Gentlemen whosoeuer Which disposition measure not by the few Angells you receiue in this Letter For what are twenty in such a case If this my sute and request cary the lesse regard because it comes but from a priuate Citizen be pleased I pray to vnderstand that in me though being but one man multitudes speake and that out of a priuate pen a publike cause propounds it selfe And yet I come not single For with this Letter of mine I send you two other The one from a worshipfull friend and kinsman of mine written to me and the other of my Cousin his second sonne much what of one nature with this of mine And so with my loue and best respects remembred I commit you to Gods holy keeping and rest c. The true Copies of those two other Letters whereof in the former there is mention The Fathers Letter Cousin I pray peruse the enclosed which troubleth me as much as it doth my sonne and seeke satisfaction of such as are skilfull indeed I care not for charge for looke whatsoeuer it costs I will beare it In the meane while comfort my childe for if it bee so as hee writes hee shall not stay in London though it cost me fiue hundred Pounds And so in great hast I leaue you to our Lord Christ c. The Apprentises Letter to his Father MOst deare and most louing Father my most humble dutie remembred vnto you These are to giue you to vnderstand that my body is in good health praised he God but my minde and spirits are not for they are very much troubled For so it is Sir that albeit my Master be a very worthy and an honest Citizen and that my selfe doing as an Apprentise ought which I doe willingly not refusing any thing as remembring St. Peters precept Serui subditi estote in timore Domini am as well vsed in this house as if I were with you yet by reading certaine bookes at spare houres and conferring with some who take vpon them to be very well skill'd in Heraldry I am brought to beleeue that by being a Prentise I lose my birth right and the right of my blood both by father and mother which is to be a Gentlemen which I had rather dye then to endure This is my griefe and this the cause why my minde is so troubled as I cannot eat nor sleepe in quiet Teares hinder me from writing more and therefore most humbly crauing pardon and your most fatherly blessing I commit you to God c. From London c. THE CITIES ADVOCATE In a question of Honor and Armes Whether Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentrie The Contents of this first part 1 THe present question very important for many great causes Two Crowned Queenes of England much of the Nobility parties to it Bullen Calthorpe L. Majors of London their interesses in royall blood What Quaestio status and what the least capitis diminutio is Only the base neglect it Honour a faire Starre Disparagement odious Preuention of mischiefes by determining this question Proud Citie-races vnworthy of the Citie 2 The Cities Honors in Armes proued out of ancient Monuments The L. Fitz Walter Standard-bearer of London Claurie and Biallie two termes in old blazon 3 The transcendent power of opinion To derogate from the splendor of birth reputed a wrong Whence comes the present question of Apprentiship 4 The maine reason why some doe hold that Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentrie Apprentiship no bondage either in truth or at all The case truely propounded The skill of honest gettings a precious mystery What kinde of contract that seemes to be which is betweene Master and Apprentise 5 An obiection that Apprentiship is a kinde of bondage The fine folly of Erasmus in his Etymologie of an Apprentise The comparison betweene Seruus among Ciuilians and Apprentises among Englishmen holds not What the word Apprentise meanes Sir Thomas Smiths error in confounding seruitude and discipline 6. 7. 8. Particular points touching Seruus Sanctuarie at the Princes image Manumission and Recaptiuitie by Law None of those points concerne Apprentises more then Souldiers Schollers or religious nouices 9. 10. The finall cause denominates the action and proues Apprentiship not to be base The contrarie opinion pernicious to manners and to good Commonweale among vs chiefly now The different face of both opinions in daily experience The First Part. THE present question Whether Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentry being now not so much a paradox as growne in secret to be of late a common opinion I am bold to call a weighty and important question vniustly grounded vpon the learned folly of Erasmus of Roterdam and the incircumspection of Sir Thomas Smith Knight in his booke de Republica Anglorum and out of certaine wandring conceits hatcht among trees tillage as shall appeare hereafter Weighty and important I am bold to call it and it is so Because in looking out vpon the concernings of the case I finde that prospect so spacious that within the compass thereof as well the greater as the lesser Nobilitie of England are very notably and very inexplicably enwrapped What doe I say of the subalternall Nobilitie when the Royall name it selfe with all humble reuerence be it spoken was deeply interessed in the proposition For Queene Elizabeth