Pastors and Pilgrims: Augustinian Reform in The
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PASTORS AND PILGRIMS: AUGUSTINIAN REFORM IN THE LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH CHURCH by JONATHAN FOGGIN (Under the Direction of Cynthia Turner Camp ) ABSTRACT This study examines currents of reform in the late medieval English church. One of its primary arguments is that “reform” is a concept fundamental to the Christian faith, and the notion of a single, monolithic “Reformation” obscures and distorts other movements of renewal in the history of the church. A related assertion is that “the Reformation” exhibits characteristics more closely connected to revolution than reform. In the early-fifteenth century, the most successful attempts at reform arose out of the renewed appreciation of Augustine that took place in the previous century. While the culturally Protestant English academy has traditionally understood Augustinianism to be synonymous with the doctrine of predestination, in the later Middle Ages there were numerous other strands of Augustinian thought. Of equal, if not more importance, than the predestinarian strain of Augustinianism, was a theological approach that emphasized the cura animarum and the pilgrimage of life. This “pastoral Augustinianism” eschews the revolutionary tendencies that animate predestinarian modes of thought, such as Wycliffism and much of early modern Protestantism, and instead sees religious renewal as something patient of (in the Christian sense of the word) terrestrial imperfection. It is this emphasis on measured, incremental advancement through the fallen world that is characteristic of true reform. These reformist tendencies can be seen in the writings of William Langland and the faith and practice of the Austin Canons, one of whom, an Oxford theologian named Philip Repingdon, came to exercise great influence within the English church. Despite his early flirtation with Wycliffism, Repingdon went on to become Bishop of Lincoln, and in that office pursued a program of reform that focused on sound preaching, instruction in the vernacular, and improved pastoral care. Though marginalized in Protestant historiography, such efforts had a lasting impact on the ecclesia Anglicana. One might even argue that this English (i.e. vernacular) “reformation,” of the fifteenth century, can in some ways account for the very different course taken by the “English Reformation” a century later, particularly when compared to associated movements on the Continent. INDEX WORDS: Augustinianism, Decalogue, Devotio Moderna, England, Langland, Lollardy, pastoral care, pilgrimage of life, reform, Repingdon, revolution, Wycliffism PASTORS AND PILGRIMS: AUGUSTINIAN REFORM IN THE LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLISH CHURCH by JONATHAN FOGGIN A.B., University of Georgia, 1993 M. Litt., University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1996 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY ATHENS, GEORGIA 2016 © 2016 Jonathan Foggin All Rights Reserved PASTORS AND PILGRIMS: AUGUSTINIAN REFORM IN THE LATE MEDEIVAL ENGLISH CHURCH by JONATHAN FOGGIN Major Professor: Cynthia Turner Camp Committee: Benjamin Ehlers William Kretzschmar Electronic Version Approved: Suzanne Barbour Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia August 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was a long time coming, and like so many projects of this sort, I could not have done it without the support of colleagues, friends, and family. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my dissertation supervisor, Cynthia Turner Camp, not only for providing advice, encouragement, and scholarly insight, but also for helping me get the project back on track after unforeseen circumstances forced me to set it aside. The same can be said of my other two committee members, Ben Ehlers and Bill Kretzschmar. I am deeply grateful to them all. I would also like to thank a number of others who helped me along the way: Coburn Freer and the late Bill Provost for guiding me through my early days in the English Department; Judy Shaw, Christy Albright, Kalpen Trivedi, and Jamie McClung, for allowing me to work and study on the UGA at Oxford program; Ian Archer, Ralph Hanna, and Vincent Gillespie for sharing their expertise and their summers with an American graduate student; and Robert Rhudy of the UGA Library for assistance with my research. Special thanks go to Andrew Cole, who inspired me to become a medievalist, helped me draw up the framework for this project, and first introduced me to Philip Repingdon. I would be remiss if I did not thank Mark Haverland, who has supported this endeavor in every way, and whose example as both scholar and a priest, is an inspiration. I am profoundly grateful to my father and mother, Jim and Carol Foggin, who brought me up in the university environment and instilled in me a love of books and of learning. They, iv along with my sister, Claire, provided encouragement and assistance in more ways than I can enumerate here. Finally, and most importantly, I could not have begun, continued, or ended this project without the support of my wife, Clayton, who did everything from proofreading to shouldering household duties while I was holed up to write. She, along with my children, Will, Charlotte, and Henry, exhibited tremendous patience on the long road to this dissertation’s completion. I would like to dedicate this thesis to the four of them, in gratitude not only for their support throughout this process, but all of the ways they enrich my life. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................1 1 REVISIONISM AND THE ROAD TO REFORM .........................................21 Revising the Reformation ..........................................................................22 Revising Reform ........................................................................................28 Refining Reform ........................................................................................38 A Premature Revolution ............................................................................46 Lollardy and Reform ..................................................................................54 2 AUGUSTINE AND THE IDEA OF REFORM ..............................................60 Pelagianism, Past and Present ....................................................................61 Footnotes to Augustine ..............................................................................66 Pastoral Augustinianism ............................................................................73 Austin Spirituality and the Cura Animarum ..............................................78 Pastors and Reformers ...............................................................................86 A Spiritual Kinship ....................................................................................94 3 LESSONS FROM THE LANGLAND BIOGRAPHY....................................99 Writing the Langland Biography .............................................................100 Writing the Rokele Biography .................................................................109 vi Minding the Gaps .....................................................................................116 Bohuns and Beyond .................................................................................123 4 PASTORAL LANGLAND AND LANGLANDIAN PASTORS .................136 An Alternate Augustinianism ..................................................................137 The Truþe of Troianus .............................................................................139 Fuit Agricola ............................................................................................145 Ecclesia Permixta ....................................................................................155 The Pilgrimage of Life .............................................................................159 English Austins and the Pastoral Piers Plowman ....................................165 5 THE ENGLISH CHURCH AND REPINGDON’S REFORM .....................173 A Most Catholic Doctor ...........................................................................174 Humillimus et Benignus ...........................................................................180 Comments on the Commandments ..........................................................189 Pilgrems and Straungers ..........................................................................193 The Two Ways .........................................................................................200 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................208 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................214 APPENDIX ......................................................................................................................248 vii INTRODUCTION Reform is not a word commonly associated with the late medieval church, particularly in the English religious context. In fact, a hundred years ago, the notion that religious reform could have occurred in fifteenth-century England would in some quarters have been dismissed as utter nonsense. One such skeptic would no doubt have been J.C. Ryle, the first Bishop of Liverpool and one of the founders of Oxford’s evangelical house