I Have in another Trea­tise handled the grand offence of Forestal­lers and Ingrossers of Corne, and therein touched his Highnesse carefull di­rections, and just proceeding, against them; I shall now presume to adde one debt more unto the remem­brance of his Majesties many and memorable deeds of impartiall Iu­stice, his zealous and indefatigable care often commended, and charged to his Counsellors of State, for roo­ting [Page 2]up and extirpation of that cry­ing sinne Depopulation, and the thrice honourable proceedings of his high­est judicatorie Court against some delinquents, and his Majesties no lesse goodnes in addressing severall Com­missions (according to former presi­dents, of his most noble progeni­tors) into most part of his kingdome, for the more absolute discovery of this monstrous overgrowne evill, which I may well terme peccatum Ca­melinum.

Sect. 1 It is an offence at the Com­mon Law: For so it appeares by the Statute of 39^o. ELIZ. 1^o. (hereaf­ter cited at large) that the decaies of townes and habitations, have beene, by the ancient lawes of this Realme, esteemed an high offence. And by the decree of the Starre-Chamber, which I shall handle in its due place, Offences of that nature are puni­shable at the common-Law. That it is a publike and popular offence, who can deny? Then being popular, and [Page 3]an offence at the Common-Law, it might and may bee inquired at the ancient Courts of Leet or view of Franckplegde. And though it be now in this age growne Gyant-like with­out a proper name, save what the de­plorable issue and fruit of its prodigi­ous birth doth render (Depopulation;) and though by connivence and im­punity in former times, it is now growne so huge, that the proportion of remedy must exceed the ordinary verge of Iustice, and appeale to the highest seat, yet fit it is, that the dis­covery thereof should be revived, and injoyned within the inquisition of the Leet.

Sect. 2 The inquiry of Forestallers, and such like miscreants, began to languish and to bee disused in those Courts, untill his Majesties gracious directi­ons did put life into it. And certain­ly if the inquiry of this growing evill had at those ancient meetings beene from time to time observed, it had not mounted to so monstrous a growth.

[Page 4] Sect. 3 Whether the Forestaller and In­grosser, or the Depopulator, be the hea­viest in the scale, both being the spawne of that bloud-sucking Cyno­myia covetousnesse, might at first apprehension seeme doubtfull; But if, to shut and close up the wombe of the earth, communis reipublicae matris, from bringing forth any increase at all, bee a worse sinne than the hiding and hoarding up of her fruits after it's birth; then is the one more per­nitious and intolerable then the other, both too bad, neither of them worthy of the least indulgence, for both are horribly guilty of privative injustice. And if the curse be denounced against that, Qui abscondit frumentum maledi­cetur in populo, Pro. 11.26. it must needs, fall heavier upon this. Depopu­lation is praefocatio matricis, a strang­ling or choaking of the wombe, and causing an utter sterility. The other forestalling and ingrossing, is suffura­tio partus matricis, a privie stealer (though a publike enemy) of the birth [Page 5]of the wombe, both Monopolists, and both Foster-fathers of miserable Famine, this preventing a plenty, that raising a dearth, and scarcity in the time of plenty.

Sect. 4 I am not here to deale with those, whom the Civilians call Nocturnos Depopulatores agrorum, invaders of other mens possessions in the night, whom it was lawfull to kill if they resisted, Liceat occidere propria autho­ritate; but with an offendor of a farre worse nature. That being an open enemy, may be easily resisted or pre­vented: this under a Maske and vi­sage of his owne private, destroyeth the publike good. It is like the biting of an Aspe, a little Serpent in Affrick, which takes away the life of him whom it bites in a kinde of swowne, sensibus sinè sensu deficientibus. Be­fore I can well proceed in deciphering the odious conditions of that abomi­nable sinne of Depopulation, I must render a definition and description of it. The word is not obvious to the [Page 6]understanding of those whom it most concernes and offends, that is, his Highnesse liege people, versed and im­ployed in rurall affaires of Hus­bandry.

Sect. 5 Depopulation hath its Etymon from the preposition De, and the verbe Po­pulor, which singlie signifies and im­ports to robbe and spoile people, to waste and destroy Countryes. Seneca tells us, Cura populatur artus, Care con­sumeth the joynts: and it is aggravated by the word (De) which imports ablatively, in and by some unlawfull act, and the consequence and effects of that unlawfull act, by the privation of some lawfull and common good.

To describe it more plainely, it robbes and pilles the people of their due meanes and maintenance, and thereby disables them both in body and state from performing their ser­vice, and leige obedience, immedi­ately to their Prince, and mediat­ly to the Common-weale; By which I meane, Clergy, and Laiety: And it [Page 7]alters the quality of the people; from good Husbands, it makes them houselesse and thriftlesse, puts them in a course of idlenesse (the mother of mischiefe, and bane of all rule and or­der.) So as they become aliens and strangers to their nationall govern­ment, and the kingdome by that meanes in a manner dispeopled and desolated.

Sect. 6 The unlawfull wayes and meanes by which this grievous desolation is wrought, are next to be considered; It is not by any invasion, sacking or ran­sacking of places or people, by any forraigne enemy, but by a bosome and home-bred enemy, either by an actuall, violent, and voluntary rasing and demolition of mansions and hou­ses of habitation, or a carelesse and negligent suffering of them to decay, and to bee unhabitable, or by inclo­sing, and hedging in Common fields, and converting errable into pasture.

Sect 7 The Persons Actors in this op­pression are (though they draw in by [Page 8]their example other inferior persons) griping and avaritious Land-lords, who commonly suffer ancient demi­seable tenements, to fall into their hands, and so retaine them without granting further estates, at consciona­ble fines; and then wilfully, or negli­gently decay the houses, and either keepe their grounds in their owne, or a Bay liffes manurance, or let it out by severall parcells, at rack and extreame rents, to severall persons; who to make the best of a bad bargaine, are in­forced (for want of the entierty of a Messuage, or farme to maintaine a Plough.) to turne Tillage into pa­sture, and thereby onely keepe a few Sheepe and a Cow.

Sect. 8 The subject of this sinne is, hou­ses and lands. A house by the Civili­ans is called Mansus, and doth con­sist of foundation, wall and cover; in our French Law Maison, and in our legall latine Messuagium, which containes the buildings, Curtilage, Orchard, and Garden; and Messu­age [Page 9]consists of two things, land and structure. And though before the building, it was but land, yet when the edifice is erected, then is it cal­led a Messuage: And albeit the structure bee afterwards utterlie ruinated, Et aequata solo, yet for dignities sake, in regard it was once a place of habitation, which is high­ly esteemed in the Law, it shall have no more the name of Land, but bee called a TOFTE, (that is) a place wherein a house had beene.

Sect. 9 Land or earth, Terra in the na­turall sence is taken for the em­bleme of mortality, terra quam ge­rimus, The earth or earthly Ta­bernacle of our flesh, which wee beare about us, and which must re­turne to earth. In the interpreta­tion of the Law it doth compre­hend any ground, soyle or earth whatsoever, and is the most ge­nerall name of all sorts of soyle: But properly, Terra dicitur à terendo. [Page 10]The earth on which wee tread and walke, and must make use of the fruits and increase thereof, to sustaine and support our houses of clay, and yet more specially à terendo, quia vomere teritur, broken, bruized, and worne with the plough-share.

As the Heavens are the habitati­on of Almighty God; so the earth hath hee appointed as the suburbs of Heaven, to be the habitation of man. Behold the Heaven, and the Heaven of Heavens is the Lords, the earth also with all that therein is, Deuteronomie 10. ver. 14.

Sect. 10 Agricolari fuit hominum prima conditio & status: even before the fall, God tooke Adam, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dresse it and to keep it, Posuit in paradisum voluptat is, ut operaretur & custodiret illum. After the fall and the expulsion of our first Pa­rents, it was then primum opus homini impositum propter peccatum.

Agriculture was the first worke injoyned to man for sinne: God then [Page 11]gave the earth to man with limitation and condition, Gen. 3.17. Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the dayes of thy life. 19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eate bread, untill thou returne unto the ground: for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re­turne: And it followes. 23. The Lord God sent him forth to till the ground from whence he was taken, Vt operaretur terram de qua sumptus est. The gra­zing of heards, of beasts, and sheepe, are part of Husbandry; Pars rusticae vitae, in illis qui armenta & oves pas­cunt, consistere videtur, saith the Civili­an, li. 24. Syntag. cap. 5.

Adams two sonnes, Abel and Cain, were both Husband-men, Abelcustos ovium, Cain agricola, the one a keeper of Sheep, the other a Tiller of ground; and there were houses, habitations, and Citties built by them.

Sect. 11 So we see God gave the earth un­to man, terram dedit filiss hominum. But God saw the wickednesse of man was [Page 12]great in the earth, Gen. 6.5. He ther­fore by a generall deluge over the face of the whole earth, doth cancell his former gift of terram dedit, with a pro­viso of preservation reserved to Noah and them that were with him in the Arke, Gen. 7.23. But after the waters had prevailed upon the earth an hun­dred and fifty dayes, Genesis 8.1. God remembred Noah and every living thing, and all the cattell that was with him in the Arke: And God made a winde to passeover the earth, and the waters asswaged; And afterwards the face of the ground was dry, Noah and his family by Gods direction went forth. 20.21. And every beast, every creeping thing, and every foule, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the Arke. And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord and tooke of every cleane beast, and of every cleane foule, and offered burnt offerings on the Altar; God accepted the sweet favour of Noahs thankfull sacrifice, and reneweth his former [Page 13]grant of terram dedit by a strict cove­nant. Nonigitur ultra percutiam omnem animam viventem, sicut feci, &c. I will not againe smite any more every living thing as I have done: Cunctis diebus ter­rae, while the earth remaineth, seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and Sum­mer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Sect. 12 Thus man by Gods covenants stands seized of an absolute inheri­tance in fee of the earth, the best of the foure elements, Habendum per ser­vitia, To hold in capite of Almighty God, as of his Throne of Heaven, to which the earth is but a footstoole, and to uses too, dispensatores, non dissi­patores; To be Stewards of it, terram colere, aras excolere, to till, manure and husband the earth, and out of the increase thereof to build, polish and repaire Altars, Churches and Oratories for the God of Israel, and to maintaine and support the beauty of holinesse, and to give unto Gods Ministers, the sacred Priest-hood, his owne reserved [Page 14]portion, their dues and duties, and not to commit any spoile, waste or destru­ction of the earth, or the inhabitants thereof. Thus wee observe that the first institution of Husbandry upon the earth, injoyned by God for the sin of man, was agriculture, tillage, and must bee performed by the worke of the hands, and sweat of the brow; the maintenance of the Oxe at the crib, and the pasturage of the Sheepe, are but handmaids to doe their office in that great labour, The Oxe to plough the ground, the sheepe to compester it in due times of season.

Sect. 13 The end and fruit of Tillage, is to bring food out of the earth, and bread to strengthen mans heart, Psalm. 104.15. all sorts of victuall or sustenance, either, oyle, wine, or any other foode are inferiour to bread. When God pronounceth any commination of fa­mine for the wickednese of the peo­ple, it is by breaking the staffe of bread, Ecce ego conteram baculum panis in Hierusalem; Ezec. 4.16. Behold I [Page 15]will breake the staffe of bread in Ierusa­lem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with care, and they shall drinke wa­ter by measure and with astonishment.

