Part 6 (1/2)

How rapidly the degeneracy proceeded may be gathered from a pet.i.tion of the Commons early in the 15th century (1437), which evoked an Act (15 Hen.

VI., cap. 6) definitely recognising the existence of abuses. After reciting how the

”masters, wardens, and people of Gilds, fraternities, and other companies corporate, dwelling in divers parts of the realm, oftentimes by colour of rule and governance to them granted and confirmed by charters and letters patent ... made among themselves many unlawful and little reasonable ordinances ... for their own singular profit and to the common hurt and damage of the people,”

the statute proceeded to order that the Gilds should not in the future

”make or use any ordinance in disparity or diminution of the franchises of the king or others, or against the common profit of the people, nor allow any other ordinance if it is not first approved as good and reasonable by the Justices of the Peace or the chief Magistrates aforesaid and before them enrolled and to be by them revoked and repealed afterwards if they shall be found and proved to be little loyal and unreasonable.”

[Sidenote: _but approval of the system._]

[Sidenote: _Policy of Reform._]

But it is abundantly clear that the complaints are against the abuses of the system and not against the system itself. Dissatisfaction is expressed at the ”little reasonable ordinances” of the Gilds but not against the companies themselves. The policy therefore of Henry VI. and Edward IV. was to reform the Gilds by amending their ordinances, or, if necessary, giving them charters of incorporation which should set forth definitely their objects, and state both the extent and the limitation of their powers. It is from this period that we date most of the existing records of the Shrewsbury companies. The barbers are said to have been chartered by Edward I. in 1304[99]; their earliest extant composition[100] is dated 1432 (10 Hen. VI.). The Shoemakers' composition of 1387 recited a charter of Edward III.[101] A Vintners' company is said to have been erected in Shrewsbury by Henry IV. in 1412[101].

But it is with the accession of Henry VI. that the great number of present charters and compositions begins. The date of the Fishmongers' company is 1423[101], and the entries of the Mercers commence in the next year[101].

The Barbers' composition of 1432 has been already mentioned. Then follow the Weavers (1448-9), the Fletchers (1449), the Carpenters (1449-50) in close proximity[101]. The Tailors and Skinners (1461) were recognised in the last year of Henry VI.[101], and eighteen years subsequently received a new composition from Edward IV. (1478), who had in the first year of his reign united the Fraternity of the Blessed Trinity with the company of the Drapers[102]. The companies of the Millers, Bakers, Cooks, Butchers and Shearmen certainly existed before 1478, as they are mentioned as taking part in the Corpus Christi Procession at that date. In that year the Tanners and Glovers were incorporated[103], as also were the Saddlers[103]. The royal recognition of the Mercers[101] in the next year completed the list of Shrewsbury companies erected before the 16th century.

[Sidenote: _Later Religious Gilds._]

It will be convenient here to draw attention to a different kind of Gild which was founded in Shrewsbury towards the close of this period: the religious Gild of S. Winifred.

The ancient Monks' Gilds which had spread so early over England, found as was to be expected later imitators in large numbers. The oldest accounts of these Gilds also, like those of the Monks' Gilds, are found in England[104]. Religious or Social they are usually called. They all evinced a strong religious character, but in addition had a care for the old and needy. If a Gild-brother suffer loss through theft ”let all the Gilds.h.i.+p avenge their comrade,” says the Cambridge statute. They also took cognisance of public welfare. If a Gild-brother do wrong ”let all bear it: if one misdo, let all bear alike.” If a man be slain in fair quarrel with a Gild-brother the _wite_ is to be borne by all, but the wilful or treacherous murderer is ”to bear his own deed.”

These Gilds rapidly spread over all Europe, and existed probably in every town. They doubtless formed the model to which the later a.s.sociations looked, and, except in details, differed little from the Craft Gilds. They were frequently connected with trade, even in some instances consisting entirely of followers of specific crafts[105], and loans were made out of the common chest to help members in misfortune[106]. We have scant information of early religious Gilds in Shrewsbury, though there can be but little doubt they flourished there as elsewhere. Later, in the 15th century, one was founded by the Abbot of the Holy Cross, which presents several unusual and interesting features.

