Chapter 14

The Times: 1601-1625

Due in part to increasing population, the prices of foodstuffs

had risen sixfold from the later 1400s, during which it had been

stable. This inflation gradually impoverished those living on fixed

wages. Landlords could insist on even shorter leases and higher rents.

London quadrupled in population. Many lands that were in scattered

strips, pasture lands, waste lands, and lands gained from drainage and

disafforestation were enclosed for the introduction of convertible

agriculture (e.g. market-oriented specialization) and only sometimes

for sheep. The accompanying extinguishment of common rights was

devastating to small tenants and cottagers. Gentry and yeomen benefited

greatly. There was a gradual consolidation of the land into fewer hands

and demise of the small family farm. In towns, the mass of poor,

unskilled workers with irregular work grew. Prices finally flattened

out in the 1620s.

Society became polarized with a wealthy few growing wealthier

and a mass of poor growing poorer. This social stratification became a

permanent fixture of English society. Poverty was no longer due to

death of a spouse or parent, sickness or injury, or a phase in the life

cycle such as youth or old age. Many full-time wage earners were in

constant danger of destitution. More subdivided land holdings in the

country made holdings of cottagers minuscule. But these were eligible

for parish relief under the poor laws. Beside them were substantial

numbers of rogues and vagabonds wandering the roads. These vagrants

were usually young unmarried men. There were no more licensed liveries

of lords.

During the time 1580 to 1680, there were distinct social

classes in England which determined dress, convention in comportment

which determined face-to-face contacts between superiors and inferiors,

order of seating in church, place arrangement at tables, and rank order

in public processions. It was influenced by power, wealth, life-style,

educational level, and birth. The various classes lived in separate

worlds; their paths did not cross each other. People moved only within

their own class. Each class had a separate existence as well as a

different life style from the other classes. So each class developed a

wariness of other classes. However, there was much social mobility

between adjacent classes.

At the top were the gentry, about 2% of the population. Theirs

was a landed wealth with large estate mansions. They employed many

servants and could live a life of leisure. Their lady wives often

managed the household with many servants and freely visited friends and

went out shopping, riding, or walking. They conversed with neighbors

and made merry with them at childbirths, christenings, churchings, and

funerals. Gentlemen usually had positions of responsibility such as

lords of manors and leaders in their parishes. These families often

sent the oldest son to university to become a Justice of the Peace and

then a member of Parliament. They also served as county officers such

as High Constable of their hundred and grand jury member. Their social,

economic, and family ties were at least countywide. They composed about

700 gentle families, including the peers, who had even more landed

wealth, which was geographically dispersed. After the peers were:

baronets (created in 1611), knights, esquires, and then ordinary

gentlemen. These titles were acquired by being the son of such or by

purchase. Most gentry had a house in London, where they spent most of

their time, as well as country mansions. About 4/5 of the land was in

the hands of 7,000 of the nobility and landed gentry due in part to

estate tails constructed by attorneys to favor hereditary interests.

The gentry had also profited by commerce and possessions in the

colonies. The country life of a country squire or gentleman dealt with

all the daily affairs of a farm. He had men plough, sow, and reap. He

takes part in the haying and getting cut grass under cover when a rain

came. His sow farrows; his horse is gelded; a first lamb is born. He

drags his pond and takes out great carps. His horses stray and he finds

them in the pound. Boys are bound to him for service. He hires

servants, and some work out their time and some run away. Knaves steal

his sheep. His hog is stabbed. He and a neighbor argue about the

setting up of a cottage. He borrows money for a daughter's dowry. He

holds a leet court. He attends church on Sunday and reads the lesson

when called upon. He visits the local tavern to hear from his

neighbors. Country folk brawl. Wenches get pregnant. Men commit

suicide, usually by hanging. Many gentlemen spent their fortunes and

died poor. New gentlemen from the lower classes took their places.

The second class included the wealthier merchants and

professional men of the towns. These men were prominent in town

government. They usually had close family ties with the gentry,

especially as sons. When wealthy enough, they often bought a country

estate. The professional men included military officers, civil service

officials, attorneys, some physicians, and a few clergymen. The

instabilities of trade, high mortality rates in the towns, and high

turnover rate among the leading urban families prevented any separate

urban interest group arising that would be opposed to the landed

gentry. Also included in this second group were the most prosperous

yeomanry of the countryside.

The third class was the yeomanry at large, which included many

more than the initial group who possessed land in freehold of at least

40s., partly due to inflation. Freehold was the superior form of

holding land because one was free to sell, exchange, or devise the land

and had a political right to vote in Parliamentary elections. Other

yeomen were those who possessed enough land, as copyholder or

leaseholder, to be protected from fluctuations in the amount of the

annual harvest, that is, at least 50 acres. A copyholder rented land

from a lord for a period of years or lives, usually three lives

including that of the widow, and paid a substantial amount whenever the

copyhold came up for renewal. The copyholder and leaseholder were

distinguished from the mere tenant-at-will, whose only right was to

gather his growing crop when his landlord decided to terminate his

tenancy. The average yeoman had a one and a half story house, with a

milkhouse, a malthouse, and other small buildings attached to the

dwelling. The house would contain a main living room, a parlor, where

there would be one or more beds, and several other rooms with beds. No

longer was there a central great hall. Cooking was done in a kitchen or

over the open fire in the fireplace of the main room. Furniture

included large oak tables, stools, long bencches with or without backs,

chests, cupboards, and a few hard-backed simple chairs. Dishware was

wood or pewter. The yeomen often became sureties for recognizances,

witnesses to wills, parish managers, churchwardens, vestrymen, the

chief civil officers of parishes and towns, overseers of the poor,

surveyors of bridges and highways, jurymen and constables for the

Justices of the Peace, and sheriffs' bailiffs. The families and

servants of these yeomen ate meat, fish, wheaten bread, beer, cheese,

milk, butter, and fruit. Their wives were responsible for the dairy,

poultry, orchard, garden, and perhaps pigs. They smoked and cured hams

and bacon, salted fish, dried herbs for the kitchen or lavender and

pot-pourri for sweetening the linen, and arranged apples and roots in

lofts or long garrets under the roof to last the winter. They preserved

fruits candied or in syrup. They preserved wines; made perfumes, washes

for preserving the hair and complexion, rosemary to cleanse the hair,

and elder-flower water for sunburn; distilled beverages; ordered wool

hemp, and flax to spin for cloth (the weaving was usually done in the

village); fashioned and sewed clothes and house linens; embroidered;

dyed; malted oats; brewed; baked; and extracted oils. Many prepared

herb medicines and treated injuries, such as dressing wounds, binding

arteries, and setting broken bones. Wives also ploughed and sowed,

weeded the crops, and sheared sheep. They sometimes cared for the poor

and sold produce at the market. Some yeomen were also tanners,

painters, carpenters, or blacksmiths; and as such they were frequently

brought before the Justices of the Peace for exercising a craft without

having served an apprenticeship. The third class also included the

freemen of the towns, who could engage independently in trade and had

political rights. These freemen were about one-third of the male

population of the town.

The fourth class included the ordinary farmer leasing by

copyhold, for usually 21 years, five to fifty acres. From this class

were drawn sidesmen [assistants to churchwardens] and constables. They

had neither voice nor authority in government. Their daily diet was

bacon, beer, bread, and cheese. Also in this class were the independent

urban craftsmen who were not town freemen. Their only voice in

government was at the parish level.

The fifth and lowest class included the laborers and cottagers,

who were usually tenants at will. They were dependent on day labor.

They started work at dawn, had breakfast for half an hour at six,

worked until dinner, and then until supper at about six; in the summer

they would then do chores around the barns until eight or nine. Some

were hedgers, ditchers, ploughmen, reapers, shepherds, and herdsmen.

The cottagers' typical earnings of about 1s. a day amounted to about

200 shillings a year, which was almost subsistence level. Accordingly

they also farmed a little on their four acres of land with garden. Some

also had a few animals. They lived in one or two room cottages of clay

and branches of trees or wood, sometimes with a brick fireplace and

chimney, and few windows. They ate bread, cheese, lard, soup, and

greens. If a laborer was unmarried, he lived with the farmer. Theirs

was a constant battle for survival. They often moved, because of

deprivation, to seek opportunity elsewhere. The town wage-earning

laborers ranged from journeymen craftsmen to poor casual laborers. The

mass of workers in London were not members of guilds, and the crime

rate was high.

The last three classes also contained rural craftsmen and

tradesmen, who also farmed. The variety of trades became very large,

e.g. tinsmiths, chain smiths, pewterers, violin makers, and glass

painters. The curriers, who prepared hides for shoemakers, coachmakers,

saddlers, and bookbinders, were incorporated.

The fourth and fifth classes comprised about three fourths of

the population.

Then there were the maritime groups: traders, ship owners,

master and seamen, and the fishers.

Over one fourth of all households had servants. They were the

social equals of day laborers, but materially better off with food and

clothing plus an allowance of money of two pounds [40s.] a year. Those

who sewed got additional pay for this work. There was no great chasm

between the family and the servants. They did not segregate into a

parlor class and a kitchen class. The top servants were as educated as

their masters and ate at the same table. Great households had a

chaplain and a steward to oversee the other servants. There was usually

a cook. Lower servants ate together. Servants were disciplined by cuffs

and slaps and by the rod by master or mistress. Maids wore short gowns,

a large apron, and a gypsy hat tied down over a cap. Chamber maids

helped to dress their mistresses. Servants might sleep on trundle beds

stored under their master's or mistress's bed, in a separate room, or

on the straw loft over the stables. A footman wore a blue tunic or

skirted coat with corded loop fasteners, knee-britches, and white

stockings. He walked or ran on foot by the side of his master or

mistress when they rode out on horseback or in a carriage and ran

errands for him, such as leading a lame horse home or running messages.

A good footman is described in this reference letter: "Sir, - You wrote

me lately for a footman, and I think this bearer will fit you: I know

he can run well, for he has run away twice from me, but he knew the way

back again: yet, though he has a running head as well as running heels

(and who will expect a footman to be a stayed man) I would not part

with him were I not to go post to the North. There be some things in

him that answer for his waggeries: he will come when you call him, go

when you bid him, and shut the door after him; he is faithful and

stout, and a lover of his master. He is a great enemy to all dogs, if

they bark at him in his running; for I have seen him confront a huge

mastiff, and knock him down. When you go a country journey, or have him

run with you a-hunting, you must spirit him with liquor; you must allow

him also something extraordinary for socks, else you must not have him

wait at your table; when his grease melts in running hard, it is

subject to fall into his toes. I send him to you but for trial, if he

be not for your turn, turn him over to me again when I come back..."

Dress was not as elaborate as in Elizabethan times. For

instance, fewer jewels were worn. Ladies typically wore a brooch,

earrings, and pearl necklaces. Men also wore earrings. Watches with

elaborate cases were common. Women's dresses were of satin, taffeta,

and velvet, and were made by dressmakers. Pockets were carried in the

hand, fastened to the waist by a ribbon, or sewn in petticoats and

accessible by a placket opening. The corset was greatly reduced.

