ent wrestled long
and powerfully to hold down the new spirit; and they fought against it
successfully, till the old order of things had finished its work, and the
time was come for it to depart. By the 1st of the 7th of Henry VIII., the
laws of feudal tenure were put in force against the landed traders.
Wherever lands were converted from tillage to pasture, the lords of the fee
had authority to seize half of all profits until the farm-buildings were
reconstructed. If the immediate lord did not do his duty, the lord next
above him was to do it; and the evil still increasing, the act, twenty
years later, was extended further, and the king had power to seize.[37] Nor
was this all. Sheep-farming had become an integral branch of business; and
falling into the hands of men who understood each other, it had been made a
monopoly, affecting seriously the prices of wool and mutton.[38] Stronger
measures were therefore now taken, and the class to which the offenders
belonged was especially pointed out by parliament.

"Whereas," says the 13th of the 25th of Henry VIII., "divers and sundry
persons of the king's subjects of this Realm, to whom God of his goodness
hath disposed great plenty and abundance of moveable substance, now of
late, within few years, have daily studied, practised, and invented ways
and means how they might accumulate and gather together into few hands, as
well great multitude of farms as great plenty of cattle, and in especial,
sheep, putting such lands as they can get to pasture and not to tillage;
whereby they have not only pulled down churches and towns and enhanced the
old rates of the rents of the possessions of this Realm, or else brought it
to such excessive fines that no poor man is able to meddle with it, but
also have raised and enhanced the prices of all manner of corn, cattle,
wool, pigs, geese, hens, chickens, eggs, and such other commodities, almost
double above the prices which hath been accustomed, by reason whereof a
marvellous multitude of the poor people of this realm be not able to
provide meat, drink, and clothes necessary for themselves, their wives, and
children, but be so discouraged with misery and poverty, that they fall
daily to theft, robbery, and other inconveniences, or pitifully die for
hunger and cold; and it is thought by the king's humble and loving
subjects, that one of the greatest occasions that moveth those greedy and
covetous people so to accumulate and keep in their hands s