Who was John Ball and what did he do?
(Show more) John Ball, (died July 15, 1381, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, Eng.), one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt in England. A sometime priest at York and at Colchester, Ball was excommunicated about 1366 for inflammatory sermons advocating a classless society, but he continued to preach in open marketplaces and elsewhere.
Who was John Ball in the Peasants’ Revolt?
John Ball. Written By: John Ball, (died July 15, 1381, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, Eng.), one of the leaders of the Peasants’ Revolt in England. A sometime priest at York and at Colchester, Ball was excommunicated about 1366 for inflammatory sermons advocating a classless society, but he continued to preach in open marketplaces and elsewhere.
What happened to John Ball’s blood?
As the leaders and participants of the 1381 revolt were rounded up Ball’s blood was swallowed by the rich soil of England to fertilise 1000 successors to his cause. If you would like to know more of John Ball and his radical politics follow the link below to watch Melvyn Bragg's excellent documentary about his life.
Who is John Ball in the book Katherine?
John Ball appears in the 1954 historical novel Katherine by Anya Seton . Ball made an appearance in the Newbery Medal -winning 2002 novel Crispin: The Cross of Lead. He was a priest, as he usually is, and was assisting a character by the name of Bear in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
Why was John Ball hanged?
English rebel. Ball was a Wycliffite priest who preached an egalitarian social message. He was excommunicated and imprisoned for heresy, but released in June 1381 during the Peasants' Revolt. He was later captured, tried, and hanged as a traitor.
Who was John Ball and what happened to him?
John Ball, (died July 15, 1381, St. Albans, Hertfordshire, Eng.), one of the leaders of the Peasants' Revolt in England. A sometime priest at York and at Colchester, Ball was excommunicated about 1366 for inflammatory sermons advocating a classless society, but he continued to preach in open marketplaces and elsewhere.
What was John Ball trying to say?
John Ball (c. 1338 – 15 July 1381) was an English priest whose egalitarian speeches rallied the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. I exhort you to consider that now the time is come, appointed to us by God, in which ye may (if ye will) cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty.
Where was John Ball imprisoned?
John Ball had continued his preaching against these taxes and was imprisoned at Maidstone in April 1381. Villagers in Essex and Kent refused to pay their Poll Tax and began to join together under the leadership of Wat Tyler, a former soldier.
When did Adam plowed and Eve span?
In Act V Scene 1 of Hamlet, Shakespeare has the Gravedigger (First Clown) discuss the line "When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?" with a bit of a reversed sense: in Adam's time there were none but gentlemen. First Clown: ... Come, my spade.
What did John Ball do?
John Ball was the inspiration for the Peasants' Revolt. His sympathy for the poorest in Society and his enthusiasm and ability to communicate allowed him, with the help of Wat Tyler, to create an underground movement referred to as 'The Great Society'. The aim was to create the Great Revolt.
What happened on 13th June 1381?
After he was denied a meeting with King Richard II, he led the rebels into London on June 13, 1381, burning and plundering the city. The next day, the 14-year-old king met with peasant leaders at Mile End and agreed to their demands to abolish serfdom and restrictions on the marketplace.
What did John Ball say about God?
At the beginning we were all created equal. If God willed that there should be serfs, he would have said so at the beginning of the world. We are formed in Christ's likeness, and they treat us like animals...
Who is John Ball in Crispin?
John AycliffeWidow DaventryLord FurnivalLady FurnivalGoodwife PeregrineFather QuinelCrispin: The Cross of Lead/Characters
Where was John Ball born?
Peldon, United KingdomJohn Ball / Place of birthPeldon is a village and civil parish in the Colchester borough of Essex, England. With Salcott, Virley, Great Wigborough and Little Wigborough, it forms part of the Winstred Hundred parish council. Nearby villages include Langenhoe. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and is a Grade I listed building. Wikipedia
Who gave the slogan When Adam delved and Eve span Who was then the gentleman?
John Ball's speech - 'When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? ' In 1381, a radical priest called John Ball travelled the length of the country, stirring up the peasant class in a revolt against their feudal landowners.
What did Wat Tyler want?
Wat Tyler (c. 1320/4 January 1341 – 15 June 1381) was a leader of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt in England. He led a group of rebels from Canterbury to London to oppose the institution of a poll tax and to demand economic and social reforms.
Who is John Ball Zoo named after?
John Ball died and in his will left 40 acres of land for public use to City of Grand Rapids. This gift led to the birth of a zoo, John Ball Zoo.
Who was the leader of the Peasants Revolt?
