By the Rev. George Huntington, M.A., Rector of Tenby.
JEREMIAH’S lot was cast in the darkest period of his country’s history. He was called on to declare the Divine will to the exiles in Babylon and the remnant in Palestine. In the context he is warning his countrymen against false prophets and false priests who were deceiving the people by proclaiming peace when there was no peace. He urges them to inquire after the ancient faith revealed to the patriarchs and prophets of old. Thus, and thus only, would they find “rest for their souls.”
The metaphor is a striking one; it is that of a traveller who comes to a place where several roads meet. He hesitates till he discerns the most beaten track, or till he hails another traveller from whom he can ask his way. Those were days of doubt and difficulty, when the royal counsellors were urging conformity to the idolatrous rites of the powerful nations around them as a policy of wisdom and conciliation. But Jeremiah regarded it as nothing less than apostasy. Those idolatries were abomination in the sight of Jehovah. Hence the people must return to the worship of the one true God—the God “who made heaven and earth,” to be true to the covenant which “He made with Abraham, the oath which He swore unto Isaac, and confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.”
But the text applies to ourselves. The days in which our lot is cast are days of doubt and difficulty—days when ancient landmarks are being removed, and the beaten tracks so effaced as almost to be indiscernible. So that we may well stand, like the traveller in the metaphor, to see and ask for the old paths, for the good way, amid the clouds of scepticism and unbelief which gather athwart our pathways; amid the Babel of voices saying “Who will show us the good?” we may say, with the Psalmist, “Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.”
For what are those ways, those old paths, that good way, but the original revelation of God as our Father in heaven—subsequently manifested in the Person of His Incarnate Son as the Revealer of the Divine will, in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, acting through the Church as His agent for making His “ways known to the sons of men.”
“The history of the race of Adam before the Advent,” says a great statesman,[69] “is the history of a long and varied, but incessant preparation for the Advent;” and the history of the human race since the Advent, it may be added, is but a record of the gradual but sure progress of that kingdom which Christ came to establish upon earth, an earnest of the time when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of God and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever as King of kings and Lord of lords.
And to this, as it seems to me, all historical research as well as scientific discovery points. There are those who to exalt Christianity would represent the world as in total darkness before the Advent. The truer estimate of the Gospels shows us that Christ was in fact the “true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” The investigation of the records of the past assures us of this fact, confirms us in this belief, proves to us that God never “left Himself without witness,” teaches us that Christ drew as it were into a focus all the truths that men had previously held, only freeing them from error and bringing them into clearer light. “The words,” says a great scholar,[70] “by which God was known in the far-off ages are but mere words; but they bring before us with all the vividness of an event which we witnessed ourselves but yesterday, the ancestors of the whole Aryan race, thousands of years, it may be, before Homer and the Vedas, worshipping an unseen Being under the self-same name, the best, the most exalted name they could find in their vocabulary.” Plutarch wrote ages ago: “If you travel through the whole world, well, you may find cities without walls, without literature, without kings, moneyless, and such as desire no coin; which know not what theatres or public halls or bodily exercise mean; but never was there, nor ever shall be, any one city seen without temple, church, or chapel, without some God or other, which useth no prayers, nor oaths, no prophecies and divinations, no sacrifices either to obtain good blessings, or to avert heavy curses and calamities. Nay, methinks a man should sooner find a city built in the air without any plot of ground whereon it is seated than any commonwealth altogether void of religion.... This is that containeth and holdeth together all human society, this is the foundation prop and stay of all.”[71]
Brethren of the Archæological Association, I venture to think that you will not fail to see the application of these remarks to your own researches, and to the consequences which are happily arising from these researches. Of course I speak of archæology in its widest sense. Your investigations of the records of antiquity, your examination of ancient remains, your discovery of the sites and foundations of temples, tombs, altars, and cromlechs, confirm the testimony of philologists, historians, and philosophers, nay the witness of the human heart; they all speak with more or less clearness of a belief in the Supreme Being, of a longing for a clearer revelation of His will, of a hope of immortality, of a sense of sin and desire for reconciliation with Him, obscured it may be, often perverted, debased by superstitious, cruel, and unholy rites, sometimes feebly held, but never totally lost.
