When Gower made Genius a central figure in the Confessio Amantis he had already employed Venus's priest once before, in Vox Clamantis book IV, chapters 13–14. Chapters 13 and 14 seem to be a rather typical indictment of weak-willed femininity, as suggested by the heading of Chapter 13: ‘Hic loquitur vlterius de mulieribus, que in habitu moniali sub sacre religionis velo professionem suscipientes ordinis sui continenciam non obseruant’ (Here, he [Gower] speaks further concerning the women who, in the habits of nuns making profession of vows under the sacred veil of religion, do not observe due continence). However, Gower redirects and modifies this misogynist cliche through the inclusion of the male Genius, a sensual double for the supposedly intellectual masculine ecclesiastical institution, and the real target for his critique. Genius appears as a part of the ecclesiastical institution in both the Confessio Amantis and the Vox Clamantis, but while the ecclesiastical nature of his role in the Confessio is contestable, in the Vox he clearly functions as not only a confessor but also a bishop and scholar of theology. A close examination of his appearance in the Vox Clamantis shows how the sensual (feminine) pleasures of reading can subvert the supposedly prudential forms of masculine, institutional interpretation.

In the Confessio Amantis, and in its model, Jean de Meun's section of the Roman de la Rose, confession to Genius is a substitution, made visible by Genius's re-vestment by Venus. I wish to concentrate upon the institutional substitution that occurs, as the institutional forms that produce conscience and moral prudence (here, auricular confession) remain essentially the same, but their content is significantly altered. Gower, describing the failure of the institutional Church in Confessio Amantis book V, remarks upon the strange change of content: ‘The forme is kept, bot the matiere | Transformed is in other wise’ (Confessio, V, lines 1872–3). This sentence is not immediately logical: how can the form remain if the matter is transformed? Upon consulting the Middle English Dictionary, one finds that Gower is extremely inventive with the word ‘forme’, especially in uses concerning literary form and literary production.