the wings of the king. The people had determined to kill the archbishop and the others above mentioned with him; for this reason they came to this place, and afterwards they fulfilled their vows. The king, however, desired to free the archbishop and his friends from the jaws of the wolves, so he sent to the people a command to assemble outside the city, at a place called Mile End, in order to speak with the king and to treat with him concerning their designs. The soldiers who were to go forward, consumed with folly, lost heart, and gave up, on the way, their boldness of purpose. Nor did they dare to advance, but, unfortunately, struck as they were by fear, like women, kept themselves within the Tower.

...

at Mile End

But the king advanced to the assigned place, while many of Conference the wicked mob kept following him. . . . More, however, remained where they were. When the others had come to the king they complained that they had been seriously oppressed by many hardships and that their condition of servitude was unbearable, and that they neither could nor would endure it longer. The king, for the sake of peace, and on account of the violence of the times, yielding to their petition, granted to them a charter with the great seal, to the effect that all men in the kingdom of England should be free and of free condition, and should remain both for themselves and their heirs free from all kinds of servitude and villeinage forever. This charter was rejected and decided to be null and void by the king and the great men of the kingdom in the parliament held at Westminster in the same year, after the feast of St. Michael.

archbishop

While these things were going on, behold those degenerate Execution sons, who still remained, summoned their father the archbishop of the with his above-mentioned friends without any force or attack, without sword or arrow, or any other form of compulsion, but only with force of threats and excited outcries, inviting those men to death. But they did not cry out against it for themselves, nor resist, but, as sheep before the shearers, going forth barefooted with uncovered heads, ungirt, they offered themselves freely to an undeserved death, just as if they had deserved this punishment for some murder or theft. And so, alas! before the king returned, seven were killed at Tower Hill, two of them

Conference at
Smithfield

lights of the kingdom, the worthy with the unworthy. John Leg and his three associates were the cause of this irreparable loss. Their heads were fastened on spears and sticks in order that they might be told from the rest.

Whatever representatives of the law they found or whatever men served the kingdom in a judicial capacity, these they slew without delay.

On the following day, which was Saturday, they gathered in Smithfield, where there came to them in the morning the king, who although only a youth in years yet was in wisdom already well versed. Their leader, whose real name was Wat Tyler, approached him; already they were calling him by the other name of Jack Straw. He kept close to the king, addressing him for the rest. He carried in his hand an unsheathed weapon which they call a dagger, and, as if in childish play, kept tossing it from one hand to the other in order that he might seize the opportunity, if the king should refuse his requests, to strike the king suddenly (as was commonly believed); and from this thing the greatest fear arose among those about the king as to what might be the outcome.

They begged from the king that all the warrens, and as well waters as park and wood, should be common to all, so that a poor man as well as a rich should be able freely to hunt animals everywhere in the kingdom, in the streams, in the fish ponds, in the woods, and in the forest; and that he might be free to chase the hare in the fields, and that he might do these things and others like them without objection. When the king hesitated about granting this concession Jack Straw came nearer, and, speaking threatening words, seized with his hand the bridle of the horse of the king very daringly. When John de Walworth, a citizen of London, saw this, thinking that death threatened the king, he seized a sword and pierced Jack Straw in the neck. Seeing this, another soldier, by name Radulf Standyche, pierced his side with another sword. He sank back, slowly letting go with his hands and feet, and then died. A great cry and much mourning arose: "Our leader is slain." When this dead man had been meanly dragged along by the hands and feet into the church of St. Bartholomew, which was near

by, many withdrew from the band, and, vanishing, betook themselves to flight, to the number it is believed of ten thousand. . . . After these things had happened and quiet had been restored, Executions the time came when the king caused the offenders to be punished. So Lord Robert Tresillian, one of the judges, was sent by order of the king to inquire into the uprisings against the peace and to punish the guilty. Wherever he came he spared no one, but caused great slaughter. And just as those evil doers plotted in hostile manner against the judges, Lord John de Candishe and any others they could find, by bringing them to capital punishment, and against all those skilled in the laws of the country whom they could reach, and not sparing any one of them, but punishing them by capital punishment, just so this judge spared no one, but demanded misfortune for misfortune. For whoever was accused before him in this said cause, whether justly or as a matter of spite, he immediately passed upon him the sentence of death. He ordered some to be beheaded, others to be hanged, still others to be dragged through the city and hanged in four different parts thereof; others to be disemboweled, and the entrails to be burned before them while they were still alive, and afterwards to be decapitated, quartered, and hanged in four parts of the city according to the greatness of the crime and its desert. John Ball was captured at Coventry and led to St. Alban's, where, by order of the king, he was drawn and hanged, then quartered, and his quarters sent to four different places.