Sect. 14 This worke of agriculture hath bin universally esteemed in all nations of the world. Among the heathen Idolaters (who had a glimmering of a deity) many of them in the variety of objects finding contentment to their desires, forthwith collected that to be God, which had given them such con­tentment, from whence sprang Idola­try. The earth and the fruits thereof were had in so great honour, that they ascribed a kind of deity to it. Let me a little prosecute the fictious allusi­ons of Heathen Poets in this kinde, that I may convince the earth-choaking Christians of this age: they feigne Coe­lus (further they doe not aspire) to be married to Terra his sister, by some called Vesta, sive quòd omnibus re­bus terra vestiatur, sive quòd vi sua stet; either because the earth is cloathed with all things, or because it subsisteth [Page 16]of its own strength. The latter seemes to be borrowed from Ovid, Lib:

But the first in my judgement is more probable. For vesture (vestitu­ra) signifies a garment, and in that sence it may be taken; for grasse, corne and all kinde of Trees, Woods, and under-woods, are as it were the come­ly clothing and garments of the earth. I finde in an old Law of King Inas, Lambert Ar­chaion. which herein I shall have occasion to touch: Qui decem hidas terrae occupa­verit, sex hidas frugibus vestito. In the use of our common Law, it is ta­ken metaphorically to betoken a pos­session, or an admittance to a posses­sion; and with the feudists, possession it selfe. And so it may well stand ac­cording to Gods grant before mentio­ned; terram dedit filijs hominum. Sometimes it is taken for the profits of the land: And so 4^o. ED. 1. Stat. 1. intituled extenta manerij; Inquirie was to be made pro quanto vestura cu­juslibet [Page 17]acre possit communiter appreciari, how much the vesture of an acre is worth. But I returne to my poeticall pedigree: They further feigne, that in this marriage Saturnus. Atlas, Ops, and others, brothers and sisters were be­gotten: And from the name of Coelus they derive the appellation of the highest heavens: Ab cujus nomine miravarietate formosissimum, supremum Corpus coelum dicunt fuisse appellatum.

Some thinke that Ops the daugh­ter was so called; Quod terrae ope vita hominum sustentatur, by the helpe of the earth, the life of man is suppor­ted; or from the ancient adjective Ops, which fignified rich. For the people of ancient dayes, whose riches did e­specially consist in Agriculture and cat­tell, did adore the earth by the name of the goddesse Ops, as the bountifull Mistresse of their wealth; they also feigne Ceres to be the daughter of Sa­turne and Ops, and to be the first Inven­trix of fruit and tillage, whence Virgil. 1^o. Geo.

Ceres did first direct the use of Iron Plow.

This goddesse was sometimes called Thesmophoros (i.e.) legum latrix. For some would have the originall of lawes, for metes and boundaries, and right of property, to begin with the use of Tillage and Husbandry: Coep­tum est de agrorum finibus (qui antea nulli erant) disceptari: Then the li­mits and bounds of fields (which were not before) began to be in que­stion. And certaine it is, the occasion of Tillage and Corne, begat the more frequent use of distinctions, Land­markes and boundaries.

Sect. 15 As I said before, the people in those blind dayes, were ready to make a god of that, which gave them a pre­sent content. Dimensiones terrarum terminis, positis vagantibus ac discordan­tibus [Page 19]populis pacis utilia praestiterunt: The allotting and bounding of land, did yeeld the profitablenesse of peace, unto wandring and disagreeing peo­ple. The luxuriant fruition of peace, by this meanes made them fancy, and frame to themselves the worship of an Idoll called Terminus, to whom they offered up their sacrifices in the month of February; Numa Pompilius the se­cond King of the Romans after Romu­lus, having made a publike perambula­tion throughout the kingdome, and prefixed private limitations and bounds, betwixt party and party; did for establishment thereof dedicate a Chappell, upon the top of the Tarpei­an Hill unto this Idoll; to whom the people by way of sacrifice brought Cakes, pulse, and the first fruits of the field. In the embleme of peace, Agri­culture is pourtrayed as her Compani­on, sister, and daughter, carrying eares of corne, and grapes in her hand.

Sect. 16 Licurgus of Sparta, the Lacedemo­nian Law maker, observing what great emolument the study and indu­stry of husbandry did afford unto the publike Weale, did divide and farme out all his fields unto his Citizens; that thereby laying aside all private envy and grudge, they might all alike share in paines and profit together.

Cato the elder was wont to say, that the choisest men for strength and martiall designes, and that imagined least mischiefe, had their off spring from Husbandmen, ex agricolis nasci. It is reported by Suetonius, that when Domiti [...] the Emperour, taking notice that studio colendi vineta, negligerentur arva; the sollicitous care in pruning, and trimming of Vineyards begat a neglect of tillage, commanded all the vines to be rooted out and destroyed. The remedy was as bad as the evill; his care of husbandry (had it beene [Page 21]singly) was commendable, but not his absolute destruction of Vine­yards; which was a type of his blou­dy persecution of Christians, and was intolerable to the weale publike.

Amongst the Romans, Agriculture grew in so high esteeme, that the Se­nators themselves would put their hands to the plow. And it never pro­spered better, than when the Senators themselves plowed: Scipio major is re­ported by Seneca, often to have exerci­sed himselfe in Tillage, Vt mos erat priscis, as the custome was; and was wont after he had tyred himselfe with rurall labours, to refresh his body by bathing, abluere corpus rusticis fessum laboribus.

The best of ancient Orators, in describing of liberall,Cic. l. 1. Offi. and illiberall arts and sciences, tells us, That Om­nium rerum ex quibus aliquid exquiri­tur, nihil agricultura melius, nihil uberi­us, nihil dulcius, nihil libero homine dig­nius: Nothing better, nothing more plentifull, more sweet, more worthy [Page 22]of a free man, than Tillage.

Sect. 17 Let us survey the high esteeme of Agriculture, and Tillage, by the line and levell of the ancient government in this kingdome. Amongst the lawes of King Inas, whom I mentioned be­fore, and who began his raigne in the yeare of Christ 712. the 65 Law is de fundum occupantibus, and is to this purpose;Archaion. Qui viginiti hidas ter­rae possederit, is migraturus undecim hi­das segetibus satas à tergo relinquito: Qui decem occupârit, is sex hidas frugi­bus vestito, &c. Hee that was posses­sed of twenty hides of land, and was to depart thence to dwell elsewhere, should leave behind him twelve hides sowne with corne: And he that had ten, should leave sixe, and so after the like proportion. By this may bee collected, what provident care those times had for maintenance of the Plow and Tillage.

Sect. 18 The first commencement of com­mon appendment by the ancient Law of this Realme, was to maintaine the [Page 23]service of the Plow, servitium socae. And therefore the Tenant had common in the Lords wasts, to gaine (i. e to till) and to compester the land, for the maintenance of tillage; which was much regarded and favoured by the Law. This sort of land was an­ciently called hide and gaine, the word hide signifying such a portion of land, as might be laboured and til­led in a yeare, and a day, by one Plow: and gaine (i. e. Quaestus, lucrum;) Me­tonymically from the profit and ad­vantage which ariseth by Tillage; whence the Civilians do terme Corne and harvest fruits, Fructus industriales. And whereas all service due for land, is either Knights service or socage: The word socage is derived of the word soc (i. e.) vomer a Plow-share or Coulter. Et inde (saith Bracton li. 2. ca. 35. num. 1.) tenentes qui tenent in sockagio sockmanni dici poterunt; co quòd deputati sunt (ut videtur) tantum­modo ad culturam. The tenure of so­cage hath more priviledges than that [Page 24]of Knights service. The sonne and heire of a socage tennant, sockmanni, was understood to be of sufficient age to enter to his land cum quindecim com­pleverit annos, whereas the sonne and heire of the other, not till hee attaine the age of 21. Glanvill lib. 7. ca. 9.

Sect. 19 The common Law did and doth preferre errable land before all other sort of land. And therefore for its dignity is named in a Praecipe upon a fine, and in a writ of entry, before mea­dow, pasture, wood, or any other soyle.

Yea the very beast of the Plow, averia carucae have a priviledge. For in the old Statute, de districtione Scac­carij. 51. Hen. 3.1266. It is pro­vided that no man of Religion (or o­ther) shall be distreyned by his beasts that gaine his land, nor by his Sheepe for the Kings debt, nor the debt of any other man, nor for any other cause, by the Kings, or other Bayliffes; but un­till they can finde another distresse, or Chattells sufficient, whereof they [Page 25]may levie the debt, or that is suffici­ent for the demand, except impoun­ding of beasts, damage Fezant. By the Statute of Artic. super chartas 28^o. EDW. 1. ca. 12. The King willed, that distresses to be taken for his debts, should not be made upon beasts of the Plow, so long as a man may finde any other; upon this Law a writ is foun­ded, ne quis distring atur per averia ca­rucarum, vel per oves suas, Regist. Brev. against those that shall transgresse, and impound any cattell of the Plow, or sheepe, contra­ry to that ordinance being made; ad communem utilitatem Regnì, as the writ sets forth.

Sect. 20 To compare the Lawes of other Nations, amongst the ancient Indi­ans, Agricolae were the second degree of men, after the Philosophers or wise men. And when all the Provin­ces in that great Country (being by some noted to be the third part of all the earth, containing 50000. Townes) were imbroyled with civill Warres; amidst all their hostilities,Strah. li. 55. [Page 26] Agricolae erant sacrosancti & intacti, agri (que) corum, &c. the Husbandmen and their fields, were priviledged from any violation or invasion, and they had the happinesse, quietly to apply themselves unto their Plow, their vin­tage, lopping of trees, or their harvest labours, according to the season of the yeare: Arrianus in Indicis. Whence it may be probably conceived that the industry of the people, as well as the fertility of the soyle was the meanes, that the earth in those parts brought forth its fruits to maturity twice a yeare. This custom of the Indians grew to bee part of the Civill Law among the Romans, li. 2. Synt. Tit. 27^o.

Sect. 21 It was the constitution of Frede­ricus Caesar; which meetely sympho­nizeth with our common Law, Agri­cultores circa rem rusticam occupati, dum villis insident, dum agros colunt, securi sint in quacun (que) parte terrarum: ita ut nullus inveniatur tam audax, ut perso­nas, boves, & agrorum instrumenta, aut si quid aliud sit, quod ad agrorum rusti­cam [Page 27]curam pertineat, invadere, aut cape­re, aut violenter auferre praesumat: That Husbandmen versed about their Country affaires, whilest they abode upon their farmes, and whilest they tilled their grounds, should be quiet, or safe in all parts of the land. So, that none should be so hardy, as pre­sume to assault, take, or forcibly carry away, their persons, their Oxen, and tooles of Husbandry, or any other thing that belonged to the affaires of Husbandry. The penalty followeth, and deserves a due perpension: Si quis autem hujusmodi statutum ausu temera­rio violare praesumpserit, in quadruplum ablata restituat, & infamiae notam ipso jure incurrat, imperiali arbitrio nihilomi­nus puniendus: The rash and insolent violater of that Law was to make a fourefold restitution of the things ta­ken away, to be accounted infamous by the Law, and notwithstanding to be punished at the pleasure of the Em­perour. I shall in its proper place, parallell the late Decree of the Kings [Page 28]great counsell, and high Court of Starre-chamber against Depopulation, with this imperiall constitution for rurall immunities, to shew that no Law or ordinance never so strictly contrived, hath beene hitherto more proportionably and conveniently medicinable for this sore then the Arbitrary proceedings of that great Court.

Sect. 22 The benefit and commodity of tillage, and supporting houses of Hus­bandry, will best bee manifested by describing the inconvenience of Depo­pulation, Contraria contrarijs illustran­tur. And therein I shall not need to inquire any further, than into the Statute Lawes of our kingdome, and to take a survey, as well of the pre­ambles, and the reasons therein com­prised, which are Medulla legis, as of the proviso or act it selfe, which is (I may terme it) medicina mali; where the symptomes and circumstances of diseases, either corporall or politicall, are not first discried, the remedy may [Page 29]be misapplyed. In this case therefore Optima statuti interpres est (omnibus par­ticulis ejusdem inspectis) ipsum sta­tutum.

