Selected quad for the lemma: master_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
master_n	abandon_v	apprentice_n	body_n	20	3	5.9104	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16306	The cities aduocate in this case or question of honor and armes; whether apprentiship extinguisheth gentry? Containing a cleare refutation of the pernicious common errour affirming it, swallowed by Erasmus of Roterdam, Sir Thomas Smith in his common-weale, Sir Iohn Fern in his blazon, Raphe Broke Yorke Herald, and others. With the copies of transcripts of three letters which gaue occasion of this worke.	Bolton, Edmund, 1575?-1633?; Philipot, John, 1589?-1645, attributed name.	1629 (1629)	STC 3219; ESTC S106271	30,252	83

Apprentises a kinde of bondmen and so to disenable them to Gentry either deriuatiue or acquisitiue the Masters themselues are also a kinde of bondmen because suo genere they aswell are bound as the Apprentises For the fourth which is in respect of the condition either vocally exprest or vertually implide in the contract there is in it no proofe of bondage but the contrarie For in that the obligation is mutuall it proues the Apprentise free as from bondage though for the Apprentises owne good not free from subiection to discipline Because onely free men can make contracts and challenge the benefit of them The verbe not seruire but the verbe deseruire which is of farre lesse weight comprised in the instrument or Indenture and containing the whole force of the obligation hath onely in that place the sense of obsequi facere to obey and doe as an Apprentise and not according to the ancient sense which it had among the Romanes This ought not to seeme a paradox For the word dominari to which seruire is a relatiue and the word dominus haue in tract of time beene so softened and familiarised as they are growne to be words of singular humanity And what so common among the noble as to professe to serue But the relation constituted in this case is peculiar and proper the odious word dominus is not there at all nor seruus no nor famulus the relation constituted is directly named betweene Master and Apprentise a cleare case that all iniuries to blood and nature are of purpose auoided in those conuentions and conuentiones they are called in the interchangeably sealed instrument it selfe So cleare a case that in the Oath which all freemen make in the Chamber of London at their first admission this clause among many others is sworne vnto by them That they shall take None Apprentise but if he be Free borne that is to say no Bondmans sonne which are the very words of the oath Thus carefully open was the eye of institution in this noble point of the Cities policy to preuent that no staine no blemish nor indignitie should wrong the splendor thereof A thing which could not but follow ineuitably if they who prouided against admission of bondmens issue into the estate of apprentiship should themselues by making apprentises make bondmen or should in any sort embase their blood whose Masters they were to be as to the purpose of comming to bee Citizens in time They neuer meant to make any man bond who would haue none but the sonnes of free-borne persons bound apprentises It shall be wilfull ignorance or malice from hence forth to maintaine the contrary 4. A most memorable exāple in Scripture to the purpose of the present question is that of Iacob and Laban in the nine and twentieth Chapter of Genesis where the time seuen yeares yea the very word seruire are plaine in that contract which was made betweene the vncle and the nephew yet who did euer say that Iacob was for this a kind of bondman The reason why he was not riseth from consideration of the finall cause or intention of the contract which is recorded to haue beene honorable the obtaining of a worthy wife and of an estate to maintaine her with Neither when he was no longer defrauded of Rahel then seuen daies after his first seuen yeares and when in the fruition of Rahel he serued also other seuen yeares was he a kind of bondman by as it were a relapse or as by a cessation of expecting his reward which he enioyed in enioying her Out of which it followeth that as Iacob was no kind of bondman though he serued and serued out all his time twice ouer so neither are Apprentises And from this place of the Bible it is vnanswerablie proued that bodily seruice is a laudable meanes to atchieue any good or honorable purpose a meanes truly worthy of a Gentleman 5 Hereunto we finally adde and repeat that as an Apprentise tyes himselfe to his Master in the word deseruire that is to obey and doe restrictiuely to the ancient reason and traditionall discipline of Apprentiship in London so the Master tyes himselfe to his Apprentise in the word