Cleanness on the Question of Images

Abstract

"Cleanness on the Question of Images." The Middle English poem Cleanness is manifestly about how the physical sense of sight leads to the beatific vision. The poem's sentiments on this broad topic appear to be informed by the ancient question of whether religious images have a legitimate devotional purpose. Shortly after Cleanness's composition, this question was revived by Lollard iconoclasts who attacked the orthodox cult of images. The documents recording both the Lollard challenge and the defense of images by ecclesiastical writers offer an intriguing context for interpreting Cleanness, since the iconodules make their case by interpreting the very same biblical narratives that provide the poem its primary sources. A comparison between Cleanness's biblical exempla and their analogues in iconodule tracts, however, reveals that the poem, while orthodox in its opinions, does not recommend the devotional use of images as heartily as iconodules do. Cleanness's acceptance of images is tempered by a suspicion that images may often become idols-a suspicion it shares with the Lollards, whose polemic against images it sometimes anticipates.