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
Apprentises a kinde of bondmen and so to disenable them to Gentry either deriuatiue or acquisitiue the Masters themselues are also a kinde of bondmen because suo genere they aswell are bound as the Apprentises For the fourth which is in respect of the condition either vocally exprest or vertually implide in the contract there is in it no proofe of bondage but the contrarie For in that the obligation is mutuall it proues the Apprentise free as from bondage though for the Apprentises owne good not free from subiection to discipline Because onely free men can make contracts and challenge the benefit of them The verbe not seruire but the verbe deseruire which is of farre lesse weight comprised in the instrument or Indenture and containing the whole force of the obligation hath onely in that place the sense of obsequi facere to obey and doe as an Apprentise and not according to the ancient sense which it had among the Romanes This ought not to seeme a paradox For the word dominari to which seruire is a relatiue and the word dominus haue in tract of time beene so softened and familiarised as they are growne to be words of singular humanity And what so common among the noble as to professe to serue But the relation constituted in this case is peculiar and proper the odious word dominus is not there at all nor seruus no nor famulus the relation constituted is directly named betweene Master and Apprentise a cleare case that all iniuries to blood and nature are of purpose auoided in those conuentions and conuentiones they are called in the interchangeably sealed instrument it selfe So cleare a case that in the Oath which all freemen make in the Chamber of London at their first admission this clause among many others is sworne vnto by them That they shall take None Apprentise but if he be Free borne that is to say no Bondmans sonne which are the very words of the oath Thus carefully open was the eye of institution in this noble point of the Cities policy to preuent that no staine no blemish nor indignitie should wrong the splendor thereof A thing which could not but follow ineuitably if they who prouided against admission of bondmens issue into the estate of apprentiship should themselues by making apprentises make bondmen or should in any sort embase their blood whose Masters they were to be as to the purpose of comming to bee Citizens in time They neuer meant to make any man bond who would haue none but the sonnes of free-borne persons bound apprentises It shall be wilfull ignorance or malice from hence forth to maintaine the contrary 4. A most memorable exāple in Scripture to the purpose of the present question is that of Iacob and Laban in the nine and twentieth Chapter of Genesis where the time seuen yeares yea the very word seruire are plaine in that contract which was made betweene the vncle and the nephew yet who did euer say that Iacob was for this a kind of bondman The reason why he was not riseth from consideration of the finall cause or intention of the contract which is recorded to haue beene honorable the obtaining of a worthy wife and of an estate to maintaine her with Neither when he was no longer defrauded of Rahel then seuen daies after his first seuen yeares and when in the fruition of Rahel he serued also other seuen yeares was he a kind of bondman by as it were a relapse or as by a cessation of expecting his reward which he enioyed in enioying her Out of which it followeth that as Iacob was no kind of bondman though he serued and serued out all his time twice ouer so neither are Apprentises And from this place of the Bible it is vnanswerablie proued that bodily seruice is a laudable meanes to atchieue any good or honorable purpose a meanes truly worthy of a Gentleman 5 Hereunto we finally adde and repeat that as an Apprentise tyes himselfe to his Master in the word deseruire that is to obey and doe restrictiuely to the ancient reason and traditionall discipline of Apprentiship in London so the Master tyes himselfe to his Apprentise in the word docere in lieu of his honest seruice to teach him his Art to the vtmost Which Masters part is growne to such estimation as that Apprentises now come commonly like wines with portions to their Masters If then Apprentiship be a kinde of seruitude it is either a pleasing bondage or a strange madnesse to purchase it with money 6 An Apprentise therefore as an Apprentise being neither ratione obsequij temporis contractus nor conditionis in any kinde a bondman is in no respect a bondman and hath therefore no more lost his title and right to Gentrie then hee hath done to any goods chattels lands royalties or any thing else which if hee had neuer beene an Apprentise either had might or ought to haue come vnto him Nay much lesse can Gentry bee lost in this case then right to lands and goods how much more inherent the rights of blood are then the rights of fortune For according to the law-rule iura sanguinum nullo iure ciuili dirimi possunt whereas those other may