though a free Monarch and chiefe of the English in her turne was a party of the cause which shee ingenuously and openly acknowledged calling Sir Martin Calthorpe kinsman as indeed he was being at that time Knight and Lord Maior of London Yea Sir Godfrey Bullen Knight also and Lord Maior of London was lineall Ancestor to Queene Anne her mother saith Camden in his Annals no longer before then in the reigne of Henry the sixth King of England Both which Knights being also Gentlemen borne of right Worshipfull Families ascended by due degrees from the condition of Apprentises to the greatest annuall honor of this Kingdome It is weighty and important because without much impropriety of speech it may be called quaestio status which in the ancient phrase of the Emperour Iustinian is as much to say as a tryall whether one is to be adiudged bond or free seruile or ingenuous and implieth that odious and vnnaturall sequel which by Textuists hath to name Capitis diminutio wherof though the Romane lawes make a threefold diuision yet in this our question if but onely the third and lowest degree were incurred which hapneth cum qui sui juris fuerunt coeperunt alieno iuri subiecti esse that alone should keepe vs from neglect It is weighty and important and can appeare none other because it directly tends to darken and as it were to intercloud the luminous body of that beauteous planet HONOR with not onely foule but lasting spots For what can lightly be a more disparagement then for the free to become a kind of bondmen or to be come of such Nay there is nothing without vs which can bee of so great disparagement Finally it is weighty and
in this particular to their louing superiours making humble and wise obedience the glorie of their persons much rather then apparell in the fashion For they who are not ashamed of their profession ought not to be ashamed of the ensignes and tokens of their profession or degree They indeed are out of fashion who are not in that fashion which is proper to their qualitie The flat round Cap in it selfe considered as a Geometricall figure is far more worthy than the square according to that ground in the Mathematicks figurarum spaerica est optima and in Hieroglyphickes is a symbol of eternity and perfection a resemblance of the worlds rotunditie But I will make no encomium for caps This I say that as the square capp is retained not onely in the Vniuersities but also abroad among vs as well by Ecclesiasticall persons in high places as by Iudges of the Land so the round capp being but a note in London of Apprentises and Citizens of London as it is of Students Barresters Benchers and Readers in the Innes of Court so the wearing thereof by Londoners cannot be a reproach but an ornament But communis error facit ius and how freely soeuer these thoughts come from me out of abundant loue to the preseruation of vertue in that most honorable City which ciuill discipline is ablest to doe yet as much pietie as it is to wish the best so great is the vanity to thinke to stoppe the generall streame of predominant custome by priuate wishes Apprentises moreouer and Citizens because they are alwaies conuersant in the light of action and concourse and not shut vp in Colledges for studies sake may thinke by this contrary way the more to honor their Citie and to enioy thēselues 12 Well may they in the meane time blush at their temeritie who by teaching that Apprentises are called Apprentises as if they were pares emptitijs doe dishonour and highly wrong the excellent old policie of this land For they as much as lyeth in the credit of their words most dangerously discourage flourishing Industrie who cast such an aspersion vpon any ciuill profession and order of men assembled to vphold a kingdome by cōmerce according to Iustice as the least conceipt of so hatefull a note as bondage And if it be temeritie to cast it vpon any renowned or other corporation vniustly it is singular iniquitie let it not be called madnesse to lay it vpon London which shines among all Cities within the Empire of Britain velut inter ignes Luna minores The Contents of this fourth part 1 THe Author meanes not to erect a new Babylon by confounding degrees Horaces monster The common lawes distinction 2 Citizens as Citizens not Gentlemen but a particular species The Gentleman the naturall subiect of all Nobilitie The Authors meaning explained Encouragement of honest Industrie Ius annulorum that among the Romans which bearing of Armes among vs. The causes compared The distinction of a meere Citizen Disparagement of Wards how to bee vnderstood in this case King Edward the first his displeasure an efficient of what effects Armories to symbolise with the first bearers quality Antiquities sacred care in point of ennoblements 3 The Authors Apostrophe to Fathers whether they be Gentlemen borne or not No cause why the Great should be ashamed of City-beginnings Martiall vertue principal owner of Armories The Chamber of the King 4 Kings of England ennoble the Companies of London with their persons by a singular fauour Henrie the seuenth his admirable sociabilitie or configuration of himselfe to popular