required, the commons, in great discontent, demanded
alterations in the council, and after long debate
reluctantly consented to the imposition of a new and unusual
tax of three groats[67] on every person, male and female,
above fifteen years of age. For the relief of the poor it
was provided that in the cities and towns the aggregate
amount should be divided among the inhabitants according to
their abilities, so that no individual should pay less than
one groat, or more than sixty groats for himself and his
wife. Parliament thereupon was dismissed; but the collection
of the tax gave rise to an insurrection which threatened the
life of the King and the existence of the government.
At this period [1381] a secret ferment seems to have pervaded the mass
of the people in many nations of Europe. Men were no longer willing to
submit to the impositions of their rulers, or to wear the chains which
had been thrown round the necks of their fathers by a warlike and
haughty aristocracy. We may trace this awakening spirit of independence
to a variety of causes, operating in the same direction; to the
progressive improvement of society, the gradual diffusion of knowledge,
the increasing pressure of taxation, and above all to the numerous and
lasting wars by which Europe had lately been convulsed. Necessity had
often compelled both the sovereigns and nobles to court the good-will of
the people; the burghers in the towns and inferior tenants in the
country had learned, from the repeated demands made upon them, to form
notions of their own importance; and the archers and foot-soldiers, who
had served for years in the wars, were, at their return home, unwilling
to sit down in the humble station of bondmen to their former lords. In
Flanders the commons had risen against their Count Louis, and had driven
him out of his dominions; in France the populace had taken possession of
Paris and Rouen, and massacred the collectors of the revenue. In England
a spirit of discontent agitated the whole body of the villeins, who
remained in almost the same situation in which we left them at the
Norman Conquest. They were still attached to the soil, talliable at the
will of the lord, and bound to pay the fines for the marriage of their
females, to perform customary labor, and to render the other servile
prestations incident to their condition. It is true that in the course
of time many had obtained the rights of freemen. Occasionally the king
or the lord would liberate at once all the bondmen on some particular
domain, in return for a fixed rent to be yearly assessed on the
inhabitants.
But the progress of emancipation was slow; the improved condition of
their former fellows served only to embitter the discontent of those who
still wore the fetters of servitude; and in many places the villeins
formed associations for their mutual support, and availed themselves of
every expedient in their power to free themselves from the control of
their lords. In the first year of Richard's reign a complaint was laid
before parliament that in many districts they had purchased
exemplifications out of the _Domesday Book_ in the king's court, and
under a false interpretation of that record had pretended to be
discharged of all manner of servitude both as to their bodies and their
tenures, and would not suffer the officers of their lords either to levy
distress or to do justice upon them. It was in vain that such
exemplifications were declared of no force, and that commissions were
ordered for the punishment of the rebellious. The villeins, by their
union and perseverance, contrived to intimidate their lords, and set at
defiance the severity of the law. To this resistance they were
encouraged by the diffusion of the doctrines so recently taught by
Wycliffe, that the right of property was founded in grace, and that no
man, who was by sin a traitor to God, could be entitled to the services
of others; at the same time itinerant preachers sedulously inculcated
the natural equality of mankind, and the tyranny of artificial
distinctions; and the poorer classes, still smarting under the exactions
of the late reign, were by the impositions of the new tax wound up to a
pitch of madness. Thus the materials had been prepared; it required but
a spark to set the whole country in a blaze.
It was soon discovered that the receipts of the treasury would fall
short of the expected amount; and commissions were issued to different
persons to inquire into the conduct of the collectors, and to compel
payment from those who had been favored or overlooked. One of these
commissioners, Thomas de Bampton, sat at Brentwood in Essex; but the men
of Fobbings refused to answer before him; and when the chief justice of
the common pleas attempted to punish their contumacy, they compelled him
to flee, murdered the jurors and clerks of the commission, and, carrying
their heads upon poles, claimed the support of the nearest townships. In
a few days all the commons of Essex were in a state of insurrection,
under the command of a profligate priest, who had assumed the name of
Jack Straw.
