Piers and the Church—a theory
The formal church and religion in general appear many times throughout the prologue. From my limited knowledge about Piers Plowman, I was not aware of the repeated placement of the religion. The second line and third line in the poem reads, "I schop me a schroude, as I a schep were. In abyte as an ermyte" (Langford). Essentially, Piers is commenting on how he dresses himself up like a hermit. I immediately began to associate this with Piers wanting to be more religious and more holy, perhaps because he has done something wrong. This would also serve the purpose as to why he brings up the church so frequently Yet, this interpretation does not make sense entirely because why would he be so critical of the church. He writes, "In countenance of clothing they comyn dysgysed. To prayere and to penaunce putte hem many..." (24-25). He almost seems disgusted by the way people behave themselves, namely the Clergy man with their hoods. I do not think he is upset with their profession, but rather their priorities and caring more about money and other goods not associated with Clergy, rather than loving the Lord.
The unraveled revelation throughout the prologue that Piers is not the biggest fan of the church made a complete circle in my mind back to the first lines of the poem. Perhaps Piers is actually relatively arrogant and believes he can change the course of the church, which is why he dresses up like he is religious and has such strong opinions. I am interested to see if my theory holds.
Questions I have:
Why does the author use Wille if it is not Langford?
Is this a peaceful dream?
Why would Piers have anything negative to say about the church?
Your theory of Piers wanting to change the church is very interesting. I agree that he's angry at the clergy being driving by greed rather than spreading God's love and words. He is definitely not happy with the current state of the church and advises people to stop going to church. At the end, Piers also complains about how people with non-clergy professions work much harder for less rewards. The prologue is Piers talking about the corruption in the clergy and unfairness of the society he lives in, so I can definitely see how your theory could be true.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely saw this throughout the first few chapters too, where the king and many clergy act, sometimes very clearly, against Truth and God's intentions in order to get money or other earthly goods.
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