Nothing is now heard of the Surgeons’ Guild for some years, although they were still in existence. It is quite probable, that finding the Barbers had invariably obtained the protection and countenance of the City authorities, whenever their privileges had been assailed or called in question, they had given over their attempts at interference with them as hopeless, and allowed our worthy predecessors to continue to “exercise the faculty of surgery,” in peace; and being unmolested they doubtless grew in numbers, in importance, and in the knowledge of their art, until it was admitted that their position as one of the Guilds, warranted them in applying for a Charter of Incorporation, which was granted to them by Edward IV in 1462.
1413. Before proceeding to refer to this important epoch in the history of our Company, it will be well to introduce a very remarkable letter, which was written by Thomas Arundell, Archbishop of Canterbury (formerly of York), to the Mayor, etc., of London, in which he complained that the Barbers, being, alas! “without zeal for the law of God,” kept their shops open on the Sabbath days, and he besought the Mayor and Aldermen (his “sons in Christ, and dearest friends”) to put a stop to this practice. No trade, perhaps, has from the earliest days, down to our own times, owned such persistent breakers of the Fourth Commandment as have the Barbers. Our records abound with by-laws, enacted and renewed over and over again on this subject, and details of the delinquencies of numerous Barbers in this respect, and of their punishments by fine and imprisonment crop up everywhere.
The Archbishop’s letter reveals to us the fact, that nearly 500 years ago, men were constituted much as they are now; in that “that which touches the body or the purse, is held more in dread than that which kills the soul,” and he shrewdly suggests that the clerical punishment of “the greater excommunication,” should be augmented by a fine to be levied by the Civil authority. This letter is so deeply interesting that no apology is needed for reproducing it here. The original is to be found in Letter-Book I. 125.
1413. On the 24th day of July, in the first year, etc. (Henry V) the Reverend Father in Christ, and Lord, Thomas, by Divine permission, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, sent here, to the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London, certain Letters Close of his, containing words as follow:—
“Sons in Christ and dearest friends.—We know that you do seek for the things which are of above, and that you will the more readily incline to our desires, the more surely that the things as to which we write are known to tend to the observance of the Divine law, the maintenance of public propriety, and the rule of the Christian profession. We do therefore write unto you on this occasion, to intimate that when we were presiding of late in our Provincial Council, holden at London, with our venerable brethren, the Suffragan Bishops, and our clergy of the Province of Canterbury, it was publicly made known unto us with universal reprobation, that the Barbers of the City of London, over the governance of which city you preside, being without zeal for the law of God, and not perceiving how that the Lord hath blessed the seventh day and made it holy, and hath commanded that it shall be observed by no abusive pursuit of any servile occupations, but rather by a disuse thereof, in their blindness do keep their houses and shops patent and open on the seventh day, the Lord’s Day, namely, and do follow their craft on the same, just as busily, and just in the same way, as on any day in the week, customary for such work. Wherefore we, with the consent and assent of our said Suffragans and clergy, in restraint of such temerity as this, have determined that there must be made solemn prohibition thereof in the City aforesaid, and that, of our own authority, and that of our said Provincial Council; and not there only, but also throughout the Diocese of London, and each of the cities both of our own Diocese and of our Province of Canterbury; to the effect, that such barbers must not keep their houses and shops patent or open, or follow their craft, on such Lord’s Days for the future, on pain of the greater excommunication; in the same manner as it has been enacted and observed of late in our time, as to the City and Diocese of York, as we do well recollect. But, dearest children, seeing that so greatly has the malice of men increased in these days, a thing to be deplored—that temporal punishment is held more in dread than clerical, and that which touches the body or the purse more than that which kills the soul, we do heartily intreat you, and, for the love of God and of His law, do require and exhort you, that, taking counsel thereon, you will enact and ordain a competent penalty in money, to be levied for the Chamber of your City, or such other purpose as you shall think best, upon the Barbers within the liberty of your City aforesaid, who shall be transgressors in this respect; that so at least, those whom fear of the anger of God does not avail to withold from breach of His law, may be restrained by a scourge inflicted upon their purse, in the way of pecuniary loss; knowing that we in the meantime, after taking counsel hereon, will devise measures for the prevention of this, and for the due publication of our Provincial enactment aforesaid. Fare you well always in Christ.
Written at Ikham[46] on the 13th day of the month of July.
Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury.”
An Ordinance was forthwith made thereupon, to the effect, that no barber, his wife, son, daughter, apprentice, or servant, should work at such craft on Sundays within the liberty of the city, either in hair cutting or shaving, on pain of paying 6s. 8d. for each offence; 5s. thereof to go to the new work at the Guildhall, and the remainder to the Wardens or Masters of the Barbers within the city.[47]
1422. In August of this year Henry V died, and thirty-two of the City Companies assisted at his obsequies, going in procession and carrying torches. From an entry in Letter-Book K. IB., it appears that the Barbers bore four torches on this occasion.
1447. This year the Company seem to have contributed 40s. towards the cost of the Roof of the Chapel at Guildhall, as appears by the following entry in Journal IV, 198 (25th October, 26 Henry VI)—