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
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
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
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
THE CITIES ADVOCATE IN THIS CASE OR QVEstion of Honor and Armes Whether Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentry Containing a cleare Refutation of the pernicious common errour affirming it swallowed by Erasmus of Roterdam Sir Thomas Smith in his Common-weale Sir Iohn Fern in his Blazon Raphe Broke Yorke Herald and others With the Copies or Transcripts of three Letters which gaue occasion of this worke Lam. Ierem. cap. 3. ver 27. Bonum est viro cum portauerit jugum ab adolescentia sua LONDON Printed for William Lee at the Signe of the Turkes Head next to the Miter and Phoenix in Fleet street Monsieur FLORENTIN de THIERRIAT Escuyer Seigneur de LOCHEPIERRE LONOVET SAINCT NAVOIR RAON AV. BOYS c. De la Noblesse de Race Num. 99. En matiere de Noblesse il faut obseruer la Coustume du lieu et les moeurs des peuples dautant que les uns estiment une chose honneste et Noble que les autres tiennent pour sordide et dishonneste Num. 118. Les choses que derogent a la Noblesse qu'il faut tousiours mesurer sur les Coustumes des lieux parce qu'un peuple approuue souuent un exercice pour honneste qu'un autre defend et prohibe comme sordide et uicieux au Gentilhomme HONORATISSIMO SENATVI POPVLO QVE AVGVSTAE VRBIS LONDINENSIS RIGHT HONORABLE THe Author of this work styling himselfe according to the nature of his part therein THE CITIES ADVOCATE after tenne or twelue yeares space from the first date of the accomplishment resoluing at last to permit the edition doth reuerently here aduance and present to the honorable good acceptance of your Lordship of all the Lords and other the worthy persons to whom in the qualitie of the cause the consideration reacheth The cleare refutation of that pestilent error which hauing some authority for it and many iniurious partakers layes vpon the hopefull and honest estate of APPRENTISHIP in LONDON the odious note of bondage and the barbarous penaltie of losse of Gentry to the great reproach of our Kingdomes policie and to the manifold damage of the publike In this one act of his the Aduocate therefore doth not onely seeme to be the Patron or Defendor of birth-rights and of the rights of fortunes but the Champion also of ciuill Arts of flourishing Industrie among you the sinewes and life it selfe of Common-weale The occasion which induced him to enter the lists single against a multitude in this good quarell was priuate as appeares by the Letters at the end of the worke but the cause is absolutely such according to his best vnderstanding as he should not refuse to abett second with his sword the strokes of his pen to that purpose For though the Schooles and Camp are most proper for Honor and Armes yet the ancient wisedome and the like ancient bounty of our Sages did euer leaue the gates of Honor open to City-Arts and to the mysteries of honest gaine as fundamentall in Common-weale and susceptiue of externall splendor according to the most laudable examples of rising Rome vnder her first Dictators Consuls By which their such moderation and iudgement they happily auoided two opposite rockes tyrannicall appropriation of Gentry to some certaine old families as in Germanie and the confusion of allowing hereditarie Noblenesse of Gentry to none at all as vnder the Sultan in Turkey With how true and entire a good will this free seruice is performed by the Author may easily be gathered from hence that hee willingly giues the obliuion of his owne name into the merit conscience of the fact sufficing Now for him to informe your Lordships and the rest out of the title de origine iuris in Caesarean Lawes how the noble people of oldest Rome accepted the booke which Gnaeus Flauius dedicated to their name and vses what were it else but inofficiously to dictate your part and not humbly to offer his owne which neuerthelesse here he most officiously doth being truly able to say vpon his owne behalfe that he hath purloined no mans labours as that Flauius did but is through all the true and proper owner The Author is your humble seruant Valete in Christo Iesu. XI Cal. Nouember MCICXXVIII To the Gentlemen of ENGLAND in generall BE not displeased with this bold enterprise as if it were in fauour of the euill manners of a multitude who passe vnder the title of APPRENTISES For neither the incorrigibly vicious who are pestilent to morall and ciuill vertue nor the incorrigibly forgetfull of their betters whom insolencie maketh odious haue any