The Times: 1509-1558
Renaissance humanism came into being in the nation. In this
development, scholars in London, Oxford, and Cambridge emphasized the
value of classical learning, especially Platonism and the study of
Greek literature as the means of better understanding and writing. They
studied the original Greek texts and became disillusioned with the
filtered interpretations of the church, for example of the Bible and
Aristotle. There had long been displeasure with the priests of the
church. They were supposed to preach four times yearly, visit the sick,
say the daily liturgies, and hear confessions at least yearly. But
there were many lapses. Many were not celibate, and some openly lived
with a woman and had children. Complaints about them included not
residing within their parish community, doing other work such as
raising crops, and taking too much in probate, mortuary fees, and
marriage fees. Probate fees had risen from at most 5s. to 60s. in the
last hundred years. Mortuary fees ranged from 1/3 to 1/9 of a deceased
person's goods. Sanctuary was abused. People objected to the right of
arrest by ecclesiastical authorities.
Also, most parish priests did not have a theology degree or
even a Bachelor's degree, as did many laymen. In fact, many laymen were
better educated than the parish priests. No one other than a laborer
was illiterate in the towns.
Humanist grammar [secondary] schools were established in London
by merchants and guilds. In 1510, the founder and dean of St. Paul's
School placed its management in the hands of London "citizens of
established reputation" because he had lost confidence in the good
faith of priests and noblemen. The sons of the nobility, attorneys, and
merchants were starting to go to grammar school now instead of being
taught at home by a tutor. At school, they mingled with sons of yeomen,
farmers, and tradesmen, who were usually poor. The usual age of entry
was six or seven. Classical Latin and Greek were taught and the
literature of the best classical authors was read. Secondary education
teachers were expected to know Latin and have studied the ancient
philosophers, history, and geography. The method of teaching was for
the teacher to read textbooks to the class from a prepared curriculum.
The students were taught in Latin and expected not to speak English in
school. They learned how to read and to write Latin, to develop and
amplify a theme by logical analysis, and to essay on the same subject
in the narrative, persuasive, argumentative, commending, consoling, and
inciting styles. They had horn books with the alphabet and perhaps a
Biblical verse on them. This was a piece of wood with a paper on it
held down by a sheet of transparent horn. They also learned arithmetic
(solving arithmetical problems and casting accounts). Disobedience
incurred flogging by teacher as well as by parents. Spare the rod and
spoil the child was the philosophy. Schools now guarded the morals and
behavior of students. There were two week vacations at Christmas and at
Easter. Royal grammar books for English and Latin were proclaimed by
Henry in 1543 to be the only grammar book authorized for students. In
1545, he proclaimed a certain primer of prayers in English to be the
only one to be used by students.
The first school of humanist studies arose in Oxford with the
Foundation of Corpus Christi College in 1516 by Bishop Richard Fox. It
had the first permanent Reader or Professor in Greek. The Professor of
Humanity was to extirpate all barbarisms by the study of Cicero,
Sallust, Valerius Maximus, and Quintilian. The Reader of Theology was
to read texts of the Holy Fathers but not those of their commentators.
Oxford University was granted a charter which put the greater part of
the town under control of the Chancellor and scholars. The mayor of
Oxford was required to take an oath at his election to maintain the
privileges and customs of the university. Roman law and other Regius
professorships were founded by the king at Oxford and Cambridge.
Teaching of undergraduates was the responsibility of the university
rather than of the colleges, though some colleges had live-in teachers.
Most colleges were exclusively for graduate fellows, though this was
beginning to change. The university took responsibility for the
student's morals and behavior and tutors sometimes whipped the
undergraduates. For young noblemen, a more important part of their
education than going to university was travel on the continent with a
tutor. This exposure to foreign fields was no longer readily available
through war or pilgrimage. The purpose was practical - to learn about
foreign people and their languages, countries, and courts. Knowledge of
the terrain, resources, prosperity, and stability of their countries
was particularly useful to a future diplomatic or political career.
Understanding of the celestial world began to change.
Contemporary thought was that the nature of all things was to remain at
rest, so that movement and motion had to be explained by causes. The
earth was stationary and the heavens were spherical and revolved around
the earth every twenty-four hours. The universe was finite. The
firmament extended outward in a series of rotating, crystalline,
ethereal spheres to which were attached the various points of celestial
geography. First came the circle of the moon. The sun orbited the
earth. The fixed stars rotated on an outer firmament. Finally, there
was the abode of God and his heavenly hosts. Different principles ruled
the celestial world; it was orderly, stable, ageless, and enduring. But
the world of man changed constantly due to its mixed four elements of
air, earth, fire, and water each trying to disentangle itself from the
others and seeking to find its natural location. The heavenly spheres
could affect the destinies of men, such as through fate, fortune,
intelligence, cherubim, seraphim, angels, and archangels. Astrologers
read the celestial signs and messages.
Then a seed of doubt was cast on this theory by Nicholaus
Copernicus, a timid monk in Poland, who found inconsistencies in
Ptolemy's work, but saw similarity in the movements of the earth and
other planets. He inferred from the "wandering" planetary movements
with loops that their motion could be explained simply if they were
revolving in circular paths around the sun, rather than around the
earth. In his book of 1543, he also expressed his belief that the earth
also revolved around the sun. This idea so shocked the world that the
word "revolution" became associated with radical change. He thought it
more likely that the earth rotated than that the stars moved with great
speed in their large orbits. He proposed that the earth spins on its
own axis about once every twenty-four hours, with a spin axis at about
a 23 1/2 degree tilt from the orbital axis, thus explaining a slow
change in the overall appearances of the fixed stars which had been
observed since the time of Ptolemy. He deduced from astronomical
measurements that the correct order of the planets from the Sun was:
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The church considered
his ideas heretical because contradictory to its dogma that man and the
earth were the center of the universe. A central sun evoked images of
pagan practices of sun worship. News of new ideas in science traveled
quickly to English scholars and professionals.
The physicians of London were incorporated to oversee and
govern the practice of medicine. Medicine consisted largely of magical
remedies of sorcerers and astrologers and herbal remedies administered
by quacks. People still generally believed that disease was caused by
witches and demons. A faculty of physicians was established at Oxford
and Cambridge. A Royal College of Physicians was founded in London in
1518 by the King's physician. The College of Physicians taught more
practical medicine and anatomy than the universities. Only graduates of
the College of Physicians or of Oxford or Cambridge were allowed to
practice medicine or surgery.
Medical texts were Hippocrates and Galen. These viewed disease
as only part of the process of nature without anything divine. They
stressed empiricism, experience, collections of facts, evidences of the
senses, and avoidance of philosophical speculations. Some observations
of Hippocrates were: -"When sleep puts an end to delirium, it is a
hopeful sign." -"When on a starvation diet, the patient should not be
allowed to become fatigued." "Old men usually have less illness than
young ones, but such as they have last, as a rule, till death."
