246 KANSAS UNIVERSriY QUARTERLY. 



■ 67). To their position they should rise through an educational 

 qualification, we may infer; since Langland apparently believes that this 

 is precedent to any exercise of power, even rightful power. It is the 

 duty of the uneducated rank and file, those who do not understand 

 T.atin, to serve and suffer, to accept the words of the king as their 

 law, and to put all their trust in him. Through Latin lies the road of 

 aspirants to participation in government, first in an advisory capacity, 

 and then perhaps in a judicial one; though a judicial position is 

 secured through the will of others rather than one's own inclination. 

 Those who are, through education, competent to act, will see the 

 folly of hasty and inconsiderate action. 



The chief good of the commons is. then, to be secured by their 

 resigning the governing power into the hands of natural or chosen 

 rulers, and by fulfilling the prece])ts of the moral law. The seat of 

 the advisory and judicial power is indicated with reasonable clear- 

 ness, but it is not so clearly indicated what Langland believes to be 

 the seat of legislative power. He tloes not say outright that it 

 belongs either to king or commons, bit he seems to imply that the 

 power resitles in the First Estate (king and nobles) by sufferance of 

 the commons; and this accords with the statement made by Freeman 

 (art. England, Enc. Brit., ^TH.), that at this time the form of legis- 

 lative procedure was for the commons to petition, and the king and 

 lords to enact at their request. Another reason for Langland's 

 silence upon this point is doubtless that in his opinion the law of 

 Holy Writ is sufficient. We detect the spirit of Magna Charta in his 

 work, but we are unmistakably shown that to him the Great Charter 

 is the law of God. 



PiowiiuMi. The precise meaning of the term ploivman in the 



poem is open to discussion. Is Piers Plowman himself a free tenant, 

 or a villein, the legal restrictions upon whom are thus stated (C. 

 XIII., 61): ' No cliurl may mike a charter or sell his cattle without 

 the consent of his lord; if he run in debt, or leave his place of abode, 

 he is liable to imprisonment. Langland says that no clerk should be 

 tonsured unless he were come of franklins and free men, and wedded 

 folk (C, VI., 63); but he nowhere makes Piers Plowman a tonsured 

 clerk. Piers proposes, as a free man might, to leave his half acre, 

 and guide the pilgrims to Truth (C, IX); but his absence is appa- 

 rently not to be permanent. Freeman defines a churl (see reference 

 above) as a member of the lowest class of freemen. This class after the 

 Conquest became fused with that of the slaves into the intermediate 

 class of villeins, who were not slaves in person, but not wholly free 

 in law. It may be that with Langland, the plowman and the churl 

 are the same, but that in describing the one, he is thinking of his 



