OUR LEGAL HERITAGE

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In London, the Goldsmiths, the Mercers, and the Saddlers became
the first guilds to receive, in 1394-5, charters of
incorporation, which gave them perpetual existence. As such they
could hold land in "mortmain", thus depriving the King of rights
that came to him on the death of a tenant-in-chief. They were
called Livery Companies.

In all towns, the organization of craft associations spread
rapidly downwards through the trades and sought self-government.
Craft guilds were gaining much power relative to the old
merchant guilds in governing the towns. The greater crafts such
as the fishmongers, skinners, and the corders organized and
ultimately were recognized by town authorities as self-governing
craft guilds. The building trade guilds such as the tilers,
carpenters, masons, and joiners, became important. Masons were
still itinerant, going to sites of churches, public buildings,
or commanded by the King to work on castles. The guild was not
necessarily associated with a specific product. For instance, a
saddle and bridle were the result of work of four crafts: joiner
(woodworker), painter, saddler (leather), and lorimer (metal
trappings).

In London in 1392 craft guilds included: baker, fishmonger (cut
up and sold fish), fruiterer, brewer, butcher, bird dealer,
cook, apothecary (sold drugs he had ground up), cutler (made
knives and spoons), barber, tailor, shoemaker, glover (made
gloves), skinner (sold furs), girdler (made girdles of cloth to
wear around one's waist), pouchmaker, armorer, sheathmaker,
weaver, fuller (made cloth full and dense), painter, carpenter,
joiner (woodworker who finished interior woodwork such as doors
and made furniture), tiler, mason (cut stone for buildings),
smith (made metal tools for stonemasons and builders), tallow
chandler (made candles and sometimes soap from the fat and
grease the housewife supplied), wax chandler (made candles),
stirrup maker, spurrier (made spurs), and hosteler (innkeeper).
However, the merchant guilds of the goldsmiths, vintners (sold
wine), mercers (sold cloth), grocers, and drapers (finished and
sold English cloth) were still strong. The goldsmiths, tailors,
skinners, and girdlers bought royal charters, which recognized
their power of self-government as a company and their power to
enforce their standards, perhaps throughout the country. Freemen
in one company could practice the trade of another company.
There were paint mills and saw mills replacing human labor. Women
who spent their days spinning with the new spinning wheel were
called "spinsters".

Many of the guilds bought sites on which they built a chapel,
which was later used as a secular meeting place. The guild
officers commonly included an alderman, stewards, a dean, and a
clerk, who were elected. The guild officers sat as a guild court
to determine discipline for offences such as false weights or
measures or false workmanship or work and decided trade disputes.
The brethren in guild fraternity were classified as masters,
journeymen, or apprentices. They were expected to contribute to
the support of the sick and impoverished in their fellowship.
Their code required social action such as ostracizing a man of
the craft who was living in adultery until he mended his ways.

The rules of the Company of Glovers were:

1. None but a freeman of the city shall make or sell gloves.

2. No glover may be admitted to the freedom of the city unless
with the assent of the wardens of the trade.

3. No one shall entice away the servant of another.

4. If a servant in the trade makes away with his master's
chattels to the value of 12d., the wardens shall make good the
loss; and if the servant refuses to be judged by the wardens, he
shall be taken before the mayor and aldermen.

5. No one may sell his goods by candle-light.

6. Any false work found shall be taken before the mayor and
aldermen by the wardens.

7. All things touching the trade within the city between those
who are not freemen shall be forfeited.

8. Journeymen shall be paid their present rate of wages.

9. Persons who entice away journeymen glovers to make gloves in
their own houses shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.

10. Any one of the trade who refuses to obey these regulations
shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.

Cordwainers [workers in soft cordovan leather from Spain,
especially shoes] of good repute petitioned the city of London
in 1375 for ordinances on their trade as follows:

'To the mayor and aldermen of the city of London pray the good
folks of the trade of cordwainers of the same city, that it may
please you to grant unto them the articles that follow, for the
profit of the common people; that so, what is good and right may
be done unto all manner of folks, for saving the honor of the
city and lawfully governing the said trade.