Thomas Mynde was elected Abbot on January 8th, 1460, but it was not till 1486 that he took measures to found the Fraternity of S. Winifred, though probably the scheme had been previously shaping itself through the long period of unsettlement which the Civil Wars had caused. The present Gild differed from the earlier foundations in being deliberately created by royal charter. The reason was that without such security it could not receive grants of land, and Abbot Mynde was desirous to bequeath to it his private possessions rather than to leave them to his Monastery,--a curious commentary perhaps on the low estimation into which the religious houses had fallen.

The royal charter was not obtained without some trouble. The License itself says it was granted ”by [reason of] the sincere devotion which we have and bear towards S. Winefrida Virgin and Martyr;” but Abbot Mynde a.s.sures us that this laudable zeal required the practical stimulus of ”a large sum of money” before it would take effect in action.

The terms of the charter allowed both brethren and sisters to join the fellows.h.i.+p, the number being unregulated. The oath to support the Gild was taken by each member on admittance, kneeling before the altar in the Abbey of the Holy Cross. Power was given for the election of a Master, whose duties were the regulation of the Gild and the supervision of its property. The fraternity had its common seal, and the ordinary powers and privileges of corporations. It was especially exempted from the Mortmain Acts, and was allowed to acquire property to the yearly value of 10. The objects to which this was to be devoted were the finding of two Chaplains, or at least one, whose duties were the saying of a daily Ma.s.s at the Altar of S. Winifred in the Abbey, and the celebration of a Requiem Ma.s.s on the decease of a brother or sister of the Fraternity. At such Ma.s.ses it was especially provided that the prayers for the departed soul should be _in English_.

The Gild was joined in considerable numbers by the princ.i.p.al folk of the town, but there is little information[107] respecting its history, which may be at once antic.i.p.ated here. At the confiscation of the Chantry and Gild property the fraternity of S. Winifred was not able to plead the excuse of usefulness for trade purposes, and it fell unnoticed in the ruin of the great Abbey with which it was connected. Its life had been a short one, but coming as it did at a time when religious fervour was weak and morality lax, it no doubt served a useful purpose and deserved a better fate than almost total oblivion.

[Sidenote: _Charters granted to Craft Gilds._]

Returning after this digression to the Craft Gilds it will be interesting and profitable to make an examination and comparison of two of their charters, one selected from the earlier and one from the later portion of the period. The charter[108] of the Barbers' Gild, granted by Henry VI. in 1432, may be placed beside the composition[109] which Edward IV. gave to the Mercers in 1480.

[Sidenote: _Religious articles._]

A point which strikes us forcibly on the most superficial examination of the charters, is the prominence given, in one as in the other, to the Corpus Christi procession. It is a striking ill.u.s.tration of the extent to which mediaeval materialism had permeated society, and how deeply rooted was that ”tendency to see everything in the concrete, to turn the parable into a fact, the doctrine into its most literal application[110],” which scholastic philosophy had nurtured. The procession indeed would almost appear, from the charters, to be the princ.i.p.al object for which the Gilds exist. A considerable share of the fines is expressly devoted to the ”Increce of the Lyght that is boren yerely in the heye and worthie ffest of Corpus Xti Day.” The Mercers' composition regulates the order of the procession and the weight of the candle which the company provides in it.

No member is to be out of his place on the festival without permission, and the combrethren are especially prohibited from going to ”the Coventrie Fayre” at this season under penalty of a fine of twelve pence. The fact of being enabled to take part in the procession is manifestly looked upon as one of the great privileges and duties of the companies.

The Mercers' Gild also provided for a priest to say a daily Ma.s.s at the altar of S. Michael in the Church of S. Chad; and thirteen poor Bedesmen were retained at a penny per week to pray for the King and Queen and Councillors, and for the brethren of the Gild ”both quyke and dedd.”

[Sidenote: _Trade articles._]

The trade regulations of the two compositions are naturally cast in the same mould. In both appears the prohibition of foreign labour (the Mercers say ”except in fayre tyme”), and of under-selling by combrethren as well as unfair compet.i.tion generally. The later regulations go further and provide for the carrying out of the ordinances of the composition by the appointment of a searcher to secure the use of good materials and to prevent ”dissayte and gyle,” the use of false weights, &c. They also forbid the taking of aliens as apprentices[111].

All indentures are to be for seven years at the least, and none are to be taken as apprentices without being properly bound by indentures approved by the wardens and recorded by the clerk. There is also the article which now becomes common, against divulging the secrets of the craft, and an interesting one against ”eny confederacye or embracerye wherebie any p'judices hurt or hynd'ance myght growe.”