Piers Plowman Passus 6-9

In Passus 6, the mysterious Piers Plowman finally gets revealed, seemingly out of nowhere, to the readers of the poem. This dramatic appearance then leads to the development of Piers as a character for the next three passus.

Specifically in passus 8, Piers claims to have a pardon granted to him by the pope, which would pardon Piers "from punishment and from guilt". This implies that Piers and his subjects will be subject to eternal peace in heaven, so long as they serve their lands and harvest their food. However, the supposed pardon was not really a pardon. It contained two lines of text in latin; "Et qui bona egerunt, ibunt in vitam etarnam; Qui vero mala, in ignem etuernum". These two lines, roughly translated, imply that it is possible to go into eternal heaven, but only if you manage to do good deeds to deserve it. Those who did not deserve it would be punished in eternal hell. Piers, through his actions in the last two passus, appears to be in the middle of the two areas. He sometimes acts as a Christ figure, such as when he guides the pilgrims towards Truth in passus 6, making allusions to baptism and praising almighty God. Sometimes, he acts more out of anger than love for the people, as can be seen in passus 7, when he calls Hunger to ravage the people; "'Now, by the peril of my soule,' quod Peres, 'I shall aperyre you alle!' And hopyd after Hounger, that herde hym at the fyrste:". Either way, his primary characterization is definitely one of a leader, not a follower. His morals and perspective must be taken into account, however, to determine what kind of leader Piers is and will be throughout the poem.