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Item, How many ploughs, houses, and inhabitations be

decayed by imparking of the said ground.

Item, How many parks within the said shire be enlarged

sith the said time ; and how much of the same ground was

then arable and put in tillage.
Item, How many ploughs, houses, and inhabitations be

decayed by reason of the said imparking.

Item, If any person hath or doth keep above the number

of two thousand sheep, besides lambs of one years age;

and whether he hath kept the same upon his own lands, or

upon his farm lands, or upon both, or otherwise by covyn

or fraud; and how long he hath kept them.

56 Item, How many sheep ye think have been necessary for

the only expences of such persons household for one year.
Item, If any person hath letten any lands to farm, or by

copy of court-rol, reserving the sheep pasture of the same to

himself ; or if any person hath taken from his tenants their

OF ORIGINALS. 861

commons, wherby they be not able to breed and keep their

cattel and maintain their husbandry, as they were in time

past.
Item.^ If any person hath had or occupied above the

number of two houses or tenements of husbandry lying in

one town, village, hamlet, or tithing ; and how long he hath

occupied the same.

Item, Whether such person hath taken the same in farm,

for the term of life, years at wil, by indenture or copy of

court-rol or otherwise, sith the feast of the Nativity of our

Lord God millmo quingentesimo tricesimo quinto ; and

where such person dwelleth.
Item, If every person, body politic or corporate, that

hath, by gift, grant, lease, or demise, the scite or precinct

and demeasnes of any monastery, priory, or religious house,

dissolved by vertue of the act of Parlament made in the

27th year of the reign of the King that dead is, do keep an

honest continual house and houshold in the same scite or

precinct, and do occupy yearly as much of the same de-

measnes, in ploughing and tillage of husbandry, as was com-

monly used to be kept by the governours, abbots, or priors

of the same houses, monasteries, or priories, or by their far-

mour or farmours occupying the same, within the time of

twenty years next before the making of the same statute.

Item, That you, our said commissioners, for your better

instructions, take with you the copies of al such offices as

were found concerning the premisses in the ninth and tenth

years of the reign of our most noble father K. Henry VIII.

These be our instructions, and the articles of your charge

generally; howbeit we think it very good to open it more

specially. For as there be many good men, that take great

pains to study to devise good laws for the commonwealth ;

so be there a great many, that do with as great pains and

study, labour to defeat them ; and as the common saying

is, to find gapps and starting holes. But first, to declare unto

you what is meant by this word indosures. It is not taken

where a man doth enclose and hedge in his own proper

ground, where no man hath commons. For such inclosure

362 A REPOSITORY

is very beneficial to the commonwealth ; it is a cause of

great encrease of wood : but it is meant therby, when any

man hath taken away and enclosed any other mens com-

mons, or hath pulled down houses of husbandry, and con-

verted the lands from tillage to pasture. This is the mean-

ing of this word, and so we pray you to remember it.

To defeat these statuts, as we be informed, some have

not pulled down their houses, but maintain them ; howbeit

no person dwelleth therin ; or if there be, it is but a shep-

heard or a milkmaid, and convert the lands from tillage to

pasture : and some about one hundred acres of ground, or

more or less, make a furrow, and sow that ; and the rest they

57 till not, but pasture with their sheep. And some take the

lands from their houses, and occupy them in husbandry ;

but let the houses out to beggars and old poor people.

Some, to colour the multitude of their sheep, father them

on their children, kinsfolks, and servants. All which be

but only crafts and subtil ties to defraud the laws ; such as

no good man will use, but rather abhor. For every good

man wil direct his study to observe the laws, rather than

break them, and say with himself thus : I know the

makers of these laws meant good to the commonwealth.

Men be but men, they cannot se al things ; they be no

gods, they cannot make things })erfect. Therefore I wil

rather do that they meant, altho' without danger of the law

I might do otherwise, and I will withal my heart do good

to my country, albeit it be against my private profit, rather

than hurt it. And therfore if there be any such that use

these tricks, albeit they be not comprehended in the letter

of the law, I pray you let us know him, and present you

his name.
Thus have we declared unto you the causes of our com-

ing and your assemble here : which is only to enquire of

such things as we have been charged with. If ye wil do

your office therein as becometh good men, that is to say,

Avithout pai'tiality or favour, accuse and present those that

be to be accused and presented for offending of these sta-

tuts ; and in these enormities, we doubt not but ye shal do

OF ORIGINALS. 863

God as great and as acceptable sacrifice as may be. For

hereby shal his glory, and the fruit of his word, which is

charity and love to our neighbours, be published and set

forth to the world ; ye shal do the King the greatest ser~

vice that can be devised. For hereby his people and sub-

jects (in the multitude of whom his honour and safty con-

sisteth) shal be encreased ; and ye shal shew your selves

good members of the body and the commonwealth of the

realm, that covet and desire as much the wealth and com-

modity of your Christen brethren and neighbours, as ye

do your own.
Besides, it is not unlike but that these great fines for

lands and emprovement of rents shal abate, and al things

wax better cheap ; xx and xxx eggs for a peny, and the rest

after the rate as hath been in times past; and the poor

craftsmen may live, and set their wares at reasonable prices;

