'Potentia Absoluta' and the 'Clerk's Tale'

Author / Editor
Stepsis, Robert.

Title
'Potentia Absoluta' and the 'Clerk's Tale'

Published
Chaucer Review 10 (1975): 129-46.

Description
Bradwardine's concept of God's "potentia absoluta" serves to reconcile the literal and allegorical meanings of Walter in ClT. Griselda must accept Walter's actions, though she cannot comprehend them. This parallels man's relationship to God, but, the envoy shows, it should not serve as a pattern for earthly marriages.

Chaucer Subjects
Clerk and His Tale.