Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages | Page 5

wake, they pursue the Indians, and, though mounted on the
swiftest camels, overtake and tear them to pieces."
Another legend relates to the blessed St. Patrick, through whose
intercession special grace is supposed to have been granted to all
smiths. St. Patrick was a slave in his youth. An old legend tells that one
time a wild boar came rooting in the field, and brought up a lump of
gold; and Patrick brought it to a tinker, and the tinker said, "It is
nothing but solder. Give it here to me." But then he brought it to a
smith, and the smith told him it was gold; and with that gold he bought
his freedom. "And from that time," continues the story, "the smiths
have been lucky, taking money every day, and never without work, but
as for the tinkers, every man's face is against them!"
In the Middle Ages the arts and crafts were generally protected by the
formation of guilds and fraternities. These bodies practically exercised
the right of patent over their professions, and infringements could be

more easily dealt with, and frauds more easily exposed, by means of
concerted effort on the part of the craftsmen. The goldsmiths and
silversmiths were thus protected in England and France, and in most of
the leading European art centres. The test of pure gold was made by
"six of the more discreet goldsmiths," who went about and
superintended the amount of alloy to be employed; "gold of the
standard of the touch of Paris" was the French term for metal of the
required purity. Any goldsmith using imitation stones or otherwise
falsifying in his profession was punished "by imprisonment and by
ransom at the King's pleasure." There were some complaints that
fraudulent workers "cover tin with silver so subtilely... that the same
cannot be discovered or separated, and so sell tin for fine silver, to the
great damage and deceipt of us." This state of things finally led to the
adoption of the Hall Mark, which is still to be seen on every piece of
silver, signifying that it has been pronounced pure by the appointed
authorities.
The goldsmiths of France absorbed several other auxiliary arts, and
were powerful and influential. In state processions the goldsmiths had
the first place of importance, and bore the royal canopy when the King
himself took part in the ceremony, carrying the shrine of St. Genevieve
also, when it was taken forth in great pageants.
In the quaint wording of the period, goldsmiths were forbidden to gild
or silver-plate any article made of copper or latten, unless they left
some part of the original exposed, "at the foot or some other part,... to
the intent that a man may see whereof the thing is made for to eschew
the deceipt aforesaid." This law was enacted in 1404.
Many of the great art schools of the Middle Ages were established in
connection with the numerous monasteries scattered through all the
European countries and in England. The Rule of St. Benedict rings true
concerning the proper consecration of an artist: "If there be artists in the
monastery, let them exercise their crafts with all humility and reverence,
provided the abbot shall have ordered them. But if any of them be
proud of the skill he hath in his craft, because he thereby seemeth to
gain something for the monastery, let him be removed from it and not

exercise it again, unless, after humbling himself, the abbot shall permit
him." Craft without graft was the keynote of mediæval art.
King Alfred had a monastic art school at Athelney, in which he had
collected "monks of all kinds from every quarter." This accounts for the
Greek type of work turned out at this time, and very likely for Italian
influences in early British art. The king was active in craft work
himself, for Asser tells us that he "continued, during his frequent wars,
to teach his workers in gold and artificers of all kinds."
The quaint old encyclopædia of Bartholomew Anglicus, called, "The
Properties of Things," defines gold and silver in an original way,
according to the beliefs of this writer's day. He says of gold, that "in the
composition there is more sadness of brimstone than of air and
moisture of quicksilver, and therefore gold is more sad and heavy than
silver." Of silver he remarks, "Though silver be white yet it maketh
black lines and strakes in the body that is scored therewith."
Marco Polo says that in the province of Carazan "the rivers yield great
quantities of washed gold, and also that which is solid, and on the
mountains they find gold in the vein, and they give one pound of gold
for six of silver."
Workers in gold or silver usually employ one of two methods--casting