Wat TylerThe trigger for the revolt came in May 1381. A tax collector arrived in Fobbing, a village in Essex. The peasants refused to pay the poll tax and their opposition spread to surrounding villages in Essex and Kent. Peasants gathered together and started to march towards London, led by a man named Wat Tyler.
What happened on 13th June 1381?
After he was denied a meeting with King Richard II, he led the rebels into London on June 13, 1381, burning and plundering the city. The next day, the 14-year-old king met with peasant leaders at Mile End and agreed to their demands to abolish serfdom and restrictions on the marketplace.
Where was John Ball born?
Peldon, United KingdomJohn Ball / Place of birthPeldon is a village and civil parish in the Colchester borough of Essex, England. With Salcott, Virley, Great Wigborough and Little Wigborough, it forms part of the Winstred Hundred parish council. Nearby villages include Langenhoe. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and is a Grade I listed building. Wikipedia
Where was John Ball from?
It is possible that John Ball was the son of William and Joan Ball of Peldon near Colchester. It has been suggested that his name is first mentioned in the Colchester Court Rolls of 30 January 1352, when, on coming of age in 1350 he acknowledged the tenancy of a tenement between East and West Stockwell Street in the town. Whether this is the John Ball from the Peasants' Revolt is not clear and others see this among the "speculative attempts" at reconstructing Ball's early life. Ball trained as a priest in York and referred to himself, according to Thomas Walsingham, as " Seynte Marie priest of York". He later moved to Norwich and then back to Colchester. At that time, England was exhausted by death on a massive scale and crippling taxes. The Black Death was followed by years of war, which had to be paid for. The population was nearly halved by disease, and overworked, and onerous flat-rate poll taxes were imposed.
Who was John Ball associated with?
Although he is often associated with John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement, Ball was actively preaching 'articles contrary to the faith of the church' at least a decade before Wycliffe started attracting attention.
What did Ball put Piers into?
Ball put Piers and other characters from Langland's poem into his cryptically allegorical writings which may be prophecies, motivating messages, and/or coded instructions to his cohorts . This may have enhanced Langland's real or perceived radical and Lollard affinities as well as Ball's.
What is John Ball's story?
Ball appears as a character in the anonymous play The Life and Death of Jack Straw, published in London in 1593, which deals with the events of the Peasants' Revolt. William Morris wrote a short story called " A Dream of John Ball ", which was serialised in the Commonweal between November 1886 and February 1887.
Where was John Ball imprisoned?
The population was nearly halved by disease, and overworked, and onerous flat-rate poll taxes were imposed. Ball was imprisoned in Maidstone, Kent , at the time of the 1381 Revolt. What is recorded of his adult life comes from hostile sources emanating from the religious and political social order.
Who wrote the song "A Dream of John Ball"?
William Morris wrote a short story called " A Dream of John Ball ", which was serialised in the Commonweal between November 1886 and February 1887. It was published in book form in 1888. English songwriter Sydney Carter wrote an eponymously titled song about Ball that has been recorded by a number of artists.
Who is Ball in Vox Clamantis?
Morley translates this as: Ball was the preacher, the prophet and teacher, inspired by a spirit of hell, And every fool advanced in his school, to be taught as the devil thought well.
Who is John Ball?
In a stolen glimpse of medieval egalitarianism stands the figure of John Ball. A fourteenth century survivor of the Black Death, rural Essex son turned priest become revolutionary leader, Ball rouses us directly through his words… words which inspired the people who would later be defamed as the ‘rustics’ of the Peasants’ Revolt. .
Who published John Ball's book?
On this page you can also download a copy of a superb booklet on John Ball published in 1981 by Colchester local historian Brian Bird. Click on the PDF icon above to download a copy of Brian Bird's 1981 booklet 'A Colchester Rebel' - on the life of John Ball.
Where was John Ball released from prison?
Despite the claims in the chronicles that Ball was released from prison in Maidstone and was active at Blackheath, there is the possibility he was the same ‘John Ball’ sprung from prison in Bishop’s Stortford on 11 June and therefore not active around London and the south east at that time, as Andrew Prescott has outlined (Prescott 1984, 303–4).
What was John Ball's role in the rebellion?