In the first place - that if any one of the trade shall sell to
any person shoes of bazen [sheep-skin tanned in oak or
larch-bark] as being cordwain, or of calf- leather for
ox-leather, in deceit of the common people, and to the scandal of
the trade, he shall pay to the Chamber of the Guildhall, the
first time that he shall be convicted thereof, forty pence; the
second time, 7s. half a mark; and the third time the same, and
further, at the discretion of the mayor and aldermen.

Also - that no one of the trade shall keep house within the
franchise if he be not free [invested with the rights or
privileges] of the city and one knowing his trade, and that no
one shall be admitted to the freedom without the presence of the
wardens of the trade bearing witness to his standing, on the pain
aforesaid.

Also - if any one of the trade shall be found offending touching
the trade, or rebellious against the wardens thereof, such
person shall not make complaint to any one of another trade, by
reason of the discord or dissension that may have arisen between
them; but he shall be ruled by the good folks of his own trade.
And if he shall differ from them as acting against right, then
let the offense be adjudged upon before the mayor and aldermen;
and if he be found rebellious against the ordinance, let him pay
to the Chamber the sum above mentioned.

Also - that no one of the trade shall entice or purloin the
servant of another from the service of his master by paying him
more than is ordained by the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall carry out of his house any wares
connected with his trade for sale in market or elsewhere except
only at a certain place situated between Soperesland and the
Conduit; and that at a certain time of the day, that is to say,
between prime [the first hour of the day] and noon. And that no
shoes shall exceed the measure of seven inches, so that the
wares may be surveyed by the good folks of the trade, because of
the deceit upon the common people that might ensue and the
scandal of the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall expose his wares openly for sale in
market on Sundays at any place, but only within his own dwelling
to serve the common people, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that if any one sells old shoes, he shall not mix new
shoes among the old in deceit of the common people and to the
scandal of the trade, on the pain aforesaid."

Smithfield was a field outside the city gates at which horses
were sold and raced. In 1372, the horsedealers and drovers
petitioned for a tax on animals sold there to pay for cleaning
the field. The city ordinance reads as follows: "On Wednesday
next after the Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin came reputable
men, the horsedealers and drovers, and delivered unto the mayor
and aldermen a certain petition in these words: 'To the mayor,
recorder, and aldermen show the dealers of Smithfield, that is
to say, the coursers and drovers, that for the amendment of the
said field they have granted and assented among them that for
the term of three years next ensuing after the date of this
petition for every horse sold in the said field there shall be
paid one penny, for every ox and cow one half-penny, for every
eight sheep one penny, and for every swine one penny by the
seller and the same by the purchaser who buys the same for
resale.` Afterwards, on the eleventh day of August in the same
year, Adam Fernham, keeper of the gaol at Newgate, Hugh,
Averelle, bailiff of Smithfield, and William Godhewe, weaver,
were chosen and sworn faithfully to collect and receive the said
pennies in form aforesaid and to clean the field of Smithfield
from time to time during such term of three years when
necessary."

Many London houses were being made from stone and timber and even
brick and timber, instead of just timber and mud. However,
chimneys were still a luxury of the rich. There were windows of
glass and a guild of glaziers was chartered by the King. Many
single-roomed houses added a second-floor room for sleeping,
which was approached by a wooden or stone staircase from the
outside. Goods were displayed on a booth outside the door of the
house or hung in the windows. They were stored at night in the
cellar. Over the booths swung huge signs, which had to be nine
feet above street level to allow a man on horseback to ride
underneath. There were no sidewalks. Street repair work for
wages was supervised by a stone master. The streets sloped down
from the middle so that the filth of the streets would run down
the sides of the road. People sometimes threw the rubbish from
their houses onto the street although they were supposed to cart
it outside the city walls and to clean the frontage of their
houses once a week. Dustmen scavenged through the rubbish on the
streets. Pigs and geese were not allowed to run at large in the
streets, but had to be fed at home. There were other city rules
on building, public order, the use of fountains, precautions
against fire, trading rights in various districts, closing time
of taverns, and when refuse could be thrown into the streets,
e.g. nighttime.