"Pleurisy, pneumonia, colds, sore throat, and headache are more likely
to occur during winter seasons." "When one oversleeps, or fails to
sleep, the condition suggests disease." Hippocrates had asserted that
madness was simply a disease of the brain and then Galen had agreed and
advocated merciful treatment of the insane. Galen's great remedies were
proper diet, exercise, massage, and bathing. He taught the importance
of a good water supply and good drainage. He advised that baking bread
in a large oven was superior to cooking in a small oven, over ashes, or
in a pan in wholesomeness, digestibility, and flavor. Greek medicinal
doctrines were assumed, such as that preservation of the health of the
body was dependent on air, food, drink, movement and repose, sleeping
and waking, excretion and retention, and the passions.
It was widely known that sleep was restorative and that bad
news or worry could spoil one's digestion. An Italian book of 1507
showed that post-mortem examinations could show cause of death by
gallstones, heart disease, thrombosis of the veins, or abscesses. In
1540 began the practice of giving bodies of hanged felons to surgeons
to dissect. This was to deter the commission of felony. There was some
feeling that dissection was a sacrilege, that the practice of medicine
was a form of sorcery, and that illness and disease should be dealt
with by prayer and/or atonement because caused by sin, the wrath of
God, or by the devil. Food that was digested was thought to turn into a
vapor which passed along the veins and was concreted as blood, flesh,
and fat. After 1546, there was a book listing hundreds of drugs with
preparation directions, but their use and application was by trial and
error.
Flemish physician Andreas Vesalius, secretly dissected human
corpses, finding them hanging on public gibbets or competing with dogs
for those incompletely buried in cemeteries. He begged doctors to allow
him to examine the bodies of their fatal cases. He ingratiated himself
with judges who determined the time and place of execution of
criminals. In 1543 he published the first finely detailed description
of human anatomy. In it, there was no missing rib on one side of man,
and this challenged the theory of the woman Eve having been made from a
rib of the man Adam.
In the 1540s, Ambroise Pare from France, a barber-surgeon who
was the son of a servant, was an army surgeon. Wounds at this time were
treated with boiling oil and spurting vessels were closed by being
seared with a red-hot iron. After he ran out of boiling oil, he
observed that the soldiers without this treatment were healing better
than those with this treatment. So he advocated ceasing the practice of
cauterizing wounds. He also began tying arteries with cord to stop
their bleeding after amputation many other surgical techniques.
In Switzerland, Theophrastus Paracelsus, an astrologer and
alchemist who later became a physician, did not believe that humor
imbalance caused disease nor in treatment by bloodletting or purging.
He believed that there were external causes of disease, e.g. toxic
matter in food, contagion, defective physical or mental constitution,
cosmic influences differing with climate and country, or affliction
sent Providence. He urged that wounds be kept clean rather than given
poultices. In 1530, he pioneered the application of chemistry to
physiology, pathology, and the treatment of disease by starting
clinical diagnosis and treatment of disease by highly specific
medicines, instead of by cure-alls. For instance, he used alkalis to
treat disease, such as gout, indicated by certain substances in the
urine, which also started urinalysis. He perceived that syphilis was
caused by contagion and used mercury to cure it. He found curative
powers also in opium, sulphur, iron, and arsenic. Opium was made by
drying and cooking the capsule of the poppy and was one of the few
really effective early drugs. Paracelsus urged alchemists to try to
prepare drugs from minerals for the relief of suffering. He claimed to
acquire knowledge of cures through spiritual contacts to occult wisdom.
He believed that a human being has an invisible body as well as a
visible one and that it is closely attuned to imagination and the
spiritual aspect of an individual. He noticed that one's attitudes and
emotions, such as anger, could affect one's health. He sometimes used
suggestion and signs to help a patient form mental images, which
translated into cures. He saw insanity as illness instead of possession
by evil spirits.
Students were beginning to read for the bar by their own study
of the newly available printed texts, treatises, and collections of
statute law and of cases, instead of listening in court and talking
with attorneys.
In 1523, Anthony Fitzherbert wrote "Boke of Husbandry", which
set forth the most current methods of arable farming, giving details of
tools and equipment, advice on capital outlay, methods of manuring,
draining, ploughing, and rick-building. It was used by many constantly,
and was often carried around in the pocket. This began a new way to
disseminate new methods in agriculture. He also wrote a "Boke of
Surveying", which relied on the perch rod and compass dial, and gave
instruction on how to set down the results of a survey. In 1533, Gemma
Frisius laid down the principles of topographical survey by
triangulation. This improved the quality of surveys and produced
accurate plots.
Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" was a popular book.
Through Chaucer, London English became a national standard and the
notion of "correct pronunciation" came into being.The discoveries and
adventures of Amerigo Vespucci, a Portuguese explorer, were widely
read. The North and South American continents were named for him.
London merchant guilds began to be identified mainly with
hospitality and benevolence instead of being trading organizations.
Twelve great companies dominated city politics and effectively chose
the mayor and aldermen. They were, in order of precedence, Mercers,
Grocers, Drapers, Fishmongers, Goldsmiths, Skinners, Tailors,
Haberdashers, Ironmongers, Salters, Vintners, and the Clothworkers
(composed from leading fullers and shearmen). The leading men of these
guilds were generally aldermen and the guilds acted like municipal
committees of trade and manufactures. Then they superintended the trade
and manufactures of London much like a government department. They were
called Livery Companies and categorized their memberships in three
grades: mere membership, livery membership, and placement on the
governing body. Livery members were distinguished by having the
clothing of the brotherhood [its livery] and all privileges, and
proprietary and municipal rights, in the fullest degree. They generally
had a right to a place at the Company banquets. They were invited by
the governing body, as a matter of favor, to other entertainments.
These liverymen were usually those who had bought membership and paid
higher fees because they were richer. Their pensions were larger than
those of mere members. Those with mere membership were freemen who had
only the simple freedom of the trade. The masters were usually
householders. The journeymen, yeomanry, bachelors were simple freemen.
Most of these companies had almshouses attached to their halls for the
impoverished, disabled, and elderly members and their widows and
children. For instance, many members of the Goldsmiths had been blinded
by the fire and smoke of quicksilver and some members had been rendered
crazed and infirm by working in that trade. The freedom and rights of
citizenship of the city could only be obtained through membership in a
livery company.
A lesser guild, the Leathersellers, absorbed the Glovers,
Pursers, and Pouchmakers, some of whom became wage earners of the
Leathersellers. But others of these craftsmen remained independent. The
Whittawyers, who treated horse, deer, and sheep hides with alum and
oil, had become wage earners for the Skinners.
Londoners went to the fields outside the city for recreation
and games. When farmers enclosed some suburban common fields in 1514, a
crowd of young men marched out to them and, crying "shovels and
spades", uprooted the hedges and filled in the ditches, thus reclaiming
the land for their traditional games. The last major riot in London was
aroused by a speaker on May Day in 1517 when a thousand disorderly
young men, mostly apprentices, defied the curfew and looted shops and
houses of aliens. A duke with two thousand soldiers put it down in
mid-afternoon, after which the king executed fifteen of the rioters.
Many English migrated to London. There were ambitious young men
and women hopeful of betterment through employment, apprenticeship,
higher wages, or successful marriage. On the other hand, there were
subsistence migrants forced to leave their homes for food, work, or
somewhere to live. There was much social mobility. For instance,
between 1551 and 1553, of 881 persons admitted as freemen of London, 46
were the sons of gentlemen, 136 the sons of yeomen, and 289 the sons of
farm workers. London grew in population about twice as fast as the
nation.