and noblemen and gentlemen that have not emprowed nor

enhaunced their rents, nor were sheep-masters, nor grasiers,

but lived like noblemen and gentlemen, shal be the better

able to keep good hospitality among you, and keep servants

about them, as they have done in time past. And that,

sith ye shal thus serve God, the King, and the common-

wealth, ye wil put away al fear of any person, land lord,

master, or other. For God, the King, and the common-

wealth, if ye serve them truly and faithfully, as they be

able to defend you against the Devil, the world, and private

profit ; so may you be sure they wil suffer no person to do

you injury. And considering the manifold benefits that

may come by truly executing therof, we also require and

advertise you, that for no favour ye go about to excuse or

leave unpresented those that ye may know to have offended :

you shal do your selves much hurt by running into wilful

perjury; and indeed nothing profit them whom ye intend 58

to gratify. For we our selves, if need shal require, wil take

the pains to view every thing particularly.

And therfore for Gods sake, good people, do as becometh

honest men, declare the truth, and nothing but the truth.

And on th'other side, we require you on Gods behalf, com-

364 A REPOSITORY

raand you in the Kings name, and exhort you as your

friends, that ye wil not abuse this the great goodnes of

God, the Kings Majesty, and his high Council herein of-

fered ; that is to say, that ye make not this godly thing an

instrument of malice, to be revenged on any man to whom

ye bear displesure: for things grounded on malice, God

wil never suffer to prosper. Besides, we charge you and

command you al, that be present on the Kings behalf, and

that ye likewise charge al your neighbours that be absent,

that ye nor none of them go about to take upon you to be

executors of the statuts ; to cut up mens hedges, and to put

down their enclosures, or by any ways to hurt them. For

this is not your office to do. Ye shal highly offend God,

break the Kings laws, and be an occasion that that good that

might, and is like to follow, shal not take place, nor come

to that good end that is desired. But let it appear to the

world that ye desire a charitable and quiet reformation by

the order only of the law, whereunto we ought and be

bound to be obedient. Be ye not breakers of the law, while

ye go about to have vices reformed by the law. Accuse and

present you justly those that be offenders of these statuts.

For this is only our duty to wil you and yours to do, ayl

let the law work his effect, power, and office afterward.
And by this means we trust in God, that as it hath

pleased him to put into the Kings and his Councils heads

to begin this matter, so wil he give them grace to finish and

accomplish the same ; and to do greater things to his glory,

the Kings honor and safty, and the universal benefit of us

al. And unles we wil shew our selves imkind, we cannot

but honor God, and give him thanks, that it hath pleased

him to send us such a King, such a Protector, and such a

Council, that only be bent and enclined to do the people

good. Doubtles, good people, where the people love and

honour God, favour and embrace his word, and live accord-

ingly, to them doth God send good and gracious rulers.

And on th''other side, where they favour not, nor love his

word, to them he sendeth unpitiful and hard rulers, such as

only shal seek their own plesures, benefits, and commodities.

OF ORIGINALS. 365

not passing on their poor subjects. And tlierfore, good

people, let us love, favour, and embrace Gods word, which

thing only is the cause that this godly act is set forward : it

is the general comfort of al Christian men, and specially of

the poor: it forbiddeth the rich to oppress the poor, and

willeth and commandeth him to be merciful to him : it de-

clareth us to be members of one body, and biddeth us to

love together like brother and brother : it teacheth the magis-

trates their offices towards their inferiors, and commandeth

al people to be obedient to their superiors : it sheweth how

God rewardeth weldoers both here and with everlasting

felicity, and punisheth malefactors both in this world and with

eternal damnation. And therfore, good people, let us not

only love and embrace Gods word, but also al such as be the

furtherers, preachers, and teachers hereof. Thus I make an

end, and God save the King.

R. 59
A discourse made hy William Thomas, esq. for the King's

use ; whether it be expedient to vary with time.
WHAT time is, Solomon, in the third of Ecclesiastes, Cott. Libr.
doth sufficiently describe, including al things under the sun ^l^^^^' '
within time. And as Petrarch saith in the Triumph of
Time,
Passan votre grandezze, e vostre pornpe,
Passan le s'lgnorie, passano i regni :
Ogni cosa mortal tempo interrompe.

