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KANSAS UNIVERSITV QUARTERLY. 



himself to show; yet a diligent man among such associations as his 

 might learn all that he knew. That he did develop himself so fully in 

 despite of difficulties, causes us to honor yet more highly the humble 

 student who was greater than any learned doctor of his time, save one 

 alone. 



The \'aliie of the Poem. 



^ , „ The influence of the Vision concerning Piers the 



Past In flu- ° 



eiict'. and pri's- Plowman in helping to bring about a political up- 

 «Mit estimate. heaval that pointed the way to a religious revolution is 

 historical and needs no restatement. Wyclif quoted from Langland, 

 and both Langland and Wyclif were misinterpreted by many wrong 

 headed ones whose efforts to hasten the coming of Langland's mil 

 lennium, when "shall neither king nor knight, constable nor magis- 

 trate, overburden the commons," materially retarded its advance. 

 Tims the greatest immediate influence of the work was in a direction 

 that its author neither contemplated nor desired; but though centuries 

 were needed for the accom|)lishment of its true purpose and that ac- 

 complishment involved more than the dreamer dreamed, we may feel 

 that Piers Plowman did return to Holy Church and that the work of 

 Langland was the first step toward his returning. 



To us the work is of immeasurable value as a storehouse of infor- 

 mation; and the feeling of each student of it must be that a lifetime is 

 scarcely sufficient for the full interpretation of a work upon the mere 

 text of which one scholar has aireaiiy cxpentied half a lifetime. 



