Yet Langland is not all harshness. His
great word is Duty, but he speaks of Love too. "Learn to love,
quoth King, and leave off all other." The poem is rambling and
disconnected. Characters come on the scene and vanish again
without cause. Stories begin and do not end. It is all wild and
improbable like a dream, yet it is full of interest.
But perhaps the chief interest and value of Piers Ploughman is
that it is history. It tells us much of what the people thought
and of how they lived in those days. It shows us the first
mutterings of the storm that was to rend the world. This was the
storm of the Reformation which was to divide the world into
Protestant and Catholic. But Langland himself was not a
Protestant. Although he speaks bitter words against the evil
deeds of priest and monk, he does not attack the Church. To him
she is still Holy Church, a radiant and lovely lady.
BOOKS TO READ
The Vision of Piers Ploughman, by W. Langland
Chapter XXI HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO THE PEOPLE
IN all the land there is perhaps no book so common as the Bible.
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