Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/483

Rh their living, shall be whipped, and sworn to return to the ! place where they were born, or last dwelt by the space of three years, and there put themselves to labour &quot; (22 Hen. VIII. c. 12). Six years later an important and very interesting Act was passed reciting that, although it had been ordained j that aged, poor, and impotent people should repair to the. hundred where they were born or had dwelt for three , years before, no provision had been made how they should &amp;gt; be ordered at their coming thither, nor how the hundred should be charged for their relief. It was therefore enacted that the mayors, sheriffs, constables, householders, and all other head officers of every city, shire, town, and parish, at the repair and coming thither of such poor creature should most charitably receive them, and all the governors and ministers of every such place should succour, find, and keep them by way of voluntary and charitable alms, as should be thought meet in their discretion, in such wise as none of the poor persons of very necessity should be compelled to go openly in begging, on pain of every parish making default forfeiting 20s. a month. The head officers and churchwardens, or two others of every parish in the realm, were required to gather and procure such voluntary and charitable alms of the good Christian people, by means of boxes every Sunday, holiday, and other festival, in such good and discreet ways as the poor, impotent, lame, feeble, sick, and diseased people, being not able to work, may be provided, holpen, and relieved, so that in no wise none of them be suffered to go openly in begging, and such as be lusty may be kept in continual labour. Every preacher, parson, vicar, and curate, as well in their sermons, collections, bidding of the beads, as in time of confessions, and at the making of the wills or testaments of any persons, at all times of the year shall exhort, move, stir, and provoke people to be liberal. Certain of the poor people were themselves appointed to collect and gather broken meats and fragments and the refuse drink of every householder in the parish, to be distributed equally among the poor at discretion. The overplus of collections in rich and wealthy parishes was distributable towards the sustentation of other poor parishes. The Act provided that, where the voluntary and unconstrained alms and charity, together with any moneys added or given from any monasteries or persons or bodies, proved insufficient, the officers and inhabitants should not incur the penalty nor be constrained to any contribution other than at their free will, provided that what was col lected was justly distributed. Provision was made for duly accounting and for the punishment of embezzlement. Con stables, churchwardens, and collectors of alms had, how ever, allowance for their loss of time and their travelling expenses (27 Hen. VIII. c. 25). A number of statutes were passed after the dissolution of the monasteries for further providing for the poor and impotent, whj had increased in great numbers. Many of these statutes were specially directed against vagrancy, and have been referred to in the article already mentioned, as closely connected with compulsory labour. At the commencement of the reign of Edward VI. (1547) a statute also affecting labourers and vagrants and dealing very harshly with them (see vol. xiv. p. 168), re citing that there are many maimed and otherwise lamed, sore, aged, and impotent persons which, resorting together and making a number, do fill the streets or highways of divers cities, towns, markets, and fairs, who, if they were separated, might easily be nourished in the towns and places wherein they were born, or have been most abiding for the space of three years, enacted that the mayor, con stable, or other head officer of any city, town, or hundred shall see all such idle, impotent, and aged persons, who 463 otherwise cannot be taken for vagabonds, which were born within the said city, town, or hundred, or have been most conversant there by the space of three years and now de cayed, bestowed and provided for of tenantries, cottages, or other convenient houses to be lodged in, at the costs of the place, there to be relieved and cured by the devotion of good people, and suffer no others to remain and beg there, but shall convey them on horseback, cart, chariot, or other wise to the next constable, and so from constable to con stable, till they be brought to the place where they were born, or most conversant as aforesaid ; provided that, if they were not so lame or impotent but that they might do some manner of work, work was to be provided either iu common, or place them with such persons as would find them work for meat and drink. For the furtherance of the relief of such as were in &quot; unfeigned misery,&quot; the curate of every parish was required on every Sunday and holiday, after reading the gospel of the day, to make (according to such talent as God hath given him) a godly and brief exhortation to his parishioners, moving and exciting them to remember the poor people, and the duty of Christian charity in reliev ing of them which be their brethren in Christ, born in the same parish, and needing their help. There was a proviso that all leprous and poor bedridden creatures were at liberty to remain in houses appointed for such persons, and for their better relief such persons were allowed to api oint one or two persons for any one such house to gather the alms of all inhabitants within the compass of four miles (1 Edw. VI. c. 3). This statute, however, was of brief duration. Subsequently, in the same reign, further legislation took place, having for its main object the restraint of vagrancy, providing that every vagabond and beggar being born in any other nation or country should be conveyed from place to place, or to the place or borders next adjoining to his native country or to the nearest port if there was a sea between, there to be kept of the inhabitants until they could be conveyed over, and then at the cost of the in habitants of the port, if the vagrants had not themselves wherewith to defray the cost. The same statute made provision for children, reciting that many men and women going begging, impotent and lame, and some able enough to labour, carried children about with them, which, being once brought up in idleness, would hardly be brought after wards to any good kind of labour or service, and author izing any person to take such child between the ages of five and fourteen to be brought up in any honest labour and occupation till such child, if a woman, attained the age of fifteen or was married, and if a man child until eighteen, if the master so long lived (3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 16). Two years later the mayor or head officer of every city, borough, and town corporate, and in every other parish of the country the parson and churchwardens, having in a book as well the names of inhabitants and householders as of needy persons, were required yearly &quot; one holiday in Whitsunweek openly in the church and quickly after divine service to call the householders and inhabitants together and select two or more able persons to gather charitable alms for the relief of the poor, and directing such gatherers the week after their election, when the people are at the church, and have heard God s holy word, to gently ask and demand of every man and woman what they of their charity would be content to give weekly towards the relief of the poor, and write the result in the book, to gather and distribute the alms weekly to the poor and impotent persons without fraud or covin, favour or affection, in such manner as the most impotent had the most help, and such as could get part of their living to have the less, and by the discretion of the collectors to be put in such labour as they were fit and able to do, but