And the same observations apply to the attestation by archæology to the scriptural records. Nothing is more remarkable than the recovery of ancient monuments, unless it be the deductions of science which are marking the intellectual activity of the age. What a revelation was that finding of the famous Rosetta stone[72] which by its triple inscription in the Sacred, the popular Egyptian, and the Greek languages, gave the key to unlock the mysteries of figure writing, so that thanks to Egyptologists, who are but archæologists under a local name, we may picture to ourselves the Egypt of the Pyramids, of Abraham, of Joseph, and the Exodus, and see the Pharaohs in their colossal palaces, and learn something of that wisdom of the Egyptians in which we are told “Moses was learned.” Think, too, how the unshapely mounds on the banks of the Euphrates have given up their treasures, so that we may now know the history of those mighty empires which each in its day exercised its influence on the chosen people, and through that chosen people on the destinies of the Church. Think of the excavations of a Layard, the researches of a Rawlinson in Babylon and Assyria, and of the Palestine explorers, which bring before us not only the land of the Judges and the Kings, but the scenes of the earthly ministry of the Son of God Himself.
And what is it but archæology that led to the exhuming of those long-lost cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii which have thrown such a lurid glare on the morals of the Græco-Roman world, confirming as it does the keen satires not only of a Juvenal or a Persius, but the mournful testimony of a Paul, showing as nothing else could show the world’s need of a divine Saviour, and a newer and fuller revelation of the Divine will.
Or think of the identification of the sites of classic Troy and Mycenæ by Dr. Schliemann, and of the discoveries of Mr. Wood at Ephesus, and of Mr. Ramsay in Phrygia. These investigations might seem to have only an indirect reference to Christianity, but they may help to attest the accuracy of the Scripture record and of the history of the isapostolic Church. Asia Minor, be it remembered, was, next to Palestine, the theatre of the earliest apostolic labours; Ephesus was the city wherein St. Paul encountered the worshippers of the Temple of the world-renowned Artemis. To the Ephesians he addressed one of his most remarkable epistles, to Ephesus he sent his son in the faith, Timothy; over the Ephesian Church St. John presided as the survivor of the Twelve; in Ephesus was held the third of the Œcumenical Councils. Who knows, then, what the archæology of the future may not discover in these interesting regions? What treasures may not yet be buried under those shapeless masses, the accumulations of ages of neglect? Who knows what light they may not shed on the annals of a hoary antiquity in which we of this busy nineteenth century may be vitally interested?—interested as we “ask for the old paths.”
The same may be said of the Catacombs of Rome, with their simple and unstudied testimony to the faith of the early Christian martyrs, so strangely contrasting with the sad records of the pagan world, so that, as has well been said, “if you cross the Appian Way, from the Columbaria to the Catacombs, and place side by side the heathen and the Christian epitaphs, you may read, in those authentic registers, how, without Christ, death meant despair; with Christ, peace.”
Think again of the recovery of MSS. I need name but one, the Codex Sinaiticus, found seemingly by a lucky accident, but one which has enabled New Testament scholars to establish the truest readings of the Gospels and the Epistles. Nor is the discovery of an authentic copy of that ancient treatise which goes by the name of the “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles” without its influence on Christian archæology. It confirms what the examination of the ancient liturgies of ancient altars and altar vessels—a distinct branch of your science—teaches us, the testimony of a Pliny and a Justin as to what primitive Christian worship really was; it assures the Churchman of the nineteenth century that in all essentials of faith and worship he is one with the Church of the first century, the Church of the Apostles, the Church of Pentecost, the Church of Christ from the beginning.
But you are British archæologists; if it pleases you to visit my native county of York, you will doubtless direct your steps to Goodmanham, or Godmundenham, as its ancient name betokened—the Protection of the Gods. There in that little East Riding village archæology verified the identity of the font in which Paulinus baptized the heathen priest Coifi, with a trough out of which for years farmers had fed their swine. What a commentary on the spread of Christianity, and the need of Christianity, so early as the seventh century in the northern parts of our island is the beautiful story told by the Venerable Bede.[73] “The present life of man,” said the aged counsellor Coifi to his sovereign, “O king, seems to me in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like the swift flight of the sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door and immediately out at another, whilst he is within is safe from the wintry storm, but after a short space of fair weather he immediately vanishes out of your sight into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before or what is to follow we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, the new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed.” In contempt of his former superstition, the king and his counsellors assenting, we are told, the arch-priest mounted the royal war-horse, armed himself with a spear, things otherwise unlawful, and profaned the temple by casting at the idol his spear; and then both king and counsellor were baptized and professed the faith of Christ.[74]
Authorities have been divided as to the diffusion of Christianity in Britain, and as to the independence of the ancient British Church. Archæology, on the other hand, by its identification of sacred sites by the nomenclature of native saints, by the designation of parishes and churches, has done much to settle these questions. The science of archæology has discovered Christian symbols, traced British bishops to far-distant Councils;[75] as at Carleon, and Bangor, and elsewhere, it has unfolded the records of a community acting under its own prelates and arch-prelates, enjoying its own native customs, adhering to its own independent rites.
