all events in that year (1361), founded at the church and hospital of St. 'Bethlem' the Brotherhood of our Lady of Bethlehem for the amendment of their lives, in the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his Sweet Mother Saint Mary of Bethlehem, in which most Holy Place our Lord Jesus Christ was born for the salvation of all his people. In which place of Bethlehem the star appeared to the shepherds, and gave and showed light to the three kings of Cologne, who offered in the said place of Bethlehem three gifts, to wit gold, myrrh and incense.' The ordinances which were then drawn. up for the government of the Brotherhood are of the greatest interest. We learn from them that women as well as brothers could be members; that no one of ill fame could become or remain a member; that all were to pay 20s. for entry and 6d. a quarter (or 25. a year) for quarterage; that all brothers and sisters were to be clothed in a prescribed dress on public occasions at their own expense; that all the members were to meet four times a year; that the revenues of the Brotherhood should be in the hands of three Wardens, who were to be elected annually, and that after the election, held on the Day of the Purification, a feast should be given in the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlem', which should not cost the brethren more than 20d. a head. They have a Beadle and a Chaplain who receive payments and a livery from the members, and the fraternal and religious aspects of the association are also strongly emphasized. All improper or gambling games were forbidden on pain of a fine. Any brother having a grievance against another was to complain to the Brotherhood and not elsewhere, and any one not 1389; Clare Market Review, i. 67. Cf. also the Drapers of Beverley who paid special reverence to the Virgin, the Baptist, St. Michael the Archangel, and acted a miracle play of The Dooming Pilate' on the Feast of Corpus Christi. Leach, Beverley Town Documents, Selden Society, p. 99. So, too, the Drapers of Shrewsbury were incorporated under the name of the Gild of the Holy Trinity and Fraternity of Drapers. Rope, Earliest Book of Drapers of Shrewsbury. 1 These ordinances are said to have been drawn up between 1361 and 1370 and then finally read and confirmed. Cf. Appendix, vol. i, No. IV. They were among the Gild certificates demanded of the Gilds in 1389, and are found in the Guildhall MS. 142, fos. 164–74. submitting to the decision of the Fraternity, as well as any one who practised deceit on the common people, in slander of the Brotherhood, was to be ousted. Any one falling into misfortune should be helped by the Brotherhood, and a dirge and masses should be said for every departed brother in the church of the Hospital of 'St. Mary of Bethlem', where a brother may be buried if he will'; for the which purpose and for the amendment of the Brotherhood the members were urged to leave a portion of silver, each according to his power. But in 1363. Thus by the year 1363 the Drapers were a strong and in- Position of fluential body of men. They had been recognized by the Mayor the Drapers as a Craft with its governors, and also had formed a religious Fraternity which at once gave them a bond of union and supplied a religious sanction for the enforcement of their regulations. their position was not yet secure. Their monopoly of selling, and certainly of finishing, cloth and thereby obtaining the profits, which fall to the trader, was disputed by many Mysteries, especially by the Dyers, the Weavers, and the Fullers. This struggle was not confined to the wool trade nor to England. In France it was the Fullers who originally finished the cloth and sold it to the public, and in England the complaint that all Mysteries were engaging in the selling of other articles than those of their peculiar trade, and generally interfering with the handicraft of others, was so loud that in 1363 a Statute was passed which, on the ground that merchants called grossers do ingross all manner of merchandise vendible, and suddenly do enhance that price of such merchandise within the realm', enacted 'that no English merchant shall use no ware nor merchandise . . . but only one The Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem without Bishopsgate was founded in 1247 by Simon Fitzmary, Sheriff of London. Cf. Stow, ed. Kingsford, i. 32, 164, 297-8. The hospital was an appropriate place, considering that the confraternity was dedicated to the Virgin of Bethlehem; cf. The Story of Bethlehem, by E. G. O'Donoghue (Unwin & Co.). The Skinners also had a Brotherhood at the Hospital. Stow, i. 230. 2 The mention of John Lovekyn in 1342, who had transferred himself from the Shearmen to the Drapers, looks as if the Shearmen had also been unsuccessfully competing for the trade in cloth. Letter Book F, p. 2, fly-leaf. 3 Ashley, Econ. Hist., Bk. II, c. iii, p. 212. Their first which he shall choose . . . and that artificers, handicraft people hold them every one to one Mystery'. Fortified by this Statute the Drapers renewed their efforts. Already in 1362 it had been ordained that no Dyer or Weaver should make' cloth, and finally in 1363 the Drapers succeeded in obtaining their first definite recognition from the Crown." The Charter or Letters Patent of 38 Ed. III, after citing the Act of 1363, proceeds to state that because people belonging to divers Mysteries, who had not been apprenticed to, nor had been sufficiently instructed in the Mystery of the business of Drapery,... engage in the same trade, one can scarcely find any shop in the City in which there is not some Drapery offered for common sale', and that whereas such people, not having sufficient knowledge of the price of goods belonging to the merchandise of the Mystery of Drapery (i. e. the selling price of Drapery), by their ignorance and by the great engrossment " which they make of all kinds of cloth, have enhanced the price, and further that whereas dyers, weavers, and fullers have not confined themselves to their proper handicraft, but have engaged in the "making of cloth" and have refused to work at their own trades except at excessive wages, and have even perpetrated various frauds in the making, frauds which cannot be well detected unless the Drapers only have full knowledge of such work, and have also bought other cloth by way of forestalling, so that it was twice sold before coming to common sale; the which things are the chief cause of the excessive dearness of cloth'. Therefore for the future none shall use the said Mystery of Drapery in the city of London or its suburbs, unless he has been apprenticed in the said Mystery, or in other due manner received by the common assent of the same Mystery; that Dyers, Weavers, and Fullers shall keep to their proper craft and in no way meddle with the making, buying or selling of any manner of cloth I ' 38 Ed. III, cc. 5, 6. Cf. Appendix, vol. i, No. I. It is noticeable that women were exempted from the provisions of the Statute: All women, that use and work all handyworks, may freely use and work as they have done before.' 2 Letter Book G, fo. 101: Nos commandons de par notre Seignieur le Roi que nul teyntor ne teler soit si hardi de faire nul maner de drap sur peine de forfaire tut le drap issint par eux fait.' or drapery' on pain of forfeiture, and that no one who has cloth to sell shall sell it except to the Drapers, unless it be to the lords and others of the commons who wish to buy it for their own use, and even then it shall be sold in gross and not in retail. I The Letters Patent authorize the Drapers to elect four persons 'to oversee that no deceit or fraud be used in the Mystery of Drapers', to rule and govern the Mystery, and to punish those in whom default shall be found, by the aid of the Mayor and Sheriffs if need be. The franchises and free customs of the Prior of St. Bartholomew, of Smithfield, and of lords who have fairs in the suburbs, and the franchises granted to the Merchant Vintners of England and Gascony are, however, to remain in force, anything in this Statute notwithstanding.2 I They have as yet no Master. 2 Cf. Appendix, vol. i, No. VI. 1603-1 |