DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22140#0191
THE JOINT-STOCK PRINCITLE IN LABOUR. 175
rolls that the farmers frequented these markets for the purpose of
buying and selling. In fact, I am disposed to believe that there
was more intercourse between the peasantry of disferent parishes
six hundred years ago than there now is, and therefore more
opportunities for concerted action.
But, besides, the people were brought greatly into contact with
the migratory clergy. It was a tenet with these people that the
priest who was bound to an order was a more esficacious inter-
cessor than one who had been merely associated with parochial
duties, and was therefore called a secular clerk, with some little
contempt. Gascoigne, in the fifteenth century, complains greatly
of the esfects induced by this tenet. Now for some time, perhaps
not more than a century and a half, this opinion gained credence,
especially in relation to the two orders of mendicant friars, the
Dominicans and Franciscans. It is true that later on Wiklif and
the Lollards denounced them. But their migratory practices
continued till the Reformation, when, especially in the "Suppli-
cation of the Beggars," a calculation is made as to the sums of
money which the friars annually collected from the people. In
other words, the occasional appearance of those personages in
villages must have been familiar, and it would seem that public
opinion was not unfavourable to their migrations. I cannot
indeed say that they constituted a channel of communication
between the workmen in different districts. The institution of
Wiklif's poor priests seems to suggest that in this bold reformer's
eyes a new agency was necessary. This he supplied, and armed with
the far-reaching tenet, that dominion is founded on grace, which,
interpreted by himself in his lately recovered treatise, means that
deference to authority is based on the worthiness of him who
exercises the authority. Now this is a gloss which subjects all
institutions to searching, perhaps to destructive, criticism.
Social institutions, like constitutional precedents, generally be-
come known to us by some strain which brings the fact into
prominence, the practice, though no record be taken of it, long
preceding the record of its activity. The first intimation which
I have found of labour combinations is in Kingston, and this in
connection with the events of 1350 and of 1381. But I am
convinced that it would be an error to conclude that these asso-
rolls that the farmers frequented these markets for the purpose of
buying and selling. In fact, I am disposed to believe that there
was more intercourse between the peasantry of disferent parishes
six hundred years ago than there now is, and therefore more
opportunities for concerted action.
But, besides, the people were brought greatly into contact with
the migratory clergy. It was a tenet with these people that the
priest who was bound to an order was a more esficacious inter-
cessor than one who had been merely associated with parochial
duties, and was therefore called a secular clerk, with some little
contempt. Gascoigne, in the fifteenth century, complains greatly
of the esfects induced by this tenet. Now for some time, perhaps
not more than a century and a half, this opinion gained credence,
especially in relation to the two orders of mendicant friars, the
Dominicans and Franciscans. It is true that later on Wiklif and
the Lollards denounced them. But their migratory practices
continued till the Reformation, when, especially in the "Suppli-
cation of the Beggars," a calculation is made as to the sums of
money which the friars annually collected from the people. In
other words, the occasional appearance of those personages in
villages must have been familiar, and it would seem that public
opinion was not unfavourable to their migrations. I cannot
indeed say that they constituted a channel of communication
between the workmen in different districts. The institution of
Wiklif's poor priests seems to suggest that in this bold reformer's
eyes a new agency was necessary. This he supplied, and armed with
the far-reaching tenet, that dominion is founded on grace, which,
interpreted by himself in his lately recovered treatise, means that
deference to authority is based on the worthiness of him who
exercises the authority. Now this is a gloss which subjects all
institutions to searching, perhaps to destructive, criticism.
Social institutions, like constitutional precedents, generally be-
come known to us by some strain which brings the fact into
prominence, the practice, though no record be taken of it, long
preceding the record of its activity. The first intimation which
I have found of labour combinations is in Kingston, and this in
connection with the events of 1350 and of 1381. But I am
convinced that it would be an error to conclude that these asso-