hated
friars.

Against this imputation the four Orders of friars (the Dominicans,
Franciscans, Augustinians, and Carmelites) issued a protest. Fortunately
in their spirited reply they give the reasons on account of which they
are supposed to have shared in the rising. These were principally
negative. Thus it was stated that their influence with the people was so
great that had they ventured to oppose the spirit of revolt their words
would have been listened to (_Fasciculi Zizaniorum_, p. 293). The
chronicler of St. Albans is equally convinced of their weakness in not
preventing it, and declares that the flattery which they used alike on
rich and poor had also no mean share in producing the social unrest
(_Chronicon Angliae_, p. 312). Langland also, in his "Vision of Piers
Plowman," goes out of his way to denounce them for their levelling
doctrines:

"Envy heard this and bade friars go to school,
And learn logic and law and eke contemplation,
And preach men of Plato and prove it by Seneca
That all things under Heaven ought to be in common,
And yet he lieth, as I live, and to the lewd so preacheth
For God made to men a law and Moses it taught--

_Non concupisces rem proximi tui_"
(Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods).

Here then it is distinctly asserted that the spread of communistic
doctrines was due to the friars. Moreover, the same popular opinion is
reflected in the fabricated confession of Jack Straw, for he is made to
declare that had the rebels been successful, all the monastic orders, as
well as the secular clergy, would have been put to death, and only the
friars would have been allowed to continue. Their numbers would have
sufficed for the spiritual needs of the whole kingdom (_Chronicon
Angliae_, p. 309). Moreover, it has been noticed that not a few of them
actually took part in the revolt, heading some of the bands of
countrymen who marched on London.

It will have been seen, therefore, that Communism was a favourite
rallying-cry throughout the Middle Ages for all those on whom the
oppression of the feudal yoke bore heavily. It was partly also a
religious ideal for some of the strange gnostic sects which flourished
at that era. Moreover, it was an efficient weapon when used as an
accusation, for Wycliff and the friars alike both dreaded its
imputation. Perhaps of all that period, John Ball alone held it
consistently and without shame. Eloquen