For some analogies to Clergie’s allegory of his seven sons, see Peter the Chanter, ed. Boutry 2012a:522, where charity’s daughters are the seven beatitudes “and the eighth, which returns to the head” (because it repeats the phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven”); Garnier de Rochefort (Garnerius Lingonensis), Sermones, PL 205.723, where since Moses “was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22), the seven daughters of the priest of Midian (Exod 2:16) are the seven liberal arts, which were invented in order to serve theology; and Sigebert of Gembloux, Catalogus de viris illustribus, where appears one Thomas, ninth-century author of an “enigmatic little book” in which Wisdom is the mother of seven daughters, the seven liberal arts (ed. Witte, 1974:89–90) (see Prov 9:1, the seven pillars of wisdom). In Alan of Lille’s Anticlaudianus, the seven arts are seven sisters attendant on Wisdom, though not her daughters.
130 þe palmare ʒent: Yonder pilgrim, the pilgrim over there—with a gesture, presumably, toward Piers. Cf. B.13.124 þe Plowman. ʒent occurs twice in the Harrowing of Hell scene, spelled yon, yond, ʒone, yone; in both places the daughters of God refer to Christ as “yonder light”: 20.148 (B. 18.145), 194 (B.18.189). It is omitted here at 15.130 in many C mss, including HM 137 (P), which Skeat used as his base, so that it was never available in print until Pearsall used HM 143 (X)—but he glossed it “noble,” as if it were “gent” (a genuine ME word that does not appear elsewhere in the poem), so that no one took it as implying Piers’s actual presence. However, words in the family “gentle,” derived from Latin gens, are never spelled in ms. X, or generally in any manuscript, with the letter yogh. Kane 1994:16 identified it for the first time as a form of “yon,” associating it with the reading “ylyke’ in line 33. See also RK-C 156n, Concordance, s.v. yond, and Kane’s Glossary, s.v. yon; Pearsall’s new edition has “over there.” It is thus a significant word indeed, reaffirming Piers’s presence at the dinner shortly before he speaks.
B.13.133–35a “Thanne … vincunt &c”: KD-B punctuate as if Clergie speaks these lines, though there seems to be little reason not to regard 131–35 as a single utterance by Conscience, as all other editors treat it; see Lawler 1995:91n10. Since Conscience has been fairly well established as Master of Ceremonies, it would surely be his place, not Clergie’s, to call on Patience. 133 þis: i.e., that only these texts matter; cf. line 132 and Matt 22:40, “on these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.” David Aers asserts (1975:88) that Piers’s “proving this in deed” occurs when he explains the tree of charity in passus 16, though “in dede” suggests that the reference is rather to the poem’s account of the redemption in passus 18, Jesus jousting in Piers’s arms, the supreme example of love of God and neighbor in action. 134 Pacience haþ be in many place: one meaning of “to be patient” is “to experience”: if you are patient, you “have been through a lot,” and therefore have been in many places. In Ymaginatif’s terms, you have “kynde wit,” which “comeþ of alle kynnes siʒtes” (B.12.128), contriving many things “of cloudes and of costumes” (customs) (C.14.73). This preferring of “experience” to “authority,” to use Chaucer’s terms, also suggests that the lines belong to Conscience: they would be out of character for Clergie. See Lawler 1995:91–92; Vance Smith 2001:205 writes similarly.
137 Pacientes vincunt (B.13.135a Pacientes vincunt &c): “The patient conquer,” or, perhaps, “Those who suffer win.” I will comment here on sources; on the meaning and value of the phrase in the poem, see below 137, 156a (B.13.135a, 171a)n.
Skeat says that, though the sentiment is a central idea in medieval culture, this exact formulation is not extant other than here. The statement in Anna Baldwin 1990:72 that it is “a quotation from the apocryphal Testament of Job” is quite misleading: this very early work was never translated into Latin, and the Greek phrase Baldwin refers to is “kreissōn estin pantōn he makrothumia,” patience is superior to everything (Kraft 1974:52–53). In a paper he wrote some time ago but never published, Steven Justice argued that the source may be two contiguous sentences, one with patientes and one with vincunt, in William of St Amour’s De periculis: his twenty-second sign is “quod veri apostoli in tribulationibus patientes sunt,” and his twenty-third, “quod veri apostoli in primo adventu male recipiuntur … sed postea vincunt.” (See G. Geltner’s edition of 2008:126.) Recently Lawrence Warner has found the phrase in John Bromyard’s Summa praedicantium (2014:65–66). I find that Thomas of Chobham has vincunt patientes (Summa de commendatione virtutum et extirpatione vitiorum, ed. Morenzoni 1997:160, line 1918). To see just how rampant the idea is, if not the phrase, search vinc* or vic* or supera* or triumpha* + patien* in the PL online and the Brepols LLT-A; the latter will show a number of examples from Roman writers as well as Christians. The commonest mode has patientia in the ablative, and vincere transitive: By patience we conquer the devil/wrath/strong enemies, etc.
The phrase is certainly not in the bible, and yet B.13.135 as crist bereþ witnesse is surely right: it may just mean Christ’s passion, the great victorious act of patience, an experience beyond clerking; Burdach 1926–32:3.2.226 n1, says that it refers to “sein gesamtes Leben, Wirken, Leiden, Sterben und seinen Sieg (seine Auferstehung)” (his whole life, deeds, suffering, and dying, and his victory [his resurrection]), and means that Christ through his patience—and passion—“Vorbild und Bürgeschaft ist für Geduld, Leiden und Sieg seiner Getreuen” (is model and security for the patience, suffering, and victory of his faithful ones), citing 1 Peter 2:21 and four Pauline texts, of which the most apt is 2 Tim 2:12, “if we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” Burdach sees little relevance in Matt 10:22 (which Skeat settles on, followed by Simpson 2007:132), “Qui autem perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit” (He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved). (In my opinion, if Skeat wanted to cite the Gospels he should have chosen Matt 5:10, “Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iustitiam, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum” [Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven].)
In Juvencus’s hexameter version of the Gospels, Evangelicae historiae libri IV, Matt 5:38–39, in the Sermon on the Mount (You have heard, an eye for an eye, but I say, do not resist evil: turn the other cheek), Jesus says that the law says, “similis vindicta sequatur” (Let like vengeance follow), “Sed tranquilla malum melius patientia vincet,” But calm patience will conquer evil better. L would surely have read that in Peter the Chanter’s good chapter on patience (ed. Boutry 2004:687; for the context in Juvencus, see PL 19.129). Peter further cites Jesus’s famous remark, Matt 11:12, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away,” then (p. 688) quotes Jerome, “Nonnisi per pacientiam impletur,” (That remark) is not fulfilled except by patience. Jerome in fact has no such statement; but see Letter 22.40, PL 22.424; Peter the Chanter is apparently interpreting what Jerome says there about seizing heaven by violence as only making sense in terms of patience—as if Jesus is saying that the patient take heaven by storm, they win salvation—and L might have been thinking of this as well. Peraldus and others (as Google shows) cite Jerome similarly, but they are probably parroting Peter the Chanter.
At C.15.156 the phrase is called, more generally, of holy writ a partye, which offers a wider field of possibilities for a scriptural source: Prov 16:32, “Melior est patiens viro forte, et qui dominatur animo suo expugnatore urbium” (The patient man is better than the valiant; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh cities); James 1:4, “Patience hath a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, failing in nothing” (failing in nothing = conquering); and James 1:12, “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath