308 government
government SeePOLITICAL THEORY.
Gower, John(ca. 1327–1408)highly regarded English
court and religious poet
Very little is known about John Gower’s early life. Born
about 1327, he probably held a legal office of some kind,
perhaps in Westminster. His first major work, probably
begun about 1376, was in French, Miroir de l’Omme(Mir-
ror of man) or Speculum meditantis.In it Gower described
the development of sin, the vices and the cardinal virtues,
with the remedy available to humans, a special appeal to
the Blessed Virgin MARY. Sometime about 1377 Gower
retired to the priory of Saint Mary Overy in Southwark.
He soon began work on his long Ovidian Latin poem, Vo x
clamantis(Voice of one crying out). Book I, written after
1381, contained a vivid description of the Peasant Rebel-
lions. In it he presented a moral analysis for social decay
in ENGLAND. Gower was a close friend of Geoffrey
CHAUCER, who gave him power of attorney while away
on the Continent in 1378. Chaucer later dedicated Troilus
and Criseydeto Gower.
In 1390 Gower completed the first version of his
most famous poem, written in English but given the Latin
title Confessio amantis(The lover’s confession). He wrote
it at the request of King RICHARDII, who had asked him
for “som newe thing” to read. Confessio amantiswas not
an autobiography of the poet or Gower’s own amorous
adventures. After a prologue in which Gower pointed out
that any division in the soul introduced by sin created
division and strife in the world. The subject of the poem
was a man overcome by lust and desire for selfish plea-
sure. In the remainder of the poem, this lover confessed to
Genius, a priest of Venus, and gradually recovered his
REASON. He, doing so, overcame the division within him-
self. The poem ended with a PRAYERfor good government
and the rule of reason in the commonwealth of England.
Gower’s masterpiece contained much medieval moral
PHILOSOPHY and was illustrated by a great variety of
exemplary tales. Between 1394 and the end of his life,
Gower wrote some LATINpoems and, probably, French
ballades. He married late in life in 1398, became blind
about 1400, and died in 1408.
Further reading: John Gower, Confessio Amantis
(Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1963); John Gower, The Mir-
ror of Mankind,trans. William Burton Wilson, revised by
Nancy Wilson Van Baak (East Lansing, Mich.: Colleagues
Press, 1992); John H. Fisher, John Gower, Moral Philoso-
pher and Friend of Chaucer(New York: New York Univer-
sity Press, 1964); A. J. Minnis, ed., Gower’s Confessio
Amantis: Responses and Reassessments(Cambridge: D. S.
Brewer, 1983).
grace In the Middle Ages individuals debated about
whether a gift of the Holy Spirit was absolutely necessary
for humankind to obtain sanctification and salvation.
Beginning with AUGUSTINE’Scontroversies with PELAG-
IUS, the first Christian centuries were full of debates
over the relationship of this gift of GODand action of
the HOLYSPIRITwith human effort, free will, and capac-
ity or agency. These debates were about the relationship
and relative value of gratuity and merit earned by
human effort in gaining salvation. They continued
throughout the Middle Ages. WILLIAMof Ockham fol-
lowed Pelagius and posited the central role of human
will in the process of salvation. BONAVENTUREfollowed
Augustine and essentially only admitted the necessity
and value of grace as God’s gift. Thomas AQUINASsyn-
thesized his theology of grace with his ARISTOTELIAN
concepts of VIRTUEand the central importance of regular
practice or habit (habitus). Grace was exterior to human
acts and likely to make human beings capable of doing
good. By doing so it perfected and healed a human
nature fundamentally damaged by sin. Thomas inte-
grated grace into a moral theology based on the law as
enriched by the Holy Spirit.
See alsoPREDESTINATION; SEVEN SACRAMENTS.
Further reading:J. Patout Burns, The Development of
Augustine’s Doctrine of Operative Grace (Paris: Études
augustiniennes, 1980); Bernard J. F. Lonergan, Grace and
Freedom; Operative Grace in the Thought of St Thomas
Aquinas,ed. J. Patout Burns (New York: Herder & Herder,
1971); Thomas Forsyth Torrance, The Doctrine of Grace
in the Apostolic Fathers(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans,
1960).Grail, legend of and Grail romances The Grail was
supposed to be a mysterious dish for food or a drinking
vessel used at the Last Supper during Christ’s Passion and
was the object of legendary quests by knights in
ARTHURIANromances. It was perhaps inspired by Celtic
mythology and associated with abundance, nourishment,
feasting, and miracles. It first appeared in CHRÉTIENde
Troyes’s Conte du Graal,carried by a young girl in a pro-
cession in the castle of the Fisher King. The Grail was
made of precious material, gold decorated with precious
stones, exuding a bright glow. In WOLFRAMvon Eschen-
bach’s Parzival,the Grail became even more marvelous as
a stone with magical virtues. It had not yet clearly
evolved into the actual chalice from the Last Supper.
Robert de Boron (fl. 1200), in the late 12th century, made
it that sacred object that was so linked to the Passion and
death of Christ. The Grail was now a vessel that Christ
used in the Holy Thursday meal and in which JOSEPHof
Arimathea later collected blood flowing from Jesus’s
wounds on the cross. This Christian RELIChad become a
symbol of the mystery of the Incarnation and REDEMP-
TION. Joseph’s descendants were called to be the
guardians of the Grail. In the Queste del saint Graal,or
The Quest for the Holy Grail,from about 1220, it was
linked with the chalice of the MASSand allowed the