formes Clothworkers his late Maiesties brotherhood 5 London-Companies denominated of their Monopolies but not embased thereby Of Circensian-games and colors Plinius his complaint Gentlemens meanes if properly entituled are as meane as London-Mysteries Nor in that respect any great disparilitie betweene Countrey and Citie-Gentlemen 6 The Ecclipticke line of Londons Zodiacke The minde and not names is essentiall to qualifications 7 The Authors second Apologie for his meaning in this case His scope to beate downe iniurious vanity not to wrong vocations London Companies best so called as they are The first Roman Consul not being a Patrician free of Butchers Where Maiestie is there can be no basenesse The glorie of wit and armes due to London 8 All honest natures loue glorie and no glorie good but as subordained to God The fourth Part. THough thus I haue been the Aduocate and Defender of the credit of the City yet desire I not to be mistaken For it is very far from my thoughts by this Apologie or patronisation to confound degrees in common-weale so to set vp as it were a new Babylon of mine owne I am not ignorant therefore that Citizens as Citizens are not Gentlemen but Cizens To hold otherwise were to take one order or degree of men out of the Realme or like Horaces monster a mans head and a birds bodie to create a thing which had halfe one and halfe another and our lawes giue a proper name both to the tenure and person calling the tenure of Citizens in Cities Burgage and their persons Burgenses among whom the more eminent of them in London had of old not onely the honour of the title of Citizens or Burgesses but of Barons also 2 The ordinarie Citizen therefore is of a degree beneath the meere Gentlemen as the Gentleman is among vs in the lowest degree or classe of Nobilitie in England And all Citizens as Citizens yea the Lord Maior himselfe simply as a Citizen is not a Gentleman but Burgenfis As the greatest Princes and Despots that euer were or euer shall be in the world considered in their first naturall condition are at most but Ingenui or free-borne in which respect all are equall for omnes natura aequales and their first ciuill degree or generall state which either comprehends all the orders of Nobilitie or is capable of them is among vs the Gentleman In which respect he who shall say That this or that King or Emperour is a Gentleman speakes rightly and as the thing is For Gentleman is the title about which all other titles as they concerne honor and conueigh no iurisdiction are put as robes and ornaments This therefore is my meaning That some Citizens may be a Citizen and yet truely a Gentleman as one and the same man may in seueral respects be both a Lord and Tenant Citizen in regard of his encorporation in London Gentleman in regard of birth or of Armories assigned for encouragement of Industrie to ennoble his honest riches and titles of honor or worship in that City whereof he is a qualified member Neither is the communication of rewards which consist of painted distinctiōs composed according to the receiued rules of Heraldrie iniurious to ancient Gentrie any more then the promiscuous permission of wearing gold-rings on their fingers alike to freed-men as to freemen granted by the Emperour in the authentickes the reason of gold-rings among Romanes and of Armories among vs being the
important for very many other reasons and particularly because it is not onely fit that states of opinions should be rectified in this kinde as breeding bad affections among people of the same nation from whence great mischiefes often rise euen to hatred quarrels and homicides but that such also as through vanity or other sicknesse of the wit or iudgement disdaine to seeme either Citie-borne or Citie-bred or to owe any thing of their worship or estate either to the City or to Citizens may vnderstand their owne place and true condition lest they be conuinced to be among them who are vnworthy of so honest either originall or accession as the Citie yeeldeth But let vs first behold the Cities Honour in Armes as it stands displayed in ancient Heraldry and as it is commented vpon out of authenticke Monuments in that worthily well commended Survey of LONDON composed by that diligent Chronologer and vertuous Citizen M. Iohn Stowe The present figure with the same words as here they stand is a copy of that which an old imperfect larger volume at the Office of Armes containeth 〈◊〉 BADGES LONDON OF THE CITIE OF LONDON THE LORD FITZ-WALTER BANNERER There needs no greater demonstration of the Cities ancient honor and of her peoples free qualitie then this that a principall Baron of the Realm of England was by tenure her Standard-bearer The figure of St. Paul titularie patron of London aduanced it selfe in the Standard and vpon the shield those famous well-knowne Armories of the Crosse and Weapon The like picture of which Apostle was also embroidered in the caparisons of that horse of warre which for the purpose of the Cities seruice he receiued of gift at the hands of the Lord Maior Vpon the Standard-bearers coat armour are painted the hereditarie ensignes of his owne illustrious