pageant is not contained in holy scripture and gave rise to more laughter and noise than devotion. Sometimes quarrels, disputes and fights arose from it among the people; and they could seldom or never produce and play their pageant by daylight like the earlier pageants. The masons, therefore, desired with a great desire to be freed from this pageant, and to be allowed another, which should be in accordance with holy scripture and could be produced and played by daylight. And for the fulfilment of these their desires both the parties aforesaid [the goldsmiths and the masons] made applications and prayers to the mayor and council to obtain their willing consent and good will in this matter. Whereupon Thomas Snaudon, mayor, and also the aldermen and council of the chamber, graciously forwarding the wishes and desires of the men of the aforesaid crafts, and deeming them in accordance with what was fitting, gave judgment that the aforesaid goldsmiths for the decrease of their grievous burdens should be relieved of one of their pageants—namely, that of Herod. And likewise that the masons should be relieved and quit of the pageant of Fergus. And that the said masons shall have for themselves and their craft the aforesaid pageant of Herod, which the goldsmiths previously had produced; and produce it at their expense and play it in a more fitting manner, which is seemly for the honour of the city, as often as the aforesaid pageant shall happen to be played in the aforesaid city." In 1476 an effort was made to raise the standard of the performances. The mayor and council ordained "that yerely in the tyme of lentyn there shall be called afore the maire. iiij of the moste conyng discrete and able players serche here and examen all the plaiers and plaies and pagentes thrughoute all the artificers belonging to the Corpus Christi play." Only those players" sufficiant in personne and conyng were accepted, "insufficient personnes either in conyng, voice, or personne to discharge, ammove, and avoide." Two years later

1. Ibid., pp. 123, 124.

to

2. Corporation House Books, vol. I., fol. 14a. I am indebted to Mr. Giles for connoting this extract with the original.

THE MAYOR, COUNCIL AND SEARCHERS OF MISTERIES

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a new station for the performance of the plays was instituted. The extract is interesting as it gives some idea of the amount of money those, who paid for the right to have the plays enacted before their houses, expected to get for the trouble and expense of erecting grand stands. Henricus Watson and Thomas Diconson, pikemongers, in Ousegate at the east end of Ousebridge, paid 11s. a year, for a twelve years' lease of this right.

The twenty-four misteries, which brought their ordinances into the council chamber to have alterations or innovations ratified by the mayor and council, cover almost a century-the first is dated 1409, the last 1493. Unfortunately there is a long period from 1431 to 1463, when there was either no new gild legislation, or it was not considered sufficiently important to be registered. Marshals and smiths, stringers, parchmentmakers, plasterers and tile makers, fullers and shearers, cooks, goldsmiths, tilers and wrights, curriers, walkers, glasiers, broggers, tapiters, patoners, botellers and bowgemakers, listers, sadlers, shipmen, tanners, pinners and wiredrawers, cutlers, carpenters, cappers, blacksmiths and bladesmiths, vintners and hatmakers all appealed to the civic government to settle their disputes, to legalize their new ordinances, or to approve of their pageant procedure.

1

Drake quotes a city ordinance of 1519, in which the mayor and his brethren claim that the punishment of craftsmen for breach of their ordinances was in their hands, not in the hands of the searchers of the mystery. But the whole tenor of the Memorandum Book shows conclusively that this ordinance was only a reiteration not an innovation. One of the customs claimed by the city is that if the searchers discover any breach of the ordinances of the craft, they shall bring the matter before the mayor for the time being.2 Naturally the hold of the council on the crafts would ebb and flow as the tide of the popularity and power of the mayor and his brethren fluctuated; but that during the whole of the period

1. F. Drake, op. cit., p. 215. Cf. W. J. Ashley, op. cit., pt. ii., p. 28. I am much indebted to the illuminating chapter on the crafts in Professor Ashley's economic history, where occasionally I have differed from him it has been owing to the fact that I have had materials unpublished when he

wrote.

2. Mem. Bk., p. 260, ante p. xxix.

3

of the Memorandum Book their power over the crafts was undisputed is clear. It is, of course, possible that in any struggle between council and crafts, if victory fell to the crafts, the council did not register their own defeat; but judgment must be based on general impressions gained from the general tendency of the crafts as a whole, and even the most cursory survey reveals the servility with which the crafts approach the civic rulers. "Dominus maior" is not sufficiently expressive of their lowly attitude" reverendus dominus," "right worshipful sir maiour of this wirshipful city" are terms used. In 1482, when new ordinances were brought into the council chamber by the cappers, they were endorsed by the mayor and "the hole counsell," to the clause dealing with the duties of the searchers a rider is added " providyng all way that the mair for the tym beyng have the examinacion and correccion herof." The fact that the cloth industry was supreme in the council would strengthen its hold over the crafts subsidiary to that trade, as the cappers and fullers. The last named mistery were granted the search over foreign fullers, in 1425. The council meeting was unusually large and strongly representative of the woollen interests; with one exception, a goldsmith, the twenty-seven members were mercers. Both the mayor of the city and the mayor of the staple were there; seven of the twelve aldermen and sixteen of the twenty-four were also present. But the right of search was accompanied by a strong exhortation to the searchers to deal fairly by these outsiders. "Ita quod non ostendant eis odium nec maliciam in scrutando.” The stringers' ordinances, too, show clearly how strong was the hold of the council on the crafts; any bowstrings that were found