There are 26 wards of London as of 1550. This is the number for
the next four centuries. Each ward has an alderman, a clerk, and a
chief constable. There are also in each ward about 100 to 300 elected
officials including prickers, benchers, blackbootmen, fewellers
[keepers of greyhounds], scribes, a halter-cutter, introducers,
upperspeakers, under speakers, butlers, porters, inquestmen,
scavengers, constables, watchmen, a beadle, jurymen, and common
councilmen. The wardmote had inquest jurisdiction over immorality or
bad behavior such as vagrancy, delinquency, illegitimacy, and disputes.
This contributed greatly to social stability. In 1546, Henry ordered
the London brothels closed. A small gaol was established in the Clink
district of Southwark, giving the name "clink" to any small gaol.
London ordinances required journeymen to work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in
winter, with a total of 90 minutes breaks for breakfast, dinner, and an
afternoon drink, for 7d. In the summer they had to work for two hours
longer for 8d. At its peak in the 1540s the court employed about 200
gentlemen, which was about half the peerage and one-fifth of the
greater gentry. Henry issued a proclamation ordering noblemen and
gentlemen in London not employed by the court to return to their
country homes to perform their service to the king.
Though there was much agreement on the faults of the church and
the need to reform it, there were many disagreements on what philosophy
of life should take the place of church teachings. The humanist Thomas
More was a university trained intellectual. His book "Utopia",
idealized an imaginary society living according to the principles of
natural virtue. In it, everything is owned in common and there is no
need for money. All believe that there is a God who created the world
and all good things and who guides men, and that the soul is immortal.
But otherwise people choose their religious beliefs and their priests.
From this perspective, the practices of other Christians, scholastic
theologians, priests and monks, superstition, and ritual looked absurd.
More encouraged a religious revival. Aristotle's position that virtuous
men would rule best is successfully debated against Plato's position
that intellectuals and philosophers would be the ideal rulers.
More believed the new humanistic studies should be brought to
women as well as to men. He had tutors teach all his children Latin,
Greek, logic, theology, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy from an
early age. His eldest daughter Margaret became a recognized scholar and
translated his treatise on the lord's prayer. Other high class women
became highly educated. They voiced their opinions on religious
matters. In the 1530s, the Duchess of Suffolk spoke out for reform of
the clergy and against images, relics, shrines, pilgrimages, and
services in Latin. She and the countess of Sussex supported ministers
and established seminaries for the spread of the reformed faith.
More pled for proportion between punishment and crime. He urged
that theft no longer be punished by death because this only encouraged
the thief to murder his victim to eliminate evidence of the theft. He
opined that the purpose of punishment was to reform offenders. He
advocated justice for the poor to the standard of justice received by
the rich.
Erasmus, a former monk, visited the nation for a couple of
years and argued that reason should prevail over religious belief. He
wrote the book "In Praise of Folly", which noted man's elaborate pains
in misdirected efforts to gain the wrong thing. For instance, it
questioned what man would stick his head into the halter of marriage if
he first weighed the inconveniences of that life? Or what woman would
ever embrace her husband if she foresaw or considered the dangers of
childbirth and the drudgery of motherhood? Childhood and senility are
the most pleasant stages of life because ignorance is bliss. Old age
forgetfulness washes away the cares of the mind. A foolish and doting
old man is freed from the miseries that torment the wise and has the
chief joy of life: garrulousness. The seekers of wisdom are the
farthest from happiness; they forget the human station to which they
were born and use their arts as engines with which to attack nature.
The least unhappy are those who approximate the naiveness of the beasts
and who never attempt what is beyond men. As an example, is anyone
happier than a moron or fool? Their cheerful confusion of the mind
frees the spirit from care and gives it many-sided delights. Fools are
free from the fear of death and from the pangs of conscience. They are
not filled with vain worries and hopes. They are not troubled by the
thousand cares to which this life is subject. They experience no shame,
fear, ambition, envy, or love. In a world where men are mostly at odds,
all agree in their attitude towards these innocents. They are sought
after and sheltered; everyone permits them to do and say what they wish
with impunity. However, the usual opinion is that nothing is more
lamentable than madness. The Christian religion has some kinship with
folly, while it has none at all with wisdom. For proof of this, notice
that children, old people, women, and fools take more delight than
anyone else in holy and religious things, led no doubt solely by
instinct. Next, notice that the founders of religion have prized
simplicity and have been the bitterest foes of learning. Finally, no
people act more foolishly than those who have been truly possessed with
Christian piety. They give away whatever is theirs; they overlook
injuries, allow themselves to be cheated, make no distinction between
friends and enemies, shun pleasure, and feast on hunger, vigils, tears,
labors, and scorn. They disdain life, and utterly prefer death. In
short, they have become altogether indifferent to ordinary interests,
as if their souls lived elsewhere and not in their bodies. What is
this, if not to be mad? The life of Christians is run over with
nonsense. They make elaborate funeral arrangements, with candles,
mourners, singers, and pallbearers. They must think that their sight
will be returned to them after they are dead, or that their corpses
will fall ashamed at not being buried grandly. Christian theologians,
in order to prove a point, will pluck four or five words out from
different places, even falsifying the sense of them if necessary, and
disregard the fact that their context was relevant or even contradicted
their points. They do this with such brazen skill that our attorneys
are often jealous of them.
Attorney Christopher St. German wrote the legal treatise
"Doctor and Student", in which he deems the law of natural reason to be
supreme and eternal. The law of God and the law of man, as enunciated
by the church and royalty, merely supplement the law of natural reason
and may change from time to time. Examples of the law of reason are: It
is good to be loved. Evil is to be avoided. Do onto others as you would
have them do unto you. Do nothing against the truth. Live peacefully
with others. Justice is to be done to every man. No one is to wrong
another. A trespasser should be punished. From these is deduced that a
man should love his benefactor. It is lawful to put away force with
force. It is lawful for every man to defend himself and his goods
against an unlawful power.
Like his father, Henry VIII dominated Parliament. He used this
power to reform the church of England in the 1530's. The Protestant
reformation cause, started in Germany in 1517 by Martin Luther posting
his thesis, had become identified with Henry's efforts to have his
marriage of eighteen years to the virtuous Catherine annulled so he
could marry a much younger woman: Anne and have a son. The end of his
six successive wives was: annulled, beheaded, died; annulled, beheaded,
survived. Henry VIII was egotistical, arrogant, and self- indulgent.
This nature allowed him to declare himself the head of the church of
England instead of the pope.
Henry used and then discarded officers of state. One such was
Thomas Wolsey, the son of a town grazier [one who pastures cattle and
rears them for market] and butcher, who was another supporter of
classical learning. He rose through the church, the gateway to
advancement in a diversity of occupations of clergy such as secretary,
librarian, teacher, attorney, doctor, author, civil servant, diplomat,
and statesman. He was a court priest when he aligned himself with
Henry, both of whom wanted power and glory and dressed extravagantly.