be dissolued And that Gentry is a right of blood may appeare by this that no man can truely alienate the same or vest another in it though legally he may in case of Adoption which is but an humane inuention in imitation of nature and therefore in rei veritate no alienation at all but a fiction or an acception in law as if it were such So that none can any more passe away his gentrie to make another a Gentleman thereby who was not a Gentleman before then he can passe away any habit or quality of the minde as vertue or learning to make another honest or learned who was vnlearned or dishonest before For Gentry is a quality of blood or name as vertue and learning are of the minde Vpon which reason that rule of law is grounded which teacheth vs that annulus signatorius ornamenti appellatione non continetur 7 To all this if it bee replied That Apprentiship is a kind of bondage for that if an Apprentise abandon his Masters seruice his Master may both fetch him backe as Lord for the time ouer his seruants body and compell him also to liue vnder obedience We answer thus That such a power ouer the bodie of an Apprentise is not sufficient to constitute a bondman though the seruice of the Apprentise belongs to the Master Gods partin him and the Commonweales being first deducted Aristotle held that onely the Grecians were free and all the barbarous that is to say all not Grecians were bond Some among vs seeme Aristototelians in this point who as he gloriously ouer-valued his Country-men so these ouer-value their paragon-Gentry and repute none worthie of Armes and Honor but themselues we supposing on their behalfe that they are indeed not vaine-pretenders
among their owne and villanous euerywhere But you none of that caitiue and vntrustie number are the parties for whom this labour hath been vndergone whose behauiours full of gentlenesse and of bounden dutie to superiors commend you to the present times and maintaine in you that stocke of good hope out of which are in due time elected those successions of the whole which make the politicall bodie or state of a Citie immortall Thinke therefore with your selues that by how much this most friendly office tends to your more defence and praise by so much you are the more bound to beare your selues honestly and humbly In your so doing the Citie of London which before Rome it self was built was rockt in a Troian Cradle by the founder and Father thereof as the most ancient extant monuments setting all late phansies aside beare witnesse heroicke Brute or Brytus vnder Claudius Caesar the Metropolis of the Trinobants vnder other Caesars afterwards Augusta or the maiesticall Citie which for hugenesse concourse nauigation trade and populosity very hardly giuing place to any one in Europe doth absolutely excell all the Cities of the world for good gouernment or at least doth match and equall them that very London so venerable for the antiquitie so honorable for the customes so profitable for life noble in renowne euen beyond the names both of our Countrey it selfe and of our nation the birth-place of Constantine the Great and inmost recesse or chamber of her Kings that very City that very London whether your locall parent or louing foster-mother shall not grace or honor you more then you shall grace and honor her and England also VALETE From Sir WILLIAM SEGAR Knight GARTER principall King of Armes of ENGLAND a speciall Letter to the Author concerning the present worke Sir I Haue viewed and reuiewed your book with good deliberation and find that you haue done the office of a very worthy Aduocate to plead so well for so famous a Client as the City of London in her generality which as I gratulate vnto her and to all interessed parties so I shall much more gratulate to her and you the honour and vse of so faire a labour if I may once see that publike And for my part considering that you define nothing but lye onely vpon the defensiue and affirmatiue against assaylers and denyers with due submission for the iudiciall part to the proper Court of Honor the illustrious high I see no cause why your learned worke may not receiue the glory of publike light and that most renowned Citie the benefit of honors encrease for incouragement of enriching endustrie And so with my hearty respects I rest Your very louing friend WILLIAM SEGAR Garter THE TRVE COPIES OF the Letters mentioned after the Booke The first letter from the Citizen in the behalfe and cause of his eldest sonne to a speciall friend of whose loue and learning he rested confident Right Worthy Sir IF hauing beene at no small charge and some care to breed my sonne vp in Gentleman like qualities with purpose the rather to enable him for the seruice of God his Prince and Countrey I am very curious to remoue from him as a Father all occasions which might either make him lesse estemed of others or abate the least part of his edge I say not towards the honesty of life onely but towards the splendor thereof and worship also my hope is that I shall not in your worthy iudgement seeme either