docere in lieu of his honest seruice to teach him his Art to the vtmost Which Masters part is growne to such estimation as that Apprentises now come commonly like wines with portions to their Masters If then Apprentiship be a kinde of seruitude it is either a pleasing bondage or a strange madnesse to purchase it with money 6 An Apprentise therefore as an Apprentise being neither ratione obsequij temporis contractus nor conditionis in any kinde a bondman is in no respect a bondman and hath therefore no more lost his title and right to Gentrie then hee hath done to any goods chattels lands royalties or any thing else which if hee had neuer beene an Apprentise either had might or ought to haue come vnto him Nay much lesse can Gentry bee lost in this case then right to lands and goods how much more inherent the rights of blood are then the rights of fortune For according to the law-rule iura sanguinum nullo iure ciuili dirimi possunt whereas those other may be dissolued And that Gentry is a right of blood may appeare by this that no man can truely alienate the same or vest another in it though legally he may in case of Adoption which is but an humane inuention in imitation of nature and therefore in rei veritate no alienation at all but a fiction or an acception in law as if it were such So that none can any more passe away his gentrie to make another a Gentleman thereby who was not a Gentleman before then he can passe away any habit or quality of the minde as vertue or learning to make another honest or learned who was vnlearned or dishonest before For Gentry is a quality of blood or name as vertue and learning are of the minde Vpon which reason that rule of law is grounded which teacheth vs that annulus signatorius ornamenti appellatione non continetur 7 To all this if it bee replied That Apprentiship is a kind of bondage for that if an Apprentise abandon his Masters seruice his Master may both fetch him backe as Lord for the time ouer his seruants body and compell him also to liue vnder obedience We answer thus That such a power ouer the bodie of an Apprentise is not sufficient to constitute a bondman though the seruice of the Apprentise belongs to the Master Gods partin him and the Commonweales being first deducted Aristotle held that onely the Grecians were free and all the barbarous that is to say all not Grecians were bond Some among vs seeme Aristototelians in this point who as he gloriously ouer-valued his Country-men so these ouer-value their paragon-Gentry and repute none worthie of Armes and Honor but themselues we supposing on their behalfe that they are indeed not vaine-pretenders

but quasi curaturam or a Guardianship and is in very truth a meere Discipliner or Teacher with authority of vsing moderate correction as a Father not as a Tyrant or otherwise Immoderate correction whosoeuer doth vse is by a gracious statute of the fifth of Queene Elizabeth subiect to be punished with the losse of the Apprentise by absolutely taking him away 6 Which things so often as I deeply ponder I cannot but hold it as loose and as wandring a conceit and as vnciuill a proposition in ciuill matters as any That Apprentiship should be imagined either to extinguish or to extenuate the right of natiue Gentrie or to disable any worthy or fit person to acquisitiue Armories For how can it in Gods name worke that effect vnlesse it be criminall to be an Apprentise Because no man loseth his right to beare Armes or to write Gentleman vnlesse hee be attainted in Law for such a cause the conuiction whereof doth immediately procure corruption in blood which as in this case no man yet hath dreamed of Againe when by the old common Law of England there are onely two sorts of bondmen that is to say villaines in grosse and villaines regardant to a Mannour and it is most certaine that our Apprentise or Schollar in Citie-mysteries is neither one nor other of them what ignorance then or offence was mother at first of this not paradox but palpable absurditie that Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentry or that Apprentises are as with vs a kind of bondmen The Contents of this third part 1. 