The Influence and Development of English Gilds Part 5

The election of officers was the principle item of business at the great annual meeting of the Gild. This was held on the festival of the Saint in whose name the Gild was dedicated. It was preceded by Ma.s.s in the Parish Church whither the brethren and sistren went in procession wearing their distinctive hoods and liveries, and bearing lights in their hands. To add to the dignity of the occasion a play or mystery was sometimes performed, but more usually such representations were reserved for the great common feast of Corpus Christi.

[Sidenote: _Business at meetings._]

[Sidenote: _Penalties._]

At the meeting, which from its most general name of "mornspeche" appears to have followed soon after Ma.s.s, great solemnity was observed. The double-locked box[83] was opened by the two Wardens[84] amidst a reverential silence, and the composition or charter preserved in it rehea.r.s.ed to the a.s.sembled brethren. Business was then proceeded with:--election of officers, admittance of new brethren, authorisation of indentures. Then if necessary regulations were pa.s.sed for the government of the Gild and ordinances made for the due protection of trade, such as summonses to Intruders to enter the union. The ordinary penalties which the companies might inflict were fines of money or of wax, (in which king and corporation shared and which they were consequently willing to enforce,) and, in extreme cases total expulsion from the Gild, which of course meant exclusion from trade within the town.

[Sidenote: _Halls._]

After the "mornspeche" came the mutual feast. The brethren had begun the day by union for worship, they ended it with union for social and convivial festivity. In later times the business portion of the meeting was transacted in the Hall of the Gild and the brethren afterwards adjourned to some convenient tavern. Several of the Halls were standing until quite recent times. Such were those of the Mercers, Tailors, and Weavers[85]. That of the Shearmen is now used as an Auction Mart, but the Drapers' Hall still retains its former dignity.

[Sidenote: _Necessity of historical att.i.tude_]

It will be necessary to attempt some estimation of the extent and value of the influence which the Gilds exercised on contemporary life and thought. In doing this, and indeed in dealing with the whole subject of trade regulation in the Middle Ages, it is necessary to bear continually in mind that not only were the conditions of trade then very materially different from those under which we now live, but that Economic Theory was still more at variance with modern views. It is necessary therefore to take a historical att.i.tude, and to try to appreciate both the difference of social conditions, and the difference of objects in view. These objects may be considered firstly as individual and perhaps selfish; and, secondly, as general and for the common good.

[Sidenote: _in estimating importance of Gilds; Commercial,_]

1. If we consider the charters from the first point of view we see that the trade regulations were dictated by the desire to secure to all the brethren their means of livelihood: "no broder" was to "induce or tyce any other Mastres Accostom," or to employ the servants of another combrother, or otherwise to act in a spirit of unbrotherly and dishonourable compet.i.tion. The charters are full of such regulations. No member might obtrude wares before pa.s.sers in the open street, or erect booths "for to have better sale than eny of the combrethren[86]."

2. Similarly also if we view the compositions in light of what we have described as the second of their objects. The excellent motive of mediaeval regulation of industry was to secure the prosperity of trade by ensuring skilled workmanship and proper materials. In consequence it was forbidden for workmen whose capacity was unknown to work in the town until their efficiency had been proved. The Barbers' composition of 1432 ordered that "no man' p'sone sette up nother holde no shoppe in Privite ny apperte ny shave as a Maistre withinne the saide Tow' ny Franchise in to the Tyme that ev'y such p'sone have the Wille and a.s.sent of the Stywardes and Maistres of the saide Crafte." It was the desire to ensure the public being well served that prompted the articles in the composition of the Mercers (1480-1) which ordered the Searcher "to make serche uppon all the occupyers of the saide Craftes ... that non of theym occupie eny false Balaunce Weight or Mesures belongeing to the sayde Craftes or eny of theym, wherebie the Kyngs People in eny wyse myght be hurt or dysseyved."

