‘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).