Wherfoi-e seing time is both the father and devourer of al

things, and consequently that nothing is to man more pre-

cious than time ; it followeth, that he who in time can take

his time, is most happy in this world. But because we se the

world to depend in maner altogether upon contraries, as rest

and moving, lack and having, light and darknes, white and

black, silence and noise, sweet and sowre, hot and cold,

light and heavy, soft and hard, moist and dry, with infinite

others, in such wise as every thing hath his contrary ; ther-

S66 A REPOSITORY

fore it seemeth a great difficulty unto man, (as indeed it is,)

how among so many discords he may gather any profit of

his time-
For when al is reckoned, no man findeth thing in this

world more joyful, nor more acceptable unto him, than

j)rosperity ; which he esteemeth so much, that he refuseth

no labour, nor in maner any peril to attain it : and yet

hath this prosperity proved such a Iyer, flatterer, and de-

ceiver of men, that when they have most rejoyced and

trusted in it, even the prosperity it self hath been cause of

their extreme sorrow and adversity ; as by infinite examples

it is manifest. How suddenly was the glory of Balthazar,

in the fifth of Daniel, plagued of God.

For indeed this prosperity (or humane felicity, as ye list

to cal it) is not esteemed prosperity til it be at the highest ;

and then it semeth of ordinary, that when we reckon to be

most happy, suddenly some contrary happeneth : so that

the esteemed prosperity encreaseth the adversity, and is

rather a beginning of mishap than any felicity indeed :

which th' astronomers ascribe unto the planets, because al

things in earth, as they say, are governed by the motions of

the stars. And as when they be in a sextile or trine aspect

they are accounted prosperous, so in the quadrate or oppo-

site they are unfortunate. And their courses being such as

in a moment they leap from one to the other, it is no mer-

vail (say they) tho mens fortune do semblably vary.
Philip, king of Macedon, when he had in one day gotten

the victory in the Olympiades playes, and in the battail

both, prayed God to rccompence that great hap with some

60 small evil : wherupon he was by chance shot into the eye

with an arrow, and so lost his eye; accounting himself

happy in the midst of his prosperity to encounter with a

smal misfortune. For as the stone that is thrown into the

air falleth the more vehemently the higher he is thrown ; so

most commonly it fareth by mans prosperity, the higher he

seemeth to climb, the greater is his overthrow. And if in

prosperity (to the which al men covet to aspire) we find this

difficulty or peril, wherunto then shal man apply his time .''

OF ORIGINALS. S67

Truly as the musician useth sometime a flat, and some-

time a sharp note, sometime a short, and sometime a long,

to make his song perfect ; so, saith Macchiavegli, ought

man to frame his procedings unto his time. And albeit

that man cannot so directly concord them, as to make them

always agree, like the musicians divers notes, because some

men are led of vehemence, and some of respect and fear, in

the one or other wherof al men most commonly do err ; yet

he is to be esteemed the wisest and happiest man, that in

proceding maketh least discords with time. And as the

physician to the remedy of sickness ministreth unto his pa-

tients both medecins and diets, other than they should re-

ceive when they were whole; so man in his affairs should pro-

cede according to his time, altering as the occasion requireth ;

and not to persevere obstinately in one opinion, how good or

how profitable soever it had proved in other time before.

Fabius Maximus (of whom I have spoken heretofore) was

for his time a wonderful captain, and the whole preservation

of the whole commonwealth, because his fortune was to

spring in a time conformable to his nature. For Annibal

being newly arrived in Italy with a couragious army, and

having obtained the victory of sundry sore battails, was

not any more to be foughten withal, as wel for the respect

of his own encreased strength, as for the weakness of his

often abated enemies : so that against him in that time

there was none so meet a captain as Fabius ; who with pro-

longing of time decreased Annibals treasure and power. But

afterwards, when the Romans were at a better stay, and

hable as wel to offend as to defend, then was Sclpio sent into

Afric with an army, to bring those wars to an end ; which

his time and fortune served him to do. And yet was Fabius

at that time of opinion, that Sclpio should not go, cleaving

always to his own maner of proceding : so that if Fabius had

then been prince or governor, in such sort as his opinion

must have had place, Annibal might for him have been yet

in Italy. Wherin they do commonly err, that have before

prospered in their opinion. The hap wherof maketh them

so to hope the like, that in maner it shal be impossible to dis-

868 A REPOSITORY

suade them : which indeed is one of the greatest causes of

the common mishapp that foUoweth prosperity. For when

men wil observe one direct, or (as I may cal it) obstinate

preceding, if the time come that shal require the contrary,

it followeth their preceding much perish.
I mean not, that any man should vary in amity, turn

from vertue to vice, or to alter in any such thing as re-

quireth constancy ; but touching the other publick or pri-

vate doings, I think nothing more necessary than to vary

with the time.

