John Ball
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John Ball was a 14th century excommunicated preacher who propounded one of the earliest communist statements:
“”When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men. For if God would have had any bondmen from the beginning, he would have appointed who should be bond, and who free. And therefore 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.
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| —preached at Blackheath in 1381 during the "Peasant's Revolt". |
On 15 July in the same year he was "Hanged, drawn and quartered" in London after the king offered to meet him and other leaders of the revolt for negotiations. This was a trick, obviously, as they were killed and the reforms that followed were just enough to stave off social revolution.