existent, to effect an union between the practical and spiritual side of man's nature.

At the same time it must not be overlooked that the church also had a distinct function in these medieval cities. The overbearing feudal lord had disappeared, but were the people lordless, or had they only exchanged their masters? Landed feudalism was dead, but was civic feudalism not an even more subtle danger? It is difficult to imagine a position that offered greater opportunities for unbridled despotism than the office of mayor of a medieval city, if the holder happened to have a mind of tyrannical flexure. The church was his one formidable opponent. The mayor, as he walked through the city, was constantly reminded by the closed gates of the monasteries, by the reserved area of the liberties of St. Peter's and St. Mary's that his supremacy was not complete. Hundreds of men within his own city owed him no obedience; he neither supervised their trade activities nor knew their modes of life; in his fraternity the representatives of the ecclesiastical power, though in its least important form, were forced to come to heel. Human nature being the one unchangeable factor in life, can we doubt that the mayor preferred the fraternity to the minster service, that, paradoxical as it may seem, the ecclesiastical tyrant prevented the tyranny of the civic tyrant; that liberty was kept alive by the play of two inimical forces ?

Incapable as the merchants were of visualising a world without a religion, no countrymen of Chaucer and Langland could remain ignorant of the attacks on the church. York, too, had been in 1425 the scene of a great revival. William Melton1 had preached through the streets and in the market place sermons that had had a great effect on the morality of the city. Unfortunately, these sermons have not come down to us, but the sermons of St. Bernardine in the market place of Siena, preached two years later, with the same object of quickening the spiritual life of the ordinary citizen, give some idea of the style of the fifteenth century revivalist. "For very many folks," says this keen though humorous observer

1 York Memorandum Book, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 156-158, xlvii-xlix.

2 G. G. Coulton, Medieval Garner, pp. 610, 618. St. Bernardino's sermons.

PRACTICALITY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

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of life, “considering the wicked life of monks and friars and nuns and clergy, are shaken by this-nay oftentimes fail in faith—and believe in naught higher than the roof of their own house."

But still more amusing are St. Bernardine's strictures on the bachelor in search of a wife-" How would'st thou have the wife," he asks in an imaginary dialogue, "I would have her tall, and thou art a mere willow wren; honest-thou art dishonest; temperate and thou art never out of the tavern; active-thou art a sluggard; peaceful-and thou would'st storm at a straw"; a church that produces preachers of this kind could not have been surprised when the worldly-wise men accepted and discarded her teachings to suit rather their practical advancement than their spiritual development.

The keynote of the fifteenth century in York, if we can judge from the innumerable account rolls, letters, rentals, petitions to government, charters, records of business meetings still extant, was practicality. The merchants devoted themselves to amassing wealth with a wholehearted zeal unrivalled even by the frenzied efforts of the twentieth century goldworshipper. The deck was cleared for action, for the church provided a refuge for all those mystics who shrank from what they regarded as an ignoble struggle. Within the gates of St. Mary's, St. Leonard's, and the numerous religious houses, these people gifted with a truer sense of the real value of life resided, but they were a small minority even there. Thus the only antagonistic influence to concentration on material development was not only temporarily withdrawn from contact with the life of the people, but sterilised for ever.

The extraordinary homogeneity of fifteenth century town life has probably never been surpassed. At the top of society the nobility were concentrated on futile dynastic wars; at the bottom the bondman had gradually ceased to be distinguishable. Between these two extremes lay the great middle class, all workers, the difference between them being one of degree, not kind, for the mayor's chain was attainable by any man of sufficient wealth, and the line of demarcation between merchanting and manufacturing was not very pronounced until the century was nearly over. But this similarity of position

was equalled by a similarity of aim, which was shared even by the ecclesiastical element in the city. The churchmen, however, were concentrated on consolidating or squandering wealth; the laymen on acquiring it. It is only when these facts are clearly realised that the full significance of the account rolls of the second city in the kingdom becomes apparent. In the one hundred and forty-three rolls, which cover the history of the company from 1432 to 1679, lie imbedded not merely the records of a trade combination, but a narrative of the men, who not only made their city famous, but who helped to make their country a power in Europe.