The men of Kent were not long behind their neighbors in Essex. At
Dartford one of the collectors had demanded the tax for a young girl,
the daughter of a tyler. Her mother maintained that she was under the
age required by the statute; and the officer was proceeding to ascertain
the fact by an indecent exposure of her person, when her father, who had
just returned from work, with a stroke of his hammer beat out the
offender's brains. His courage was applauded by his neighbors. They
swore that they would protect him from punishment, and by threats and
promises secured the coöperation of all the villages in the western
division of Kent.
A third party of insurgents was formed by the men of Gravesend,
irritated at the conduct of Sir Simon Burley. He had claimed one of the
burghers as his bondman, refused to grant him his freedom at a less
price than three hundred pounds, and sent him a prisoner to the castle
of Rochester. With the aid of a body of insurgents from Essex, the
castle was taken and the captive liberated. At Maidstone they appointed
Wat the tyler, of that town, leader of the commons of Kent, and took
with them an itinerant preacher of the name of John Ball, who for his
seditious and heterodox harangues had been confined by order of the
archbishop. The mayor and aldermen of Canterbury were compelled to swear
fidelity to the good cause; several of the citizens were slain; and five
hundred joined them in their intended march toward London. When they
reached Blackheath their numbers are said to have amounted to one
hundred thousand men. To this lawless and tumultuous multitude Ball was
appointed preacher, and assumed for the text of his first sermon the
following lines:
"When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?"
He told them that by nature all men were born equal; that the
distinction of bondage and freedom was the invention of their
oppressors, and contrary to the views of their Creator; that God now
offered them the means of recovering their liberty, and that, if they
continued slaves, the blame must rest with themselves; that it was
necessary to dispose of the archbishop, the earls and barons, the
judges, lawyers, and questmongers; and that when the distinction of
ranks was abolished, all would be free, because all would be of the same
nobility and of equal authority. His discourse was received with shouts
of applause by his infatuated hearers, who promised to make him, in
defiance of his own doctrines, archbishop of Canterbury and chancellor
of the realm.
By letters and messengers the knowledge of these proceedings was
carefully propagated through the neighboring counties. Everywhere the
people had been prepared; and in a few days the flame spread from the
southern coast of Kent to the right bank of the Humber. In all places
the insurgents regularly pursued the same course. They pillaged the
manors of their lords, demolished the houses, and burned the court
rolls; cut off the heads of every justice and lawyer and juror who fell
into their hands; and swore all others to be true to King Richard and
the commons; to admit of no king of the name of John; and to oppose all
taxes but fifteenths, the ancient tallage paid by their fathers. The
members of the council saw, with astonishment, the sudden rise and rapid
spread of the insurrection; and, bewildered by their fears and
ignorance, knew not whom to trust or what measures to pursue.
The first who encountered the rabble on Blackheath was the Princess of
Wales, the King's mother, on her return from a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
She liberated herself from danger by her own address; and a few kisses
from "the fair maid of Kent" purchased the protection of the leaders,
and secured the respect of their followers. She was permitted to join
her son, who, with his cousin Henry, Earl of Derby, Simon, Archbishop of
Canterbury and Chancellor, Sir Robert Hales, master of the Knights of
St. John and treasurer, and about one hundred sergeants and knights had
left the castle of Windsor, and repaired for greater security to the
Tower of London. The next morning the King in his barge descended the
river to receive the petitions of the insurgents. To the number of ten
thousand, with two banners of St. George, and sixty pennons, they waited
his arrival at Rotherhithe; but their horrid yells and uncouth
appearance so intimidated his attendants, that instead of permitting him
to land, they took advantage of the tide, and returned with
precipitation. Tyler and Straw, irritated by this disappointment, led
their men into Southwark, where they demolished the houses belonging to
the Marshalsea and the king's bench, while another party forced their
way into the palace of the Archbishop at Lambeth, and burned the
furniture with the records belonging to the chancery.
