Piers Plowman
Page 25
Or maimed by some mischance, which might excuse you?”
“When years ago I was young,” I began,
“My father and friends financed my schooling
Till I understood the holy Scriptures
And knew what the books say is best for the body
And safest for the soul—provided it’s observed.
But in faith I’ve not found since the death of my friends
A career I care for that’s not in a cope.
So if I must labor to earn a living,
I should live by the labor that I actually learnt:
Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called.30
“Hence I live in London, and I let London keep me;
The tools that I toil with and take everywhere
Are my Pater noster, Placebo, Dirige and primer,
And sometimes my Psalter and my seven psalms31
That I sing for the souls of the people who support me,
Afford me a welcome and feed me freely
When I make monthly visits or maybe more,
Now his house, now hers: that’s how I go begging,
With no bottle or bag but my belly alone.
And Reason, I reckon it’s wrong to force
A man in holy orders to heave and to haul,
For Leviticus says that the law of our Lord
Is that truly intelligent tonsured clergy
Should be spared sweating and serving on juries,
Fighting at the forefront and molesting folk:
See that none render evil for evil.32
For the clerics of Christ in church and in choir,
Like all those ordained, are the heirs of heaven:
The Lord is the portion of my inheritance, and Clemency doth not constrain.33
It’s becoming for clergy to praise and serve Christ
And for lay folk to labor, to cart and to carry.
But ordination should only be for offspring
Of franklins and free men and folk truly wed,
So that bondsmen and bastards and beggars’ brats
Should sweat while the sons of nobles should serve
Either God or the good as suits their degree,
By singing the Mass or sitting as stewards,
Recording and advising on the fit use of funds.
“But bonded laborers’ boys are now bishops,
And bastards’ bairns are ordained archdeacons,
And knighthoods are sold to soap-sellers’ sons,
While lords’ sons labor and must pawn their lands
To fight our foes and defend the realm,
Protecting and caring for the commons and the King.
And monks and nuns, who should maintain the needy,
Have acquired land from knights and ennobled their kin,
While the patrons of parishes, even popes, despise
True blood and install sons of Simony instead;
Holy living and charity have long since been lost
And will not be found till the world is reformed.
So I beg you, forbear to upbraid me, Reason,
For my conscience knows the course that Christ would have me take.”
But Conscience said, “By Christ, I can’t accept that,
For begging in cities is no seemly existence
Unless it’s approved by some prelate or prior.”
“That is so,” I said, “and now I do see
That I’ve wasted time in trivial tasks.”
And I went at once to worship in church,
Beating my breast and bending my knees,
Sighing for my sins and saying the Our Father.
1Luke xiv 20.
2Penitence is threefold: the sinner is expected to be contrite at heart, to express that sorrow through confession, and to make amends by offering satisfaction through restitution or penance.
3Matthew vi 25 and 26; the proverbial refrain that runs through the rest of the poem.
4It was believed that crickets lived in fire and that curlews lived on air.
5John xiv 13 and Matthew iv 4.
6Cf. Luke xiv 26.
7Psalm cxlviii 5.
8Psalm cxliv 16 (KJV Psalm cxlv 16). This is the grace said after meals.
9The legend of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus appears in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years (see the Old Testament Book of Numbers).
10Cf. Ezechiel (KJV Ezekiel) xvi 49.
11Sodom and Gomorrah.
12Psalm xxxi 1 (KJV Psalm xxxii 1).
13The three elements of penitence are thus equated with doing well, better and best.
14Ecclesiasticus xxxi 9. (Ecclesiasticus is regarded as Apocryphal in KJV.)
15Cf. Luke xi 19. “Dives” means “rich” in Latin.
16Psalms lxxv 5 and lxxii 20 (KJV Psalms lxxvi 5 and lxxiii 20).
17This is a gloss on Matthew xix 23.
18Isaiah xlv 22.
19This line is not in Skeat.
