Our Legal Heritage Part 53

Also - that no one shall carry out of his house any wares connected with his trade for sale in market or elsewhere except only at a certain place situated between Soperesland and the Conduit; and that at a certain time of the day, that is to say, between prime [the first hour of the day]

and noon. And that no shoes shall exceed the measure of seven inches, so that the wares may be surveyed by the good folks of the trade, because of the deceit upon the common people that might ensue and the scandal of the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall expose his wares openly for sale in market on Sundays at any place, but only within his own dwelling to serve the common people, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that if any one sells old shoes, he shall not mix new shoes among the old in deceit of the common people and to the scandal of the trade, on the pain aforesaid."

Smithfield was a field outside the city gates at which horses were sold and raced. In 1372, the horse dealers and drovers pet.i.tioned for a tax on animals sold there to pay for cleaning the field. The city ordinance reads as follows: "On Wednesday next after the Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin came reputable men, the horse dealers and drovers, and delivered unto the mayor and aldermen a certain pet.i.tion in these words: 'To the mayor, recorder, and aldermen show the dealers of Smithfield, that is to say, the coursers and drovers, that for the amendment of the said field they have granted and a.s.sented among them that for the term of three years next ensuing after the date of this pet.i.tion for every horse sold in the said field there shall be paid one penny, for every ox and cow one halfpenny, for every eight sheep one penny, and for every swine one penny by the seller and the same by the purchaser who buys the same for resale.' Afterwards, on the eleventh day of August in the same year, Adam Fernham, keeper of the gaol at Newgate, Hugh, Averelle, bailiff of Smithfield, and William G.o.dhewe, weaver, were chosen and sworn faithfully to collect and receive the said pennies in form aforesaid and to clean the field of Smithfield from time to time during such term of three years when necessary."

Many London houses were being made from stone and timber and even brick and timber, instead of just timber and mud. However, chimneys were still a luxury of the rich. They were made of stone, tile, or plaster. There were windows of gla.s.s and a guild of glaziers was chartered by the King.

A typical merchant's house had a cellar; a ground floor with a shop and storage s.p.a.ce; a first floor with a parlor to receive guests, a s.p.a.cious hall for dining, and perhaps a kitchen; and at the top, a large family bedroom and a servant's room. Stairwells between floors had narrow and winding steps. Many single-roomed houses added a second-floor room for sleeping, which was approached by a wooden or stone staircase from the outside. Their goods were displayed on a booth outside the door of the house or hung in the windows. They were stored at night in the cellar.

Over the booths swung huge signs, which had to be nine feet above street level to allow a man on horseback to ride underneath. There were no sidewalks. Street repair work for wages was supervised by a stone master. The streets sloped down from the middle so that the filth of the streets would run down the sides of the road. There were many wood chips in the streets due to cutting up of firewood before taking it indoors.

People often threw the rubbish from their houses onto the street although they were supposed to cart it outside the city walls and to clean the frontage of their houses once a week. Dustmen scavenged through the rubbish on the streets. Pigs and geese were no longer allowed to run at large in the streets, but had to be fed at home. There were other city rules on building, public order, the use of fountains, precautions against fire, trading rights in various districts, closing time of taverns, and when refuse could be thrown into the streets, e.g.

nighttime.

Aldermen were constantly making rounds to test measures and weights, wine cups, the height of tavern signs, and the mesh of the fishing nets, which had to be at least two inches wide. They saw that the taverns were shut when curfew was rung and arrested anyone on the street after curfew who had a weapon, for no one with a sword was allowed on the streets unless he was some great lord or other substantial person of good reputation. Wards provided citizens to guard the gates in their respective neighborhood and keep its key.

The city was so dense that nuisance was a common action brought in court, for instance, vegetable vendors near a church obstructing pa.s.sageway on the street or plumbers melting their solder with a lower than usual shaft of the furnace so smoke was inhaled by people nearby.

Crime in London was rare. Murder, burglary, highway robbery, and gross theft were punishable by hanging. Forgery and fraud, were punishable by the placement in the pillory or stocks or by imprisonment. Perjury was punished by confession from a high stool for the first offense, and the pillory for the second. Slander and telling lies were punished by the pillory and wearing a whetstone around one's neck. There was an ordinance pa.s.sed against prost.i.tutes in 1351. London as well as other port towns had not only prost.i.tutes, but syphilis.

Prominent Londoners sought to elevate their social position by having their family marry into rural landholding families of position. For poor boys with talent, the main routes for advancement were the church, the law, and positions in great households.

