Piers Plowman: Passus XIX Summary & Analysis

This passage begins Will’s seventh dream vision. The connection between Piers Plowman and Jesus is strengthened here. The poem’s tone dramatically shifts from the celebratory ending of the Harrowing of Hell to a dark, somber image of the Crucifixion. Back-to-back, these two events emphasize that Christ suffered terribly for the sake of the world. 

Conscience’s explanation, “That knight, king, conqueror can be one person,” refers to the way that God the Father, the Son of God (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost are all God (the Trinity). He also suggests that Jesus is a protector of the people, the King of Heaven, and a conqueror of sin and death.

Conscience explains Do-Best in terms of Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection—Jesus’s sacrifice of himself is the ultimate good work. Here, Piers Plowman is briefly associated with Peter, whom Christ deemed the head of the earthly Church. This passage draws on Matthew 16:19, when Jesus tells Peter, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven.” 

Will here witnesses the Pentecost, detailed in Acts 2 in the bible, when the Holy Ghost descends upon the apostles (in the poem, described as Piers and his followers). Now that Jesus has been Crucified and Resurrected, the earthly Church begins to take form. 

The Antichrist comes from 1 John 2:18, 22, which warns the Christian community about a false Christ, who denies God and will oppose Christ at the end of time. The concept of the Antichrist was important in Medieval Christianity. In the poem, Antichrist has already come, and as later events in the poem will suggest it seems as if the poem sees a connection between the Antichrist and the corrupt clergy. 

Grace’s distribution of gifts follows that of 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. Interestingly, the biblical passage explains that each different gift from the Holy Ghost “is given for the common good,” which ties into the way that Medieval society required each estate (social class) to work together for the sake of the community. The gifts are also symbolic: Grace gifts Piers with four oxen (the four gospels), four horses (the four Fathers of the Western Church), and two harrows (the Old and New Testaments) to help with his labor—establishing the Church. Piers here is again being connected to Peter, the founder of the Church. Note how Piers himself and the gifts also connect the Church to farming. While the peasants in the third estate physically farm, the poem describes the proper function of the Church as being a kind of spiritual farming.

The four seeds Pier must plow are the four cardinal virtues: prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude. The two harrows—the Old Testament and the New Testament—are both important for cultivating these virtues. Grace also refers to the power of love to blot out evil.

By giving Piers the Cross when he asks for wood, Grace suggests that the Church is built on the Cross, meaning that the Crucifixion is central to Christianity. Here, Holy Church is no longer a person but a structure—the barn, Unity, that will house the Christians.

Pride’s main goal is to target Conscience, which means that pride and egotism can confuse one’s conscience (integrity) about right and wrong. Pride’s instruction to his followers to “bite the roots in two” refer to the cardinal virtues grown by Piers Plowman. The concept of roots also refers back to the numerous times in the poem when a tree’s rotting roots represented the sinful clergy. Thus, Pride also wants his followers to infiltrate and break down the clergy (which much of the poem seems to suggest has already happened). 

Here, a person from each level of Medieval society refuses to listen to Conscience: a brewer from the peasantry, a vicar from the clergy, a lord from the nobility, and a king. This widespread rejection of Conscience shows that the clergy isn’t solely to blame for society’s ills. The poem emphasizes that all people are susceptible to sin, especially if they choose to ignore their conscience.