26 THE GREAT PLAGUE AND ITS RESULTS II 



It was, however, impossible for the lords speedily to 

 betake themselves to these remedies. The financial shock 

 and general dislocation of society and of credit would 

 render it difficult for them either to find farmers who had 

 the necessary capital to take the land on lease, or them- 

 selves to find the capital for tending the stock, or to 

 purchase the necessary sheep wherewith to feed down the 

 lands that were in hand. These changes in the economical 

 arrangements of the demesne belong rather to a later date, 

 when the direct influences of the great visitation had 

 passed away. 



Nor did the rebellion of the peasants have much perma- 

 nent effect. Thorold Rogers's statement that it was due 

 to the attempt on the part of the lords to recall villeins 

 who had commuted their labour to their service again 

 has been disproved. Many peasants joined the rebellion 

 from manors where almost complete commutation had 

 taken place, and some manors where there was little 

 commutation were undisturbed. 1 Indeed, judging from 

 a statute of Richard II, only four years before the revolt, 

 it would appear that villeins were refusing to pay their 

 services, ' declaring that they were quit and utterly dis- 

 charged of all manner of serfdom, under colour of certain 

 " exemplifications " made from Domesday/ 2 No doubt the 

 lords would be more strict with regard to the services that 

 remained, and Langland complains of heavy fines. ( When 

 ye impose a fine let mercy fix the amount/ and Wyclif 

 makes the same complaint, though the records of manors 

 do not bear this out. The rebellion began in Kent, where 



1378 (Transactions Royal Hist. Soc. xiv. 129), and all the demesne 

 lands of Merton College by 1360 (Oman, The Great Revolt, p. 6), and 

 so also all the villein lands of the manor of Rustinton, Trinity College, 

 Cambridge (0. 1. 25). 



1 Page, Villeinage, p. 69. 2 Statutes of Realm, ii. 2. 3. 



