^^^^
114
STONEMASONS OF GERMANY.
guilds for mutual protection
Guilds
;
and support taking a new form, and appearing as Burgher
after another from the bishop until the entire
and ultimately wresting one privilege
for membership was,
government of the city remains in their hands. The original qualification
some of
no doubt, territorial possession.^ Many of the members may have carried on trade
Meanwhile, the unfree or bond population would
the jjoorer, perhaps, were handicraftsmen.^
;
from neighbouring tyrants,
continually increase, both by natural propagation, by refugees
claimino- the protection of the Church, and by grants of serfs from feudal chieftains to the
Those serfs who exercised handicrafts would then obtain permission to devote their
time to their own profit, and obtain a shadow of independence. Freemen also would
surplus
be attracted to the growing towns from one cause or another, and devote themselves to trades
bishops.^
and
crafts.
amongst the causes which governed the rapid increase in the populations of
the towns, may have been the fact that a serf or bondsman taking refuge in a town, and
This custom became
remaining unclaimed for a year and a day, became a /?-ce-man.
Not the
least
acknowledged law in the course of the twelfth century,^ and may have been copied from
England, where this law was ordained in the eleventh century by William the Conqueror.^
These, however, were not admissible to the burgher guilds, not being possessed of the territorial
They would naturally band themselves into trade guilds for mutual defence.
would obtain from their lord the permission to form guilds
If one trade were not numerous enough several would form
for the regulation of their trades.
one guild. In course of time they would wrest or purchase one privilege after another from
their superior, until at last they were wholly beyond his authority, and then would be
acknowledged by the other free guilds as one of themselves. As labour became more and
qualification.
Following their example, the serfs
more subdivided, the number of
numerous of all these facts. For
Bale, in a
our town
document under
who
town would increase.
Examples are
on the 14th November 1260, Bishop Berchtold of
instance,
different guilds in a
his hand, recites,
carry on a mechanical pursuit,
possess brotherhoods,
commonly
"
Inasmuch
men
as almost every class of
by our grace and by that
in this
of our predecessors do
called guilds, the tailors alone excepted,"
—and he then permits
own
the tailors to enjoy equal privileges, including that of choosing their
them a constitution, defining their right and duties, and fixing the
master, and grants
amount
of fines for
offences.^
"
This not only proves that other guilds previously existed which had been formed of the
grace of the bishop," showing that they were, therefore, not freemen (who required no such
permission), but also that the tailors at once gained a large
own
amount of freedom, inasmuch
as
This was not always the case for in a charter
to the butchers of Bale, 4th June 1248, by Bishop Lutold II., he reserves to himself the right
they were allowed
to elect their
officers.
;
of appointing a master.'
And,
again, the
*
Lujo Brentano,
'
Many
On
same
restriction occurs in the grant to the guild of Spinneioetters.
This
"
the History and Development of Guilds, p. 29.
Ibid.
may be found amongst the copies of documents in the first volume of Laeomblet,
instances of the latter
Urkundeubruch.
*
^
Dr W. Arnold, Das Aiifkommen
des Handwerkers, p. 23.
Aubrey, History of England, vol. i., p. 183 Glanville, lib.
H. A. Berlepsch, Chronik der Gewerbe, vol. ii., pp. 18, 19.
;
'
is
v., c. 5.
'
Hid.,
vol. v
,
pp. 17, 18.