Chapter III
Sancti Botolphi extra Aldersgate Thomas Witham at the signe of the Unicorne
Detected for an usurer that taketh above the rate of xli in the 100li and above the rate of 2s. in the pound for money by him lent for a yeare, or more than after that rate for a lesse tyme ex fama prout in rotula. Quo die comparuit, etc.
9mo Maii 1620 coram domino officiali principali etc. et in eius camera etc. comparuit dictus Witham et ei objecto ut supra allegavit that he is seldom at home himselfe but leaves his man to deale in the business of his shop, and yf any fault be committed he saith the fault is in his man and not in himselfe, and he sayeth he will give charge and take care that no oppression shall be made nor offence committed this way hereafter, humbly praying the judge for favour to be dismissed, unde dominus monuit eum that thereafter neither by himselfe nor his servant he offende in the lyke nor suffer any such oppression to be committed, et cum hac monitione eum dimisit.
Notes
1 J. Rossus, Historia Regum Angliæ (ed. T. Hearne).
2 4 Hen. VII, c. 19; 6 Hen. VIII, c. 5; 7 Hen. VIII, c. 1; 25 Hen. VIII, c. 13. For the Commission of 1517 see Leadam, The Domesday of Enclosures.
3 For examples see J. S. Schapiro, Social Reform and the Reformation, pp. 60-1, 65, 67, 70-1.
4 More, Utopia, p. 32 (Pitt Press ed., 1879): “Noblemen and gentlemen, yea and certeyne abbottes, holy men no doubt... leave no grounde for tillage, thei enclose al into pastures.” For a case of claiming a bondman see Selden Society, vol. xvi, 1903, Select Cases in the Court of Star Chamber, pp. cxxiii-cxxix, 118-29 (Carter v. the Abbott of Malmesbury); for conversion of copyholds to tenancies at will, Selden Society, vol. xii, 1898, Select Cases in the Court of Requests, pp. lix-lxv, 64-101 (Kent and other inhabitants of Abbot’s Ripton v. St. John; the change was alleged to have been made in 1471).
5 A. Savine, English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution (Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History, ed. P. Vinogradoff, vol. i, 1909, p. 100), estimates the net temporal income of English monasteries in 1535 at £109,736, and the net income from all sources at £136,361. These figures require to be multiplied by at least 12 to convert them into terms of modern money. An estimate of the capital value which they represent can only be a guess, but it can hardly have been less (in terms of modern money) than £20,000,000.
6 For the status and payments of grantees, see the figures of Savine, printed in H. A. L. Fisher, The Political History of England, 1485-1547, Appx. ii: the low price paid by peers is particularly striking. The best study is that of S. B. Liljegren, The Fall of the Monasteries and the Social Changes in England leading up to the Great Revolution (1924), which shows in detail (pp. 118-25) the activities of speculators.
7 Star Chamber Proc., Hen. VIII, vol. vi, no. 181, printed in Tawney and Power, Tudor Economic Documents, vol. i, pp. 19-29.
8 Selden Society, Select Cases in the Court of Requests, pp. lviii-lxix, 198-200.
9 Quoted by F. A. Gasquet, Henry the Eighth and the English Monasteries, 1920, pp. 227-8.
10 See, e.g., The Obedience of a Christian Man (in Tyndale’s Doctrinal Treatises, Parker Society, 1848), p. 231, where the treatment of the poor by the early Church is cited as an example; and Policies to reduce this Realme of Englande unto a Prosperus Wealthe and Estate, 1549 (printed in Tawney and Power, Tudor Economic Documents, vol. iii, pp. 311-45): “Like as we suffered our selfes to be ignorant of the trewe worshipping of God, even so God kepte from us the right knowledge how to reforme those inconveniences which we did see before our eyes to tende unto the utter Desolation of the Realme. But now that the trew worshepping of Gode is... so purely and sincerely sett forthe, it is likewise to be trusted that God... will use the kinges maiestie and your grace to be also his ministres in plucking up by the roots all the cawses and occasions of this foresaid Decaye and Desolation.”