Women's hair was in little natural-looking curls, a few small tendrils

on the forehead with soft ringlets behind the ears, and the back coiled

into a simple knot. Men also wore their hair in ringlets. They had

pockets in their trousers, first as a cloth pouch inserted into an

opening in the side seam, and later sewn into the side seam. The

bereaved wore black, and widows wore a black veil over their head until

they remarried or died. Rouge was worn by lower class women.

Toothbrushes, made with horsehair, were a new and costly luxury. The

law dictating what classes could wear what clothes was difficult to

enforce and the last such law was in 1597.

Merchants who had become rich by pirating could now afford to

extend their trading ventures well beyond the Atlantic sea. Cotton

chintzes, calicoes, taffetas, muslins, and ginghams from India now

became fashionable as dress fabrics. Simple cotton replaced linen as

the norm for napkins, tablecloths, bed sheets, and underwear. Then it

became the fashion to use calicoes for curtains, cushions, chairs, and

beds. Its inexpensiveness made these items affordable for many. There

was a cotton-weaving industry in England from about 1621, established

by cotton workmen who fled to England in 1585 from Antwerp, which had

been captured. By 1616, there were automatic weaving looms in London

which could be operated by a novice.

Even large houses now tended to do without a courtyard and

became compacted into one soaring and stately whole. A typical country

house had deep-set windows of glass looking into a walled green court

with a sundial in it and fringed around with small trees. The gables

roofs were steep and full of crooks and angles, and covered with rough

slate if there was a source for such nearby. There was an extensive use

of red tile, either rectangular or other shapes and with design such as

fishscales. The rooms are broad and spacious and include hall, great

parlor, little parlor, matted chamber, and study. In the hall was still

the great, heavy table. Dining tables were covered with cloth, carpet,

or printed leather. Meals were increasingly eaten in a parlor. Noble

men now preferred to be waited upon by pages and grooms instead of by

their social equals as before. After dinner, they deserted the parlor

to retire into drawing rooms for conversation and desserts of sweet

wine and spiced delicacies supplemented by fruit. Afterward, there

might be dancing and then supper. In smaller parlors, there was

increasing use of oval oak tables with folding leaves. Chests of

drawers richly carved or inlaid and with brass handles were coming into

increased use. Walls were lined with panels and had pictures or were

hung with tapestry. Carpets, rugs, and curtains kept people warm. There

were many stools to sit on, and some arm chairs. Wide and handsome open

staircases separated the floors. Upstairs, the sitting and bedrooms

open into each other with broad, heavy doors. Bedrooms had four-post

beds and wardrobes with shelves and pegs. Under the roof are garrets,

apple-lofts, and root-chambers. Underneath is a cellar. Outside is a

farmyard with outbuildings such as bake house, dairy, cheese-press

house, brewery, stilling house, malt house, fowl house, dove cot, pig

stye, slaughter-house, wood house, barns, stable, and sometimes a mill.

There were stew-ponds for fish and a park with a decoy for wild fowl.

There was also a laundry, carpenter's bench, blacksmith's forge, and

pots and equipment of a house painter.

In the 1600s, towns were fortified by walled ditches instead of

relying on castles, which couldn't contain enough men to protect the

townspeople. Also in towns, water was supplied by local pumps and

wells. In 1613, a thirty-eight-mile aqueduct brought spring water into

London. In the country, floors were of polished wood or stone and

strewn with rushes. A ladies' attendant might sleep the same bedroom on

a bed which slid under the ladies' bed. Apprentices and shop boys had

to sleep under the counter. Country laborers slept in a loft on straw.

Bread was made in each household. There were bedroom chairs with

enclosed chamber pots.

Wood fires were the usual type. Coal was coming into use in the

towns and near coal mines. Charcoal was also used. Food was roasted on

a spit over a fire, baked, or broiled. People still licked their

fingers at meals. The well-to-do had wax candles. Tallow dips were used

by the poor and for the kitchen. People drank cordials and homemade

wines made with grapes, currants, oranges, or ginger. Some mead was

also drunk.

Tobacco, potatoes, tea, asparagus, kidney beans, scarlet

runners, cardoons (similar to artichokes), horseradish, sugarcane, and

turkeys for Christmas, were introduced from the New World, China, and

India. Tea was a rare and expensive luxury. Coffee was a new drink.

With the cane sugar was made sweetened puddings, pies, and drinks. The

potato caused the advent of distillation of concentrated alcohol from

fermented potato mashes. There was a distiller's company by 1638.

Distilleries' drinks had higher alcoholic content than wine or beer.

The Merchant Adventurers sold in town stores silks, satins,

diamonds, pearls, silver, and gold. There were women peddlers selling

hats and hosiery from door to door and women shopkeepers, booksellers,

alehouse keepers, linen drapers, brewers, and ale- wives. London had

polluted air and water, industrial noise, and traffic congestion.

Work on farms was still year-round. In January and February,

fields were ploughed and harrowed and the manure spread. Also, trees

and hedges were set, fruit trees pruned, and timber lopped. In March

and April, the fields were stirred again and the wheat and rye sown. In

May gardens were planted, hop vines trained to poles, ditches scoured,

lambs weaned, and sheep watched for "rot". In June sheep were washed

and sheared, and fields were spread with lime and clay, and manured. In

July hay was cut, dried, and stacked. In August crops were harvested,

which called for extra help from neighbors and townsmen who took

holidays at harvesting. Then there was threshing, and the sowing of

winter wheat and rye. In the autumn, cider from apples and perry from

pears might be made. By November the fall planting was finished and the

time had come for the killing of cattle and hanging up their salted

carcasses for winter meat. Straw would be laid down with dung, to be

spread next spring on the fields. Stock that could not live outdoors in

winter were brought into barns.

Government regulated the economy. In times of dearth, it

ordered Justices of the Peace to buy grain and sell it below cost. It

forbade employers to lay off workers whose products they could not

sell. It used the Star Chamber Court to enforce economic regulations.

Enclosures of land were made to carry on improved methods of

tillage, which yielded more grain and more sheep fleece. Drainage of

extensive marsh land created more land for agriculture. Waste land was

used to breed game and "fowling" contributed to farmers' and laborers'

livelihoods. Killing game was not the exclusive right of landowners,

but was a common privilege. The agricultural laborer, who worked for

wages and composed most of the wage- earning population, found it hard

to make ends meet.

There were food riots usually during years of harvest failure,

in which organized groups seized foodstuffs being transported or in

markets. Also, there were enclosure riots, in which organized groups

destroyed hedges and fences erected in agrarian reorganization to

restrict access to or to subdivide former common pasture land. These

self- help riots were last resorts to appeals. They were relatively

orderly and did not expand into random violence. The rioters were

seldom punished more than a fining or whipping of the leaders and

action was taken to satisfy their legitimate grievances.

The poor came to resent the rich and there was a rise in crime

among the poor. Penal laws were frequently updated in an effort to

bring more order.

In 1610, weekly wages for a mason were 8s. or 5s., for a

laborer were 6s. or 4s., for a carpenter 8s. or 6s. An unskilled

laborer received 1s. a day.

There were conventions of paternalism and deference between

neighbors of unequal social status. A social superior often protected

his lessers from impoverishment For instance, the landlord lessened

rents in times of harvest failure. A social superior would help find

employment for a lesser person or his children, stand surety for a

recognizance, intervene in a court case, or have his wife tend a sick

member of his lesser's family. A social obligation was felt by most of

the rich, the landlords, the yeomen farmers, and the clergy. This

system of paternalism and social deference was expressed and reinforced

at commonly attended village sports and games, dances, wakes and "ales"

(the proceeds of which went to the relief of a certain person in

distress), "rush-bearings", parish feasts, weddings, christenings,

"churchings" to give thanks for births, and funerals. Even the poor

were buried in coffins. Also there was social interaction at the local

alehouse, where neighbors drank, talked, sang, and played at bowls or

"shove goat" together.

Quarrelling was commonplace. For instance, borough authorities

would squabble over the choice of a schoolmaster; the parson would

carry on a long fight with parishioners over tithe hens and pigs; two

country gentlemen would continue a vendetta started by their

great-grandfathers over a ditch or hunting rights; the parishioners

would wrangle with the churchwardens over the allocation of pews. The

position of one's pew reflected social position. Men tried to keep the

pews of their ancestors and the newly prosperous wanted the recognition

in the better pews, for which they had to pay a higher amount. But, on

the other hand, farmers were full of good will toward their neighbors.

They lent farm and kitchen equipment, helped raise timbers for a

neighbor's new barn, sent food and cooked dishes to those providing a

funeral feast and to the sick and incurable.

Village standards of behavior required that a person not to

drink to excess, quarrel, argue, profane, gossip, cause a nuisance,

abuse wife or children, or harbor suspicious strangers, and to pay scot

and bear lot as he was asked. Neighbors generally got along well and

frequently borrowed and loaned small sums of money to each other

without interest for needs that suddenly arose. Bad behavior was

addressed by the church by mediation and, if this failed, by exclusion

from holy communion. There was also whipping and the stocks.

Marital sex was thought to be good for the health and happiness

of the husband and enjoyable by wives. The possibility of female orgasm

was encouraged. Both women and men were thought to have "seed" and

drank certain potions to cause pregnancy or to prevent birth. Some

argued that orgasm of both partners was necessary for the "seed" of the

male and female to mix to produce pregnancy. Most women were in a

virtual state of perpetual pregnancy. Both Catholics and Protestants

thought that God wanted them to multiply and cover the earth. Catholics

thought that the only goal of sex was procreation. Men were considered

ready for marriage only when they could support a family, which was

usually at about age 30. Brides were normally virgins, but there was

bridal pregnancy of about 20%. Women usually married at about age 25.

Marriages were usually within one's own class and religion. The

aristocracy often initiated matches of their children for the sake of

continuity in the family estates and tried to obtain the consent of

their children for the match in mind. The age of consent to marry was

14 for boys and 12 for girls. Girls in arranged marriages often married

at 13, and boys before they went to university. But the girls usually

stayed with their parents for a couple of years before living with

their husbands. If married before puberty, consummation of the marriage

waited for such time. In other classes, the initiative was usually

taken by the child. Dowries and marriage portions usually were given by

the parents of the bride. Wet-nurses frequently were used, even by

Puritans. There were no baby bottles. Many babies died, causing their

parents much grief. About 1/4 of women's deaths occurred during

childbirth. A child was deemed to be the husband's if he was within the

four seas, i.e. not in foreign lands, for an agreed length of time.

Illegitimacy was infrequent, and punished by church-mandated public

penance by the mother and lesser penance and maintenance by the father.

The church court punished adultery and defamation for improper sexual

conduct.

