Ball, John

views updated May 29 2018

BALL, JOHN

Priest, leader of the English Peasants' Revolt; d. Saint Albans, c. July 15, 1381. First heard of at York, where he was probably attached to the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary's, he later removed to Colchester. simon islip, archbishop of Canterbury, excommunicated him sometime between 1362 and 1366, and Archbishops simon langham (1366) and simon of sudbury (1376) confirmed the sentence, but Ball nevertheless continued to preach both in churches and out of doors and to circulate rhyming letters embodying radical views. Arrested in 1381, he was in the archbishop's prison at Maidstone, Kent, when the peasants' revolt started. Released by the rebels, he proceeded with them to Canterbury, Rochester, and Blackheath, where he incited them to murder nobles and lawyers, using the text, "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?" His advocacy of complete social equality probably inspired some of the peasants' demands. Ball was among those who entered the Tower of London and murdered Sudbury. He was present at the young King Richard II's interview with Wat Tyler at Smithfield. Subsequently he fled, was captured at Coventry, brought before Richard, condemned for treason, and executed. Modern writers question Ball's sanity. His views were partly John wyclif's, especially on withholding tithes from unworthy clergy, but his confession linking Wyclif with the revolt is unquestionably fraudulent.

Bibliography: thomas walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ed. h. t. riley, 2 v. (Rerum Britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 28.1; 186364) 2:3234. Fasciculi zizaniorum, ed. w. w. shirley, (ibid. 5; 1858). j. gairdner, The Dictionary of National Biography from the Earliest Times to 1900 1:99394. h. b. workman, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques 6:392. g. m. trevelyan, England in the Age of Wycliffe (new ed. London 1909; repr. 1948) 183255. g. r. owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (2d ed. New York 1961), passim. a. b. steel, Richard II (Cambridge, Eng. 1941; repr. 1963) 5891. w. l. warren, "The Peasants' Revolt," History Today 12 (1962) 84553; 13 (1963) 4451.

[r. w. hays]

Ball, John

views updated Jun 08 2018

Ball, John (d. 1381). Contemporary chroniclers saw John Ball as the evil genius behind the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Very little is known about this man, who in a letter ascribed to him referred to himself as formerly a priest of St Mary's, York, and then of Colchester. A member of the ecclesiastical underworld, he had been formally prohibited from preaching in 1366. Early in 1381 his attacks on the established church order led to his excommunication and imprisonment at Maidstone in Kent, from where the rebels released him. He was soon linked by chroniclers with lollardy, but his preaching during the revolt, with its egalitarian message, was in a well-established tradition. After the rising, Ball was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Michael Prestwich

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