But he was brilliant and more of a strategist than Henry. Wolsey called
himself a reformer and started a purge of criminals, vagrants and
prostitutes within London, bringing many before the council. But most
of his reforming plans were not brought to fruition, but ended after
his campaign resulted in more power for himself. Wolsey rose to be
Chancellor to the King and also Archbishop of York. As the
representative of the pope for England, he exercised almost full papal
authority there. But he controlled the church in England in the King's
interest. He was second only to the King and he strengthened the crown
by consolidating power and income that had been scattered among nobles
and officeholders. He also came to control the many courts. Wolsey
centralized the church in England and dissolved the smaller
monasteries, the proceeds of which he used to build colleges at Oxford
and his home town. He was an impartial and respected justice. When
Wolsey was not able to convince the pope to give Henry an annulment of
his marriage, Henry dismissed him and took his property, shortly after
which Wolsey died on his way to be imprisoned in the Tower to be tried
for treason.
Thomas. Cromwell, a top royal official, was a self-taught
attorney, arbitrator, merchant, and accountant. He was the son of a
clothworker/blacksmith/brewer/innkeeper, Like Wolsey, he was a natural
orator. He drafted and had passed legislation that created a new church
of England. He had all men swear an oath to the terms of the succession
statute. Thomas More, the successor Chancellor to Wolsey, was known for
his honesty and was a highly respected man. More did not yield to
Henry's bullying for support for his statute declaring the succession
to be vested in the children of his second marriage, and his statute
declaring himself the supreme head of the church of England, instead of
the pope. He did not expressly deny this supremacy statute, so was not
guilty of treason under its terms. But silence did not save him. He was
attainted for treason on specious grounds and beheaded. His conviction
rested on the testimony of one perjured witness, who misquoted More as
saying that Parliament did not have the power to require assent to the
supremacy statute because it was repugnant to the common law of
Christendom.
Henry ruled with an iron fist. In 1536, he issued a
proclamation that "any rioters or those in an unlawful assembly shall
return to their houses" or "we will proceed against them with all our
royal force and destroy them and their wives and children." In 1538, he
proclaimed that anyone hurting or maiming an officer while trying to
make an arrest "shall lose and forfeit all their lands, goods, and
chattel" and shall suffer perpetual imprisonment. Moreover, if one
murdered such an officer, he would suffer death without privilege of
sanctuary or of clergy. In 1540, he proclaimed that there would be no
shooting by handgun except on a shooting range. Henry had Parliament
pass bills of attainder against many people. For the first time, harsh
treatment of prisoners in the Tower, such as placement in dungeons with
little food, no bed, and no change of clothes, became almost a matter
of policy. Through his host of spies, Cromwell heard what men said to
their closest friends. Words idly spoken were distorted into
treasonable utterances. Fear spread through the people. Silence was a
person's only possibility of safety.
Cromwell developed a technique for the management of the House
of Commons which lasted for generations. He promulgated books in
defense of royal spiritual authority, which argued that canon law was
not divine but merely human and that clerical authority had no
foundation in the Bible. A reformed English Bible was put in all parish
churches. Reformers were licensed to preach. Cromwell ordered sermons
to be said which proclaimed the supremacy of the King. He instituted
registers to record baptisms, marriages, and burials in every county,
for the purpose of reducing disputes over descent and inheritance. He
dissolved all the lesser monasteries. When Cromwell procured a foreign
wife for Henry whom Henry found unattractive, he was attainted and
executed.
Henry now reconstructed his council to have a fixed membership,
an official hierarchy based on rank, a secretariat, an official record,
and formal powers to summon individuals before it by legal process.
Because it met in the King's Privy Lodgings, it was called the "Privy
Council". It had an executive function and met daily instead of just
during the terms of the Westminster courts from late autumn to early
summer. It communicated with the king through intermediaries, of whom
the most important was the King's Secretary. The judicial part of the
council was the Court of the Star Chamber, which met at Westminster.
When Henry went to war in France, part of the council went with him,
and part of it stayed to attend the Queen Regent.
Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote the first
English Common Book of Prayer. With its use beginning in 1549, church
services were to be held in English instead of Latin. The celebration
of the Lord's Supper was a communion among the parishioners and
minister all sharing wine and bread. It replaced the mass, in which the
priests were thought to perform a miraculous change of the substance of
bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, which the priest then
offered as a sacrifice for remission of pain or guilt. This reflected
the blood sacrifice of Christ dying on the cross. In the mass, only the
priests drank the wine. The mass, miracles, the worship of saints,
prayers for souls in purgatory, and pilgrimages to shrines such as that
of Thomas Becket, were all to be discontinued. Imprisonment or exile
rather than death was made the penalty for heresy and blasphemy, and
also for adultery.
After the King dissolved the greater monasteries, he took and
sold their ornaments, silver plate and jewelry, lead from roofs of
their buildings, and finally much of the land itself. Many maps of
manors and lands were made at this time. Three monasteries were
converted into the first three treating hospitals in London, one for
the diseased, one for the poor, and one, Bethlehem (or "Bedlam" for
short), for the mentally ill. But there were still many poor, sick,
blind, aged, and impotent people in the streets since the closure of
the monasteries. In 1552, there were 2,100 people in need of relief,
including 300 orphans, 600 sick or aged, 350 poor men overburdened with
their children, 650 decayed householders, and 200 idle vagabonds. The
poor often begged at parishes, where they spread disease. London then
set up a poor relief scheme. The Bridewell was established to set to
work the idle, vagabonds, and prostitutes making feather bed ticks and
wool-cards, drawing of wire, carding, knitting, and winding of silk.
Parishes were required to give money for the poor in 1563. Other towns
followed London's lead in levying a poor rate.
Henry used the proceeds from the sale of the monasteries for
building many new palaces and wood ships for his navy. In war, these
navy ships had heavy guns which could sink other ships. In peace time,
these ships were hired out to traders. Large ships were constructed in
docks, made partly by digging and partly by building walls. In 1545,
Henry issued a proclamation ordering all vagabonds, ruffians,
masterless men, and evil-disposed persons to serve him in his navy.
The former land of the monasteries, about 30% of the country's
land, was sold and resold, usually to great landowners, or leased.
Title deeds became important as attorneys sought the security that
title could give. Some land went to entrepreneurial cloth
manufacturers, who converted the buildings for the manufacture of
cloth. They bought the raw wool and hired craftsmen for every step of
the manufacturing process to be done in one continuous process. This
was faster than buying and selling the wool material between craftsmen
who lived in different areas. Also, it was more efficient because the
amount of raw wool bought could be adjusted to the demand for cloth.
Many landowners now could live in towns exclusively off the
rents of their rural land. Rents were increased so much that tenants
could not pay and were evicted. They usually became beggars or thieves.
Much of their former land was converted from crop raising to pasture
for large herds of sheep. Arable farming required many workers, whereas
sheep farming required only one shepherd and herdsman. There were
exceptional profits made from the export of wool cloth. But much raw
wool was still exported. Its price went up from 6s.8d. per tod [about
28 pounds] in 1340 to 20s.8d. in 1546.
Villeinage was now virtually extinct. But a lord could usually
claim a small money-rent from the freeholder, sometimes a relief when
his land was sold or passed at death, and occasionally a heriot from
his heir.