2. FOr clearer vnderstanding the question the seruice of an Apprentise described 3 The foure maine points of the Indenture discussed the seruice the time the contract the condition 4 The case of Laban and Iacob weighed 5 Of the mutuall bond betweene Master and Apprentise 6 An Apprentise proued to be in no respect a bondman Of the right of blood in Gentrie and of the right of wearing gold-rings among the Romans 7 The Masters power ouer the Apprentises body obiected and solued Aristotles errour about bondmen Of young Gentlemen Wards in England Of Vniuersitie Students and of Souldiers in respect of their bodies 8 Apprentiship a degree in commonweale 9 Of the tokens or ensignes of that degree the flat round cap and other 10 Vnwisely discontinued 11 Resumption of Apprentiships markes or habits rather wished then hoped 12 The iniurious great absurditie of the Aduersaries opinion and the excellency of London The third Part. 1 THough in the premisses wee seeme to our selues to haue said enough for establishing our Negation in this importāt question that is to say That Apprentiship is not a kinde of bondage consequently that it cannot worke any such effects as is before supposed yet to leaue no tollerable curiositie vnsatisfied wee will set before vs as in a table the whole condition of an Apprentise Meaning chiefly such an Apprentise as being the son of a Gentleman is bound to a Master who exerciseth the worthier Arts of Citizens as Merchants by sea Assurers Whole-sale-men some such few others which may more specially stand in the first classe of the most generous mysteries as those in which the wit or minde hath a farre greater part then bodily labour 2 Such an Apprentise therefore when first he comes to his Master is commonly but of those yeares which are euery where subiect to correction His ordinarie seruices these Hee goes bare-headed stands bare-headed waytes bare-headed before his Master and Mistresse and while as yet he is the yongest Apprentise hee doth perhaps for discipline sake make old leather ouer-night shine with blacking for the morning brusheth a garment runs of errands keeps silence till he haue leaue to speake followes his Master or vshereth his Mistresse and sometime my young Mistresses their daughters among whom some one or other of them doth not rarely proue the Apprentises wife walkes not farre out but with permission and now and then as offences happen he may chance to be terribly chidden or menaced or which sometime must be worthily corrected though all this but onely in ordine and in the way to Mastership or to the estate of a Citizen which last worst part of this Apprentises condition continues peraduenture for a yeare or two and while hee is commonly but at the age of a boy or at the most but of a lad or stripling And take things at the very worst hee doth nothing as an Apprentise vnder his Master which when himselfe comes to be a Master his Apprentises shal not doe or suffer vnder him Such or the like is the bitterest part of an Apprentises happy estate in this world being honestly prouided at his Masters charge of all things necessarie and decent The Master in the meane-while seruing his Apprentises turne with instruction and vniuersall conformation or moulding of him to his Art as the Apprentise serues his Masters turne with obedience faith and industrie 3 Here haue we a representation of an Apprentises being or rather the well-being of a child vnder his father who hath right of correction Vpon view whereof we demand why it should be supposed That Apprentiship extinguisheth Gentry For if an Apprentise in London since to haue Apprentises is a power not deriued to corporations out of prerogatiue and royall priuiledge but out of common Law bee in their conceipts a kinde of bondman it must either be ratione generis obsequij or ratione temporis adiecti or contractus or conditionis or for all together a fifth cause being hard to be either assigned or imagined For the first point which is in regard of the kind of seruice that is but an effect of the contract or bargaine and consequently depends thereon or participates in nature with it which not importing any kind of bondage neither can the seruice it selfe due by that agreement bee the seruice of a bondman So that as on the one side wee grant that Apprentises as Apprentises doe some things which Gentlemen would not doe that liued sui iuris specially vpon a necessity to obey yet on the other side we constantly deny that they doe any of them either as seruile or as seruilely but propter finem nobilem that is to learne an honest mysterie to enable them for the seruice of God and their Countrey in the station place or calling of a Citizen For the second which is in respect of a certaine time as of seuen yeeres at least added and limited in the contract that is meerely but a circumstance of the agreement and per consequens cannot alter the substance of the question For if Apprentises are not a kind of bondmen abstracting from the time which they are bound to serue the addition of time addeth nothing to the quality of the contract to make it seruile For the third which is in regard of the contract as it raiseth a relation or the titles betweene two of Master and seruant if the very act of binding to performance be a sufficient reason to make

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