because of the ease and riches that the common people were of,
which moved them to this rebellion, as sometime they did in France,
the which did much hurt, for by such incidents the realm of France
hath been greatly grieved.

It was a marvellous thing and of poor foundation that this mischief
began in England, and to give ensample to all manner of people I will
speak hereof as it was done, as I was informed, and of the incidents
thereof. There was an usage in England, and yet is in divers
countries, that the noblemen hath great franchise over the commons and
keepeth them in servage, that is to say, their tenants ought by custom
to labour the lords' lands, to gather and bring home their corns, and
some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to make their hay and to hew
their wood and bring it home. All these things they ought to do by
servage, and there be more of these people in England than in any
other realm. Thus the noblemen and prelates are served by them, and
especially in the county of Kent, Essex, Sussex and Bedford. These
unhappy people of these said countries began to stir, because they
said they were kept in great servage, and in the beginning of the
world, they said, there were no bondmen, wherefore they maintained
that none ought to be bond, without he did treason to his lord, as
Lucifer did to God; but they said they could have no such battle,[1]
for they were neither angels nor spirits, but men formed to the
similitude of their lords, saying why should they then be kept so
under like beasts; the which they said they would no longer suffer,
for they would be all one, and if they laboured or did anything for
their lords, they would have wages therefor as well as other. And of
this imagination was a foolish priest in the country of Kent called
John Ball, for the which foolish words he had been three times in the
bishop of Canterbury's prison: for this priest used oftentimes on the
Sundays after mass, when the people were going out of the minster, to
go into the cloister and preach, and made the people to assemble about
him, and would say thus: 'Ah, ye good people, the matters goeth not
well to pass in England, nor shall not do till everything be common,
and that there be no villains nor gentlemen, but that we may be all
united together, and that the lords be no greater masters than we be.
What have we deserved, or why should we be kept thus in servage? We be
all come from one father and one mother, Adam and E