Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/164

144 weaving it themselves, "to the high displeasure of Almighty God, great diminution of the King's people and extreme ruin, decay, and impoverishment of this Realm. … Therefore for reformation of these things … and to avoid that most abominable sin of idleness out of the Realm," every person occupying land shall, for every sixty acres under plough, sow one quarter of an acre in flax and hemp. Thus care was taken to make every Englishman contribute his share of work to the common weal. It must be remembered that every Englishman at this time was trained to arms, ready equipped for fighting with arms corresponding to his rank, though there was no regular army or uniform for soldiers. The law which in the thirteenth century enacted that every man from fifteen to sixty should bear arms, from bows and arrows to swords and daggers, still held good. Shooting was the common amusement of the people; every village had its pair of butts, and on Sundays and holidays all able-bodied men were required to appear in the field "as valiant Englishmen ought to do." But in the early part of the sixteenth century the people were growing slack: they played their games of bowls,