part herein at all For first it wholly belongs to such among masters or Citizens as are generously disposed worthily qualifide men who say with Publius Syrus Damnum appellandum est cum mala fama lucrū and then to such among Apprentises as resemble Putiphars chaste Ioseph or Saint Pauls conuerted Onesimus yongmen who say with Statius Caecilius in his Plotius Libere seruimus salua vrbe atque arce meaning by the Citie and the Citadel the bodie and the head of man Valete To the happie Masters of Laudable Apprentises in LONDON RIght worthy Citizens you shal not for this worke finde your honest seruants the lesse seruiceable but the more For in good bloods and good natures praise and honor preuaile aboue rigour and blowes And because your selues for the most part were Apprentises once you may therefore behold herein with comfort the honesty of your estate when you were such and the splendour of what you are now in right The vnthankefull if any such should happen to rankle among you may be warn'd that the iuyce of Ingratitude doth forfeit libertie and that they are truly bondmen if not according to the letter nor in their proper condition yet according to the figuratiue sense and in their improper basenesse VALETE TO THE MODEST APPRENtises of LONDON Schollars and Disciples in Citie-Arts during their seuen or more yeares Nouiceship THe principall obiection against publishing either this or any other booke of like argument hath alwayes beene grounded by the most wise and noble vpon a feare that the insolencies of the youth and irregular frie of the Citie would thereby take encrease which hauing heretofore beene intollerable in common pollicie and in no little measure scandalous to the Kingdome were hatefull to cherish or to giue the least way vnto But it hath alreadie beene elsewhere answered that those Apprentises are of the dreggs and branne of the vulgar fellowes voyd of worthy blood and worthy breeding and to speake with fit freedome no better then meerly rascall the ordinary balls plaid by the hand of Iustice into the Bridewells in or about the Citie yea perhaps not Apprentises at all but forlorne companions masterlesse men tradelesse and the like who preying for mischiefe and longing to doe it are indeed the very Authors of all that is vile discourteous to honorable all trauelling strangers ought to be generally vsed as such rude towards Natiues seditious
Punishment Of which in ciuill rewards Honor is highest according to that of the most eloquent Tullie in his perished workes de republica as S. Augustine citeth them as that thing with which hee would his Prince should bee fed and nourished and in his Philosophie hath vttered that famous sentence concerning the same Honos alit artes omnesque accenduntur ad studia gloria Among vs therefore coats of Armes and titles of Gentlemen which point the Knight beforesaid howsoeuer erring in Apprentises estate hath truely noted to be commodious for the Prince being the most familiar part of Honor they rip vp and ouerturne the principall of those two pillars of common-weale frō the very basis A strange ouersight specially of professors of skill in the Arts of publike gouernment vnlesse perhaps they speake it because they would haue things reformed or changed in this particular of Apprentiship But we do not remember that either Sir Thomas Eliot in his Gouernor or Sir Thomas Chaloner Leigier Ambassador for Queen Elizabeth in Spaine in his bookes of Latine Hexameters de rep Anglorum instaurandâ published with the verses of the Lord Treasurer Burghley's before it or any other Author rightly vnderstanding our England and her generous people did euer once taxe our Countries policie in this point Yea some make it a quaere whether the Cities discipline had not more need to be reduced neerer to the ancient seuerity thereof considering with what vices London flowes and ouerflowes then that it should bee abduced though but a little from it Now then let any one but rightly weigh with what conscience or common sense the first institutors or propagators of the English forme of gouernment could lay vpon Industry and ciuill Vertue whose subiect are the lawfull things of this life and whose neerest obiect is honor and honest wealth so foule a note as the brand of bondage or any the least disparagement at all whereas to quicken inflame affections in that kind all wise Masters in the most noble ciuill Art gouernement and all founders of Empire and States haue bent their counsels and courses to cherish such as are vertuously industrious yea God himselfe the onely best patterne of gouernours hath made it knowne that euen Mechanicall qualities