A precept of the Archbishop of Canterbury forbidding barbers to carry on their trade on Sundays / by D'Arcy Power.

  • Power, D'Arcy, Sir, 1855-1941.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A precept of the Archbishop of Canterbury forbidding barbers to carry on their trade on Sundays / by D'Arcy Power. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    \ > llcuriuted from The Lancet, datmari/ 2$, 1U0D.^j^ ^ ,' ■ L l \]f 10ci, Chandos St., iiii/ *—-* t ./ • * Q*) A PRECEPT OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY FORBIDDING BARBERS TO CARRY ON THElR TRADE ON SUNDAYS. By D’Arcy Power, F.S.A. A short time ago I bought at a secondhand bookshop the precept which is here printed. It is dated April 19th, 1445. The parchment is gnawed by mice, but it is clearly written in courthand and it has been transcribed for me by Messrs. Hardy and Page, record agents, of London, to whom I owe ray thanks. The English translation of the Latin original runs as follows :— (Translation.) John, by the permission of God, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of England and Legate of the [holy] Apostolic See, sufficiently and law- fully deputed judge, together with the others underwritten, by the within written authority of the Apostolic See, to the venerable and religious man, the Abbot of the monastery of St. Peter of Westminster, and to all and singular incumbents with cures and without cures in the [precincts?] of the city and suburbs of London and of the jurisdiction of the abbot aforesaid, Greeting in the Saviour of all men. Know ye that we have lately received apostolic letters whole and entire, sealed with a bull in the manner of the Roman court, having no sign of defect or suspicion of fraud, in these words: Eugenius the servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brothers the Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Winchester, and his beloved son the Dean of the church of London, Greeting and apostolic benediction. We gladly yield to the honest desires of supplicants, and reply to them with opportune favours. By a representa- tion formerly made on the part, of our well-beloved sons, the keepers and wardens of the art or mystery of the barbers dwelling in the city of London, to Pope Martin V., our predecessor, of blessed memory [it was shown] that whereas at a provincial council long since held by Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, of good memory, and by thy suffragans, brother Arch- bishop, and other prelates of the province of Canterbury, it was re- ported that the barbers of the cities, towns and places of the said province, and especially [of the said ?] city and the suburbs thereof, contrary to divine law, the canonical ordinances and public credit, have presumed to keep their houses and shops open for the exercise of the same art on the Lord's days on which the Lord decreed that we should abstain from labour, and have dared publicly to exercise the same art; the same Thomas the Primate, with the advice and assent of the same suffragan prelates and clergy, decreed and ordained that the same barbers should be forthwith restrained from such their presumption by public inhibitions under penalty of [excommunication ?]and canonical censure,