mysticism which has no particular
plan of reform to propose, but is nevertheless thoroughly dissatisfied
with the world as it is. Lastly, a series of vague appeals to revolt,
written in the vernacular, partly in prose, partly in doggerel rhyme,
have been preserved and seem to testify to a deliberate propaganda of
lawlessness. Some of the general causes of this rising tide of
discontent are quite apparent. The efforts to enforce the statutes of
laborers, as has been said, kept continual friction between the
employing and the employed class. Parliament, which kept petitioning
for reenactments of these laws, the magistrates and special
commissioners who enforced them, and the landowners who appealed to
them for relief, were alike engaged in creating class antagonism and
multiplying individual grievances. Secondly, the very improvement in
the economic position of the lower classes, which was undoubtedly in
progress, made them doubly impatient of the many burdens which still
pressed upon them. Another cause for the prevalent unrest may have
lain in the character of much of the teaching of the time. Undisguised
communism was preached by a wandering priest, John Ball, and the
injustice of the claims of the property-holding classes was a very
natural inference from much of the teachings of Wycliffe and his "poor
priests." Again, the corruption of the court, the incapacity of the
ministers, and the failure of the war in France were all reasons for
popular anger, if the masses of the people can be supposed to have had
any knowledge of such distant matters.

[Illustration: Adam and Eve. From a Fourteenth Century Manuscript.
(Jusserand: _English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century_.
Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.)]

But the most definite and widespread cause of discontent was probably
the introduction of a new form of taxation, the general poll tax.
Until this time taxes had either been direct taxes laid upon land and
personal property, or indirect taxes laid upon various objects of
export and import. In 1377, however, Parliament agreed to the
imposition of a tax of four pence a head on all laymen, and
Convocation soon afterward taxed all the clergy, regular and secular,
the same amount. Notwithstanding this grant and increased taxes of the
old forms, the government still needed more money for the expenses of
the war with France, and in April, 1379, a graduated poll tax was laid
on all persons above sixteen years of age.