Piers Plowman

From the text, we can infer that “Piers Plowman,” a Middle English poem by William Langland, is called the "Gospel of the Poor" because its purpose is to highlight and satirize secular and religious figures, who are corrupted by greed.

Daily labor is portrayed as a necessity, a necessity evidenced in Vision II, when the pilgrims only agree to labor because they are hungry.... and they return to idleness once fed. The poem praises labor and hard work, as hard work keeps one from being idle, and it portrays idleness as a precursor to sin.