Familie that is to say Or a Fesse betweene two Cheuerns Gules Which kind of field the ancients called Claurie perhaps à claritate because such fields as were all of one colour made their charges the more clearely seene and perspicuous And as they gaue to that species of blazon a peculiar name for the dignitie so did they also assigne to this manner of bearing two Cheuerns the terme Biallie or a coat Biallie a numero binario In which braue times had that noble Gentleman but slightly and farre off suspected that he displayed that banner for a kind of bondmen or as for their seruice his great heroick spirit would rather haue trodden such an office vnder foot In good assurance therefore of this common causes iustice we proceed Sound opinion meaning doctrine is the anchor of the world and opinion meaning a worthy conceit of this or that person is the principall ingredient which makes words or actions relish well and all the Graces are without it little worth To take the fame from any man that hee is a Gentleman-borne is a kind of disenablement and preiudice at leastwise among the weake who consider no further then seemings that is to say among almost all Consequently a wrong And if a wrong then due to be redressed To find iniurie we must first enquire Whether Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentrie 4 The maine reason certainly the most generall vsed to proue that it doth is That Apprentiship is a kinde of bondage and bondage speciallie voluntarie in which case the Imperiall law-rule non officit natalibus in seruitute fuisse may bee perhaps defectiue extinguisheth natiue Gentrie But I denie that Apprentiship is either vera seruitus or omnino servitus For explication of this difficultie I will set before your eyes the case as it is A Gentleman hath a sonne whom he meanes to breed vp in an Art of thrift not rising meerely out of a stocke of wit or learning but out of a stocke of money and credit managed according to that Art and for this cause hee brings his child at 15. or 16. yeares old more or lesse to the Citie of London prouides him a Master and the youth by his fathers counsel willingly becomes an Apprētise that is to say interchangeably seales a written contract with his Master by an indented instrument That he for his certaine yeares true and faithfull seruice shall learne that precious mystery of how to gaine honestly and to raise himselfe Let the legal and ordinarie forme of that instrument extant in Wests Precedents and familiar euery where be duly pondered and it will appeare a meere ciuill contract which as all the world knowes a bondman is vncapable of If you would know vnder what kinde or species of contract that doth fall I answer That it seemes to be a contract of permutation or interchange In which mutuall obligation or conuention the act of binding is no more but that as reason and iustice would the Master might be determinately for the time and sufficiently for the manner sure to enioy his Apprentise Apprētiship being therfore but an effect of a ciuill contract occasioned and caused by that prudent respect which the Contrahents mutually haue to their lawfull and honest commodity and such onely as are free-borne being capable to make this contract with effect Apprentiship doth not extinguish Gentry On the contrarie it is vrged That although Apprentiship bee not a true bondage to all constructions and purposes yet that it is a temporary bondage and equall for the time it lasteth to very seruitude In which opinion Erasmus is making his Etymologie of our Prentises to be for that they are like to such as are bought with money pares emptitijs which conceipt as it is more literate then happie so if it were set to sale would find few Chapmen but to laugh at it For Erasmus is aswell proued to be errans mus in obscurorum virorum Epistolis as Apprentises in England to be pares emptitijs But we absolutely deny that Apprentiship is in any sort a kinde of bondage For notwithstanding that to proue it be so they make a parallel between the ancient Roman seruitude and the London apprentiship yet will these comparata be found disparata if not disparatissima For seruus among the old Romans was so called of seruando of preseruing or sauing and not of seruiendo of seruing saith the Law-maker himselfe the Emperor Iustinian But the word Apprentise commeth of Aprenti the French word a raw souldier or young learner Tyro rudis discipulus or of the French verbē which signifies to learne or of the Latine word apprehendo or apprendo which properly is to lay hold of and translatiuely to learne which deriuations are consonant to the thing and true howsoeuer Sir Thomas Smith in his bookes de Republica Anglorum not remembring to distinguish betweene seruitude and discipline bondage and regular breeding iniuriously defined them to be a kind of bondmen meaning meere slaues and not as in some places of England bondsmen are taken for such as are in bonds for actionable causes and such bondmen as differ onely thus from very bondmen whose like words for signification
