Winstanley: a film that digs deep into 17th-century religious activism

[rug]

This black and white biopic of Diggers founder Gerrard Winstanley's truly level take on these socialist ancestors sometimes sacrifices authenticity for entertainment

Winstanley
Production year: 1975
Country: UK
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 95 mins
Directors: Andrew Mollo, Kevin Brownlow
Cast: David Bramley, Jerome Willis, Miles Halliwell

Alex von Tunzelmann
theguardian.com, Thursday 12 December 2013 08.04 EST

Gerrard Winstanley began True Levellers, a Christian group devoted to egalitarian and communal living that formed in the wake of the English civil war. They became known as the Diggers, and are often considered precursors of socialists or communists.

- snip -

Common ownership

In April 1649, the Diggers toil on common land at St George's Hill, in Weybridge, Surrey. The scowling local Presbyterian parson John Platt (David Bramley) disapproves. His wife (Alison Halliwell) has had quite enough of Platt's moaning and, what's more, he slurps his soup. So she stomps off up the hill to join the hippies. Winstanley (who is played not by an actor, but by a schoolteacher, the late Miles Halliwell) soon runs into trouble with the law, represented by Fairfax. "Many local gentlemen and freeholders have complained to the council of state that you are tumultuous, and a danger to the county," Fairfax says. To be fair, they are a bit tumultuous. One of them gets naked and capers around; nobody seems to know whose children are whose. Shocking stuff.

True to life

"Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous and proud men to live at ease," says Winstanley, "to bag and barn up the treasures of the earth from others, that these may beg and starve in a fruitful land?"

No doubt he would have written for the Guardian, except it wouldn't exist for another 172 years. This line is from the real Winstanley's 1649 pamphlet The New Law of Righteousness. Many of Winstanley's real words are used in the film, and the fidelity to 17th-century life is extremely impressive. "We made the film to see if it is possible to make an absolutely authentic historical film," director Kevin Brownlow said in 1997. "Even the animals came from rare breeds, and the armour for the battle scene came from the Tower of London."

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/12/winstanley-diggers-christian-religious-group

You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now,
You noble Diggers all, stand up now,
The wast land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name
Your digging does maintain, and persons all defame
Stand up now, stand up now.

Your houses they pull down, stand up now, stand up now,
Your houses they pull down, stand up now.
Your houses they pull down to fright your men in town
But the gentry must come down, and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

With spades and hoes and plowes, stand up now, stand up now
With spades and hoes and plowes stand up now,
Your freedom to uphold, seeing Cavaliers are bold
To kill you if they could, and rights from you to hold.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

Theire self-will is theire law, stand up now, stand up now,
Theire self-will is theire law, stand up now.
Since tyranny came in they count it now no sin
To make a gaol a gin, to starve poor men therein.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The gentrye are all round, stand up now, stand up now,
The gentrye are all round, stand up now.
The gentrye are all round, on each side they are found,
Theire wisdom's so profound, to cheat us of our ground
Stand up now, stand up now.

The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now, stand up now,
The lawyers they conjoyne, stand up now,
To arrest you they advise, such fury they devise,
The devill in them lies, and hath blinded both their eyes.
Stand up now, stand up now.

The clergy they come in, stand up now, stand up now,
The clergy they come in, stand up now.
The clergy they come in, and say it is a sin
That we should now begin, our freedom for to win.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The tithes they yet will have, stand up now, stand up now,
The tithes they yet will have, stand up now.
The tithes they yet will have, and lawyers their fees crave,
And this they say is brave, to make the poor their slave.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests, stand up now, stand up now,
'Gainst lawyers and 'gainst Priests stand up now.
For tyrants they are both even flatt againnst their oath,
To grant us they are loath free meat and drink and cloth.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The club is all their law, stand up now, stand up now,
The club is all their law, stand up now.
The club is all their law to keep men in awe,
But they no vision saw to maintain such a law.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The Cavaleers are foes, stand up now, stand up now,
The Cavaleers are foes, stand up now;
The Cavaleers are foes, themselves they do disclose
By verses not in prose to please the singing boyes.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

To conquer them by love, come in now, come in now
To conquer them by love, come in now;
To conquer them by love, as itt does you behove,
For hee is King above, noe power is like to love,
Glory heere, Diggers all.

[intaglio]

1. And also the song of the Peasants Revolt

When Adam delved and Eve span
Who then was the Gentleman?

[struggle4progress]

2. Thanks for posting this. It's important to remember the history

I have several books on Muntzer's Reformation-era rebellion, which I keep meaning to finish, and I keep hoping Ernst Bloch's old Thomas Muntzer: Theologian of the Revolution will appear in English translation soon, it having been promised several years ago now