The established church still taught that the husband was to be

the authority in marriage and had the duty to provide for, protect, and

maintain his wife. Wives were to obey their husbands, but could also

admonish and advise their husbands without reproach. In literature,

women were portrayed as inferior to men intellectually and morally as

well as physically. In reality wives did not fit the image of women

portrayed by the church and literature. Quarrels between husband and

wife were not uncommon and were not stopped by a husband's assertion of

authority. Wives were very active in the harvesting and did casual

labor of washing, weeding, and stone-picking. Farmers' and tradesmen's

wives kept accounts, looked after the garden, orchard, pigs, and

poultry; brewed beer; spun wool and flax; and acted as agents in

business affairs. Wives of craftsmen and tradesmen participated

actively in their husbands' shops. Wives of weavers spun for their

husband's employers. Wives of the gentry ran their households with

their husbands. The lady of a large mansion superintended the

household, ordering and looking after the servants, and seeing to the

education of her children. Mothers handed down their recipes to their

daughters. Women still did much needlework and embroidering for

clothing and house, such as cushions, screens, bed curtains, window

curtains, hangings, footstools, book covers, and small chests of

drawers for valuables. Liking simplicity, Puritan women did less of

this work.

Naming one's wife as executor of one's will was the norm.

Jointures [property for a widow] were negotiated at the betrothal of

ladies. Widows of manorial tenants were guaranteed by law one-third of

family real property, despite creditors. But most testators went beyond

this and gave a life interest in the farm or family house. So it was

customary for a widow to remain in occupation of the land until her

death or remarriage. Few widows or widowers lived with one of their

children. Widows usually had their husband's guild rights and

privileges conferred upon them, e.g. to receive apprentices. In London,

custom gave 1/3 of a deceased husband's estate to his wife on his

death, but 2/3 if there were no children. The other part went according

to his will. If a widow did not remarry in memory of her

husband, she was esteemed. But remarriage was common because the life

expectancy after birth was about 35 years.

Sons of the well-to-do went into law, the Church, the army, or

the navy. If not fit for such, they usually went into a trade,

apprenticing, for instance, with a draper, silk merchant, or goldsmith.

Sometimes a son was sent to the house of a great man as a page or

esquire to learn the ways of courtiers and perhaps become a diplomat.

The guild with its master and their employees was being

replaced by a company of masters.

James I ruled over both England and Scotland. He had come from

Scotland, so was unfamiliar with English love of their rights, passion

for liberty and justice, and extensive discussing of religion and

quoting scripture. When he came to the throne, he had a conference with

a group of Puritans who asked for certain reforms: ceremonies such as

the cross in baptism and the ring in marriage should not be used, only

educated men competent to preach should be made ministers, bishops

should not be allowed to hold benefices that they did not administer,

and minor officials should not excommunicate for trifles and

twelve-penny matters. He not only denied their requests, but had the

English Bible revised into the King James version, which was published

in 1611. This was to replace the popular Geneva Bible written by

English Protestant refugees from Catholic Queen Mary's reign, which he

did not like because some of its commentary was not highly favorable to

kings. James didn't believe a king had to live by the law; he hadn't as

king of Scotland. He tried to imbue into England the idea of a divine

right of kings to rule that he had held in Scotland. The established

church quickly endorsed and preached this idea.

The selection of the clergy of the parish churches was now

often in the hands of the parishioners, having been sold to them by the

patron lord of the manor. Some patrons sold the right of selection to a

tradesman or yeoman who wished to select his son or a relative. Some

rights of selection were in the hands of bishops, the colleges, and the

Crown. The parish clergyman was appointed for life and removed only for

grave cause. Most parishioners wanted a sermon created by their

minister instead of repetitious homilies and constant prayer. They

thought that the object of worship in church was to rouse men to think

and act about the problems of the world.

In 1622, the King mandated that clergymen quote scripture only

in context of the Book of Articles of Religion of 1562 or the two Books

of Homilies and not preach any sermon on Sunday afternoon except on

some part of the Catechism or some text out of the Creed, Ten

Commandments, or the Lord's Prayer.

The Puritan movement grew. About 5% of the Protestants were

Puritans. These included country gentlemen and wealthier traders. They

dressed simply in gray or other drab colors and wore their hair short

to protest the fashion of long curls. They lived simply and disapproved

of dancing because it induced lasciviousness and of theater because of

its lewdness. Theaters and brothels still shared the same

neighborhoods, the same customers, and sometimes the same employees.

Prostitutes went to plays to find customers; men shouldered and shoved

each other in competing to sit next to attractive women to get to know

them. The Puritans also disapproved of cock fights because they led to

gambling and disorder, and Maypole celebrations because of their

paganism. There was less humor. Many became stoics. The Puritan church

ceremonies were plain, with no ornamentation. Puritans prayed several

times a day and read the Bible to each other in family groups to look

for guidance in their conduct and life. They asked for God to intervene

in personal matters and looked for signs of his pleasure or displeasure

in happenings such as a tree falling close but not touching him, or his

horse throwing him without injury to him. When there was an illness in

the family or misfortune, they examined their past life for sins and

tried to correct shortcomings. They circulated records of puritan lives

including spiritual diaries. They believed in the equality of men and

that a good man was better than a bad peer, bishop, or king. Puritan

influence made families closer and not merely dependent on the will of

the husband or father. There was a sense of spiritual fellowship among

family members as individuals. They emphasized the real need of a

lasting love relationship between husband and wife, so a mutual liking

that could develop into love between a young couple in an arranged

match was essential.

Most Puritans felt that the bishops were as tyrannical as the

pope had been and that more reform was needed. They favored the

Presbyterian form of church government developed by John Calvin in

Switzerland. The presbyter was the position below bishop. Parishes were

governed by boards consisting of a minister and lay elders elected by

the parishioners. These boards sent elected representatives to

councils. All lay elders and ministers had equal rank with each other.

The Calvinist God preordained salvation only for the elect and

damnation and everlasting punishment for the rest of humanity, but the

Puritans had an optimism about avoiding this damnation. They believed

that at his conversion a person received grace, which was a sign that

he was predestined for salvation. They rejected all ecclesiastical

institutions except as established by each parish over its own elected

pastor and members. They rejected the established church's control from

the top by bishops. They believed in negotiating directly with God for

the welfare of the soul without the priest or church organization.

The fear of witchcraft grew with Puritanism. Poor decrepit old

defenseless women, often deformed and feeble-minded, were thought to be

witches. Their warts and tumors were thought to be teats for the devil

to suck or the devil's mark. Cursing or ill-tempers, probably from old

age pains, or having cats were further indications of witchery.

When the king learned in 1618 that the English Puritans had

prevented certain recreations after the Sunday service, he proclaimed

that the people should not be restrained from lawful recreations and

exercise such as dancing, May-games, Whitsunales, Morris-dances,

May-pole sports, archery for men, leaping, and vaulting. Also women

could carry rushes to decorate the church as they had done in the past.

His stated purpose was to prevent people such as Catholics from being

deterred from conversion, to promote physical fitness for war, and to

keep people from drinking and making discontented speeches in their ale

houses. Still unlawful on Sunday were bear and bull baitings and

bowlings.

Besides the Puritans, there were other Independent sects, such

as the Congregationalists, whose churches gathered together by the

inspiration of Jesus. This sect was started by English merchants

residing in Holland who set up congregations of Englishmen under their

patronage there; they kept minister and elders well under their

control. The Baptists emerged out of the Independents. They believed

that only adults, who were capable of full belief, and not children,

could be baptized. They also believed that it was the right of any man

to seek God's truth for himself in the scriptures and that obedience to

the state should not extend beyond personal conscience.

One fourth of all children born did not live to the age of ten,

most dying in their first year. Babies had close caps over their head,

a rattle, and slept in a sturdy wood cradle that rocked on the floor,

usually near the hearth. Babies of wealthier families had nurses. The

babies of ladies were suckled by wet nurses. Parents raised children

with affection and tried to prepare them to become independent

self-sustaining adults. There was less severity than in Tudor times,

although the maxim "spare the rod and spoil the child" was generally

believed, especially by Puritans, and applied to even very young

children. In disciplining a child, an admonition was first used, and

the rod as a last resort, with an explanation of the reasons for its

use. There were nursery rhymes and stories such as "Little Bo-Peep",

"Jack and the Beanstalk", "Tom Thumb", "Chicken Little", and Robin Hood

and King Arthur tales, and probably also "Puss in Boots", "Red

Ridinghood", "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", "Bluebeard" and

Aesop's Fables. "Little Jack Horner" who sat in a corner was a satire

on the Puritan aversion to Christmas pudding and sense of conscious

virtue. Toys included dolls, balls, drums, and hobby horses. Children

played "hide and seek", "here we go around the Mulberry bush", and

other group games. School children were taught by "horn books". This

was a piece of paper with the alphabet and perhaps a religious verse,

such as the Paternoster prayer, that was mounted on wood and covered

with thin horn to prevent tearing. Little girls cross-stitched the

alphabet and numerals on samplers. Block alphabets were coming into

use. Most market towns had a grammar school which would qualify a

student for university. They were attended by sons of noblemen, country

squires [poor gentlemen], merchants, and substantial yeomen, and in

some free schools, the poor. School hours were from 6:00 a.m. to noon

or later. Multiplication was taught. If affordable, families had their

children involved in education after they were small until they left

home at about fifteen for apprenticeship or service. Otherwise,

children worked with their families from the age of seven, e.g. carding

and spinning wool, until leaving home at about fifteen.

There were boarding schools such as Winchester, Eton,

Westminster, St. Paul's, and Merchant Taylors'. There, senior boys

selected for conduct and ability supervised younger boys. They thereby

got experience for a future in public life. The system was also a check

on bullying of the weak by the strong. The curriculum included Lilly's

"Grammar"; Aesop; Terence's Roman comic plays; Virgil's "Aeneid", the

national epic of Rome; Cicero's "Letters" reflecting Roman life;

Sallust's histories showing people and their motives; Caesar's

"Commentaries" on the Gallic and civil wars; Horace's "Epistles" about

life and poetry; poet Ovid's "Metamorphoses" on adventures and love

affairs of deities and heroes, "Fasti" on Roman religious festivals and

customs; Donatus' grammar book; and other ancient Latin authors.

Football, with hog bladders, and tennis were played. These schools were

self-supporting and did their own farming.

Private schools for girls were founded in and around London.

They were attended by daughters of the well-to-do merchant class,

nobility, and gentry. They were taught singing, playing of instruments,

dancing, French, fine sewing, embroidery, and sometimes arithmetic.

There were not many girls' boarding schools. Fewer served in the house

of some noble lady as before. Most commonly, the sons and daughters of

gentlemen and nobles were taught by private tutors. A tutor in the

house educated the girls to the same extent as the boys. Frequently,

the mother educated her daughters. A considerable number of girls of

other backgrounds such as the yeomanry and the town citizenry somehow

learned to read and write.

Boys began at university usually from age 14 to 18, but

sometimes as young as 12. The universities provided a broad-based

education in the classics, logic and rhetoric, history, theology, and

modern languages for gentlemen and gave a homogenous national culture

to the ruling class. There was a humanist ideal of a gentleman scholar.

The method of study was based largely on lectures and disputations.

