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.

The Second Part.

THese things considered, how should it fall into the minde of any good, or wise discouser, That Apprentises are a kind of bondmen, and consequently, That Appren∣tiship extinguisheth natiue Gentry, and disenableth to acquisitiue? For, if that opinion bee not guilty of impiety to our Mother Countrey, where that lau∣dable policie of Apprentiship necessary for our nation, is exercised as a point of seuere discipline, warrantable in Christianitie; certainly it hath in it a great deale of iniurious temeritie, and inconfide∣rance; and why not impietie also, if they wilfully wrong the wisdome of England, their naturall common parent, whose children are free∣borne? Surelie, notorious inconsiderance is apparent, because there are but two maine pillars of Common-weale, PRAEMIVM & PAENA, Reward and Punishment. Of which, in ciuill re∣wards, Honor is highest, according to that of the most eloquent Tullie in his perished workes, de republica, (as S. Augustine citeth them) as that thing with which hee would his Prince should bee fed, and

nourished; and in his Philosophie hath vttered that famous sentence concerning the same, Honos alit artes, omnes{que} accenduntur ad studia gloria. Among vs therefore coats of Armes, and titles of Gentle∣men (which point the Knight beforesaid, how∣soeuer erring in Apprentises estate, hath truely noted to be commodious for the Prince) being the most familiar part of Honor, they rip vp, and ouerturne the principall of those two pillars of common-weale, frō the very basis. A strange ouer∣sight, specially of professors of skill in the Arts of publike gouernment, vnlesse perhaps they speake it because they would haue things reformed, or changed in this particular of Apprentiship. But we do not remember, that either Sir Thomas Eliot in his Gouernor, or Sir Thomas Chaloner, (Leigier Ambassador for Queen Elizabeth in Spaine) in his bookes of Latine Hexameters de rep. Anglorum in∣staurandâ, (published with the verses of the Lord Treasurer Burghley's before it) or any other Au∣thor rightly vnderstanding our England, and her generous people, did euer once taxe our Countries policie in this point. Yea, some make it a quaere, whether the Cities discipline had not more need to be reduced neerer to the ancient seuerity there∣of, considering with what vices London flowes,

and ouerflowes, then that it should bee abduced, though but a little, from it.

Now then let any one but rightly weigh with what conscience, or common sense, the first institutors, or propagators of the English forme of gouernment could lay vpon Industry, and ciuill Vertue (whose subiect are the lawfull things of this life, and whose neerest obiect is honor, and honest wealth) so foule a note as the brand of bondage, or any the least disparagement at all? whereas to quicken, & inflame affections in that kind, all wise Masters in the most noble ciuill Art gouernement, and all founders of Empire, and States, haue bent their counsels, and courses, to cherish such as are vertuously industrious, yea, God himselfe, (the onely best patterne of gouer∣nours) hath made it knowne, that euen Mechani∣call qualities are his speciall gifts, and his infused, as it were charismata.

3 For Moses hauing put into eternall monu∣ments, that Iabel was pater pastorum (the most an-Art of encrease) and that Iubal was pater canenti∣um (the first of which inuentions was for necessa∣ry prouisions of food, and raiment, & the second to glorifie God, and honestly to solace men, to∣wards sweetning the bitter curse which Adam

drew vpon humane life,) it is thirdly vnder added in accomplishment of the three maine heads to which mortalls vse to refer all their worldly ende∣uors (necessitie, profit, & pleasure) that Tubal Cain was Malleator, and faber ferrarius, an hammer-Smith, or worker in yron, that being one of those Arch-mysteries, sine quibus non aedificatur ciuitas, as the words are in Ecclesiasticus, Nay, there belon∣ged in Gods owne iudgement so great praise to the particular excellency of some artificers, as that, in the building of Salomons Temple, they are regi∣stred to all posterities in Scripture; and their skill is not onely made immortally famous, but a more curious mention is put downe of their parentage, and birth place, then of many great Princes, as in Hirams case, not he the King, but the brasse-foun∣der. And in the new Testament, S. Paul, (being a Gentlemen borne of a noble familie, as the Anci∣ents write) had the manuall Art of Scoenopoea, com∣monly englished, Tent-making: vpon w^ch place of St. Pauls trade (whereof in his Epistles he doth often glorie) it is declared to vs out of the Rab∣bins, that S. Paul (who himselfe tells King Agrippa that he had liued a Pharisee; according to the most certaine way of Iewism) was brought vp so, by a traditionall precept, binding such a would studie

