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-
"No; though the Earth and Storehouses be common to every Family,
yet every Family shall live apart as they do; and every man's
house, wife, children and furniture for ornament of his house, or
anything he hath fetched in from the Storehouses, or provided for
the necessary use of his family, is all a propriety unto that
Family, for the peace thereof. And if any man offer to take away a
man's wife, children, or furniture of his house, without his
consent, or disturb the peace of his dwelling, he shall suffer
punishment as an enemy to the Commonwealth's Government, as is
mentioned in the Platform following."
OF LAW AND LAWYERS.
"Shall we have no Lawyers?
"There shall be no need of them, for there is to be no buying and
selling, neither any need to expound Laws; for the bare letter of
the Law shall be both Judge and Lawyer, trying every man's actions.
And seeing we shall have successive Parliaments every year, there
will be rules made for every action that a man can do.
"But there are to be Officers chosen yearly in every Parish, to see
the Laws executed according to the letter of the Laws; so that
there will be no long work in trying of offences, as it is under
Kingly Government, to get the Lawyers money, and to enslave the
Commoners to the Conqueror's Prerogative Law or Will. The sons of
contention, Simeon and Levi, must not bear rule in a Free
Commonwealth."
PLEA FOR CONSIDERATION.
"At the first view you may say, 'This is a strange government.' But
I pray you judge nothing before trial. Lay this Platform of
Commonwealth's Government in one scale, and lay Monarchy, or Kingly
Government, in the other scale, and see which gives true weight to
Righteous Freedom and Peace. _There is no middle path between
these two; for a man must either be a free and true Commonwealth
man, or a Monarchial Tyrannical Royalist._"
ANSWERS TO FURTHER OBJECTIONS.
"If any say this will bring poverty, surely they mistake: for there
will be plenty of all Earthly Commodities, with less labor and
trouble then now it is under Monarchy. There will be no want; for
every man may keep as plentiful a house as he will, and never run
into debt, for common stock pays for all.
"If you say, Some will live idle; I answer, No. It will make idle
persons to become workers, as is declared in the Platform: There
shall be neither Beggar nor Idle Person.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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