There was an usage in England, and yet is in divers
countries, that the noblemen hath great franchise over the commons and
keepeth them in servage, that is to say, their tenants ought by custom
to labour the lords' lands, to gather and bring home their corns, and
some to thresh and to fan, and by servage to make their hay and to hew
their wood and bring it home. All these things they ought to do by
servage, and there be more of these people in England than in any
other realm. Thus the noblemen and prelates are served by them, and
especially in the county of Kent, Essex, Sussex and Bedford. These
unhappy people of these said countries began to stir, because they
said they were kept in great servage, and in the beginning of the
world, they said, there were no bondmen, wherefore they maintained
that none ought to be bond, without he did treason to his lord, as
Lucifer did to God; but they said they could have no such battle,[1]
for they were neither angels nor spirits, but men formed to the
similitude of their lords, saying why should they then be kept so
under like beasts; the which they said they would no longer suffer,
for they would be all one, and if they laboured or did anything for
their lords, they would have wages therefor as well as other.
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