Each fellow had about five students to tutor. In many cases, he took

charge of the finances of his students, paying his bills to tradesmen

and the college. His reimbursement by the students' fathers put them

into friendly contact with the family. The students slept in trundle

beds around his bed and had an adjacent room for study. Aristotle,

whose authority was paramount, remained the lynch pin of university

studies, especially for logic and dialectic. The study of rhetoric was

based on Quintilian, the Latin writer, and the Greek treatise of

Hermogenes of Tarsus. Also studied was Cicero's orations as models of

style. Examination for degrees was by disputation over a thesis of the

student. The B.A. degree was given after four years of study, and the

M.A. after three more. There were advanced degrees in civil law, which

required seven more years of study, medicine, seven years, divinity,

more than seven years, and music. Many of the men who continued for

advanced degrees became fellows and took part in the teaching. Most

fellowships were restricted to clerics. Oxford and Cambridge

Universities operated under a tutorial system. Access to grammar

schools and universities was closed to girls of whatever class. Oxford

University now had the Bodleian Library. In the universities, there

were three types of students: poor scholars, who received scholarships

and also performed various kinds of service such as kitchen work and

did errands for fellows such as carrying water and waiting on tables;

commoners, who paid low fees and were often the sons of economical

gentlemen or businessmen; and the Fellow Commoners, a privileged and

well-to-do minority, usually sons of noblemen or great country

gentlemen. The Fellow Commoners paid high fees, had large rooms,

sometimes had a personal tutor or servant, and had the right to eat

with the Fellows at High Table. Here, gentlemen made friends with their

social equals from all over the country. Students wore new- fashioned

gowns of many colors and colored stockings. They put on stage plays in

Latin and English. The students played at running, jumping, and

pitching the bar, and at the forbidden swimming and football. They were

not to have irreligious books or dogs. Cards and dice could be played

only at Christmas time. Students still drank, swore, and rioted, but

they were disallowed from going into town without special permission.

Those below a B.A. had to be accompanied by a tutor or an M.A. They

were forbidden from taverns, boxing matches, dances, cock fights, and

loitering in the street or market. Sometimes a disputation between two

colleges turned into a street brawl. Punishment was by flogging. Each

university had a chancellor, usually a great nobleman or statesman, who

represented the university in dealings with the government and

initiated policies. The vice-chancellor was appointed for a year from

the group of heads of college. He looked out for the government of

halls, enforced the rules of the university, kept its courts, licensed

wine shops, and shared control of the town with the mayor.

Tutors were common. They resided at the boy's house or took

boys to board with them at their houses in England or on the continent.

The tutor sometimes accompanied his student to grammar school or

university. Puritans frequently sent their sons to board in the house

of some Frenchman or Swiss Protestant to learn the Calvinist doctrines

or on tour with a tutor. Certain halls in the universities were

predominately Puritan. Catholics were required to have their children

taught in a home of a Protestant, a relative if possible.

The Inns of Court were known as "the third university". It

served the profession of law, and was a training ground for the sons of

nobility and the gentry and for those entering the service of the

commonwealth. The Inns were self-governing and ruled by custom.

Students were to live within the Inn, two to a room, but often there

were not enough rooms, so some students lived outside the quadrangles.

Every student was supposed to partake of Commons or meals for a certain

fraction of the year - from eight weeks to three months and there to

argue issues in cases brought up by their seniors. In hall the students

were not allowed to wear hats, though caps were permitted, nor were

they to appear booted or spurred or carrying swords. For the first two

years, they would read and talk much of the law, and were called Clerks

Commoners. After two years they became Mootmen or Inner Barristers. In

five or six years they might be selected to be called to the bar as

Utter Barristers, whose number was fixed. There was no formal

examination. The Utter Barrister spent at least three more years

performing exercises and assisting in directing the studies of the

younger men. After this time, he could plead in the general courts at

Westminster, but usually carried on law work in the offices of other

men and prepared cases for them. Participating in moots (practice

courts) was an important part of their education. Lectures on statutes

and their histories were given by Readers.

Physicians were licensed by universities, by the local bishop,

or in London, by the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Most were

university graduates, and because of the expense of the education, from

well-to-do families. For the B.A., they emphasized Greek. For the M.A.,

they studied the works of Greek physicians Galen and Hippocrates, Roman

physician Claudius, and perhaps some medieval authorities. After the

M.A., they listened to lectures by the Regius Professor of Medicine and

saw a few dissections. Three years of study gave them a M.B., and four

more years beyond this the M.D. degree. A physician's examination of a

patient cost 10s. The physician asked about his symptoms and feelings

of pain, looked at his eyes, looked at his body for spots indicative of

certain diseases, guessed whether he had a fever, felt his pulse, and

examined his urine and stool. There were no laboratory tests. Smallpox

was quickly recognized. Wrapping red cloth around the person and

covering the windows with red cloth being promoted healing without

scarring. Gout was frequent. Syphilis was common in London and other

large centers, especially in Court circles. It was ameliorated by

mercury. An imbalance of the four humors: blood, phlegm, choler, bile

was redressed by bloodletting, searing, draining, and/or purging. Heart

trouble was not easily diagnosed and cancer was not recognized as a

life-threatening disease. Childbirth was attended by physicians if the

patient was well-to-do or the case was serious. Otherwise women were

attended only by midwives. They often died in childbirth, many in their

twenties.

A visit by a physician cost 13s.4d. Melancholia, which made one

always fearful and full of dread, and mania, which made one think he

could do supernatural things, were considered to be types of madness

different from infirmities of the body. Despite a belief held by some

that anatomical investigation of the human body was a sin against the

holy ghost, physicians were allowed to dissect corpses. So there were

anatomy textbooks and anatomy was related to surgery. Barber-surgeons

extracted teeth and performed surgery. The white and red striped barber

pole initially indicated a place of surgery; The red represented blood

and the white bandages.

The theory of nutrition was still based on the four humors and

deficiency diseases were not understood as such. Physician William

Harvey, son of a yeoman, discovered the circulation of the blood from

heart to lungs to heart to body about 1617. He had studied anatomy at

Padua on the continent and received an M.D. there and later at

Cambridge. Then he accepted a position at the hospital of St.

Bartholomew to treat the poor who came there at least once a week for a

year. He agreed to give the poor full benefit of his knowledge, to

prescribe only such medicines as should do the poor good without regard

to the pecuniary interest of the apothecary accompanying him, to take

no reward from patients, and to render account for any negligence on

his part. He also dissected animals. One day he noted when stroking

downward on the back of one hand with the finger of the other, that a

vein seemed to disappear, but that it reappeared when he released his

finger. He surmised that there was a valve preventing the blood's

immediate return to the vein. Then he ascertained that the heart was a

pump that caused pulses, which had been thought to be caused by

throbbing of the veins. He tied the arteries and found that the

arterial blood flowed away from the heart. He tied the veins and found

that venal blood flowed into the heart. He found that the blood flowed

from the lungs to the left side of the heart, and from thence was

pumped out to the body. Blood also flowed from the body to the right

side of the heart, from which it was pumped to the lungs. The two

contractions closely followed one another, rather than occurring at the

same time. The valves in the veins prevented backflow. It was now clear

why all the blood could be drained away by a single opening in a vein.

It was also clear why a tight ligature, which blocked the arteries,

made a limb bloodless and pale and why a looser ligature, which pressed

only on the veins, made a limb swell turgid with blood. Multiplying an

estimate of the amount of blood per beat with the number of beats, he

concluded that the amount of blood did not change as it circulated. He

concluded that the only purpose of the heart was to circulate the

blood. This diminished the religious concept that the heart was the

seat of the soul and that blood had a spiritual significance and was

sacred.

The physicians turned surgery over to the surgeons, who

received a charter in 1605 by which barbers were excluded from all

surgical work except bloodletting and the drawing of teeth. Surgeons

dealt with skin disease, ulcers, hernia, bladder stones, and broken

bones, which they had some skill in setting. They performed

amputations, which were without antiseptics or anesthesia. Internal

operations usually resulted in death. Caesarian section was attempted,

but did not save the life of the mother. Apprenticeship was the route

to becoming a surgeon. A College of Surgeons was founded. Students

learned anatomy, for which they received the corpses of four executed

felons a year.

The apothecaries and grocers received a charter in 1607, but in

1618, the apothecaries were given the sole right to purchase and sell

potions, and to search the shops of grocers and stop the sale by them

of any potions. In London, the apothecaries were looked over by the

College of Physicians to see that they were not selling evil potions or

poisons. In 1618 was the first pharmacy book.

There were three hospitals in London, two for the poor, and

Bedlam [Bethlehem] Hospital for the insane. Others were treated at home

or in the physician's home.

Theaters were shut down in times of plague to prevent spread of

disease there. Towndwellers who could afford it left to live in the

country.

Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in this period. Most

popular reading was still Bibles, prayer books, psalm books, and

devotional works. Also popular were almanacs, which started with a

single sheet of paper. An almanac usually had a calendar; information

on fairs, roads, and posts; farming hints; popularized scientific

knowledge; historical information; sensational news; astrological

predictions; and later, social, political, and religious comment. Many

households had an almanac. Books tried to reconcile religion and

science as well as religion and passion or sensuality. Walter Ralegh's

"History of the World", written while he was in prison, was popular.

Ben Johnson wrote poetry and satiric comedies. Gentlemen read books of

manners such as James Cleland's "Institution of a Young Noble Man"

(1607). In 1622, the first regular weekly newspaper was started.

Although there was a large advance in the quality of boys'

education and in literacy, the great majority of the people were unable

to read fluently. Since writing was taught after one could read

fluently, literacy was indicated by the ability to sign one's name.

Almost all gentlemen and professional men were literate. About half the

yeomen and tradesmen and craftsmen were. Only about 15% of husbandmen,

laborers, servants, and women were literate.

The Elizabethan love of madrigal playing gradually gave way to

a taste for instrumental music, including organs and flutes. The violin

was introduced and popular with all classes. Ballads were sung, such as

"Barbary Allen", about a young man who died for love of her, after

which she died of sorrow. When they were buried next to each other, a

rose from his grave grew around a briar from her grave. The ballad

"Geordie" relates a story of a man hanged for stealing and selling

sixteen of the king's royal deer. The ballad "Matty Groves" is about a

great Lord's fair young bride seducing a lad, who was then killed by

the Lord. In the ballad "Henry Martin", the youngest man of three

brothers is chosen by lot to turn pirate to support his brothers. When

his pirate ship tries to take a merchant ship, there is sea fight in

which the merchant ship sinks and her men drown. The ballad "The Trees

They Do Grow High" tells of an arranged marriage between a 24 year old

woman and the 14 year old son of a great lord. She tied blue ribbons on

his head when he went to college to let the maidens know that he was

married. But he died at age 16, after having sired a son.

May Day was a holiday with dancing around a Maypole and people

dressed up as characters such as Queen of the May, Robin Hood, Little

John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marion, the fool, and the piper. New Year's Day

was changed to January 1st.

Golf was played in Scotland, and James introduced it into

England. James I was the last monarch to engage in falconry.

Francis Bacon wrote the "Advancement of Learning" and "Novum

Organum" (New Learning) in which he encouraged the use of the inductive

method to find out scientific truths and also truths in general, that

is reasoning from a sample to the whole. According to him, the only way

to arrive at the truth was to observe and determine the correlations of

facts. He advocated a process of elimination of hypothesized ideas.

