The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 2

Name: The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 2
Author: Langland, William

Langland, William

Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- Poetry

"Ac we cristene creatures
  That on the cros bileven,
  Arn ferme as in the feith,
  Goddes forbode ellis!
  And han clerkes to kepen us therinne,
  {328}
  And hem that shul come after us.

    "And Jewes lyven in lele lawe,
  Oure Lord wroot it hymselve                            10730
  In stoon, for it stedefast was,
  And stonde sholde evere.
  _Dilige Deum et proximum_,
  Is parfit Jewen lawe;
  And took it Moyses to teche men
  Til Messie coome;
  And on that lawe thei lyve yit,
  And leten it the beste,
  And yit knewe thei Crist
  That cristendom taughte                                10740
  For a parfit prophete
  That muche peple savede
  Of selkouthe sores,
  Thei seighen it ofte,
  Bothe of miracles and merveilles,
  And how he men festede,
  With two fisshes and fyve loves,
  Fyve thousand peple;
  And by that mangerie men myghte wel se
  That Messie he semede,                                 10750
  And whan he lifte up Lazar,
  That leid was in grave,
  And under stoon deed and stank,
  With stif vois hym callede:
  _Lazare, veni foras._
  Dide hym rise and rome,
  Right bifore the Jewes.

    "Ac thei seiden and sworen
  With sorcerie he wroughte,
  And studieden to struyen hym,                          10760
  And struyden hemselve;
  {329}
  And thorugh his pacience, hir power
  To pure noght he broughte.
  _Patientes vincunt._

    "Daniel of hire undoynge
  Devyned and seide,
  _Cum sanctus sanctorum veniat, cessabit
      unctio vestra._
  And wenen tho wrecches
  That he were _pseudo-propheta_,                        10770
  And that his loore be lesynges,
  And lakken it alle,
  And hopen that he be to come
  That shal hem releve,
  Moyses eft or Messie
  Hir maistres yit devyneth.

    "Ac Pharisees and Sarzens,
  Scribes and Jewes,
  Arn folk of oon feith,
  The fader God thei honouren.                           10780
  And sithen that the Sarzens,
  And also the Jewes,
  Konne the firste clause of oure bileve,
  _Credo in Deum patrem omnipotentem_,
  Prelates of cristene provinces
  Sholde preve, if thei myghte,
  To lere hem litlum and litlum
  _Et in Jesum Christum filium_,
  Til thei kouthe speke and spelle
  _Et in Spiritum sanctum_,
  And reden it and recorden it
  With _remissionem peccatorum,
  Carnis resurrectionem, et vitam æternam. Amen._"       10793

       *       *       *       *       *

{330}

          _Passus Decimus Sextus, etc. et Primus de Do-bet._

  "Now faire falle yow," quod I tho,                     10794
  "For youre faire shewyng;
  For Haukyns love, the actif man,
  Evere I shal yow lovye!
  Ac yit I am in a weer
  What charité is to mene."

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Vision and Creed of Piers Ploughman, Volume 2

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