Background

1
Background

• People in the fourteen-century had difficulty to
  live accord with Christian principle
• Society's failure is attributable in part to the
  corruption of the church and ecclesiastics
• The failure of the wealthy laity--untaught by
  the church to practice charity--to alleviate the
  sufferings of the poor. 

2
William Langland

• The sole author of a long religious allegory in
  alliterative verse

3
William Langland

• A native of the Malvern hill
• Lack of preferment, never became a priest
• Those hermits in the prologue are his lifes
  epitome

4
William Langland

• In Piers Plowman Langland uses the form of a
  dream vision
• The theme includes the the history of
  Christianity and heart of an individual fourteen
  century Christian