One of the devices that helps to hold this sometimes wayward and repetitive tract together is the figure of the Ploweman himself and especially the frequent manifestations of his social class within the work. In general terms the most pervasive dichotomy that the narrator establishes inThe praier and complaynte,and the one on which he focuses, is the contrast between an uncaring, wealthy, and self serving church on the one hand, and the poor, humble, simple Christian in need of spiritual sustenance on the other. The Ploweman situates himself in this latter category and sees the former as ruled...

By the timeThe praier and complaynte of the plowemanmade its first appearance in print in 1531, a number of early English Protestant books published on the continent and dealing with reformist subjects similar to those found inThe praierhad seen the light of day. The fact that many of these works expressed views identical to those found inThe praier,a work first written during Lollard times, indicates that not only Lutheran but specifically Lollard views were well known among early Protestants, andThe praierwould have found a congenial home among these other tracts.²⁰ Discounting biblical...

Regrettably, based on the evidence – or rather the lack of it – we can come to no firm conclusions as to the identity of the sixteenth-century editor ofThe praier and complaynte of the plowemanor the extent of his involvement beyond the brief preface which we know for certain was not part of the original tract.³⁸ As I mentioned above, Foxe, Bale, Mozley, and Butterworth attribute the editorial involvement to William Tyndale. Hume disagrees and claims that George Joye was its editor. My own view, based on an examination of Tyndale’s works, plus a number of the English Protestant tracts...

InThe Arte of English Poesie(1589), George Puttenham, commenting on William Langland’sThe Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman,makes a claim that the English reformers of the early and mid-sixteenth century would certainly have endorsed. He states: ‘He that wrote the Satyr of Piers Ploughman seemed to haue bene a malcontent of that time, and therefore bent himselfe wholy to taxe the disorders of that age, and specially the pride of the Romane Clergy, of whose fall he seemeth to be a very true Prophet’ (62).⁵¹ A survey of ploughman and Piers literature in the sixteenth century...