The turrets bright of heaven, great and small,

I liken unto towers of clear crystál;

But ne'er did crystal in this world below

Shine with such clearness, with such splendour glow ;
And, to the spirit's ken, those towers may be
Such meed as there the good shall feel and see.1

1

In 1340, about the about the time when Richard Rolle wrote the work just referred to, another book with very much the same title was published by Dan Michel of Northgate, in the Kentish form of the language. It was called The Ayenbite of Inwyt, that is to say, 'The Again-biting of the Inner-wit,' or 'The Remorse of Conscience,' and was the translation of the French La Somme des Vices et des Vertues, written in 1279 for Philip II. The translation is written in prose, and is only mentioned here because of its preface and envoi which Dan Michel wrote in rhyme of the homeliest sort. The former begins:

Lord Jesús, Almighty King,

That mad'st and keepest every thing,
Me that am thy own making

To Thy bliss do Thou me bring.2

And the latter thus concludes:

To him who made this book God give the bread
Of heavenly angels, and thereto His rede,
And take to Him his soul when he is dead.

Amen.3

William Langland's Vision concerning Piers Plowman, A.D. 1362, is in many respects a very interesting one. But I have not here to speak of it in its historical, social, and ecclesiastical aspects, but simply as a religious poem. This it thoroughly is. It is a vision 'of the origin, progress, and perfection of the Christian life,' and in many places may remind the reader of nothing

1 Religious Poems of William de Shoreham, 9072-88: 'And swa bryght gold, ne swa clene.'

2 The Ayenbite of Inwyt (Morris), E.E.T.S. 23 : ‘Lhord Jhesu, almigty kyng.'

3 Id.:

That this boc made God him yeve that bread
Of angles of hevene.

so much as of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The times were thoroughly out of joint when he wrote. There was much suffering, discontent and trouble, great and crying corruption in the Church, and throughout the commonwealth vices and abuses which greatly vexed the soul of a man of austere uprightness, whose sympathies were strong and deep, who loved from his heart truth and freedom, and who kept his eyes steadily fixed on the Gospel model of life. He was keenly alive not only to the flagrant offences which he saw committed around him against Christian morality, but also to the departures in the prevalent Church system from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel. He was no follower of Wycliffe; but he constantly turned his eyes from the Church around him to contemplate what the Universal Church of Christ should be. And thus, often with fervour of imagination, sometimes with real sublimity, always with vehement earnestness, not unfrequently with biting humour, he vented his indignation against wrong, both among high and low, and pointed up to a higher ideal, and to the pure 'Mansion of Truth.' He is sorely cumbered by the trammels of a tedious and perplexed allegory. It should be remembered, however, as one of its modern editors truly observes, that 'the necessity of avoiding anything of a personal nature obliged the satirist to shelter himself in allegory and generalities.' The following is from a description of the home where Truth dwells :

So com'st thou to a court clear as the sun; 2
The moat of mercy; in the midst the manor ;
The walling of sound wit, lest wile should win it.

The kernels [battlements] be of Christendom, mankind to save,
All buttressed by belief, whereby is safety.

1 T. A. Whitaker, in his Preface to the fourth edition.

2 Langland's metre lends itself to blank verse with very slight altering; but in itself it is the old English alliterative verse, the full line having four accents, and its first half two alliterations, the latter one :

So shalt thou come to a coúrt: as cleár as the sun.

The moát is of mércy: in the midst the manor.

The houses are all heled [covered] both halles and chambers,
The bars of buxomness [obedience], in one bond brethren.
The bridge is Bid well [pray well], so the better speed.
The pillars penance are, and prayers to saints,
The hooks are almsdeeds, which the gates hang on.
Grace hath the gate-ward, a good man for sooth.
His man hath name 'Amend you.'

Ride to 'Amend you;' meekly pray his Master
To open and undo the high gates of heaven,
That Adam erst and Eve against us shut.

And if Grace grant thee in this wise to go,
Thou shalt thyself in thy own heart see Truth,
And soothe thy soul, and save thyself from pain.
Also charge Charity a Church to make

In thy whole heart, all truth therein to harbour.

There seven sisters be that serve Truth ever,
Porters at posternes that to th' place belong,
One 'Abstinence,' and one 'Humility,'

And 'Charity,' and ‘Chastity,' are maidens chief;
'Patience,' and 'Peace,' are there, to help much people;
'Largeness,' [generosity] a lady that lets in full many;
Yea, none indeed of all may help him better.