There was steady inflation. Landlords made their leases short
term so that they could raise rents as prices rose. Copyholders
gradually acquired a valuable right in their holdings: their rent
became light - less that a shilling an acre.
The knights had 70% of the land, the nobles 10%, the church
10%, and king 5%. At least 85% of the population still lived in the
country. Rich traders built town or country houses in which the
emphasis was on comfort and privacy. There was more furniture, bigger
windows filled with glass, thick wallpaper, and formal gardens. Use of
thick, insulating wallpaper rose with the rise of paper mills. It was
stenciled, hand-painted, or printed. Some floors were tiled instead of
stone or wood. They were still strewn with straw. The owners ate in a
private dining room and slept in their own rooms with down quilts.
Their soap was white. They had clothing of white linen and white wool,
leather slippers, and felt hats. Men wore long tunics open at the neck
and filled in with pleated linen and enormous puffed sleeves. The
fortunes of landowners varied; some went into aristocratic debt by
ostentatiously spending on building, clothes, food, and drink, and some
became indebted by inefficient management. Some had to sell their
manors and dismiss their servants.
All people generally had enough food because of the
commercialization of agriculture. Even the standard meal of the peasant
was bread, bacon, cheese, and beer or cider, with beef about twice a
week. Also, roads were good enough for the transport of foodstuffs
thereon. Four-wheeled wagons for carrying people as well as goods.
Goods were also transported by the pulling of barges on the rivers from
paths along the river. A plough with wheels was used as well as those
without.
Henry made proclamations reminding people of the apparel laws,
but they were difficult to enforce. Henry also made a proclamation
limiting the consumption of certain meat according to status. Seven
dishes were allowed to bishops, dukes, marquises, and earls; six to
other temporal lords; five to justices, the King's council, sheriffs,
and persons with an income of at least 200 pounds yearly or goods worth
2000 pounds; four to persons with an income of at least 100 pounds or
goods worth 1000 pounds; and three dishes to persons with an income of
at least 100 pounds or goods worth 500 pounds. There were limits on
types of meat served, such as a maximum of one dish of great fowl such
as crane, swan, and peacock; eight quail per dish; and twelve larks in
a dish. People used tin or pewter dishes, platters, goblets, saucers,
spoons, saltcellars, pots, and basins. They used soap to wash
themselves, their clothes, and their dishes. A solid, waxy soap was
from evaporating a mixture of goat fat, water, and ash high in
potassium carbonate. They had bedcovers on their beds. Cloth bore the
mark of its weaver and came in many colors. Cloth could be held
together with pins that had a shank with a hook by which they were
closed. They burned wood logs in the fireplaces in their houses. So
much wood was used that young trees were required by statute to be
given enough lateral space to spread their limbs and were not cut down
until mature. The organ and the harp, precursor to the piano, were
played.
People went to barbers to cut their hair and to extract teeth.
They went to people experienced with herbs, roots, and waters for
treatment of skin conditions such as sores, cuts, burns, swellings,
irritated eyes or scaly faces. For more complicated ailments, they went
to physicians, who prescribed potions and medicines. They bought
potions and medicines from apothecaries and pharmacists.
The King, earls, who ruled counties, and barons, who had land
and a place in the House of Lords, still lived in the most comfort. The
King's house had courtyards, gardens, orchards, wood-yards, tennis
courts, and bowling alleys.
The walls of the towns were manned by the citizens themselves,
with police and watchmen at their disposal. In inns, travelers slept
ten to a bed and there were many fleas and an occasional rat or mouse
running through the rushes strewn on the floor. The inn provided a bed
and ale, but travelers brought their own food. Each slept with his
purse under his pillow.
In markets, sellers set up booths for their wares. They sold
grain for making oatmeal or for sowing one's own ground. Wine, butter,
cheese, fish, chicken, and candles could also be bought. Butchers
bought killed sheep, lambs, calves, and pigs to cut up for selling.
Tanned leather was sold to girdlemakers and shoemakers. Goods bought in
markets were presumed not to be stolen, so that a purchaser could not
be dispossessed of goods bought unless he had knowledge that they were
stolen.
The ruling group of the towns came to be composed mostly of
merchants, manufacturers, attorneys, and physicians. Some townswomen
were independent traders. The governed class contained small master
craftsmen and journeyman artisans, small traders, and dependent
servants. The major streets of London were paved with stone, with a
channel in the middle. More water conduits from hills, heaths, and
springs were built to provide the citizens of London with more water.
The sewers carried only surface water away. Households were forbidden
to use the sewers. Privies emptied into cesspools.
The Merchant Adventurers' Fellowship brought virtually all
adventurers under its control and organized and regulated the national
cloth trade. It had a General Court of the Adventurers sitting in the
London Mercers' Hall. Various companies were granted monopolies for
trade in certain areas of the world such as Turkey, Spain, France,
Venice, the Baltic, and Africa. These were regulated companies. That is
they obtained complete control of a particular foreign market, but any
merchant who cared to join the company, pay its dues, and obey its
regulations, might share in the benefits of its monopoly. The companies
generally confined trade to men who were primarily merchants and not
shopkeepers. In 1553 explorer Sebastian Cabot formed the Muscovy
Company, which was granted a monopoly in its charter for trade with
north Russia. It was oriented primarily to export English woolen cloth.
It was the first company trading on a joint stock, which was arranged
as a matter of convenience and safety. The risks were too great for any
few individuals. It hired ships and assigned space to each member to
ship his goods at his own risk. The dividend was returned to the
subscribers of the capital they put in plus an appropriate share of any
profits made on the voyage. The members began leaving their money with
the company for the next voyage. A general stock grew up. In 1568 were
the first industrial companies: Mines Royal, and Mineral and Battery
Works. The cloth, mining, iron, and woodcraft industries employed
full-time workers on wages. In the ironworks and foundries, the furnace
blowing engines were worked by water wheels or by a gear attached to
donkeys or horses. The forge hammers were worked at first by levers and
later by water wheels. The day and night hammering filled the
neighborhood with their noise.
Land held in common was partitioned. There were leases of
mansion houses, smaller dwelling houses, houses with a wharf having a
crane, houses with a timber yard, houses with a garden, houses with a
shed, shops, warehouses, cellars, and stables. Lands with a dye-house
or a brew-house were devised by will along with their dying or brewing
implements. There were dairies making butter and cheese.
Citizens paid taxes to the king amounting to one tenth of their
annual income from land or wages. Merchants paid "forced loans" and
benevolences. The national government was much centralized and had
full-time workers on wages. A national commission of sewers continually
surveyed walls, ditches, banks, gutters, sewers, ponds, bridges,
rivers, streams, mills, locks, trenches, fish- breeding ponds, and
flood gates. When low places were threatened with flooding, it hired
laborers, bought timber, and hired carts with horses or oxen for
necessary work. Mayors of cities repaired water conduits and pipes
under their cities' ground.
The matchlock musket came into use, but did not replace the bow
because its matchcord didn't remain lit in rainy weather. The matchlock
was an improvement over the former musket because both hands could be
used to hold and aim the matchlock musket because the powder was
ignited by a device that touched a slow-burning cord to the powder when
a trigger was pulled with one finger.
