Emblems and iconography

The most visual element of guild devotion, and clear to all in processions, were guild emblems and iconography. The banners carried in the processions, the seals placed upon documents, emblems on or in books, and decoration of guild chapels were all demonstrators of guild devotion.

358 AML, CV, 16208, f. 121.

359 AGR, CC, 37076 f. 17.

360 AGR, CC, 33009 f. 7 v.

Banners.

Banners are complex objects, at once military, social and devotional, they perfectly symbolise how seemingly separate ideas, war and peace, overlapped in medieval thinking. In 1452 Ghent raised its banners against Philip the Good in rebellion. After they were defeated the duke had the banners hung in shrines in chapels of the Virgin in Boulogne and Halle, ducal pilgrimage centres.³⁶¹ Banners were carried into war, were used to symbolise rebellion, but could also be

devotional objects. All craft or social groups carried banners in processions, symbolising their dedication to the saint upon their banner. ³⁶² Guilds certainly used their banners for military purposes, in 1315, when sending out their

shooters, Ghent paid their wages and provided new banners.³⁶³ Later regulations from Ghent referring to military deployment even state that ‘no one will stand before the banners of Ghent and Saint George’.³⁶⁴ In Lille in 1347 military expenses include payments made to the man who carried the banner of Saint George; he received 2 shillings a day.³⁶⁵

Military functions of banners remained, but the objects took on new social and cultural significances in the fifteenth century.³⁶⁶ Though not quite objects of

361 Arnade, Beggars, Iconoclasts, and Civic Patriots, 26-7.

362 R. Jones, ‘“What Banner Thine?” The banner as a symbol of identification, status and authority on the battlefield,’ Haskins Society Journal: Studies in Medieval History 15 (2006), 101-109;

idem., Bloodied Banners: Martial Display on the Medieval Battlefield (Woodbridge, 2010); O.

Bouzy, ‘Les armes symboles d'un pouvoir politique: l'épée du sacre, la Sainte Lance, l' Oriflamme, aux VIIe-XII siècle,’ Forschungen zur westeuropäischen Geschichte 22 (1995), 45-57; M. T. Elvins ‘The Banner of the Cornish Bowmen,’ Coat of Arms 8 (1990), 260-262 ; C.

Coppins, ‘De standaard van Brabant’ Ascania 16 (1973), 144-147 ; P. Arnade, ‘Crowds, Banners and the Market Place; Symbols of Defiance and Defeat During the Ghent War of 1452-3,’ Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 24 (1994), 471-497.

363 Vuylsteke, Gentsche stads en balijuwsrekeningen, 67-9.

364 SAG, 97 2ter, zwarten boek f. 165 v.

365 AML, CV, 16046, f. 14 .

366 M. Lupant, ‘Drapeaux du Grand Serment Royal et Noble des Arbalétriers de Notre-Dame au Sablon,’ Fahnen, Flags, Drapeaux: Proceedings of the 15th International Congress of

Vexillology, Zurich, 23-27 August 1993. Ed. E. Dreyer and H. Muller (Zurich, 1999), 130-134; S.

Cohn, Lust for Liberty, The Politics of Social Relations in Medieval Europe, 1200-1425 (London, 2006), 177-204.

devotion, guild banners were part of their iconography and devotional choices, and demonstrate perfectly their overlapping military and devotional ideals. Many towns gave their shooting guilds generous subsidies to purchase new banners. In 1451 Lille paid for a new banner for their crossbowmen,³⁶⁷ and in 1438 Cambrai paid for the banners of both the archers and the crossbowmen to be repaired.³⁶⁸ Other guilds took care of the matter themselves. The incredibly detailed accounts from the crossbowmen of Aalst, from 1461-2, include £ 6 to a painter for

decorating the guild standard with ‘legend of Saint George’.³⁶⁹ Banners were not simply military pennons; they were carried in procession, taken to competitions and kept in guild chapels, symbolising social and devotional identities.

Seals.

Seals represented not just religious identity, but a social and cultural one too, as has been shown for craft guild seals.³⁷⁰ The survival of shooting- guilds’ seals is scattered, and inventories rarely mention whether seals are attached to guild documents, and if so in what condition. A survey of seals from crossbow guilds in the AGR in 1956 showed that most fifteenth century seals featured with the guild patron saint, or an important civic landmark.³⁷¹ Many of the seals discussed by Copin have further degraded, but several seals attached to letters of invitation in Oudenaarde and Ghent have fared better.

A few seals, such as those shown here, display emblems of civic, rather than devotional, identity. Delft, in Holland, and the French city of Tournai chose a

367 Espinas, Les Origines, 406.

368 Gautier et Lesort, Inventaire sommaire, ville de Cambrai, 97.

369 ASAOA, 156, Rekeningen van de gezworenen van het Sint Joris gild, 1461-2. f. 8.

370 S. Abraham-Thisse, ‘La représentation iconographique des métiers du textile au Moyen-Âge,’

in M. Boone, E. Lecuppre-Desjardin and J.-P. Sossons (eds.), Le verbe, l’image et les représentations de la société urbaine au moyen âge (Anvers, 2002), 135-159.