insolent or vaine glorious Truth and Iustice are the onely motiues of my stirring at this present For as I mortally hate that my Son should beare himselfe aboue himself so should I disclaime my part in him if being vniustly sought to be embased he sillily lost any inch of his due He hath beene disgraced as no Gentleman borne when yet not hee but I his Father was the Apprentise thankes be to God for it They cannot obiect to him want of fashion they cannot obiect to him the common vices badges rather of reprobates then of Gentlemen They cannot obiect to him cowardise for it is well knowne that he dares defend himselfe nor any thing else vnworthy of his name which is neither new nor ignoble But mee his poore father they obiect vnto him because I was once an Apprentise Wise Sir Thomas Moore teacheth vs vnder the names and persons of his Eutopians that victories and atchieuements of wit are applauded farre aboue those of forces and seeing reuerence to God to our Prince commandeth vs as his Maiesties booke of Duells doth affirme not to take the office of iustice from Magistrates by priuate rash reuenges I haue compelled my sonne vpon Gods blessing and mine to forbeare the sword till by my care he may be found not to be in the wrong For if it be true that by Apprentiship we forfeit our titles to natiue Gentrie God forbid that my sonne should vsurpe it And if it be not true then shall be haue a iust ground to defend himselfe and his aduersaries shall stand conuicted of ignorance if not of enuie also These are therefore very earnestly to pray you to cleare this question For in the City of London there are at this present many hundreds of Gentlemens children Apprentises infinite others haue beene and infinite will be and all the parts of England are full of families either originally raised to the dignity of Gentlemen out of this one most famous place or so restored and enriched as may well seeme to amount to an originall raising And albeit I am very confident that by hauing once beene an Apprentise in London I haue not lost to be a Gentleman of birth nor my sonne yet shall I euer wish and pray rather to resemble an heroicke Walworth a noble Philpot an happie Capel that learned Sheriffe of London Mr. Fabian or any other famous Worthies of this royall City out of any whatsoeuer obscurest parentage then that being descended of great Nobles to fall by vice farre beneath the rancke of poorest Prentises In requitall of your care in this point you shall shortly receiue if I can obtain my desire out of the records monuments of London a Roll of the names and Armes of such principall friends as haue beene aduanced to Honor and Worship throughout the Realme of England from the degree of Citizens A warrantable designe by the example of the Lord chiefe Iustice Cooke who hath bestowed vpon the world in some one or other of his bookes of reports a short Catologue of such as haue beene eminently beholding to the Common Lawes and if I should faile in that yet doe I promise you a list or Alphabet of Apprentises names who by their enrollments will appeare vpon good Record to haue beene sonnes of Gentlemen from all the parts of England Neither let your approued vertue doubt but that in the meane time you shall finde vs very ready to shew our free and honest mindes in all commendable and disenuious emulations with the best
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
King 4 Which acknowledgment besides that it is in the lawes of honor an act of bounden duty they may the rather take it for a glorie because our Princes haue vouchsafed to be incorporated as members of seuerall Companies in the Citie comming thereby as it were vnder that banner Nor onely so but Henrie the seuenth whom all of vs will easily confesse to haue well enough vnderstood what he did is credibly said to haue beene in person at the election of Master Wardens and himselfe to haue sitten openly among them in a gowne of crimson veluet Citie-fashion with a Citizens hood of veluet on his shoulders a la mode de Londres vpon their solemne feast-day in the common hall of his Company Merchantailers Moreouer his grand-childe Queene Elizabeth no way inferior to her ancestor in high pollicie was free of Mercers Lastlie which is more to our present purpose our late dread Soueraigne himselfe King Iames more learned then they both though learning hath beene a Royall abilitie in our ancient Princes so flourishing in Sebert King of East-England that our venerable countreyman BEDE affirmes him to haue been per omnia doctissimus encorporated himselfe into one the most important society of this kingdome Clothworkers as men dealing in the principall and noblest Staplewares of all these Ilands wooll and cloath 5 Nor let the names of Companies because they seeme not to sound honorably enough as appellations of degrees in Gentry and Nobility auert the mind from them as things ignoble and vnworthy the dignity of generous dispositions a thing erroniously holden in Fernes Blazon of Gentry For all renowned Cities euer had in them vrbana