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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44966 ***
+
+Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
+without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
+been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
+underscores: _italics_.
+
+The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is hereby
+placed in the public domain.
+
+
+
+A Paper ON CRAFT GILDS, READ BY
+THE REV. W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D.,
+
+_At the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Society for the Protection
+of Ancient Buildings._
+
+
+There is, as I understand it, a double object in the work of this
+Society; it interests itself in the preservation of ancient buildings,
+partly because they are monuments which when once destroyed can never
+be replaced, and which bear record of the ages in which they were made
+and the men who reared them; and in this sense all that survives from
+the past, good and bad, coarse or refined, has an abiding value. But
+to some folks there seems to be a certain pedantry in gathering or
+studying things that are important merely because they are
+curiosities, a certain fancifulness in the frame of mind which
+concentrates attention on the errors of printers, or the sports of
+nature, or the rubbish of the past. And much which has been preserved
+from the past is little better than rubbish, as the poet felt when he
+wrote:
+
+    "Rome disappoints me much; I hardly as yet understand, but
+    Rubbishy seems the word that most exactly would suit it. All the
+    foolish destructions, and all the sillier savings, All the
+    incongruous things of past incompatible ages Seem to be treasured
+    up here to make fools of the present and future."
+
+Still, the view Clough takes is very superficial; there is a real
+human interest about even the rubbish heaps of the past if we have
+knowledge enough to detect it; the dulness is in us who fail to
+recognise the interest which attaches to trifles from the past or to
+read the evidence they set before us.
+
+But there is another reason why the vestiges of bygone days claim our
+interest--not as mere curiosities, but as in themselves beautiful
+objects, excellently designed and skilfully fashioned. There are
+numberless arts in which the men of the past were adepts; their skill
+as builders is patent to all, but specialists are quite as
+enthusiastic over the work that was done by mediæval craftsmen in
+other departments. Their wood-carving, and working in metals, the
+purity of their dyes, the beauty of their glass, these are things
+which move the admiration of competent critics in the present day.
+Machinery may produce more rapidly, more cheaply, more regular work,
+of more equal quality, and perhaps of higher finish, but it is work
+that has lost the delicacy and grace of objects that were shaped by
+human hands and bear the direct impress of human care, and taste, and
+fancy. We may be interested in the preservation of the relics of the
+past, not merely as curiosities from bygone ages, but as examples of
+beautiful workmanship and skilled manipulation to which the craftsmen
+of the present day cannot attain.
+
+Most Englishmen--all those whose opinions are formed by the newspapers
+they read--are so proud of the vast progress that has been made in the
+present century, that they do not sufficiently attend to the curious
+fact that there are many arts that decay and are lost. In this country
+it appears that the art of glass-making was introduced more than once,
+and completely died out again; the same is probably true of cloth
+dressing and of dyeing. It seems to me a very curious problem to
+examine what were the causes which led to the disappearance of these
+particular industries. In each single case it is probably a very
+complicated problem to distinguish all the factors at work--what were
+the social or economic conditions that destroyed this or that useful
+art once introduced? But into such questions of detail I must not
+attempt to enter now. I wish to direct your attention to-day to a more
+general question, to an attempt to give a partial explanation, not of
+failure here and there, but of conspicuous success. In the thirteenth
+and fourteenth and fifteenth centuries a very high degree of skill was
+attained, not in one art only, but in many. It is at least worth while
+to look a little more closely at one group of the conditions which
+influenced the work of the times, and examine the organisations which
+were formed for controlling the training of workmen, for supervising
+the manner in which they lived, and maintaining a high standard of
+quality in the goods produced. There is no need to idealise the times
+when they were formed, or the men who composed them; the very records
+of craft gilds show that the mediæval workman was quite capable of
+scamping his work and getting drunk when opportunity tempted him. But
+the fact remains that a very great deal of first-rate work was done in
+many crafts, for portions of it still survive, and I cannot but
+believe that some of the credit is due to the gilds which set
+themselves to rule each craft, so that the work turned out should be a
+credit to those who made it.