First, experiments were made, then general conclusions were drawn from

them, and then these generalizations were tested in further

experiments. His "New Learning" showed the way out of the scholastic

method and reverence for dogma into the experimental method. He wrote

"Natural and Experimental History". He studied the effect of cold in

preventing animal putrefaction.

By this time, what was known about mathematics included

fractional exponents, trigonometry in terms of arcs of angles, long

division, square root symbol, decimal fractions, methods for solving

cubic equations, trigonometry in terms of ratios of sides of a right

triangle, equal sign, plus and minus signs, and a consistent theory of

imaginary numbers.

John Napier, a large Calvinist landholder in Scotland who had

built his own castle, did mathematics in his older years. He explored

imaginary numbers, which involve square roots of negative numbers. By

1614, he had started and developed the theory of logarithms: the

relationships among positive and negative exponents of numbers. This

simplified calculations because the multiplication and division of

numbers with a common base could be done by addition and subtraction of

their exponents. His table of logarithms, which took him twenty years

to compile, was used in trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy. It

reduced the enormous labor involved in trigonometric calculations. In

1622, Willliam Oughtred invented the slide rule for calculations.

Galileo Galilei was a professor of mathematics at the

University of Padua in Italy and was later a protege of the powerful

Medici family. He pioneered the scientific method of theory building by

observation of phenomena instead of resort to sources such as

Aristotle. He conducted experiments, e.g. throwing objects off the

tower of Pisa in 1590 to show that all, whether light or heavy, fall at

the same rate. This disproved the widely held belief that heavier

objects fall faster than light objects. He reasoned by induction from

experiments that the force of gravity has the same effect on all

objects regardless of their size or weight. His law stated that the

speed of their descent increases uniformly with the time of the fall,

i.e. speed [velocity] = gravity's acceleration multiplied by time. This

was a pioneering mathematization of a physical phenomenon.

From his observation that an object sliding along a plane

travels increasingly farther and slows down at a decreasing rate as the

surfaces become smoother and more lubricated, he opined that the

natural state of a body in motion is to stay in motion, and that it is

slowed down by a resistant force, which he called "friction". He

conceived of the air giving a frictional force to an object moving

through the air. From his experiments showing that a rolling ball rolls

up a plane farther the lesser the slope of the plane, he intuited that

if the plane were horizontal, the ball would never stop rolling except

for friction. He opined that bodies that are at rest stay at rest and

bodies that are in motion stay in uniform motion ("inertia"), unless

and until acted upon by some force. This was a radical departure from

Aristotle's theory that any horizontal motion requires a prime mover.

Galileo drew a graph of distance versus time for the rolling ball,

which indicated that the distance traveled was proportional to the

square of the time elapsed.

He put his ideas of vertical and horizontal motion together to

explain the movement of projectiles, which travel horizontally, but

also fall downward vertically. He realized that the movement of a

projectile involved a horizontal impetus of projection and a vertical

force of gravity, each being independent of the other, but acting

simultaneously, instead of sequentially. He demonstrated that a

projectile follows the path of a parabola, instead of a straight line,

and that it descends a vertical distance which is proportional to -the

square of the time taken to fall. That is, a thrown object will strike

the ground in the same amount of time as an object simply dropped from

the same height. This suggested that gravity was a constant force.

Galilieo described mathematically the motion of a lever such as

a seesaw in which the weight on one side multiplied by its distance

from the fulcrum is equal to the weight on the other side multiplied by

its distance from the fulcrum.

Galileo determined that a pendulum, such as a hanging lamp,

swings back and forth in equal intervals of time. He measured this time

with water running through a tube; the weight of the water was

proportional to the time elapsed. Also, pendulums with equal cord

length swing at the same rate, regardless of the substance, weight, or

shape of the material at the end. So a pendulum could be a mechanical

clock. - Galileo knew that ice floated on water because ice is less

dense and therefore lighter than water. It had formerly been thought

that ice was heavier than water, but floated on water because of its

shape, especially broad, flat-bottomed pieces of ice.

The telescope was invented in 1608. The next year, Galileo

built a greatly improved telescope to observe bodies in the skies. He

observed that the spots on the moon had shifting illumination and that

the moon's perimeter had a jagged outline. From this he deduced that

the surface of the moon had mountains, valleys, and craters much like

the earth, and was illuminated by reflected light. He noticed that the

planet Jupiter had moons orbiting it in a manner similar to the orbit

of the Earth's moon. He observed that when the planet Venus was very

small it had a round shape and when it was very large, and therefore

nearer the earth, it had a crescent shape. Also, Venus progressed

through periodic phases of increasingly wide crescent shapes in a

manner similar to the phases of crescent shapes of the Earth's moon. He

realized that these features of Venus could be explained only if Venus

revolved around the sun, rather than around the earth. This finding

added credence to the Copernican theory that the earth and all planets

revolve around the sun. But church doctrine that the sun revolved

around the earth was supported by the Biblical story of God making the

sun stand still to give additional sunlight on a certain day so a

certain task could be completed that day. Galileo argued against a

literal interpretation of the Bible, so he was denounced by the church.

His finding of sunspots on the sun conflicted with church doctrine that

the celestial bodies such as the sun were perfect and unblemished. His

observation that certain sun spots were on certain locations of the

sun, but changed location over time, suggested that the sun might be

rotating. He observed that when air was withdrawn by a suction pump

from the top of a long glass tube whose lower open end was submerged in

a pan of water, the water rose to a height of 34 feet and no higher.

This result indicated that the evacuated space above the water was a

vacuum: an empty space. The notion of a vacuum, a space where there is

nothing or void, was difficult for philosophers to accept. They

believed that nature abhored a vacuum and would prevent it. About 1600,

Galileo invented the first thermometer by heating air at the top of a

tube whose open end was in a bowl of water; as the top end cooled, the

air contracted and water rose part way up the tube; the column of water

rose or fell with every change of temperature. Galileo invented the

compound refracting microscope, which used more than one lens, about

1612.

Galileo's book on the arguments for and against the Copernican

theory was unexpectedly popular when published in 1632. The general

public was so persuaded by the arguments that the earth revolved around

the sun that Papal authority felt threatened. So Galileo was tried and

convicted of heresy and sentenced to house arrest as an example to

others who might question church doctrine, even though the seventy year

old Galileo recanted and some of the inquisition judges who convicted

him believed the Copernican theory and their decision did not assert

the contrary.

Johannes Kepler was a mathematician from Germany who made his

living as an astrologer. He was in contact with Galileo by letter, as

most scientists of Europe were with each other. Kepler was fascinated

with perfect geometric shapes, which he tried to relate to celestial

phenomenon. He discerned that the orbit of Mars was not perfectly

circular. He knew that the apparent path of the sun with respect to the

constellation of fixed stars differed in speed at different times of

the year. He opined that this showed that the speed of the earth

revolving around the sun varied according to the time of year. Then he

measured the angles between the earth and the sun and the earth and

Mars as they changed through the Martian year. He noted when the earth,

Mars, and the Sun were on the same straight line. Then he deduced the

earth's true orbit, and from this the true orbits of the other planets.

Then by trial and error, he attempted to match this empirical data with

regular mathematically defined shapes, until he discovered in 1609 that

these paths were elliptical. Also, the planets each move faster when

they are nearer the sun and more slowly when they are farther from the

sun so that in equal time intervals, a line from the planet to the sun

will sweep out equal areas. This observation led him to opine that

there is a force between the sun and each planet, and that this force

is the same as that which keeps the moon in its orbit around the earth.

Thirdly, in 1619, he found that the square of the time for each

planet's orbit about the sun is proportional to the cube of that

planet's mean distance from the sun, so that the farther planets orbit

at a slower speed. He connected the earth's tides with the

gravitational pull of the moon. Kepler also confirmed that the paths of

comets were governed by a law and were farther from the earth than the

moon. This contradicted the church's explanation that what lies within

the moon's orbit pertains to the earth and is essentially transitory

and evil, while what lies beyond belongs to the heavens and is

permanent and pure.

Renee Descartes, a French mathematician, scientist, and

philosopher, had a revelation that the structure of the universe was

mathematical and that nature obeyed mathematical rules. In 1637, he

invented analytic [Cartesian] geometry, in which lines and geometric

shapes can be described by algebraic equations and vice-versa. All

conic sections: circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas, could be

represented by equations with two unknowns, or variables, on a

coordinate system in which each point is represented by a pair of

numbers representing distances from the two axis lines. An algebraic

equation with two unknowns, could be represented as a shape thereon. An

algebraic equation with one unknown represented a straight line

thereon. The points of intersection geometrically were equivalent to

the common solution of the associated algebraic equations. He started

the convention of representing unknown quantities by x, y, and z and

known quantities by a, b, and c. So, for instance, a circle with center

at point 2,3 and a radius of 4 was represented by the equation: (x-2)

squared + (y-3) squared = 4. He pioneered the standard exponential

notation for cubes and higher powers of numbers. Analytic geometry

aided in making good lenses for eyeglasses. The glass was first

manufactured with attention to quality. Then, after it cooled and

solidified, the clearest pieces were picked and their surfaces ground

into the proper curvature.

Descartes formulated the law of refraction of light, which

deduces the angle of refraction [deflection] of light through a medium

from the lights' angle of incidence and the speed of light in each

media in which the light passes. This explained why a rainbow is

circular. In 1644, he described the universe in terms of matter and

motion and suggested that there were universal laws and an evolutionary

explanation for such. He opined that all effects in nature could be

explained by spatial extension and motion laws that 1) each part of

matter retains the shape, size, motion, or rest unless collision with

another part occurs; 2) one part of matter can only gain as much motion

through collision as is lost by the part colliding with it; and 3)

motion tends to be in a straight line. Descartes feared persecution by

the church because his ideas did not correlate with the Biblical notion

of God's creation of the universe in the order of light, then sky and

oceans and dry land, then plants, then seasons and the sun and moon and

stars, then fish and birds, then all animals, and finally man.

Descartes believed in a good and perfect God, and thought of the world

as divided into matter and spirit. The human mind was spirit and could

exist outside the human body. Without the mind, human body was a

machine. The human mind had knowledge without sense experience, e.g.

the truths of mathematics and physics. Ideas and imagination were

innate. His observation that sensory appearances are often misleading,

such as in dreams or hallucinations, led him to the conclusion that he

could only conclude that: "I think, therefore I am." He rejected the

doctrine that things had a proper behavior according to their natures,

e.g. the nature of acorns is to develop into oak trees. As an example

of erroneous forming of conceptions of substance with our senses alone,

he pointed out that honeycomb has a certain taste, scent, and texture,

but if exposed to fire, it loses all these forms and assumes others. He

considered to be erroneous the belief that there are no bodies around

us except those perceivable by our senses. He was a strong proponent of

the deductive method of finding truths, e.g. arguing logically from a

very few self- evident principles, known by intuition, to determine the

nature of the universe.

Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist, used the melting and the

boiling point of water as fixed points in a scale of measurements,

which first gave definiteness to thermometric tests.