Archæology is, in its widest sense, no mere question of curious antiquities, it is a confirmation of historic and religious truth. It aids the devout in the inquiry after the old ways in which the saints of God have trod. It is a teaching and a walking in that good way in which patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, found rest to their souls. To the Jews of Jeremiah’s days God promised rest from their enemies in their own land of promise, rest in the assured favour of Jehovah. To us Christ promises rest, rest from disquieting doubts and fears, rest in the sense of sins forgiven, rest in communion and union with God and Christ, in the mystical fellowship of His Body, the Church, rest hereafter in our heavenly home.
Brethren, the appeal of Christ is to the individual heart, the witness to the Saviour is in the testimony of conscience, the heart and life, the presence of His Spirit within the soul. May I beg you, then, to ask for the old paths of repentance and faith, for the good way that leadeth to life, to walk therein; to consecrate your researches to the highest and noblest of purposes, the furtherance of truth and the glory of God; and so, to use again the words of the prophet in the text, “ye shall find rest for your souls.”
A JEU D’ESPRIT[76] BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS.
PART II.
(Continued from p. 175.)
CONTINUING the dialogue between Dr. Johnson and Mr. Gibbon from the point where we broke off in our last, the jeu d’esprit proceeds:—
Gibbon.—Garrick had some flippancy of parts, to be sure, and was brisk and lively in company, and by the help of mimickry and story-telling made himself a pleasant companion; but here, the whole world gave the superiority to Foote, and Garrick himself appears to have felt as if his genius was rebuked by the superior powers of Foote. It has been often observed, that Garrick never dared to enter into competition with him, but was content to act an under part to bring Foote out.
Johnson.—That this conduct of Garrick’s might be interpreted by the gross minds of Foote and his friends as if he was afraid to encounter him, I can easily imagine. Of the natural superiority of Garrick over Foote, this conduct is an instance; he disdained entering into competition with such a fellow, and made him the buffoon of the company, or, as you may say, brought him out, and what was at last brought out but coarse jests and vulgar merriment, indecency, and impiety, a relation of events which, upon the face of them, could never have happened, characters grossly conceived and as coarsely represented. Foote was even no mimick; he went out of himself, it is true, but without going into another man; he was excelled by Garrick even in this, which is considered as Foote’s greatest excellence. Garrick, besides his exact imitation of the voice and gestures of his original, to a degree of refinement of which Foote had no conception, exhibited the mind and mode of thinking of the person imitated. Besides, Garrick confined his powers within the limits of decency: he had a character to preserve, Foote had none. By Foote’s buffoonery and broadfaced merriment, private friendship, public decency, and everything estimable amongst men, were trod under foot. We all know the difference of their reception in the world. No man, however high in rank or literature, but was proud to know Garrick, and was glad to have him at his table; no man ever considered or treated Garrick as a player; he may be said to have stepped out of his own rank into an higher, and by raising himself he raised the rank of his profession. At a convivial table his exhilarating powers were unrivalled; he was lively, entertaining, quick in discerning the ridicule of life, and as ready in representing it, and on graver subjects there were few topics on which he could not bear a part. It is injurious to the character of Garrick to be named in the same breath with Foote. That Foote was admitted sometimes into good company (to do the man what credit I can) I will allow, but then it was merely to play tricks; Foote’s merriment was that of a buffoon, and Garrick’s that of a gentleman.
G.—I have been told, on the contrary, that Garrick in company had not the easy manners of a gentleman.
