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[Robin Hamilton]

Item, of Devisors of false News and of horrible and false Lyes

of Prelates, Dukes, Earls, Barons, and other Nobles, and great

Men of the Realm, and also of the Chancellor, Treasurer,

Clerk of the Privy Seal, Steward of the King’s House, Justices

of the one Bench or of the other, and of other great Officers of

the Realm, of things which by the said Prelates, Lords, Nobles,

and Officers aforesaid were never spoken, done, nor thought, in

great Slander of the said Prelates, Lords, Nobles and Officers,

whereby Debates and Discords might arise between the said

Lords, or between the Lords and the Commons (which God

forbid), and whereof great Peril and Mischief might come to

all the Realm, and quick Subversion and Destruction of the

said Realm if due remedy be not provided ; it is straitly de-

fended upon grievous pain for to eschew the said Damages and

Perils, that from henceforth none be so hardy to devise, speak,

or to tell, any false News, Lyes, or other such false things, of

Prelates, Lords, and of other aforesaid, whereof Discord or any

Slander might arise within the same Realm, and he that doth

the same shall incur and have the pain another time ordained

thereof by the Statute of Westminster the first, which will, that

he be taken and imprisoned till he have found him of whom the

word was moved.

2 R. 2. st. 1. c. 5.  [i.e. 1379]

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