sacred letters, to learne some one or other mysterie in the Mechanicks. And at this present among other things which the Turks retaine of the Iewish rites, this seemes one, when euen the Sultan him∣selfe, or Grand Signior (as all his progenitors) is said to exercise a manuall trade, little, or much, com∣monly once a day. And in fresh memorie Rodul∣phus the Emperour had singular skill in making Dials, Watches, and the like fine works of Smith-craft, as also a late great Baron of England, which they practised.

4 If then such honor be done by God (as be∣foresaid) not onely to those which are necessarie handy-crafts, but to those also which are but the handmaids of magnificence, and outward splen∣dor, as engrauers, founders, and the like; hee shall be very hardie who shall embase honest Industry with disgracefull censures; and too vniust, who shall not cherish, or encourage it with praise and worship, as the ancient excellent policie of Eng∣land did, and doth, in constituting corporations, & adorning Companies with banners of Armes and speciall men with notes of Noblesse.

5 And, as of all commendable Arts all wor∣thy Common-weales haue their vse, so, in London they haue as it were their palace. But into the bo∣die

of the Citie none generally are encorporated, but such onely as through the strait gates of Apprentiship aspire to the dignitie and state of Citizens. That Hebrew bondmen were not, in MOSES law, among themselues, like to our Apprentises (howsoeuer the seuenth yeare agrees in time with the ordinarie time of our Apprenti∣ses obligation) is euident both in the bookes of Exodus, and Deuteronomie. For, first, their title to their bondmen grew to their Lords by a con∣tract of bargaine, and sale, which was indeed a kind of seruitude. For, when the seuenth yeare, in which the bondage was to determine, and ex∣pire, if then he resolued not to continue a bond∣man for euer, he was compelled to leaue his wife (if maried in his Lords house during bōdage) to∣gether with his children, borne in that mariage behinde him, though himselfe departed free, but withall rewarded also. So that voluntarie bon∣dage is not onely de iure gentium (as the Romane lawes import, by which a man might sell him∣selfe, ad participandum precium) but also de iure diui∣no positiuo. By which notwithstanding it doth not appeare, that such a bondage was any dispa∣ragement, or disenablement in Iewish blood a∣mong the Iewes, because in Exodus wee read of a

prouision made for the Hebrew bond-woman, whom her Lord might take in mariage to him∣selfe, or bestow her vpon his son, if he so thought good, but might not violate her chastitie, as if hee had ius in corpus. But the condition of an Appren∣tise of London resembleth the condition of no per∣sons estate in either of the lawes, Diuine or Imperi∣all; For he directly contracteth with his Master to learne his mysterie, or Art of honest liuing, nei∣ther hath his Master (who therefore is but a Ma∣ster, & not a Lord) Despoticū imperium ouer his Ap∣prentise (that is, such a power as a Lord hath ouer slaue) but quasi curaturam, or a Guardianship, and is in very truth a meere Discipliner, or Teacher, with authority of vsing moderate correction as a Fa∣ther, 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 mat∣ters as any: That Apprentiship should be imagined ei∣ther to extinguish, or to extenuate the right of natiue Gentrie, or to disable any worthy, or fit person to acquisi∣tiue

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 conuic∣tion whereof doth immediately procure corrup∣tion 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 regar∣dant to a Mannour, and it is most certaine, that our Apprentise, or Schollar in Citie-mysteries, is nei∣ther one nor other of them, what ignorance then, or offence was mother at first of this, not para∣dox, but palpable absurditie, that Apprentiship ex∣tinguisheth Gentry, or that Apprentises are as with vs a kind of bondmen?