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JOHN BALL (d. 1381)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 263 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN See also:BALL (d. 1381)  , an See also:English See also:priest who took a prominent See also:part in the See also:peasant revolt in 1381 . Little is known of his See also:early years,but he lived probably at See also:York and afterwards at See also:Colchester . He gained considerable fame as a preacher by expounding the doctrines of See also:John Wycliffe, but especially by his insistence on the principle of social equality . These utterances brought him into collision with the See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury, and on three occasions he was committed to See also: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 See also:measures, and his words had a considerable effect in stirring up the rising which See also:broke out in See also:June 1381 . See also:Ball was then in prison at See also:Maidstone; but he was quickly released by the Kentish rebels, to whom he preached at See also:Blackheath from the See also:text, " When See also:Adam delved and See also:Eve span, Who was then a See also:gentleman?" He urged his hearers to kill the See also:principal lords of the See also:kingdom and the lawyers; and he was afterwards among those who rushed into the See also:Tower of See also:London to seize See also:Simon of See also:Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury . When the rebels dispersed Ball fled to the midland counties, but was taken prisoner at See also:Coventry and executed in the presence of See also:Richard II. on the 15th of See also:July 1381 . Ball, who was called by See also:Froissart " the mad priest of See also:Kent," seems to have possessed the See also:gift of See also:rhyme . He undoubtedly voiced the feelings of the See also:lower orders of society at that See also:time . See See also:Thomas See also:Walsingham, Historic Anglicana, edited by 41 . T .

See also:

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

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