The final tale of Le Morte Darthur links individual penitence with the health of the realm, especially through the character of the Archbishop of Canterbury.20 After Mordred usurps the throne of Britain, the Archbishop of Canterbury retreats from his position into life as a hermit, and “retreat” is an appropriate term here. The Archbishop recognizes that his spiritual conflict with Mordred is lost, and he leaves the arena of struggle:
So the bysshop departed, and ded the cursynge in the moste orguluste wyse that myght be done. And than Sir Mordred sought the Bysshop off Canturbyry for to have slayne hym. Than the bysshop fledde, and tooke parte of hys goodes with hym, and wente nyghe unto Glassyngbyry. And there he was a preste-hermyte in a chapel, and lyved in poverte and in holy prayers, for well he undirstood that myschevous warre was at honde. (F 916.12-18; V 3: 1228.16-23)
If this is a political conflict then the Archbishop cedes the victory to Mordred when he leaves. The Archbishop may exert some spiritual power in this scene by “cursynge” Mordred, but Mordred has the political power to do as he chooses: namely attempt to marry Guinevere. In theory, marriage is a perfect overlap of politics and religion: both a political alliance and a religious sacrament. By rejecting the Archbishop’s judgement within the context of his intent to marry Guinevere, Mordred symbolically rejects the religious sphere. The Archbishop excommunicates Mordred, but since Mordred has
20 Kelly argues extensively that through character of the Archbishop the war motif is intertwined with the penance motif. (113ff.)
160
already rejected the religious sphere he has already symbolically excommunicated himself. Any political influence the bishop had is gone. This means that the Archbishop has ceded power, and as he does so he becomes a private rather than a public figure. That is the meaning of his transition from bishop to priest-hermit—a transition that
foreshadows Lancelot’s eventual transition into the same role. The Archbishop, who represents the most perfect unity of political and religious vocation possible, abandons the political dimension of his identity when the tension between the two becomes too great.
Like a good military retreat, this is strategic. The Archbishop removes himself to a position of safety and power; his real power is spiritual, not political. And the retreat is temporary. When circumstances make it possible the Archbishop return: “thys Kyng Constantyn sent for the Bysshop of Caunterburye, for he herde saye where he was. And so he was restored unto his bysshopryche, and lefte that ermytage” (F 939.31-34; V 3: 1259.30-32) The Archbishop’s retreat into a hermitage is a retreat from the political arena into the spiritual. He retreats to prayer and poverty. Prayer is spiritually useful. The understanding is that through prayer a human being can exert spiritual influence. The Archbishop prays and God acts. This is what it means that the Archbishop’s retreat is a strategic one. He recognizes that he cannot influence Mordred’s behaviour directly, so he retreats to a position of safety and power to pray, and that prayer is effective in a way that the Archbishop’s political influence is not.
The text says that the bishop lived in prayer and poverty “for well he undirstood that myschevous warre was at honde” (F 916.17-18; V 3: 1228.22-23). The implication is that the bishop’s prayer and poverty are related to the war. One simple explanation is that the bishop lives away from the court because he is afraid of the physical peril that comes
161
along with war, but the text makes it clear that the bishop’s life is under threat from Mordred, war or not. So the life of poverty and prayer is not merely an escape from war. It is the bishop’s way of preparing for the war.
Prayer, asceticism, the retreat into a hermitage: these are strategic acts of spiritual warfare. But they are also acts of penance.21 The Archbishop initiates a period of
penitential self-denial for himself, but also on behalf of the realm. On the one hand this is penance for the past—and that is the strongest evidence that it is symbolic penance on behalf of the realm, for the Archbishop has no specific sins to repent of (or at least none that we know of). At the same time, however, the Archbishop’s retreat prepares for the renewal of the world. When the penitential period ends the Archbishop will be ready— both physically and, more importantly, spiritually—to resume his place.
As a priest, the bishop is in the peculiar position of acting on behalf of the people as intercessor with God. The bishop is not enacting penance for his own personal sins; he is doing it on behalf of the nation for its sins. The sins of the nation are what he calls mischievous civil war. Malory refers to war as “myscheveous” a few lines before his famous exclamation: “Lo ye all Englysshemen, se ye nat what a myschyff here was?” (F 916.34; V 3: 1229.6-7). The repeated use of the word “myschyff” makes the link between the bishop’s prayers and the narrator’s ruminations clear. The “myschyff” of the nation— the sin for which the bishop is enacting penance—is the choice of Mordred over Arthur.
21 Ronald K. Rittgers 377-380 offers an account of the important link between penance and suffering in medieval theology. The Archbishop giving up his physical comfort is penitential.
162
Any ambiguity about the bishop’s life in the hermitage as a symbolic penance is resolved with the arrival of Sir Bedivere:
Than Sir Bedwere tolde the ermyte all as ye have harde tofore, and so he belaffte with the ermyte that was beforehande Bysshop of Caunturbyry. And there Sir Bedwere put uppon hym poure clothys, and served the ermyte full lowly in fastyng and in prayers. (F 928.1-4; V 3: 1241.32- 1242.2)
Bedivere reaches the hermit-bishop in a state of both grief and shame. He mourns the passing of Arthur and everything that that represents, and he also repents of his two-time failure to follow Arthur’s commandments to cast away the sword, and his failure to
protect Arthur more generally. Bedivere is also fulfilling Arthur’s final request that Bedivere pray for Arthur’s soul; as we have already seen, prayer for the dead is a form of
penance on their behalf. Or, to be more precise, the prayer is not itself penance, but its purpose is to replace or supplement the penance that the dead person did not do when he or she was alive.22 Bedivere joins the bishop in a life of fasting and prayer because he is representative of the penance of Arthurian knights in general.
22 See the papal bull “Laetentur coeli”: “if those truly penitent have departed in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by the worthy fruits of penance for sins of commission and omission, the souls of these are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments; and so that they may be released from punishments of this kind, the suffrages of the living faithful are of advantage to them, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and other works of piety” (Denzinger 693).
163
The bishop returns to his bishopric after the coronation of King Constantine because with the establishment of a new king the period of national penance is over and the relationship between the crown and the official church can be re-established. As Kelly argues, “penitence redeems the nation as well as individuals” (Kelly 114). Despite the nation’s redemption, however, Bedivere remains a hermit for the rest of his life, both because he is fulfilling Arthur’s request and also because the formal and official church in
its formal and official relationship with the secular power is still spiritually united with its symbolic representatives outside of the structures of secular government. The penance ends, but it is also ongoing.