Item qˀ nul du dit Fraternite paie plus pur son mangre qˀ xiiijd, en apres.
Item ordeyne est qˀ chescun Meistre qˀ eslisera ascun autre home pur estre en son lieu cesta sauoir pur estre Meistre celuy qˀ eslisera tiel home pur estre Meistre apres lan serra obligee per mesme luy a la Compaignie pur la monoy en un obligacon.
Convenit cum Recordo
Willũs Colet.
A Copy taken from a Bundle “of the Fraternities and Guilds of the City of London” which remains of record, as the same is seen in the Rolls of the Lord the King, at the Tower of London.
Anno 12.
Richard II.
John Heydon and Henry Cook, Masters, William Chapman and William Gomine, Surveyors of the Company called the Fraternity of Barbers of the City of London of ancient time established, certifying to the Council of Our Lord the King, in his Chancery, the form manner and condition of all the articles, customs and their circumstances contained in the Records of the same Company in the form following:—The which Company have neither tenements nor rents to their common use, And these articles the said Company have not used in their time excepting only for to have their Livery once a year, and to pay their quarterage to maintain the poor folk of the same Company, and once a year to assemble to feast, and to elect new Masters and Surveyors without any other article of their writing to put forward except those which only are made to the honour of God; but, however, as they have found a document amongst the articles of the Records, made of the time to which memory runneth not, they have presented it to your most wise discretions.
This Indenture made in the name of the Omnipotent God, the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost, and of our Lady Saint Mary and of all the glorious Company of Heaven, concerning the foundation of the Government of the Fraternity of Barbers of the City of London Witnesseth how and upon what points the said Fraternity is founded and ordained.
Firstly to the honour of God and all his Saints, and to stir up the Commons of the people to do well, and to have perseverance in well doing, it is ordained that if any brother of this Fraternity who has been of this Fraternity for seven years by chance fall into trouble or into poverty, and if he have nothing of his own by which he may be able to live, and it be not through his own folly, that then he shall have each week from their common box tenpence half penny for his sustenance.
Item. That when any brother of the said Fraternity dies the brethren of the said Fraternity shall go on the Vigil to the dirge, and on the day[31] to the Mass, and to the dirge and to the mass of the month’s obit, and that each such brother dead have thirty masses from their common box,[32] and that each brother who is absent without reasonable excuse at any of the said four times, shall put into their common box in place of his offerings and expenses, as he ought to have done if he had been present, three pence.