58 ENGLISH RURAL LIFE 



earliest times, would have had little difficulty in organ- 

 izing themselves for the purposes of this struggle. 



Nothing definite is known of their organi- 

 The thirty zation, though there are occasional refer- 

 struggie. ences in contemporary records to a 'Great 



Society/ Possibly the organization of the 

 craft gilds may have been utilized ; undoubtedly the 

 village artisans or craftsmen, such as the millers, tilers 

 and carters, most of whom would have been gildsmen, 

 took a leading part in the rising of 1381. In any case, 

 in those days it would be easy to find in a village 

 men with special capacity for organization. Such men 

 would come quickly to the front. It is, indeed, riot too 

 much to assume that, in the years that preceded the 

 revolt of 1 38 1, there was someone in most villages in 

 the South and East of England who corresponded to 

 the trade union secretary of the somewhat similar 

 movement which took place under Joseph Arch, five 

 centuries later. There were, at that time, plenty of 

 inspiring ideas outside the general struggle for better 

 conditions of life. The ideal of a free community 

 without riches or poverty, was at the back of John 

 Ball's preaching, and many songs and sayings passed 

 from mouth to mouth emphasizing the same point of 

 view. The English translation of the Bible perhaps 

 also gave new thoughts to the people illustrative of this 

 teaching. 



In the middle of this turmoil and disorder a 

 new blow was struck at the peasants. In the winter 

 of 1380-81 the government, who were in great want 

 of money, decided to levy a poll tax of a shilling a 

 head on the whole population over fifteen, beggars 

 only being excepted. This tax hit the village people 

 especially hard through its method of collection. 



