18 THE GREEN RISING 



was a priest who attacked agrarian problems follow- 

 ing the great pestilences which spread over England 

 during the fourteenth century. One is reminded of 

 Isaiah's protest in the often quoted sentence of Ball : 

 "They (the landlords) have pleasure and fine houses; 

 we (the peasant farmers) have pain and labor, the 

 wind and rain in the fields; and yet it is of us and 

 our toil that these men hold their state." 



William Langland's poetic writings reflect great 

 sympathy with the peasant classes. Langland, un- 

 like John Ball, proffers much advice to members of 

 the various classes of society to whom he directs his 

 poems. For example, he addresses "laborers, land- 

 less, that live by their hands" as follows: 



"I warn you, ye workmen, to win while you may; 

 For hunger now hitherward hastens full fast." 



He is equally appealing in his admonition to 

 the landlords to be just to their tenants, in the 

 following: 



"O'ertax thou no tenant, save truth will assent! 

 And though thou amerce them, let mercy be taxer !" 



The agrarian protest, however, has not always 

 been restricted to a single individual or a few socially 

 minded persons. Social injustice has at times been 

 so greatly felt and so prolonged as to produce wide- 

 spread uprisings that have resulted in important 

 social reforms and brought about important eco- 

 nomic and political changes. 