Hard is it, by my head, for any of

all

To get in-coming unless Grace abound.1

Then Piers Plowman goes on to bid even the reprobates not to despair of grace :—

6

'By Christ,' a cutpurse quoth, 'I've no kin there!'

'Nor I,' an ape-ward 2 saith, 'for ought I know!'

God wot,' a waferer 3 quoth, 'wist I this truth,

I would no further afoot, for no friar's preaching!'
'Yes,' quoth Piers Plowman, 'pushing all to good,
Mercy is maid here, she hath might o'er all :
She and her Son are sib [kin] to sinful men,
And in their help hope thou no other thing
Than to get grace, an but thou go betimes.' 4

1 Visio W. de Piers Plouhman, passus viii. 232 :

So shalt thow come to a court as cleer as the soune;
The mot ys of mercy, in myddes the manere.

2 A wandering minstrel, who carried a monkey with him.

3 A seller of thin cakes.

4 Passus viii. 283: 'By Cryst, quath a kitte-pors, ich haue no kyn there.'

I will quote a few lines only of what is said of Charity :

Childlike is Charity, as saith holy Church,
(Nisi efficiamini sicut parvuli, et cætera.')
Proud of a penny, as of a pound of gold,
And all as glad of gown of poor grey russet
As of a coat of cammok, or clear scarlet.

Glad with the glad, as gurles [young people] when all are

blithe,

And sorry with the sorry; e'en so children

Laugh where men laugh, and lower where men lower.

He thinks the best of men; he believes in truth, and in doing to others as he would be done by. There is no pride in him. He takes sorrow and sickness as ministrations from heaven. He is kind and helpful, free from anxieties, trusting in providence, full of good deeds, earnest in repentance:

Of death and eke of dearth dread was he never;
'Fiat voluntas tua' feasteth him.

By clothing nor by carping knowst thou him,
But through his works ye wot which way he goeth.
Merry is he of mouth, sitting at meat,

In company companionable, as Christ was.
'Nolite tristes fieri, sicut hypocritæ.'

And I myself have seen him, sometimes in russet
Or grey, sometimes in gries (rich fur) and gilt array.
Edmund and Edward kings were each and saints,
And chose them Charity and Chastity.
I've seen him sing and read, as clerk also,
And ride and run in poorest ragged clothes,
But begging as a beggar ne'er beheld him.
And in a friar's frock he was found once.

To kings' courts comes he, if counsel be true ;
If coveties be counsel, he comes not.1

Of Truth:

Truth is the throne where sits the Trinity.

Visio W. de Dowel, pass. xviii. 310: 'Of deth ne of derthe drad was he neuere.'

Of Love:

Love is most sovereign salve for soul and body,
The plant of peace, of all virtues most precious.

It is the lock of love that unlooseth grace,

That comforteth all creatures cumbered with sin;
Love is the leech of life, looser of pain. 1

Sometimes he makes Piers Plowman a sort of personification of the poor on earth, to whom Christ brought a special message of peace. For instance, he tells how he dreamt of the hosannas of the children, and how then in his vision he saw one riding on an ass, like unto the Samaritan, and somewhat to Piers Plowman :—

For Love hath undertaken

That Jesus, being gentle, joust in Piers' arms,

His helm and his habergeon.

And he shall joust with the fiend and with the doom of death, and Lucifer shall fall. He will

Forbite [charge] him down and bring death bale for ever, 'O mors, tua ero mors.'

The following is from an account of our Lord's descent into hell :

‘What lord art thou?' quoth Lucifer. A voice aloud
Quoth thus, 'The Lord of might and men, that made
All things, the duke of this dim place; undo
Anon the gate, that Christ the King come in!'
And with that breath hell brake, all Belial's bars,
For any wight or ward. The gates oped wide.
Patriarchs and prophets, people in darkness sitting,
Sing with Saint John, 'See ye the Lamb of God!'
'Lo!' quoth the Lord, behold me, life and soul
For sinful souls.' 2

The poems of Lawrence Minot were written, as appears by internal evidence, in 1352. They are patriotic verses written to celebrate the conquests of Edward III.

1 Visio W. de Piers Plouhman, pass. ii. :

Loue is the plonte of pees, and most preciouse of vertues.

2 Id. pass. xxi. 362:

'What lord art thu?' quath Lucifer; a voys aloud seyde.