the Catholic Church, who did not care o f people’s sufferings. The
protest against the Catholic Church and the growth o f national
feeling during the first years o f the War found the reflection in
literature There appeared poor priests who wandered from one
village to another and talked to people. They protested not only
against rich bishops but also against churchmen who were ignorant
and could not teach people anything. Among poor priests were
then acknowledged poets William Langland and John Wyclif.
W illiam Langland (1332?-1400?) was a poor priest. His
parents were poor but free peasants. He denounced the rich
churchmen and said that everybody was obliged to work. His
name is remembered for a poem he wrote, “The Visions o f William
Concerning Piers the Ploughman” (Piers -Peter). Nowadays the
poem is called “Piers Plowman”.
“Piers Plowman” is an allegorical poem. In it Vice and Virtue
are spoken o f as if they were human beings. Truth is a young
maiden, Greed is an old witch. The poem was very popular in the
Middle Ages. It begins with a vision which the poet William had
on the Malvern Hills. In a long and complicated succession o f
scenes Langland portrays almost every side o f fourteenth-century
life. In his dream the poet sees Piers the Ploughman, a peasant.
Piers tells him about the hard life o f the people. He sees the
corruption o f wealth, and the inadequacies o f government. To
him, the only salvation lies in honest labor and in the service o f
Christ. If Langland were not a mystic, he would have been a
revolutionary. He is the nearest approach to Dante in English
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