11 Bucer, De Regno Christi.
12 A. F. Leach, The Schools of Mediæval England, 1915, p. 331. He goes on: “The contrasts between one grammar school to every 5,625 people, and that presented by the Schools Inquiry Report in 1864 of one to every 23,750 people... is not to the disadvantage of our pre-Reformation ancestors.” For details of the Edwardian spoliation, see the same author’s English Schools at the Reformation, 1546-8 (1896).
13 See Acts of the Privy Council, vol. ii, pp. 193-5 (1548); in response to protests from the members for Lynn and Coventry, the gild lands of those cities are regranted to them.
14 Crowley, The Way to Wealth, in Select Works of Robert Crowley, ed. J. M. Cowper (Early English Text Society, 1872, pp. 129-150).
15 Crowley, op. cit., and Epigrams (in ibid., pp. 1-51).
16 Becon, The Jewel of Joy, 1553: “They abhore the names of Monkes, Friers, Chanons, Nonnes, etc., but their goodes they gredely gripe. And yet where the cloysters kept hospitality, let out their fermes at a resonable price, norished scholes, brought up youth in good letters, they do none of all these thynges.”
17 Thomas Lever, Sermons, 1550 (English Reprints, ed. E. Arber, 1895), p. 32. The same charge is repeated in subsequent sermons.
18 F. W. Russell, Kett’s Rebellion in Norfolk, 1859, p. 202. For Somerset’s policy and the revolt of the gentry against it, see Tawney, The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 365-70.
19 Latimer, Seven Sermons before Edward VI (English Reprints, ed. E. Arber, 1895), pp. 84-6.
20 Pleasure and Pain, in Select Works of Robert Crowley, ed. J. M. Cowper, p. 116.
21 The Way to Wealth, in ibid., p. 132.
22 Lever, op. cit., p. 130.
23 A Prayer for Landlords, from A Book of Private Prayer set forth by Order of King Edward VI.
24 Bacon, Of the True Greatness of the Kingdom of Britain.
25 For a discussion of the problem of credit as it affected the peasant and small master, see my introduction to Wilson’s Discourse upon Usury, 1925, pp. 17-30.
27 D’Ewes, Journals, 1682, p. 173.
28 Calendar S.P.D. Eliz., vol. cclxxxvi, nos. 19, 20.
29 For examples see S. O. Addy, Church and Manor, 1913, chap. xv. The best account of parish business and organization is given by S. L. Ware, The Elizabethan Parish in its Ecclesiastical and Financial Aspects, 1908.
30 Lever, op. cit., p. 130. See also Harrison, The Description of Britaine, 1587 ed., bk. ii, chap. xviii.
31 A Godlie Treatise concerning the Lawful Use of Riches, a translation by Thos. Rogers from the Latin of Nicholas Heming, 1578, p. 8.
32 Sandys, 2nd, 10th, 11th, and 12th of Sermons (Parker Society, 1841); Jewel, Works, pt. iv, pp. 1293-8 (Parker Society, 1850); Thos. Wilson, A Discourse upon Usury, 1572; Miles Mosse, The Arraignment and Conviction of Usurie, 1595; John Blaxton, The English Usurer, or Usury Condemned by the Most Learned and Famous Divines of the Church of England, 1634.
33 Heming, op. cit., pp. 16-17.
34 Roger Fenton, A Treatise of Usurie, 1612, p. 59.
35 Wilson, op. cit., 1925 ed., p. 281.
36 Miles Mosse, op. cit.
37 S.P.D. Eliz., vol. lxxv, no. 54. (Printed in Tawney and Power, Tudor Economic Documents, vol. iii, pp. 359-70).
38 Heming, op. cit., p. 11.
39 Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance, 1901.
40 Quoted by Maitland, op. cit., pp. 49-50.
41 Wilson, op. cit.
42 Jeremy Taylor, Ductor Dubitantium, 1660, bk. iii, ch. iii, par. 30.
43 Mosse, op. cit., Dedication, p. 6.
44 E. Cardwell, Synodalia, 1842, p. 436.
45 Cardwell, The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws, 1850, pp. 206, 323.
46 The Remains of Archbishop Grindal, ed. Wm. Nicholson (Parker Soc., 1843), p. 143.
47 See, e.g., W. P. M. Kennedy, Elizabethan Episcopal Administration, 1924, vol. iii, p. 180 (Archdeacon Mullins’ Articles for the Archdeaconry of London (1585): “Item, whether you do know that within your parish there is (or are) any person or persons notoriously known or suspected by probable tokens or common fame to be an usurer; or doth offend by any colour or means directly or indirectly in the same”), and pp. 184, 233; Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv, pp. 319, 337, 416.
