JOHN

See also:

• BALL (in Mid. Eng. bal; the word is probably cognate with " bale," Teutonic in origin, cf. also Lat. falls, and Gr. 7raXXa)
• BALL, JOHN (1585-1640)
• BALL, JOHN (1818-1889)
• JOHN BALL (d. 1381)
• BALL, SIR ALEXANDER JOHN, BART
• BALL, THOMAS (1819- )

BALL (d. 1381)  , an English priest who took a prominent part in the peasant revolt in 1381 . Little is known of his early years,but he lived probably at York and afterwards at Colchester . He gained considerable fame as a preacher by expounding the doctrines of John Wycliffe, but especially by his insistence on the principle of social equality . These utterances brought him into collision with the archbishop of Canterbury, and on three occasions he was committed to prison . He appears also to have been excommunicated, and in 1366 all persons were forbidden to hear him preach . His opinions, however, were not moderated, nor his popularity diminished by these measures, and his words had a considerable effect in stirring up the rising which broke out in June 1381 . Ball was then in prison at Maidstone; but he was quickly released by the Kentish rebels, to whom he preached at Blackheath from the text, " When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then a gentleman?" He urged his hearers to kill the principal lords of the kingdom and the lawyers; and he was afterwards among those who rushed into the Tower of London to seize Simon of Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury . When the rebels dispersed Ball fled to the midland counties, but was taken prisoner at Coventry and executed in the presence of Richard II. on the 15th of July 1381 . Ball, who was called by Froissart " the mad priest of Kent," seems to have possessed the gift of rhyme . He undoubtedly voiced the feelings of the lower orders of society at that time . See Thomas Walsingham, Historic Anglicana, edited by 41 . T .

Riley (London, 1863—1864) ; Henry Knighton, Chronicon, edited by J . R . Lumby (London, 1889—1895) ; Jean Froissart, Chroniques, edited by S . Luce and G . Raynaud (Paris, 1869—1897) ; C . E . Maurice, Lives of English Popular Leaders in the Middle Ages (London, 1875) ; C . Oman, The Great Revolt of 1381 (Oxford, 1906) .