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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Craft Gilds, by W. Cunningham
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Craft Gilds
-
-Author: W. Cunningham
-
-Release Date: February 19, 2014 [EBook #44966]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRAFT GILDS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-produced from images generously made available by The
-Internet Archive)
-
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-
-
-
-
-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.
-
-
-
-
-
-
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