48 Cardwell, Synodalia, vol. i, pp. 144, 308; Wilkins, Concilia, vol. iv, p. 509.
49 Ware, op. cit. (see note 29 above), quotes several examples. See also Archæologia Cantiana, vol. xxv, 1902, pp. 27, 48 (Visitations of the Archdeacon of Canterbury).
50 Hist. MSS. Com., 13th Report, 1892, Appx., pt. iv, pp. 333-4 (MSS. of the Borough of Hereford).
51 W. H. Hale, A Series of Precedents and Proceedings in Criminal Causes, 1847, p. 166.
52 Yorkshire Arch. Journal, vol. xviii, 1895, p. 331.
53 Commissary of London Correction Books, 1618-1625 (H. 184, pp. 164, 192). I am indebted to Mr. Fincham of Somerset House (where the books are kept) for kindly calling my attention to these cases. The shorter of them (p. 192) runs as follows:
54 S.P.D. Eliz., vol. lxxv, no. 54.
55 For an account of these expedients see my introduction to Wilson’s Discourse upon Usury, 1925, pp. 123-8.
56 Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Policy, bk. viii, chap. i, par. 5.
57 Acts of the Privy Council, vol. xxvii, 1597, p. 129.
58 The Stiffkey Papers (ed. H. W. Saunders, Royal Historical Society, Camden Third Series, vol. xxvi, 1915), p. 140.
59 Quoted by E. M. Leonard, The Early History of English Poor Relief, 1900, p. 148.
60 For an account of the treatment of exchange business under Elizabeth, see Wilson, op. cit., Introduction, pp. 146-54.
61 For references see ibid., pp. 164-5; and Les Reportes del Cases in Camera Stellata, 1593-1609, ed. W. P. Baildon, 1894, pp. 235-7. The latter book contains several instances of intervention by the Star Chamber in cases of engrossing of corn (pp. 71, 76-7, 78-9, 91) and of enclosure and depopulation (pp. 49-52, 164-5, 192-3, 247, 346-7).
62 A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England, ed. E. Lamond, 1893, p. 14.
63 The Works of William Laud, D.D., ed. Wm. Scott, vol. i, 1847, p. 6.
64 Ibid., p. 64.
65 Ibid., pp. 89, 138.
66 Ibid., p. 167.
67 Ibid., pp. 28-9.
68 Gonner, Common Land and Enclosure, 1912, pp. 166-7. For the activity of the Government from 1629 to 1640, see Tawney, The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 376, 391, and E. M. Leonard, The Inclosure of Common Fields in the Seventeenth Century, in Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., N.S., vol. xix, pp. 101 seqq.
69 Letter to Dr. Gilbert Sheldon, Warden of All Souls (in Laud’s Works, vol. vi, pt. ii, p. 520): “One thing more I must tell you, that, though I did you this favour, to make stay of the hearing till your return, yet for the business itself, I can show you none; partly because I am a great hater of depopulations in any kind, as being one of the greatest mischiefs in this kingdom, and of very ill example from a college, or college tenant”; Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, bk. i, par. 204.
70 S.P.D. Chas. I, vol. ccccxcix, no. 10 (printed in Tawney, The Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 420-1); and Lords’ Journals, vol. vi, p. 468b (March 13, 1643-4), Articles against Laud: “Then Mr. Talbot upon oath deposed how the Archbishop did oppose the law in the business of inclosures and depopulations; how, when the law was desired to be pleaded for the right of land, he bid them ‘Go plead law in inferior Courts, they should not plead it before him’; and that the Archbishop did fine him for that business two hundred pounds for using the property of his freehold, and would not suffer the law to be pleaded.”