+
+Herein, as it seems to me, lies the secret of the importance of the
+craft gilds during the period of their useful activity. They were
+managed on the principle that "honourable thing was convenable;" that
+honesty was the best policy; the good of the trade meant its high
+reputation for sound work at fair prices. It has got another meaning
+to our ears; a time when trade is good means a time when it is more
+possible than usual to sell any sort of goods at high prices, and the
+craft gilds in their later days were contaminated by this lower view
+of industry. The ancient anecdote of the Edinburgh glazier who was
+caught breaking the windows of peaceful inhabitants for "the good of
+the trade," may illustrate the modern sense of the phrase, while the
+conduct of the stalwart citizen who thrashed him within an inch of his
+life, and said at every blow "it's all for the good of the trade," was
+in closer accord with the disciplinary character of mediæval rules.
+
+I trust I have said enough to justify my selection of this topic as
+one which is not unfitting the attention of this society; the subject
+is a very wide one, and I think the treatment may be somewhat less
+diffuse if I draw most of my illustrations from a single centre of
+industry, and speak chiefly of the craft gilds of Coventry. It is a
+town which I visited recently, and where, through the kindness of the
+Town Clerk and Mr. W. G. Fretton, the antiquary, I was able to make
+good use of the few hours I had to spend. It may be convenient too, to
+arrange the matter under the following heads:--
+
+      I. The introduction of craft gilds.
+
+     II. The objects and powers of mediæval craft gilds.
+
+    III. The resuscitation of craft gilds.
+
+
+I. There is a certain amount of assumption in talking about the
+introduction of craft gilds, because it suggests the belief that they
+were not a native development. The word gild is, after all, a very
+vague term, much like our word association, and though we can prove
+the existence of many gilds before the Conquest,--at Cambridge and
+Exeter and elsewhere,--their laws contain nothing that would justify
+us in regarding them as craft gilds. It is much more probable, though
+Dr. Gross, the greatest living authority on the subject, speaks with
+considerable reserve, that the hall where the men of Winchester drank
+their own gild, or the land of the knights' gild at Canterbury,
+belonged to bodies which had some supervision over the trade of the
+town--in fact, were early gilds merchant. But I know of no hint in any
+of the records or histories of the period before the Norman Conquest,
+that can be adduced to show that there were any associations of
+craftsmen formed to control particular industries. The earliest
+information which we get about such groups of men comes from London,
+where, as we learn, Henry I. granted a charter to the Weavers. It is
+pretty clear that by this document some authority was given to the
+weavers to control the making of cloth (and it possibly involved
+conditions which affected the import of cloth). It is certain that
+there was a long continued struggle between the weavers' gild and the
+citizens, which came to a peaceful close in the time of Edward I.
+There were weavers' gilds also in a considerable number of other towns
+in the reign of Henry II.; Beverley, Marlborough, and Winchester may
+be mentioned in particular, as the ordinances of these towns have
+survived, and there are incidental references which seem to show that
+the weavers, and the subsidiary crafts of fullers and dyers had, even
+in the twelfth century, considerable powers of regulating their
+respective trades. The evidence becomes more striking if we are
+justified in connecting with it the cases of other towns, where we
+find that regulations had been enforced with regard to cloth, and that
+the townsmen were anxious to set these regulations aside, and buy or
+sell cloth of any width.
+
+So far what we find is this; while we have no evidence of craft gilds
+before the Conquest, we find indications of a very large number of
+gilds among the weavers and the subsidiary callings shortly after that
+date. But there is a further point; so far as we can gather, weaving
+before the Conquest was a domestic art; we have no mention of weavers
+as craftsmen; the art was known, but it was practised as an employment
+for women in the house; but in the time of the Conqueror and of his
+sons there was a considerable immigration of Flemings, several of whom
+were particularly skilled in weaving woollen cloth; they settled in
+many towns in different parts of the country, and it seems not
+unnatural to conclude that weaving as an independent craft was
+introduced from the Continent soon after the Norman Conquest.
