"Forsooth,in the belly of every rich man dwelleth a devil of hell,and when the man would give his goods to the poor,the devil within him gainsayeth it,and saith,`Wilt thou then be of the poor,and suffer cold and hunger and mocking as they suffer,then give thou thy goods to them,and keep them not.'And when he would be compassionate,again saith the devil to him,`If thou heed these losels and turn on them a face like to their faces,and deem of them as men,then shall they scorn thee,and evil shall come of it,and even one day they shall fall on thee to slay thee when they have learned that thou art but as they be.'
"Ah,woe worth the while!too oft he sayeth sooth,as the wont of the devil is,that lies may be born of the barren truth;and sooth it is that the poor deemeth the rich to be other than he,and meet to be his master,as though,forsooth,the poor were come of Adam,and the rich of him that made Adam,that is God;and thus the poor man oppresseth the poor man,because he feareth the oppressor.Nought such are ye,my brethren;or else why are ye gathered here in harness to bid all bear witness of you that ye are the sons of one man and one mother,begotten of the earth?"As he said the words there came a stir among the weapons of the throng,and they pressed closer round the cross,yet with held the shout as yet which seemed gathering in their bosoms.
And again he said:
"Forsooth,too many rich men there are in this realm;and yet if there were but one,there would be one too many,for all should be his thralls.Hearken,then,ye men of Kent.For overlong belike have I held you with words;but the love of you constrained me,and the joy that a man hath to babble to his friends and his fellows whom he hath not seen for a long season.
"Now,hearken,I bid you:To the rich men that eat up a realm there cometh a time when they whom they eat up,that is the poor,seem poorer than of wont,and their complaint goeth up louder to the heavens;yet it is no riddle to say that oft at such times the fellowship of the poor is waxing stronger,else would no man have heard his cry.Also at such times is the rich man become fearful,and so waxeth in cruelty,and of that cruelty do people misdeem that it is power and might waxing.Forsooth,ye are stronger than your fathers,because ye are more grieved than they,and ye should have been less grieved than they had ye been horses and swine;and then,forsooth,would ye have been stronger to bear;but ye,ye are not strong to bear,but to do.
"And wot ye why we are come to you this fair eve of holiday?and wot ye why I have been telling of fellowship to you?Yea,forsooth,I deem ye wot well,that it is for this cause,that ye might bethink you of your fellowship with the men of Essex."His last word let loose the shout that had been long on all men's lips,and great and fierce it was as it rang shattering through the quiet upland village.But John Ball held up his hand,and the shout was one and no more.
Then he spoke again:
"Men of Kent,I wot well that ye are not so hard bested as those of other shires,by the token of the day when behind the screen of leafy boughs ye met Duke William with bill and bow as he wended Londonward from that woeful field of Senlac;but I have told of fellowship,and ye have hearkened and understood what the Holy Church is,whereby ye know that ye are fellows of the saints in heaven and the poor men of Essex;and as one day the saints shall call you to the heavenly feast,so now do the poor men call you to the battle.
"Men of Kent,ye dwell fairly here,and your houses are framed of stout oak beams,and your own lands ye till;unless some accursed lawyer with his false lying sheepskin and forged custom of the Devil's Manor hath stolen it from you;but in Essex slaves they be and villeins,and worse they shall be,and the lords swear that ere a year be over ox and horse shall go free in Essex,and man and woman shall draw the team and the plough;and north away in the east countries dwell men in poor halls of wattled reeds and mud,and the north-east wind from off the fen whistles through them;and poor they be to the letter;and there him whom the lord spareth,the bailiff squeezeth,and him whom the bailiff forgetteth,the Easterling Chapman sheareth;yet be these stout men and valiant,and your very brethren.
"And yet if there be any man here so base as to think that a small matter,let him look to it that if these necks abide under the yoke,Kent shall sweat for it ere it be long;and ye shall lose acre and close and woodland,and be servants in your own houses,and your sons shall be the lords'lads,and your daughters their lemans,and ye shall buy a bold word with many stripes,and an honest deed with a leap from the gallows-tree.
"Bethink ye,too,that ye have no longer to deal with Duke William,who,if he were a thief and a cruel lord,was yet a prudent man and a wise warrior;but cruel are these,and headstrong,yea,thieves and fools in one--and ye shall lay their heads in the dust."A shout would have arisen again,but his eager voice rising higher yet,restrained it as he said:
"And how shall it be then when these are gone?What else shall ye lack when ye lack masters?Ye shall not lack for the fields ye have tilled,nor the houses ye have built,nor the cloth ye have woven;all these shall be yours,and whatso ye will of all that the earth beareth;then shall no man mow the deep grass for another,while his own kine lack cow-meat;and he that soweth shall reap,and the reaper shall eat in fellowship the harvest that in fellowship he hath won;and he that buildeth a house shall dwell in it with those that he biddeth of his free will;and the tithe barn shall garner the wheat for all men to eat of when the seasons are untoward,and the rain-drift hideth the sheaves in August;and all shall be without money and without price.Faithfully and merrily then shall all men keep the holidays of the Church in peace of body and joy of heart.And man shall help man,and the saints in heaven shall be glad,because men no more fear each other;and the churl shall be ashamed,and shall hide his churlishness till it be gone,and he be no more a churl;and fellowship shall be established in heaven and on the earth."