71 Leonard, The Early History of English Poor Relief, pp. 150-64; Unwin, Industrial Organization in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 1904, pp. 142-7.
72 R. R. Reid, The King’s Council in the North, 1921, pp. 412, 413 n.
73 Camden Soc., N.S., vol. xxxix, 1886, Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission, ed. S. R. Gardiner, p. 46. For another case of engrossing of corn, see ibid., pp. 82-9.
74 Tawney, The Assessment of Wages in England by the Justices of the Peace, in Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial-und Wirthschaftsgeschichte, Bd. xi, 1913, pp. 551-4; Leonard, op. cit., p. 157.
75 The Works of William Laud, ed. Wm. Scott, vol. vi, 1857, pt. i, p. 191. (Answer to Lord Saye and Sele’s speech upon the Bill about Bishops’ Powers in Civil Affairs and Courts of Judicature.)
76 Ibid., vol. i, pp. 5-6.
77 Harrington, Works, 1700 ed., pp. 69 (Oceana) and 388-9 (The Art of Law-giving).
78 G. Malynes, Lex Mercatoria, 1622. The same simile had been used much earlier in A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England, ed. E. Lamond, p. 98.
79 D’Ewes, Journals, p. 674; and 39 Eliz., c. 2.
80 For criticisms of price control see Tawney and Power, Tudor Economic Documents, vol. iii, pp. 339-41, and vol. ii, p. 188, and Stiffkey Papers (see note 58 above), pp. 130-40.
81 H. Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd series, vol. ii, 1827, letter clxxxii, and J. W. Burgon, The Life and Times of Sir Thomas Gresham, 1839, vol. ii, p. 343.
82 Wilson, op. cit. (see note 55 above), p. 249.
83 Commons’ Journals, May 21, 1604, vol. i, p. 218.
84 13 Eliz., c. 8, repealing 5 and 6 Ed. VI, c. 20; D’Ewes, Journals, pp. 171-4.
85 Owen and Blakeway, History of Shrewsbury, 1825, vol. ii, pp. 364 n., 412.
86 Hist. MSS. Com., Report on MSS. in various Collections, vol. i, 1901, p. 46 (MSS. of Corporation of Burford).
87 Wilson, op. cit. (see note 55 above), p. 233.
88 Coke, Institutes, pt. ii, 1797, pp. 601 seqq. (Certain articles of abuses which are desired to be reformed in granting of prohibitions, exhibited by Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury.)
89 Thomas Ridley, A View of the Civile and Ecclesiastical Law, and wherein the Practice of them is streitened and may be relieved within this Land, 1607, Dedication, p. 3.
90 W. Huntley, A Breviate of the Prelates’ intolerable Usurpation, 1637, pp. 183-4. The case referred to is that of Hinde, alleged to have been heard Mich. 18 and 19 Eliz. For the controversy over prohibitions, see R. G. Usher, The Rise and Fall of the High Commission, 1913, pp. 180 seqq.
91 D’Ewes, Journals, pp. 171, 173.
92 See, e.g., Surtees Society, vol. xxxiv, 1858, The Acts of the High Commission Court within the Diocese of Durham, Preface, which shows that between 1626 and 1639 cases of contempt of the ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction ran into hundreds.
93 Penn, No Cross, No Crown, pt. i, ch. xii, par. 8.
94 Sanderson, De Obligatione Conscientiæ, 1666; Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, 1650, chap. iii, sect. iii (Of Negotiation or Civil Contracts, Rules and Measures of Justice in Bargaining).
95 Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees, ed. F. B. Kaye, 1924, pp. 193, 194. Similar sentiments with regard to the necessity of poverty were expressed later by the Rev. J. Townsend, in his Dissertation on the Poor Laws (1785), and by Patrick Colquhoun in his Treatise on the Wealth and Resources of the British Empire (1814). Like Mandeville, both these writers argue that poverty is essential to the prosperity, and, indeed, to the very existence, of civilization. For a full collection of citations to the same effect from eighteenth-century writers, see E. S. Furniss, The Position of the Laborer in a System of Nationalism, 1920, chaps. iv-vi.
96 The Whole Duty of Man, laid down in a plain and familiar Way for the Use of All, 1658.