+
+Institutions analogous to craft gilds appear to have existed in some
+of the towns of Northern France time out of mind, and some can
+apparently trace a more or less shadowy connection with the old Roman
+Collegia. Putting all these matters together, it appears that craft
+organisation first shows itself in England in connexion with a trade
+which was probably introduced from abroad; and it seems not impossible
+that the Continental artisans brought not only a knowledge of the art
+of weaving but certain habits of organisation with them.
+
+Some sort of organisation was probably necessary for police and fiscal
+purposes if for none others. Town life was a curiously confused chaos
+of conflicting authority; in London each ward was an independent unit,
+in Chester and Norwich the intermingling of jurisdictions seems very
+puzzling. The newcomers were not always welcomed by the older
+ratepayers, and they might perhaps find it convenient to secure a
+measure of _status_ by obtaining a royal charter for their gild. Just
+as the Jews or the Hansards were in the city and yet not citizens,
+but had an independent footing, so to some extent were the weavers
+situated, and apparently for similar reasons; they seem to have had
+_status_ as weavers, which they held directly from the King, which
+marked them out from other townsmen, and which possibly delayed their
+complete amalgamation with the other inhabitants.
+
+There is yet another feature about these weavers' gilds; the business
+in which they are engaged was one which was from an early time
+regulated by royal authority. King Richard I. issued an assize of
+cloth defining the length and breadth which should be manufactured.[1]
+The precise object of these regulations is not clear; they may have
+been made in the interests of the English consumer; they may have been
+made in the interest of the foreign purchaser, and the reputation of
+English goods abroad; they may have been framed in connexion with a
+protective policy, of which there are some signs. But amid much that
+is uncertain these three things seem pretty clear:--
+
+          [1] Richard of Hoveden, Rolls Series, iv. 33.
+
+1. That there were no craft gilds before the Conquest.
+
+2. That there were many craft gilds in connexion with the newly
+introduced weavers' craft in the twelfth century.
+
+3. That they exercised their powers under royal authority in a craft
+which was the subject of royal regulation.
+
+So far for weavers; I wish now to turn to another craft in which we
+hear of craft gilds very early--the Bakers. There is a curious
+parallelism between these two callings. In the first place baking was,
+on the whole, a domestic art before the Conquest, not a separate
+employment; in the next place, it was a matter of royal regulation;
+the King's bakers doubtless provided the Court supplies, and the gave
+their experience for the framing of the assize of bread, under Henry
+II. and under King John.[2] It may, I think, be said that in both of
+the trades in which gilds were first formed, there was felt to be a
+real need for regulation as to the quality of the goods sold to the
+public; and it also appears that this regulation was given under royal
+authority. So far the fact seems to me to be pretty clear; and it is
+at least more than probable that the form of association
+adopted--analogous as it was to associations already existing on the
+Continent--had come over in the train of the Conqueror. These few
+remarks may suffice in justification of the phrase the "introduction
+of craft gilds."
+
+          [2] Cambridge University Library, Mm i. 27.
+
+
+II. In the latter part of the twelfth and the beginning of the
+thirteenth century there was a very rapid development of municipal
+life in England, and the burgesses in many towns obtained much larger
+powers of self-government than they had previously possessed. They
+became responsible for their own payments to the Exchequer, and they
+obtained larger rights for regulating their own affairs; the town of
+Coventry had indeed possessed very considerable municipal privileges
+from the time of Henry I., but it shared in the general progress a
+century later, and the new requirements were marked by new
+developments. I have tried to show how the earlier craft gilds were
+formed under royal authority, but as the powers of local
+self-government increased and were consolidated, there was no need,
+and there was, perhaps, less opportunity, for direct royal
+interference in matters of internal trade. We thus find a new order of
+craft gilds springing up--they were called into being, like the old
+ones, for the purpose of regulating trade--but they exercised their
+powers under municipal, and not under royal authority.