It was also part of the same officer's duties to "oversee that any thyng app'tenyng to the saide Craftes or eny of theym to be boght and solde in the saide Towne and Frauncheses be able suffyceant and lawfull and that noe dyssayte nor gyle to the Kyngs liege people therbye be had." No indentures were to be drawn for less than "seven years at the least," so that adequate training should be secured.

We thus perceive how the Craft Gilds differed, on the one hand from the Frith Gilds of more ancient times, and on the other from the Commercial Companies of later days. The former were a.s.sociations in which every member was responsible for the actions of each of his fellows; in the Craft Gilds each member bound himself to abide by the regulations of the rest. The essence of the later Commercial Companies is union for mere pecuniary gain; the Gilds set in the forefront of the objects of their a.s.sociation the material benefit of the community and the religious and moral good of the individual. The resemblance between Trades Unions and the Mediaeval Gilds is not entirely fanciful; but no two doc.u.ments can be more widely different than the Prospectus of a Limited Liability Company and a Gild Charter of the Middle Ages.

[Sidenote: _Social,_]

The Gild system may be considered from various points of view. Regarded in its social aspect its importance can hardly be exaggerated. It has been pointed out how the work of the Gilds prevented the difficulty of poor relief becoming acute, and also how valuable their influence was in the maintenance of order, through the respect they evinced for the established law. The immense weight they must have had on the side of morality, by the importance they attached to the moral character of their members must not be overlooked. "The rules of the Gilds which have come down to us, quaint and homely as they sound, breathe a spirit as elevated as it is simple, and although we must probably make the usual allowance for the difference between men's acts and their words, we cannot but believe that the generations which formed such grand conceptions and which so persistently strove to realise them, had a better side than posterity has discovered[87]."

The extent, too, to which they operated in linking cla.s.s to cla.s.s was very great. There was no impa.s.sable barrier between commerce and birth. In the lists of apprentices which have been preserved to us the entries of names belonging to county families are frequent. It was the ordinary custom for the younger sons to be put to business in the town. The social value of such a habit must have been great. Within the craft, too, the distinctions were only caused by differences in the degrees of wealth. By industry and perseverance the meanest apprentice might look forward to attainment of the highest honours his Gild could bestow, and even, by success in trade, to n.o.bility. As in Athelstan's time the merchant who fared thrice beyond the sea at his own cost became of thegn-right worthy[88], so it was all through the Middle Ages: even in the 17th century Harrison says "our merchants do often change estate with gentlemen, as gentlemen do with them, by a mutual conversion of the one into the other[89]."

[Sidenote: _Const.i.tutional._]

The education obtained by the framing of their own ordinances was also no slight gain to the townsmen. They provided for their peculiar needs in their own peculiar way, not always we may say in the best way, but in that which they, who knew the special requirements of the case, considered the best. Each who took part in drawing up those regulations would feel that a certain share of responsibility rested with him to see that they were kept. The const.i.tutional importance also of this training, in imparting an appreciation of the responsibilities and duties which devolve on those who frame regulations was not unimportant.

The services which the Gilds rendered to the cause of liberty by the feeling of strong cohesion which they produced among the townsmen would be less difficult to estimate if the burgesses had played a more distinctive part in the work of Parliament[90]. It is easier to point out how, if they may have interfered to some extent with family life on the one hand, they on the other increased the tendency to narrowness and localism which was otherwise sufficiently strong throughout the Middle Ages, and indeed through considerably later times. Everything was antagonistic to the widening of the townsman's sympathies. He found his trade, his ambition, almost his whole life, satisfied within the walls of the borough in which he dwelt; and the Craft Gilds crystallised, as it were, this tendency towards insularity.

[Sidenote: _Special interest of their history at present time._]

It may be noticed how a special interest attaches at the present time to the history of the Gilds and to the study of their influence and development.

The condition of the working cla.s.ses must always be a point of vital importance to the welfare of the state. It is peculiarly so to-day.

Anything therefore which can a.s.sist us to understand how the present degradation of the craftsman has been brought about, and which may help towards his amelioration, will be valuable and of practical usefulness.