J.—Sir, I do not know what you may have been told, or what your ideas may be of the manners of gentlemen. Garrick had no vulgarity in his manners; it is true, he had not the airiness of a fop, nor did he assume an affected indifference to what was passing; he did not lounge from the table to the window, and from thence to the fire, or whilst you were addressing your discourse to him, turn from you, and talk to his next neighbour, or give any indication that he was tired of your company. If such manners form your ideas of a fine gentleman, Garrick certainly had them not.
G.—I mean that Garrick was more overawed by the presence of the great, and more obsequious to rank than Foote, who considered himself as their equal, and treated them with the same familiarity as they treated each other.
J.—He did so, and what did the fellow get by it? The grossness of his mind prevented him from seeing that this familiarity was merely suffered as they would play with a dog. He got no ground by affecting to call peers by their surnames. The foolish fellow fancied, that lowering them was raising himself to their level. This affectation of familiarity with the great, this childish ambition of momentary exaltation, obtained by the neglect of those ceremonies which custom has established as the barriers between one order of society and another, only showed his folly and meanness; he did not see that by encroaching on others’ dignity, he puts himself in their power, either to be repelled with helpless indignity, or endured by clemency and condescension. Garrick by paying due regard to rank respected himself; what he gave was returned, and what was returned he kept for ever. His advancement was on firm ground; he was recognised in public as well as respected in private, and as no man was ever more courted or better received by the public, so no man was ever less spoiled by its flattery. Garrick continued advancing to the last, till he had acquired every advantage that high birth could bestow, except the precedence of going into the room, but when he was there he was treated with as much attention as the first man at the table. It is to the credit of Garrick that he never laid any claim to this distinction; it was as voluntarily allowed as if it had been his birthright. In this, I confess, I looked on David with some degree of envy, not so much for the respect he received as for the manner of its being acquired: what fell into his lap unsought, I have been forced to claim. I began the world by fighting my way. There was something about me that invited insult, or at least a disposition to neglect, and I was equally disposed to repel insult, and to claim attention, and, I fear, continue too much in this disposition now it is no longer necessary; I receive at present as much favour as I have a right to expect. I am not one of the complainers of the neglect of merit.
G.—Your pretensions, Dr. Johnson, nobody will dispute; I cannot place Garrick on the same footing: your reputation will continue increasing after your death. When Garrick will be totally forgot, you will be for ever considered as a classic.
J.—Enough, sir, enough; the company will be better pleased to see us quarrel than bandying compliments.
G.—But you must allow, Dr. Johnson, that Garrick was too much a slave to fame, or rather to the mean ambition of living with the great, terribly afraid of making himself cheap with them; by which he debarred himself from much pleasant society. Employing so much attention and so much management upon such little things, implies, I think, a little mind. It was observed by his friend Coleman that he never went into company but with a plot how to get out of it; he was every minute called out, and went off or returned as there was, or was not, a probability of his shining.
J.—In regard to his mean ambition, as you call it, of living with the great, what was the boast of Pope, and is every man’s wish, can be no reproach to Garrick; he who says he despises it, knows he lies. That Garrick husbanded his fame, the fame which he had justly acquired, both at the theatre and at the table, is not denied; but where is the blame either in the one or the other of leaving as little as possible to chance? Besides, sir, consider what you have said; you first deny Garrick’s pretensions to fame, and then accuse him of too great an attention to preserve what he never possessed.
G.—I don’t understand.
J.—I can’t help that, sir.
G.—Well but, Dr. Johnson, you will not vindicate him in his over and above attention to his fame, his inordinate desire to exhibit himself to new men, like a coquet ever seeking after new conquests, to the total neglect of old friends and admirers:
always looking out for new game.
J.—When you have quoted the line from Goldsmith, you ought, in fairness to have given what followed,
which implies at least that he possessed a power over other men’s minds approaching to fascination. But consider, sir, what is to be done. Here is a man, whom every other man desired to know. Garrick could not receive and cultivate all, according to each man’s conception of his own value: we are all apt enough to consider ourselves as possessing a right to be exempted from the common crowd. Besides, sir, I do not see why that should be imputed to him as a crime which we all so irresistibly feel and practise; we all make a greater exertion in the presence of new men than old acquaintance; it is undoubtedly true that Garrick divided his attention among so many, that but little remained to the share of an individual: like the extension and dissipation of water into dew, there was not quantity united sufficiently to quench any man’s thirst; but this is the inevitable state of things; Garrick no more than any other man could unite what was in their nature incompatible.