The next morning they were allowed to pass in small companies, according
to their different townships, over the bridge into the city. The
populace joined them; and as soon as they had regaled themselves at the
cost of the richer inhabitants, the work of devastation commenced. They
demolished Newgate, and liberated the prisoners; plundered and destroyed
the magnificent palace of the Savoy, belonging to the Duke of Lancaster;
burned the temple with the books and records; and despatched a party to
set fire to the house of the Knights Hospitallers at Clerkenwell,
which had been lately built by Sir Robert Hales. To prove, however, that
they had no views of private emolument, a proclamation was issued
forbidding any one to secrete part of the plunder; and so severely was
the prohibition enforced that the plate was hammered and cut into small
pieces, the precious stones were beaten to powder, and one of the
rioters, who had concealed a silver cup in his bosom, was immediately
thrown, with his prize, into the river. To every man whom they met they
put the question, "With whom holdest thou?" and unless he gave the
proper answer, "With King Richard and the commons," he was instantly
beheaded. But the principal objects of their cruelty were the natives of
Flanders. They dragged thirteen Flemings out of one church, seventeen
out of another, and thirty-two out of the Vintry, and struck off their
heads with shouts of triumph and exultation. In the evening, wearied
with the labor of the day, they dispersed through the streets, and
indulged in every kind of debauchery.
During this night of suspense and terror, the Princess of Wales held a
council with the ministers in the Tower. The King's uncles were absent;
the garrison, though perhaps able to defend the place, was too weak to
put down the insurgents; and a resolution was taken to try the influence
of promises and concession. In the morning the Tower Hill was seen
covered with an immense multitude, who prohibited the introduction of
provisions, and with loud cries demanded the heads of the chancellor and
treasurer. In return, a herald ordered them, by proclamation, to retire
to Mile End, where the King would assent to all their demands.
Immediately the gates were thrown open. Richard with a few unarmed
attendants rode forward; the best intentioned of the crowd followed him,
and at Mile End he saw himself surrounded with sixty thousand
petitioners. Their demands were reduced to four: the abolition of
slavery; the reduction of the rent of land to fourpence the acre; the
free liberty of buying and selling in all fairs and markets; and a
general pardon for past offences. A charter to that effect was engrossed
for each parish and township; during the night thirty clerks were
employed in transcribing a sufficient number of copies; they were sealed
and delivered in the morning; and the whole body, consisting chiefly of
the men of Essex and Hertfordshire, retired, bearing the King's banner
as a token that they were under his protection.
But Tyler and Straw had formed other and more ambitious designs. The
moment the King was gone, they rushed, at the head of four hundred men,
into the Tower. The Archbishop, who had just celebrated mass, Sir Robert
Hales, William Apuldore, the King's confessor, Legge, the farmer of the
tax, and three of his associates, were seized, and led to immediate
execution.[68] As no opposition was offered, they searched every part of
the Tower, burst into the private apartment of the Princess, and probed
her bed with their swords. She fainted, and was carried by her ladies to
the river, which she crossed in a covered barge. The royal wardrobe, a
house in Carter Lane, was selected for her residence.
The King joined his mother at the wardrobe; and the next morning, as he
rode through Smithfield with sixty horsemen, encountered Tyler at the
head of twenty thousand insurgents. Three different charters had been
sent to that demagogue, who contemptuously refused them all. As soon as
he saw Richard, he made a sign to his followers to halt, and boldly rode
up to the King. A conversation immediately began. Tyler, as he talked,
affected to play with his dagger; at last he laid his hand on the bridle
of his sovereign; but at the instant Walworth, the Lord Mayor, jealous
of his design, plunged a short sword into his throat. He spurred his
horse, rode about a dozen yards, fell to the ground, and was despatched
by Robert Standish, one of the King's esquires. The insurgents, who
witnessed the transaction, drew their bows to revenge the fall of their
leader, and Richard would inevitably have lost his life had he not been
saved by his own intrepidity. Galloping up to the archers he exclaimed:
"What are ye doing, my lieges? Tyler was a traitor. Come with me, and I
will be your leader." Wavering and disconcerted, they followed him into
the fields of Islington, whither a force of one thousand men-at-arms,
which had been collected by the Lord Mayor and Sir Robert Knowles,
hastened to protect the young King; and the insurgents, falling on their
knees, begged for mercy. Many of the royalists demanded permission to
punish them for their past excesses; but Richard firmly refused, ordered
the suppliants to return to their homes, and by proclamation forbade,
under pain of death, any stranger to pass the night in the city.
