Book: Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.

S >> S. A. Reilly >> Our Legal Heritage, 4th Ed.




Some prices in London were: a hen pastry 5d., a capon pastry 8d.,
a roast pheasant 13d., a roast heron 18d., roast goose 7d., a hen
4d., a capon 6d., three roast thrushes 2d., ten larks 3d., ten
finches 1d, and ten cooked eggs 1d.

Many of the guilds bought sites on which they built a chapel,
which was later used as a secular meeting place. The guild
officers commonly included an alderman, stewards, a dean, and a
clerk, who were elected. The guild officers sat as a guild court
to determine discipline for offences such as false weights or
measures or false workmanship or work and decided trade disputes.
The brethren in guild fraternity were classified as masters,
journeymen, or apprentices. They were expected to contribute to
the support of the sick and impoverished in their fellowship.
Their code required social action such as ostracizing a man of the
craft who was living in adultery until he mended his ways.

The rules of the Company of Glovers were:

1. None but a freeman of the city shall make or sell gloves.

2. No glover may be admitted to the freedom of the city unless
with the assent of the wardens of the trade.

3. No one shall entice away the servant of another.

4. If a servant in the trade makes away with his master's
chattels to the value of 12d., the wardens shall make good
the loss; and if the servant refuses to be judged by the
wardens, he shall be taken before the mayor and aldermen.

5. No one may sell his goods by candle-light.

6. Any false work found shall be taken before the mayor and
aldermen by the wardens.

7. All things touching the trade within the city between those who
are not freemen shall be forfeited.

8. Journeymen shall be paid their present rate of wages.

9. Persons who entice away journeymen glovers to make gloves in
their own houses shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.

10. Any one of the trade who refuses to obey these regulations
shall be brought before the mayor and aldermen.

Cordwainers [workers in soft cordovan leather from Spain,
especially shoes] of good repute petitioned the city of London in
1375 for ordinances on their trade as follows:

"To the mayor and aldermen of the city of London pray the good
folks of the trade of cordwainers of the same city, that it may
please you to grant unto them the articles that follow, for the
profit of the common people; that so, what is good and right may
be done unto all manner of folks, for saving the honor of the city
and lawfully governing the said trade.

In the first place - that if any one of the trade shall sell to
any person shoes of bazen [sheep-skin tanned in oak or larch-bark]
as being cordwain, or of calf-leather for ox-leather, in deceit of
the common people, and to the scandal of the trade, he shall pay
to the Chamber of the Guildhall, the first time that he shall be
convicted thereof, forty pence; the second time, 7s. half a mark;
and the third time the same, and further, at the discretion of the
mayor and aldermen.

Also - that no one of the trade shall keep house within the
franchise if he be not free [invested with the rights or
privileges] of the city and one knowing his trade, and that no one
shall be admitted to the freedom without the presence of the
wardens of the trade bearing witness to his standing, on the pain
aforesaid.

Also - if any one of the trade shall be found offending touching
the trade, or rebellious against the wardens thereof, such person
shall not make complaint to any one of another trade, by reason of
the discord or dissension that may have arisen between them; but
he shall be ruled by the good folks of his own trade. And if he
shall differ from them as acting against right, then let the
offense be adjudged upon before the mayor and aldermen; and if he
be found rebellious against the ordinance, let him pay to the
Chamber the sum above mentioned.

Also - that no one of the trade shall entice or purloin the
servant of another from the service of his master by paying him
more than is ordained by the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall carry out of his house any wares
connected with his trade for sale in market or elsewhere except
only at a certain place situated between Soperesland and the
Conduit; and that at a certain time of the day, that is to say,
between prime [the first hour of the day] and noon. And that no
shoes shall exceed the measure of seven inches, so that the wares
may be surveyed by the good folks of the trade, because of the
deceit upon the common people that might ensue and the scandal of
the trade, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that no one shall expose his wares openly for sale in
market on Sundays at any place, but only within his own dwelling
to serve the common people, on the pain aforesaid.

Also - that if any one sells old shoes, he shall not mix new shoes
among the old in deceit of the common people and to the scandal of
the trade, on the pain aforesaid."