+
+One craft gild of this type which still exists, and which is said to
+have been formed by the authority of the leet in the sixth year of
+King John, is the Bakers' Gild at Coventry; it still consists of men
+who actually get their living by this trade, for it does not appear to
+have received so many love brothers as to destroy the original
+character of the body; it still has its hall--or, at least, room--and
+chest where the records are kept. There are, probably not many other
+bodies in the kingdom that have so long a history, and that have
+altered so little from their original character during all those
+centuries. None of the other Coventry gilds, so far as I know, can at
+all compare with it. The weavers were a powerful body there in later
+times, but I doubt if there is any evidence of the existence of this
+and the allied trades in Coventry before the fourteenth century; we
+may, perhaps, guess that it was one of the places where this trade
+settled under Edward III. But, apart from the question of origin, the
+Bakers have a unique position. Of some half-dozen other crafts which
+still maintain a formal existence, none can trace their history back
+beyond the time of Edward III., their members have no interest in the
+craft which they were empowered to regulate, and a tin box in a
+solicitor's office is the only outward and visible sign of their
+existence. Such are the Walkers and Fullers, the Shearmen and Weavers,
+the Fellmongers, the Drapers, the Mercers, and the Clothiers. Of the
+Tanners I cannot speak so decidedly, as during a hurried visit to
+Coventry I had no opportunity of examining their books.
+
+In looking more closely at the powers of mediæval craft gilds, it is
+necessary to distinguish a little; a craft gild was a gild which had
+authority to regulate some particular craft in a given area. I do not,
+therefore, want to dwell on the features which were common to all
+gilds, and which can be traced in full detail in the admirable volume
+edited by the late Mr. Toulmin Smith for the Early English Text
+Society. I desire to limit consideration to the powers that were
+special to craft gilds. Like other gilds they had a religious side, in
+some cases strongly developed, and the members engaged in common acts
+of worship, especially in common prayers and masses for departed
+brethren. Like other gilds they had the character of a friendly
+society, and gave loans to needy brethren, or bestowed alms on the
+poor. Like other gilds they had their feasts, when the brethren drank
+their gild, and they had hoods, or livery, which they wore at their
+assemblies. Like other gilds they took their share in civic
+festivities and provided pageants at considerable cost; but all these
+common bonds, important as they were in cementing men into a real
+fellowship, and in calling forth such different interests and
+activities among the members, were of a pious, social, or charitable
+character. There was no reason why such associations should not be
+multiplied on all sides; even when a gild consisted of men who
+followed the same craft it was not a craft gild. The case of the
+journeymen tailors in London who assembled at the Black Friars Church
+may be taken as conclusive on this point. A gild was not a craft gild
+unless duly empowered to regulate a particular craft; it might be
+called into existence for this purpose, or an existing gild might be
+empowered to exercise such functions, much as the brotherhood of S.
+Thomas à Becket was changed into the Mercers' Company. The important
+thing about a craft gild was that it had been empowered to exercise
+authority in a given area and over certain workmen, as the weavers'
+gilds had been empowered by charter from Henry I., and as the bakers
+were empowered by the Court Leet at Coventry, in the sixth year of
+King John.
