Title Background

A Simoniacal Moment in <i>Piers Plowman</i>.

A Simoniacal Moment in Piers Plowman.

The collusion of the pardoner and the parish priest (B.Prol.80-82) was an established topos by the later fourteenth century, with WL’s depiction one of its earliest literary appearances, Such alliances are described in Dives and Pauper (early fifteenth century) as simoniacal, which, if so perceived by WL and his contemporaries, would impart a specific moral tone as well as anticipate the turn of thought soon afterwards (B. Prol. 86) to clergy who seek to live in London “And syngen Pere for symonye, for siluer is swete.”