Page:John Wycliff, last of the schoolmen and first of the English reformers.djvu/363

 him one of the worst and most dangerous culprits. At Blackheath, the chronicler tells us, there were two hundred thousand of the people gathered together, and the excommunicated priest improvised a pulpit and preached to as many as could hear him on the standing text of communism in all ages—

For all, said he, were made equal by nature from the beginning. Servitude was brought in by the unjust oppression of wicked men, against the will of God. If God had pleased to create slaves, he could have settled from the very beginning of the world who was to be a slave and who a master. Now let them remember that at last an opportunity had been given them by God to throw off the yoke of daily servitude. The time had come for them to enjoy, if they would make up their minds, the liberty for which they had craved so long. "Be stout of heart," he said, "and, with the zeal of a good husbandman who tills his farm, rooting up and cutting down the noxious weeds which choke the crops, set to work now and do the same thing yourselves. First of all, you must kill off the great lords of England; then the lawyers, the justiciaries, and jurators must be put an end to; and last of all, cast out of your land all whom you think likely to hurt the Commons hereafter. In this way you will be able to obtain peace