PEASANT REVOLTS 109 



County." It enacted that anyone — bond or free — 

 who should leave the service into which he had been 

 forced, or should go into another locality, should be 

 outlawed, should be hunted down from place to place, 

 and when taken "he shall be burnt on the forehead 

 with an iron made and formed to the letter F, in token 

 of falsity." 



It seems, however, that even these cruel measures 

 were not successful enough to satisfy the manorial 

 lords. In 1377, four years before the rebellion, another 

 statute of the same kind was passed.^ The preamble 

 recites the " misbehaviour of villeins and land-tenants 

 in withdrawing- services and customs from their lords 

 due as well of their body as of their tenure," that 

 they declare themselves discharged of these burdens 

 " by certain exemplifications made out of the book 

 of domesday of the manor and their evil inter- 

 pretation of the same," and that they " resist their 

 lords to the great damage of their said lords." "There- 

 fore," the Statute continues, " it is ordained and stab- 

 lished that the lords which feel themselves grieved 

 shall have special commission who shall be empowered 

 to imprison the offenders who are indicted and shall 

 not be released on bail or otherwise from prison with- 

 out the assent of these lords till they be attainted or 

 acquit." 



In the "Rolls of Parliament" (Edward III, 1376, 

 Vol. II, p. 340), full directions for enforcing this statute 

 are set out. No one in any condition, rich or poor, on 

 pain of fine, is to receive, employ, or harbour these 

 " malicious riotous rebeales." Bailiffs, gaolers, con- 

 stables, and all officials in hundreds, wapentakes, and 

 burghs, " toutes parts universalment," are enjoined to 



^ I Richard II, chap. 6. 



