The Holy Ghost, which hails from heaven,
145 And the fingers that are free to fold and to serve
Are symbols of the Son who was sent to earth
And tenderly touched, as taught by the palm,
The Virgin Mary, who made him a man.
Who was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary.4
“The Father is thus like a fist with fingers—
I will draw all things to myself—5
150 Which touch what the palm determines they should touch.
Yet they all are one, as if they were a hand,
And are seen to be separate aspects of the same.
The palm puts forth first fist, then fingers,
As the Holy Ghost, it can easily be argued,
155 Reveals the Father at first, then the Son.
With the fingers firmly reinforcing the palm,
And helped by the thumb, the hand can lay hold,
As the Father and Son and the Spirit sustain
The whole of the world within their hand,
160 Both welkin and winds and water and earth,
Both heaven and hell and all that is in them.
Thus no one needs to question the notion
That our Lord of heaven does have three aspects,
Not separate although distinct in themselves,
165 For a hand needs fingers to function fully.
“As my fist is my hand with the fingers folded;
So God is the Father, the fashioner and former,
The maker of all things,6
Who holds in him all creative force.
The fingers have the power of depiction and painting,
170 And the carpenter’s crafts of design and carving,
And so the Son is the Father’s skills,
But as fully and firmly God as the Father.
And the palm is the hand with a power of its own,
Distinct from the force of the fingers or fist,
175 For the palm has the power to profile the joints,
And unfurl the folded fingers and fist,
And accept or refuse what the fingers then feel
In response to whatever he senses they desire.
Thus the Holy Ghost is God and as great
180 As the Father and Son, and of similar strength.
Yet they form one whole, as my fingers and hand
Unfolded and folded, both fingers and fist,
Still are one hand, however I turn it.
“But a man who is hurt in the heart of the hand
185 Can hold on to nothing, as is obvious to all,
For the fingers that fold to make a fist
Are powerless because of the pain in the palm
To clasp and to clutch and to keep and to hold.
Were the middle of my hand injured or maimed,
190 I could hang on to nothing that I held in my hand,
But should my fingers be stripped of skin,
And the middle of my hand not hurt too much,
I could still try to tackle some sorts of task,
Repairing or pushing things with painful fingers.
195 “Accordingly I conclude there is cause to think
That a sin against the Spirit cannot be absolved,
Either here or elsewhere, as I’ve already heard:
He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, shall never have forgiveness.7
For the perpetrator pricks the Lord God in the palm.
God the Father is the fist, the Son the fingers,
200 And the Holy Ghost of heaven the palm of the hand,
So to sin against the Spirit must surely harm
The grip of God and extinguish his grace.
“For the Trinity is also like a torch or taper,
The wax and the wick being wedded together
205 With the flame of a fire that flares from both:
The wax and the wick and the warmth of the fire
Foster a flame that can light a fire.
And so with the Father and the Son and the Spirit,
Who foster in folk both love and belief,
210 Which cleanse from sin all Christian creatures.
As you sometimes see that suddenly a torch
Is extinguished while the wick continues with a trace
Of a glimmer or glow, so the Holy Ghost
Remains still God but is grace without mercy
215 For uncharitable sinners who seek to destroy
The love and the life that our Lord created.
“As a glimmer or glint will not gladden a workman
Who watches and works through the winter nights
Like a candle or bundle that burns up brightly,
220 The Father and Son and the Spirit will be sparing
In granting grace and forgiveness of sins
Till the Holy Ghost starts to gleam and glow.
He will go on guttering and glimmering weakly
Till a flurry of love that is faithful revives him.
225 Then he’ll flare with the fire of the Father and the Son,
And will melt their might into mercy, as in winter
The heat of the sun melts icicles on eaves
To water and mist in no more than a moment.
But that grace only melts their might into mercy
230 For those among us who merit such mercy.
Then as wax will blaze up brightly and burn
If it hits the heat of a hot glowing coal,
Those sitting in darkness will suddenly see.
“The Father pardons people with compassion
235 Who repent sincerely and seek to pay
Restitution and make what amends they may,
And even if they have inadequate assets,
Mercy will make up the remainder when they die.
As the wick and the fire will forge a warm flame
240 That delights all those who are looking for light,
So Christ in his kindness, if we cry him mercy,
Will forgive and forget and go to the Father
Of heaven and ask him to offer us forgiveness.
But if you spent four centuries striking a flint
245 Without tinder or tow to take up the spark,
Your lengthy labor would all be lost,
For no flame makes fire without suitable fuel.
Hence God the Holy Ghost is grace without mercy
For uncharitable creatures, as Christ proclaimed:
Amen I say to you, I know you not.8
250 If you treat fellow Christians cruelly or unkindly,
All your presents of alm
s and prayers and penance,
The pardons you purchase at Pamplona and Rome,
And all the indulgences you hoard will not help,
For the Holy Ghost will not hear or heed you;
255 He is quenched by unkindness and cannot shine
Or burn or blaze but is blown right out,
And the Apostle Paul proves my point:
If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.9
“In their dealings with the world the wealthy should beware
And see to their souls if they’re sensible and wise
260 And be charitable and kind, and care for fellow Christians,
For many rich men, it is murmured abroad,
Can burn but not blaze, and are but blind beacons:
Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.10
Dives was damned when he died for his meanness
With food and with funds toward folk in need.
265 I recommend the rich to remember his demise
And to give their goods to the God of grace.
For such as lack charity deservedly spend
Their days without end where Dives dwells.