G.—But Garrick was by this means not only excluded from real friendship, but also accused of treating those whom he called friends with insincerity and double dealings.
J.—Sir, it is not true; his character in that respect is misunderstood: Garrick was, to be sure, very ready in promising, but he intended at that time to fulfil his promise; he intended no deceit; his politeness, or his good nature, call it which you will, made him unwilling to deny, he wanted the courage to say No, even to unreasonable demands. This was the great error of his life; by raising expectations which he did not, perhaps could not, gratify, he made enemies; at the same time it must be remembered that this error proceeded from the same cause which produced many of his virtues. Friendships from warmth of temper too suddenly taken up, and too violent to continue, ended, as they were like to do, in disappointment; enmity succeeded disappointment, his friends became his enemies, and those having been fostered in his bosom, knew well his sensibility to reproach, and they took care that he should be amply supplied with such bitter potions as they were capable of administering. Their impotent efforts he ought to have despised, but he felt them; nor did he affect insensibility.
G.—And that sensibility probably shortened his life.
J.—No, sir, he died of a disorder of which you or any other man may die without being killed by too much sensibility.
G.—But you will allow, however, that this sensibility, those fine feelings, made him the great actor he was.
J.—This is all cant, fit only for kitchen wenches and chamber maids; Garrick’s trade was to represent passion, not to feel it. Ask Reynolds, whether he felt the distress of Count Ugolino, when he drew it.
G.—But surely he feels the passion at the moment he is representing it.
J.—About as much as Punch feels. That Garrick himself gave in to this foppery of feelings, I can easily believe; but he knew at the time that he lied. He might think it right, as far as I know, to have what fools imagined he ought to have; but it is amazing that anyone should be so ignorant as to think that an actor will risk his reputation by depending upon the feelings, that may be excited in the presence of 200 people, on the repetition of certain words which he has repeated 200 times before in what actors call their study. No, sir, Garrick left nothing to chance; every gesture, every expression of countenance, and variation of voice, was settled in his closet, before he set his foot upon the stage.
Mr. Alexander Gardner, of Paisley, has in hand a little series of books, which he proposes to name “The Antiquarian Library.” The series will consist chiefly of original works, and will be introduced by the following books from the pen of Mr. William Andrews: “Gibbet Lore: Remarkable Chapters in the Annals of Great Britain and Ireland,” “Obsolete Punishments,” “History of Bells and Wells: Their History, Legends, Superstitions, Folk-lore, and Poetry.”
By Cornelius Walford, F.S.S., Barrister-at-Law.
PART IV.
(Continued from p. 181.)
Chapter XXXV.—Gilds of Norfolk.
THIS county was remarkable for the number of its Gilds, every principal town having many, and most of the villages one or more. The following is believed to be a complete return of the Gilds existing in 1388-9. All the towns are easy of identification.
East Wynch.—In this town (or village) there was the following:—
Gild of Est Wynch, founded 1377.—Four meetings shall be held every year. Officers to be chosen by picked men. Services for dead, and offerings. Masses for the souls of the dead. Allowances to members in sickness, viz., “a lof, and a potel of ale, and mes of kechen [stuff].”
Lynn.—The Gilds existing in this then famous seaport (at the date above named) were the following—the chief features of each being noted.
Gild of the Nativity of St. John Baptist, founded 1316.—Three meetings shall be held every year, to which every brother and sister must come under penalty. Officers shall be chosen by picked men; those not serving to pay a fine. The stewards shall find sureties for the goods of the Gild, and render an account at the yearly general meeting. Every feast shall be begun with a prayer; the Gild-candle shall burn the while; and all that are there shall be noiseless. Services for the dead, and offerings. New members shall undertake to keep the ordinances, and shall pay the usual house-fees and entrance-money. Masses for the souls of the dead. Allowances to officers on feast days. The Dean shall be fined if he fail to summon any of the bretheren. The Gild shall go to church in procession on the day of their yearly meeting, and hear mass, and make offerings. Help to poor bretheren and sisteren. The funds of the Gild at this date appear to have amounted to £4 1s.—this indeed representing a large amount of our present coinage—held by its four principal officers. Another Gild with the same name is mentioned later.