On the southern coast the excesses of the insurgents reached as far as
Winchester; on the eastern, to Beverley and Scarborough; and, if we
reflect that in every place they rose about the same time, and uniformly
pursued the same system, we may discover reason to suspect that they
acted under the direction of some acknowledged though invisible leader.
The nobility and gentry, intimidated by the hostility of their tenants,
and distressed by contradictory reports, sought security within the
fortifications of their castles. The only man who behaved with
promptitude and resolution was Henry Spenser, the young and warlike
Bishop of Norwich. In the counties of Norfolk, Cambridge, and Huntington
tranquillity was restored and preserved by this singular prelate, who
successively exercised the offices of general, judge, and priest. In
complete armor he always led his followers to the attack; after the
battle he sat in judgment on his prisoners; and before execution he
administered to them the aids of religion. But as soon as the death of
Tyler and the dispersion of the men of Kent and Essex were known,
thousands became eager to display their loyalty; and knights and
esquires from every quarter poured into London to offer their services
to the King. At the head of forty thousand horse he published
proclamations, revoking the charters of manumission which he had
granted, commanding the villeins to perform their usual services, and
prohibiting illegal assemblies and associations. In several parts the
commons threatened to renew the horrors of the late tumult in defence of
their liberties; but the approach of the royal army dismayed the
disaffected in Kent; the loss of five hundred men induced the insurgents
of Essex to sue for pardon; and numerous executions in different
counties effectually crushed the spirit of resistance. Among the
sufferers were Lister and Westbroom, who had assumed the title and
authority of kings in Norfolk and Suffolk; and Straw and Ball, the
itinerant preachers, who have been already mentioned, and whose sermons
were supposed to have kindled and nourished the insurrection.[69]
When the parliament met, the two houses were informed by the Chancellor,
that the King had revoked the charters of emancipation, which he had
been compelled to grant to the villeins, but at the same time wished to
submit to their consideration whether it might not be wise to abolish
the state of bondage altogether. The minds of the great proprietors were
not, however, prepared for the adoption of so liberal a measure; and
both lords and commons unanimously replied that no man could deprive
them of the services of their villeins without their consent; that they
had never given that consent, and never would be induced to give it,
either through persuasion or violence. The King yielded to their
obstinacy; and the charters were repealed by authority of parliament.
The commons next deliberated, and presented their petitions. They
attributed the insurrection to the grievances suffered by the people
from: 1. The purveyors, who were said to have exceeded all their
predecessors in insolence and extortion; 2. From the rapacity of the
royal officers in the chancery and exchequer, and the courts of king's
bench and common pleas; 3. From the banditti, called maintainers, who,
in different counties, supported themselves by plunder, and, arming in
defence of each other, set at defiance all the provisions of the law;
and 4. From the repeated aids and taxes, which had impoverished the
people and proved of no service to the nation. To silence these
complaints, a commission of inquiry was appointed; the courts of law
and the King's household were subjected to regulations of reform, and
severe orders were published for the immediate suppression of illegal
associations. But the demand of a supply produced a very interesting
altercation. The commons refused, on the ground that the imposition of a
new tax would goad the people to a second insurrection. They found it,
however, necessary to request of the King a general pardon for all
illegal acts committed in the suppression of the insurgents, and
received for answer that it was customary for the commons to make their
grants before the King bestowed his favors. When the subsidy was again
pressed on their attention they replied that they should take time to
consider it, but were told that the King would also take time to
consider of their petition. At last they yielded; the tax upon wool,
wool-fells, and leather was continued for five years, and in return a
general pardon was granted for all loyal subjects, who had acted
illegally in opposing the rebels, and for the great body of the
insurgents, who had been misled by the declamations of the demagogues.