There was much mining of coal, tin, copper, lead, and iron in

the 1600s. Coal was transported from the coal pits down to the rivers

to be loaded onto ships on coal wagons riding on wooden rails. The full

coal cars could then be sent down by gravity and the empty wagons

pulled up by horses. Sheet metal, e.g. lead, was used for roofing. Coal

was much used for heating houses, and for laundry, cooking, and

industrial use, such as extraction of salt, soap boilers, and

manufacture of glass, bricks and tiles for buildings, anchors for

ships, and tobacco pipes. It was used in the trades: bakers,

confectioners, brewers, dyers, sugar refiners, coopers, starch makers,

copper workers, alum makers, and iron workers.

In 1604 the Haberdashers, who sold imported felt for hats, got

a charter of incorporation.

A tapestry factory was established in 1619.

Flax-working machines came into existence.

The royal postal system carried private as well as royal

letters, to increase income to the Crown. Postmasters got regular pay

for handling without charge the mail of letters that came from or went

to the letter office in London. The postmaster kept horses which he

let, with horn and guide, to persons riding "in post" at 3d. per mile.

The post was to travel 7 mph in summer and 5 mph in winter and sound

his horn four times in every mile or whenever he met travelers.

Wool and animals for butchering were sold in London with the

sellers' agent in London taking the proceeds and paying out to their

order, the origin of check writing.

Scriveners drew up legal documents, arranged mortgages, handled

property transactions, and put borrowers in touch with lenders. They

and the goldsmiths and merchants developed promissory notes, checks,

and private paper money.

The influx of silver from the New World was a major factor in

the second great inflation in England and in the devaluation of money

to about one third of what it had been. Also contributing to the

inflation was an outracing of demand over supply, and a debasement of

the coinage. This inflation benefited tenants to the detriment of their

lords because their rents could not be adjusted upward.

There was an increase in bankruptcies. Houses of Correction

were built.

As Attorney General, Edward Coke was impassioned and

melodramatic. He once described the parts of the penalty of treason as

follows: being drawn to the place of execution reflected the person's

not being worthy any more to tread upon the face of the earth; being

drawn backward at a horse tail was due to his retrograde nature; being

drawn head downward on the ground indicated that he was unfit to

breathe the common air; being hanged by the neck between heaven and

earth indicated that he was unworthy of either; being cut down alive

and his privy parts cut off and burnt before his face indicated he was

unworthily begotten and unfit to leave any generation after him; having

his bowels and inners taken out and burnt indicated he had inwardly

conceived and harbored such horrible treason; his head cut off, which

had imagined the treason, and his body to be quartered and the quarters

set up to the view and detestation of men a prey for the fowls of the

air. Coke was subsequently elevated to the position of Chief of Common

Pleas and then to Chief of the King's Bench. But there Coke propounded

a doctrine of the supremacy of the law over the king as well as over

Parliament. For instance, Coke would not agree to stay any case in

which the king had a concern in power or profit, to consult with him.

But the other eleven justices did agree. Since James I believed in the

divine right of kings, he therefore dismissed Coke from his position as

Chief Justice of the King's Bench. James even believed that he could

suspend any law for reasons known only to him and issue proclamations

that were not limited to the reinforcement of old laws, but made new

offenses with punishment of fine and/or imprisonment.

The old writ of habeas corpus [produce the body] had been just to bring

to court those persons needed for proceedings, but Coke in 1614 had

cited the writ with a new meaning "to have the body together with the

cause of detention".

Coke then became a member of Parliament and led the Commons,

where he exalted the authority of Parliament vis a vis the king; that

is, the king could not make any changes in law, religion, or taxation

without consent of Parliament. James arrested Coke and two other

members of the Commons and put its leader John Pym under house arrest

for their outspoken opinions against the King's intended alliance with

Catholic Spain and intended taking of a Spanish wife. Because of the

deadlock that developed between the king and Parliament, certain

matters could not be addressed by legislation and were left to be

decided judicially. This made judicial review of disputes important.

James vastly increased the number of peerages, selling many,

for example for 10,000 pounds. Since there was a tacit understanding

that members of Parliament would not accept remuneration, this

restricted eligibility for membership to the rich. The House of Commons

was composed mostly of attorneys, merchants from the large towns, and

country gentlemen. The gentry members had 600 pounds [12,000s] annual

income from land and the burgess members had 300 pounds [6,000s.].

There were two knights from every county, elected by men holding at

least forty-shilling freeholds; four representatives from London, and

one or two from every other borough, generally elected by the top

business families'; and a representative from each of the two

universities. For Speaker, they always chose someone suggested to them

by the Crown. He decided who would talk and could hasten or delay

bills, usually for the benefit of the Crown. The Clerk, a lifetime

appointment of the Crown, wrote out the bills and their amendments and

kept track of proceedings. Many in the Commons were Puritan in

sympathy. In 1607, the House of Commons developed a committee system to

avoid being presided over by the royally designated speaker. A

committee could consist of all the members of the House of Commons with

an elected chairman. An increasing number of issues were discussed in

committee before coming to the Commons and the Commons came to ratify

readily what had been done in committee.

By 1610, there had developed in the House of Commons an

opposition to feudal tenures, purveyance, wardships, and impositions

(special import and export duties on aliens set by the king without the

consent of Parliament that were supposed to be for the purpose of

regulating trade instead of for revenue). There was also a call for

free speech and an end to the King's habit at the end of Parliament of

imprisoning for a time those who had been too outspoken. The Commons

also asserted itself into foreign affairs by expressing an opinion

against a treaty proposed by the king on which war could ensue. The

treaty was abandoned. In London, organized groups such as the

apothecaries, the skinners, and the grocers, were circulating printed

statements of their cases to members of committees of the House of

Commons rather than just seeking out a friendly Privy Council member.

In 1621, the protests made to committeemen about monopolies sold by

James frightened him into canceling many of them. He had made many

grants against competition in violation of law. The right of the

Commons to expel a member was asserted by the expulsion of a

monopolist. By 1629, the speeches of prominent members and the course

of proceedings were copied by stationers and sold in a weekly news

report.

The King's Privy Council dealt constantly with foreign affairs,

and also with the great companies, and problems arising such as gold

leaving the country, the Dutch ships increased efficiency in

transporting goods, the declining market for English cloth, strikes in

the mining industry, decaying harbor works, the quality of food and

drink, the wrongs done to the poor, and above all, the general peace

and order. They formed commissions to study situations and sent orders

to Justices of the Peace on methods to address certain problems and to

Sheriffs to carry out certain acts. About 1618, a group within the

Privy Council began to concentrate on foreign affairs, especially

"cabinet counsels", that is, with secret matters. James sold high

offices of state to supplement his income. His income from customs had

increased so much that it was now three times that from Crown lands.

The Sheriff looked after Crown lands and revenues in his

county. He gathered the rents, the annuities, the stray animals, the

deodands, the fees due to the King, the goods of felons and traitors.

He was still a means of communication between the Privy Council and the

county. He announced new statutes of Parliament and proclamations by

the king at the county courts and in the markets. He used posse

comitatus to disperse riots. He was the functionary of the assize

court, impaneling its juries, bringing accused men before it, and

carrying out its penalties. He carried out elections of members of the

House of Commons.

There were two high constables for each hundred. They were

chosen by the Justices of the Peace at quarter sessions, and were

usually small gentry or well-to-do yeomen. They were the intermediaries

between the justices and the petty constables. The petty constable was

the executive official of the village. He was usually elected by the

suitors to the leet court of the manor for a year. He might be a

farmer, an artisan, a carpenter, a shoemaker, or many times a

tradesman, a butcher, or baker. He often visited the alehouse to learn

of any trouble in the making. He would intervene in quarrels and riots

and tell the participants to desist in the King's name. If they didn't,

he could call on all bystanders to help him "force a quiet". He had to

lead the rioters and causers of injuries to others, hold them there

until he could bring him before the nearest justice. He would inform

the justice of plots to trespass or forcibly enter land to take

possession. He saw to it that no new cottages were built in the

villages without due authority. He supervised markets and inns. He

reported lapses of care for apprentices by their masters to the

justice. At harvest time, he called upon all able bodied persons to

assist and punished those who didn't respond by putting them in the

stocks or fining them forty shillings. He arrested and whipped vagrants

and sturdy rogues and sent them back to their place of birth through

constables on the way. If a horse was stolen, he raised the hue and cry

to all neighboring constables. He made inquiry into the paternity of

the coming child of an unmarried pregnant girl to make him take

responsibility for the child and pay her 8d. a week lest it fall into

the responsibility of the village. In a town, he might have watchmen to

help him see that the streets were peaceful at night. The constable

assisted the Justice of the Peace, the high constable, and the Sheriff.

He pressed men into military service. He collected taxes for the

Sheriff and collected the money for purveyance, the money for the poor,

maimed soldiers, and various kinds of prisoners, which the parish had

to pay. He was often the spokesman for the village in village concerns,

such as too many alehouses, brought to the attention of justices at

quarter sessions. The constable and churchwardens together collected

money for the parish, looked after the needy, and kept in close touch

with the overseers of the poor, who cared for the sick and old, found

work for the idle, took charge of bastards, apprenticed orphan

children, and provided supplies for the workhouse.

In 1609 the East India Company was given a monopoly by the

Crown that was indefinitely long as long as it was profitable to the

realm in the King's opinion. Interlopers were to forfeit their ships

and goods, one-half to the Company and one-half to the Crown. Monopoly

status made the Company competitive with the Dutch and Portuguese

monopoly companies. The Crown received a gift or a loan from the

Company in return. At first, the Company raised capital for each

separate voyage. But voyages tried to undercut each other and rival

factions squabbled over cargoes. So the company then raised a

"terminable joint-stock" for a period of years. The first of these was

issued in 1613-16 and financed a fleet every year for four years.

Subscriptions were called in by yearly installments and dividends paid

out yearly. The voyage of 1613 brought shareholders a profit equivalent

to about 11% a year. By 1620, the Company operated thirty to forty

"tall ships", many built in its own dockyards. These dockyards were so

technologically advanced that they were daily viewed by visitors and

ambassadors. Here, besides wet and dry docks, there were timber yards,

a foundry and cordage works for supplying the ships' hardware and a

bakery and saltings for their provisioning. More than 200 craftsmen

were directly employed in the yard. Overall the company was one of

London' largest employers.

In 1607, the Muscovy Company, hired Henry Hudson to find a

northwest passage through North America to the Pacific Ocean.

In 1606, the first charter of the Virginia Company was issued

for trading purposes. It gave the settlers "all liberties, franchises,

and immunities" they had in England. To oversee this colony, the Crown

appointed a council. Virginia established the Episcopal Church by law.

Virginia became a joint-stock company in 1609. But exports were few

(timber, soap ashes, pitch, tar, and dyes) for several years, and then

tobacco emerged as a source of profit. King James imposed a heavy

duties on imported tobacco because it corrupted man's breath with a

stinking smoke.