King Henry the seventh,Lord Bacon. by an eminent writer of his life, is highly commended for the lawes enacted in his time, to advance Husbandry and tillage; Though the common Law, at that time, was furnished with suffi­cient power to defend and conserve it, and to punish the delinquents; yet that being lex non scripta, was not so conspicuous to the vulgar eie, as an act of Parliament made by all the three States; whereof, as every man hath by his suffrage of electing of Knights and Burgesses, an interest in the making of it, so he may the soo­ner take notice of it. And therefore to prevent the then growing evill, the first positive Law was made in the third Parliament,4 He. 7. ca. 19. holden in the fourth yeare of his raigne, ca. 19⁰. providing penalties against de­caying houses of Husbandrie, or [Page 30]not laying of convenient land for the maintenance of the same:Eodem Anno. ca. 12. But I must looke backe upon another Statute, the same time, Cap. 12⁰ which was made to rowze up the remisse and misde­meaning Iustices of peace of that age, with more care to execute their Com­mission, to redresse injuries, and main­taine the lawes, which is termed by that learned Writer, Monitory and Minatory. And therein amongst o­ther enormities, which did daily arise by the impunity of murders, robbe­ries, felonies, idlenesse, extortions, and other offences, it is expressed, that the Husbandry of this land was decai­ed, whereby

The Church of England was upholden,

The service of GOD continued,

Every man thereby had his suste­nance,

Every inheritor his rent for his land.

His Majesty then did therein fur­ther declare his consideration, that a [Page 31]great part of the wealth, and prospe­rity of his land, did depend upon the increasing and upholding of Husban­dry. This Statute is but by way of reflexion, and strikes at this evill, but through the sides of the Iustices.

Sect. 23 That which followes, did strike more home to it (i. e.) the Statute ca. 19⁰. which sets forth; That among all other things, great inconveniences did daily increase by desolation and pulling downe, and by wilfull waste of houses and Townes within the Realme, and laying to pasture, lands which customably had beene used to tilth. And thereby,

1. Idlenesse, the ground and begin­ning of all mischiefs, daily did in­crease: For, where in some Townes, 200 persons lived by their lawfull la­bour, they are now occupied, by two or three heard-men.

2. Husbandry, one of the greatest commodities of the Realme greatly decaied.

3. Churches destroyed, and the [Page 32]vice of God withdrawne by diminu­tion of Church living, decay of tithes, and the like.

4. Patrons and Curats, Gods Mi­nisters wronged.

5. The defence of the land against forraigne enemies feebled and impai­red.

The two consequences that fol­low of these inconveniences, Are,

• 1. The displeasure of Almighty God.
• 2. Subversion of the policy, and good rule of the land. For remedy whereof it was enacted; that if any owners of houses of Husbandry, which had beene let to farme, with twenty Acres of land at least, or more lying in tillage and Husbandry; And the occupiers did not maintaine the houses and buildings convenient for upholding the said tillage; The Lord of the Fee had power to receive year­ly halfe the issues and profits of the land, untill the houses were sufficient­ly builded or repaired againe. The Statute of 7⁰. of HEN. 8. ca. 1. [Page 33]was to the same purpose, not much different, and so was the Stature of 27. Hen. 8. ca. 22.

Sect. 24 But these acts, and all other subse­quent acts, as namely, the act of 5. Edw. 6. by which, so much provi­dence was had for the supportation of tillage, as that Commissions were a­warded into severall Counties, to en­quire of the offences, and delicts, com­mitted contrary to the tenor of that Stature; And the acts 2. and 3. Phil. and Mar. ca. 2. by which the Statute of 4. Hen. 7. ca. 19. was revived and con­firmed, and Commissions a warded to certaine persons, to enquire of all de­faults and offences committed since An. 20. Hen. 8. or then after to be com­mitted, contrary to the tenor of the fore-cited Statutes of 4. H. 7.19. and 7. Hen. 8.1. and the act of 5. Eliz. 2. which repealed the Statues of 5. and 6. Edw. 6.5. and 2. and 3. Phi. and Ma. 2. confirming the rest, were all repealed 39. Eliz. cap. 1. And thereby explained and enacted, that every [Page 34]house which at that time, or then after, had twenty acres (to bee adjudged ac­cording to the ordinance, de terris mensurandis) of errable land, mea­dowe, and pasture, or more, there­unto belonging, and so let to farme for three yeares together, since the beginning of the Queenes raigne (not being the Castle, or dwelling House of any Nobleman, or Gentle­man, nor the chiefe mansion house of any Mannor) shall be adjudged a house of husbandry for ever, with many provisions for repairing, and new­building houses of husbandry:39. Eliz. cap. 2. was same Parliament an Act ca. 2. was made, that errable land converted to sheepe pastures, or to the fatting or grazing of cattell since 1. Eliz. should bee restored or laid to tillage, and so continue for ever, according to the na­ture of the soile, and course of husban­dry, with some clauses and restrictions, and a penalty of twenty shillings for every acre for every yeare not resto­red. I cannot omit the reasons of this [Page 35]Law inforced in the entrance of it.

1 That the strength and flourishing estate of this kingdome hath beene alwayes upheld and advanced by the maintenance of the Plow and tillage.

2 Tillage is the occasion of multi­plying of people, both for service in the wars, and time of peace.

3 A principall meanes that people are set on worke, and thereby with­drawne from idlenesse, drunkennesse, unlawfull games, and all other lewd practizes and conditions of life.

4 That by tillage and husbandry, the greater part of the subjects are pre­served from extreme poverty in a competent estate of maintenance and meanes to live.

5 The wealth of the Realme kept, dispersed and distributed in many hands, where it is more ready to an­swer all necessary charges for the ser­vice of the Realme.

6 It is a cause that the Realme doth more stand upon it selfe, with­out [Page 36]out depending upon forreigne Coun­tries, either for importation of Corne, in time of scarcity, or for vent and ut­terance of our owne commodities.

These two last mentioned Acts, were but to endure to the end of the next Session of Parliament, which be­ing holden 43. Eliz. they were then revived and continued, ca. 9. and likewise continued 1. Iacobi. 25. and afterward discontinued, and by the Statute of 21. Iacob. all the said other Statutes against decay of houses, were utterly repealed. And so the remedy must have re­course to the Common Law, and the wisedome of the State.

Sect. 25 I thought it no great digression from any purpose, succinctly to runne over those Comitiar Lawes, framed according to the necessity of the times wherein they were made, that wee may observe the opinion, and detesta­tion those times had of this exorbitant evill: And though those Lawes be by repeale and expiration exauctorated, [Page 37]yet the inconveniences and mischiefes pointed out by them, still remaining, and increasing, and the nature and quality of the offence, transcending from meane Tenants to great Land. lords, from small quantities of acres, to whole Towneships, tythings and hamlets; The care and cure must bee greater and speedier, then any Stature-Law hath hitherto provided: Yet there is one Law made 25.25 He. 8. ca. 13. Hen. 8. ca. 13. intituled, An act limiting what number of sheepe men shall keepe, occupie, and have in their owne possession at one time, still in force, and unrepealed, which though in the frontispice it seemes to looke upon a sillie company of sheepe, it doth unkennell a subtill sort of Foxes, which waste and spoile the Vineyard of the Common wealth. Observe (1) the footing of these Fox­es, by their practizes, and injuries to the common good: (2) the mischiefes, and inconveniences thereupon hap­penning: (3) the great consequence insuing: (4) the remedy provided by that Law.

[Page 38] 1 It discovereth unto us, that sun­dry of the Kings Subjects, to whom GOD had disposed great plenty of moveable substance, did daily practise and invent waies and meanes how they might accumulate and gather together into few hands, as well great multitudes of farmes, as great plenty of Cattell, and in especiall sheepe, putting such lands as they can get, to pasture, and not to tillage.

2 The incoveniences foure fold.

1 That thereby they have pulled downe Churches, and Townes.

2 Inhaunsed the old rates of the rents of the possessions of this Realm, or brought it to such excessive fines, that no poore man is able to meddle with it.

3 That they have raised the prices of all manner of Corne, Cattel, Wool, and such other, almost double above the accustomed prices.

4 That multitudes of people not able to provide necessary victualls and cloathing, for themselves, their wives [Page 39]and children, were so discouraged with misery and poverty, that they fell daily to theft, robbery, and other inconveniences, or pittifully dyed for hunger and cold.

3 The consequence or enormities insuing, five fold.

1 That things thus used be princi­pally to the high displeasure of Al­mighty God.

2 To the decay of the hospitality of this Realme.

3 To the diminishing of the Kings people.

4 To the let of Cloth-making, whereby many poore people had beene accustomed to bee set to worke.

If remedy were not found, it might turne to the utter destruction and de­solation of the Realme.

4 The remedy prescribed, 2. fold, restriction and limitation.

1 That none should occupie in farme, or otherwise have of his owne proper cattell, in his owne proper [Page 40]lands, nor in the possession, lands or grounds of any other, which hee shall have in farme, by any manner of meanes, craft, or cun­ning above two thousand sheep at one time, within any part of the Realme, upon paine of three shil­lings and foure pence for every sheepe above that number.

2 That none should take in farme for terme of life, yeares, or at will, any more houses and renements of husbandry whereunto any lands are belonging, in Towne, Village, Hamlet or tything, above the number of two, upon the penalty of three shillings and foure pence for every weeke.

Sect. 26 All these Statutes are but municipalis aperturae legis, overtures of the ancient Common Law; One of the mainest speciall occasions of this grand mis­chiefe, is a growing evill of late yeares practized and set on foote by certaine greedy and covetous persons, Carnifices & carnivoros regni, grazing [Page 41]butchers, who under colour of their mechainck trade in butchery, respecting their owne private gaine and lucre, above the generall good of his Highnesse Subjects, doe accumu­late and gaine into their hands, at ex­cessive yearly rents, severall great portions and parts of the grounds and lands of this Realme, from severall Landlords, and persons, to the value of foure hundred, five hundred, eight hundred, or a thousand pounds a yeare, more or lesse, from the occupa­tion of poore husbandmen, to the intent to use it in pasture, and not in tillage; and thereby not onely to graze and feede great store of sheepe, and other Cattell, which they usually buy in great numbers, to the intent to sell them alive, contrary to the true meaning of a good Law, made in the third and fourth yeares of the Reigne of King Edward the Sixth, cap. xix. continued by the last Parliament, An. 3. Car. Reg. ca. 4. but also to agift, and take to pasture in those several groūds, [Page 42]the Cattell of diverse poore husband­men and others at very high and unusu­all rates and prices; By meanes wherof the poore laborious husbandmen in most parts of the Kingdome, whose tenements doe most consist of errable land, are intercepted and forestalled from renting any competent quanti­ties of medowe, or pasture to main­taine their Oxen, and other Cattell, to keepe the plow in use according to the season of the yeare; And those grounds which within the space of few yeares have beene let at reasonable yearly rates to neighboring husbandmen, are now by the supplantings and outbid­ding of those and such like covetuous accumulators inhaunsed to the full double value; to the great discomfort and discouragement of the husband­man, who ofttimes is inforced for want of foode and fodder for his Ox­en and Cattell, to sell them away, and to leave his grounds untilled.

Sect. 27 That Devill Covetuosnesse the mother of all these mischiefes, hath [Page 43]ever some argument, to elude (if it could) the intention of all Law and Iustice; In this case it will with a high hand, umbonibus junctis, presse a double argument by way of question. 1. a proprio (2) ab utili.

1 A proprio, Is it not lawfull for mee to doe what I list with my owne, to pull or let down my owne houses, or alter the property of my owne soyle, &c?

2 Ab utili, Shall I not buy and purchase as much as I am able to pay for; And shall I not make the most of my owne?

Sect. 28 They are generall questions, and one generall maxime will serve to answer both, Interest reipublicae, nequis re sua male utatur; The interest of the Com­mon weale hath such a power over the actions and estates of men, that no man must abuse or mis-imploy the ta­lent of his meanes; And by the rules of contraries, every man must well and rightfully order and imploy it.

