‘Pierce the Plowman's Crede’

Medieval English alliterative poem written in about 1394, based on William Langland's poem ‘Piers Plowman’ (c. 1367–86). It is notable for its attack upon the conduct of the clergy, and its vivid description of a medieval villein, ploughing the land in winter ‘beslombred in fen’ (covered in mud), accompanied by his starving children and wife ‘wrapped in a wynwe schete to weren hire fro weders, barfote on the bare ijs, that the blode folwede’ (wrapped in a sacking sheet to protect her from the weather, barefoot on the bare ice, that the blood followed).