Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/319

 GUILD 305 and harness makers, &c. The most an- cient of chartered French guilds is the hanse of merchants and watermen of the Seine, which is supposed to have sprung from the Parisian " nautes " (Lat. nautce, sailors or boatmen) ex- isting in the time of the Romans. This body had absolute control of the trade carried on by the watercourses of the Seine and the Yonne between Mantes and Auxerre; no merchant could bring his wares into Paris without he- coming a member of this guild or obtaining from it lettres de hanse. Similar guilds sprang up in most of the commercial cities situated aloug the other river courses or on the sea- shore. Sometimes several of these formed a commercial league, such as existed between the Hanseatic towns of Germany. Above the trades were several privileged guilds, such as the merchants' guilds called les six corps, viz. : drapers, grocers, haberdashers, furriers, hatters, and jewellers. According to Sismondi, the cities of Flanders and Holland secured the benefit of self-government before those of France or Italy ; and Thierry deduces this fact from the institution of guilds or fra- ternities among the burghers. Two essential characteristics belonged to them, the common banquet and the common purse. In many in- stances they had a religious, and in some a secret ceremonial, to knit more firmly the bond of fidelity. From the private guild, pos- sessing the vital spirit of faithfulness and brotherly love, sprang the sworn communi- ty, the body of citizens, bound by a voluntary but perpetual obligation to guard each other's rights against the thefts of the weak or the tyr- anny of the powerful. The progress from the guild to the corporation can be traced in other European countries ; but in the Low Countries from time immemorial they are found to co- exist. All through the middle ages the Dutch and Flemish guilds exercised a preponderating influence. There is not a cathedral or church edifice of any importance in Holland or Bel- gium but contains some pictorial or sculptured monument commemorative of some great event connected with these guilds, and representing their costumes, banners, corporate seal, or pub- lic festivities. In Paul Lacroix's Mceurs, usages et costumes au rnoyen dge, are engravings of various trades' guilds of St. Trond, Hasselt, Bruges, Maestricht, Antwerp, and Ghent. In Germany the immunities and privileges enjoyed under the Roman domination by the brother- hoods of craftsmen were swept away by feudal- ism ; the condition of the workmen was one of serfage down to the time of the emperor Hen- ry I. (919-'36). During the next two centu- ries the guilds banded themselves together, and gradually acquired such power in the cit- ies that they rivalled the nobles in influence and aimed at controlling the municipal gov- ernment. Charlemagne had felt their power, and in his capitularies laid down rules limiting the growth of guilds in conformity with local needs. The emperors Frederick II. and Henry VII. vainly attempted long afterward to sup- press the guilds, whose incessant contests with the nobility led to frequent bloodshed. The whole laboring' population of England during the Anglo-Saxon period was virtually organ- ized into guilds. The charters of many Eng- lish guilds date from the 10th century ; the steelyard merchants (gilda Theutonicorum) ex- isted before 96V, and were chartered in 1232 ; the establishment of the saddlers' company dates from the same epoch. Trade guilds are mentioned in the Judicia Civitatis Londo- nice, compiled by King Athelstan, and in other Anglo-Saxon laws; they must therefore have existed in 939. But it is certain that others existed before that; lawyers agree that the stallingers of Sunderland, the dredgers of Whitstable, and the free fishermen of Faver- sham have existed from time immemorial. Another famous brotherhood was the cnichten or knigten guild, which existed in the reign of Edgar (died in 975), and was chartered by Ed- ward the Confessor (1042-'66). All this con- firms the assertion of Lingard, that at the Nor- man conquest there were guilds not only in the chief cities of England, but in the surrounding rural districts, all organized on the same prin- ciples. The boroughs were made up of guilds of tradesmen, who had conquered their free- dom by their union ; and in each borough these guilds formed one body politic with common rights and common interests. They had each their hall or hanse house, in which they met and deliberated ; they exercised the power of enacting by (or borough) laws ; and they pos- sessed, by lease or purchase, houses, pasture, and forest lands for the common use. Under Norman rule, the growth of guilds was much interfered with at first. Henry I. (1100-'35) commanded that all should receive the royal license ; and he subjected several guilds, secu- lar and religious, to heavy fines, because they had been established without license, or exer- cised their functions independently of it. This penalty fell heavily on London, where the re- ligious guilds or confraternities were very nu- merous. They were much encouraged by Hen- ry II. ; but as they increased under this patron- age, and were much given to parading with their respective "liveries" and banners, colli- sions between rival trades became so frequent that at length under Henry IV. they were for- bidden to wear their liveries. In subsequent reigns they were permitted to appear in them at coronations, and finally it became necessary to obtain the royal license for appearing in public with their insignia. The term " livery company " was substituted for that of guild in the reign of Edward III. (1327-'77), and has been applied ever since to the London trades in particular. The most ancient of these is be- lieved to be the guild of woollen weavers (gil- da telariorwri), chartered by Henry I. In Stow's time there were in London 63 livery companies, 12 of which are called by him " hon- orable companies out of which the lord mayor