+
+Two points were specially kept in view in framing any set of
+regulations. They were, first, the quality of the goods supplied; and,
+second, the due training of men to execute their work
+properly--admirable objects certainly. The machinery which was
+organised for attaining these objects was also well devised; the men
+who were thoroughly skilled, and were masters in the craft, had the
+duty of training apprentices, and the wardens had the right of
+examining goods exposed for sale, and of making search in houses where
+the trade was being carried on--again, an excellent arrangement where
+it could be satisfactorily carried out. And on the whole it seems as
+if the scheme had worked well, for this simple reason--that while it
+was maintained, so much work of excellent design and quality was
+executed. I wish to lay stress on this, because the historian of craft
+gilds is apt to overlook it. When craft gilds appeared on the stage of
+history, it was because something was out of gearing, and the
+institution was working badly. One is apt to infer that since they
+worked badly whenever we hear of them, they also worked badly when we
+do not; but I am inclined to interpret the periods of silence
+differently, and to regard them as times when the organisations were
+wisely managed, and when the craft gilds enjoyed the proverbial
+happiness of those who have no history.
+
+There were, however, three different dangers of disagreement, and
+possible quarrel:--(1) Between a craft gild on one hand and the
+municipal authorities on the other; (2) between one craft gild and
+another; (3) between different members of a craft gild.
+
+1. It is obvious that the gilds, if they were to exercise any real
+authority, required to have _exclusive_ powers within a given
+district; it is also obvious that these exclusive powers might be
+misused, so as to be mischievous to the consumers of the goods; a
+craft gild might take advantage of its monopoly to the gain of the
+members and the impoverishing of the citizens. The feeling of the
+citizens would be that the goods supplied by the members of the gild
+were bad and were dear at the price. It was therefore of the first
+importance that the citizens should be, in the last resort, able to
+control the gild, and resume the privileges which their officers
+exercised. There is a well-known case, which is detailed in Mr.
+Toulmin Smith's book, which shows how the tailors of Exeter enjoyed a
+charter from the Crown, and how much trouble they gave to the local
+authorities under Edward IV.; but it was a matter of common complaint
+that in many places the gilds had charters from great men which
+exempted them from proper control.[3] Even in Coventry, where there
+does not appear to have been interference from without, it was
+necessary for the leet to keep a tight hand on the craft gilds. An
+ordinance of 8 Henry V. runs as follows:--"Also that no man of any
+craft make laws or other ordinance among them but it be overseen by
+the mayor and his council; and if it be reasonable ordinance and
+lawful it shall be affirmed, or else it shall be corrected by the
+mayor and his peers."[4] At a later date we have another entry of the
+same kind:--"Also that the mayor, warden, and bailiffs, taking to the
+mayor eight or twelve of the General Council, to come afore them the
+wardens of all the crafts of the city with their ordinances, touching
+their crafts and their articles, and the points that be lawful, good,
+and honest for the city be allowed them, all other thrown aside and
+had force none, and that they make new ordinances against the laws in
+oppression of the people, upon pain of imprisonment." In some other
+towns the craftsmen had to yield up their powers annually and receive
+them back again from the municipal authority; this was the case with
+the cordwainers at Exeter,[5] but the Coventry people did not insist
+on anything so strict.
+
+          [3] Rot. Parl., II. 331.
+
+          [4] Leet Book, £37.
+
+          [5] Toulmin Smith, "English Gilds," p. 332.
+
+2. The difficulties between one craft gild and another might arise in
+various ways; as time went on or trade developed there was an
+increasing differentiation of employment, and it was not always clear
+whether the original gild had supervision over all branches of the
+trade. Thus in London the weavers' gild claimed to exercise
+supervision over the linen as well as over the woollen cloth
+manufactures, and this claim was insisted on on the ground that the
+two trades were quite distinct. In Coventry the worsted weavers, the
+linen weavers, and the silk weavers were one body, in later times at
+any rate, though the arts cannot be precisely similar. In other cases
+there was a question as to whether different processes involved in the
+production of one complete article should be reckoned as separate
+crafts or not. Thus the Fullers were organised in independence of the
+Shearmen in 1438; and during the fifteenth century the sub-division of
+gilds appears to have gone very rapidly at Coventry, as there were
+something like twenty-three of them at that time; at the same time
+from the repeated power which is given to the Fullers to form a
+fellowship of their own,[6] it appears that they were from time to
+time re-absorbed by the parent gild. Perhaps an even better
+illustration of the difficulty of defining the precise processes which
+certain gilds might supervise would be found in the history of the
+leather trades in London--Tanners, Cordwainers, Saddlers, and so
+forth. But enough may have been said to show how easy it was for
+disputes to arise between one or more craft gilds as to their
+respective powers.