After the break with Rome, cooperation among villagers in
church activities largely ceased. The altars and images previously
taken care of by them disappeared and the paintings on the walls were
covered with white or erased, and scripture texts put in their place.
People now read the new Bible, the "Paraphrases" of Erasmus, Foxe's
"Book of Martyrs", and the works of Bishop Jewel. The Book of Martyrs
taught the duty and splendor of rising above all physical danger or
suffering. The canon law of the church was abolished and its study
prohibited. Professorships of the civil law were founded at the two
universities. The Inns of Court grew. Attorneys had more work with the
new laws passed to replace the church canons of the church. They played
an important role in town government and many became wealthy. They
acquired town houses in addition to their rural estates.
Church reforms included abolishing church sanctuaries. Benefit
of clergy was restricted more. Parsons were allowed to marry.
Archbishops were selected by the king without involvement by the pope.
Decisions by archbishops in testamentary, matrimonial, and marriage
annulment matters were appealable to the Court of Chancery instead of
to the pope. The clergy's canons were subject to the King's approval.
The control of the church added to the powers of the Crown to summon
and dissolve Parliament, coin money, create peers [members of the House
of Lords who received individual writs of summons to Parliament],
pardon criminals, order the arrest of dangerous persons without
customary process of law in times of likely insurrection, tax and call
men to arms without the consent of Parliament if the country were
threatened with invasion.
About 1550 there began indictments and executions for
witchcraftery which lasted for about a century. One of the reasons for
suspecting a woman to be a witch was that she lived alone, which was
very unusual.
Henry ordered all alien Anabaptists, who denied the validity of
infant baptism, to leave the realm.
The Law
Offices may not be bought and sold, but only granted by
justices of the royal courts.
The King's proclamations shall be observed and kept as though
they were acts of Parliament. The penalty shall not be more than that
stated in the proclamation, except for heresy.
A person having land in socage or fee simple may will and
devise his land by will or testament in writing.
A person holding land by knight's service may will and devise
by his last will and testament in writing part of his land to his wife
and other parts of his land to his children, as long as 1/3 of entailed
land is left to the King.
Anyone serving the king in war may alienate his lands for the
performance of his will, and if he dies, his feoffees or executors
shall have the wardship of his heir and land.
A person who leases land for a term of years, even if by
indenture or without a writing, may have a court remedy as do tenants
of freehold for any expulsion by the lessor which is contrary to the
lease, covenant, or agreement. These termers, their executors and
assigns, shall hold and enjoy their terms against the lessors, their
heirs and assigns. The lessor shall have a remedy for rents due or
waste by a termer after recovering the land as well as if he had not
recovered the land.
A lord may distrain land within his fee for rents, customs, or
services due without naming the tenant, because of the existence of
secret feoffments and leases made by their tenants to unknown persons.
Anyone seised of land to the use or trust of other persons by
reason of a will or conveyance shall be held to have lawful seisin and
possession of the land, because by common law, land is not devisable by
will or testament, yet land has been so conveyed, which has deprived
married men of their courtesy, women of their dower, the king of the
lands of persons attainted, the king of a year's profits from felons'
lands, and lords of their escheats. (This was difficult to enforce.)
A woman may not have both a jointure [promise of husband to
wife of property or income for life after his death] and dower of her
husband's land. (Persons had purchased land to hold jointly with their
wives)
A sale of land must be in writing, sealed, and registered in
its county with the clerk of that county. If the land is worth less
than 40s. per year, the clerk is paid 12d. If the land exceeds 40s.
yearly, the clerk is paid 2s.6d.
An adult may lease his lands or tenements only by a writing
under his seal for a term of years or a term of life, because many
people who had taken leases of lands and tenements for a term of years
or a term of lives had to spend a lot for repair and were then evicted
by heirs of their lessors.
A husband may not lease out his wife's land.
No woman-covert, child, idiot, or person of insane memory may
devise land by will or testament.
The land of tenants-in-common may be partitioned by them so
that each holds a certain part.
No bishop or other official having authority to take probate of
testaments may take a fee for probating a testament where the goods of
the testator are under 100s., except that the scribe writing the
probate of the testament may take 6d., and for the commission of
administration of the goods of any man dying intestate, being up to
100s, may be charged 6d. Where the goods are over 100s. but up to 800s.
sterling, probate fees may be 3s.6d. at most, whereof the official may
take 2s.6d. at most, with 12d. residue to the scribe for registering
the testament. Where the goods are over 800s. sterling, probate fees
may be 5s. at most, whereof the official may take 2s.6d. at most, with
2s.6d. residue to the scribe, or the scribe may choose to take 1d. per
10 lines of writing of the testament. If the deceased had willed by his
testament any land to be sold, the money thereof coming nor the profits
of the land shall not be counted as the goods or chattel of the
deceased. Where probate fees have customarily been less, they shall
remain the same. The official shall approve and seal the testament
without delay and deliver it to the executors named in such testaments
for the said sum. If a person dies intestate or executors refuse to
prove the testament, then the official shall grant the administration
of the goods to the widow of the deceased person, or to the next of
kin, or to both, in the discretion of the official, taking surety of
them for the true administration of the goods, chattels, and debts.
Where kin of unequal degree request the administration, it shall be
given to the wife and, at his discretion, other requestors. The
executors or administrators, along with at least two persons to whom
the deceased was indebted, or to whom legacies were made, or, upon
their refusal or absence, two honest kinsmen, shall make an inventory
of the deceased's personal property, goods, chattels, ware,
merchandise, and take it upon their oaths to the official.
No parish clergyman or other spiritual person shall take a
mortuary fee or money from a deceased person with movable goods under
the value of 133s., a deceased woman-covert, a child, a person keeping
no house, or a traveler. Only one mortuary fee may be taken of each
deceased and that in the place where he most dwelled and lived. Where
the deceased's personal property and goods are to the value of 133s. or
more, above his debts paid, and under 600s., a mortuary up to 3s. 4d.
may be taken. Where such goods are 600s. or more and under 800s.,
mortuary up to 6s.8d. may be taken. Where such goods are 800s. or
above, mortuary up to 10s. may be taken. But where mortuaries have
customarily been less, they shall remain the same.
Executors of a will declaring land to be sold for the payment
of debts, performance of legacies to wife and children, and charitable
deeds for the health of souls, may sell the land despite the refusal of
other executors to agree to such sale.
A man may not marry his mother, stepmother, sister, niece,
aunt, or daughter.
Any clergy preaching contrary to the King's religious doctrine
shall recant for the first offense. He shall abjure and bear a faggot
(a badge resembling a faggot of wood which would have been used for
burning him as a heretic) for the second offense. If he refuses to
abjure or bear a faggot or offends a third time, he shall be burned and
lose all his goods. If a layperson teaches, defends, or maintains a
religious doctrine other than the King's, he shall recant and be
imprisoned for twenty days for the first offense. He shall abjure and
bear a faggot if he does not recant or offends a second time. He shall
forfeit his goods and suffer perpetual imprisonment if he does not
abjure or bear a faggot or offends a third time.
