In Passus XX of the C-Text of William Langland's Piers Plowman (B XVIII), the Four Daughters of God gather and debate the Incarnation, its meaning and its consequences. The debate has its roots in Psalm 84.10–11 (AV 85.10–11): ‘surely his salvation is near to them that fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth have met each other, justice and peace have kissed.’ From these verses, with the help of a reference to ‘God's daughters’ in Isaiah 43.6, ‘bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth’ (in the context, those who bear witness to God's name), biblical commentators of the twelfth century constructed a narrative scene in which four young women meet and, after some debate of the idea of Atonement, embrace and kiss. The new narrative was well adapted to a time of doctrinal change when Atonement theology began to stress the reconciliation of God and man through mercy rather than the legal problem of the justice of the devil's claim to rights over man. The most important agents in the development of the debate are Hugh of St Victor and St Bernard of Clairvaux, in his sermon on the Annunciation. The debate, because of its dramatic effectiveness and theological boldness, became widely popular. The most successful line of transmission was through the pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes vitae Christi, and the most influential early vernacular work was Le Chasteau d'Amour of Robert Grosseteste, translated into English as The Castle of Love.