Compare 1577 edition: 1 When all the prisons were broken vp, and the pri|soners set at libertie, he being therefore so deliuered, followed them, & at Blackeheath when the greatest multitude was there got togither (as some write) he made a sermon, taking his saieng or common prouerbe for his theame, wherevpon to intreat,
and so continuing his sermon, went about to prooue by the words of that prouerbe, that from the begin|ning, all men by nature were created alike, and that bondage or seruitude came in by iniust oppression of naughtie men. For if God would haue had anie bondmen from the beginning, he would haue ap|pointed who should be bond & who free. And therefore he exhorted them to consider, that now the time was come appointed to them by God, in which they might (if they would) cast off the yoke of bondage, & recouer libertie. He counselled them therefore to remember themselues, and to take good hearts vnto them, that after the manner of a good husband that tilleth his ground, and riddeth out thereof such euill wéeds as choke and destroie the good corne, they might destroie first the great lords of the realme, and after the iud|ges and lawiers, questmoongers, and all other whom they vndertooke to be against the commons, for so might they procure peace and suertie to themselues in time to come, if dispatching out of the waie the great men, there should be an equalitie in libertie, no difference in degrées of nobilitie, but a like dig|nitie and equall authoritie in all things brought in among them.Iohn Ball [...]is sermon to [...]he rebels. When Adam delu'd, and Eue span,Who was then a gentleman?
Compare 1577 edition: 1 When he had preached and set foorth such kind of doctrine, and other the like fond and foolish toies vnto the people, they extolled him to the starres, affirming that he ought to be archbishop and lord chancellour, where he that then enioied that roome, meaning sir Simon de Sudburie that then was aliue, was a traitor to the king and realme, and worthie to lose his head, wheresoeuer he might be apprehended. Ma|nie other things are reported by writers of this Iohn Ball, as the letter, which vnder a kind of darke rid|dle he wrote to the capteine of the Essex rebels, the copie whereof was found in one of their pursses that was executed at London.
12.1. The tenor of the said seditious preests letter.
The tenor of the said seditious preests letter.
Compare 1577 edition: 1 _IOhn Scheepe S. Marie preest of Yorke, and now of Colchester, greeteth well Iohn namelesse, and Iohn the Miller, and Iohn Carter, & biddeth them that they beware of guile in Bourrough, & stand togither in Gods name, & biddeth Piers ploughman go to his worke, and chastise well Hob the robber, & take with you Iohn Trewman and all his fellowes, and no mo. Iohn the Miller Y ground small, small small, the kings sonne of heauen shall paie for all. Beware or yee be wo, know your freend from your fo, haue inough and saie ho, and doo well and better, flee sinne and seeke peace, and hold you therein, and so biddeth Iohn Trewman and all his fellowes.