The entry of an apprentice into a craft shall not cost more
than 2s.6d. After his term, his entry shall not be more than 3s.4d.
This replaced the various fees ranging from this to 40s.
No master of a craft may require his apprentice to make an oath
not to compete with him by setting up a shop after the term of his
apprenticeship.
No alien may take up a craft or occupation in the nation.
No brewer of ale or beer to sell shall make wood vessels or
barrels, and coopers shall use only good and seasonable wood to make
barrels and shall put their mark thereon. Every ale or beer barrel
shall contain 32 of the King's standard gallons. The price of beer
barrels sold to ale or beer brewers or others shall be 9d.
An ale-brewer may employ in his service one cooper only to
bind, hoop and pin, but not to make, his master's ale vessels.
No butcher may keep a tanning-house.
Tanned leather shall be sold only in open fairs and markets and
after it is inspected and sealed.
Only people living in designated towns may make cloth to sell,
to prevent the ruin of these towns by people taking up both agriculture
and cloth-making outside these towns. No one making cloth for sale may
have more than one woolen loom or else forfeit 20s. This to protect the
weavers' ability to maintain themselves and their families from rich
clothiers who keep many looms and employ journeymen and unskillful
persons at low wages. No one owning a fulling mill may own a weaving
loom. No weaver may own a fulling mill.
No one shall shoot in or keep in his house any handgun or
crossbow unless he has 2,000s. yearly.
No one may hunt or kill hare in the snow since their killing in
great numbers by men other than the king and noblemen has depleted them.
No one shall take an egg or bird of any falcon or hawk out of
its nest on the King's land. No one may disguise himself with hidden or
painted face to enter a forest or park enclosed with a wall for keeping
deer to steal any deer or hare.
Ducks and geese shall not be taken with any net or device
during the summer, when they haven't enough feathers to fly. But a
freeholder of 40s. yearly may hunt and take such with long bow and
spaniels.
No one may sell or buy any pheasant except the King's officers
may buy such for the King.
No butcher may kill any calf born in the spring.
No grain, beef, mutton, veal, or pork may be sold outside the
nation.
Every person with 36 acres of agricultural land, shall sow one
quarter acre with flax or hemp-feed.
All persons shall kill crows on their land to prevent them from
eating so much grain at sowing and ripening time and destroying hay
stacks and the thatched roofs of houses and barns. They shall assemble
yearly to survey all the land to decide how best to destroy all the
young breed of crows for that year. Every village and town with at
least ten households shall put up and maintain crow nets for the
destruction of crows.
No land used for raising crops may be converted to pasture. No
woods may be converted to agriculture or pasture. The efforts to
enforce these proved these prohibitions were not successful.
No one shall cut down or break up dikes holding salt water and
fresh water from flooding houses and pastures.
No one shall dump tin-mining debris, dung, or rubbish into
rivers flowing into ports or take any wood from the walls of the port,
so that ships may always enter at low tide.
A person may lay out a new highway on his land where the old
one has been so damaged by waterways that horses with carriages cannot
pass, with the consent of local officials.
Only poor, aged, and disabled persons may beg. Begging without
a license is punishable by whipping or setting in the stocks 3 days
with only bread and water.
Alien palm readers shall no longer be allowed into the nation,
because they have been committing felonies and robberies.
Butchers may not sell beef, pork, mutton, or veal from
carcasses for more than 1/2 penny and 1/2 farthing [1/4 penny] per
pound.
French wines may not sell at retail for more than 8d. per
gallon.
A barrel maker or cooper may sell a beer barrel for 10d.
No longer may aliens bring books into the nation to sell
because now there are sufficient printers and bookbinders in the nation.
No one may buy fresh fish other than sturgeon, porpoise, or
seal from an alien to put to sale in the nation.
Every person with an enclosed park where there are deer, shall
keep two tall and strong mares in such park and shall not allow them to
be mounted by any short horse, because the breeding of good, swift, and
strong horses has diminished.
A man may have only as many trotting horses for the saddle as
are appropriate to his degree.
No one may maintain for a living a house for unlawful games
such as bowling, tennis, dice, or cards. No artificer, craftsman,
husbandman, apprentice, laborer, journeyman, mariner, fisherman may
play these games except at Christmas under his master's supervision.
Noblemen and others with a yearly income of at least 2,000s. may allow
his servants to play these games at his house.
Hemp or flax may not be watered in any river or stream where
animals are watered.
No one shall sell merchandise to another and then buy back the
same merchandise within three months at a lower price. No one shall
sell merchandise to be paid for in a year above the sum of 200s. per
2000s. worth of merchandise. No one shall sell or mortgage any land
upon condition of payment of a sum of money before a certain date above
the sum of 200s. per 2000s. per year.
No one shall commit forgery by counterfeiting a letter made in
another person's name to steal any money, goods, or jewels.
No one shall libel by accusing another of treason in writing
and leaving it in an open place without subscribing his own name to it.
If any servant converts to his own use more than 40s. worth of
jewels, money, or goods from caskets entrusted to him for safekeeping
by a nobleman or other master or mistress, it shall be a felony.
If a person breaks into a dwelling house by night to commit
burglary or murder, is killed by anyone in that house, or a person is
killed in self-defense, the killer shall not forfeit any lands or goods
for the killing.
Killing by poisoning shall be deemed murder and is punishable
by death.
A person who has committed a murder, robbery, or other felony
he has committed shall be imprisoned for his natural life and be burned
on the hand, because those who have been exiled have disclosed their
knowledge of the commodities and secrets of this nation and gathered
together to practice archery for the benefit of the foreign realm. If
he escapes such imprisonment, he shall forfeit his life.
A person convicted or outlawed shall be penalized by loss of
life, but not loss of lands or goods, which shall go to his wife as
dower and his heirs.
Buggery may not be committed on any person or beast.
No one shall slander or libel the king by speeches or writing
or printing or painting.
No one shall steal fish from a pond on another's land by using
nets or hooks with bait or by drying up the pond.
The mayor of London shall appoint householders to supervise
watermen rowing people across the Thames River because many people have
been robbed and drowned by these rowers. All such boats must be at
least 23 feet long and 5 feet wide.
No man shall take away or marry any maiden under 16 years of
age with an inheritance against the will of her father.
Any marriage solemnized in church and consummated shall be
valid regardless of any prior agreement for marriage.
Sheriffs shall not lose their office because they have not
collected enough money for the Exchequer, but shall have allowances
sufficient to perform their duties.
Butchers, brewers, and bakers shall not conspire together to
sell their victuals only at certain prices. Artificers, workmen and
laborers shall not conspire to work only at a certain rate or only at
certain hours of the day.
No one shall sell any woolen cloth that shrinks when it is wet.
No one shall use a rope or device to stretch cloth for sale so
to make it appear as more in quantity than it is.
No one may sell cloth at retail unless the town where it was
dressed, dyed, and pressed has placed its seal on the cloth. Cloth may
not be pressed with a hot press, but only with a cold press.
Only artificers using the cutting of leather, may buy and sell
tanned leather and only for the purpose of converting it into made
wares.
A beggar's child above five years may be taken into service by
anyone that will.
