s and chauntry priests, that they shall away all, saving them
that can preach. Then one said to the bishop, that they had good trust
that they should serve forth their life-times; and he said they should
serve it out at a cart, then, for any other service they should have by
that."

The concluding paragraph of this letter is of still greater interest. It
refers to the famous Vagrant Act, of which I have spoken in the first
chapter of this work.[532]

[Sidenote: The Vagrant Act the first fruits of the suppression.]

"On Saturday in the Ember week, the King's Grace came in among the
burgesses of the parliament, and delivered them a bill, and bade them
look upon it, and weigh it in conscience; for he would not, he said,
have them pass either it or any other thing because his Grace giveth in
the bill; but they to see if it be for the commonweal of his subjects,
and have an eye thitherwards; and on Wednesday next he will be there
again to hear their minds. There shall be a proviso made for the poor
people. The gaols shall be rid; the faulty shall die; and the others
shall be rid by proclamation or by jury, and shall be set at liberty,
and pay no fees. Sturdy beggars and such prisoners as cannot be set at
work, shall be set at work at the king's charge; some at Dover, and some
at places where the water hath broken over the lands. Then, if they fall
to idleness, the idler shall be had before a justice of the peace, and
his fault written. If he be taken idle again in another place, he shall
be known where his dwelling is; and so at the second mention he shall be
burned in the hand; and if he fail the third time, he shall die for
it."[533]

[Sidenote: The penal clauses of this statute.]

The king, as it appeared, had now the means at his disposal to find work
for the unemployed; and the lands bequeathed for the benefit of the poor
were reapplied, under altered forms, to their real intention. The
antithesis which we sometimes hear between the charity of the
monasteries--which relieved poverty for the love of God--and the worldly
harshness of a poor-law, will not endure inspection. The monasteries,
which had been the support of "valiant beggary," had long before
transferred to the nation the maintenance of the impotent and the
deserving; and the resumption of an abused trust was no more than the
natural consequence of their dishonesty. I have already discussed[534]
the penal clauses of this act, and I need not enter again upo