The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth: As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social ReformerBerens, Lewis Henry
History
The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth: As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer
Berens, Lewis Henry
Communism; Land use; Winstanley, Gerrard, 1609-
"Search all your Laws, and I'll adventure my life, for I have
little else to lose, that all Lords of Manors hold Title to the
Commons by no stronger hold than the King's Will, whose head is cut
off; and the King held title as he was a Conqueror. Now if you cast
off the King who was the head of that power, surely the power of
Lords of Manors is the same. Therefore perform your own Act of
Parliament, and cast out that part of the Kingly Power likewise,
that the People may see that you understand what you say and do,
and that you are faithful. For truly the Kingly Power reigns
strongly in the Lords of Manors over the Poor. For my own
particular, I have in other writings, as well as in this, declared
my reasons why the Common Land is the Poor People's propriety; and
I have digged upon the Commons; and I hope in time to obtain the
freedom to get food and raiment therefrom by righteous labour:
which is all I desire. And for so doing the supposed Lord of that
Manor hath arrested me twice. First in an Action of L20 trespass
for plowing upon the Commons, which I never did.... And now they
have arrested me again in an Action of L4 trespass for digging upon
the Commons, which I did, and own the work to be righteous and no
trespass to any. This was the Attorney at Kingstone's advice,
either to get money from both sides ... or else that I should not
remove the action to a Higher Court, but that the cause might be
tried there. For they know how to please Lords of Manors, that have
resolved to spend hundreds of pounds but they will hinder the Poor
from enjoying the Commons."
Then he gives utterance to the sense of indignation which filled his
heart in the following bitter and contemptuous words:
"Do these men obey the Parliament's Acts, to throw down Kingly
Power? O no! The same unrighteous doing that was complained of in
King Charles' days, the same doing is among them still. Money will
buy and sell Justice still. And is our eight years' war come round
about to lay us down again in the Kennel of Injustice as much or
more than before? Are we no farther learned yet? O ye Rulers of
England, when must we turn over a new leaf? Will you always hold us
in one lesson? Surely you will make Dunces of us; then all the Boys
in other Lands will laugh at us! Come, I pray, let us take forth
and go forward in our learning!"
Winstanley's zeal for the cause he had espoused was, however, too real
to allow him to continue long in this strain, so he immediately adopts a
more persuasive tone, as follows:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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