are those foulest ones slaues and villaines that Apprentises be but for a time certaine An ouersight which I could haue wished far off from so graue and learned a Gentleman as that Knight who was of priuy Counsell in the place of Secretarie to Queene Elizabeth Againe that which did constitute a bondman among the old Romans was such a power and right vested in the Lord ouer the very body of his bondman or slaue as descending to him vnder some receiued title or other iure gentium was maintained to him iure ciuili Romanorum By vertue whereof he became proprietarie in the person of his bondman as in the body of his oxe horse or any other beast he had which proprietariship was indeterminable but only by manumission and that act meerely depended vpon the will of his Lord without any endentment or condition on behalfe of the slaue which a right Roman would neuer endure to heare of from his bondman Finally which in the qualitie of that seruitude was most base seruus among them nullum caput habuit had no head in law and neither was in censu nor in lustro condito asmuch to say that they were out of the number of men their names being neither put as among such as had wherewith to pay in the Rolles of their Exchequer or tables of their Capitol nor as bodies wherewith to serue in the generall musters of their Commonweale but to bee briefe were reputed ciuilitèr mortui dead in Law death and bondage being alike among them without any more reputation of being members in the body politique then brute cattell for bondmen were reputed no body serui pro nullis habiti And albeit the authority of the commonweale vpon this good ground of State interest reipublicae ne quis re sua male vtatur and the Maiestie of Soueraigne Princes meerly as in honor and as moued with commiseration of humane miseries did sometime interpose it selfe vpon iust causes as where the Lord did immeasurably tyrannise or the bondman tooke Sanctuary at the Emperours statue and image or at the altar of some one or other of their gods an example whereof is in Plautus yet the bondman after manumission continued in such relation to his late Lord that in certaine cases as ingratitude he who was once enfranchised was adiudged backe to his patron and condemned againe to a farre more miserable seruitude then euer These things considered and nothing being like in Apprentiship who liues so carelesse of the honour of the English name as to bring the disciples of honest Arts and Schollers of mysteryes in ciuill trade and commerce for vertuous causes all called by the faire title of Apprentises into the state or qualitie of bondmen Faire I call it because that title is common to them with the Inns of Court where Apprentises at Law are not the meanest Gentlemen Apprentiship therefore is no voluntarie bondage because it is no bondage at all but a title onely of politicke or ciuill discipline Apprentiship therefore doth not extinguish Gentry So then Apprentises whether Gentlemen of birth or others whatsoeuer their Indentures doe purport and howsoeuer they seeme conditionall seruāts are in truth not boūd to do or to suffer things more grieuous then yong souldiers in armies or schollers in rigorous schooles or nouices in nouiceships each of whom in their kind vsually do and suffer things as base and vile in their owne quality simply in themselues considered without respect to the finall scope or aime of the first institution as perhaps the very meanest of fiue thousand Apprentises in London The finall cause therefore of euery ordination qualifies the course and the end denominates the meanes and actions tending to it For if that be noble no worke is base prescribed in ordine or as in the way to that end Though abstracting frō that consideration the worke wrought in the proper nature of it be seruile As for a souldier to dig or carie earth to a rampire or for a student to goe bare-headed to a fellow of the house within the Colledge as far off as he can see him omitting the more deformed necessitie of suffering priuate or publike disciplines or for a nouice in a nouiceship to wash dishes or the like seeming-base workes as by report is vsuall If then the generall scope or finall reason of Apprentiship be honest and worthy of a Gentlemā as will appeare hereafter that it is what can be clearer then that Apprentiship doth not extinguish Gentry I am the more feruent in this case because this one false conceit at all times hurtful but chiefly in these latter times in which the meanes of easie maintenance are infinitely straitned that for a Gentleman borne or one that would aspire to bee a Gentleman for him to be an Apprentise to a Citizen or Burgensis is a thing vnbeseeming him hath fill'd our England with more vices and sacrificed more seruiceable bodies to odious ends and more soules to sinfull life then perhaps any one other vnciuill opinion whatsoeuer For they who hold it better to rob by land or sea then to beg or labour doe daily see and feele that out of Apprentises rise such as sit vpon them standing out for their liues as malefactors when they a shame and sorrow to their kinred vndergoe a fortune too vnworthy euen of the basest of honest bondmen The Contents of this second part 1 APprentiship a laudable policie of