Piers Plowman, Vision 7

Vision VII – Passus XIX – Piers as Christ

Will wakes, goes to church, and passes out mid-Mass right before the collection (which could be significant if one wants to do a ‘money is corrupting the church’ reading). Dreaming again, Will dreams of Piers who now is Jesus, and whom Conscience refers to as Christ. Will gets confused as to the name change from J to C, so Conscience explains that Jesus is knight, King and Conqueror. The last is most important because as Conqueror, Christ has conquered Death and so freed his people. Do-well and comrades for Jesus is now explained, this being the utter height of what is to do well. For Jesus to Do-Well, this is to love thine enemies. To Do-Better is to relieve the distress of others. To Do-Best is to grant mercy, forgiveness and pardon to all who have offended.

Piers now shows up with the Holy Spirit and some other companions. Conscience kneels to the Spirit and names it Grace. Then it flips into eschatology territory. Grace doles out jobs to people, giving them different talents and responsibilities and makes it clear that even if some jobs seem cleaner than others, all are necessary and equal. This sets out the whole basis of society. Piers is put in charge of the church as the Papal figure (Peter) and given a plow for his work, and a pardon, called “pay what you owe.” The plow is used to sow the seeds of the two furrows of the Old and New Testaments. The seeds are the Cardinal Virtues, Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice. This will allow love to grow. Then the Unity Church is built out of cement of baptismal blood, walls of the Passion, and a roof of Scripture. Grace then builds a cart called Christianity to cultivate the truth of Holichirche’s law.

Piers plows as he’s told.

Pride sees this and will have none of it and starts attacking with the weapons of fancy clothes and empty rhetoric. Some bad priests join him. Conscience pulls everyone into the church, and everyone works together with their tears and prayers to build a moat to keep the Church safe. Then penance time comes during Lent, and a brewer refuses to pay what he owes (as is stated in the pardon) because he’s figured out exactly how to work the system to his advantage and profit. He is kicked out. A vicar throws a fit about how corrupt the church and its higher ups are. Piers is made emperor/pope because he’s the only good person. Things have changed. Whereas before Piers was so against wastours and worked to reform them and help them reform themselves; here Piers will help anyone equally with his Charity. A King appears and announces he will rule justly. Will wakes up and writes down his dream.