This document provides information about medical practices and guilds in medieval England. It discusses John Arderne, a 14th century surgeon who wrote about surgical procedures. It also describes the roles of guilds in regulating trades and professions. Guilds helped oversee practices like surgery and provided social support. The document examines court systems and how local and royal courts addressed legal issues involving guild members.

1. Government and Guilds

2. Medicine

3. Master Surgeons
• Faithfully follow their calling
• Take reasonable payment for their services,
• Present to the mayor and aldermen the
defaults of others who undertake cures;
• Be ready to attend the maimed and wounded
at all times;
• Give truthful information to city officers
concerning the maimed, wounded, and others
if they be in peril of death.

4. John Arderne (1307−1377)
• Surgeon and author
• Practica of fistula-in-ano
– instruments used,
– step- by-step account of the operation,
– complications
– dressings, ointments, and other medicaments to
be given to the patient afterwards
• De cura oculorum

5. Arderne performing
fistula operation
Surgical Instruments

6. Arderne
‘Zodiac Man’

7. Arderne’s practice
• Opium to be used as a soporific as as an
external anaesthetic that the patient ‘schal
slepe so that he schal fele no kuttyng',
• Dress wounds "with clean sponges wrung out
of very hot water,” and “ not oftener than
every third day”
• “A leech should not laugh nor talk too much,
and as far as possible he should avoid the
company of knaves.”

8. Zodiac Man Times for surgery
Medical text (~1486)

9. Vein Man
(~1486)

10. Regulation
• Depend on self-regulation of trades
– Vintners inspected wines brought into the city
– Grocers, Drapers, Goldsmiths and other guilds
oversaw the goods and manufacturing related to their
mysteries
• Surgeons and Barber-Surgeons’ guilds were
empowered by the mayor to control surgical
practice.
• 1423 Conjoint College of Physicians and Surgeons
was founded with a mandate to oversee surgery
and medicine in London.

11. 1424 Forest v. Rolf, Harwe, Dalton
• Hand wound continued to bleed
• Rolf, barber-surgeon, brought in Dalton, fellow
barber-surgeon and John Harwe, surgeon
• Cauterization succeeded but left Forest’s hand
disfigured

12. Jury Decision − Forest Case
• Astrological signs were unfavorable to Forest's
recovery because the moon, a bloody sign,
was in the constellation of Gemini which
governed the arms and legs.
• Patient had chosen mutilation over death
• Surgeons had acted in correct manner

13. Courts
• The higher courts: Exchequer, Common Pleas,
Chancery, King’s Bench
• Local courts
– Manorial courts
– County and borough courts
• Justices of the Peace

14. Court of the Exchequer

15. Court of the King’s Bench

16. Court of Common Pleas

17. Court of Chancery

18. Uses
• Right to enjoy the benefits of property)
whether the owner of the right has ownership
of title or not.
• Under English Common Law "use" of real
property became extremely important since
title could not be conveyed outside a family
line due to "restraints on alienation," so "use"
of the property was transferred instead.

19. Chancery
• A record office with custody of the great seal
• Chancellors – bishops and archbishops
• Becomes focus of disputes about records
• Questions about Crown property – the “Latin
side”
• “English side” with pleading and records in
French and English

20. Reasons to Allow Uses
• Posthumous payment of debts
• Prayers
• Full transfer to purchaser without problems of
dower rights
• Control by a father over his widow/heirs

21. Cases for Chancery
• Lack of written satisfaction of debt
• Cases not covered by common law

22. Operation of Chancery Court
• “Court of Conscience”
• Some cases decided by common law
• Decisions generally not recorded
• Decisions apply to the person involved only

23. Variations in orthography 14th/15th centuries
Type I
Midlands
Type II
14th C.
London
Type III
Chaucer
Type IV
Chancery
such sych suche swich suche
they þey hij they they
gave zouun yafe yaf gaf
their her hire hire theyre

24. Law Question
• Suppose that as a result of knight-service to
the king, a man holds land in two different
English counties— in Norfolk and in Suffolk.
He has two sons but dies while they are still
minors. The laws of Norfolk provide that the
elder son is the heir. The laws of Suffolk
provide that the younger son is the heir. When
the elder son comes of age, in what way can
he claim ownership in the tenements in
Suffolk?"

25. Answers
The award in Suffolk was based on an
assumption that the elder son was illegitimate.
1. The eider son, when he comes of age, may
take possession by force and the younger son
can then sue.
2. With two competing claims, neither son can
gain possession until there is a decisionfrom
Chancery.