WYCLIFFE TRANSLATES THE BIBLE INTO
ENGLISH
A.D. 1382
J. PATERSON SMYTH
It may safely be said that no greater service has been
rendered at once to religion and to literature than the
translation of the Bible into the English tongue. This
achievement did not indeed, like that of Luther's German
translation, come as it were by a single stroke. Luther's
Bible caused him to be regarded as the founder of the
present literary language of Germany--New High German--which
his translation permanently established. The English Bible,
on the other hand, was the growth of centuries. But to the
contributions of able hands through many generations, during
which the English language itself passed through a wonderful
formative development, the incomparable beauty of King
James' version owes its existence, and our literature its
greatest ornaments.
It is impossible to say when the first translation of any
part of the Bible into English was made. No English Bible of
earlier date than the fourteenth century has ever been
found. But translations, even of the whole Bible, older than
Wcyliffe's are, by at least two eminent witnesses, said to
have existed. "As for olde translacions, before Wycliffe's
time," says Sir Thomas More, "they remain lawful and be in
some folkes handes." "The hole byble," he declares
(_Dyalogues_, p. 138, ed. 1530), "was long before Wycliffe's
days, by vertuous and well learned men, translated into the
English tong." And Cranmer, in his prologue to the second
edition of the "Great Bible," bears testimony equally
explicit to the translation of Scripture "in the Saxons
tongue." And when that language "waxed olde and out of
common usage," he says, the Bible "was again translated into
the newer language." There has never been any means of
testing these statements, which were probably due to some
inexplicable error. Abundant evidence exists relating to
many Saxon and later translations of various parts of the
Bible before the time of Wycliffe. Among the most notable of
the early translators were the Venerable Bede and Alfred the
Great. Some portions of Scripture were likewise translated
into Anglo-Norman in the thirteenth century. Some of the
early fragments are still preserved in English libraries.
Three versions of the Psalter in English, from the early
years of the fourteenth century, still exist, one of which
was by Richard Rolle, the Yorkshire hermit, who also
translated the New Testament.
But so far as known, the first complete Bible in English was
the work of John Wycliffe, assisted by Nicholas de
Hereford--whom some would name first in this partnership,
though the product of their joint labors is known as
"Wycliffe's Bible."
John Wycliffe, the "Morning Star of the Reformation," was
born near Richmond, Yorkshire, about 1324. He became a
fellow, and later master of Balliol College, Oxford,
afterward held several rectorships--the last being that of
Lutterworth, upon which he entered in 1374. For opposing the
papacy and certain church doctrines and practices, he was
condemned by the university, and his followers--known as
Lollards--were persecuted. Something of his life in
connection with these matters is fitly dealt with by Smyth
in connection with his account of the famous translation.
After the early Anglo-Saxon versions comes a long pause in the history
of Bible translation. Amid the disturbance resulting from the Danish
invasion there was little time for thinking of translations and
manuscripts; and before the land had fully regained its quiet the fatal
battle of Hastings had been fought, and England lay helpless at the
Normans' feet. The higher Saxon clergy were replaced by the priests of
Normandy, who had little sympathy with the people over whom they came,
and the Saxon manuscripts were contemptuously flung aside as relics of a
rude barbarism. The contempt shown to the language of the defeated race
quite destroyed the impulse to English translation, and the Norman
clergy had no sympathy with the desire for spreading the knowledge of
the Scriptures among the people, so that for centuries those Scriptures
remained in England a "spring shut up, a fountain sealed."