Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/357

 way, "Jack Straw would have been John of Gold had this treason taken effect." John Ball, Jack Straw, Wat Tyler, William Grindecobbe, would have been heroes every one, and the consolidation of English society would undoubtedly have been hastened by many years. The treason of the serfs was practically summed up in their demand for the abolition of serfdom. The boon was guaranteed at Mile End, Smithfield, and the Tower, only to be cancelled (so far as that was possible) when authority got the upper hand again.

Historians have almost ceased to talk about "the rebellion of Wat Tyler." The term is quite inadequate as a descriptive title, and it was only the accidental meeting of this man with the King and his retinue in Smithfield which gave his name such undue prominence. There were, in fact, two or more Tylers amongst the leaders of the peasants, and the Tyler of Dartford who avenged his daughter on the collector of poll-tax was not the same man as Wat Tyler, or Walter Helyer (either name would be an easy corruption from the other) whom Walworth slew. The last mentioned seems to have been an Essex man, who came to Blackheath by way of Kent, who acknowledged Ball for his leader, and whose best known companions were John Straw, John Kyrkeby, Alan Threder, Thomas Scot, and Ralph Rugge.

It would be nearer to the truth if we were to speak of "the rebellion of John Ball." Harpsfield saw fit to call Wyclif the whetstone of revolt (cos hujus seditionis). That is a title to which Wyclif can lay but