Gild of St. Peter (at Lenne), founded 1329 [or 1339].—Four meetings shall be held every year, at each of which every brother and sister shall pay a halfpenny towards maintaining a light burning during divine service. Penalty for not coming to any meeting. The Dean shall be fined if he fail to summon any. Officers shall be chosen by picked men; those chosen and not serving shall be fined. Services for the dead, and offerings; and bretheren not coming, if able, shall be fined. Masses for the soul. The Alderman shall deliver the goods to the Stewards, upon surety given to render account thereof at the yearly general meeting. Allowances to the officers on feast days. New-comers shall undertake to keep these statutes; and shall at once pay the usual entrance-money or find sureties. The Dean’s salary vjd. in the year. Any brother or sister wronging another shall be fined. Help to be given to poor bretheren.
Gild of St. Nicholas in Lenne Petri (West Lynn), founded 1359.—Four meetings in the year; whoever grumbles shall be fined. No one shall enter the buttery where the ale lies.
Gild of the Purification, in Bishop’s Lynn, founded 1367.—This was a social Gild “in ye honuraunce of ihesu crist of heuene, And of his moder seinte marie, and of alle halowene, and speciallike of ye Purificacioun of oure lady seint marie.” Its features were like other of the Religio-Social Gilds of the town.
The Shipmanes Gild, founded 1368.—Three meetings shall be held every year, on days named, or as the Alderman shall appoint. Every brother must come to every meeting, if able. The Dean shall be fined if he fail to summon any. Officers chosen and not serving shall be fined. New-comers [members] shall pay the usual house fees and entrance-money. Services for the dead, and offerings. The bellman shall summon all. Masses for souls of the dead. Unruly brothers shall be fined. One wronging another shall be fined, and shall make peace. Penalty for disclosing the affairs of the Gild. The Stewards shall render an account of the goods of the Gild, and of the year’s profits, at the yearly general meeting, under penalty to be paid by themselves or their sureties. No Gild-brother shall give pledge or become surety for another, in any plea or suit, without leave of the Alderman and others. The Alderman, &c., shall do their best to adjust the quarrel; but if unable, shall give leave to make suit at law. Fine for disobedience. Allowances to the officers on feast days. Help to poor bretheren. Payments shall be made for every voyage; and a yearly payment if no voyage made. The ale-chamber not to be entered. New-comers shall swear to maintain the Ordinances of the Gild. New-comers must undertake to come to the yearly meetings, if at home, and must make their payments. The liveryhood shall be kept for two years. On death of a brother, all the rest shall be summoned, and shall come to the service in their livery-hoods, and make offerings. None shall leave until the service is done; fine for default.
A new Ordinance was made for this Gild in 1381, viz., burial service in the case of any brother dying out of town. In 1382 another new Ordinance, viz., burial service for those dying in West Lynn and South Lynn.
It is clear that this was a Gild of a superior order, more after the nature of a Merchant-Gild.
Gild of St. John Baptist, in Bishop’s Lynn, founded 1372.—This partook of the general character of the Social Gilds of the town, except that there seemed to be no special provision for the poor members in sickness, &c. The ordinances provided that there should be no quarrelling during any feast-time or meeting. Moneys were to be contributed towards the Gild-stock, and the ale.
Gild of St. John Baptist, in West Lynn, founded in 1374.—Services for dead, and offerings. The Dean shall buy waste bread with these offerings, and give it [to the poor]. Penalty on anyone disputing any of these Ordinances.
Gild of St. George the Martyr, founded in 1376.—A priest shall be found to serve at the altar of St. George. Candles and torches shall be found to burn during the service, and at burials. Services for the dead, and offerings. Services shall be held, though the brother or sister shall have died outside the town. Masses for souls of the dead. Help to poor bretheren and sisteren. Four meetings to be held every year, to which every brother and sister shall come under penalty. Officers shall be chosen by picked men; those chosen and not serving to be fined. Allowance to officers on feast days. The Gild shall go to church on the day of yearly meeting, and hear mass and make offerings. The affairs of the Gild not to be disclosed. The Stewards to find sureties for the goods, and to render account at the yearly general meeting. Every feast shall be begun with a prayer, the Gild-light burning the while; and they that are there making no noise nor jangling. New members admitted only at the yearly general meeting, and with the assent of all; save good men from the country. New members shall undertake to keep the Ordinances, and shall pay the usual house-fees as well as entrance-money. If any quarrel arise, it shall be told to the Alderman, who shall do his best to settle it. Livery-hoods to be worn at the meetings, and at every burial service. Breakers of the Ordinances, after three fines shall be put out of the Gild. Salary of the Clerk iiis. ivd., and of the Dean ijs. the year. The funds of the Gild consisted of £3 3s.
