Piers Plowman

Abstract

The greatest of the alliterative poems, Piers Plowman, which is also one of the half-dozen greatest poems in the English language, takes its origin from the West Midlands, but allies itself with all levels of English society, shows a notable interest in the poor, and rapidly moves to London and Westminster. It asks the great question that stirred men’s minds everywhere in Europe in the fourteenth century; what shall I do to be saved? A valuable side light on Piers Plowman comes from the long contest in a small Pyrenean village on the margin of France, in the earlier part of the century — Montaillou. It was a conflict between the Inquisition and a small group of heretics centred in the village where peasants, mostly illiterate but not uncultured nor untravelled, spent the long dark evenings by the light of the fire, in rooms thinly partitioned from the beasts, eagerly discussing how their souls might be saved. There was a deep concern for pardon. The story is told by E. Le Roy Ladurie, Montaillou (Paris: Gallimard, 1975; English translation, London: Scolar, 1979).