Five hundred years ago the working man differed very widely from his modern representative; how widely may be gathered from a single ill.u.s.tration. The architects of the Churches and other buildings which the Middle Ages have bequeathed to us in such large numbers and of such exquisite beauty are, in the vast majority of cases, unknown to-day even by name. They were not less unknown to contemporaries. For they were men of like nature with their fellows: _ancestors of our modern artisans_. How great a change has grown up in the generations which have intervened.

Five centuries ago the workman was intelligent and skilled, he is now untrained and degraded: he was then able and accustomed to take a proper pride in his work, he is now careless and indifferent: he used to be provident and thrifty, now he is usually reckless and wasteful.

It is not too much to say that a great reason of this vast difference is to be found in the influence which the Gilds exercised. In their character as Benefit Clubs they taught their members to be thrifty: by insisting on a careful and systematic training during seven years of apprenticeship they made them skilled and capable workmen, and as such able to take an interest in, and to derive pleasure from their work. It has been pointed out that the Gilds prevented extreme poverty from ever becoming at all normal. Uncertainty of employment and demoralising fluctuations of wages are among the most crying evils of our modern social _regime_. The Craft Gilds did much to secure regularity of work and to steady the price of labour.

Thus it is evident how great and peculiar an interest attaches to the whole subject of the Gilds at the present day. It is a subject which does not merely offer attractions to the antiquary or provide valuable materials for the student of const.i.tutional and munic.i.p.al development. It has a far wider and more human significance. A study of the extent and nature of the influence which the Gilds exercised on the condition and skill of the working man in the past will help to solve the problem of his improvement in the present and in the future.

NOTE I.

INDENTURE OF APPRENTICESHIP FROM THE MERCERS' COMPANY'S RECORDS. A.D.

1414.

Haec indentura testatur etc. inter Johannem Hyndlee de Northampton, Brasyer, et Gulielmum filium Thomae Spragge de Salopia, quod predictus Gulielmus posuit semetipsum apprenticium dicto Johanni Hyndlee, usque ad finem octo annorum, ad artem vocatam _brasyer's craft_, qua dictus Johannes ut.i.tur, medio tempore humiliter erudiendum. Infra quem quidem terminum praefatus Gulielmus concilia dicti Johannis Hyndlee magistri sui celanda celabit. Dampnum eidem Johanni nullo modo faciet nec fieri videbit, quin illud cito impediet aut dictum magistrum suum statim inde premuniet. A servicio suo seipsum illicite non absentabit. Bona et catalla dicti Johannis absque ejus licentia nulli accomodabit. Tabernam, scortum, talos, aleas, et joca similia non frequentabit, in dispendium magistri sui. Fornicationem nec adulterium c.u.m aliqua muliere de domo et familia dicti Johannis nullo modo committet, neque uxorem ducet, absque licentia magistri sui. Praecepta et mandata licita et racionabilia magistri sui ubique pro fideli posse ipsius Gulielmi, diligenter adimplebit et eisdem mandatis libenter obediet. Et si praedictus Gulielmus de aliqua convencione sua vel articulo praescripto defecerit, tunc idem Gulielmus juxta modum et quant.i.tatem delicti sui magistro suo satisfaciet emendam aut terminum apprenticiatus sui duplicabit. Et praefatus Johannes et a.s.signati sui apprenticium suum in arte praedicta meliori modo quo idem Johannes sciverit ac poterit tractabunt docebunt et informabunt, seu ipsum informari facient sufficienter, debito modo castigando, et non aliter. Praeterea dictus Johannes concedit ad docendum et informandum dictum Gulielmum in arte vocata _Peuterer's Craft_ adeo bene sicut sciverit seu poterit ultra convencionem suam praemissam. Et idem Johannes nullam partem artium praedictarum ab apprenticio suo concelabit. Invenient insuper Johannes et a.s.signati sui dicto Gulielmo omnia sibi necessaria, viz. victum suum et vest.i.tum, lineum, laneum, lectum, hospicium, calceamenta et caetera sibi competencia annuatim sufficienter, prout aetas et status ipsius Gulielmi exigerint. In cujus rei testimonium etc. 1414.