1. Mem. Bk., p. 163. This is an unusual expression, dominus is here probably only a courtesy “Sir," used to parsons, not the word lord, as used before the mayors of certain cities in modern times. The first example given in the N.E.D. is c. 1554. But "false nets condemned to be burnt by my lord maire (1485) occurs in Letter-Book L, p. 229, with Dr. Sharpe's note: 'this is an earlier instance of the use of the title "Lord Mayor," than hitherto supposed.' Cf. Cal. Letter-Book K," p. 243n.

5.

i.e., fullers from the villages in the neighbourhood of York. 6. Mem. Bk., p. 159.

DISAGREEMENTS BETWEEN CRAFTS

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on search to be defective were to be brought to the council chamber and there remain until they were burnt.1

In 1463-4 the lack of work among the walkers in the city seriously alarmed the governors of the city. "In tyme passed men of the said craft of walkers, inhabitauntes within the saide citee wer wont to full and wirke all manere of clothe made within this citee, and also grete parte of clothe made in the contree aboute the saide citee, at which tyme were many honest and thrifty men of the said craft inhabitaunt in the same citee, and nowe thay be fewer and porer for lak of wark, that goeth at thies dayes into the contree." They passed an ordinance at the request of the craft that no citizen should have his cloth fulled by walkers from the country. But a rider was added, which shows how completely the city controlled the crafts. "Forseyne alway that if it can be thoght to the maire, aldremen and counseill of the chaumbre and comons at eny tyme after this to be eny hurt, prejudice, or inconvenient in this ordenaunce or any parte ther of to the comon wele, worship, or profitte of this citee, that than it shalbe lefull to thayme to adnull, adde, correcte, refourme, and amende this ordenaunce, and every parte ther of, after thaire wisdomes and discrecions, to the honour of the citie and wele of the crafte." ."2 This is the most autocratic statement of the absolute authority claimed by the mayor and his brethren that the Memorandum Book furnishes.

But the disagreements between the different crafts certainly strengthened the hands of the mayor and council, and enabled them to put their latent power into force without rousing general resentment. The history of the mistery of tanners brings out this point very clearly. In 1427 a great controversey raged between tanners and cordwainers, as to the search of tanned leather. Both disputants bound themselves to submit to the judgment of the mayor and council. The award begins with a counsel of perfection, all men of both crafts are to be good friends for ever, there was to be no renewal of discord. They were not, however, called upon to kiss each other, a ceremony often insisted

1. Ibid., p. 123.

2. Mem. Bk., pp. 206, 207.

1

upon by mayors of a freakish disposition. But the feelings of the council were obviously against the tanners; eight searchers of tanned leather were to be appointed, two from each of the crafts tanners, cordwainers, girdlers, and curriers. Cordwainers were to go to the house of the tanner, inform him of the kind and amount of leather required, and the price was to be settled; then the tanner, at his own expense, was to send the leather to the common hall, where in a room appointed for the purpose, it was to be searched. If on search the leather was found to be satisfactory, it was sealed with the tanners' seal. If the searchers failed in their duty, they were to be judged at the discretion of the mayor and council. If, in spite of all these precautions, the cordwainer found his leather defective, his case was submitted to the mayor, and tried either at the king's or complainant's suit, according to the statute provided for such occasions.2

Evidently the tanners had not submitted to these humiliating terms without a struggle, in which they must have been deprived of their rights as freemen; the year following, however, the franchise was restored to them. Ricardus Russell, the new mayor, seems to have had his sympathies enlisted on their side. The tanners came to him and the council with urgent requests and humble petitions, and submitted their ordinances "in alto et basso," to them. The civic governors, anxious as they said, to spare them the tedious and excessive inconvenience of the elaborate system of search instituted under the previous mayor, made new arrangements. But first and before all things, they gave back to them the liberty of the city, which had been taken from them on account of their transgressions. So long as the leather was tanned by themselves, their right of search was restored without let or hindrance of the men of other crafts. It had to be sealed with their ancient and customary seal, and then they had a free passage whithersoever they wished by land or water. The use of a trade mark was general among the crafts

1. Mem. Bk., pp. 15, 174.

2. Cf. W. Cunningham, op. cit., p. 514, the whole question of the relation of tanners, curriers, cordwainers and girdlers was settled by statute by Henry VII. and Henry VIII.