Life was difficult for Puritan Separatists, who wanted to

separate from the established church. They were imprisoned and their

houses were watched day and night for illegal meetings. In 1620, after

trying Holland and when there was a depression in England, a few

Puritan Separatists, along with other pilgrims, left for Virginia in

the Mayflower, but landed in New England and founded Plymouth Colony.

They were led by William Bradford and William Brewster, their spiritual

leader. They planted fields and made friends with the Indians. In 1621,

they secured a patent to the merchants and planters together for a

voluntary joint-stock company in New England. Later, it became the

self-governing Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The canons of the church of 1604 provided for excommunication

for anyone who propounded that the king did not have the same authority

in ecclesiastical matters as the godly kings among the Jews and

Christian emperors in the primitive church, that the Church of England

was not a true and apostolic church, that worship according the Book of

Common prayer and administration of sacraments was corrupt or

superstitious, or that other methods of the church were wicked,

unchristian, or superstitious.

Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of criminal

offenses because it had been abused by thieves paying their rent by

thieving at night. It remained available to those accused of civil

offenses.

About 5% of the population was Catholic, although it was

against the law to practice this religion. Indeed it long been the

practice to sequester their lands, punish them for going to mass, fine

them for not attending the established church, banish their priests,

and imprison those who aided priests. There was a Catholic plot in 1605

to blow up Parliament and the king with gunpowder and to restore

Catholicism as the state religion with a Catholic king. It was

discovered and the conspirators were executed. Then there was a

crackdown on Catholics, with houses being searched for hiding places

for priests. Also, legislation was passed barring Catholics from many

offices.

The Law

Churchwardens of every parish shall oversee the poor in their

parish. They shall, with consent of the Justices of the Peace, set to

work children whose parents cannot maintain them and also set to work

married or unmarried persons who have no trade and no means to maintain

themselves. Churchwardens shall tax every inhabitant, including parson

and vicar and every occupier of land and houses, as they shall think

fit. There will be a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron

and other necessary ware and stuff to set the poor on work. There will

be competent sums of money for the relief of the lame, impotent, old,

blind, and others not able to work, and also for the putting out of

children to be apprentices. Child apprentices may be bound until 21

years of age or until time of marriage. They shall account to the

Justices of the Peace for all money received and paid. The penalty for

absence or neglect is 20s. If any parish cannot raise sufficient funds,

the Justices of the Peace may tax other nearby parishes to pay, and

then the hundred, and then the county. Grandparents, parents, and

children of every poor, old, blind, lame, or impotent person not able

to work, being of sufficient ability, shall at their own charge,

relieve and maintain every such poor person in that manner and

according to that rate as Justices of the Peace of that county

determine, or else forfeit 20s. per month. Two Justices of the Peace

may commit to gaol or house of correction persons refusing to work and

disobedient churchwardens and overseers. The overseers may, with the

consent of the lord of the manor, build houses on common or waste land

for the poor at the expense of the parish, in which they may place more

than one family in each house.

Every parish shall pay weekly 2-10d. toward the relief of sick,

hurt, and maimed soldiers and mariners. Counties with more than fifty

parishes need pay only 2-6d. The county treasurer shall keep registers

and accounts. Soldiers begging shall lose their pension and shall be

adjudged common rogues or vagabonds subject to imprisonment and

punishment.

A seminal patent-protection law was passed in 1624. It stated

that all monopolies to any person or persons, bodies politic or

corporate for the sole buying, selling, making, working, or using of

anything within the realm are void. This does not include London or

towns. Parties aggrieved by such may recover treble damages in the

superior courts, with double costs. Excepted are existing patents, for

21 years or less, for new inventions and for future patents for 14

years or less. Excepted also are patents for printing or making

saltpeter, gunpowder, shot or ordinance, etc.; patents concerning allum

mines or Newcastle coal or glass making or export of calves' skins or

making smalts [deep-blue pigment or glass] or melting iron ore; grants

of office; and licenses for taverns.

Persons stealing crops from lands or fruit from trees shall be

whipped.

Every person shall receive the holy communion in church at

least once a year or else forfeit 20 pounds for the first year and 40

pounds for the second year, and threescore pounds for every year after

until he takes the said sacrament.

Every person convicted of drunkenness shall be penalized 5s. or

else placed in the stocks for six hours, because the loathsome and

odious sin of drunkenness has grown into common use lately and it is

the root of many other sins, such as bloodshed, stabbings, murder,

swearing, fornication, and adultery, and is detrimental to the arts and

manual trades and diverse workmen, who become impoverished. Offenders

convicted a second time shall be bound with two sureties to the sum of

200s.

Lewd women, having bastards, chargeable to the parish, shall be

committed to the house of correction to be punished and set to work for

one year.

Mothers concealing the death of a bastard baby shall suffer as

for murder, unless one witness proves the child was born dead.

Persons deserting their families shall be deemed incorrigible

rogues and punished as such.

Persons such as sorters who purloin or embezzle wool or yarn

delivered to them by clothiers and the receivers thereof, knowing the

same, shall recompense the party grieved or else be whipped and set in

the stocks.

Because benefit of clergy is not allowed to women convicted of

felony by reason whereof many women suffer death for small causes, any

woman convicted for the felonious taking of any money, goods or

chattels greater than 12d. and less than 10s. other than burglary or

robbery on the highway or from the person of any man or woman without

their knowledge, shall be branded and marked in the hand upon the

brawne of the left thumb with a "T" and imprisonment, whipping,

stocking, or sending to the house of correction for a year or less.

Actors profaning God, Jesus, or the Holy Ghost on stage are to

be penalized 200s.

In 1604 it was decided that it was not necessary to prove that

witchcraft caused the death of a person for there to be punishment for

the witchcraftery. All that was necessary now was the practice of

witchcraft. The punishment was death by hanging. Also, consulting or

feeding an evil spirit was felony.

Sheriffs summoning defendants without a writ shall pay 200s.

and damages to the defendant, and 400s. to the King.

Since administrators of goods of people dying intestate who

fail to pay the creditors of the deceased often can't pay the debts

from their own money, the people (who are not creditors) receiving the

goods shall pay the creditors.

No merchant may dress black rabbit skins, nor export them,

unless dressed by skinners and bought from them because the skinners

have been thus deprived of their livelihoods to their impoverishment

throughout the realm.

Beer may be exported when malt is at 16s. per quarter because

exporting beer instead of barley and malt will (1) increase the export

tax to the King, (2) increase income for coopers and brewers, and (3)

provide more jobs in transporting beer, which is more voluminous, to

the great comfort of the port towns.

Fish which are spawning and growing in harbors may not be taken

by any net or weirs because this practice has hurt fishermen and the

realm.

No one shall sell beer or ale to an unlicensed alehousekeeper

because abuses there have become intolerable.

No person at least 18 years of age may be naturalized or

restored in blood after being attainted unless he takes the sacrament

and the Oath of Supremacy [of the king over the church of England], and

Oath of Allegiance [to the king].

Money given by will for the apprenticeship of poor children

shall be managed by incorporated towns and unincorporated parishes.

Masters receiving such apprentices shall become bound with sufficient

sureties.

Houses of correction shall be built in every county.

London may make a trench to bring water to the north part of

the city and shall compensate the owners of lands by agreement with

them of an amount or an amount determined by commissioners.

All hospitals and abiding places for the poor, lame, maimed,

and impotent persons or for houses of correction founded according to

the statute of Elizabeth shall be incorporated and have perpetual

succession.

Only lands and hereditaments paying rents to the Crown within

the last sixty years shall be claimed by the Crown; the title of all

persons and corporation who have enjoyed uninterruptedly against the

Crown for the last sixty years are confirmed against the Crown.

No one may take more than 8% interest on loans because 10% has

caused many, including gentry, merchant, farmer, and tradesman, to sell

their land and forsake their trade to pay their debts.

As Attorney General, Edward Coke introduced the crime of

"seditious libel" in a case before the Star Chamber in 1606. These

written slanders or libels were viewed as incitements to disorder and

private vengeance. Because the tendency to cause quarrels was the

essence of the crime, the truth of the libel was not a defense, but

might be an aggravation of criminality.

Edward Coke, former Chief Justice of both the Court of Common

Pleas and Court of the Queen's Bench, wrote his Reports on court cases

of all kinds through forty years and his Institutes on the law, in

which he explained and systematized the common law and which was

suitable for students. This included a commentary and update of

Littleton, published in 1627; old and current statutes; a description

of the criminal law; and lastly an explanation of the court system, the

last two published in 1644. Coke declared that "a man's house is his

castle".

Coke waged a long battle with his wife over her extensive lands

and personal property and the selection of a husband for their

daughter. In his Institutes, he described the doctrine of coverture as

"With respect to such part of the wife's personality as is not in her

possession, as money owing or bequeathed to her, or accrued to her in

case of intestacy, or contingent interests, these are a qualified gift

by law to the husband, on condition that he reduce them into possession

during the coverture, for if he happen to die, in the lifetime of his

wife, without reducing such property into possession, she and not his

representative will be entitled to it. His disposing of it to another

is the same as reducing it into his own possession." He further states

that "The interest of the husband in, and his authority over, the

personal estate of the wife, is, however, considerably modified by

equity, in some particular circumstances. A settlement made upon the

wife in contemplation of marriage, and in consideration of her fortune,

will entitle the representatives of the husband, though he die before

his wife, to the whole of her goods and chattels, whether reduced into

possession or not during the coverture. ... A settlement made after

marriage will entitle the representative of the husband to such an

estate in preference to the wife. ... A court of equity will not

interfere with the husband's right to receive the income during the

coverture, though the wife resist the application."

No person convicted of Catholicism may practice the common law

as a counsellor, clerk, attorney, or solicitor, nor may practice civil

law as advocate, or proctor, nor shall be justice, minister, clerk, or

steward in any court, nor practice medicine, nor perform as apothecary,

nor be officer in a town, in the army, or navy, or forfeit 100 pounds

as punishment. Nor may they be administrators of estates, or have

custody of any child as guardian. Nor may they possess any armor,

gunpowder, or arms. Nor may anyone print or import Popish books

rosaries, or else forfeit 40s

Papists running a school must forfeit 40s. a day for such.

Anyone conveying a child beyond the seas to be educated in popery may

not sue in the courts, may not hold any office, and shall forfeit 100

pounds and all lands. But the child returning may have his family lands

restored to him if he receives the sacrament of the lord's supper in

the established church after reaching 18 years of age.

Judicial Procedure

James I asserted an authority to determine the jurisdiction

between the various courts.

The Court of the King's Bench had the major part of the civil

business of the courts.

The Star Chamber Court still was primarily directed against

force and fraud and defended the common people from over-mighty lords

and over-pliable Justices of the Peace, for instance by deterring

enclosure. It also enforced monopolies. However, there was a growing

tendency for King James, who sat on it, to abuse its power with high

fines. For instance, a lord accused with foul language by a huntsman of

following hounds of a chase too closely threatened to use his horse

whip on the huntsman's master when the huntsman threatened to complain

to his master. The lord was fined 10,000 pounds. James' council used

torture to obtain information from accused felons about possible

conspiracies against him.

