Trajan is the ex-Roman Emperor who lived his life as a non-Christian but was saved from Hell by Saint Gregory the Great. Trajan was ultimately allowed to reside in the lowest part of Heaven—an event covered by Anima in his teachings to Will. Trajan himself becomes one of Will’s teachers in a dream-within-a-dream, where his teachings mainly focus on the power of love.
Trajan Quotes in Piers Plowman
The Piers Plowman quotes below are all either spoken by Trajan or refer to Trajan. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the W. W. Nortona & Company edition of Piers Plowman published in 2006.
Passus XI
Quotes
And let folk of all factions, whether friends or enemies,
Love each other and help each other as they would themselves.
Whoever lends no help loves not, the Lord knows the truth,
And he commands every creature to conform himself to love
Other Christians as himself and his enemies as well.
For whoever hates us it’s our merit to love.
Passus XII
Quotes
“All these clerks,” I declared then, “that believe in Christ’s teaching,
Say in their sermons that neither Saracens nor Jews
Nor any creature of Christ’s likeness can be saved without Christendom.”
“Contra!” exclaimed Imaginative…
…“Salvabitur vix Justus in die judicii;
Ergo salvabitur.”
Related Characters:
Will (speaker), Imaginative (speaker), Trajan
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Trajan Character Timeline in Piers Plowman
The timeline below shows where the character Trajan appears in Piers Plowman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Passus XI
...faith. Scripture claims that people are only saved by faith in Jesus, but Roman Emperor Trajan appears and objects to Scripture’s conception of salvation. Trajan explains that he was an “unchristian...
(full context)
Trajan explains that “Law without love” is worthless, as are all crafts that are not learned...
(full context)
Passus XII
Imaginative points out that although Trajan, the non-Christian Roman Emperor, was saved from Hell, “he is lodged in the lowest part...
(full context)
...exclaims in Latin, “Salvabitur vix Justus in die judicii; / Ergo salvabitur.” As for why Trajan was saved from Hell even though he was not a Christian, Imaginative explains that “there...
(full context)