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Most of these rolls are vellum, clearly written, sometimes in Latin of a barbaric type, sometimes in English. There are gaps, for the rolls are missing from 1453 to 1459, from 1461 to 1472, from 1482 to 1484, and occasionally the roll for a year, as in 1473, 1479, 1480, 1495, 1498; and in 1532 only a paper account is extant. Still the hundred and forty-three rolls form a goodly heritage in spite of these lacunæ. The early rolls call the master magister communitatis mistere mercerorum civitatis Ebor'," but in 1465 the designation is translated into English as "Master of the fellishipe of the crafte of mercers of the city of Yorke." No rolls are forthcoming until 1472, when Thomas Wrangwis appears as "master of the gild or fraternity of the Holy Trinity." In 1475, however, Richard York figures as "Master of the mistery of merchants and of the gild and fraternity of the Holy Trinity."4 This assumption of dual responsibility would probably not have been allowed by the master of the hospital had the position of Richard York been assailable, but he was the uncrowned king of York. In 14975 William Cleveland, as has been already seen, calls himself master or custodian "hospitalis domini nostri Jhesu Christi et beate Marie Virginis," but in 1499 William Nelson again claims his rights and figures as "Master of the company of merchants and mercers and of the gild of Holy

1 Text, p. 37.

2 Unprinted roll under date.

3 Text, p. 66.

4 Unprinted roll under date.

5 Text, p. 99.

THE ACCOUNT ROLL (1432)

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Trinity." Still another change takes place in 1529, when Robert Whitefeld, alderman, is called "Governor of the fellowship and mystery of merchants and mercers of the city of York and keeper of the confraternity and gild of the Blessed Trinity."

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The

The first account roll of the year 1432 recalls the fact that the royal charter is a new possession, for John Lyllyng and John Burnlay receive £1 6s. 8d. "for thaire gode labour and busynes that they did for the cumpany before tyme." personnel had increased; the company employed a solicitor, a master of the hospital, and three chaplains. In addition to their salaries, the master is given a gown and hood, the chaplains hoods only. Sir William Otteley's gown was the subject of some controversy. Amongst a lot of torn and dirty papers, a scrap was found less defaced than the rest. At first illegible, it yielded its story after treatment by hydrogen bisulphide. Sir William Otteley had ordered from two York skinners a great gown furred with white." This wurschipful suffrane," as the note calls him, had been occupied when the porters delivered the gown, and the sister of the house instead of discharging the debt, 3s. 4d., in full, only paid less than 28. The porters were not allowed apparently to go to complain to Sir William in his chamber, but there is a sly hint that he knew what was taking place, as he was saying his matins at the glass window near which the altercation took place. The story gives a homely touch to the history of the hospital, the officious sister, the clamorous porters, who had imbibed an "alpenwerth of ale," the listening priest, all help us to visualise the scene. By his will Otteley left many books and vestments to the hospital, and a donation to the poor of both sexes, but only on condition that his executors are not harassed about repairs to the hospital or its property by his successor. The exacting demands of ecclesiastical commissioners were not unknown evidently in 1432.1

The roll for the following year contains an interesting reference to the lord of Camfere, which incidentally shows how

1 Text, pp. 40-42. The roll contains some interesting information about the repairs to Trinity Hall.

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close was the connection between the mistery and the council of the city. It gives the first hint of the trade with the Low Countries, which was such an important factor in the city's prosperity in the next century. The entry, without the elucidation supplied by the Memorandum Book, would be a dry detail. Item, paide to Master Roger Burton for a letter that went to the lorde of Camfer, vjs. viijd." But the letter is given in full in the city's record, as it is written in the name of the mayor, it is not clear why the mistery should have paid the town clerk for writing it. It is a reply to a remonstrance from the lord of Veere, near Middelburg in Zealand, then a flourishing seaport. He had written to complain of the maltreatment of his sailors by the mariners from Hull and Newcastle. The York merchants replied that they had no jurisdiction over the delinquents. They promise, however, to urge the mayors of Hull and Newcastle without any delay to discover and punish the evildoers. They call God to witness, that if any cause of complaint should be given by any one under their control, they would pass sleepless nights until the evil should be redressed. Evidently the worthy burghers were anxious to be on good terms with the governor of Veere, where the Scots had settled with the intention of keeping the trade to themselves. The letter is a marvel of flowery rhetoric, and if the mercers grudged Roger his fee, they were ungrateful.3

The complete interdependence of mistery and fraternity is clear from the earliest rolls, though it is not until 15014 that the rentals appear on them. The payments for entrance into the company and fraternity fluctuate so much that apparently each case was judged on its merits. William Katryk pays 38. 4d. to be received into the company, he enters by patrimony, but he gives the same fee to be a brother,' that is a member of the fraternity.5 "Maister Norhun of the order of frere

1 Text, p. 40.

2 The house, where the Scots merchants lived, still remains in the now deserted village of Veere to show by its noble proportions and decorated exterior how important the Scots' trade must have been, and how flourishing the port.

3 York Memorandum Book, vol. ii, pp. 87-89.

4 Unprinted roll under date.

5 Text, p. 44.