The ordinary administrative court of first instance is formed

by the single Justices of the Peace, who issue orders regarding public

safety, order, public morals, health, the poor, highways, water,

fields, forests, fisheries, trade, building, and fire, and particularly

begging and vagrancy as well as regulations of wages, servants,

apprentices, and day laborers. For more important resolutions, the

special sessions of the Justices of the Peace of a hundred for a court

of intermediate instance and appointed overseers of the poor. All

Justices of the Peace were present at the quarter sessions, which were

held at least four times a year, and were primarily a court of appeal

from penal sentences, but also make the county rate, appoint county

treasurers and county prison and house of correction governors,

regulate prices and wages, settle fees of county officials, grant

licenses for powder mills, and register dissenting chapels. It heard

appeals expressly allowed by statute. The central courts also heard

appeals by writ of certiorari as to whether an administrative act was

in accordance with existing law, whether the court is competent, and

whether the administrative law has been rightly interpreted. This writ

of certiorari ceased in the 1700s.

Justices of the Peace who have the power to give restitution of

possession to tenants of any freehold estate of their lands or

tenements which have been forcibly entered and withheld, shall have

like power for tenants for term of years, tenants by copy of court

roll, guardians by knight service, and tenants by elegit statute

merchant and staple of lands or tenements [tenant-plaintiffs holding

property to receive income therefrom for satisfaction of a debt of

defendants].

The Justices of the Peace were chosen by the Crown, usually by

the Chancellor. The qualifications were residence in the county,

suitability of moral character, religious uniformity, and the

possession of lands or tenements with twenty pounds a year. They were

almost exclusively country gentlemen, except in the towns. In the

corporate towns, the mayor, bailiff, recorder, and senior aldermen were

ex officio [by virtue of the office] Justices of the Peace. Their main

duty was to keep the peace. If a justice heard of a riot in the making,

he could compel individuals at the place to give bonds of

"good-a-bearing" and cause a proclamation to be made in the King's name

for them to disperse. Two justices or more had the authority to arrest

the rioters and send a record of it to the assizes and to the Privy

Council. If the riot had taken place before their arrival, they could

make an inquiry by a jury and certify the results to the King and his

Council. The justices had men brought before them on many kinds of

charges, on their own summons, or on initiative of the petty constable.

They tried to draw these men into confession by questioning. After

indictment, a person had the choice of a petty jury trial or paying a

fine. The Justices of the Peace could insist upon presentment juries or

surveys of offenses by local officers, but, without the institution of

policemen, not many crimes were prosecuted because victims were

unwilling or could not afford to initiate judicial action. Their

unwillingness was partly due to the severity of penalties, e.g. death

for the theft of over 12s. and whippings and fines for misdemeanors.

Further, the offender was frequently a neighbor with whom one would

have to live. Mediation by the local constable often took place. When

there an outbreak of lawlessness in an area, a commission might be set

up especially for that area to enforce the law.

Assault cases were common in courts of assize and courts of

quarter sessions. The quarter sessions were those of a number of

Justices of the Peace held for a couple of days four times a year for

the more important cases in the jurisdiction of the Justices of the

Peace. Assault was violence or threat of imminent violence. Fines were

graduated according to the means of the offender, who was usually bound

over to keep the peace. Most involved offenders and victims who were

neighbors and included people of substantial standing in the village.

Also, a sizable minority were directed against local officers such as

constables, bailiffs, or tax- collectors.

Three-fourths of all assize indictments and many

quarter-sessions indictments were for various types of theft, including

petty larceny, grand larceny, housebreaking, burglary, sheep stealing,

and robbery. These offenses were mostly opportunistic rather than

planned, except for London's underworld of professional thieves and the

cutpurses of country markets and highway robbers on lonely roads. There

were substantial peaks in theft in periods of harvest failure and

industrial depression, especially by vagrants. But most of the poor

never stole.

The Justices of the Peace usually deferred to the learned

Justices of Assize for cases of felony, murder, rape, highway robbery,

and witchcraft. Most homicides were the result of an impassioned

argument leading to blows inflicted by nearby commonplace items picked

up and used as weapons. Only 18% of homicides were within the family.

Men were still declared outlaw if they failed to come to court after

repeated summons.

The Lord Keeper regularly advised the assize justices, before

each circuit departure, to relieve the poor, supply the markets,

maintain the roads (which were frequently impassable in winter for

wagons or coaches), enforce church attendance, suppress superfluous and

disorderly alehouses, and put down riots, robberies, and vagrancy, and

in times of dearth, to suppress speculation in foodstuffs, prevent

famine, and preserve order. In fact, the justices were most attentive

to offenses which affected them as rate payers for the poor. These were

offenses against cottaging laws (e.g. erection of cottages which lacked

the statutory four acres of land), harboring of "inmates", disputes of

settlement of paupers, bastardy, vagrancy, church nonattendance, and

above all, disorderly alehouses. Alehousing had been a well-

established means of poor employment since the 1200s, so it was hard to

enforce licensing laws. Further, alehouses were the centers of social

life for the common people; both women and men met their friends there.

If an attorney or solicitor delays his client's suits to work his own

gain or over charges his client, the client can recover his costs and

treble damages and the attorney and solicitor shall be disbarred. None

may be admitted to any court of the king but such as have been brought

up in the same court or is otherwise well-practiced in soliciting of

causes and has been found by their dealings to be skillful and honest.

An attorney who allows another to use his name shall forfeit 400

shillings and be disbarred.

Offenders shall pay the charge of their own conveyance to gaol

or the sum shall be levied by sale of their goods so that the King's

subjects will no longer be burdened thereby.

Plaintiffs' costs shall be paid by the defendants only where

there is a judgment against the defendant in all actions in which the

plaintiff is entitled to costs on judgment for him, to discourage

frivolous and unjust suits.

Defendants may not petition to remove a case to the Westminster

courts after a jury is selected because such has resulted in

unnecessary expense to plaintiffs and delay for defendants in which

they suborn perjury by obtaining witnesses to perjure themselves.

In 1619, by the writ of quo warranto, a government office or

official could be made to explain by what right he performed certain

acts.

The Court of High Commission heard mostly matrimonial cases,

but also moral offenses both of clergy and laity, and simony [buying or

selling ecclesiastical preferment, ecclesiastical pardons, or other

things regarded as sacred or spirtual], plurality, drunkenness, and

other clerical irregularities.

By 1616, Chancery could order injunctions to stop activities.

In Slade's case of 1602, the Court of the Queen's Bench held

that assumpsit may be brought in place of the action of debt. So

assumpsit supplants debt for recovering liquidated sums and is then

called "indebitatus assumpsit".

The trial of Sir Walter Ralegh in 1603 began a call by people

for a right to confront and question one's accusers. Before trial,

privy counselors who in theory sat as impartial justices,

cross-examined Ralegh in prison. With a carefully selected jury

present, the trial began with reading of the indictment, which Ralegh

had not yet seen. He was charged with treason in plotting with Catholic

Spain to put Arabella Stuart on the throne. Arabella was to write to

Spain promising peace, toleration of Catholics in England, and

direction by Spain in her marriage choice. He pled not guilty and took

no exception to any jurors, stating that he knew them all to be honest

men. Next, Attorney General Edward Coke, his enemy and rival, and he

engaged in a debate about who was right, with Coke outright bullying

him. Coke then produced a signed confession by Lord Cobham that

implicated him in the alleged conspiracy and accepting 10,000 crowns

for his part. Ralegh was given permission to speak. He said that Cobham

had retracted his confession. He ridiculed the idea that he would

betray England to Spain for gold after fighting against Spain,

including risking his life three times, and spending 4,000 pounds for

the defeat of Spain. He pointed to a treatise he had written to the

king on the present state of Spain and reasons against peace. Then

there was a discussion on the validity of Cobham's confession. Cecil

gave an oration of Ralegh. Coke gave a speech. Ralegh asked to have his

accuser brought before him face to face. He cited law that two

witnesses were necessary for a conviction for treason. Chief Justice

Popham replied that only one witness was necessary under common law,

which applied to his case, and that the trial was properly conducted by

examination of the defendant. Coke added that it would be improper to

call Cobham because he was a party. Then Coke surprised Ralegh with a

letter from Cobham stating that Ralegh had asked Cobham to procure him

an annual pension of 1500 pounds from Spain for disclosing

intelligence. Ralegh acknowledged that a pension was offered, but

denied that he had ever intended to accept it. He admitted that it was

a fault not to inform authorities of this offer. The jury deliberated

for fifteen minutes and returned with a verdict of guilty. The Chief

Justice delivered the sentence for treason: drawing, hanging,

disemboweling, beheading, and quartering. The whole trial was not so

much to access guilt, but to show the general public that the person

was guilty.

Church courts were revived after a period of disuse. They could

annul an unconsummated or legally invalid marriage (e.g. consanguinity,

impotence, a witnessed precontract to marry) and order judicial

separations in case of adultery, cruelty, or apostasy. Annuled

marriages made a person's children illegitimate. An action at common

law for "criminal conversation" [adultery] with the plaintiff's spouse

or for assault and battery could result in an order for separation. But

only a private statute of Parliament could grant a divorce, which

allowed remarriage. It was granted in only a few cases and only to the

very wealthy. Church officials spied upon people's conduct to draw them

into their courts and gain more money from the profits of justice.

In 1610, Edward Coke, Chief Justice of the Court of Common

Pleas, decided that the statute giving the Royal College of Physicians

power to imprison and fine those practicing without a license was

invalid and unenforceable because it gave the college half of each fine

awarded, which was a conflict of interest with its role as an

adjudicator. Coke said that a maxim of the common law was that no man

ought to be judge in his own cause. By this decision, he asserted a

court supremacy over Parliament with respect to the validity of

statutes. He opined that the courts should not only be independent of

the Crown, but should act as arbiter of the Constitution to decide all

disputed questions. In his words, "When an Act of Parliament is against

common right and reason, the common law will control it and adjudge

such Act to be void."

Justices still explained and in some degree interpreted

legislative acts of Parliament as they had since the 1500s, but their

right to do so was coming into question and was slowly lost.

Female scolds were still dunked into water as punishment.

Only barristers, who were called to the bar after being in long

residence in one of the Inns of Court, could practice before the King's

court. Attorneys and solicitors prepared cases for barristers and

practiced before minor courts.

The king appointed the justices, with the advice of the

Chancellor. James I often intimidated the justices to see things his

way.

The oath of a justice was: "Well and truly ye shall serve the

King and his people. And ye shall take no fee or livery of none but the

King, nor gift or reward of none that hath a do before you except it

shall be meat or drink of small value, as long as the plea hangs before

you. And ye shall do equal law and execution of Right to all the King's

subjects rich and poor, without regard to any person. Ye shall counsel

our Sovereign Lord the King in his need. And ye shall not delay any

person of common right for the letters of the King or of any person or

for any other cause ... So help you God."

The courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, and the Chancery

all met simultaneously in Westminster Hall. Throngs passed up and down

the middle aisles between the courts, including booksellers,

stationers, scriveners, and vendors of bread and hot meat. The hall was

so cold that people kept on their coats and hats.

The last court case concerning villeinage was in 1618.