John Ball (priest)

John Ball (* 1335, † 15 July 1381 in Coventry ) was an English priest of the teachings of John Wyclif used in his sermons advocating social equality of all people and called for the abolition of class barriers. His most famous saying was: " When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? "

Life and work

Ball came from York to Colchester and began to preach in the sense of Wycliffe. As then the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke a pulpit ban against him, he moved as an itinerant preacher through East Anglia. Then the archbishop excommunicated him and threatened Balls 1366 attendees, also with the excommunication. Multiple John Ball was arrested and released. He was freed from insurgent peasants from his penultimate captivity in 1381. A contemporary source reports that he led, together with the peasant leader Wat Tyler in June 1381 storm the Tower of London, where the Archbishop was murdered. However, the former chroniclers were biased due to their own social standing against ball and put him in principle extremely negative represents the peasant uprisings eventually failed, despite the storming of the Towers, as the insurgents were put off by King Richard II and scattered again. Ball was arrested in Coventry and in the presence of the king cruelly ( Drawing and quartering ) executed.

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