Absence of charity is the absolute inverse
270 Of God’s own grace, his kin the Holy Ghost,
For what charity achieves, lack of charity undoes,
Like the covetous thieves who claim to be Christian
But slay a man with slander or stab him for his goods,
Heinously killing what the Holy Ghost upholds:
275 The life and the love that are the light in man.
“Every single good man may be said to resemble
The Trinity in the form of a torch or taper,
And a murderer must, I know in my mind,
Put out the light that our Lord most loves.
280 The Holy Ghost may be grieved in a great many ways,
But a man’s worst sin is committing a murder,
A sin against the Spirit which destroys for greed
A being whom Christ so bitterly bought.
How may he ask mercy, or mercy be given
285 To one who willingly and wickedly denies it?
For innocence, God’s most intimate ally,
Will constantly cry out, ‘Vengeance! Vengeance!’
On the shedders of blood who shame human shape:
Revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth!11
Charity confirms that vengeance must fall,
290 And since Charity and Church both make this charge,
I believe our Lord will not look to forgive
Or take pity on prayers when the plea is for murder.”
“Suppose,” I said, “I had sinned so severely
But am sorry when I die that I did the bloody deed
295 And confess and fall on the grace of God,
The merciful Almighty, might I not be saved?”
“Yes,” said the Samaritan, “you might if it means
Your repentance is so genuine that judgment turns gentle.
But it is seldom seen, as experience shows,
300 That a criminal convicted before a court
Is pardoned through repentance when punishment is just.
For the party for a plaintiff will complain with such force
That the King cannot compromise till both sides concur
And equitably settle. As Holy Writ says:
No forgiveness of sin without restitution.12
305 “Thus it fares with folk who are false all their lives,
Never ceasing to sin till their end is in sight.
Then heavy-hearted hopelessness hinders grace,
And mercy cannot make its way into their minds,
And the hope that should help turns into despair.
310 God still has the power to pardon and repair
And mend what’s amiss, for his mercy is greater
Than all our evil, as Scripture says:
His tender mercies are over all his works.13
But some restitution is certainly essential,
Though for poor men, sorrow may replace a payment.
315 “As is found in the Bible, three factors may force
A man to walk out of his house and home.
The first is a wife who is wicked and willful,
And the fellow flees for fear of her tongue.
The second is rain through a ruinous roof,
320 When he drags his bed up and down to keep dry.
The third is smoke and smoldering smuts
That attack his eyes and trouble his throat,
And he coughs and curses the cur who failed
To blow a good blaze or who brought in wet wood.
325 “These three that I mention can be thought of thus:
The wife is our flesh that is willful and wicked,
For consistently its nature gainsays the soul,
And it blames its fall on frailty and affirms
That ‘The man who asks mercy and makes amends
330 Is soon forgiven and the grief forgotten.’
And the rain that soaks us and stops us sleeping
Is the sickness and sorrows that we often suffer.
But Paul the Apostle taught to the people:
Power is made perfect in infirmity.14
And although some people are impatient and complain
335 At their penance and pain, it is perfectly clear
That their sickness causes their querulous conduct.
At the end of their lives, our Lord will lightly
Have mercy on such as have suffered so much.
But the smoke and the smuts that assault our eyes
340 Are the lack of charity that chokes God’s love,
For unkindness unquestionably quenches mercy:
No one is so sick or necessitous or sad
That he cannot show love and kindness if he cares to
Or give a good word with good will, or good wishes,
345 Or grant to all men his forgiveness and mercy
And love them like himself, and set right his life.
But I’m sorry,” he said, “I can’t stop,” and spurred on.
He was off like the wind, at which I awoke.
1Matthew xxii 37 and 39.
2Matthew xxii 40.
3Osee (KJV Hosea) xiii 14.
4From the Apostles’ Creed.
5John xii 32.
6From the Apostles’ Creed.
7Mark iii 29.
8Matthew xxv 12.
91 Corinthians xiii 1.
10Matthew vii 21.
11Apocalypse (KJV Revelation) vi 10.
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12Saint Augustine, Epistle cliii Section 20.
13Psalm cxliv 9 (KJV Psalm cxlv 9).
142 Corinthians xii 9.
Step XVIII
In which, in my sixth dream, I witness Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, his Passion and death. The four sisters Mercy, Truth, Justice and Peace disagree over whether his sacrifice is enough to release souls from hell, before which a great light has appeared. The character Book insists that it will suffice, before the Lord appears and bursts open the bars of hell, chaining the devil, leaving the demons squabbling and releasing the souls of the righteous. The four sisters rejoice, and I awake and tell my wife and daughter to go to church and venerate the cross.
In a woolen shift with no shirt and no shoes,
Heedless of hardship, heartache or woe,
I wandered away, wasting my life,
Till weary of the world my wish was to sleep,
5 And at last, in Lent, I lazily slumbered
And snored till Palm Sunday, and saw in my dreams
The Passion and penance that Christ did for people.
A great many children sang Glory to God,
And the old folk sang Hosanna to the organ.
10 Then a man like the Samaritan, reminding me of Piers,
Was borne along barefoot on the back of a donkey,
Without spurs or a spear but pert and sprightly,
As if coming to court to be accorded a knighthood
And a smart pair of shoes with gilded spurs.
15 The voice of Faith rang forth from a window,
“Hail, Son of David,” like a herald of arms
Welcoming jousters, while the Jews sang for joy,
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”1
I asked Faith who the fuss and the fanfares were for,
Who was trotting to the tournament. “Jesus,” he told me,
20 “Who is destined to redeem Piers’ fruit from the devil.”
“Is Piers here?” I wondered. He winked and replied,
“This gentleman Jesus will joust in Piers’ arms,
In his helmet and armor called human shape.
He’ll appear in the coat of Piers the Plowman
25 Lest the consummate deity of Christ be discovered,
Piers Plowman Page 30