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
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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-
"If the Commonwealth Land be sold by the hasty counsel of subtle,
covetous and ignorant Officers, who act for their own particular
interest, and so hath entangled the Commoners' Land again, under
colour of being bought and sold: then a Parliament is to examine
what authority any had to sell or buy the Commonwealth's Land
without a general consent of the People: FOR IT IS NOT ANY ONE'S,
BUT EVERY ONE'S BIRTH-RIGHT. And if some through covetousness and
self-interest gave consent privately, yet a Parliament, who is the
Father of the Land, ought not to give consent to buy and sell that
Land which is all the children's birth-right, and the price of
their labors, moneys and blood.
"They are to declare likewise that the Bargain is unrighteous; and
that the Buyers and Sellers are Enemies to the Peace and Freedom of
the Commonwealth. For indeed the necessity of the People chose a
Parliament to help them in their weakness. Hence when they see a
danger like to impoverish or enslave one part of the people to
another, they are to give warning and so prevent that danger. For
they are the Eyes of the Land: and surely those are blind eyes that
lead the People into Bogs to be entangled in Mud again, after they
are once pulled out. =And when the Land is once freed from the
Oppressor's Power and Laws, the Parliament is to keep it so, and
not suffer it by their consent to have it bought or sold, and so
entangled in Bondage upon a new account.=
"For their faithfulness herein to the People, the People are
engaged in love and faithfulness to cleave close to them in defence
and protection. But when a Parliament have no care herein, the
hearts of the People run away from them like sheep who have no
Shepherd."
THE CAUSE OF ALL GRIEVANCES.
"All grievances are occasioned either by the covetous wills of
State Officers, who neglect their obedience to the good Laws, and
then prefer their own ease, honor, and riches before the ease and
freedom of the oppressed people. A Parliament is to cashier and
punish those Officers, and place others who are men of public
spirit in their rooms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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