The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3)Froude, James Anthony
History
The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3)
Froude, James Anthony
Great Britain -- History -- Henry VIII, 1509-1547; Henry VIII, King of England, 1491-1547
Further, "If any such impotent person be found begging without a licence,
at the discretion of the justices of the peace, he shall be stripped naked
from the middle upwards, and whipped within the town in which he be found,
or within some other town, as it shall seem good. Or if it be not
convenient so to punish him, he shall be set in the stocks by the space of
three days and three nights."
Such were the restrictions under which impotency was allowed support.
Though not in itself treated as an offence, and though its right to
maintenance by society was not denied, it was not indulged, as we may see,
with unnecessary encouragement. The Act then proceeds to deal with the
genuine vagrant.
"And be it further enacted, that if any person or persons, being whole and
mighty in body and able to labour, be taken in begging in any part of this
realm; and if any man or woman, being whole and mighty in body, having no
land, nor master, nor using any lawful merchandry, craft, or mystery
whereby he might get his living, be vagrant, and can give none account how
he doth lawfully get his living, then it shall, be lawful to the constables
and all other king's officers, ministers, and subjects of every town,
parish, and hamlet, to arrest the said vagabonds and idle persons, and
bring them to any justice of the peace of the same shire or liberty, or
else to the high constable of the hundred; and the justice of the peace,
high constable, or other officer, shall cause such idle person so to him
brought, to be had to the next market town or other place, and there to be
tied to the end of a cart, naked, and be beaten with whips throughout the
same town till his body be bloody by reason of such whipping; and after
such punishment of whipping had, the person so punished shall be enjoined
upon his oath to return forthwith without delay, in the next and straight
way, to the place where he was born, or where he last dwelled before the
same punishment, by the space of three years; and then put himself to
labour like a true man ought to do; and after that done, every such person
so punished and ordered shall have a letter, sealed with the seal of the
hundred, rape, or wapentake, witnessing that he hath been punished
according to this estatute, and containing the day and place of his
punishment, and the place where unto he is limited to go, and by what time
he is limited to come thither: for that within that time, showing the said
letter, he may lawfully beg by the way, and otherwise not; and if he do not
accomplish the order to him appointed by the said letter, then to be
eftsoons taken and whipped; and so often as there be fault found in him, to
be whipped till he has his body put to labour for his living, or otherwise
truly get his living, so long as he is able to do so."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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