Edward VI, after a preamble setting forth
that divers kinds of food are indifferent before God, nevertheless
commands all men to eat fish as heretofore on fast days, not as a
religious duty but to encourage fishermen, give them a livelihood and
thus train men for the navy.

A third very strong motive in the mind of the {484} sixteenth-century
statesmen, was that of differentiating the classes of citizens. The
blue laws, if they may be so called in this case, were secretions of
the blue blood. To make the vulgar know their places it was essential
to make them dress according to their rank. The intention of An Act
for the Reformation of excess in Apparel, [Sidenote: Apparel according
to rank] passed by the English Parliament in 1532, was stated to be,

the necessary repressing and avoiding and expelling of
the excess daily more used in the sumptuous and costly
apparel and array accustomably worn in this Realm,
whereof hath ensued and daily do chance such sundry
high and notorious detriments of the common weal, the
subversion of good and politic order in knowledge and
distinction of people according to their estates,
pre-eminences, dignities and degrees to the utter
impoverishment and undoing of many inexpert and light
persons inclined to pride, mother of all vices.

The tenor of the act prescribes the garb appropriate to the royal
family, to nobles of different degree, to citizens according to their
income, to servants and husbandmen, to the clergy, doctors of divinity,
soldiers, lawyers and players. Such laws were common in all countries.
A Scotch act provides "that it be lauchful to na wemen to weir
[clothes] abone [above] their estait except howries." This law was not
only "apprevit" by King James VI, but endorsed with his own royal hand,
"This acte is verray gude."

Excessive fare at feasts was provided against for similar reasons and
with almost equal frequency. By an English proclamation [Sidenote:
1517] the number of dishes served was to be regulated according to the
rank of the highest person present. Thus, if a cardinal was guest or
host, there might be nine courses, if a lord of Parliament six, for a
citizen with an income of five hundred pounds a year, three. Elsewhere
the number of guests at all {485} ordinary functions as well as the
number and price of gifts at weddings, christenings and like occasions,
was prescribed.

[Sidenote: 1526]

Games of chance were frequently fo