drawn up to be submitted to the approval of the mayor and aldermen. No one could work at the craft who had not been approved and admitted to the gild by its officials; and it would seem that in London, from the middle of the fourteenth century, admission to the freedom of the city and to a craft took place at one and the same time.

In the early part of the fourteenth century, apprenticeship was only gradually becoming an absolutely necessary preliminary to setting up as a master; to the same period is due the fixing of the term of apprenticeship at seven years. A separate class of journey-men was also only just coming into existence. It was still, apparently, the usual practice for a man, on coming out of his apprenticeship, to set up for himself. Such "serving-men" as there were, made contracts with master-craftsmen to work for them for a certain term, sometimes for a period of several years. But from the frequency with which the rule is repeated, that "no one shall receive the apprentice, serving-man, or journeyman of another in the same trade during the term agreed upon between his master and him," and the frequency also with which the mayor of one town has to write to the mayor of another to ask that runaways should be sent back, it appears that apprentices often became discontented, and absconded. The gild ordinances imply that, as a rule, only master-craftsmen took part in the government of the fraternity, but there is at least one case where ordinances are described as agreed to "as well by serving-men as masters." It does not appear that as yet the number either of journeymen or of apprentices that one master could take was limited by legislation or ordinance; but we shall see later that the limitation of number in the sixteenth century was in order to maintain an existing state of things, so that it is probable that at this time a master artisan would not usually have more than one or two journeymen and one or two apprentices.

The regulations drawn up by the crafts aimed at the prevention. of fraud, and the observance of certain standards of size and quality in the wares produced. Articles made in violation of these rules were called "false," just as clipped or counterfeit coin was "false money." For such "false work" the makers were punished by fine (one-half going to the craft, the other half to the town funds), and, upon the third or fourth offence, by expulsion from the trade. Penalties were provided, as far as possible, for every sort of deceitful device: such as putting better wares on the top of a bale than below, moistening groceries so as to make them

heavier, selling second-hand furs for new, soldering together broken swords, selling sheep leather for doe leather, and many other like tricks. It was for the same reason that night work was forbidden; not, as Brentano says, with the philanthropic object of providing work for all, but because work could not be done so neatly at night, and because craftsmen, knowing they were not likely to be visited at that time by the wardens, took the opportunity to make wares "falsely," or because working at night disturbed the neighbors. It seems, however, to have been a general rule, that men should not work after six o'clock on Saturday evening, or on eves of double feasts. There is, indeed, one regulation which does seem designed to insure men's having work, and that is, that "no one shall set any woman to work, other than his wedded wife or his daughter."

It is certain, from the analogy of the gilds merchant, as well as from what we know of the later usages of the companies and of the practices of similar bodies abroad, that in each of the craft gilds, besides regulations as to manufacture, there were rules providing for mutual assistance in difficulties, for meetings, festivities, and common worship. But the documents which would throw light on the subject have not yet been published. The craft statutes contained in the archives of the corporation of London deal almost exclusively with the regulation of processes; and this is easy to explain, for only the action of the gilds in the supervision of industry would fall beneath the view of the city authorities; with their internal life as friendly societies the corporation had nothing to do. Fortunately one set of ordinances therein contained, those of the white-tawyers or leather-dressers, in 1346, are more detailed, and from these we may conjecture similar customs in other crafts. They have a common-box for subscriptions; out of this sevenpence a week is paid to any man of the trade who has fallen into poverty from old age or inability to work, and sevenpence a week likewise to a poor man's widow, so long as she remains unmarried. "If any one of the said craft shall depart this life, and have not wherewithal to be buried, he shall be buried at the expense of the common-box; and when any one of the said trade shall die, all those of the said trade shall go to the vigil and make offerings on the morrow." Some of the companies, as we learn later, had chantries and side chapels in parish churches, and solemn services at intervals. The white-tawyers are only able to afford "a wax candle to burn before Our Lady in the Church of All Hallows near London Wall." And there is one clause which

clearly displays the effort after fraternal union: it is one ordaining that "those of the trade" shall aid a member who cannot finish work he has undertaken, "so that the said work be not lost."