nobilitas and yet their citizens could not but bee distributed into orders tribes or titles of professions yea sometimes also in their games For the Circensian companies in Rome called factiones that is to say companies and denominated from the seuerall colors of their seueral clothings White blew greene and red to which Domitian added two other purple and gold were the speciall delights and exercises of Prince people which grew to such excesse no longer after then in Traians time that Plinius secundus held it a matter worthy of his complaint and censure as in one of his Epistles is extant where he saith nunc panno fauent nunc pannum amant Againe such of the Gentry who liue not in the citie and doe most of all eleuate themselues with contempt of others in respect of the Arts and wayes of maintenance were they but incorporated vnder the true titles of their meanes in which we will not speake of the prodigious eating vp of whole houses townes and people by a thousand wicked deuises proper to the mysterie of depopulation against whose consuming works so many statutes of this land haue long time warred in vaine the names of those citie-brotherhoods or Companies would easilie sound in a most curious eare full out as faire and well Corne Cattle Butter Cheese Hay Wood Wooll Coles and the like the materialls of their maintenance all of them inseparable to Countrey-Commonweales and without which they can no more subsist then Drapers as Drapers without cloath Glodsmiths as Goldsmiths without Iewels or plate and so forth Neither doth it create any great odds in this point touching honour betweene parties in this dispute that Gentlemen by their officers as Bailiffes Reeues or the like doe order their affaires for their more ease dignities For besides that the wisest among them exercise that superintendency in their owne persons so herein the worthy Citizen is no way behind dispatching his businesses by Factors Iourneymen or expert Apprentises reseruing onely to himselfe the oueruiew and controll all their doings Citie-noblesse so apparent that the Knights or Gentlemen of Rome professing Merchandise and others among them that way bent had their Hall or seat of their Colledge or companie vpon Mount Capitoline it selfe dedicated to their patron Deity or tutelarie God-head Mercurie Other encorporated societies there also were as Goldsmiths and the rest who liued so far from being excluded out of the power of common-weale or from honors and signes of noblenesse that they had right in some cases euen to ouertop the Lords and out of their owne body to choose not only Consuls but euen Dictators also their super-soueraigne most absolute Magistrate before their Emperors times Yea so mighty were they growne in respect of elections and negatiue authoritie that Clodius to be reuenged vpon Cicero left his owne rancke of Patritians and Lords and turned Commoner 6 To conclude such Gentlemen are much deceiued which no sooner heare one named to be of this or that Societie or Colledge of trade in London as of Grocers Haberdashers Fishmongers or of any other of the twelue principall Monopolies the Zodiacke of the citie in whose Eclipticke line their Lord Maior must euer runne his yeares course but they forthwith entertaine a low conceit of the parties quality as too too much beneath their owne ranck and order without further examinatiō when it often happens that he who is titularlie of this or that Fraternity neuer was bred vp in it nor vnderstands any more what it meanes then the remotest Gentleman their Masters themselues hauing been Merchants or of other profession of life diuerse from their title vnder which they are marshall'd the law of the citie imposing an absolute necessity that all who are free of the city should cary the name of some one or other of their brotherhoods Againe what doe the constellations of heauen shine the worse or the lesse because they carrie the names of Ramm of a Water-bearer of Fishes and so forth Or how many the fewer are their seuerall lights for that Answerably to which I say that if the parties mind be adorn'd with the starre-lights of vertue and honor what basenesse is it for him to bee marshall'd vnder any of the names comprehending one or other of the honest Arts of worldly life 7 In disputing thus let me not be thought to set vp an enuious comparison betweene these two worshipfull degrees or qualificatiōs of men That is very farre from me For it must euer bee granted to the authority of general opinion founded vpon custome among vs that the true Countrey-Esquire caeteris paribus is in his proper place before the Citie-Esquire which with the perpetuall clause beforesaid of caeteris paribus holds also throughout the other degrees of the inferior Noblesse in England I reason here as reason bids not against the right or dignities of persons either as in parallell or as in disparagement but against the vanity and offences rising out of causelesse elatiō and arrogance and against their errours who not vnderstanding the things of their owne countrey are indeed meere Meteoroscopers and houer in the clowdy region of admiration vpon rude and vnlearned fansies for which cause as minds needing to be healed so would I sincerely that they were healed Such are theirs who would perhaps think the Companies