Aldermen were constantly making rounds to test measures and
weights, wine cups, the height of tavern signs, and the mesh of
the fishing nets, which had to be at least two inches wide. They
saw that the taverns were shut when curfew was rung and arrested
anyone on the street after curfew who had a weapon, for no one
with a sword was allowed on the streets unless he was some great
lord or other substantial person of good reputation. Wards
provided citizens to guard the gates in their respective
neighborhood and keep its key.

The city was so dense that nuisance was a common action brought
in court, for instance, vegetable vendors near a church
obstructing passageway on the street or plumbers melting their
solder with a lower than usual shalt of the furnace so smoke was
inhaled by people nearby.

Crime in London was rare. Murder, burglary, highway robbery, and
gross theft were punishable by hanging. Forgery, fraud, was
punishable by the placement in the pillory or stocks or by
imprisonment. Perjury was punished by confession from a high
stool for the first offense, and the pillory for the second.
Slander and telling lies was punished by the pillory and wearing
a whetstone around one's neck.

Prominent Londoners sought to elevate their social position by
having their family marry into rural landholders of position.

Many master freemasons, who carved freestone or finely grained
sandstone and limestone artistically with mallet and chisel,
left the country for better wages after their wages were fixed
by statute. The curvilinear gothic style of architecture was
replaced by the perpendicular style, which was simpler and
cheaper to build. Church steeples now had clocks on them with
dials and hands to supplement the church bell ringing on the
hour.

Towns recognized surgery as a livelihood subject to admission and
oath to serve the social good. Master surgeons were admitted to
practice in 1369 in London in full husting before the mayor and
the aldermen and swore to: faithfully serve the people in
undertaking their cures, take reasonably from them, faithfully
follow their calling, present to the said mayor and aldermen the
defaults of others undertaking, so often as should be necessary;
to be ready, at all times when they should be warned, to attend
the maimed or wounded and others, to give truthful information
to the officers of the city as to such maimed, wounded, or
others whether they be in peril of death or not, and to
faithfully do all other things touching their calling.

Some young girls of good families were boarded at nunneries to be
taught there. Some upper class widows retired there. Only women
were allowed to be present at a birth, at which they spread the
knowledge of midwifery. As usual, many women died giving birth.
Various ways to prevent pregnancy were tried. It was believed
that a baby grew from a seed of the father planted in the woman's
body.

Infant mortality was especially high in boroughs and burgess
family lines usually died out. A three-generation family span
was exceptional in the towns, despite family wealth.

Children's sweets included gingerbread and peppermint drops.
After the plague, gentlemen no longer had their children learn
to speak Norman. The grammar schools taught in English instead
of Norman. Bishops began to preach in English. Twenty years
later, English became the official language of the courts and of
Parliament.

A will in 1389 in which a wealthy citizen arranges for one son to
become a lawyer and the other a merchant: "Will of William de
Tonge, citizen of London: One hundred marks [1,333s.] each to my
two sons. And I will that my said two sons shall live upon the
profits of the money bequeathed to them above until the age of
twenty years. And if my said two sons be well learned in grammar
and adorned with good manners, which shall be known at the end
of twenty years, and the elder son wish to practice common law,
and if it is known that he would spend his time well in that
faculty, I will that over and above the profit of the said one
hundred marks he shall have yearly from my rents for the term of
seven years five marks [67s.]. And if he should waste his time
aforesaid, or if he should marry foolishly and unsuitably, I
will that he receive nothing more of the said five marks.

And if younger son wishes to attend the University of Oxford or
to establish himself well in the mystery of a merchant after the
age of twenty years, and [if] there be knowledge of his
praiseworthy progress in his faculty or his carefulness in
trading ... I will that he shall receive five marks yearly in the
manner described above for his maintenance, over and above the
profit of the said one hundred marks to him bequeathed, for the
space of seven years; and if he behave himself otherwise, I will
that thereupon he be excluded from the said five marks. And in
case the said bequest of 200 marks [2,667s.]to him and his
brother shall be annulled so that he shall have nothing therefrom
... then the said 200 marks shall be spent upon all the yearly
chaplains who can be had to celebrate divine service in the
church of All Hallows for my soul."