are his speciall gifts and his infused as it were charismata 3 For Moses hauing put into eternall monuments that Iabel was pater pastorum the most an-Art of encrease and that Iubal was pater canentium the first of which inuentions was for necessary prouisions of food and raiment the second to glorifie God and honestly to solace men towards sweetning the bitter curse which Adam drew vpon humane life it is thirdly vnder added in accomplishment of the three maine heads to which mortalls vse to refer all their worldly endeuors necessitie profit pleasure that Tubal Cain was Malleator and faber ferrarius an hammer-Smith or worker in yron that being one of those Arch-mysteries sine quibus non aedificatur ciuitas as the words are in Ecclesiasticus Nay there belonged in Gods owne iudgement so great praise to the particular excellency of some artificers as that in the building of Salomons Temple they are registred to all posterities in Scripture and their skill is not onely made immortally famous but a more curious mention is put downe of their parentage and birth place then of many great Princes as in Hirams case not he the King but the brasse-founder And in the new Testament S. Paul being a Gentlemen borne of a noble familie as the Ancients write had the manuall Art of Scoenopoea commonly englished Tent-making vpon which place of St. Pauls trade whereof in his Epistles he doth often glorie it is declared to vs out of the Rabbins that S. Paul who himselfe tells King Agrippa that he had liued a Pharisee according to the most certaine way of Iewism was brought vp so by a traditionall precept binding such a would studie sacred letters to learne some one or other mysterie in the Mechanicks And at this present among other things which the Turks retaine of the Iewish rites this seemes one when euen the Sultan himselfe or Grand Signior as all his progenitors is said to exercise a manuall trade little or much commonly once a day And in fresh memorie Rodulphus the Emperour had singular skill in making Dials Watches and the like fine works of Smith-craft as also a late great Baron of England which they practised 4 If then such honor be done by God as beforesaid not onely to those which are necessarie handy-crafts but to those also which are but the handmaids of magnificence and outward splendor as engrauers founders and the like hee shall be very hardie who shall embase honest Industry with disgracefull censures and too vniust who shall not cherish or encourage it with praise and worship as the ancient excellent policie of England did and doth in constituting corporations adorning Companies with banners of Armes and speciall men with notes of Noblesse 5 And as of all commendable Arts all worthy Common-weales haue their vse so in London they haue as it were their palace But into the bodie of the Citie none generally are encorporated but such onely as through the strait gates of Apprentiship aspire to the dignitie and state of Citizens That Hebrew bondmen were not in MOSES law among themselues like to our Apprentises howsoeuer the seuenth yeare agrees in time with the ordinarie time of our Apprentises obligation is euident both in the bookes of Exodus and Deuteronomie For first their title to their bondmen grew to their Lords by a contract of bargaine and sale which was indeed a kind of seruitude For when the seuenth yeare in which the bondage was to determine and expire if then he resolued not to continue a bondman for euer he was compelled to leaue his wife if maried in his Lords house during bōdage together with his children borne in that mariage behinde him though himselfe departed free but withall rewarded also So that voluntarie bondage is not onely de iure gentium as the Romane lawes import by which a man might sell himselfe ad participandum precium but also de iure diuino positiuo By which notwithstanding it doth not appeare that such a bondage was any disparagement or disenablement in Iewish blood among the Iewes because in Exodus wee read of a prouision made for the Hebrew bond-woman whom her Lord might take in mariage to himselfe or bestow her vpon his son if he so thought good but might not violate her chastitie as if hee had ius in corpus But the condition of an Apprentise of London resembleth the condition of no persons estate in either of the lawes Diuine or Imperiall For he directly contracteth with his Master to learne his mysterie or Art of honest liuing neither hath his Master who therefore is but a Master not a Lord Despoticū imperium ouer his Apprentise that is such a power as a Lord hath ouer slaue
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