20Matthew xix 23.
21Apocalypse (KJV Revelation) xiv 13.
22Luke vi 20.
23Avarice, which is little different from Covetousness, appears to replace Envy here (cf. Step V).
24Langland wrote these six (originally four) lines wholly in Latin.
25Matthew vii 1.
26Alton is a town on a highway west of London that was notorious for footpads.
27In fact from Juvenal, Satire 20.
28This block of 88 un-numbered lines is taken from the C version of the poem (Skeat VI, Schmidt V, lines 1–5, 7–9, 11–83, 89–93, 105–107).
29Psalm lxi 13 (KJV Psalm lxii 12).
301 Corinthians vii 20.
31A primer is a collection of prayers, psalms and hymns in Latin and English. The Placebo and Dirige are antiphons taken from Psalms cxiv 9 (KJV cxvi 9) and v 9 (KJV v 8) used in the office for the dead. The seven penitential psalms are Nos. 6, 31, 37, 50, 101, 129 and 142 (KJV 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143), all appointed to be sung on Ash Wednesday.
321 Thessalonians v 15. The closest saying in Leviticus (xix 18) is “Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy citizens.”
33Psalm xv 5 (KJV Psalm xvi 5); “Clemency” is unidentified.
Step XV
In which, still puzzling over Do-well, I see in my fifth dream the disembodied Soul, who explains his attributes and warns me again not to seek to know everything. He explains the qualities of Charity, which can onl
y be attained with the help of Piers the Plowman. In our present time of disorder we should leave it to God to provide for our needs, and clergy should return to the righteous life of the early Church. The titular bishops of the Holy Land should go there to preach to the misguided Mohammedans and Jews.
I went on wondering for a long, long while
What Do-well was and what he might do.
My wits came and went as I worried at the question,
Till folk reviled me with few exceptions
5 And treated me as a tramp who would not kowtow
To anyone, let alone lords and ladies
Or people in pelts with pendants of silver,
And refused to say to officials and such-like,
“God save you, good sirs,” with a bow and a scrape.
10 Folk said I was a fool, and a fool I stayed
Until Reason rescued me and rocked me to sleep
And I saw as by sorcery the strangest of sights:
A being with no tongue or teeth who told
What I was, where I went and where I came from,
15 And I conjured him by Christ to declare if he were human.
“I’m a creature of Christ and a Christian,” he said,
“Kindred to Christ and well-known in his court.
Neither Peter the Porter nor Paul with his sword1
Will lock me out whatever the hour,
20 Be it mid-day or midnight, for my voice is remembered
And the creatures at court all welcome me kindly.”
“What are you called in that court of Christians?”
“My simple appellation when I animate is Soul;
Self-will when I stand for the wishes and will;
25 When I think with the mind my title is Thought;
I am Memory when I moan and lament to God;
When I put into practice the teachings of Truth
And arrive at judgments and rulings I am Reason;
I am Sensibility when perceiving with my senses,
30 The source of understanding and skills and crafts;
When I choose or choose not to challenge or buy,
I am called Conscience, God’s notary and clerk;
When I love loyally both our Lord and all others,
My likeness is Love, or in Latin Amor;
35 When I flee the flesh and am free of the body
I am silent and speechless, and known as Spirit.
Isidore and Augustine set out these aspects,
And now that you know them, you may name me as you will.”2
“You’re as blessed with names as a bishop,” I bantered,
40 “For they’re entitled to a ton-weight of titles:
Metropolitan as well as Pontifex and Prelate,
Episcopus, Pastor and plenty besides.”
“That is so,” he said, “and from what you say
You are anxious to know why they’re known by those names
45 And to learn if you may what mine all mean.”
“Yes, sir. If it’s not too presumptuous,” I said,
“I would certainly like a solid understanding
Of all skills and sciences and crafts under the sun.”
“You’re a paragon of pride,” he said, “and imperfect.