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Gross, The Gild Merchant. Hibbert, Influence and Development of English Gilds (Cambridge Historical Essays). Seligman, Two Chapters on the Mediaval Gilds of England. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce 1906 edition, Vol. I, consult Table of Contents. Smith, T. J., English Gilds (Early English Text Society), valuable for original gild ordinances. Kramer, The English Craft Gilds and the Government. Translations and Reprints, Vol. II, No. 2, for an excellent collection of illustrative materials

CHAPTER III.

TOWN LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

In the examination of the manor and the gild, the student gets a clear view of the life of the people of the Middle Ages so far as their economic activities were concerned, and these occupy a great part of the time and thought of the people in all ages. The mediæval town, however, was far more than the gild, and it enjoyed a political independence and self-sufficiency which were afterwards. overshadowed by the growing authority and activity of the national government. In view of the recent developments in municipal affairs it is interesting to read the description of medieval town life which is to be found in Mrs. J. R. Green's volumes on that subject.

1. Provisions for Municipal Defence 1

The inhabitants of a mediæval borough were subject to a discipline as severe as that of a military state of modern times. Threatened by enemies on every side, constantly surrounded by perils, they had themselves to bear the whole charges of fortification and defence. If a French fleet appeared on the coast, if Welsh or Scotch armies made a raid across the frontier, if civil war broke out and opposing forces marched across the country, every town had to look to its own safety. The inhabitants served under a system of universal conscription. At the muster-at-arms held twice a year poor and rich appeared in military array with such weapons as they could bring forth for the king's service: the poor marching with knife or dagger or hatchet; the prosperous burghers, bound according to mediæval ideas to live "after their degree," displaying mail or wadded coats, bucklers, bows and arrows, swords, or even a gun.

At any moment this armed population might be called out to

1 Mrs. J. R. Green, Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, Vol. I, pp. 127 ff. By permission of Mrs. J. R. Green and The Macmillan Company, Publishers.

active service. "Concerning our bell," say the citizens of Hereford, "we use to have it in a public place where our chief bailiff may come, as well by day as by night, to give warning to all men living within the said city and suburbs. And we do not say that it ought to ring unless it be for some terrible fire burning any row of houses within the said city, or for any common contention whereby the city might be terribly moved, or for any enemies drawing near unto the city, or if the city shall be besieged, or any sedition shall be between any, and notice thereof given by any unto our chief bailiff. And in these cases aforesaid, and in all like cases, all manner of men abiding within the city and suburbs and liberties of the city, of what degree soever they be of, ought to come at any such ringing, or motion of ringing, with such weapons as fit their degree."

At the first warning of an enemy's approach the mayor or bailiff became supreme military commander. It was his office to see that the panic-stricken people of the suburbs were gathered within the walls and given house and food; that all meat and drink and chattels were made over for the public service, and all armor likewise carried to the Town Hall; that every inhabitant or refugee paid the taxes required for the cost of his protection; that all strong and able men "which doth dwell in the city or would be assisted by the city in anything" watched by day and night, and that women and clerics who could not watch themselves found at their own charge substitutes "of the ablest of the city."

If frontier towns had periods of comparative quiet, the seaports, threatened by sea as by land, lived in perpetual alarm, at least so long as the Hundred Years' War protracted its terrors. When the inhabitants had built ships to guard the harbor, and provided money for their victualling and the salaries of the crew, they were called out to repair towers and carry cartloads of rocks or stones to be laid on the walls "for defending the town in resisting the king's enemies." Guns had to be carried to the Church or the Common House on sleds or laid in pits at the town gates, and gunstones, saltpetre, and pellet powder bought. For weeks together watchmen were posted in the church towers with horns to give warning if a foe appeared; and piles of straw, reeds, and wood were heaped up on the seacoast to kindle beacons and watch-fires. Even if the townsfolk gathered for a day's amusement to hear a play in the Courthouse, a watch was set lest the enemy should set fire to their streets a calamity but too well known to the burghers of Rye and Southampton.