or Monopolies of the citie more worthy of their acknowledgement if where now they are denominated of some particular ware or craft they were named of Eagles Vultures Lions Beares Panthers Tygers or so forth as the seuerall orders of the Noble in Mexico which Iosephus Acosta writes vnder their Emperor yet much better because more truly these fellowships of London cary the names of men as they haue vocations in professions which onely men can execute Or they would peraduenture thinke more noblie of them if those societies were denominated of Eyes eares hands feet or of other members as Philostratus in the life of that impostor Apollonius Tianaeus saith the officers and instruments of a Philosophical King in India were But as those were called of their King his eyes eares and so forth so haue these mysteries some one or other professor in each among them from the higher trade to the lowest eminently designed out with the addition of King as the Kings Mercer the Kings Draper and so forth Againe how much more worthy the whole is then the parts because the parts are in the whole so by that argument it is more honourable to be marshall'd as a man among societies of ciuill men then to be distinguisht by allusions to particular members At leastwise those singular Gentlemen might certainin their most contempt of the City remeÌ„ber that of Plato Nemo Rex non ex seruis nemo non seruus ex Regibus and that also rare and reall worth may bee in the persons of Citizens themselues seeing Terentius Consul of old Rome with that noble Paulus Aemilius was free of the Butchers company and our Walworth Lord Maior of old London was free of the Fishmongers And they were not onely the Lords Knights and Gentlemen of Rome who had voice in election of their principall yearly Magistrates but euen handycrafts-men and Artificers as is most manifest by that place of Salust in his Iugurthine warre where Marius was chosen Consul by the speciall affection of that sort of Roman Citizens who saith he sua necessaria post illius honorem ducebant preferred his election by their voices before the trades by which they earnd their liuings Finally they may remeÌ„ber that in the posterity of Citizens many right noble and worthy Gentlemen are often found and that besides the vniuersall mixture with Citie-races thorow the Kingdom it may not be denyed that true nobless shineth often very bright among theÌ„ For they are Companies of free Citizens in which soueraigne Maiesty it selfe is incorporated making them at once to be sacred as it were and certainly magnificent For euen as where the Sun is there is no darknes so where soueraign Princes are interressed parties there is no basenes And as the Philosophers Medicine purgeth vilest metals turning all to gold so the operation of Princes intention to ennoble Societies with his personall presence transmetalls the subiect and clearly takes away all ignobilitie Which things as they are most true in London so for that the Emperour Constantinus magnus if our ancient Fitz Stephan reports the right Henry King of England sonne of king Henry the second and that braue great Prince Edward the first and whosoeuer else were borne in the Citie they giue to it the glory of Armes and Ieffrey Chaucer Sir Thomas Moore knight with others borne in London communicate thereunto the glorie of wits and letters To nourish vp both which most excellent titles to reall nobilitie in the Citie the Artillery-yard and Gressam Colledge were instituted 8 Thus this question of Honor and Armes vndertaken at the instance of interessed parties but more for loue to that great Citie and her children being by Gods assistance and as we hope sufficiently discussed the end of all is this that albeit the loue of humane praise and of outward splendor in the markes and testimonies of it are very vehement fires in all worthiest natures yet haue they no beatitude nor so to say felicitation but onely as with referment to this of the blessed Apostle Soli Deo Honor Gloria Amen I haue viewed this booke and perused the same and finde nothing therein dissonant to reason or contrary to the Law of Honor or Armes William Segar Garter princip King of Armes Errata In the Epistle to the Masters For iuice of ingratitude read vice of ingratitude In the Epistle to the Prentises For preying read prying For honourable all read honorable strangers all Page 5 For larger volume read leger volume 17. For discouser read discourser 19. For ciuill Art gouernment read ciuill Art of gouernment â—ad For most an Art of encrease read most ancient Art of encrease 20. For a would read as would 23. For ouer-slaue read ouer his slaue 38. For fasteth read fastest 51. For you are read you as are 55. For controll all read controll of all 57. For Ramme read a Ramme 58. For certaine read certainly