50 Such longing for enlightenment caused Lucifer’s fall:
I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the most High.3
It is quite unconscionable and contrary to Nature
That anyone should understand everything save Christ.
Even Solomon is scathing of presuming too far:
As it is not good for a man to eat much honey, so he that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory.4
A surfeit of honey sits heavy on the stomach,
55 And the more a man amasses knowledge,
The more problems it poses unless he applies it.
‘Blessed is the man,’ as Saint Bernard remarked,
‘Who bases his works as well as his words
On construing Scripture,’ for desire for knowledge
60 Expelled from Paradise Adam and Eve,
And the immortality of all was ended.5
Just as honey sits heavy and is hard to digest,
The desire to establish the secrets of God
And his primeval power impairs his grace,
65 For such a desire is a symbol of pride
And flouts the counsel of Christ and the clergy:
Know no more than is meet to know.6
“Friars and scholarly speakers whose sermons
Attempt to reflect on the Trinity flounder,
Often leading the unlettered to question their beliefs.
70 The learned should better abandon such lectures,
And speak of the Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins,
Of the conduct they cause which can carry men to hell,
And the folly of folk, including some friars,
In indulging their senses in decorative dress
75 And elaborate houses, and delighting in learning
Out of pride, not charity—it’s plain to people,
For look at you creeping and crawling to lords
And flattering and fawning on those flush with money:
Let them be all confounded that adore graven things, and
Why do you love vanity, and seek after lying?7
You scholars, consult the commentaries on Scripture;
80 If I lie, may I burn for lack of learning!
“And it seems you accept any source of alms,
Money-lenders, whores or avaricious merchants,
And you bow to magnates who may lend you money,
Not living by the laws of your Rule and religion:
85 ‘Show no respect for persons,’ Jesus said.8
I could lecture at length on this lesson but shall talk
For Truth’s sake purely about parish priests:
Listen who will to a lesson from learning.
“Just as holiness and honesty emanate from churchmen
90 Who lead pure lives and teach God’s law,
All evils spread out from the Holy Church
When priests and preachers and teachers are impure.
A simple example can be seen in the summer,
When some branches of trees are barren and bare
95 And a sickness has struck at and sapped the root.
So the priests and parsons and preachers of the Church
Are the root of the faith by which folk should be ruled.
But it stands to reason, when the root is rotten,
That no fruit will flourish and no leaf be fair.
100 “So you clerics should fling off your fondness for furs
And dispense Christ’s goods to the poor, as is proper!
Be true of your tongue and your genitals too.
Don’t listen to lust or allow your tithes
To be falsely accounted or fraudulently farmed.
105 For folk cannot fail to follow your teaching
And resolve to do better if they see your example
And you put into practice what you now only preach.
Such hypocrisy is compared in Latin proverbs
To a snow-covered dunghill concealing snakes
110 Or a wall that is whitewashed but weak within,
For priests and prelates and preachers are often
Whitewashed with words and clothes that look well
While within they are wolves in their words and their works.
“John Chrysostom says much the same about clergy:
115 If the priesthood is pure, the whole Church prospers,
But corruption rots and wrecks people’s faith.
If the priesthood sins, the whole people will sin.
When a tree starts to rot, it is rotten at the root,
So the priesthood is wrong if the people act wrongly.9
120 If folk only followed this friendly advice
And realized who wrote it, then rapidly, I reckon,
Scores of priests would swap their swords
And bangles for beads and Bibles and missals.
“Friars Geoffrey and John have jeweled belts
125 And silver-gilt swords and studded daggers,
But refuse to till with the tools of their trade
Or to say the psalms at all sincerely
Unless they receive substantial sums:
What fortunes they steal from foolish folk!
130 “A wise God wants no honest man to have
What is wickedly won in such underhand ways,
But priests and preachers still graft for profit;
Executors, sub-deans, summoners and their molls
Still gracelessly spend what is gained by guile