Sensible Signes': Mediating Images in Late Medieval Literature

By the end of the fourteenth century, the devotional use of images had become a point of controversy in England. Although medieval theologians frequently expressed concern about their misuse, images were widely accepted as pedagogical tools, mnemonic devices, and aids to affective devotion. Yet late medieval critics of images insisted that vernacular texts were pedagogical tools better suited for the increasingly literate laity. Concomitant with this critique of the image was the growth of documentary culture, increasing lay demand for religious materials in the vernacular, and expanded visual devotion. This dissertation examines the status of the image in fifteenth-century religious literature and argues that some authors attempted to adjudicate among these competing sectors in order to explore the changing relationships between images and texts. The literature that resulted from this merger of discourses was marked by both an effort to preserve medieval aesthetic and theological values and an interest in generic experimentation. The first chapter examines Thomas Hoccleve's representation of the problematics of visual perception. Since human sight is fundamentally impaired, Hoccleve suggests, it is not sufficient grounds for knowledge. Humans need corrective 'spectacles,' or mediating forms, which facilitate a proper response to the image. Sight and 'unsighte' thus serve as central analogies for Hoccleve's diagnosis of his own epistemological uncertainty and the conflicted religious climate of his era. The second chapter argues that John Lydgate's insistence on reading images through the lenses of history and theological exegesis suggests both his unease with unmediated visual experience and his desire to promote an altogether different devotional model for the laityÌ¢‰âÂ'an application of the practice of monastic lectio to religious images. The final chapter considers Reginald Pecock's program for the production and circulation of vernacular religious texts in light of his extended defense of religious images. His position represents a distinctive intervention in contemporary religious debates about lay theological education yet ultimately participates in the displacement of the visual culture which he explicitly defends. Thus, in their attempts to explore, defend, and regulate the image through vernacular texts, these writers employ a reformist textual aesthetic distinctive to their fifteenth-century moment.