Gild of St. Thomas of Canterbury (in Lenne), founded 1376.—The Gild, all fairly arrayed, shall meet on St. Thomas’s Day, and hear mass, and make offerings. There shall be four other general meetings in the course of each year. An Alderman shall be chosen, and four Stewards, and a Dean and Clerk. A large wax candle shall be kept burning. The order of burial services defined. Wrongdoers shall be put out. New-comers shall pay 5s. each. If any become poor, or have loss by sea, or by fire, or otherwise, help shall be given. Assent given to these Ordinances. Wages of Clerk to be iijs., and of Dean xviijd. for the year.
The Gild of Young Scholars, founded 1383.—Gifts were received in support of the Gild. Burial services defined. Help in case of poverty, loss at sea, or other mishap. Three speakings together [assemblies] of the Gild shall be held every year; accounts shall be then rendered. All the brethren shall go to church on one day in the year, and hear mass and make offerings. Misdoers shall be put out. Officers shall be chosen. It was stated that all the goods of the Gild had been spent, but more were hoped for.
Gild of St. Thomas of Canterbury (at Lenne).—Four meetings to be held every year, to which all must come under penalty. New-comers shall pay the usual house-fees. Attendance at meetings must be punctual. Services for the dead, and offerings. Masses for the soul. Sureties and entrance-money for new-comers. Allowances to the officers on feast days. Help to the poor. Allowances to the sick. No noise to be made during the feast time. The remaining ordinances resembled those of the other Gilds of the town.
Gild of St. James, in North Lynn.—Four meetings in the year. Three candles to be kept burning during divine service. Help to needy bretheren and sisteren. Unruly speech shall be punished by a fine. Other features general.
Gild of St. Edmund, in North Lynn.—A Religio-Social Gild with special features.
Gild of Candlemass, in North Lynn.—No special features.
Gild of St. Lawrence, in Bishop’s Lynn.—It had no special features differing from the Social Gilds of the town.
Gild of St. Edmund, in Bishop’s Lynn.—This again had no special features. The entrance-money iiiijs.
Gild of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (another).—Three meetings shall be held every year, to which every brother and sister must come under penalty. The Dean shall be fined if he fail to summon any. New-comers shall pay the usual house-fees. Services for the dead, and offerings. Penalty for betraying the affairs of the Gild. Officers chosen and not serving shall be fined. Masses for souls of the dead. The ale chamber not to be entered. Salaries of the Dean and the Clerk provided for. The Stewards to find sureties for the goods of the Gild, and render an account at the yearly general meeting. No man shall stay in the Gild-house after the Alderman has left. Allowances to the officers on Gild-days, and to sick bretheren and sisteren. Help to poor bretheren and sisteren. Entrance fee ijs., “and find ij. borowes for ye catelle.”
Gild of St. Thomas of Canterbury, in Bishop’s Lynn.—This was on the same basis as the other Social Gilds of the town. A few special Ordinances obtained. If one brother belie another, he shall be fined. If anyone is foul-mouthed to the Alderman at any meeting, he shall be fined. If anyone wrong another, he shall be fined. None shall come to the feast in a tabard, nor in a cloak, nor with legs bare, nor barefoot. If anyone make a noise during the feast, he shall do penance by holding the rod, else pay a fine. No one shall sleep, nor keep the ale-cup to himself. Help to poor bretheren and sisteren [record incomplete].
Gild of the Holy Cross, in Bishop’s Lynn.—The chief distinctive feature of this Gild was that allowances were made to the bretheren and sisteren during sickness, but also while on pilgrimage. No brother was to go to law with another without leave of the Alderman.
Gild of St. Anthony (in Lenne).—Founded (date uncertain) “in the Worchep of God of heuen, and of his modir seynt Mari, and alle the holy Company of heuen, and souerengly of the Noble confessour seynt Antony.” The Gild shall meet in church and hear mass and make offerings. There shall be four other general meetings of the Gild in each year. New-comers (members) shall pay 5s. each. A wise Alderman shall be chosen, and 4 trusty Stewards, and a summoning Dean, and a Clerk. Burial services on death of members, and offerings. In cases of loss of cattle, or personal sickness, help to be given. Wages of the Clerk and Dean to be xijd. each “for his trauaile in the yere.”