[Page 44] It agrees with the rule of Law and reason, Prohibetur ne quis faciat in suo, quod nocere possit alieno: Et sic utere tuo, ut alienum non laedas: No man must do that in his own property or possession, as may hurt another mans; And we must so use our owne, that we may not offend our neighbour: This rule may seeme to reflect upon particular nusan­ces, to the discommodity of vicinage and neighborhood, which are to bee remedied by actions at the Common Law, whereof many particular cases might be plentifully urged: If in such cases the Law provides a remedy, con­tra vicinum & privatum nocumentum, against a private annoyance; à fortiori, against commune nocumentum, that nu­sance which offends many, which the wisedome of the Law meets with, by Indictments, presentments, and other wayes in severall Courts of Iustice. But à mulio fortiori, against generale no­cumentum, that which displeaseth and offendeth not one alone, or many, but All, God and man, and of men all sorts, [Page 45]from the highest to the lowest.

Sect. 29 It is an undoubted Principle, omne bonū est sui diffusivum; Al goodnes doth communicate it selfe to others: he that racketh and tentereth his bona fortunae, his fortune, and meanes, to improve his private, and impaire the publike good, hath not participation of this goodnesse: And as little hath hee of that cardinall and all-crowning vertue, Charity, the groundsell of religion, without which nothing availeth, sine Charitate nihil prodest, quia fundamen­tum religionis Charitas est. Charity, saith Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 13.5. non quaerit quae sua sunt: It seeketh not her owne, it prefers the good of others before its owne private; In a former Chapter, cap. 10. ver. 24. Let no man seeke his owne, but every man anothers wealth; The words, either in the literal accepta­tion, or taken according to the Apostles meaning, doe insinuate, that no man must so use his owne, as thereby to of­fend his neighbour.

Non nobis nati sumus, wee are not [Page 46]borne for our selves, but partly for our friends, and partly for our Country, It is a vulgar Country proverbe, every man for himselfe and God for us all. But a reverend Divine thus inverted it; Where every man is for himselfe; non deus, sed diabolus, The Divell is for all: The rich mans barne is full of Corne; It is his owne, jure proprietatis; But he must not hide and hoard it up to in­hance the price, hee must expose it to publike sale, and at reasonable prices, propter commune bonum, Or else a vae qui abscondit is denounced against him: He that received but one Talent com­mitted to him by his Lord, wherein he had but a fiduciary interest, and hid it, and did not rightly use it, was cast in­to utter darkenesse, and had his Talent taken from him: Matthew 25.15. we are all but trustees of this world­ly estate or earthly Talent; As wee must not hide, but use it; So must wee use it, not for our selves onely, but for the common utility of the weale pub­like.

[Page 47] Sect. 31 As it transgresseth the bond of Cha­rity, the Crowne of all good gifts and graces; It doth likewise offend against the rules of Iustice, the Queene regent of all vertues; The confession of sins daily celebrated by the Church, doth conclude by way of prayer, that wee may live a godly, righteous and a sober life, which implies three duties, piety to God, Iust ce or upright dealing to our Neighbour, and sobriety to our selves: I meddle but with the se­cond.

Sect. 32 Iustice is either univerfall, where­by a man doth justlie carry himselfe, and levell his actions for the common and publike good, and yeeldeth obedi­ence to all lawes, ut ex earum praescripto omnes alias virtutes colat: That by the rule or prescript of those lawes, he may have all other vertues in esteeme, which Aristotle calls legall, quia leges eam praecipue intendunt, for that the whole use and operation of the law is for the support and executi­on of it.

[Page 48] Or it is particularis, which is also called Morall, and is a vertue busied and exercised in the distribution and commutation, or merchandizing of all outward things. The object of her imployment and negotiation, sunt bona externa, & fortunae, ut opes & honores, all externall goods, and goods of fortune, as riches, and honours; Hence it is di­vided into distributive and Commu­tative Iustice.

This observeth an arithmeticall pro­portion in all exchanges, contracts, covenants and commerce, betweene man and man, strictly looking upon the equality of the thing bought, sold, bartered, or exchanged, without respect of the person, party in the bargaine, whether he be a Noble man, Citizen, or Plebeian, rendring the price no lesse unto the one, than to the other; It hath this generall rule to be exercised in all entercourses of buying, selling, and dealings whatsoeuer, Thes. 4.6. That no man outreach, or circumvent his bro­ther in any matter, ne quis supergredia­tur, [Page 49]vel circumveniat in negotio fratrem suum; This Iustice, the depopulating questionists may in some measure ob­serve, when they do buye or sell, they may afford rem pro pretio, pretium pro re; But they will not sell their lands and commodities with conveniencie, either of time or price, till the mem­bers of the Common wealth are rea­dy to suffer for want of it: And in buying and accumulating Vineyard to Vineyard, they are so excessive and outragious, that they become masters of a whole Countrey, and none must have any thing neare them, but at their prices; This kinde of Iustice commu­tative respecteth only private persons; That other (i.e.) listributive, respecteth publike persons: By the one wee de­fraud or doe injury to no man; by the other wee benefit and doe good to all men.

Sect. 33 Distributive Iustice hath this inde­leble character, alienum non vendicat, utilitatem propriam negligit. Vt com­munem aequitatem custodiat; She claims [Page 50]not that which belongs unto another, she passeth by her owne profit, that shee may preserve common right; It hath this generall rule, Galathians 6.10. As we have occasion, [...], Let us doe good to all men; Not only individually to any particu­lar person or member, but to the King, the head of the State, and to the Church and Common weale, the body, and not at any stinted or expectatory times, but upon all op­portunities, Salutem qui cum poterit, protrahit, negat; The delaying of succour and reliefe, when a man may afford it, is as much as an absolute de­niall.

The violating of this Iustice, is ever a privative injustice, whereby we doe not that common good, as we ought to do; It is aswell injustice (though not alike) not to doe for our brother what we ought, as to doe what wee ought not, according to that saying, pasce esurientem; si non pavisti, occidisti, feede thy hungry brother, if thou feed [Page 51]him not, thou art a homicide priva­tively, if not positively. If so; In what case is the Depopulator? He doth not onely not feed the hungry, but rob­beth them of their bread, and therein he is a man of bloud: panis pauperum est vita pauperum, & qui defraudat, vir sanguinis est: Nay he is a matricide, he choakes up the earth our common mother, from yeelding her foizon and increase unto her offspring.

Sect. 34 It is reported by an ancient Crono­loger, Walter Mappe Archdeacon of Oxford, who was bred up with Hen. 2. That the Abbots and, Monkes in that time were very criminous in matter of depopulation, whence a proverbe did arise of them, Monachi desertum, aut inveniunt aut faciunt wheresoever they setled themselues, they either found it, or made it a desart: It is said of them, that they laid more places waste, then ever William the Conqueror, or his Son Rufus did, when they demolished and destroyed many parishes with their Churches to inlarge the bounds of New forrest.

[Page 52] The Abbot of Osney, was principal­ly noted for a great Depopulator; he made all poore that dwelt within the compasse of his possessions; whereof King Hen. 2. tooke such notice, that one day, when hee had not poore e­nough, to bestow his almes unto, upon some festivall and solemne time did discontentedly affirme, that rather then his bounty should be undisposed, hee would make as many beggers, as the Abbot of Osney had done.

Their monasteries and religious houses were no sooner dissolved, but eftsoones their goodly structures were wasted and ruined, yet their lands (as if they seemed to carry with them a successorie adherence of this leprosie) have fallen into the hands of many more uncharitable then ever they were; for as they made poore, they did in some competencie maintaine and releeve them; But these doe not only make many poore, but starve those that are poore.

Sect. 35 It was the Law of GOD by the [Page 53]mouth of Moses, Lev. 19.9. When you reape the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reape the corners of the field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. Verse 10. And thou shalt not gleane the Vineyard, neither shalt thou ga­ther every grape of thy Vineyard: thou shalt leave them for the poore and stran­ger: The like, Ch. 23. Ver. 22. Thou shalt not make cleane riddance of the corners of thy field, when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleanings of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poore, and to the stranger: Hee that had forgotten a sheafe behind him in the har­vest, should not goe againe to fetch it, but leave it behind for the stranger, the fa­therlesse, and the widdow, Deut. 24.19.

A blessing is promised, that the LORD thy GOD may blesse thee in all the workes of thy hands; then needs must bee implyed, whosoever doth it not, shall not be blessed; where benedictions are excluded, woes and maledictions soone make their en­trance, where there is no tillage, there [Page 54]can bee no harvest, and where no harvest is, no reliques, no gleanings can be.

Woe then to the Depopulator, who is so farre from making riddance of the corners of the fields, that he rids whole fields, and takes away all occa­sions of gleanings and harvest, in de­barring and forechoaking the worke of tillage, by converting errable into pasture, and ruinating the habitations of husbandry, by turning them into sheep-coates; Our times cannot make good that saying, Nunc seges est ubi Troj a fuit: Now corne growes where houses stood; but we may take it up with a lamentation; where hospitable [Page 55]Farmes, and plentifull fields of corne have beene, nothing remaines but a champant wildernesse for sheepe, with a Coate, a pastorall boy, his dogge, a crooke and a pipe.

Or as the Thebans in the time of a devouring pestilence, bewailed the losse of their husbandmen.

Wee might in these contagious dayes of depopulation, justly expect the like querimony, if his Majesties gra­tious, and watchfull providence, in preventing such mischiefs, did not cheere up our fainting hearts.

Sect. 36 One of the instruments of depopula­tion is inclosure, I doe not meane of wasts, woods and pastures, so farre as they are warranted by severall Lawes and Statutes; for where a man hath Common in the Lords wast ground, [Page 56]the Lord by the Law may inclose part of the waste for himselfe, leaving ne­verthelesse sufficient Common with egresse and regresse for the Commo­ners: And it is called approvement (appruamentum) that is, to make the best benefit thereof by increasing the rent; And if the Lord doth approve his waste, not leaving sufficient Com­mon for the Tenants, the Law gives them a remedy against the Lord by writ of assize: But my ayme is at in­closing of common fields used to cul­ture, and converting them into pasture, whereby one grand offence and incon­venience not yet formerly mentioned doth arise: The stopping and straight­ning of the Kings high wayes: For whereas by the Statute of Winton, 13. Edw. 1.5. It was commanded that high wayes leading from one Market Towne to another, should be inlarged, where bushes, woods, or dykes were, so that there should be neither dyke, tree nor bush, whereby a man might lurke to doe hurt, within two hundred [Page 57]foote of the one side, and two hundred foote of the other side of the way, (except Ashes or great Trees) By the meaning of which Law, the Kings high waies (which the Common Law had ever in high estimation) were to be of such sufficient breadth, that three or foure Carts or carriages might well passe in range together, without any stop or impediment: Now in most parts of the Kingdome, within the space of these forty yeares, There have beene so much Circumseption and wounding in of common errable lands and fields, abutting and adjoyning to high waies, by Tenants with consent of the Lord of the fee (all partakers of the crime) and the high waies thereby so streightned, that in many places, but one Cart, and not without some dan­ger and difficulty, can passe, and scarce two horsemen side by side, without climing upon side bankes, whence these inconveniences and mischiefes must needs arise.

1 A great danger to his Majesties [Page 58]Subjects in being exposed to assassina­tions and robberies, with little possi­bility to avoide or resist them, by rea­son of the narrownesse and incom­brance of the wayes.

2 As great a danger to his highnesse leige people, who upon necessitated oc­casions, either for his highnesse publik service, or for common entercourse and trafficke, being upon the height of speed (which brooks no delaie) Omnis nimium long a properanti mora est, doe oftentimes in streight and narrow lanes (I cannot terme them waies, for the way aswel as the word are become diminutives, via is turned into viculi) meete with countercourses and are ready for want of competent spatious­nesse, which might decline the sud­daine distresse, rashly encounter each other, to the perill of their limbes or lives.

