William Langland, the conjectured author of Piers Plowman, is known to have been a tenant in Shipton-under-Wychwood where he died.
Thus "the great unknown" from the Oberland is the ideal character, "who illustrates how God does his work for the world and for the Church through a divinely trained and spiritually illuminated layman," just as William Langland in England about the same time drew the figure of Piers Plowman.
A graduate of New York University, he holds a Ph.D in medieval literature (with a dissertation on Piers Plowman) from the same institution (1974) and later earned a J.D. degree from Concord Law School.
William Langland (ca. 1332 – ca. 1386) is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.
Piers Morgan | Piers Plowman | Piers Anthony | Piers Sellers | Piers Gaveston | Chelsea Piers | Piers Maxwell Dudley-Bateman | Piers Gough | Jon Plowman | Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall | Piers Benn | Martin Plowman | Ryan Piers Williams | Piers Vitebsky | Piers Paul Read | Piers Morgan Live | Piers Flint-Shipman | Piers FitzThomas Butler | Piers Faccini | Piers Courage | Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond | Langland's Dreamer: from an illuminated initial in a ''Piers Plowman | James Piers St Aubyn | Harbours, Docks and Piers Clauses Act 1847 | Debra Plowman |
William Langland (died 1400), conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman
Like much political or religious poetry of the Alliterative Revival (i.e., Piers Plowman, Mum and the Sothsegger), the poem takes the form of a quest for knowledge.
A short and seemingly alliterative poem in the manner of Piers Plowman, Davie Dicar brought Churchyard into trouble with the privy council, but he was supported by Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and dismissed with a reprimand.