Piers Plowman: Passus XIII Summary & Analysis

This passage shows the power of the dream vision. Will’s allegorical dreams impart him with truth and understanding (along with many questions) that he doesn’t have access to in his waking life. Here, he briefly thinks about what he’s learned thus far about love, corruption, and salvation—all things he was naive about prior to his dreams.

Will’s fourth dream vision begins. A Master of Divinity is both a friar and a theologian (an intellectual who studies God and Christianity in an academic setting). The Master is clearly gluttonous and eats like a rich noble, while Will and Patience are fed like lowly peasants. Will and Patience’s food is sour and named in Latin after the sacrament of penance, suggesting that penance may feel difficult or uncomfortable but is (spiritually) healthy. Meanwhile, the Master’s gluttony is incongruent with his status as a friar since friars were supposed to live humble lives and beg for their food. The Master of Divinity, then, is yet another symbol of the corruption of the church in general, and friars more particularly.

This passage is one of many moments throughout the poem where friars alter the scriptures when they preach in order to look good (the first instance of this was in the “field full of folk”).

Will demonstrates a sudden change in temperament. Although he has been well mannered throughout the poem, faced with the obvious corruption of the Master of Divinity Will gets angry and wishes physical harm to the man. Will’s distaste for the man seems justified, but Patience’s advice that Will be, well, patient, also suggests that to act on such anger in a physical would be a moral mistake.

The only other time Will has been combative was with Reason, when Will felt that Reason abandoned humankind. Will’s qualms with the Master center on the Master’s own hypocrisy but perhaps also point to the way the Master has also abandoned his commitment to humankind in favor of a life of leisure and gluttony. Once again, Will is directed to be patient and less combative in his anger.

It is interesting that Clergy shows uncertainty about defining Do-Well, since he showed no hesitation in explaining Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best to Will in another dream. Perhaps this suggests that the clergy is quick to teach others how to live a Christian life but that the clergy is actually uncertain as to what this means. Meanwhile, Patience explains Do-Well, Do-Better, and Do-Best in terms of learning, teaching, and loving. He explains that love is shown “with words and with works,” meaning that Christians should do good works because they love God and love other people—not because they feel obligated to do good works to get to Heaven.

The Master of Divinity’s objection likely refers to the Papal Schism of 1379, when there were two (and later, three) different men who claimed to be Pope. The Master pompously belittles Patience, claiming “pilgrims often lie.” Ironically, the life of a friar wasn’t all that different from that of a pilgrim (living a humble life focused on God), so the Master unknowingly implies that he, too, is a liar. Clergy also acts self-important when he claims to know far more than Patience possibly can. It is no accident that the two arrogant characters at the feast, the Master and Clergy, are tied to the Church.

Hawkin represents the active life (“Activa Vita”), meaning that Hawkin’s life is marked by the happenings of the secular world rather than the contemplative life of a monk. Hawkin’s coat, which represents the Christian life, is covered in stains, which represent his sins.