Piers Plowman, Vision 8

Vision VIII – Passus XX – the Apocalypse.

Awake, a depressed Will wanders around hopelessly, hating the world. Need shows up to him (which makes sense because in his waking life, Will has become increasingly unresponsive to the world – he hasn’t bothered keeping a job and whatnot) – Need explains that all people have the right to some food to eat, some clothes and some drink, and as long as they practice temperance, they do not sin if they are forced to steal. Will falls asleep again (perhaps Will is a bit narcoleptic?)….

Will’s first vision in this dream is of the Antichrist. Antichrist’s appearance is occasioned by the founding of the Church. Antichrist is followed by the seven deadies, who proceed to wage war on the Church. Antichrist takes advantage of peoples’ fleshly weaknesses and corrupts them that way. Conscience calls for people to run inside the Church to make their stand against Antichrist. Eventually Kind (Nature, God) shows up with the various eschatological accoutrements, like plagues and pox and Death, and wreaks havoc on the sinners.

The Church is safe until Greed manages to enter it under the guise of Simony, who replaces all the good judges with corrupt ones. At this point it is only a matter of time until the whole church is corrupted. In the ever-ongoing battle (the text is suitably chaotic here, hence the randomness of the notes), Will gets trampled by Age, who makes him bald, then ugly, gimpy, gouty and impotent. Will starts begging for Death because he feels ridiculous and awful so aged. Kind tells Will to learn a trade – Love – to pass his time until he dies.

Meanwhile in the church, Conscience is trying desperately to hold on. He calls for Clergy to aid against the corrupt priests. Need approaches and tells Conscience to remind the clergy that they’ve taken vows of asceticism that they’ve since left, and to live as they’ve vowed, and to stop learning logic and university stuff and instead learn to love. Conscience adds to this that there are too many friars to keep track of. Envy hears this and corrupts more people and leads them into university educations. People in the church are horribly wounded by the outside assault, so Conscience brings in a doctor who is skilled in hearing confessions, which is what saves souls. People start whining that this doctor is too mean. Eventually Good Manners (something Will has recognized already as being bad because it pays too much attention to worldly concerns) gets to Peace and is allowed in, which means that the Friar Flattery can follow him in. Flattery sells indulgences instead of genuine repentance, and eventually even Contrition falls to Flattery and stops repenting of his sins – this is killing him and everyone else who has listened to Flattery’s empty words because no one has any fear of sinning anymore.

Conscience gets disgusted and frustrated and eventually leaves in search of Piers again, as Piers has left – finding Piers will allow Conscience to again find a moral center. The last thing Will hears is Conscience crying out for Grace. Will wakes up. The End.