3 A manifest impairment or po­pulation of the waies themselves doth this straightnesse produce, and there­by not onely makes them unpassable [Page 59]upon some unseasonable times & wea­ther, to the great trouble and impedi­ment of the Subjects, who are infor­ced to compasse their journey with much tediousnesse, through private grounds, and other by-wayes; But it doth also exhaust from the poore neighbouring Inhabitants, a farre greater and more frequent charge of reparations, then if they had the Sta­tute allowance of latitude; the often pressures and treadings in one tract, wil sooner founder a way, then if there were variety and choice of tracts which would be supplied in breadth according to that law of Winton, if in­closures were not in the way.

Sect. 37 All the mischiefs and miserable in­conveniences before cited, I shall reduce in one distick.

[Page 60] Rex patitur: The King suffers; 1 First in his Royall Majestie, he cannot number so many strong and able men as he might doe, if tillage had its ancient esteeme: In the multitude of people is the Kings honour, but in the want of people is the destruction of the Prince: In pautitate plebis ignominia Principis, Prov. 14.28. It was the lamentation of Ierusalem, Lamen. 1.1. How doth the City sit solitary, that was full of people? how is shee become as a widow? Amongst people the husband­men are noted to be homines strenuissi­mi, the strongest men, and fittest for any labour, whence Seneca observed; Nullum laborem recusant manus quae ab aratro ad arma transferuntur: Their hands refuse no labour, who from the exercise of the Plow are trayned to the field; The Law therefore of 39. Eliz. ca. 1. doth excellently set forth; That the strength and flourishing estate of this Kingdome hath beene alwaies up­held and advanced by tillage, and people thereby multiplied for service, [Page 61]both in times of war and peace, and by the decay of it, the defence of the land, against forreigne enemies have been feebled and decayed.

2 Secondly in the meanes and maintenance of his imperiall state, and therefore a depopulator may bee well called depeculator, a robber of the Kings treasury: for it must of necessity be di­minished and farre shortned, if suffici­ent Families (who were able to pay subsidies, fifteenes, and other duties to supply the KINGS necessities, aswell for the support of his regali­ty, as for the defence of the King­dome) bee utterly decayed and disa­bled: And it is a common practice with Landlords and others, to keepe tenements in their hands, and insteed of Subsidies, to pay the King with Certificates. It is the prudent policy of a Prince, in the time of peace to make provision for the maintenance of warre, Nulla quies gentium sine armis, the peace of a Nation cannot be with­out an army; No armies without [Page 62]Souldiers, no Souldiers without sala­ries, no salaries without tributes and taxes to the Prince. And where there are no people, there can be no paimēts, and then the desolation of a Kingdom must needs follow, which I hope our Nation shall never see.

Sect. 38 Patitur Clerus: The Church suffers, 1. in the decay and ruine of materiall temples, oratories, chappels and houses of religion, 2. abating and diminishing the number of painefull and learned Pastors, 3. in robbing God and his holy Church of tythes both personall and prediall: for where Towns, Parishes, and Villages are dispeopled, there must be a failing of personall duties: And where errable lands are converted into pasture, there must needs insue a dimi­nution of predial tythes: sheep do never yeeld so much profit and advantage to Gods Ministers, as the sheafe; this is commonly sure to be paid in kind: In the tything of the other, which consist­eth in wooll and lambe, there are many slights and subtil deceipts of late crept [Page 63]in, and many devices started up by co­vetous and ill disposed persons; They will either shift away their sheepe from one place to another; and some­times upon a petty composition with a neighbour incumbent from one pa­rish to another, and so incumber the tything for the fall of Lambes, and set a variance betweene the Ministers, or they will sell their sheep a little before the time of shearing, and so cheat the Minister of his dues in the title of wooll; And to countenance this pil­lage, some strange prescription, or modus decimandi must presently be set on foot, a prohibition speedily had, and the litigious Countrymans next labour is, to provide for a tryall at the assizes, and to prepare (as the too com­mon proverbe is, horresco referens) good swearers, that may cleave a pinne, and so by horrid perjury out­strip God and his Ministers of their just dues; It is lamentable to see what perplexed swearing and counterswear­ing do often happen upon such tryalls.

[Page 64] Qui rem Sacram legit; He that robs Churches, or Chappels, or other holy places, and takes any ornaments out of them feloniously, is to suffer death by the Law, without benefit of Clergy: I will not terme the Depopulator Sacri­legus: Sacred things which are stollen a way, may be possibly found and had againe; But I shall call him sacrivorus, such a devouring Leviathan, that swal­lowes Steeples, Churches, and whole fields, and makes a non entitie, and takes away the very being of sacred things appoynted and designed for the glory of God, and the maintenance of religi­gion: Hee adnuls that sacred rule, ho­nour God with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: Pro. 2.9. The Prophet brandeth such men with a just accusation of robbery, will a man rob God? yet yee have robbed mee: But ye say wherein have we robbed thee? in tithes and offerings: ye are cursed with a curse, for yee have robbed mee, Malac. 3.8. Therefore just was the complaint of the Parliament, 4 He. 7. ca. 19. That [Page 65]Churches were destroyed, and the ser­vice of God withdrawne by diminu­tion of Church living, decay of tithes, and the like; and Patrons of Churches, and Curats, Gods Ministers were wronged.

Patitur respublica.

Sect. 39 In whatsoever the King doth suffer, the Publike-weale hath a share; if the Head be grieved, the whole Body will sympathize: The Common-Weale of England, is a Society or common doing of Freemen, collected together, and united by common accord, and governed by the administation of lawes, as well in peace as in warre, under the Princely rule and protection of an absolute Monarch, who, under God, is supreme head both of Church and State, and ac­knowledgeth no other Superiour. It is called the Common-weale, quia respicit communem utilitatem, because it respe­cteth the common good: The Depopu­lator strikes at the verie structure and frame of a Common-weale, by dispeo­pling of Societies in Townes, Parishes, [Page 66]and Hamlets. He brings in Idlenesse, the ground and foundation of all mis­chiefes, accompanied with luxury, ebrietie, unlawfull games, and all other lewd practices and conditions of life: He is the common inhanser of the pri­zes of all manner of Corne, Graine, and Victuall, and of all the old rents of ancient Farmes and Possessions: Hee makes the kingdome beholding to forraigne Countries for importation of Corne in times of scarcitie. By his unconscionable inclosures the Kings high wayes are streightned and impai­red, and commonly foundred, to the hinderance and impediment of com­mon mercature, and travaile to and fro: There is not one good qualitie in him for the common good.

Sect. 40 Patitur pauper.

The poore suffers: for whereas by tillage and husbandrie the greater part of the subjects are preserved from ex­treme povertie in a competent estate of maintenance, and meanes to live; now by the decay of it multitudes of peo­ple, [Page 67]not able to provide necessarie vi­ctuals and cloathing for themselves, and their families, are so discouraged with miserie and povertie, that they daily fall to theft, robberie, and other inconveniences, and either die by the hand of Iustice, or perish and starve in a Gaole. It is woefull to see, that those places are now more pestered with poore prisoners, than heretofore they were. As it doth depauperate able men, so, for want of almes and glea­nings, it is a meanes to starve and fa­mish them, when they are made poore; for the poore labourer, who, like the painfull Ant, was wont in harvest time to glean, and lease up so much corne, as would thriftily maintaine him a good part of the winter, is now for want of tillage, destituted of that benefit.

Sect. 41 But now (God and the wisdome of our great Soveraigne by him inspired, be blessed) Passurus est depopulator, you have heard him discovered, described, arraigned, & convicted, & ere long you shall heare his sentence: His crime is no [Page 68]lesse than crimen laesae majestatis, high Treason against the sacred Trinity of heaven, in compassing about the viola­ting & cancelling of that great Charter, or, magna Charta of terram dedit filiis hominum, ut operarentur; and indeavou­ring to overthrow Gods institution of husbandrie, primum opus impositum; and in stead of operari, to bring in otiari, in stead of many labourers in the harvest, to maintaine onely a shepheard and his Curre.

Sect. 42 The Charter of confirmation of the liberties of England, and the forrests, made 10. Octo. 25. Edw. 1.1297. doth provide cap. 4. that all Archbi­shops, and Bishops, should pronounce the sentence of excommunication a­gainst all those that by word, deed or counsell, doe contrary to the said Charters, or that in any point breake or undoe them: and that the said Cur­ses should be twice a yeare denounced, and published by the Prelats aforesaid. The sentence of excommunication is extant, stiled sententia lata super confir­matione [Page 69]Chartarum; whereby Robert Winchesly then Archbishop of Canter­bury, did excomunicate all the violaters of those Charters, from the body of our Lord Iesus Christ, from all the company of heaven, and from all the Sacraments of holy Church for ever, fiat, fiat, Amen. Though neither the Anathema of that time, being now expired, nor any of this time doe meet with them; yet let them expect, (my charity interdicts the word Curse) but little blessing from heaven. Sure I am, the sacred Scrip­ture pronounceth many a Vae, many woes against the severall qualities and species of that grand offence: One they have heard already, a Vae qui ab­scondit, &c.

Sect. 43 A covetous man is described, that his eye is neither satisfied with riches, neither saith he, For whom doe I labour, and bereave my soule of good? Eccle. 4.8. and presently followes vers. 10. a Vae soli, woe to him that is alene. The Depo­pulator may take up this woe, who will be alone in his habitation, without the [Page 70]comfort of neighberhood; alone in his actions, without any participation with other; and he shall bee alone in his pu­nishment: Vae soli, Woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for hee hath not another to helpe him. He that offends all generally, may have the prayers of many to convert him, but scarce the prayers of any to helpe him, Solitudi­nem faciunt, & habent, shall be the Mot­to of such persons, Qui neminem mise­retur, à nemine miserebitur; He that pit­tieth none, shall bee pittied of none. There is a Vae qui conjungitis domum ad domum; Isai. 5.8. Wo unto them, that joyne house to house, that lay field to field, till there bee no place, that they may bee placed in the midst of the earth.

The Prophet Micha, cap. 2. vers. 1. doth second this woe with a Vae qui co­gitatis inutile, & operamini malum, &c. Woe to them that devise iniquitie, and worke evill upon their beds, when the morning is light they practise it, because it is in the power of their hands. Vers. 2. And that covet fields, and take them by [Page 71]violence; and houses, and take them away. So they oppresse a man and his house, even a man and his heritage: Their doome followes pronounced by the Prophet: Idcirco hoc dicit Dominus, ver. 3. Therefore thus saith the Lord, with an ecce, Behold, against this family doe I devise an evill, from which you shall not remove your necks, nether shall yee goe haughtily; for this time is evill. 4. In that day one shall take up a parable against you, and lament with a dolefull lamentati­on, and say (in the words of S. Ieromes translation, Depopulatione vastati sumus) Wee beutterly spoyled: He hath changed the portion of my people: how hath hee re­moved it from me? turning away (or in stead of restoring) hee hath divided our fields. This woe was pronounced a­gainst the Israelites, and the Iewes, and as well against their Princes (their mightie men) as against the peo­ple, for a memoriall and example to all the posterity of Adam. It is remark­able, and should take very much to observe the Analogie and proportion [Page 72]betweene the sinne and the sentence a­gainst it.

Sect. 44 In the sinne there is a devising of an iniquity, a working, of an evill, malum culpae, they think upon the evill of sinne, Vae qui cogitatis.

In this sentence there is a cogito, a de­vising of an evill too against the sinner, but it is malum poenae, God against them thinketh upon the evill of punishment. In the sinne, there is an extension consi­derable in the persons against whom the evill is devised and wrought; it is not against a man and a field, but agros and domos, fields and whole houses, fa­milies, men, women, and Children; not gray haires, not men of strength, not the nursing mother, nor the tender babe; not the very embrion in the wombe were exempted from this oppression.

Vnder the Law the Dam was not to be taken with her young ones, And therefore if a birds nest chanced to bee found, whether they were young ones or Egges; and the Dam sitting upon the [Page 73]young, or upon the Egs; The Precept was, Thou shalt not take the Dam with the young; Deut. 22. v. 6. If God had such care of the fowles of the aire, which was typicall, what shall bee ex­pected amongst Christians, to whom the Vaile of the Law is opened; woe bee to him that shall oppresse the Dam with her young ones.