The following is one of a large number of records that remain of the trial, conviction, and execution of men connected with the rising.

Pleas of the crown at Mildenhall in the presence of William 152. A trial de Ufford, earl of Suffolk, Roger Scales, Thomas de Morieux, before the king's William de Elmham, John de Bourgh, and William de Wynge- judges field, on the Thursday following the feast of St. John the Baptist, in the fifth year of the reign of King Richard the Second. John Potter of Somerton, fuller, has been accused in the presence of the above-mentioned justices by John de Pole,

formerly chamberlain of Lord John de Cavendish, recently chief justice of the lord king, of being the Friday next after the feast of Corpus Christi in the fourth year of our lord king at Lakyngheth, and there, with great power and in warlike manner, rising against the lord king and the dignity of the crown. And there on the above-mentioned day and year the said John Potter wickedly and treacherously in person abetted and helped others, betrayers and enemies of the lord king, to kill the said John of Cavendish. Because of this the said John Potter has been taken prisoner, and, having been led into the presence of the said justices by the sheriff, and asked how he wishes to acquit himself of the said felony and treachery, he claims that he is in no way to blame for it, and for good or evil places himself upon his country. [Thereupon a jury is sworn.] And the jurors who have been elected and sworn with the consent of this same John Potter say on their oath that the said John Potter of Somerton, fuller, is guilty of the felony and treachery with which he stands charged. And for this reason it has been decided that the said John Potter be decapitated, and that his head be fastened to the pillory, and that inquiry be made about his lands and chattels. [Thereupon he is hanged.]

VI. WYCLIFFE AND THE LOLLARDS

The same chronicler from whom has been quoted the narrative of the Peasants' Rebellion, Henry Knighton, a monk of Leicester, gives the following account of Wyc. liffe. It is evident that he admires Wycliffe for his ability, but considers him what in later times would be called a sensational preacher, wrong in his beliefs and unwise in his methods of teaching. It is also evident that the writer believed it best that the people should not be encouraged to read the Bible in their own language, but should have it interpreted to them by the clergy.

At this time flourished Master John Wycliffe, rector of the church of Lutterworth in the county of Leicester, the most

eminent doctor of theology of those days. In philosophy he was 153. An acsecond to none, in scholastic learning incomparable. This man count of Wycliffe by strove especially to eclipse the thoughts of others by the depth a contemof his knowledge and the subtlety of his reasoning, and to differ porary from them in opinion. He is reported to have introduced into churchman the church many opinions which were condemned by the learned men of the universal church. These will, in part, be described in the proper place. He had as a forerunner John Ball, just as Christ had John Baptist, who prepared his way before him in such opinions and disturbed many by his teachings, at least so it is said. I have made mention of him before. This Master John Wycliffe translated from the Latin into the tongue of the Angles (though not of the angels) the gospel which Christ intrusted to the clergy and learned men of the church in order that they might gently minister it to the laity and to the weak according to the exigency of the times and the need and mental hunger of each one. Thus to the laity and even to such women as can read this was made more open than formerly it had been even to such of the clergy as were well educated and of great understanding. Thus the evangelical pearls have been scattered abroad and trampled by the swine, and that which used to be dear to clergy and laity is now a common jest in the mouth of both. The gem of the clergy has become the toy of the laity.

From the great mass of Wycliffe's writings which still exist, some of them in English, some in Latin, the following small fragment may be given in his own words and spelling. It is part of a short sermon or tract directed against the possession of property by clergymen, one of his favorite subjects. He thought that all clergymen should be poor men, living simply on the freewill offerings of the people.

As to the possessiouns and dowyng of clerkis, bileeve shulde 154. A serteche us that it doith hem harm to kepe Cristis religioun, and mon by Wycliffe harm to lewid men; for Crist seith that noo man may be his discipul but yif he renunce alle siche thingis. And hou he shulde renunce, Cristis liif techith, and lif of hise apostlis that com in