Pierce the Ploughman's Crede facts for kids
Pierce the Ploughman's Crede is a long poem from the Middle Ages. It has 855 lines and uses a special writing style called alliterative (where many words start with the same sound). The poem makes fun of the four main groups of friars who lived during that time.
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History of the Poem
This poem, the Crede, was written sometime between 1393 and 1400. We know this because of clues found within the poem itself. Copies of the poem from the 1300s still exist today. There are two complete handwritten copies and two early printed versions.
Both handwritten copies also include another famous poem called Piers Plowman. In one of these copies, the Crede actually acts like an introduction to Piers Plowman. There's also a small piece of the Crede that was copied around 1460-1470.
The Crede was first printed in London by Reyner Wolfe in 1553. It was printed again in 1561 to be included with a reprint of Piers Plowman. After that, it wasn't printed again until 1814.
The printed versions from 1553 and 1561 were changed a bit. They added more parts that were against the clergy (church leaders). For example, where the original poem criticized a "bishop," the new versions changed it to attack an "abbot" instead. This change was likely made because attacking abbots was safer after the Dissolution of the Monasteries (when monasteries were closed down). Many experts also believe that some lines about transubstantiation (a religious belief about the bread and wine in communion) were removed from these printed versions.
Today, you can find the Crede in several modern books. Experts like Thomas Wright, Walter Skeat, James Dean, and Helen Barr have created their own versions of the poem for people to read and study.
Who Wrote the Poem?
No one knows for sure who wrote the Crede. Some experts think the same person might have written another poem called The Plowman's Tale. Both poems are against friars and were probably written around the same time. The Plowman's Tale seems to have been written later and uses ideas from the Crede.
The writer of The Plowman's Tale even mentions that he won't talk about friars because he already did "before, / In a making of a 'Crede'..." This makes some people think the same author wrote both. However, others disagree. They believe the author of The Plowman's Tale might have just mentioned the Crede to make his own poem seem more important.
In the 1500s and 1600s, many people thought the famous poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Crede. An editor of The Plowman's Tale in 1606 even wondered if Chaucer meant the Crede when he mentioned a "crede." This shows how confusing the authorship was back then.
The Crede was also sometimes thought to be written by "Robert Langland" (who is actually William Langland, the author of Piers Plowman). This was because the Crede was included with Piers Plowman in a 1561 book. However, the language in the Crede is different from Langland's work. This led some readers to believe that only the Crede was Chaucer's, not Piers Plowman.
What the Poem is About
The Crede is a poem about a search for knowledge. It's told by an ordinary person who knows many basic prayers and religious texts. But he doesn't know the Creed, which is a statement of Christian beliefs.
He decides to ask the friars for help. First, he goes to the Franciscans, then the Dominicans, then the Austin friars, and finally the Carmelites. But instead of learning anything helpful, all he hears are insults! Each group of friars attacks their rivals:
- The Franciscans criticize the Carmelites.
- The Carmelites criticize the Dominicans.
- The Dominicans criticize the Augustines.
- The Augustines then criticize the Franciscans, completing the circle of insults.
It's like a funny, upside-down version of a famous part in Dante's Paradiso. In Dante's poem, two leaders from different friar groups praise each other. But in the Crede, the friars just yell at each other!
But the story doesn't end there. As the narrator goes home, he meets a poor Plowman. The Plowman is dressed in old, torn clothes and is very thin. Even though he's starving, the Plowman kindly shares what little food he has.
When the narrator tells the Plowman about his bad experiences with the friars, the Plowman gets very angry. He gives a strong speech criticizing all four groups of friars. The narrator realizes the Plowman is wise and asks him if he can teach him the Creed. The Plowman is happy to help, and the poem ends with him reciting the Creed.
Why the Crede is Important
The Crede is special for two main reasons:
It Imitates Piers Plowman
First, it's one of the earliest poems to imitate William Langland's famous work, Piers Plowman. The kind and selfless Plowman character in the Crede is directly inspired by Langland's poem. The Crede was likely written only a few years after Piers Plowman. This shows that some early readers liked Langland's ideas, especially his criticisms of the clergy.
The Crede is even more direct in its opposition to the church leaders than Piers Plowman. It doesn't use Langland's "dream-vision" style. This might suggest that the idea of a perfect, ordinary person like the Plowman seemed more real and achievable. In the Crede, the Plowman becomes a symbol of the ideal community. He represents true religion as the virtue of the poor.
It Shows Lollard Beliefs
Second, the Crede is a Lollard poem. The Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe, a religious reformer who criticized many church practices in the late 1300s. The poem praises John Wycliffe and also mentions Walter Brut, a Welsh Lollard who faced trials for his beliefs.
The Crede's ideas about friars match Lollard views perfectly. Many of the complaints against friars in the poem are similar to those found in other Lollard writings. For example, the poem says friars are greedy, want too much money, and only care about burying rich people. It also says they live in fancy houses that look more like palaces than places of worship. The poem even calls them "children of Lucifer" instead of followers of Saint Dominic or St Francis.
However, the poem is more than just a list of complaints. It tells a dramatic story and has vivid descriptions, which makes it stand out from other writings against friars. The poem's strong attacks are well-written and even entertaining. It also shows a deep understanding of Wycliffe's ideas.
The poem highlights the difference between the friars and the Plowman. While the friars argue and fight, the true (Lollard) Christians are united. At the end of the poem, the voices of the Plowman, the narrator, and the poet all come together as one:
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