+
+          [6] Leet Book, f. 400; May 3, 1547. Quoted by Mr. Fretton,
+          Memorials of Fullers' Guild, page 11.
+
+3. There were also disputes within the gilds between different
+members.
+
+(_a_) There was at least some risk of malversation of funds by the
+Master of the craft gild; and strict regulations were laid down by the
+Fellmongers and Cappers as to the time when the amounts were to be
+rendered and passed, but a much greater number of the ordinances deal
+with the respective duties of masters and apprentices and masters and
+journeymen.
+
+(_b_) The question of apprenticeship was of primary importance, as
+the skill of the next generation of workmen depended on the manner
+in which it was enforced. There are a good many ordinances of the
+Coventry Cappers in 1520. No one was to have more than two apprentices
+at a time, and he was to keep them for seven years, but there was to
+be a month of trial before sealing; nobody was to take apprentices who
+had not sufficient sureties that he would perform his covenant. If the
+apprentice complained that he had not sufficient "finding," and the
+master was in fault, the apprentice was to be removed on the third
+complaint, and the master was handicapped in getting another in his
+place. Once a year the principal master of the craft was to go round
+the city and examine every man's apprentice, and see they were
+properly taught. The Clothiers, in regulations which I believe to be
+of about the same date, though they are incorporated with rules of a
+later character, had a system of allowing the apprentice to be turned
+over to another master if his own master had no work, so that he might
+not lose his time--this was a system which was much abused in the
+eighteenth century: the master was to teach the apprentice truly, and
+two apprentices were not to work at the same loom unless one of them
+had served for five years. No master was to teach any one who was not
+apprenticed, and he was to keep the secrets of the craft; this was a
+provision which constantly occurs in the ordinances. Some such
+exclusive rule was necessary if they were to secure the thorough
+competence, in all branches of the art, of the men who lived by it. In
+the case of the Coventry Clothiers there is an exception which is of
+interest; the master might give instruction to persons who were not
+apprenticed as "charity to poor and impotent people for their better
+livelihood."
+
+(_c_) The limitation of the number of apprentices, though it was
+desirable for the training of qualified men, was frequently urged in
+the interests of the journeymen. There had been frequent complaint on
+the part of journeymen that the masters overstocked their shops with
+apprentices, and that those who had served their time could get no
+employment from other masters, while they also complained that
+unnecessary obstacles were put in the way of their doing work on their
+own account.
+
+One or two illustrations of these points may be given from the
+Coventry crafts; the Fullers in 1560 would not allow any journeyman to
+work on his own account. The Clothiers in the beginning of the
+sixteenth century ordained that none shall set any journeyman on work
+till he is fairly parted from his late master, or if he remains in his
+late master's debt; journeymen were to have ten days' notice, or one
+cloth to weave before leaving a master; their wages were to be paid
+weekly if they wished it, and they were to make satisfaction for any
+work they spoiled. Similarly the Cappers in 1520 would not allow
+journeymen to work in their houses.
