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
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
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
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
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-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
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