is method received
successive expansions, till at length, when the Reformation was concluded,
it terminated, after many changes of form, in the famous Act of Elizabeth.
We can thus trace our poor law in the whole course of its growth, and into
two stages through which it passed I must enter with some minuteness. The
12th of the 22nd of Henry VIII., and the 25th of the 27th, are so
remarkable in their tone, and so rich in their detail, as to furnish a
complete exposition of English thought at that time upon the subject; while
the second of these two acts, and probably the first also, has a further
interest for us, as being the composition of Henry himself, and the most
finished which he has left to us.[77]

"Whereas," says the former of these two Acts, "in all places throughout
this realm of England, vagabonds and beggars have of long time increased,
and daily do increase in great and excessive numbers, by the occasion of
idleness, mother and root of all vices; whereby hath insurged and sprung,
and daily insurgeth and springeth, continual thefts, murders, and other
heinous offences and great enormities, to the high displeasure of God, the
inquietation and damage of the king's people, and to the marvellous
disturbance of the common weal of this realm; and whereas, strait statutes
and ordinances have been before this time devised and made, as well by the
king our sovereign lord, as also by divers his most noble progenitors,
kings of England, for the most necessary and due reformation of the
premises; yet that notwithstanding, the said number of vagabonds and
beggars be not seen in any part to be diminished, but rather daily
augmented and increased into great routs or companies, as evidently and
manifestly it doth and may appear: Be it therefore enacted by the king our
sovereign lord, and by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons,
in this present parliament assembled, that the justices of the peace of all
and singular the shires of England within the limits of their commission,
and all other justices of the peace, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, and other
officers of every city, borough, or franchise, shall from time to time, as
often as need shall require, make diligent search and inquiry of all aged,
poor, and impotent persons, which live, or of necessity be compelled to
live by alms of the charity of the people; and such search made, the said
officers, every of them within the limits of their authorities, shall have