Gild of St. Leonard.—There shall be four general meetings every year; at the first there shall be chosen an Alderman and four Stewards, a Dean, and a Clerk. New-comers shall pay 3s. each. Burial services defined. In case of loss by sea, or other mishap, help shall be given. If death outside the town, the body shall be fetched at cost of the Gild. Prisoners shall be visited and comforted. Rebels against canon law shall be put out.
Gild of the Purification.—The Gild shall meet on Candlemas-day, and have besides three meetings every year. No special features. Help to those in trouble.
Gild of St. Mary.—Services for the dead and offerings. Masses for the souls of the dead. No special features.
Gild of St. Katherine.—A candle shall be kept burning in the church of St. Margaret; and on the Feast of St. Katherine offerings shall be made. New members to pay 5s. entrance-fee. Masses for the souls of the dead. No special features.
Gild of St. James.—Help to poor bretheren and sisteren. No special features.
Gild of the Conception, in Bishop’s Lynn.—There were to be four meetings in the year; every brother and sister was to pay 1d. towards finding a light on festival days; and any member summoned and not attending was to be fined; remainder of the features in common with other Gilds of the town.
Most of the preceding are seen to be religious Gilds—perhaps all except the “Shipmanes” [i.e. Shipmasters] of 1368. The following were of the mercantile class:—
Gild of the Holy Trinity [Merchants Gild].—This was the great mercantile Gild of the town, and had very considerable possessions in land, houses, and other property. It was reputed to have taken its rise in the reign of King John, in the sixth year of whose reign the Gild received Letters Patents authorising one of its body to be mayor of the town. The Gild itself was unquestionably of older date. At the date of the Reformation the Gild was sustaining thirteen chaplains, “daily and yearly to pray, as well for the King, his ancestors, and for the peace and welfare of his kingdom, as for the souls of the Aldermen, bretheren, and benefactors of the said Gild, also for the souls of the faithful deceased.”
The Gild of Shoemakers.—No details available.
The Red Gild.—The particular objects of this Gild, or even the circumstances which led to the adoption of its name, have hitherto defied all inquiry.
The Gild of St. William, trading to North Bern. This was probably a gild of merchants trading to North Bergen (Norway). Lynn had carried on a considerable trade with the North of Europe from a very early period, and many Lynn merchants resided in those parts. There is in the Corporation records a letter in Latin, bearing date 1305, from Bartholomew, the King of Norway’s Chancellor, to the Mayor of Lynn, in behalf of Thurkill and other merchants residing there. It was customary for the merchants of Lynn to have a consul of their own—an Alderman—appointed for Norway. To this end a royal warrant was necessary. Here is a copy of such a document issued by Henry V. (first half of fifteenth century):—
“Henry, by the grace of God, King of England and of France, and
Lord of Ireland.
To our trusty and well-beloved the Mayor, Aldermen, and other merchants inhabiting within our town of Lynn, shewed unto us, that by the old privilege among you, used in exercising the sale of your merchandises in the lands and countries of Denmark and Norway, ye have an ancient custom to have an Alderman chosen by election among you, to be ruler and governor of your Company in the said countries, and to see good rule and order kept amongst you there, which we woll be content to help and see to be holden for the increasing and augmentation of the common weal and prosperity of you and all other our true subjects; we having the same in our good remembrance, be content and woll, that ye godre and assemble toguider, and among you chuse such oon to be your said Alderman, as ye shall think convenient, good, honest, and sufficient for the premisses: and to use, have, enjoy, and occupy the liberties and franchises in this cause heretofore accustomed. Yeven under our Signet at our manor of Greenwich, the 18th day of July, the fifth year of our reign.”
It will be remembered in this connection that Lynn was one of the trading stations of the Hanseatic League.
There seem to have been several Gild-halls in the town, viz., those of the Gilds of the Trinity and of St. George respectively, and it is supposed of various others. In vol. i. of Richards’ “History of Lynn” will be found many additional details of interest regarding the Gilds of this town.
(To be continued.)