM
Series Editors’ Preface
Religion and Culture in the Middle Ages aims to explore the interface between medieval
religion and culture, with as broad an understanding of those terms as possible. It puts to
the forefront studies which engage with works that signifcantly contributed to the
shaping of medieval culture. However, it also gives attention to studies dealing with
works that refect and highlight aspects of medieval culture that have been neglected in
the past by scholars of the medieval disciplines. For example, devotional works and the
practice they infer illuminate our understanding of the medieval subject and its culture
in remarkable ways, while studies of the material space designed and inhabited by
medieval subjects yield new evidence on the period and the people who shaped it and
lived in it. In the larger feld of religion and culture, we also want to explore further the
roles played by women as authors, readers and owners of books, thereby defning them
more precisely as actors in the cultural feld. The series as a whole investigates the
European Middle Ages, from c.500 to c.1500. Our aim is to explore medieval religion
and culture with the tools belonging to such disciplines as, among others, art history,
philosophy, theology, history, musicology, the history of medicine, and literature. In
particular, we would like to promote interdisciplinary studies, as we believe strongly
that our modern understanding of the term applies fascinatingly well to a cultural period
marked by a less tight confnement and categorization of its disciplines than the modern
period. However, our only criterion is academic excellence, with the belief that the use
of a large diversity of critical tools and theoretical approaches enables a deeper
understanding of medieval culture. We want the series to refect this diversity, as we
believe that, as a collection of outstanding contributions, it ofers a more subtle
representation of a period that is marked by paradoxes and contradictions and which
necessarily refects diversity and diference, however difcult it may sometimes have
proved for medieval culture to accept these notions.
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00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 8 13-Jan-20 1:37:29 PM
Acknowledgements
My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to Professor Diane Watt. Having attended her
lectures and seminars on medieval literature as an undergraduate at Aberystwyth
University in the late 1990s and, a decade later, seminars on medieval women’s literature
at Master’s level, I was delighted to embark on my doctoral research with her as my
supervisor in the University of Surrey. With her calm, measured approach, Diane
provided guidance when needed and ofered constructive and cogent feedback on the
various drafts of my work during those years. The successful completion of that
endeavour laid the foundations for this monograph. She has been a continual source of
encouragement and inspiration, and her erudite scholarship has provided a benchmark
of excellence to which I aspire.
Special thanks are also due to Dr Alison Yeung whose invaluable advice some years
ago enabled me to make my work more accessible to a broader readership and ensured
that this book is more ‘reader friendly’ than it would otherwise have been. Around the
same time, Dr David Ashford made a number of insightful comments in the course of
a fruitful discussion on Langland’s poetics and I greatly appreciated his considered
feedback.
It was a pleasure to work with the team at the University of Wales Press whose
pro fessional approach and expertise ensured that every stage in the preparation of this
manuscript was completed as efciently as possible. I am particularly grateful to Sarah
Lewis who kept the project on course from its inception. She was swift to respond to
queries and ofered encouragement when there were unavoidable delays. In the late
stages of the project Henry Mass brought his incisive approach as an editor to the
manuscript, reading it with the utmost care. His keen eye for detail undoubtedly improved
the work.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their enduring support and
encouragement during the past decade.
00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 9 13-Jan-20 1:37:30 PM00 Prelims Revelation 2020_1_13.indd 10 13-Jan-20 1:37:30 PMAUTHOR’S NOTE
I have used the title Apocalypse as an alternative to the book of Revelation throughout,
for two reasons. First, it is the direct translation from the original Greek