Note 217 — SECTION VI
Reading edition
This statute is perhaps the most important of all the enactments relating to labourers between the Black Death and the reign of Elizabeth. It distinguishes between the impotent poor and the able-bodied vagabonds, and, besides establishing Quarter sessions, and fixing maximum wages, is the basis of all subsequent Vagrancy and Poor Law legislation. For printed text see Statutes of the Realm, Vol II., 56-59.