In the sentence there is an extent of the evill of punishment devised, quadrant to the sinne; Cogito super istam familiam, Against that family doe I devise an e­vill; As if hee should say, Against the old and strong, the Dam, and her young ones, this evill shall cleave to all; In quo quis peccat, in eo punietur; I will adde a qualiter, and a taliter; in that kinde as a man offends, he shall bee pu­nished; he that wasteth and destroyeth families, shall bee destroyed in his families.

Sect. 45 In the sinne there is a double effect proceeding from this device and ope­ration of evill; 1. Of force or violence, violenter tulerunt agros, & rapuerunt do­mos, [Page 74]They take away fields and houses by violence. 2. Of fraud and circum­vention, Calumniabantur virum & do­mum ejus, virum & haereditatem ejus; They oppresse a man and his house, a man and his heritage, or posterity. Op­pression is ever attended with two bad Angels, Force and Fraud. In this place the word calumniabantur may be taken for oppressing a man, his house and he­ritage, by some malicious, deceitfull, or crafty allegation and cavill.

It was the oppressing sinne of Ahab, who first coveted Naboths field, and when he could not get it by a specious pretext of composition with him, then with the wicked art and assistance of Iesabel, an instrument of bloud is con­trived, two children of Belial are raised up against him, Calumniantur virū, vi­tam, & haereditatem, By false and deceit­full accusation they robbe him both of life and land.

Sect. 46 The sentence meets with both. 1. The force or violence is paid in its kinde with a malum unde non auferetis colla [Page 75]vestra, non ambulabitis superbi: As if he should say, Such an evill will I devise, I will so subdue you, that you shall not pull your necks out of the collar; I will so curbe you, that ye shal have no more power to oppresse, yee shall walke no more so proudly as yee have done. I will binde your Princes with chaines, and your Nobles with links of iron. In a word, God threatens to them a miserable and shamefull end. 2. The fraud or false circumvention is likewise met with, & the punishment amplified by a pro­verbe or forme of execration or cur­sing, calumniabantur, is answered with a Sumetur super vos parabola, A parable shall bee taken up against you, Wee are spoiled, your cruelty shall be recompen­sed with perpetuall ignominy. No lesse judgement did God himself denounce by the mouth of his Prophet agianst the Princes of Iudah, & others, That they should be a reproach & a proverbe, a taunt, and a curse in all places, in oppro­brium, & in parabolam, & in proverbium, & in maledictionem in universis locis: [Page 76]Ierem. 24.9. Amongst all the curses pronounced against the children of disobedience, Deut. 28. from verse 15. unto 45. one of the last, and not the least, is a curse of reproach or infamie; Eris perditus in proverbium ac fabulam omnibus populis, Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverbe, and a by-word among all nations. verse 37.

Sect. 47 Let us looke upon the times wherein we live, and behold the same sinne, we shall finde a devising of an evill, cove­ting of fields, joyning house to house, laying field to field, taking by vio­lence, and oppressing men, and their houses, and their heritages; and what­soever can bee comprised under the word depopulation.

Shall not the authors of this evill, the Nimrods, and migty ones expect the same sentence, the same punishment of evill; the same reproach, parable, and proverbe of Depopulatione vastati sumus? Yes verily: They will per­haps flatter themselves, that the curses were never intended to this nation; if it [Page 77]were, yet it is far off, not imminent; and they have time enough to expiate their errour: (they will not confesse it a sinne) They will pretend, that though they build not Churches or Chappels, yet they maintaine a stipen­dary Preacher in their houses; and though they are alone, and remote from Churches, yet they are duly fed with the word of God, and they themselves doe feed the poore too at the times of Christmas, and such so­lemne times: These are but shadowes, and poore palliations. They must know, that the curses of sacred Writ will one day or another cleave unto them, their houses, their families and posterities, without true repentance, satisfaction, and restitution; and they must know it is not a light errour, but as the Poet hath it,

Sape error ingens sceleris obtinuit lo­cum.

It is a stupendious error, and hath ever equivalence with a hainous crime: They must not thinke, that [Page 78]such a grand transgression against the Majestie of Heaven, his pious and prudent Vicegerent here on earth, against the Church, the State and poore, can bee expiated by a Parlor sermon of a stipendary Schoolma­ster, who must sow downe under his Patrons Elbowes; Vlcus est, ne tangas, he must not touch this maladie, for feare he should lose his Salarie; no, nor with their pettie almes at stinted times of solemne festivities, when eve­ry mans hands are open the give, Ad aliud remedium recurrendum est; They must resort to other Physitians, true penitence, and her two companions mentioned before.

Sect. 48 Their offence is grievous, and ag­gravated by the example. It is obser­vable, that omne grave & grassans ma­lum aliquem semper in populo principem habet; There is not any great and growing evill, but hath ever some Prince (I meane some great man) to be an example, a patron, and protector of it. If a meane man bee like to bee [Page 79]questioned for ruinating a house of husbandry, or translating culture into pasture; he is readie presently to stop the mouth of authority with an ex­probration of his great Ring-leader & President; You (saith he) can look upō me, & upō my petty slips, why should not I for my own private profit & ad­vantage do this, as well as such as have no need, and yet suffer many houses together to decay, not habitable nor hospitable, naming, and meaning their great Princes, and Patternes of this e­vill? So that this great one, either by parity in authority, or by alliance in bloud, affinitie, or some other respects, is so neare upon the eye of Coun­trey Iustice, that the object common­ly hinders the sight, and because the greater cannot, the lesser must not bee seene: The greater breake the Net, and hold off ordinary power, & so all scape together impunè, if it were not for Superiour Iurisdiction.

Sect. 49 I speake it knowingly, & doe appeale to the whole Kingdome. How many [Page 80]carefull dictates, and remembrances have beene yearely delivered by the right honourable Lord Keeper, from the mouth of his sacred Majestie, in the greatest threshing floore of our Nation, to the Reverend Iudges and others, before their addresse unto their severall Circuits; requiring them to take speciall notice and inquiry of this grand evill? And in pursuance thereof, how earnest and sollicitous have those noble Iusticiaries beene in their charges, and directions to the Iu­stices of the Peace, and the body of the county, the grand Iurie, strictly to inquire after, and present those offen­ces? was there ever any presentment or indictment effectually prosecuted against them, without w^ch the judges could work little reformation? Might not the single-hearted eye of one bo­dy behold a depopulator upon the Bench, when the many eyes of that County body, either for feare, favor, self-guiltinesse, or other by-respects, or neglects, did over-looke him? [Page 81]The meanest Country capacity in e­very County understands what I meane, and therefore I represse my selfe from pressing this point any farther upon the Country, lest I be shent from my labour,

Sect. 50 Yet passurus est Depopulator; He must suffer in this world by the tem­porall stroke of Iustice; for where in­ferior Courts leave him, Superior finde him: I have before touched up­on distributive Iustice, and her oppo­site privative injustice: The Philoso­phers divide distributive justice into remunerative and punitive; This kind of Iustice observeth a geometrical pro­portion; It doth not barely and abso­lutely regard the equality of things, as Iustice cōmutative doth rei ad rem, ut tantum quis reponat quantum accipit, that is to deposite to all persons alike in commerce, the price for the thing, and the thing for the price, but shee keepeth her equality, according to the diversities of circumstances, and the differences of persons to bee re­warded [Page 82]warded or punished. In wars more reward is to be given to a Captaine in respect of the trust and weighty care of his place, and the dignity of his person, then to a common Soul­dier; And if he offend, he must looke for a proportionable punishment, according to the circumstances of his offence, and the quality of his person and place.

As the example of an offence in a man of eminence and trust in the Common wealth, doth not onely scandalize the government of a State, but ministers an occasion of liberty to others of meaner ranke, to com­mit the like or worse, who are ever most prone and forward to run with a multitude, soothing themselves w^th a vaine and false opinion, that multi­tudo errantiam parit errori patrocinium; So the punishment of such a person [Page 83]must bee in all things exemplarily proportionable.

Sect. 51 Some would have jus talionis to be part of this Iustice: Ius talionis is ei­ther simplex or proportionale; It is simply taken, when the same or the like is rendred as was taken away, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; Taken the other way, it is compensa­tio bonorum & malorum facta propor­tionaliter, a proportionable compen­sation of good and evill, and is most necessary in every Christian com­mon weale; This compensative part of distributive Iustice (without far­ther distinctions, I will give it that appellation) hath beene constantly practised for many ages in this fa­mous Iland.

According to the rule of this justice was that constitution of Fredr. Caesar before remembred, made for the protection and vindication of hus­bandry, which limits a quadruple re­stitution of the things taken away, for the comfort and compensation of [Page 84]the party greeved; And for satisfa­ction of the Law against the offen­dor, nigro carbone notatur, he is bran­ded with infany ipso jure in the place of a vae so often pronounced by the Prophets, and in steed or resemblance of the Parable and Proverbe, threat­ned by the Law in Deuteronomie, and denounced by Ieremy, and Mich. And hee is to undergoe an arbitra­ry censure at the will of the Empe­ror. According to this Iustice the Lords and others in the high Court of Starchamber, have ever used to proceed, and ground their sentences against delinquents of this and the like nature.

Sect. 52 In Michelmas terme 10. Car. Vpon an information exhibited by his Majesties Attourney generall a­gainst a gentleman of note and worth for Depopulation, converting great quantities of land into pasture, which formerly for the space of about for­ty yeares had beene arrable, used to tillage, and occupied as belonging to [Page 85]severall farme houses or houses of husbandry, and suffering the farme houses with their outhouses to bee ruined and uninhabited, and a water-grist Mill to decaie and goe to ruine, for that it appeared to the Court up­on evident proofe, that there were many servants and people kept upon those farmes when they were used in tillage; And the same were furni­shed with sufficient houses, barnes, and outhouses, necessary for farmers to dwell in, and many quarters of wheat and other graine out of each farme, were yearly sold and vented to London and elsewhere; And ma­ny poore men and women, were then there set on worke, and about twenty persons fit for warres were maintained in and upon the sayd farmes, as also severall Carts, ready and fit to doe his Majesty service, both in carrying timber for repaire of his Navie and otherwise: And for that the defendant had then of late yeares, taken into his owne occupa­tion [Page 86]all the said farmes, and conver­ted all the lands formerly used for tillage unto pasture, and had also De­populated and pulled downe, three of the said farme houses, and suffered the other two to run to ruine, and to lye uninhabited, and one of the said farmes which was before a great de­fence and succour for Travellers who passed that way, since the Depo­pulation thereof, hath beene a har­bour for theeves, and many robbe­ries have beene thereabouts commit­ted, and monies recovered by the robbed persons from the hundred, which together with the wants of those clowes there formerly kept, had beene a great burden to that part of the Country; And for that also the defendant, to the great inconve­nience and prejudice of a Towne neere adjoyning, had pulled downe and suffered to goe to decay not ha­bitable, one water corne mill which thentofore did grind good store of corne weekely: Vpon grave and de­liberate [Page 87]liberate consideration, the Court did with a joynt consent and opinion de­clare, that the defendant was clearly guilty of the said Depopulation, and conversion of errable into pasture be­fore expressed, And that the same of­fences were punishable even by the Common Law of this Kingdome, and fit to be severely punished, the rather for that it was a growing evill, and had already spread it selfe into very many parts of this Kingdome, and might in time (if it were not met withall and prevented by the just Censure of that Court) grow very prejudiciall and dangerous to the State and Common wealth, and therefore their Lordships did thinke fit, order, adjudge, and decree.