NOTE II.

OATH TO BE TAKEN BY THE FREEMEN OF THE MERCERS' COMPANY.

In the Company's records this oath occurs immediately after a curious calendar, written in 15th century hand, and before a list of "Brethren received and incorporated in the time of Rici Attynchin and John Cutlere wardens" in 3 Henry VI., (1424-5).

FIDELITAS.

I shall trewe man be to G.o.d o'r Lady Seynt Marie Seynt Mych.e.l.l th'archangell patrone of the Gylde and to the Fraternite of the Mercers Yremongers and Goldsmythes & Cappers w'in the Towne and Fraunches of Shrowesbury I shall also Trewe man be to the king our liege lorde and to his heyres kyngys and his lawes and mynystars of the same Truly obs've and obey And ov' this I shall be obedyent to my wardens and their sumpneys obey and kepe I shall be trewe and ffeythfull to the Combrethern of the Gylde aforeseyd and ther co'ncell kepe All lawdable and lefull actes and composic'ons made or to be made w{t}in the Seide Gylde truly obeye p'forme and kepe aft' my reason and power I shall be contributare bere yelde and paye all man' ordynare charges cestes and contribucons aftur my power as any other master occupyer or combrother of the seid Gylde shall happen to doe and bere: Soe helpe me G.o.d and halidame and by the Boke.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE GILDS OF SHREWSBURY.

[Sidenote: _Existed before they held charters._]

In the foregoing chapter it has been shown how the Craft Gilds were called into being. They possessed at first no charters[91] because none were needed. It was only when friction arose that there came any necessity for royal authority to step forward with its support and sanction[92].

[Sidenote: _Scanty notice at first._]

And as they at first possessed no charters, so they have left few or no records of their earliest life. So long as they worked in thorough accord with the spirit of the age and completely fulfilled its requirements they left scanty traces. It is only when the period of degeneracy commences that we begin to have anything like adequate materials for their detailed history.

[Sidenote: _Fourteenth century; difficulties for Gilds to face._]

The 14th century was fruitful in ill.u.s.trations of the difficulties which beset the work of the Gilds.

The development of trade alone had proceeded far enough to render their task already complicated: their difficulties were increased abnormally by the exceptional conditions of labour brought about by the Black Death. The Peasant Revolt compelled Parliament to take cognisance of industrial difficulties. In 1388, at its meeting at Cambridge, it was largely occupied with trade questions[93], and ordered the issue of writs to the sheriff of each county in England, commanding returns of all details as to the foundation, objects, and condition of both religious fraternities and Craft Gilds. These returns show that most of the Gilds obtained their charters during the 13th and the early years of the 14th centuries[94].

[Sidenote: _Development of industry._]

It does not appear that any legislation followed upon this parliamentary action, but provisions now begin to appear for the settlement of disputes between masters and workmen, and also between brethren of the Gild. So far the different cla.s.ses of workmen had worked together in harmony upon the whole, but it could not fail that a severance or at least a marked diversity of interests should arise. Most important, as demonstrating that it was the change in external circ.u.mstances, and not so much the internal degeneracy of the Gilds themselves, which was causing the friction, are the evidences which show that a great division of labour was in progress[95]. In the 13th century the tailor and the cloth-merchant sever their former connection: the businesses of the tanner and of the butcher become distinct branches of trade[96]. Similarly the tanner and the shoemaker were made separate callings[97]. The same movement is still more clearly seen in the disputes which arose between allied Gilds as to the particular work which each was charged with supervising[98]. It was the creation of opposing interests, of which such were the outward signs, that introduced the seed of decay into the Gild system.

[Sidenote: _Fifteenth century: avowal of abuses,_]