England was still an agricultural rather than a manufacturing
country. Imported were cloth, silks, linen, velvets, furs,
glass, wines, candles, millstones, amber, iron, and mercury.
Exported were wool, leather, lead, tin, and alabaster for
sculpturing. But the London Society of the Merchant Adventurers,
which had a monopoly of trade with the Low Countries, now
manufactured cloth good enough for export and began to buy up
raw wool in such quantity that its export declined.

An Oxford theologian and preacher, John Wyclif, voiced the
popular resentment of the materialism of the church, benefit of
clergy, immorality of priests, and the selling of indulgences
and pardons. He argued against the supremacy of the papal law
over the King's courts and against payments to the papacy. He
opined that the church had no power to excommunicate. The Friars
had become mere beggars and the church was still wealthy. He
proposed that all goods should be held in common by the
righteous and that the church should hold no property but be
entirely spiritual. He believed that people should rely on their
individual consciences. He thought that the Bible should be
available to people who could read English so that the people
could have a direct access to God without priests or the Pope.
Towards this end, he translated it from Latin into English in
1384. His preachers spread his views throughout the country. The
church then possessed about one-third of the land of the nation.

Stories were written about pilgrimage vacations of ordinary
people to religious sites in England. Geoffrey Chaucer's "Tales
of the Canterbury Pilgrims" portrayed characters of every social
class, including the knight with his squire, abbot, prioress,
nun, priest, monk, friar, poor parson of the country, summoner
(who enforced the jurisdiction and levied the dues of the church
courts), pardoner (sold pardons from the Pope), scholar, lawyer,
doctor, merchant, sailor, franklin, yeoman, haberdasher,
tapestry-maker, ploughman, cook, weaver, dyer, upholsterer,
miller, reeve, carpenter.

It told stories about a beautiful and virtuous wife disliked by
her mother-in- law, the difficulty of marriage between people of
different religions, the hatred of a poor person b his brother
and his neighbor, rich merchants who visited other kingdoms, the
importance of a man himself following the rules he sets for
other people's behavior, the spite of a man for a woman who
rejected him, the relative lack of enthusiasm of a wife for sex
as compared to her husband, a mother giving up her own comfort
for that of her child, the revenge killing of a murderer by the
dead man's friends, the joy of seeing a loved one after years of
separation, that life is more sad than happy, that lost money can
be retrieved, but time lost is lost forever.

Other stories in the Canterbury Tales were about two men who did
not remain friends after they fell in love with the same woman,
about a child who preferred to learn from an older child than
from his school-teacher, about a wife who convinced her husband
not to avenge her beating for the sake of peace, about a man who
woke up from bad dreams full of fear, about a man wanting to
marry a beautiful woman but later realizing a plain wife would
not be pursued by other men, about a man who drank so much wine
that he lost his mental and physical powers, about a woman who
married for money instead of love, about a man who said
something in frustration which he didn't mean, about a person
brought up in poverty who endured adversity better than one
brought up in wealth, about a wife who was loving and wise,
about a good marriage being more valuable than money, about a
virgin who committed suicide rather than be raped, about a wife
persuaded to adultery by a man who said he would otherwise kill
himself, about three men who found a pile of gold and murdered
each other to take it all, about an angry man who wanted to
kill, about a malicious man who had joy in seeing other men in
trouble and misfortune, about a man whose face turned red in
shame, about a wife expecting to have half of what her husband
owned.

Will Langland's poem "The Vision of William Concerning Piers
Plowman" portrays a pilgrimage of common people to the shrine of
Truth led by a virtuous laborer. Mystics wrote practical advice
with transcendental teaching, for instance "Scale of Perfection"
attributed to Walter Hilton and "Cloud of Unknowing". Richard
Rolle wrote about spiritual matters, probably the "Prick of
Conscience". Richard de Bury wrote "Philobiblon" about book
lovers. Jean Froissart wrote the "Chronicles" on knights.
Courtly ideals were expressed in "Sir Gawaine and the Grene
Knyght", wherein the adventures of the hero, an Arthur knight,
are allegorical in the struggle against the world, the flesh,
and the devil (1370). "Pearl" eulogized all that is pure and
innocent on the event of the death of a two year old child.
Paper supplemented parchment, so there were more books.