• 1 That the defendant should stand and be committed to the prison of the Fleet.
• 2 That hee should pay a fine of foure thousand pounds to his Maje­sties use.
• 3 That he should at the next as­sizes [Page 88]to be holden for that County in open Court (the Iudges and Iusti­ces there sitting) acknowledge his said offences, and for the better ma­nifestation of the offence to the Countrey, and to the end that others seeing his punishment might be ther­by after warned to forbeare the committing of the like: It was or­dered, that their Lordships sentence and decree should be then at the said assizes publikely read.

And further, the Court consider­ing and commending the paines, care, and travell, taken by the Relator in bringing that cause to judgement, and being satisfied upon the hearing of the cause, that the poore of the parish and the Minister there had beene se­verally damnified by the defendant; Their Lordships did farther order and decree.

4 That the said defendant should pay unto the said Relator one hun­dred pounds for recompence of his travaile, besides his costs of suite.

[Page 89] 5 That hee should pay unto the Minister of the Parish one hundred bounds.

6 That hee should pay unto the poore of the Parish one hundred pounds to bee distributed to and a­mongst them at the discretion of the foure next Iustices of peace adjoyn­ing to the said Towne.

7 And lastly, the Court did or­der that the defendant should within two yeares after, repaire and build againe all the said farme-houses with their outhouses, and the said Corne­mill fit for habitation and use, as for­merly they were, and should restore the lands formerly used and let, with the same farmes, unto the farme­houses againe, and let and demise the same severall farmes to severall Ten­nants for reasonable rents, such as the Country would afford, and that all the said lands, should be againe plow­ed up and used to tillage, as formerly it had been.

[Page 90] As by the decree remaining of Re­cord in that honourable Court may plainely appeare; The true contents whereof are here set downe, that as it was published at the Assizes for an example in that Countrie, the benefit thereof may hereby redound to all the Counties of his Majesties domi­nions.

Sect. 53 I have the rather summarily tou­ched the severall points and bran­ches of this decree for these reasons; That every well affected Subject may discern the singular wisdome of the Lords of his Majesties most ho­nourable privy Counsell, and their assistants in that great Court: The Prayers of the Church we well hope are not in vaine; That it may please him to indue the Lords of the Councell and all the Nobility, with grace, wise­dome and understanding. And with­out Gods speciall indowments con­ferred on them, and on their Head un­der CHRIST, the Ship Royall of our State could not be so religiously, [Page 91]providently, and prosperously stee­red as it is: Methinkes when I con­siderately weigh the Composition of this decree, all parts of Iustice seeme here to be included.

1 Here is punition, 1. by impri­sonment, 2. by fine, 3. by publike acknowledgment.

2 Here is remuneration to the par­ty Relating, for discovering, and bringing the offendor to the publike seate of Iudgement.

3 Here is compensation, 1. to the Minister, 2. to the poore of the Pa­rish, for the detriment and damage by them respectively susteyned ac­cording to the circumstances of the cause.

4 And lastly here is reparation and restitution, which concernes the Common weale, 1. in repairing and reedifying the farmes, 2. in restoring the Land formerly used and let with them, 3. in letting and demizing the same farmes to severall Tennants at reasonable rents, 4. in converting [Page 92]the land to tillage againe

Sect. 54 As in GODS sentence, the ma­lum culpae was answered with the malum poenae; So it is fully accom­plished in this decree; for hereby All that any way suffered 1. King, 2. Church, 3. Common weale, 4. Poore, are all righted and salved, and there­fore it deserves the more earnest pressing, first for the comfort of those who grieve and grone under the burthen of this oppression, that, though they be remote in the Coun­try from the eye of superior Iu­stice, yet in the particulars of this decree, they may tanquam in perspi­cillis behold a farre off the vigilant care which his Majesty and his ho­norable Councell have of the mean­est member of his Common weale: Secondly that others delinquents of the same ranke and quality, may tan­quam in specule, as in a looking-glasse, view their owne evill of sinne, and justly expect the same evill of pun­ishment.

[Page 93] Sect. 55 That no men may lull them­selves asleepe with the conceipt of security, and that his highnesse Sub­jects who feele the smart of this mischiefe, may have no cause to distrust the continuance of his care, his goodnesse hath of late directed severall Commissions into most Counties of the Kingdome, out of the high Court of Chancery, I shall but briefly touch some speciall points therein.

First, the motives which induced his Majesty thereunto; His intelli­gence that in diverse parts of his Kingdome, very many Messuages and Mansion houses (which had been for many yeares past habitations for husbandmen, farmers, and others exercised in tillage) did now remaine in decay, ruinous, destroyed, or un­inhabited, and the farmes and errable lands severed and divided from the houses whereto they belonged, and great quantities of such errable land, [Page 94]have beene converted from culture into pasture, whereupon great wast, and depopulation of Towns, Villages, Parishes and Hamlets in diverse parts of his Kingdome have insued, and are like dayly, more and more to increase to the dishonour and preju­dice of his Majesty and his Crowne, and to the dammage and detriment of his people and whole Realme.

Secondly, his Majesties readinesse to meete with such mischiefs, and to provide for the welfare of him­selfe and his people, by assigning and appoynting certaine Commissioners in most parts of his Kingdome, and giving unto them full power and au­thority under his great Seale, to en­quire by the oathes of good and ho­nest men, aswell within liberties as as without, as also by the depositi­ons of any credible witnesses, to be called and examined upon their oathes, and by all other waies and meanes, and to make Certificate of the Inquisitions taken before them, into the Chancery.

[Page 95] Thirdly, the Subject of this in­quiry: What and how many Bur­roughes, Townes, Villages, Parishes, Hamlets, Farmes, Farmehouses or other Messuages or houses, since the tenth yeare of the late Queene Eliz. have beene and now are depopulated, wasted, destroyed and ruinated, or converted from the habitation of husbandmen to other uses, and what lands and Tenements have been con­verted from tillage and plowing to other uses, with diverse other parti­cular clauses and branches.

Fourthly, a Command unto the Commissioners, to give notice unto all persons, who claime title to any Lands or Tenements so wasted, de­populated, or separated, either as heires or purchasers, or by or under any person committing such depo­pulation, and waste, their Farmers or Assignes: That within a time limited by the Commissioners, or any two, or more; They, and every of them, doe respectively cause to bee re-edi­fied [Page 96]and repaired, all and singular the said houses of husbandry, and all the separated lands to be restored to the houses, and that the lands converted from tillage to pasture and other un­lawfull uses, bee againe restored to tillage, and to admit of husbandmen to be Tenants to those houses, prout hactenus fieri consuetum fuerit.

Sect. 56 That his Majesty hath full and ab­solute power, to award such Com­missions for the good and benefit of his Kingdomes welfare, I thinke none so disloyall as to doubt, accor­ding to the exigence of the present times, for the better preparing of his intended reformation without a lite­rall imitation of former presidents: In novo casu novum apponendum est re­medium, variety of cases must have variety of remedies; The wisedome of a Parliament or a State may fore­see an insuing evill, and they may en­act a prohibiting of it, and a provisi­on of some paine and penalty against it, but they can never provide de fu­tur [Page 97]is contingentibus of future circum­stances and contingencies, and there­fore ubi non est directa lex, standum est arbitrio Iudicis, where a direct po­sitive Law cannot meet with an of­fence in the very apple of the eye, the defect must be supplied by an arbi­trary Iudgement according to the circumstances and occurencies of things. Let all the Statutes that ever were made, against the decay­ing of houses of husbandry and til­age, be strictly inspected, and not any one of them either did or ever could prescribe such a proportio­nable remedy, for such a crime in all things, as the sentence of that great Iudgement seat hath done.

Sect. 57 By the Statute of 5. and. 6. Edw. 6. cap. 5. intituled, An act for the main­tenance of tillage, and increase of corne; It was ordeyned that his then Maje­sty, his Heires and Successors, at his and their will and pleasure, should from time to time, direct his and their [Page 98]severall Commissions under the great Seale of England, to such per­sons as it should please them, to in­quire by the oathes of a sufficient Iu­ry, what Lands and Tenements in every Towne, Parish, Village, or Hamlet within the limits of their charge, had at any time or times since the first yeare of King Henery the eight beene converted and tur­ned from tillage to pasture, and was then, or then after should be con­tinued and occupied in pasture, and to certifie the presentment thereof into the Court of Chancery with convenient speed, to bee thence deli­vered over into the Court of Ex­chequer, there to remaine amongst the Records of the same Court, to the end that Statute might bee the more diligently and indifferently put in execution.

By the Statute of 2. and 3. Philip and Mary cap. 2. intituled, An act for the reedifying of decayed houses of husbandrie, and for the increase of til­lage, [Page 99]citing the Law of 4. Henery 7. which is before largely recited, it was ordayned that the like Commissions in effect should be awarded, and that the Commissioners should have full power and athority, to enquire, heare and determine, by the oathes of twelve men, or by information, or other lawfull wayes or meanes, all and singular defaults and offences, committed or done since the feast of Saint George the Martyr, in the twentieth yeare of Henry the eighth, or then after should be committed or done, aswell contrary to the tenor and effect of the said former act (4. Henery 7.) as contrary to one other act of 7. Henery 8. intituled, An act to avoyd letting downe of houses, and also to enquire, heare, order, and de­termine by the said wayes and means of and concerning all grounds what­soever converted from tillage to pa­sture since the sayd feast, or then after to bee converted from tillage to pa­sture, and also of all ground in or [Page 100]neare any corne fields newly used or imployed since the sayd feast, or then after newly to be used, imploy­ed and converted to the keeping of Conies, not being a lawfull warren, and whereby the Corne of any per­sons, other then the owner of the same Conies since the sayd feast had been, or then after should bee, destroyed or consumed; And that the said Commissioners should and might bind by Recognizance the persons offending, and guilty in any of the foresaid decaies or defaults in such summes of Money, as to the Commissioners should seeme rea­sonable, for the reedifying of such decayed houses, and for the convert­ing of such grounds from pasture to tillage againe, and for the diminish­ing and destroying of Conies within such convenient time, as the Com­missioners should thinke meete, limit and appoint; with many clauses and provisoes in the sayd Statute at large expressed.

[Page 101] Sect. 58 By this every man may see that his now Majesties proceeding to in­quire by way of Commission, is no innovated thing (as some would mur­mure and pretend) but warranted by former examples, though different in the manner and forme, according to the difference of times; That of K. E. was to inquire and certifie; This of. K. Phi. and Q. M. to inquire, heare and determine.

In this Statute there is one clause of moderation in these words. And for asmuch as it is like to bee that some ground converted from tillage into pa­sture, is divided into severall small par­cells, remaining and being in divers and severall mens hands, so that any one part will not be sufficient to keepe a plow upon: and for that some grounds have beene tilled for the destroying of mosse, bushes, browne firs, heath, and not onely to be continued in tillage and such like, and that also some demeanes in the ab­sence of the owners have beene divided to sundry occupiers, who have tilled the [Page 102]same, not being commonly used to til­lage, before the said feast of S. George: and for that divers other particular ca­ses may fortune to bee, which the gene­rall purveiance of this Statute cannot remedy without greater hurt then good to be done by the same: and for that al­so in some places of this Realme it is not necessary the purveying of this estatute, to extend and to be fully executed, but in some places, and upon some occasions or causes, it may more conveniently bee spared then put in ure, and is therefore necessary to referre such things with all other circumstances, to the discretion of the Commissioners who may more perfectly understand the same.

Sect. 59 By this every man may collect, that no positive Law can bee so pun­ctually made, as to adapt a cure for every civill disease, but must admit of a temper and qualification in some things, aswell as an agravation in other things, according to the in­tervenience of circumstances: and therefore there was a power of dis­cretion [Page 103]left unto the Commissio­ners.

But this evill being now growne great, and in favour and alliance with the greatest men of a Country, the providence of his Majesty and the State, hath by this Commission only delegated a power to inquire and certifie, but not to determine, reser­ving that to the discretion of himselfe and his sacred Councell who never confine their Iudgements to the fa­ces, but the facts of men, and secun­dum allegata & probata.