John Ball (d. 1381) was a priest who is best remembered for having a central role in the English uprisings of the summer of 1381 popularly known today as the ‘Peasants’ Revolt.’ Ball’s preaching was an integral part of the rebels’ ideology—at least according to the main earliest sources—and in critical scholarship it is sometimes labelled ‘millenarian ,’ ‘apocalyptic ,’ or ‘eschatological ’ in the sense that he and his supporters envisaged imminent and dramatic social and political upheaval. While we inevitably have to speculate about some of the details, some of which are discussed below, a general outline of Ball’s teaching can be given. Ball was understood to have believed that the summer of 1381 was the appointed time for the rebels to enact the divine plan to bring about their liberty through the violent transformation of England with particular reference to the eschatological parable of the Wheat and Tares in Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43. For Ball, the problem that needed rectifying was that the ecclesiastical and political elites were maintaining their wealth through, and at the expense of, the peasants and lower orders. He taught that the majority of the elites needed to be removed or eliminated and a new (or revived) order put in its place, with Ball as the leader of the church in England. Ball was said to have looked to Adam and Eve to critique the invention of serfdom, justify the upheaval of the hierarchies of his time, and to point to an imminent future with fairer representation and redistribution of power and resources. He seems to have stressed the labour involved in the making of the bread of the Eucharist and tied it in with ideas about imminent liberation and freedom. This anticipated future was modelled on the earliest church, a time when all things would be held in common (Acts of the Apostles 2:44–45; 4:32–35). It is likely that Ball believed in expectations about an ideal Christian king who should or would bring peace, justice, and a chastened church to England. There is some evidence that Ball and the rebels of 1381 thought that the youthful Richard II fitted this role. These ideas are not as elaborate or extensive as other medieval apocalyptic or millenarian schema but, collectively, there is enough evidence to suggest that Ball should be seen as a popular figure who used inherited apocalyptic and millenarian ideas.
When was Ball's sermon delivered?
We can best see Ball as a theological voice of the uprisings in his most famous sermon which, it was claimed (correctly or not), was delivered at Blackheath on 12 June 1381 (Walsingham, Chronica maiora 546–47).
What did Ball believe about the ideal Christian king?
It is likely that Ball believed in expectations about an ideal Christian king who should or would bring peace, justice, and a chastened church to England. There is some evidence that Ball and the rebels of 1381 thought that the youthful Richard II fitted this role.
What was the name of the theological voice of discontent among the rebels in the summer of 1381?
Ball became famous as the theological voice of discontent among the rebels in the summer of 1381, particularly in the uprisings associated with south-east England. The rebels were not restricted to peasants and among their ranks were, for instance, local officials, artisans, urban dwellers, and escaped prisoners.
Why did Ball look to Adam and Eve?
Ball was said to have looked to Adam and Eve to critique the invention of serfdom, justify the upheaval of the hierarchies of his time, and to point to an imminent future with fairer representation and redistribution of power and resources.
Who was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the 1381 uprising?
Ball’s provocative preaching meant that he was regularly in trouble with church authorities, particularly Simon Sudbury who was the Archbishop of Canterbury by the time of the 1381 uprising. As early as October 1364, Sudbury (then Bishop of London) excommunicated Ball for his ongoing activities. In December 1376 further reference was made ...
How did Lucille Ball die?
How did Lucille Ball die? Ball died on April 27, 1989 of a ruptured abdominal aorta. She was 77 years old. According to Mental Floss, Ball experienced “shooting pains in her chest” while at home in Beverly Hills, California, on April 17, 1989.
Love, Lucy by Lucille Ball
For more about Lucille Ball, read her autobiography, Love, Lucy. The book—which was published after Ball’s death in 1989 and is her only autobiography—follows the comedienne’s career and life, from her childhood in Jamestown, New York, to her dreams on Broadway and her marriage with Desi Arnaz.
Overview
John Ball (c. 1338 – 15 July 1381) was an English priest who took a prominent part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Although he is often associated with John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement, Ball was actively preaching 'articles contrary to the faith of the church' at least a decade before Wycliffe started attracting attention.
Biography
It is possible that John Ball was the son of William and Joan Ball of Peldon near Colchester. He was born c. 1338 and it has been suggested that his name is first mentioned in the Colchester Court Rolls of 30 January 1352, when, on coming of age in 1350 he acknowledged the tenancy of a tenement between East and West Stockwell Street in the town. Whether this is the John Ball from …
John Ball in popular culture
Historian James Crossley has shown that Ball was largely portrayed negatively for four centuries after his death in theological works, plays, poems, and popular histories. After the 1790s, Ball became a hero for radicals, revolutionaries, socialists, and communists as well as becoming a more respected figure in English history and a recurring figure in novels.
See also
• John Ball Primary School, Blackheath
External links
• Works by or about John Ball at Wikisource
• Quotations related to John Ball (priest) at Wikiquote
• John Ball, English Legend – A website which collects resources about John Ball from the Peasants' Revolt to the present