discipline not a bondage The contrarie opinion ouer throwes one maine pillar of Commonweale Seueritie of discipline more needfull to be recalled then relaxed 2 The aduersaries conceipts brand our founders Mechanicall qualities Gods speciall gifts 3 Of Tubal-Cain and the dignitie and necessitie of crafts Hiram the brasse founder S. Pauls handy Art and the cause shewed out of the Rabbins Of other ennoblements touching them 4 The wisedome of instituting Apprentiship defended by the argument a minori ad maius 5 London the palace of thriuing Arts. Concerning Hebrew bondmen The qualitie of Masters power ouer Apprentises Masters nos Lords but Guardians and Teachers rather 6 The aduersaries manifest follie Of corruption in blood the onely meanes of extinction and disenablement to Gentry Of bondmen or villaines in England The Second Part. THese things considered how should it fall into the minde of any good or wise discouser That Apprentises are a kind of bondmen and consequently That Apprentiship extinguisheth natiue Gentry and disenableth to acquisitiue For if that opinion bee not guilty of impiety to our Mother Countrey where that laudable policie of Apprentiship necessary for our nation is exercised as a point of seuere discipline warrantable in Christianitie certainly it hath in it a great deale of iniurious temeritie and inconfiderance and why not impietie also if they wilfully wrong the wisdome of England their naturall common parent whose children are free-borne Surelie notorious inconsiderance is apparent because there are but two maine pillars of Common-weale PRAEMIVM PAENA Reward and
onely but true descendents from the most vnquestionable noble races howsoeuer troubled perhaps with some little of the spirit of vanitie and of too too much scorne of others But as the Italians in our time notwithstanding they thinke meanely of all who are not Italians calling them in Aristotles humor Tramontani and in that word implying them to be barbarous doe commit an error aswell as that great Philosopher so those Gentlemen how eminently noble soeuer will be likewise found to liue in errour for that others also may bee truely Gentlemen for any thing which as yet is spoken in the former Sophisme videlicet The Master hath power ouer his Apprentises bodie Ergo Apprentises are a kinde of bondmen Because if such a power bee enough to constitute a bondman wee will say nothing of those free-borne persons being in minoritie whose bodies their Guardians may not onely by a right in law fetch backe after escape or flight but giue away also in mariage Nay if for that reason Apprentises borne Gentlemen shall bee thought to haue forfeited their Gentry in what estate are all the sonnes and children of good houses in England whose bodies their parents by a right of nature may fetch back after flight exercise their pleasure or displeasure vpon thē euen to disinherison Nay in what case are souldiers to whom most properly and most immediately the Honor of Armes doth belong who for withdrawing themselues from their banner or Captaine without leaue may not only be forced backe to serue but according to the vsuall discipline of warre may be martiall Law bee hanged vp or shot at the next tree or wheresoeuer depriued of breath at once and of braue reputation together So absurd it is to dispute that the power of a Master by the title of a contract ouer the body of an Apprentise in case of discipline doth conuince a seruilitie of condition in the sufferer For if the right to exercise corporall coerction should absolutely constitute a state of bondage in the subiect the iniurie of that vntrue assertion would reach to persons of farre higher marke then City-prentises as is most plainely proued And therefore they must alledge somewhat else besides subiection of bodie to draw the estate of Apprentiship into that degree of reproach which as they cannot doe wee hauing preuented those obiections so must they leaue it cleare from taint or scandall 8 We lay it downe therefore out of all the antecedences for a cleare conclusion That Apprentises are so farre from being a kinde of bondmen as that in our Common-weale they then first begin habere caput and to be aliqui to bee of account and some bodie For Apprentiship in London is a degree or order of good regular subiects out of whose as it were Nouiceships or Colledges Citizens are supplied Wee call them Colledges according to the old Romane Law-phrase or fellowships of men for so indeed they are comprehended within seuerall corporations or bodies of free persons intended to bee consociated for commerce according to conscience and iustice and named Companies each of them seuerally bearing the title of their seuerall worthy Monopolies as Drapers Salters Clothworkers and so forth Wee say as before that Apprentises in the reputation of our Commonweale when first they come to bee Apprentises then first begin to be some bodie and that Apprentiship is a degree to which out of youth and yong men who haue no vocation in the world they are aduanced and that out of Apprentises by other ascents or steps as donari ciuitate to come to bee free of London or Citizens