Smithfield was a field outside the city gates at which horses were
sold and raced. In 1372, the horsedealers and drovers petitioned
for a tax on animals sold there to pay for cleaning the field. The
city ordinance reads as follows: "On Wednesday next after the
Feast of St. Margaret the Virgin came reputable men, the
horsedealers and drovers, and delivered unto the mayor and
aldermen a certain petition in these words: 'To the mayor,
recorder, and aldermen show the dealers of Smithfield, that is to
say, the coursers and drovers, that for the amendment of the said
field they have granted and assented among them that for the term
of three years next ensuing after the date of this petition for
every horse sold in the said field there shall be paid one penny,
for every ox and cow one half-penny, for every eight sheep one
penny, and for every swine one penny by the seller and the same by
the purchaser who buys the same for resale.` Afterwards, on the
eleventh day of August in the same year, Adam Fernham, keeper of
the gaol at Newgate, Hugh, Averelle, bailiff of Smithfield, and
William Godhewe, weaver, were chosen and sworn faithfully to
collect and receive the said pennies in form aforesaid and to
clean the field of Smithfield from time to time during such term
of three years when necessary."

Many London houses were being made from stone and timber and even
brick and timber, instead of just timber and mud. However,
chimneys were still a luxury of the rich. They were made of stone,
tile, or plaster. There were windows of glass and a guild of
glaziers was chartered by the King. A typical merchant's house had
a cellar; a ground floor with a shop and storage space; a first
floor with a parlor to receive guests, a spacious hall for dining,
and perhaps a kitchen; and at the top, a large family bedroom and
a servant's room. Many single-roomed houses added a second-floor
room for sleeping, which was approached by a wooden or stone
staircase from the outside. Their goods were displayed on a booth
outside the door of the house or hung in the windows. They were
stored at night in the cellar. Over the booths swung huge signs,
which had to be nine feet above street level to allow a man on
horseback to ride underneath. There were no sidewalks. Street
repair work for wages was supervised by a stone master. The
streets sloped down from the middle so that the filth of the
streets would run down the sides of the road. There were many wood
chips in the streets due to cutting up of firewood before taking
it indoors. People often threw the rubbish from their houses onto
the street although they were supposed to cart it outside the city
walls and to clean the frontage of their houses once a week.
Dustmen scavenged through the rubbish on the streets. Pigs and
geese were not longer allowed to run at large in the streets, but
had to be fed at home. There were other city rules on building,
public order, the use of fountains, precautions against fire,
trading rights in various districts, closing time of taverns, and
when refuse could be thrown into the streets, e.g. nighttime.

Aldermen were constantly making rounds to test measures and
weights, wine cups, the height of tavern signs, and the mesh of
the fishing nets, which had to be at least two inches wide. They
saw that the taverns were shut when curfew was rung and arrested
anyone on the street after curfew who had a weapon, for no one
with a sword was allowed on the streets unless he was some great
lord or other substantial person of good reputation. Wards
provided citizens to guard the gates in their respective
neighborhood and keep its key.

The city was so dense that nuisance was a common action brought in
court, for instance, vegetable vendors near a church obstructing
passageway on the street or plumbers melting their solder with a
lower than usual shaft of the furnace so smoke was inhaled by
people nearby.

Crime in London was rare. Murder, burglary, highway robbery, and
gross theft were punishable by hanging. Forgery, fraud, was
punishable by the placement in the pillory or stocks or by
imprisonment. Perjury was punished by confession from a high stool
for the first offense, and the pillory for the second. Slander and
telling lies were punished by the pillory and wearing a whetstone
around one's neck. There was an ordinance passed against
prostitutes in 1351. London as well as other port towns had not
only prostitutes, but syphillus.

Prominent Londoners sought to elevate their social position by
having their family marry into rural landholders of position. For
poor boys with talent, the main routes for advancement were the
church, the law, and positions in great households.

Many master freemasons, who carved freestone or finely grained
sandstone and limestone artistically with mallet and chisel, left
the country for better wages after their wages were fixed by
statute. The curvilinear gothic style of architecture was replaced
by the perpendicular style, which was simpler and cheaper to
build. Church steeples now had clocks on them with dials and hands
to supplement the church bell ringing on the hour. Alabaster was
often used for sepulchral monuments instead of metal or stone.
With it, closer portraiture could be achieved.

