we
shut out.

"We can no longer bear so much, so great, and so cruel injury; neither can
we with quiet minds behold so great covetousness, excess, and pride of the
nobility. We will rather take arms, and mix Heaven and earth together, than
endure so great cruelty.

"Nature hath provided for us, as well as for them; hath given us a body and
a soul, and hath not envied us other things. While we have the same form,
and the same condition of birth together with them, why should they have a
life so unlike unto ours, and differ so far from us in calling?

"We see that things have now come to extremities, and we will prove the
extremity. We will rend down hedges, fill up ditches, and make a way for
every man into the common pasture. Finally, we will lay all even with the
ground, which they, no less wickedly than cruelly and covetously, have
enclosed.

"We desire liberty and an indifferent (or equal) use of all things. This
will we have. Otherwise these tumults and our lives shall only be ended
together."

But though the method was revolution and the goal social democracy, Ket was
no anarchist. He proved himself a strong, capable leader, able to enforce
discipline and maintain law and order in the rebel camp. And with all his
passionate hatred against the rule of the landlord, Ket would allow neither
massacre nor murder. There is no evidence that the life of a single
landowner was taken while the rising lasted, though many were brought
captive to Ket's judgment seat.

Ket was equally averse from civil war between the citizens of Norwich and
the peasants. When the Mayor of Norwich, Thomas Cod, refused to allow Ket's
army to cross the city on its way to Mousehold Heath, where the permanent
camp was to be made, Ket simply led his forces round by Hailsdon and
Drayton, and so reached Mousehold on July 12th without bloodshed. A week
later, and 20,000 was the number enrolled under the banner of revolt--for
the publication of "The Rebels' Complaint" and the ringing of bells and
firing of beacons roused all the countryside to action.

On Mousehold Heath, Robert Ket, with his brother William, gave directions
and administered justice under a great tree, called the Oak of Reformation.
Mayor Cod, and two other respected Norwich citizens, Aldrich, an alderman,
and Watson, a preacher, joined Ket's council, thinking their influence
might restrain the rebels from worse doings.

Twenty-nine "Requests and Demands," signed by Ket, Cod, an