Political songs and poems were written about the evil times of
King Edward II, the military triumphs of King Edward III, and
the complaints of the poor against their oppressors, such as
"Song of the Husbandman". John Gower wrote moralizing poems on
the villein's revolt, the sins of the clergy and lawyers, and the
bad rule of King Richard II. Robin Hood ballads were popular.
The minstrel, who was a honorable person, replaced the
troubadour of older times.

There were many colleges at Oxford and Cambridge due to the
prohibition of gifts to the church. Laymen instead of
ecclesiastics were appointed as Chancellor. The Masters at
Oxford got rid of ecclesiastical supervision by a bishop and
archdeacon by 1368. One could be admitted as a student at age
thirteen.

A Bachelor of Arts degree was granted after four years of study
and an oral exam. Required reading in 1340 for the Bachelor's
Degree was Aristotlean logic and a selection from these works:
"Of Heaven and Earth", "On the Soul", "Of meteors", "Of Birth
and Decay", "Of Feeling and What is Felt", "Of Memory and
Recollection", "Of Sleep and Waking", "Of the Movement of
Animals", "Of Minor Points in Natural History".

A Master of Arts degree could be awarded after three more years
of study and teaching. A Doctorate degrees in theology required
ten more years of study. A Doctorate in civil or canon law
required eight more years. A man with a degree in canon law who
wanted to practice in a certain bishop's court had to first
satisfy this bishop of his competence. The guilds gave rise to
the Inns of Court in London. They used the Register of Writs,
the case law of the Year Books, and disputation to teach their
students.

For a doctorate in medicine from Oxford or Cambridge, five more
years plus two years of practice were required. Surgery was not
taught because it was considered manual labor. Humans were
thought to be influenced by four humors: sanguine, phlegmatic,
choleric, and melancholic. Urinalysis and pulse beat were used
for diagnosis. Epilepsy and apoplexy were understood as spasms
inside the head. It was known what substances served as
laxatives and diuretics. Teeth were extracted, eye cataracts
were removed with a silver needle, and skin from the arm was
grafted onto a mutilated face.

Englishmen who had collected books on philosophy, medicine,
astronomy, and history and literature books from the continent
gave their collections to the universities, which started their
libraries. Marco Polo's discoveries on his journey to China were
known.

The requirements of elementary and higher studies were adjusted
in 1393 and began the public school system. William of Wykeham's
school, St. Mary College of Winchester in Oxford was the
prototype. The curriculum was civil law, canon law, medicine,
astronomy with astronomical instruments that were made, theology,
and the arts. The arts textbooks were still grammar, logic,
Donatus, and Aristotle. Many laymen were literate, for instance
country gentry, merchants, and craftsmen. Laymen instead of
clerics were now appointed to the great offices of state.

Parliament was composed of representatives from 100 boroughs and
37 shires. Merchants were entering Parliament and paid much of
the taxes. Some were created Earls and appointed as ministers to
the King. Edward III did not summon anyone to his council who
did not have the confidence of the magnates [barons, earls,
bishops, and abbots]. Under him, the commons took a leading part
in the granting of taxes and the presentation of petitions.

At the 1376 Parliament, ("the Good Parliament") the Commons,
which formerly had only consented to taxes, took political
action by complaining that the King's councilors had grown rich
by war profiteering at the cost of impoverishing the nation and
the people were too poor to endure any more taxation for the war
and held a hearing on malfeasance of two ministers. The
Parliament found the charges proved and dismissed them from
office. This established the constitutional means for
impeachment and removal of ministers. The commons demanded that
its members be elected by shire citizens rather than appointed
by the sheriff. Actions of this Parliament were undone a few
months later.

King Richard II exiled Henry of Lancaster, forbade his
inheritance, and took his property. This made all propertied men
anxious. The "Merciless Parliament" of 1388 swept out King
Richard II's friends. Parliament threw Richard II into prison
and elected Lancaster to be King Henry IV. This action
established clearly that royal decrees were subordinate to
parliamentary statutes. The House of Commons became very
powerful.

So the roles of Parliament and the King's council are starting to
differentiate into legislative and executive, respectively. The
legislative function is law- making and the executive is
regulation-making that refines and effectuates the laws of
Parliament. But the legislative, executive and judicial
authorities have not as yet become so completely separated that
they cannot on occasion work together.

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