CHAPTER IV

THE VOICE OF JOHN BALL

SO now I heard John Ball; how he lifted up his voice and said:

"Ho, all ye good people! I am a priest of God, and in my day's work
it cometh that I should tell you what ye should do, and what ye should
forbear doing, and to that end I am come hither: yet first, if I
myself have wronged any man here, let him say wherein my wrongdoing
lieth, that I may ask his pardon and his pity."

A great hum of good-will ran through the crowd as he spoke; then he
smiled as in a kind of pride, and again he spoke:

"Wherefore did ye take me out of the archbishop's prison but three
days agone, when ye lighted the archbishop's house for the candle of
Canterbury, but that I might speak to you and pray you: therefore I
will not keep silence, whether I have done ill, or whether I have done
well. And herein, good fellows and my very brethren, I would have you
to follow me; and if there be such here, as I know full well there be
some, and may be a good many, who have been robbers of their
neighbours ('And who is my neighbour?' quoth the rich man), or
lechers, or despiteful haters, or talebearers, or fawners on rich men
for the hurt of the poor (and that is the worst of all)--Ah, my poor
brethren who have gone astray, I say not to you, go home and repent
lest you mar our great deeds, but rather come afield and there repent.
Many a day have ye been fools, but hearken unto me and I shall make
you wise above the wisdom of the earth; and if ye die in your wisdom,
as God wot ye well may, since the fields ye wend to bear swords for