John Ball (clergyman, 1335)
John Ball (* 1335 - † July 15, 1381 in Coventry ) was an English priest who spread the teachings of John Wyclif in his sermons , advocated social equality for all people and called for the abolition of class boundaries . His most famous saying was in this sense: “ When Adam dug and Eve spun, who was the nobleman? "
Live and act
Ball came to Colchester from York and began preaching in the Wyclif style. When the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced a pulpit ban against him, he went as an itinerant preacher through East Anglia . Thereupon the archbishop excommunicated him and in 1366 also threatened Ball's audience with expulsion from the church. John Ball was arrested and released several times. From his penultimate imprisonment in 1381 he was freed by insurgent farmers . A contemporary source reports that he and the peasant leader Wat Tyler led the storming of the Tower of London in June 1381 , in which the archbishop was murdered. However, the chroniclers of the time were prejudiced against Ball because of their own social status and presented him in an extremely negative way. The peasant uprisings ultimately failed despite the storming of the Tower, as the rebels were held up by King Richard II and dispersed again. Ball was then arrested in Coventry and cruelly executed ( drawing and quartering ) in the presence of the king .
literature
- Cristine and Pierre Lauffray: The Great Dynasties of Europe. The Plantagenets. Éditions Rencontre, Lausanne 1969, p. 234 ff.
- Oliver Steinke : The betrayal of Mile End , Edition AV, Frankfurt 2003
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bernd Roeck: The morning of the world . 1st edition. CH Beck, 2017, p. 390 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ball, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English priest |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1335 |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 15, 1381 |
| Place of death | Coventry |