+
+Some of the most interesting evidence in regard to the grievances of
+the journeymen comes from the story of a dispute in the weaving trade
+in the early part of the fifteenth century. "The said parties--both
+masters and journeymen--on the mediation of their friends, and by the
+mandate and wish of the worshipful Mayor, entered into a final
+agreement." The rules to which they agreed throw indirect light on the
+nature of the points in dispute. It was evidently a time when the
+trade was developing rapidly, and when an employing class of
+capitalists and clothiers was springing up among the weavers. It was
+agreed that any who could use the art freely might have as many looms,
+both linen and woollen, in his cottage, and also have as many
+apprentices as he liked. Every cottager or journeyman who wished to
+become a master might do so in paying twenty shillings. Besides this,
+the journeymen were allowed to have their own fraternity, but they
+were to pay a shilling a year to the weavers, and a shilling for every
+member they admitted.[7] On the whole it appears that the journeymen
+in this trade obtained a very considerable measure of independence,
+but this was somewhat exceptional, and on the whole it appears that
+the grievances and disabilities under which journeymen laboured had a
+very injurious effect on the trade of many towns, and apparently on
+that of Coventry, during the sixteenth century. There was a very
+strong incentive for journeymen to go and set up in villages or
+outside the areas where craft gilds had jurisdiction, and there is
+abundant evidence[8] that this sort of migration took place on a very
+large scale. I should be inclined to lay very great stress on this
+factor as a principal reason for the decay of craft gilds under Henry
+VIII., so that Edward VI.'s Act gave them a death-blow. They no longer
+exerted an effective supervision, because in so many cases the trade
+had migrated to new districts, where there was no authority to
+regulate it. This is, at any rate, the best solution I can offer of
+the remarkable manner in which craft gilds disappeared, as effective
+institutions, about the middle of the sixteenth century. Their
+religious side was sufficiently pronounced to bring them within the
+scope of the great Act of Confiscation, by which Edward VI. despoiled
+the gilds; but there was an effort made to spare them then, and I
+cannot but believe that if they had had any real vitality a large
+number would have survived, as some, like the Bakers and Fullers at
+Coventry, actually did. At the same time, it appears to be true that
+these cases are somewhat exceptional and that the craft gilds, as
+effective institutions for regulating industry, disappeared. Part of
+the evidence for this opinion comes from Coventry itself, for we find
+that a deliberate and conscious effort was made to resuscitate the
+gilds in 1584. It is of this resuscitation, involving as it does a
+previous period of decay, that I now wish to speak.
+
+          [7] Leet Book, f. 27.
+
+          [8] Worcester, 25 H. VIII. c. 18.
+
+
+III. The disappearance of the craft gilds appears to have been
+connected with one of their accidental features, as I may call
+them--their common worship. The attempted resuscitation at Coventry
+was due to another--to the fact that each craft provided a certain
+amount of pageantry for the town. I suspect that the so-called
+"Mistery plays" were the plays organised by the different "misteries"
+or crafts. The Chester plays, the Coventry plays, and the York
+plays,[9] have been published, and they present features which force
+comparison with the Passion Play which is being given this year at
+Ober Ammergau; and they were most attractive performances. The
+accounts of the various trading bodies show that these pageants were
+continued through the sixteenth century; they were suspended for eight
+years previous to 1566, and again in 1580 and three following years,
+when the preachers inveighed against the pageants, even though "there
+was no Papistry in them"; revived once more in 1584, they were finally
+discontinued in 1591.[10]
+
+          [9] Recently edited by Miss L. T. Smith for the Clarendon
+          Press.
+
+          [10] T. Sharp, "Pageants" (1815), p. 12, 39, and 39.
+
+I have lately seen the originals of the dialogue of the Weavers'
+Pageant, with the separate parts written out for the individual
+actors. During the fifteenth century, these pageants were performed
+with much success, and several of the smaller trades appear to have
+been united for the purpose of performing some pageant together. In
+1566 and in 1575 Queen Elizabeth visited Coventry, and the pageants
+were performed, and with the view of reviving the diminished glories
+of the towns considerable pains were taken to reorganise the old
+crafts; thus the Bakers and Smiths joined in producing a pageant in
+1506.[11] The Fullers appear to have been reorganised in 1586, and
+there was a very distinct revival of the old corporations about that
+time. This same element, the manner in which the crafts had
+contributed to the local pageants, was noticeable in connection with
+the organisation of the bodies at Norwich; and I cannot but connect
+the resuscitation of some of the Coventry Gilds at this time with the
+desire to perpetuate these entertainments; certain common lands had
+been enclosed by the town to bear another part of the expense.[12]
+Though the interest in the pageants marks the beginning of this
+revival at Coventry, it yet appears that during the seventeenth century
+it continued. There was some general cause at work connected with the
+condition of industry which called out a new set of efforts at
+industrial regulation, but the power which called these gilds or
+companies into being was no longer merely municipal; they rely, as in
+the earliest instances, on royal or Parliamentary authority. It is by
+no means easy to see what was the precise motive in each case of the
+incorporating of new industrial companies in the seventeenth century.
