The Call to Read: Reginald Pecock's Books and Textual Communities

3. Theological Training and the Mixed Life

t h r e e Theological Training and the Mixed Life In the previous chapter, I suggested that Reginald Pecock’s vision of lay education for “alle cristen peple” (Reule, 13) constitutes both a massive transfer of clergie—of knowledge and learning—to a lay audience and an innovative approach to the religious instruction of the laity. Pecock’s religious writings are part of the “extensive and consistent process of assimilation by the laity of techniques and materials of spiritual advancement,” but they also offer readers a bold alternative to the majority of materials of spiritual advancement.1 These books provide extensive and systematic theological training for the laity, covering a wide range of matter including the nature of the soul, the different kinds of grace, the nature of the Trinity, the rewards of heaven, and the best ways to earn God’s forgiveness. Determined to share his system of the seven matters of religious knowledge with all members of society, Pecock even makes arrangements for his larger works to be condensed into shorter “extractis or out draughtis” (Reule, 86, 22) that presumably will be more accessible and affordable for a wider range of lay folk. Pecock’s Provoker, for example, is “lasse compendiose” than the more ample Witnessing of the iiii Tablis, which is “peraventure, over costiose to pore men” (Donet, 177). The Poore Mennis Myrrour, an extract from his Donet, is of such “litil quantite that welnigh ech poor persoon maye by sum meene gete coost to have it as his owne” (PMM, 226). Pecock is not simply being charitable; he sounds like a stern 85 schoolmaster when he says that after the “sufficient pupplisching” of the Poore Mennis Myrrour, no man will have “excusacioun” for not knowing Pecock’s seven matters (PMM, 226). In this chapter, I examine Pecock’s ideas about the place that this theological training occupies in the lives of his lay readers. I suggest that Pecock views theological training in his corpus as the necessary foundation for the first stage of Christian life—a stage that is contemplative in nature and followed by active life in the world. I begin by studying a passage in the Reule of Crysten Religioun in which Pecock discusses the story of Mary and Martha, the sisters visited by Christ in the Gospel, who became in the Middle Ages the traditional symbols of contemplative and active lives.2 Pecock’s version of this story highlights his understanding of the contemplative life as both learning (training the intellect to know God and self) and devotional activities (training the heart and the will to turn toward God). What comes through in this story is Pecock’s understanding of the mixed life as a life suitable for all Christians, a life that begins with contemplation, is fulfilled in action, and requires constant oscillation between the two. Once I have examined the passage on Mary and Martha, I look at other passages in which Pecock discusses the nature of contemplative life and its various practices. Throughout, I argue that Pecock’s vision of lay religious education both situates his corpus in a tradition of Middle English works that sought to direct lay religious life through demanding practices of learning and devotion and redefines the concept of the mixed life. Pecock insists that theological training in his seven matters is the core of contemplative life and, further, that contemplative pursuits of learning, prayer, and meditation are the duty not just of monks and pious noblewomen but also of each individual Christian. In his mapping of the mixed life and in his establishment of ambitious requirements for those who lived it, we can see just how instrumental and pivotal his program of Christian education was intended to be in restructuring the lives of the Christian laity. The story of Mary and Martha illustrates the best way to order the Christian life. Pecock uses this story to direct readers who are unsure about how best to serve God and whether they should start or finish with good works. For Pecock, Mary and Martha do not repre86 The Call to Read sent two exclusive choices of contemplation and action; rather, he argues that the Gospel draws a comparison between their two ways of life, both of which were a mixture of action and contemplation but were ordered differently. Pecock argues that Mary was superior because she followed the correct order in...