Compare 1577 edition: 1 2 Thither was brought also to the king from Couen|trie, Iohn Ball preest,Iohn Ball. whome the citizens of Couen|trie had taken, and now here at saint Albons they presented him to the kings presence, wherevpon he was arreigned and condemned, to be drawne, hang|ed, and headed for such notable treasons as he was there conuicted of. He receiued iudgement vpon the saturdaie the first daie that the said sir Robert Trisi|lian sat in iudgement, but he was not executed till the mondaie following. This man had beene a prea|cher the space of twentie yeares, and bicause his doc|trine was not according to the religion then by the bishops mainteined, he was first prohibited to preach in anie church or chappell; and when he ceassed not for all that, but set foorth his doctrine in the streets & fields where he might haue audience, at length he was committed to prison,Iohn Ball [...] prophesie. out of the which he prophesied that he should be deliuered with the force of twentie thousand men, and euen so it came to passe in time of the rebellion of the commons.
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.