In the 1300s and 1400s the London population suffered from
tuberculosis, typhus, influenza, leprosy, dysentery, smallpox,
diphtheria, measles, heart disease, fevers, coughs, cramps,
catarrhs and cataracts, scabs, boils, tumors, and "burning agues".
There were also many deaths by fires, burning by candles near
straw beds when drunk, falling downstairs when drunk, and drowning
in the river or wells. Children were often crushed by carts,
trampled by horses, or mauled by pigs. Towns recognized surgery as
a livelihood subject to admission and oath to serve the social
good. Master surgeons were admitted to practice in 1369 in London
in full husting before the mayor and the aldermen and swore to:
faithfully serve the people in undertaking their cures, take
reasonably from them, faithfully follow their calling, present to
the said mayor and aldermen the defaults of others undertaking, so
often as should be necessary; to be ready, at all times when they
should be warned, to attend the maimed or wounded and others, to
give truthful information to the officers of the city as to such
maimed, wounded, or others whether they be in peril of death or
not, and to faithfully do all other things touching their calling.

Some young girls of good families were boarded at nunneries to be
taught there. Some upper class widows retired there. Only women
were allowed to be present at a birth, at which they spread the
knowledge of midwifery. As usual, many women died giving birth.
Various ways to prevent pregnancy were tried. It was believed that
a baby grew from a seed of the father planted in the woman's body.

Infant mortality was especially high in boroughs and burgess
family lines usually died out. A three-generation family span was
exceptional in the towns, despite family wealth.

Children's sweets included gingerbread and peppermint drops. After
the plague, gentlemen no longer had their children learn to speak
Norman. The grammar schools taught in English instead of Norman as
of 1362. Bishops began to preach in English. English became the
official language of Parliament, in 1363, and the courts,
replacing Norman and Latin.

A will in 1389 in which a wealthy citizen arranges for one son to
become a attorney and the other a merchant: "Will of William de
Tonge, citizen of London: One hundred marks [1,333s.] each to my
two sons. And I will that my said two sons shall live upon the
profits of the money bequeathed to them above until the age of
twenty years. And if my said two sons be well learned in grammar
and adorned with good manners, which shall be known at the end of
twenty years, and the elder son wish to practice common law, and
if it is known that he would spend his time well in that faculty,
I will that over and above the profit of the said one hundred
marks he shall have yearly from my rents for the term of seven
years five marks [67s.]. And if he should waste his time
aforesaid, or if he should marry foolishly and unsuitably, I will
that he receive nothing more of the said five marks.

And if younger son wishes to attend the University of Oxford or to
establish himself well in the mystery of a merchant after the age
of twenty years, and [if] there be knowledge of his praiseworthy
progress in his faculty or his carefulness in trading ... I will
that he shall receive five marks yearly in the manner described
above for his maintenance, over and above the profit of the said
one hundred marks to him bequeathed, for the space of seven years;
and if he behave himself otherwise, I will that thereupon he be
excluded from the said five marks. And in case the said bequest of
200 marks [2,667s.] to him and his brother shall be annulled so
that he shall have nothing therefrom ... then the said 200 marks
shall be spent upon all the yearly chaplains who can be had to
celebrate divine service in the church of All Hallows for my
soul."

England was still an agricultural rather than a manufacturing
country. Imported were cloth, silks, linen, velvets, furs, glass,
wines, candles, millstones, amber, iron, and mercury. Exported
were wool, leather, lead, tin, and alabaster for sculpturing.
Merchant adventurers came to manufacture cloth good enough for
export and began to buy up raw wool in such quantity that its
export declined. They took their cloth abroad to sell, personally
or by agents.

An Oxford theologian and preacher, John Wyclif, voiced the popular
resentment of the materialism of the church, benefit of clergy,
immorality of priests, and the selling of indulgences and pardons.
Encouraged by the king, he argued against the supremacy of the
papal law over the King's courts and against payments to the
papacy. He opined that the church had no power to excommunicate.
The friars had become mere beggars and the church was still
wealthy. He proposed that all goods should be held in common by
the righteous and that the church should hold no property but be
entirely spiritual. He believed that people should rely on their
individual consciences. He thought that the Bible should be
available to people who could read English so that the people
could have a direct access to God without priests or the pope.
Towards this end, he translated it from Latin into English in
1384. His preachers spread his views throughout the country. The
church then possessed about one-third of the land of the nation.

