Criticism of church in Piers Plowman

William Langland’s “Piers Plowman” is a great asset of English literature. It has great importance in Old and Middle English. Not only the poem is historically significant, but also it contains a beautiful description of the English society of that period. In the poem, the author made a satire of the English society of that time. Church or Clergy was at the center of this satire. 

Image Source 

If we look at the 14^th century England, the time of Langland, we see that the Church became weak. It was not that the influence of the Church decreased, but there was a moral decadence and the priests became corrupted. They were so powerful that they did not answer to anyone, not even to the king. For this reason, they could go anywhere they pleased.

On the other hand, the absence of Democracy corrupted the King’s court. Officials could do anything and answered to none. There was corruption both in the Church and at King’s court, and Langland revealed these corruptions and attacked them. One of the interesting things of that time was that there were two Popes among Roman Catholics and the conflict between these two Popes was not related to religion but very much related to politics. Despite its powers, such conflict weakened the morality of the Church. Langland did not have much faith in the Pope. So, it was not a surprise that he would severely criticize Pope.

All the Clergies that we see in “Piers Plowman” were bad people. They were selfish and did not show any sympathy to the poor. They only remained busy making more money for themselves, and for that, they did not even hesitate to cheat people. The main problem was that they had great influence over ordinary people and they did not answer to anyone. So, they did what they wanted and created a serious problem in society. Langland observed these practices and made a satire of them. Such satire created a sense of dislike among educated people about the clergies. At the same time, Chaucer, along with Langland, attacked the Church.

Langland, in his poem, repeatedly said that these Clergies were not good people and they had moved away from the true spirit of religion. He said that the followers of Jesus Christ led a very simple life, but the English Clergies were different. In various ways, he tried to explain this matter and said that the religion these Clergies talked about was not the true Christian religion.

According to Langland, these Clergies did not follow what Jesus Christ said and do not perform their functions properly. Corruption had spread everywhere in the Church and affected ordinary people because they went to Church and showed their respect to these people.

Langland made a satire of everyone, including the Bishop, Monk, Friar and Pardoner. He said that their sole duty is to exploit the poor and uneducated people and become rich. He also said that such clergies can never bring any good to any people. They are the true Satan. They were the enemies of virtue.

In the same period, Geoffrey Chaucer attacked the Clergies, but there is a big difference between Chaucer and Langland. Chaucer was a bit mild and balanced while criticizing the clergies, but Langland was very bitter towards them, and he did not like the Clergies at all. This was the main difference between these two poets.

Langland wrote about the malpractices of the Church at a time when it was a very powerful institution and by doing this, he put his life at risk. For this, he deserves great praise from us. In reality, he did not criticize Christianity or Jesus Christ but those priests who walked away from the teachings of Jesus and only think about their own interests.