Nothing is now heard of the Surgeons’ Guild for some years, although they were still in existence. It is quite probable, that finding the Barbers had invariably obtained the protection and countenance of the City authorities, whenever their privileges had been assailed or called in question, they had given over their attempts at interference with them as hopeless, and allowed our worthy predecessors to continue to “exercise the faculty of surgery,” in peace; and being unmolested they doubtless grew in numbers, in importance, and in the knowledge of their art, until it was admitted that their position as one of the Guilds, warranted them in applying for a Charter of Incorporation, which was granted to them by Edward IV in 1462. 1413. Before proceeding to refer to this important epoch in the history of our Company, it will be well to introduce a very remarkable letter, which was written by Thomas Arundell, Archbishop of Canterbury (formerly of York), to the Mayor, etc., of London, in which he complained that the Barbers, being, alas! “without zeal for the law of God,” kept their shops open on the Sabbath days, and he besought the Mayor and Aldermen (his “sons in Christ, and dearest friends”) to put a stop to this practice. No trade, perhaps, has from the earliest days, down to our own times, owned such persistent breakers of the Fourth Commandment as have the Barbers. Our records abound with by-laws, enacted and renewed over and over again on this subject, and details of the delinquencies of numerous Barbers in this respect, and of their punishments by fine and imprisonment crop up everywhere. The Archbishop’s letter reveals to us the fact, that nearly 500 years ago, men were constituted much as they are now; in that “that which touches the body or the purse, is held more in dread than that which kills the soul,” and he shrewdly suggests that the clerical punishment of “the greater excommunication,” should be augmented by a fine to be levied by the Civil authority. This letter is so deeply interesting that no apology is needed for reproducing it here. The original is to be found in _Letter-Book I._ 125. 1413. On the 24th day of July, in the first year, etc. (Henry V) the Reverend Father in Christ, and Lord, Thomas, by Divine permission, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, sent here, to the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, certain Letters Close of his, containing words as follow:--