+The Colchester Bay-makers introduced a new trade, so, perhaps, did the
+Kidderminster Carpet-weavers, but the movement at this time appears to
+be connected with the fact that industry was becoming specialised and
+localised. I am inclined to suspect that the companies of the
+seventeenth century differ from the craft gilds of the fifteenth,
+partly, at least, in this way, that whereas the former were the local
+organisations for regulating various trades in one town, the latter
+were the bodies, organised by royal authority for regulating each
+industry in that part of the country where it could be best pursued.
+It was at this date that the Sheffield Cutlers were incorporated, and
+indeed a large number of organisations in different towns. Several of
+the Coventry gilds, notably the Drapers and the Clothiers, were
+incorporated by royal charters during the seventeenth century, and
+if we turned to a northern town like Preston, we might be inclined to
+say that this was the real era when associations for industrial
+regulation flourished and abounded.
+
+          [11] Fretton, "Memorials of Bakers' Gild," Mid-England, p.
+          124.
+
+          [12] Sharp, "Pageants," 12.
+
+It is no part of my purpose to speak of the decay of these newly
+formed or newly resuscitated companies as it occurred in the
+eighteenth century. I have endeavoured to indicate the excellent aims
+which these institutions set before them, and the success which
+attended their efforts for a time. At the same time, it is a
+significant fact that they failed to maintain themselves as effective
+institutions in the sixteenth century, and when they were resuscitated
+they failed to maintain themselves as useful institutions in the
+eighteenth. Partly, as I believe, for good, and partly, as we here
+recognise, for evil, business habits have so changed that whatever is
+done for the old object--maintaining quality and skill--must be done
+in a new way. The power which we possess of directing and controlling
+the forces of nature has altered the position of the artisan, and made
+him a far less important factor in production. The maintenance of
+personal skill, the unlimited capacity for working certain materials,
+is no longer of such primary importance for industrial success as was
+formerly the case. There is another--perhaps a greater--difficulty in
+the diffusion of a wider and more cosmopolitan spirit; the sympathies
+of the old brethren for one another were strong, but they were
+intensely narrow. No town can be so isolated now, or kindle such
+intense local attachments as did the cities of the Middle Ages. There
+has been loss enough in the destruction of these gilds, but we cannot,
+by looking back upon them, reverse the past or re-create that which
+has been destroyed through the growth of the larger life we enjoy
+to-day. Let us rather remember them as showing what could be
+accomplished in the past, and as pointing towards something we ought
+to try to accomplish in some new fashion to-day. When we see that the
+mediæval workman was a man, not a mere hand; that in close connexion
+with his daily tasks the whole round of human aspiration could find
+satisfaction; that he was called with others to common worship, called
+with others to common feasts and recreations, and encouraged to do his
+best at his work, we feel how poor and empty, in comparison, is the
+life that is led by the English artisan to-day. But if there is a
+better and more wholesome life before the labourer in days to come, if
+new forms of association are to do the work which was done by the
+gilds of old, we may trust that those who organise them will bear in
+mind not only the successes, but the failures of the past, and learn
+to avoid the mistakes which wrecked craft gilds not once only, but
+twice.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Craft Gilds, by W. Cunningham
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44966 ***