Many master freemasons, who carved freestone or finely grained sandstone and limestone artistically with mallet and chisel, left the country for better wages after their wages were fixed by statute. The curvilinear gothic style of architecture was replaced by the perpendicular style, which was simpler and cheaper to build. Church steeples now had clocks on them with dials and hands to supplement the church bell ringing on the hour. Alabaster was often used for sepulchral monuments instead of metal or stone. With it, closer portraiture could be achieved.

In the 1300s and 1400s the London population suffered from tuberculosis, typhus, influenza, leprosy, dysentery, smallpox, diphtheria, measles, heart disease, fevers, coughs, cramps, catarrhs and cataracts, scabs, boils, tumors, and "burning agues". There were also many deaths by fires, burning by candles near straw beds when drunk, falling downstairs when drunk, and drowning in the river or wells.

Children were often crushed by carts, trampled by horses, or mauled by pigs.

Towns recognized surgery as a livelihood subject to admission and oath to serve the social good. Master surgeons were admitted to practice in 1369 in London in full husting before the mayor and the aldermen and swore to:

[1] faithfully serve the people in undertaking their cures,

[2] take reasonably from them,

[3] faithfully follow their calling,

[4] present to the said mayor and aldermen the defaults of others undertaking, so often as should be necessary,

[5] to be ready, at all times when they should be warned, to attend the maimed or wounded and others,

[6] to give truthful information to the officers of the city as to such maimed, wounded, or others whether they be in peril of death or not, and

[7] to faithfully do all other things touching their calling.

Some young girls of good families were boarded at nunneries to be taught there. Some upper cla.s.s widows retired there. Only women were allowed to be present at a birth, at which they spread the knowledge of midwifery. As usual, many women died giving birth. Various ways to prevent pregnancy were tried. It was believed that a baby grew from a seed of the father planted in the woman's body.

Infant mortality was especially high in boroughs and burgess family lines usually died out. A three-generation family span was exceptional in the towns, despite family wealth.

After the plague, gentlemen no longer had their children learn to speak Norman. The grammar schools taught in English instead of Norman as of 1362. Bishops began to preach in English. English became the official language of Parliament, in 1363, and in the courts, replacing Norman and Latin.

The requirements of elementary and higher studies were adjusted in 1393 and began the public school system. William of Wykeham's school, St.

Mary College of Winchester in Oxford was the prototype. The curriculum was civil law, canon law, medicine, with astronomical instruments that students made, theology, and the arts. The arts textbooks were still grammar, logic, Donatus, and Aristotle. Many laymen were literate, for instance country gentry, merchants, and craftsmen. Laymen instead of clerics were now appointed to the great offices of state.

A will in 1389 in which a wealthy citizen arranges for one son to become an attorney and the other a merchant:

"Will of William de Tonge, citizen of London: One hundred marks [1,333s.] each to my two sons. And I will that my said two sons shall live upon the profits of the money bequeathed to them above until the age of twenty years. And if my said two sons be well learned in grammar and adorned with good manners, which shall be known at the end of twenty years, and the elder son wish to practice common law, and if it is known that he would spend his time well in that faculty, I will that over and above the profit of the said one hundred marks he shall have yearly from my rents for the term of seven years five marks [67s.]. And if he should waste his time aforesaid, or if he should marry foolishly and unsuitably, I will that he receive nothing more of the said five marks.

And if younger son wishes to attend the University of Oxford or to establish himself well in the mystery of a merchant after the age of twenty years, and [if] there be knowledge of his praiseworthy progress in his faculty or his carefulness in trading ... I will that he shall receive five marks yearly in the manner described above for his maintenance, over and above the profit of the said one hundred marks to him bequeathed, for the s.p.a.ce of seven years; and if he behave himself otherwise, I will that thereupon he be excluded from the said five marks. And in case the said bequest of 200 marks [2,667s.] to him and his brother shall be annulled so that he shall have nothing therefrom ... then the said 200 marks shall be spent upon all the yearly chaplains who can be had to celebrate divine service in the church of All Hallows for my soul."

Most great lords were literate. Many stories described good men, who set an example to be followed, and bad men, whose habits were to be avoided. Stories were written about pilgrimage vacations of ordinary people to religious sites in England. Will Langland's poem "The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman" portrays a pilgrimage of common people to the shrine of Truth led by a virtuous laborer. Mystics wrote practical advice with transcendental teaching, for instance "Scale of Perfection" attributed to Walter Hilton and "Cloud of Unknowing".