The influence and development of English gilds : $b as illustrated by the history of the craft gilds of ShrewsburyHibbert, Francis Aidan
History
The influence and development of English gilds : $b as illustrated by the history of the craft gilds of Shrewsbury
Hibbert, Francis Aidan
Guilds -- England -- History; Guilds -- England -- Shrewsbury (England) -- History
It was natural that men working at the same trade,--living probably in the
same neighbourhood[52], and during intervals of rest exchanging gossip
from adjacent door-steps,--meeting one another in all the actions of daily
life and with thoughts and language running in similar grooves,--should
also desire to be not separated in worship. Likewise, in time of trouble,
when death brought gloom to the house of a fellow-workman, or when through
accident or misfortune he failed to appear at his accustomed place in yard
or workshop, it was by the ordinary promptings of nature that his brother
craftsmen came to offer their sympathy and help. And so we find the men of
the various trades forming themselves into fraternities, in order to pour
united supplications for Divine assistance and to offer thanks in common
for Divine favour[53]. The Tailors and Shoemakers had their chantries in
St Chad's Church, where the Weavers also had their especial altar,
maintaining in addition a light before the shrine of St Winifred in the
Abbey of the Holy Cross. The Drapers of the town early became drawn
together in a religious brotherhood, the chapel of which in the collegiate
church of Our Lady was the object of frequent and solicitous care when the
fraternity of the Holy Trinity was definitively changed into the
Worshipful Company of the Drapers. In the church of St Juliana the altar
of the Shearmen stood in the north aisle, where a chaplain said their
special mass for a yearly stipend of L4[54].
It was the pride of the Gilds to expend the best efforts of their wealth
and skill on the embellishment and maintenance of their chapel upon which
they were able to look as their own. Their worldly possessions at no one
time reached a figure high enough for them to provide a large endowment
for church or chantry, but the thankofferings of the years sufficed for
all current expenses. The fixed stipend was small, but the fabric, raised
and adorned as funds allowed, was commodious and beautiful[55].
It was to this ever-present desire to consecrate some portion of the
yearly profits of trade to the honour of Him who had given the increase,
that the annual pageant owed its pomp. The Corpus Christi procession was
an occasion of especial prominence at Shrewsbury, where the Gild charters
and records are full of minute regulations for its order.
[Sidenote: _Social,_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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