from thence to be of their companies Liuerie the gouernours of Companies as Wardens and Masters and gouernors in the City as Common-counsel-men Aldermens-deputies Sheriffes and Aldermen and lastly the principall gouernour or head of the Citie the Lord Maior yea sometimes also Counsellors of Estate to the Prince whereof Master Stowe hath examples are very orderly elected and the whole policie disposed after as excellent a forme as most at this day vnder heauen 9 True it is that Apprentiship as it is a degree so is it the lowest degree or classe of men in London Lowest wee say that it may come to the highest according to that of S. Augustine and of common sense that those buildings rise highest and stand fasteth whose foundations are deepest And as Apprentipish is the first in order meanest in dignity so can that be no title to embase the vocation because there must be a first in all things Of this degree the flat round Cap haire close-cut narrow falling-band course side-coat close-hose cloath stockings and the rest of that seuere habite was in antiquitie not more for thrift and vsefulnesse then for distinction and grace and were originally arguments or tokens of vocation or calling which point of ancient discipline the Catoes of England graue common Lawyers to their high commendation therein retaine in their profession and professors at this present euen to the partie-coulored coates of seruing men at Serieants Feasts An obiect far more ridiculous among the new-shapes of our time enemie of rigour and discipline then that of Apprentises At which retained signes and distinctiue notes among Lawyers though younglings and friuolous nouices may somewhat wonder till the cause be vnderstood yet is the thing it selfe so farre in it selfe from deseruing contempt as that they who should offer it would themselues bee laughed at For the late Lord Coke in the preface of his third booke of Reports hath affirmed for the dignitie of the word Apprentise that an Apprentise at Law is a double reader whose degree is next to that of a Serieant at Law who is only inferiour to a Iudge and to no other degree of Lawyers 10 Here now let me be bold to say that Apprentises seeme to haue drunke and sacrificed too deepely to their new Goddesse Saint Fashion An Idoll which was alwayes noted fatall to the English As at the periods or vniuersall concussions of Empire in our portion of great Britaine may in old Writers bee obserued This they doe not without wrong in our opinions to the honestie of their degree at leastwise in so farre abandoning their proper ornament the Cap anciently a note of libertie among the Romans as not to haue one day at least in the yeare wherein to celebrate the feast of their Apprentiship in the peculiar garbe thereof which they should doe well and wisely to frequent for downe-bearing of contumelie and scorne by making profession in this wise that they glorie in the ensignes of their honest calling 11 For reuocation of which into vse though wee see no manner of hope yet are those late Magistrates of the Citie who laboured to reduce Apprentiship to practise this laudable point of outward conformitie not the lesse to bee commended and it were to be wished perhaps that instead of scattering Libels and of discouering inclinations to tumult Apprentises had rather submitted their vnderstandings and resigned their wills
same Nor is it a new thing in our Commonweale that speciall Citizens not borne to armories but the sonnes of yeomen or not of Gentlemen should haue armes assigned them For there is perhaps scarce any record of Armes granted in England more ancient then testimonies in the Halles of London that speciall Citizens haue bin honourd with particular bearings And these are aduanced vpon the Lord Maiors day by the speare-men of that companie of which his Lordship is a member not all of them specially giuen of old but some vndoubtedly borne by right of blood as descendents of Gentlemen but other againe as vndoubtedly assigned for excellency in City-Arts Of which number there are at this day not a few whose seri nepotes whose great-grand-childrens children are reputed amōg the oldest and best families of their Shires without any relation to London which notwithstanding raised them Hence it followes that as an Apprentise being a Gentleman-borne remaineth a Gentleman which addition of splendor and title as God blesseth his labours so a worthy Citizen is capable of honor and Armes notwithstanding his Apprentiship And by this distinction made betweene a Citizen meerely as a Citizen and of a Citizen as hee may also be a Gentleman that obiection which some bring out of a Statute enacted vnder one of our Kings which forbidding the disparagement offered by the Guardian to marie the Ward borne gentle to a Burgensis may easily bee salued and answered For in that Statute the word Burgensis is spoken in the natiue and more narrow sense thereof that is of one who is simply Burgensis without any consideration of him as hee may otherwise bee a Gentleman Esquire or Knight which in some places happens as in the famous corporation of Droit Wiche in Worcestershire But howsoeuer