THe kynge our moste dradde soueraigne lorde, hauynge always in his moste blessed remembrance, as well the cure and charge of his dignite royall, as also the present astate of this his realme, and his subiectes of the same, consi­dereth, that in all places thorowe out this his realme of Englande, vacabundes and beggars, haue of longe tyme encreased and daily dothe encrease in great and excessiue nombres, by the occasyon of ydelnes, mother and roote of all vices: wherby haue insurged and spronge, and dayly insurgeth and springeth cōtynuall theftes, mourdres, and other sundry haynous offences and great enormities to the high displeasure of god, the inquietation and damage of his true & faith­full subiectes, and to the disturbance of the hoole common weale of this his sayd realme: And where as many and sundry good lawes statutes and ordinaunces haue ben before this tyme deuised and made, as well by his hyghnes as also by diuers his moste noble pro­genitours kynges of Englande, for the moste necessary and due reformation of the premysses: yet that not withstandynge, the sayde nombres of vacabundes and beggars, be not seen in any parte, to be mynyshed / but dayly to be augmented and encreased in to great rowtes and companyes. Whiche his grace euidently perceyueth to happen, for as moche as his sayde lawes, statutes, and ordinan­ces be not from tyme to tyme put in effectuell execution, accordynge to his gracis expectacion, pleasure, and cōmandemēt: His high­nes therfore wyllynge to declare to all his subiectes, his moste godly and vertuous purpose, and perseuerance in the persecution corre­ction and reformation of that moste damnable vyce of ydelnes, chiefe subuerter and confounder of cōmune weales, Eftsones wylleth and straytely commandeth all Iustices of the peas, maires, sheryffes, constables, bursholders, tethynge men, and other his myny­sters, as they wyll auoyde his hygh indignation and displeasure, that if they or any of them, shall after two dayes nexte ensuynge af­ter this proclamation publisshed. happen to fynde any vacabunde or myghty beggar (be it man or woman) out of the hundred where he or she was borne, or out of the towne or place, where he or she last dwelled in, and cōtinued by the space of thre yeres nexte before, and that vpon knowledge of the sayde proclamation, he or she hath not demaunded a Byllet, to conuey them selfe to the sayde hundred or owellynge place, and so be in theyr iourney thetherwarde, within the sayd two daies, that than the sayde Iustices and minysters and euery of them, shall cause the sayde vacabundes and beggars and euery of them, to be stripped naked, from the priuey partes of theyr bodies vpwarde (men and women of great age or seke, and women with childe onely excepte) and beinge so naked, to be bounden, and sharpely beaten and skourged. And after that they be so beaten in fourme afore said, that there be deliuered to them and euery of them so whypped or skourged, a sedule or byllet, the forme wherof appereth in the ende of this present proclamation: And that the sayde se­dule or byllet be signed with the hande of the Iustice of peas, mayre, sheriffe, constable, bursholder, tethinge man, or other minister, by whose cōmandement the sayd vacabūde or beggar was whipped or skourged. And in case that any of them can not write, than the same byllet to be signed, by one of the best and most substantiall inhabitantes nexte adioynynge. And if it happen the person beaten in forme aforesaid, to be eftsones foūden in the sayd place, as a vacabunde or beggar, that than he or she to be taken and eftsones beaten & skourged as is afore said: And so from tyme to tyme, and as often as they shall happen to be taken out of the place to them lymitted, for theyr abode by the statute. ¶ More ouer, if any of the sayd vagabundes or myghty beggars, whipped in forme aforsayd, do after the sayd whippinge, make their abode in any place longer than a dyner tyme, or the space of one night, vntyll they be cōme to the sayd place of their habitaciō appoynted beinge nat veryly seke or hurte) that than they shalbe eftsones whypped, and ordered as is before written. Semblably if any vagabunde or mighty beggar beinge taken, wyll affirme that he was late whypped, and can not shewe forthe a cedule or byllet signed, as before is mencioned / he shall, not withstandynge his said affirmacion, be stripped naked and seen by the Iustice, or some of the ministers before named. And if it may euidētly appere vnto them by the tokens on his body, that he hath ben al redy skourged or beaten, they shall than suffer hym to departe without other harme, with a byllet signed by them, mēcionynge where, and at what tyme he was beaten. And if they fynde no tokens or signes of skourgynge or beatinge on his body, than they to se hym to be whypped or skourged, and further ordered as is before written. And more ouer, the kyngis highnes cōmandeth al Iusti­ces of the peace, mayres, sheriffes, cōstables, bursholders, tethyngmen, and other his sayd ministers, that al vayne pitie and other ex­cuses layde aparte, they endeuour them selfes with all their power, study, and diligence, to put this his sayd ordinance in effectuell ex­ecucion, without any delay. And also that they endeuour them selfes to kepe theyr marches and serches, accordynge to the lawes and statutes of this realme, and accordynge to the instructions before this tyme made and diuised by his highnes and his honorable coū ­sayle, and by his grace to them sent, to be put in due execution: As they wyll answere to his highnes at theyr vttermoste peryls.

God saue the kynge.