There is another provision in that Law of Philip and Mary, in these words: And bee in enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person or persons, shall bee condemned or charged with or for any offence, that hee or they ought not to bee charged withal, by this act or by any of the foresaid former Sta­tutes: That then the said party or par­ties shall and may have his or their tra­verse and remedy therefore in the Star­chamber before the Councell there.

[Page 104] Sect. 60 Hence is to bee inferred, that no Law can bee so wisely woven and contexed, but will neede some inter­pretation and explanation; And to whom doth the interpretation of the Lawes belong, but to the King, assisted with his Honourable Coun­cell, and to the Reverend Iudges un­der him. There is no Act done by the body of the Councell, but is presu­med to be the Act of the King; In the time of Ed. the 3. Thorpe and other grave Iudges would not in cases of difficulty deliver their finall Iudge­ments, untill they had resorted to the Lords of the Councell; Of cases in that kinde, the yeare bookes in his Raigne are plentifull.

This Statute, according to the pra­ctise of former times, seems to refer the party grieved to a remedy by way of traverse and defence in the Star­chamber, a Court consisting of the greatest Lords of the Honourable Councell, spirituall and temporall, reverend Iudges and other assistants. [Page 105]Whither should there then bee any refuge, either for the interpretatiō or moderation of positive Lawes (in the vacancy and cessation of the great Court of Parliament) but unto this Court, where Kings themselves have often vouchsafed to sit in person?Sect. 61

His now M^ts providence and Iustice in dispersing his said Commissions, cannot take so good effect, if the peo­ple and Country (for redres of whose grievances they are awarded) be not dextrous and carefull in performing their duties of inquiry & discovery, the Cmmoissioners are injoyned under their faith & legiance to discharge the trust in them reposed; and all his M^ts Subjects, aswell officers as others by the last clause of the Cōmission, are re­quired to be attending, ayding, and as­sisting unto them, so often as they shall be thereunto summoned.

I cannot therefore passe by those good and lawfull men of the Coun­try, who not only by vertue of their naturall and legall legiance, but also, [Page 106]by a Sacramentall tye and bond, are or shall bee ingaged and charged to inquire of those offences in the coun­try without a monitory caution, that they imitate especially, one of the properties prescribed by Iethro, his Counsell to Moses in selecting his Rulers of the people to be viri fortes, able men, non fortitudine corporis, but animi, not in strength of body, but strength of minde, not to feare the faces of men, not of a Land-lord, not of a potent man (were he a Liveten­nant or greater) in a Country. Forti­tude is one of Tullie his cardinall ver­tues, it banisheth all sordid and sla­vish feare; It was an old complaint, that, Lawes were aranearum telis simi­les, like Cobwebs, wherein the smal­ler flies are caught, great ones breake forth: Surely our Laws are not such of themselves, and most sure it is, that our superiour seats of Laws and Iu­stice are not so easily passed through, but that they will seize and hold the most griping and rapacious, bird, or [Page 107]beast; And with them is observed aswell the practize as the rule.

But it is the abuse of bad men, to­gether with the cowardise and pusilla­nimity of those who should be probi & legales homines, for want of pre­senting and bringing offendors un­der the eye of Law, that the Lawes are so much disesteemed: Such men who are so regardlesse of their alle­giance, so carelesse of their consci­ence, and respectlesse of their oathes, that they will not see and discover the desolations and greevances of their Country, are themselves a gree­vance to the Country, and enemies to the King and State.

He is a foe unto me that discovers not my foe: A man may asmuch transgresse in conniving at, and con­cealing [Page 108]an offence, as the offender himselfe in the acting of it, and there­fore may justly expect a proportion­able punishment.

This may suffice for a briefe re­membrance to the Iurors, whereof the Counstables and other Country Officers may partake. I shall con­clude all with a Caution to Farmers and Husbandmen, and then draw to an end.

Sect. 62 They may observe by what hath passed before, that the labour of Cul­ture was the first work injoyn'd unto man after the fall, renewed upon the renewing of the world in Noah and his posterity, that it hath been highly honoured and priviledged amongst all Nations, that it is most pretious in the esteeme of our lawes and go­vernment, and with what circum­spection & watchfulnes his gracious Majesty and his honorable Councell have proceeded for the upholding & maintaining of it, and punishing all sorts of delinquents against it; Will [Page 109]it not well beseeme them to make themselves fitly deserving, and wor­thy of so great a favour? The way to do it, is to act their part of distri­butive Iustice, in bringing their corne and graine chearfully into the Mar­kets for supply of the poore and o­thers at reasonable prices, and not to hide and hoard it up, to expect, nay to make and raise up a dearth.

Sect. 63 I cannot choose but under favour tell them their fault, ingens crimen, a very great fault, they are growne to be the common favourers of Fore­stallers and Ingrossers, and fosterers of an unruly generation of Maltma­kers, and by consequence of a perni­cious number of Alehouses, who have all a dependency one upon the other.

It is a common practice, Et malum quo communius, eo pejus, for a Malt­maker to resort to a farmors house, & after a scrutiny made what store of barly he hath in his hands and posses­sion, he presently deales with the hus­bandman to bring a sample of it to [Page 110]market in a quantity of foure or five bushels, and there he will bargaine for all the rest in mow or barne, though it be five hundred quarters, to be threshed out and brought home to his house, vainely flattering him­selfe with this conceipt, that because the compact was made for it in the marker, and earnest there given, it is a lawfull buying, and not within the compasse of forestalling or ingrossing, Pereant artes & artifices: Let all such who by these wilie and wicke subtil­ties, goe about to Circumvent the true intention of the Law, perish with their owne devices: as it is the tricke of a forestalling Maltmaker, so is it as frequent with Bakers, Bad­gers and other forestallers of Wheat and other graine at the houses of hus­bandmen.

Sect. 64 This evill hath so long dwelt a­mongst us, that the offendors are ready to prescribe use and custome; they have been well met withal in the County of Norfolke, and other places [Page 111]by severall Censures and Decrees of the honourable Court of Starcham­ber, made in the terme of S. Michaell in the seventh yeare of his Highnesse Raigne, one especially xxiij of No­vember, in the same terme, whereby some delinquents were sentenced for contracting with Corne-masters up­on market dayes for great quantities of Corne, and afterwards causing the same to be brought home to their houses, as by the decree of the Court may appeare.

It hath not onely infected those parts, but like a venemous humor hath spread its infection through the veynes of the body of the whole Kingdome, and poysoned almost the life bloud of government, especially in many parts of our Westerne regi­on, where it hath crept into borough Towns and Corporations, and there sojournes in the houses of Magistrats and Aldermen, who being expresly required by his Majesties Articles and directions published for the [Page 112]good of his people in the yeare 1630 to take care for the suppressing of Maltsters; did in affront thereunto, take up and exercise the trade them­selves, having great means and other trades to live by.

Sect. 65 Wheresoever there are excesse of Maltsters, there will be a greater ex­cesse of Alehouses, and I may be bold to say that the one ingenders the o­ther, but it is a spurious and unlaw­full birth and brood; The Maltster commonly trusteth the poore Ale­house keeper with a brewing of mault before hand, upon some slender se­curity, the vent of that must usher in and pay for the next, and so still keep a course beforehand, and it is very frequent, that one Maltster hath un­der his protection and command at least sixe or seven tiplers, either by connivence, or unlawfull licence, that shall most of them utter for him at least thirty bushells of mault a weeke one weeke with another; So outra­gious is the one in his oppression by [Page 113]forestalling and ingrossing, and so wastfull and disordered the other in their inordinate tipling, that scarce can a poore man buy a peck of barly in a market day for his money, and not five barley loves for the suste­nance of a hungry multitude (if neede required) to bee found in a whole Country.

Sect. 66 This mischiefe would be preven­ted, if the Farmers and Husband­men would decline all sinister con­tracts with such kind of men, and not sell and deliver their Corne at their private houses, but with cheereful­nesse bring it into the open market: Emporium est optima aestimatrix re­rum; No kind of Graine, Victuall, or other vendible mercimony can be so truly valued and estimated, as in Faires or Markets overt, where there is a plentifull concourse of buyers; Markets are either by grant from the King, or by ancient prescripti­on; The Common Lawes of this Land have ever had the well using [Page 114]and ordering of them in great e­steeme.

To which end and purpose the of­fice of Clarke of the market being very ancient, was first ordeyned to take care, and to view and inquire that all weights and measures bee agreeable to the Kings Standard in his Exchequor at Westminster, and that all Corne and Victuall be sold by such, and by no other, and diverse good Lawes have been made for ap­pointing and observing the assize of bread and beer, according to the pri­zes of Corne in the markets adjoyn­ing; Of these things I have more amply treated elsewhere.

Sect. 67 The husband man must not onely bring his Corne into the market, but he must send the best, and not the re­fuze, he must not sell it in a pinching, scant, or deceitfull measure, he must not keepe it up in muzled bags in the market, for colour and a showe only, and not with any intention to set it to sale, he must not use any art or shift [Page 115]to inhaunce the price of his Corne, and rather then he will sell it at the ordinary price in the market, slide it into some privat corner, to remaine for a dearer sale: It is not long since that a Country man standing by his Corne in a market, and observing the price that day to bee more moderate then his covetuos mind expected, did with some fury and indignation, close up his bags, conveigh them away, and fearefully sweare, that he would keepe his Corne till Mice had de­voured it, rather then he would vent it at the rate of the market.

Against all false, decitfull and hard hearted sellers, the Prophet Amos denounceth a woefull Commina­tion, rowsing them up first with, Au­dite hoc qui conteritis pauperem, & de­ficere facitis egenos terra, Dicentes, Quando transibit messis & venum dabimus merces? Et Sabbatum, & aperiemus frumentum, ut imminua­mus mensuram, & angeamus siclum, & supponamus stater as dolosas, & possi­deamus [Page 116]deamus in argento egenos, & pauperes pro calciamentis, & quisquilias fru­menti vendamus: Heare this ô yee that swallow up the needy, even to make the poore of the Land to faile, saying, when will the new Moone be gone, that we may sell Corne, and the Sabbath, that we may set forth Wheat, making the Ephah small, and the Shekell great, and fal­sifying the ballances by deceipt, that we may buy the poore for silver, and the needy for a paire of shooes, yea and sell the refuse of the Wheate; Amos ca. 8. verse 5, 6, 7. The sentence followes: Shall not the Land tremble for this, and every one mourne that dwelleth therin? verse 8. I will turne lla your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamen­tations, ver. 10.

Sect. 68 But sithence the excellency of our dread Soveraigne hath vouchsafed so much tender care of tillage and cul­ture, as hath already produced a hop­full issue of future reformation, for the honour of his imperiall State, the advancement of the Church, and [Page 117]common good of all; It is much to be hoped, that the Farmers and Hus­bandmen of his Kingdome will shake off those Vipers, and have no fellow­ship with them in their wayes and courses of oppression, that they will not hide their Corne, and keepe it up to bee devoured by vermin, rather then at Competent rates, to disperse and distribute the blessings of the earth, amongst his Majesties people, at publike times and places appoin­ted by the Lawes and Government under which we live, that they will avoyd, all unwarranted transporta­tions of Corne, and in all things do, as they would bee done unto; And then,

Then the blessings of obedience shall be pronounced to them: Bles­sed shalt thou be in the Citty, and bles­sed shalt thou be in the field, blessed shall be thy basket and thy store, Deu. 28.3, 5. [Page 118]The King shall bee blessed in his people, and the people shall bee blessed in their King, wee shall not have cause to feare the faces of them that grind the faces of the poore, those lapides mola­res; depopulators and racking Land­lords. Nor ever take up that parable of lamentation, depopulatione vastati sumus. The King shall cover us under the wings of his Royall and religious protection, and we shall render to him the dues of our faith and obe­dience, the Almighty shall cover us all with his blessing of peace and plen­ty, and all shall goe well betweene King and Subject, better then prout hactenus fieri consuetum fuerit.