cerainely Burgensis here nothing concernes Citizens of London who by an excellency of their calling had the honor in antiquity to beare the name of Barons and were styled so and weighing that the Citizen is a distinct degree from Burgensis and aboue it and therfore that law concernes them not For the proofe of their title to the appellation of Barons by way of Hexoche as artists in eloquence call it most famous is that place in the Histories of Mathew Paris where speaking of the Londoners of his time vnder King Henry the third these words are eminent in him Londonienses quos propter ciuitatis dignitatem ciuium antiquitatem Barones consueuimus appellare As for the distinct degree of a Citizen from a Burgensis that appeares in this that the City of London doth not send Burgesses to the Parliament but Knights or Citizens and the enumeration of the rankes is cleare in a Statute of King Richard the second enacted the fift yeare of his raigne and the fourth Chapter of the same where they are Count Baron Banneret Cheualier de Counte Citizen de Citie Burgeis de Burgh The Princes before that time but specially the Princes following as the worthinesse of Citizens inuited did ennoble them exceedingly and continue more and more so to doe Yet in conferring Armes and arguments of honor vpon Cizens not borne Genlemen reason requireth that they should not haue coats of the fairest bearing assigned to them but such as either in Canton Chiefe Border or otherwise might carie some testimonie marke or signe to shew the Art by which they were aduanced as Merchant-Aduenturers to beare Anchors Grocers Cloues Clothworkers a Tezel Merchantaylors a robe and so forth which those Gentlemen ought in honestie and thankfulnesse to choose and not only to accept and rather striue to match the best in goodnesse and worth of spirit then in the silent tokens of it Posteritie thriuing there may then some change be also made in the coat for the better Specially considering what pretty riddance hath beene in our times made of surcharges in armories granted about the end of King Henry the eight what encroachments vpon old Gentlemens rights by new ones because their names onely haue beene the same and many other inuentions to blanch or beautifie newnesse According to which notion and dictamen coats of Armes haue beene deliuered from their originall deformities surfets and surcharges by their proper Physitian the prouinciall King of Armes So Sir Thomas Kitsons of Suffolk whose Chief now simply gold was heretofore ouerladen with three ogresses and they with an Anchor the badge or argument of the originall and two Lyons rampant argent as at this houre is publikely extant to be seene in Trinitie Hall at Cambridge whereunto he was a benefactor and besides that Gentlemans the coat armours of some of the Peeres of this land and of others also not a few very many more needing the like reliefe or remedie The rule of proportion seemes diligently obserued in antiquitie among vs where the principall and most noble charges and formes of Armories were not appropriated but to analogicall competencies of honourable qualitie 3 Such therefore being the nature of Apprentiship and such the condition of Citizens estate as to the purposes of honor and armes let Fathers who are Gentleman put their children who are not rather inclining to Armes or letters to Apprentiship that is to say to the discipline and Art of honest gaine giuing them a title of being somewhat in our Countrey For it is a vocation simply honest and may proue a stay to posteritie and giue credit to their names when licentious and corrupted eldest sonnes haue sold their birth-rights away For albeit many Citizens thriue not but breake yet those fathers or such who are in place of Fathers worke more probably who put their children or Orphans into a certaine method of life then others who leaue them at large And as some riotous foolish or vnfortunate Citizens miscarrie so ten to one more yonger brethren in the Country And fathers such of you are not gentlemen put your children to be Apprentises that so as God may blesse their iust true and vertuous industrie they may found a new family and both raise themselues and theirs to the precious and glittering title of Gentlemen bearing Armes lawfully For which cause no Lord nor Peere of this Land who may perchance owe his worldly estate and as well the completiue as the fundamentall greatnesse or amplitude of meanes to such as haue beene Citizens of London nor those other whose originalls were from cheualrie and martiall seruice the most pure and proper Noblesse of all as to the purpose of bearing Armes and yet since haue beene mixt with Citie-races ought to thinke it the least disparagement to owne their benefactors and ancestors Citizens of London On the other part it will worthily well become them freely and thankfully to acknowledge so honest originalls and accession to originalls as all this Realme from thence is filled with Because among them the vertues of commutatiue iustice and of commendable industrie flourish and the sinewes of warre and peace abundance of treasure are stored vp as in the Chamber of the