26. London Government
• Mayor
– Wards- aldermen
– Freemen (but not freewomen)
• Assize of Bread, Wine, Ale, Nuisance and
Building
– Established standards and enforced them
(Hustings courts)

27. Independence of Boroughs
• Royal charter to incorporate as a county
(Bristol, 1373; York, 1396; Newcastle-on-Tyne,
1400; Norwich, 1404; Lincoln, 1409)
• 1440 Plymouth by Act of Parliament
• Own sheriff
• Control of vacant land; purchase of land
– Income from rents

28. Five Points
Royal sanction to existing practices
1. Right to acquire land in mortmain (perpetual)
2. Right of perpetual succession
3. Right to sue and be sued
4. Right to issue by-laws
5. Right to a seal

29. Charters
• Boundaries
• Election of officials
• Fairs and markets
• Tolls
• Exemption from local abbeys
• Parliamentary representation

30. The Chartered Guilds

31. Livery Companies
1. Mercers’ (1394)
2. Grocers’ (1428)
3. Drapers’ (1438, 1606)
4. Fishmongers’ (1272,
1508)
5. Goldsmiths’ (1327)
6. Merchant
Taylors’(1326)
7. Skinners’ (1327)
8. Haberdashers’ (1448)
9. Salters’ (1394)
10. Ironmongers’ (1463)
11. Vintners’ (1437)
12. Fullers (Clothworkers’)
(1480)
1484

32. Membership
• Freemen.
– Patrimony
– Apprenticeship
• Liverymen
– Freemen advanced by a vote of the court of the
Company.
– Take part in the election of the Lord Mayor, the
Sheriffs, and the other traditional officers of the
City.

33. Privileges of Freedom of the City
• Vote in Parliamentary and civic elections;
• Exemption from all tolls payable on animals
brought into the City for sale;
• Exempt from all market tolls payable
anywhere in the country;
• Exempt from naval impressment;
• Certain legal privileges with respect to being
tried and imprisoned.

34. Members
Alice Bridenell
1427 Freedom
Daughter, New freeman
Co Mercer
Jane Eyre
1428 Apprenticeship
Master Co Draper

35. Religious connections
• Come to mass at their home church on the
saint’s day (and stay for the entire mass)
• Come to the dinner
– Bring a wife or companion
– Fees vary for livery members, out-of-towners and
others of the trade; go to maintenance of the
priest
• Guild provides ornaments for the church

36. Merchants Tailors Company
Members in the 15th century include:
• Bishops from fourteen sees became members,
– Three bishops of St. David's between 1411 and
1435,
– Five bishops of London.
• Parsons, vicars and rectors of 12 London
parishes

37. Merchant Tailors Company
Members (13981473)
• Tailors 655
• Non-tailors 1229
• 51 outside London
• 137 gentry
• 46 knights
– including Sir John Fastolf
– Nevilles and Percies
• Henry V
Company Number
Grocers: 42
Drapers: 37
Mercers: 28
Vintners: 28
Fishmongers: 24
Skinners: 18
Goldsmiths: 17
Clothworkers 16
Haberdashers 5
Ironmongers: 4
Salters: 4

38. Ordinances – Tailors of Lincoln
• Entry: A quarter of barley or the price of the
best malt
• Obligation: Corpus Chrisit procession
• Poor: 7d/week
• Death: burial expenses
• Pilgrimage: 1d for Jerusalem; 1/2d for Rome
or Compostela

39. Social and Religious Guilds
• Care for needy by subscription
• Support for priests
• Processions
• Feasts

40. Preamble
In þe worship of god almighti oure creator, and hys
moder seinte marie, and al halwes, and seint Jame
apostle, a fraternitee is bygonne of good men, in þe
chirche of seint Jame atte Garlekhith in Londone, þe
day of seint Jame, þe ȝer of our lord Ml.CCC.LXXV.,
for amendement of her lyues and of her soules, and
to noriche more loue bytwene þe bretheren and
sustren of þe bretherhede: and eche of hem had
sworen on þe bok, to perſourme þe pointȝ
vndernethe wryten atte here power.

41. Trades 1400

42. Haberdasher
• Guild recognized 1447
• Men’s clothing millinery, accessories
• Rising importance of men’s fashion

43. Livery Companies

44. Gilds and Welfare
• Some doles for sick and aged
• Paid for funerals and prayers for the dead
• Almshouses

45. Guilds and Government
1400-1450 1450-1500
Craft Aldermen Mayors Aldermen Mayors
Mercers 17 10 24 15
Grocers 14 9 17 9
Drapers 16 9 17 9
Fishmongers 10 5 5 4
Goldsmiths 8 2 8 4
Skinners 4 2 9 3
Ironmongers 4 2 3 -
Vintners 2 -
Tailors 1 7 1
Haberdashers 3 1
Salters 3 3

46. Guilds, Government, Aliens
• 1432 Require traders to live in the City
• 1451 Cordwainers get registration of aliens
• 1456-57 rioting against Italian merchants
seemingly orchestrated by members of the
Mercers' Company

47. Guild of St. Peter, Bardwell