It is customary in England, as well as in several other countries, for the nobility to have great privileges over the commonalty, whom they keep in bondage: that is to say, they are bound by law and custom to plough the lands of gentlemen, to harvest the grain, to carry it home to the barn, to thresh and winnow it; they are also bound to harvest the hay, and carry it home. All these services they are obliged to perform for their lords, and many more in England than in other countries. The prelates and gentlemen are thus served. In the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Bedford, these services are more oppressive than in all the rest of the kingdom. The evil-disposed in these districts began to rise, saying they were too severely oppressed; that at the beginning of the world there were no slaves, and no one ought to be treated as such unless he had committed treason against his lord as Lucifer had done against God; but they had done no such thing, for they were neither angels nor spirits, but men formed after the same likeness with their lords, who treated them as beasts. This they would not longer bear, but had determined to be free; and, if they labored or did any other works for their lords, they would be paid for it. A crazy priest in the county of Kent, called John Ball, who for his absurd preaching had been thrice confined in the prison of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was greatly instrumental in inflaming them with those ideas. He was accustomed every Sunday after mass, as the people were coming out of the church, to preach to them in the market-place, and assemble a crowd around him, to whom he would say, “My good friends, things cannot go on well in England, nor ever will, until every thing shall be in common; when there shall neither be vassal nor lord, and all distinctions levelled; when the lords shall be no more masters than ourselves. How ill they have used us! and for what reason do they thus hold us in bondage? Are we not all descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? And what can they show, or what reasons give, why they should be more the masters than ourselves, except, perhaps, in making us labor and work for them to spend? They are clothed in velvets and rich stuffs ornamented with ermine and other furs, while we are forced to wear poor cloth; they have wines, spices, and fine bread, when we have only rye and the refuse of the straw, and, if we drink, it must be water; they have handsome seats and manors, when we must brave the wind and rain in our labors in the field: but it is from our labor they have wherewith to support their pomp. We are called slaves, and if we do not perform our services we are beaten; and we have not any sovereign to whom we can complain, or who wishes to hear us and do us justice. Let us go to the king, who is young, and remonstrate with him on our servitude; telling him we must have it otherwise, or that we shall find a remedy for it ourselves.