Cattle may be bought only in the open fair or market and only
by a butcher or for a household, team, or dairy, but not for resale
live.
Butter and cheese shall not be bought to be sold again except
at retail in open shop, fair, or market.
No man may enter a craft of cloth-making until he has been an
apprentice for seven years or has married a clothiers' wife and
practicing the trade for years with her and her servants sorting the
wool.
No country person shall sell wares such as linen drapery, wool
drapery, hats, or groceries by retail in any incorporated town, but
only in open fairs.
For every 60 sheep there shall be kept one milk cow because of
the scarcity of cattle.
No clothier may keep more than one wool loom in his house,
because many weavers do not have enough work to support their families.
No weaver may have more than two wool looms.
No clothmaker, fuller, shearman, weaver, tailor, or shoemaker
shall retain a journeyman to work by the piece for less than a three
month period. Every craftsman who has three apprentices shall have one
journeyman. Servants in agriculture and bargemen shall serve by the
whole year and not by day wages.
There shall be a sales tax of 12d. per pound of wool cloth
goods for the Crown.
All people shall attend church on Sundays to remember God's
benefits and goodness to all and to give thanks for these with prayers
and to pray to be given daily necessities.
Anyone fighting in church shall be excluded from the fellowship
of the parish community.
No one going from house to house to repair metal goods or sell
small goods he is carrying may do this trade outside the town where he
lives.
No one may sell ale or beer without a license, because there
have been too many disorders in common alehouses. Offenders may be put
in the town or county gaol for three days.
Only persons with yearly incomes of 1,333s. or owning goods
worth 13,333s. may store wine in his house and only for the use of his
household.
No one may sell forged iron, calling it steel, because the
edged tools and weapons made from it are useless.
Parish communities shall repair the highways for four days each
year using oxen, cart, plough, shovels, and spades.
The children of priests are declared legitimate so they may
inherit their ancestor's lands. The priests may be tenants by courtesy
after the death of their wives of such land and tenements that their
wives happened to be seized of in fee simple or in fee tail, during the
spousals.
As of 1541, it was felony to practice witchcraft, sorcery,
enchantment, or conjuration [invocation of spirits] for the purpose 1)
of obtaining money, or 2) to consume any person in his body, members,
or goods, or 3) to provoke any person to unlawful love or lucre of
money, or 4) to declare where stolen goods be, or 5) to despite Christ,
or 6) to pull down any cross.
The Year Books of case decisions ceased in 1535.
Judicial Procedure
Since the nation was now peaceful, expediency was no longer
needed, so judicial procedures again became lengthy and formal with
records.
The Privy Council took the authority of the Star Chamber court,
which organized itself as a specialty court.
A specific group of full-time councilors heard pleas of private
suitors. By royal proclamation of 1546, only those admitted by the
Chancellor and two chief justices may practice as counsel or in legal
pleading in any of the King's courts. Also, such a person must be
serjeant-at-law, reader, utter barrister, or an eight-year fellow of
one of the four houses of court, except in the Court of Common Pleas.
Doctors of the civil law may practice in the church or Chancery
courts.
The Chancery court enforced the obligations known as trusts, in
the name of equity and good conscience. It adopted every analogy that
the common law presented. Its procedure was to force the defendant to
answer on oath the charges that were brought against him. All pleadings
and usually testimony was put into writing. Much evidence consisted of
written affidavits. There was no jury. The Chancery court did not
record its decisions apparently because it did not see itself as bound
by precedents.
When acting as the highest court, the House of Lords was
presided over by the Chancellor, who sat on his prescribed place on the
wool sacks. It had the following jurisdiction: trial of peers for high
treason and serious felony, appeals on writs of error from courts of
the common law, and impeachment. The House of Lords served as judge of
impeachment cases, whereas the House of Commons served as fact finders.
Witnesses could be sworn in to state pertinent facts necessary
for full understanding and adjudication of cases, because they are
reliable now that there is no unlicensed livery and maintenance and
because jurors no longer necessarily know all the relevant facts.
Justices shall tax inhabitants of the county for building gaols
throughout the nation, for imprisonment of felons, to be kept by the
sheriffs and repaired out of the Exchequer.
Piracy at sea or in river or creek or port are adjudicated in
counties because of the difficulty of obtaining witnesses from the
ship, who might be murdered or who are on other voyages on the sea, for
adjudication by the admiral.
Piracy and murder on ships is punishable by death only after
confession or proof by disinterested witnesses.
Land held by tenants in common may be partitioned by court
order, because some of these tenants have cut down all the trees to
take the wood and pulled down the houses to convert the material to
their own use.
Persons worth 800s. a year in goods shall be admitted in trials
of felons in corporate towns although they have no freehold of land.
Each justice of the high courts may employ one chaplain.
The bishops, nobility, and Justices of the Peace were commanded
to imprison clergy who taught papal authority. Justices of the Peace
and sheriffs were to watch over the bishops. The Justices of Assize
were to assess the effectiveness of the Justices of the Peace as well
as enforce the treason statute on circuit.
The criminal court went outside the common law to prosecute
political enemies, e.g. by dispensing with a jury.
The leet court and sheriff's turn court have much less
jurisdiction. They may dispose of presentments of trespasses and
nuisances, but not felony or question of freehold. Such presentments
are made by a set of at least twelve men, and the presented person is
amerced there and then.
The humanist intellectual revival caused the church courts to
try to eliminate contradictions with state law, for instance in debt,
restitution, illegitimacy, and the age of legal majority.
An example of a case in the King's Bench is this: "A French
priest was indicted in Kent for bringing false ducats into the realm in
order to make payment, knowing them to be false. He was thereupon
arraigned and found guilty, and the judgment was respited and the
record sent into the King's Bench. And there he was discharged; for the
statute of 25 Edw. 3 is for bringing (in) false money counterfeiting
coin of the realm, and the ducats are not coin of the realm"
In the case of R. v. Thorpe "A man robbed a church in Essex
and was indicted for it in Essex; and he went to Ipswich in Suffolk and
a goldsmith received him; and they were both indicted in Suffolk, one
as principal and the other as accessory, because the principal had
brought part of the stolen goods to Ipswich. And the justices in Essex
sent a writ for the principal, whereby he was there arraigned and found
guilty and hanged. Then the other indictment in Suffolk was removed
into the King's Bench, and upon process the sheriff returned the
principal dead; so the accessory came by process and pleaded the death
of the principal, and the attorney for the king confessed it, and
therefore he was discharged."
In the case of R. v. More, "And then on Thursday, the first day
of July, Sir Thomas more, knight (who had earlier been Chancellor of
England and was afterwards discharged from the same office) was
arraigned before the said SIR THOMAS AUDLEY, Chancellor and the other
commissioners, for treason, in that he was an aider, counsellor and
abettor to the said Fisher, and also that he falsely, maliciously, and
traitorously desiring, willing, and scheming, contrived, practised and
attempted to deprive the king of his dignity, name and title of Supreme
Head on earth of the Church of England. (He was) found guilty, and the
said Chancellor gave judgment. And the said More stood firmly upon the
statute of 26 Hen 8, for he said that the Parliament could not make the
king Supreme Head, etc. He was beheaded at Tower Hill,"