William of Ockham, an Englishman educated at Oxford and teaching
theology in Paris, taught that the primary form of knowledge came
from experience gained through the senses and that God might cause
a person to think that he has intuitive knowledge of an existent
object when there is in fact no such object.

Most great lords were literate. Many stories described good men,
who set an example to be followed, and bad men, whose habits were
to be avoided. Stories were written about pilgrimage vacations of
ordinary people to religious sites in England. Will Langland's
poem "The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman" portrays a
pilgrimage of common people to the shrine of Truth led by a
virtuous laborer. Mystics wrote practical advice with
transcendental teaching, for instance "Scale of Perfection"
attributed to Walter Hilton and "Cloud of Unknowing". Richard
Rolle wrote about spiritual matters, probably the "Prick of
Conscience". Richard de Bury wrote "Philobiblon" about book
lovers. Jean Froissart wrote the "Chronicles" on knights. Courtly
ideals were expressed in "Sir Gawaine and the Grene Knyght",
wherein the adventures of the hero, an Arthur knight, are
allegorical in the struggle against the world, the flesh, and the
devil (1370). "Pearl" eulogized all that is pure and innocent on
the event of the death of a two year old child.

Geoffrey Chaucer was a squire and diplomat of the king. His "Tales
of the Canterbury Pilgrims" portrayed characters of every social
class, including the knight with his squire, abbot, prioress, nun,
priest, monk, friar, poor parson of the country, summoner (who
enforced the jurisdiction and levied the dues of the church
courts), pardoner (sold pardons from the pope), scholar, attorney,
doctor, merchant, sailor, franklin, yeoman, haberdasher, tapestry-
maker, ploughman, cook, weaver, dyer, upholsterer, miller, reeve,
carpenter.

There were Chaucer stories about a beautiful and virtuous wife
disliked by her mother-in-law, the difficulty of marriage between
people of different religions, the hatred of a poor person by his
brother and his neighbor, rich merchants who visited other
kingdoms, the importance of a man himself following the rules he
sets for other people's behavior, the spite of a man for a woman
who rejected him, the relative lack of enthusiasm of a wife for
sex as compared to her husband, a mother giving up her own comfort
for that of her child, the revenge killing of a murderer by the
dead man's friends, the joy of seeing a loved one after years of
separation, that life is more sad than happy, that lost money can
be retrieved, but time lost is lost forever.

Other stories in the Canterbury Tales were about two men who did
not remain friends after they fell in love with the same woman,
about a child who preferred to learn from an older child than from
his school-teacher, about a wife who convinced her husband not to
avenge her beating for the sake of peace, about a man who woke up
from bad dreams full of fear, about a man wanting to marry a
beautiful woman but later realizing a plain wife would not be
pursued by other men, about a man who drank so much wine that he
lost his mental and physical powers, about a woman who married for
money instead of love, about a man who said something in
frustration which he didn't mean, about a person brought up in
poverty who endured adversity better than one brought up in
wealth, about a wife who was loving and wise, about a good
marriage being more valuable than money, about a virgin who
committed suicide rather than be raped, about a wife persuaded to
adultery by a man who said he would otherwise kill himself, about
three men who found a pile of gold and murdered each other to take
it all, about an angry man who wanted to kill, about a malicious
man who had joy in seeing other men in trouble and misfortune,
about a man whose face turned red in shame, about a wife expecting
to have half of what her husband owned. Paper supplemented
parchment, so there were more books.

Political songs and poems were written about the evil times of
King Edward II, the military triumphs of King Edward III, and the
complaints of the poor against their oppressors, such as "Song of
the Husbandman". John Gower wrote moralizing poems on the
villein's revolt, the sins of the clergy and attorneys, and the
bad rule of King Richard II, who in 1377 succeeded Edward III.
Robin Hood ballads were popular. The minstrel, who was a honorable
person, replaced the troubadour of older times.

There were many colleges at Oxford and Cambridge due to the
prohibition of gifts to the church. Laymen instead of
ecclesiastics were appointed as Chancellor. The Masters at Oxford
got rid of ecclesiastical supervision by a bishop and archdeacon
by 1368. One could be admitted as a student at age thirteen. The
rate of maintenance for a student was 10d. weekly.