61 Alexander the Lacedemonian, being a notable valiant

prince, used nevertheless in al his doings more policy than

force : wherof his familiars would sometimes reprove him,

saying, that he degenerated from Hercules, of whom he was

descended. But he smiling would answer, " That where

*' he could not play the lion, it was no shame to play the

" fox :"" which of some men is condemned as a vile and

vitious thing. For Quintus Curtius, upon the answer of

Alexander the Great unto Parmenio, maketh a great dis-

course ; declaring how Parmenio counsilled Alexander to

oppress his enemy by policy. Wherunto Alexander an-

swered, that if he were Parmenio he would so do, but being

Alexander, it behoved him liberally to fight, and justly to

overcome.
Indeed, whensoever a prince may openly without peril at-

tain either the victory over his enemy, or his purpose with

them that be indifferent, his preceding ought to have no

craft. But when either his power serveth not, or that his

contrary practiseth subtilly, (as most commonly princes do

at these days,) then, meseemeth, policy is no vice : for al

men are not Alexanders. No, nor Alexander was not him-

self at length. Even as he was to be commended in the ver-

tuous overcoming of his enemy, (if vertue it may be called,)

when his power served him therunto ; so was he to be dis-

praised in the unnatural misusing of his friends, when with

them and by their help he had passed so many perils. Wher-

fore at length his own prosperity bred his own destruction.
Philip de Comines writeth, that at the treaty of the peace

OF ORIGINALS. 369

beside Conflans, Lovys the Xlth French king, and the

Conte Charolois, son to the Duke of Burgoigne, met simply

in the fields : and walking together alone, in treating of the

matter, the King led the Earl into a bulwark of his before

Paris, or ever the Earl took heed : and nevertheless agreed

with him, and sent him back again unto his army, that then

was wonderfully disturbed for his absence and danger. The

courtesy wherof, as I believe, encouraged the same French

King afterwards to put himself in the Duke of Burgoigne's

power at Feronne; where he found great cause to repent

him of his folly : for whilest he lay in the castle, the Duke

was in a thousand thoughts, whether he should retain him

still, or do worse. And if tlie King had denyed any of his

requests, it had indeed proved evil with him.

Thus it appeareth that no man ought with his own nature

to mesure the nature of another man ; and especially of

princes, who are not reckoned wise, when they lose either

time or advantage. And therfore Philip de Comines al-

loweth them not to meet togithers, unles it be in youth,

when their heads are given to pleasures. But in cases of

treaty for peace, in time of war, or for interest in time of

peace, when the power of the one may be suspect to the

other, let never princes meet. No, the jealousy of estate is

so great, that when a prince may advoide any peril either by

foresight or by policy, let him never tempt God, for miracles

are rare.

Isabell Queen of Naples, being expulsed the realm by the

first Alphonse, then intitled king therof, made recourse

unto Eugeny, then bishop of Rome, for aid to recover her

estate : who in her favour sent a patriarch, called Vitelesco, 62

with men of war against Alphonse. And albeit the pa-

triarch for a while prospered ; yet at length near unto

Salerno, the King gate him in such a straight, as neither he

nor his could escape. Then fell he to treaty, and promised

the King al his request: wherupon truce was taken, and he

let go. But immediately after, knowing the King upon

trust of the truce to be void of suspicion, he turned so sud-

denly upon him, that on Christmas-day, the King being at

VOL. IT. PART II. B b

370 A REPOSITORY

mas, word came that the patriarch was at hand, which not-

withstanding, the King of superstition would needs hear out

his mas ; and so obstinately persevered, that the patriarch

came indeed, fought with the Kings guard at the church

door, slew divers of them, took al the Kings plate and

cai-iages, and so hotly pursued the King himself, that with

much ado he escaped to Capua.
Wherin like as the patriarch shewed himself a true mem-

ber of the wicked church, so did the King err in two ways :

first, in suffering the enemy to escape, when he had him at

the advantage ; and after, in tempting God with a trust that

needed not. As Cicero saith, A^e qfferamus nos periculis

sine catisa.

Wherfore among princes, of al things the time and advan-

tage is to be observed, in such sort as having the enemy at

an afterdeal, either constrain him by force to yield unto thy

profit, or deal with him so liberally, that he may both know

what case he is in, and how much kindnes thou deservest of

him. Which latter almost is not to be used ; because princes