WHEREAS by an Act of Parliament in the first yeare of the Raigne of Our late Soveraigne Lord King James, severall good and necessary Provisions were made and Ordeined, touching those that be or shall be infected with the Plague: by which Act, power is given to Justices of Peace of Counties, Majors, Bayliffes, Head­Officers, or Justices of Peace in Cities, Borroughes, Townes Corporate, and places Priviledged, and to the Vice-Chancellor of either of the Vniversities, and to the Bishop and Deane of every Cathedrall Church res­pectively, within their severall and respective Precincts and Jurisdictions, to taxe and assesse all Inhabitants, and all Houses of Habitation, Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments, at such reasonable Taxes and pay­ments as they shall think fit for the reasonable reliefe of Persons infected, and to levy the same of the Goods of such as shall refuse or neglect to pay, and in default thereof, to commit them to the Goale without Baile or Mainprize untill payment; And also to appoynt Searchers, Watch-men, Examiners, Keepers, and Buriers, for the Persons and places Infected, and to minister Oathes unto them for the performing of their Offices, and to give them other directions as shall seeme good unto them in their discretions, for the present necessity. And it is thereby farther Provided and Enacted, That if any person or persons Infected, or being, or dwelli [...]g in any Houses Infected, shall be comman­ded or appointed to keep his or their House, for avoyding of farther Infection, and shall notwithstanding wilfully and contemptuously disobey such direction and appointment, offering or attempting to break or goe abroad, and to resist such Keepers or Watch-men, as shall be appoynted to see them kept in: that then it shall be lawfull for such Watch-men with violence to inforce them to keep their Hou­ses: And if any hurt come thereby, that the Keepers, Watch-men, and their assistants shall not be impeached therefore; And farther, That if any Infected persons being commanded to keep House, shall notwithstanding wilfully and contemptuously goe abroad, and converse with company, having any Infectious sore about him uncured, such person shall be taken and adjudged as a Felon, and suffer death as in case of Felony: but if they shall have no sore found about them, neverthelesse for such offence, they shall be punished as Vagabonds in all respects, and also be bound to his or their good behaviour for one whole yeare, as by the said Act may more fully appeare. The Lords and others intrusted and authorized by His Majesty, by His Commission under His Great Seale of England, for and concerning the safety, pre­servation, and well Ordering of this Vniversity and City of Oxford, and the County of Oxford, and other Counties and places adjoyning, in His Majesties absence, taking into their Consideration, that the due observance and execution of the said Law, may (by Gods blessing) be a good meanes to prevent the farther spreading of this present Infection, and that the neglect of the observance of the same Law, hath been, and may be, in probability, an occasion of the increase thereof, doe therefore hereby in His Majesties Name, by vertue of His Majesties said Commission, straitly Charge and Require, the Vice-Chancellor of this Vniversity, and the Major, Justices of Peace, Bayliffes, and other Offi­cers of this City of Oxford, and the Justices of Peace of the County of Oxford, and all others whom it may concerne, That with all possible care and diligence, they cause the said Law to be duely and effectually put in execution, as well for the helpe and reliefe, as for the governing and keeping in of Infected persons, as they will answer their neglect and remisnesse therein at their perills. And they doe likewise in His Ma­jesties Name, straitly Charge and Command all persons whatsoever, as well Souldiers as others, upon whom it hath pleased, or shall please God to lay this his Visitation, that they submit and yeeld obedience to the said Law, letting them know, that a strict and severe proceeding shall be had, for punishing of all such as shall wilfully or contemptuously offend against the same, to the endangering of others: And that a very strict account will be required of all, who are, or shall be any way concerned in this just and necessary Command, tending so much to the health and preservation of this Vniversity and City, and all that are resident therein, or resort thereunto.