A Bachelor of Arts degree was granted after four years of study
and an oral exam. Required reading in 1340 for the Bachelor's
Degree was the new logic of Aristotle ("Prior and Posterior
Analytics" e.g. on syllogistic logic and deduction, the "Topics",
or the "Sophistical Refutations", e.g. logical fallacies such as
from 'All A are B' to 'All B are A'), and a selection from these
Aristotle works on physics: "Of Heaven and Earth", "On the Soul",
"Of meteors", "Of Birth and Decay", or "Of Feeling and What is
Felt" with "Of Memory and Recollection" and "Of Sleep and Waking",
or "Of the Movement of Animals" with "Of Minor Points in Natural
History".

A Master of Arts degree could be awarded after three more years of
study and teaching. A Doctorate degrees in theology required ten
more years of study. A Doctorate in civil or canon law required
eight more years. A man with a degree in canon law who wanted to
practice in a certain bishop's court had to first satisfy this
bishop of his competence.

Another source of legal learning was in London, where the guilds
gave rise to the Inns of Court. They used the Register of Writs,
the case law of the Year Books, and disputation to teach their
students.

For a doctorate in medicine from Oxford or Cambridge, five more
years plus two years of practice were required. Surgery was not
taught because it was considered manual labor, and there was some
feeling that it was a sacrilege and dishonorable. Urinalysis and
pulse beat were used for diagnosis. Epilepsy and apoplexy were
understood as spasms inside the head. It was known what substances
served as laxatives and diuretics. Teeth were extracted, eye
cataracts were removed with a silver needle, and skin from the arm
was grafted onto a mutilated face.

Englishmen who had collected books on philosophy, medicine,
astronomy, and history and literature books from the continent
gave their collections to the universities, which started their
libraries. Marco Polo's discoveries on his journey to China were
known.

The requirements of elementary and higher studies were adjusted in
1393 and began the public school system. William of Wykeham's
school, St. Mary College of Winchester in Oxford was the
prototype. The curriculum was civil law, canon law, medicine, with
astronomical instruments that students made, theology, and the
arts. The arts textbooks were still grammar, logic, Donatus, and
Aristotle. Many laymen were literate, for instance country gentry,
merchants, and craftsmen. Laymen instead of clerics were now
appointed to the great offices of state.

Parliament met about twice a year and lasted from two weeks to
several months. There was a well-defined group of about fifty
barons and a few spiritual peers who were always summoned to
Parliament and who composed a House of Lords. "Peer" now meant a
member of the House of Lords. All peers had the right to approach
the king with advice. The baron peers reasoned that the custom of
regular attendance was a right that should be inherited by the
eldest son, or by a female heir, if there were no male heirs.
However, the theory of nobility by blood as conveying political
privilege had no legal recognition. No female could attend
Parliament; the husband of a baronness attended Parliament in her
stead. Edward III and Richard II created new peers with various
titles of dignity, such as duke and marquess, which were above
barons and earls. The dukes and marquesses were identified with a
territorial designation such as an English county or county town.
Whenever a Parliament was assembled the commons were present. The
commons was composed of representatives from 100 boroughs and 37
counties. Each new Parliament required an election of
representatives. The members of the commons were generally the
most prominent and powerful economic and political figures of the
county and were repeatedly re-elected. The electors were usually
influenced by the sheriff or a powerful lord who suggested
suitable men. The wealthy merchants typically represented the
boroughs and paid much of the taxes. Under Edward III, the commons
took a leading part in the granting of taxes and the presentation
of petitions and became a permanent and distinct body, the House
of Commons, with a spokesman or "speaker", chosen by the Crown,
and a clerk. The speaker came to be an intermediary between the
Commons and the king and between the Commons and the Lords. A
clerk of Parliament registered its acts and sat with the Lords. A
clerk of the Crown superintended the issue of writs and the
receipt of the returns and attested the signature of the king on
statutes. It became a regular practice for the Chancellor to open
Parliament with an opportunity to present petitions after his
opening speech. The king then referred them to certain peers and
justices, who decided to which court, or Parliament, they should
be sent. During the 1300s, the number of barons going to
Parliament gradually decreased.

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