The Satirical Alchemy of Langland: Forging a Collective ‘Frere’ from the Four Orders to Critique Materialist Decay

Abstract

This study examines how Piers Plowman employs allegorical and satirical techniques to reframe familiar critiques of the mendicant orders into a unified literary construct. It argues that Langland combines features traditionally linked to the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians to form a single composite “Frere,” representing the broader moral and material decline of mendicancy. The analysis concentrates on the B-text, considered the most complete and widely studied version of the poem, as it provides the clearest development of this approach. Placing this fusion within the cultural and theological debates of fourteenth-century England, the article illustrates how Langland reworks existing ant fraternal themes into an original poetic vision. This reading highlights the dynamic interplay between literary form and social criticism in one of the major achievements of Middle English literature.