371 J. Copin, ‘Sceaux d’arbalétriers Belges,’ Annales du XXXVIe congre de la fédération archéologique et historique de Belge (Gand, 1956), 15-25.

civic representation. Their choice does not mean that they were less devout. It could imply they were under great civic control, but again choice must be seen as a driving force.

Fig. 3. Seal of Delft, from 1440 Ghent invitation.³⁷² Fig. 4. Seal of Tournai crossbowmen, from Oudenaarde 1462 competition.³⁷³

The majority of surviving seals display emblems of devotional identity, especially saints.³⁷⁴ That groups so tied to urban culture chose devotional representation, rather than civic emblems, clearly shows the importance of devotional choices and of being recognised by their spiritual patron.

Fig 5. Seal of the crossbowmen of Conde, Fig 6. Seal of the crossbowmen of Enghien Showing their patron, the Virgin Mary. Showing their patron, Saint John.

372 SAG, Fonds Sint Joris, 155.

373 OSAOA, gilden, 507/ II/ 14 A.

374 Both from 1462 Oudenaarde shoot, OASOA, gilden, 507/ II/ 14 A.

Most Flemish crossbow guilds chose to display the arms of Saint George, rather than a civic symbol, again showing the significance of devotional choices.

Fig 7. Seal of the crossbowmen of Sluis³⁷⁵ Fig 8. Seal of Veurne crossbowmen³⁷⁶

Fig 9. Seal of Gerardsberghen crossbowmen³⁷⁷

Many of the Saint George seals are badly degraded. A Ghent seventeenth-century copy allows the details of Saint George, with his standard of the cross, killing the dragon to be better appreciated. The use of Saint George, rather than a civic emblem, on the seals of most Flemish crossbow guilds is a significant choice,

375 From Ghent 1497 invitation, SAG, Fonds Sint Joris, 155 , 1.

376 From 1440 invitation, Ghent, SAG Fonds Sint Joris, 155, 2.

377 From Huslt 1483 invitation, SAG, SJ, NGR, charters, 30.

demonstrating how important guild devotion was. Such choices also imply that the guilds had a relative freedom from civic control. But it is apparent from the above images that many towns featured a small civic badge (on Saint George’s left in the Sluis seal, below the virgin in that of Conde) as well. When the guild could only use one emblem, as on seals, it is significant that almost all Flemish guilds chose a spiritual emblem that symbolised their guild and their devotion, not their town; hinting at great Flemish community.

Fig. 10 Seventeenth century seal of the Ghent crossbowmen³⁷⁸

In contrast, chambers of rhetoric rarely displayed a devotional symbol. The surviving seals attached to an invitation to a drama competition in Hulst in 1483, include flowers, vases and civic symbols, not saints.³⁷⁹ Shooting guilds

consistently chose how to represent themselves, that they regularly used

devotional symbols shows that they had considered carefully their dedication to a patron saint.

All of the seals used here come from crossbow guilds. Archers would also have had seals, some fragments of which have survived in Lille, but no extant seals have been found. The slightly lesser status of the archery guilds, which will be

378 SAG, SJ, NGR, 2.

379 SAG, SJ, NGR, charters, 31.

discussed in chapter 5, could have led them to use cheaper, less durable, wax.

However it should be emphasised that many of the largest archery competitions were held in Ypres. Archives there may have once held many letters of invitation, like the crossbow invitations of Oudenaarde, with many seals. The civic archives of Ghent and Oudenaarde are fortunate in that they gained large collections from their crossbow guilds from the eighteenth century onwards. The dominance of crossbow guild seals, emblems and, as we shall see below, competitions, in surviving documentation may indicate their great prestige, but this may be nothing more than an accident of survival.

Guild books.

Banners were the best documented objects bearing saintly emblems, and seal the most common, but images placed on guild books were just as important. When placed upon books, especially death registers, such iconography created a link that even the illiterate could understand. The emblems’ of saints on death registers demonstrates that the deceased guild-brothers and the saint were in a new, connected, guild.

Fig 11. The emblem of Saint Sebastian.³⁸⁰ Fig 12. The memory book of the Ghent-guild.³⁸¹

380BMG, Sint sebastiaangilde; privilegieboek, inv 1059, inside cover.

381GSA Sint Sebastian, 155/1.

The importance of emblems is best shown on the memory book of the Ghent greater guild of Saint Sebastian. As illustrated, the book was closed with the arms of Saint Sebastian, showing he was not just part of the guild, but protecting the entire community of dead brothers. In the sixteenth century iconography and images could become far more detailed, showing devotional and status through Saint George and the dragon. Such ornate images are shown here, from the Brussels book of Saint George beginning in 1518.³⁸²

Fig. 13. Detail from The Brussel’s crossbowmen’s guild book

The visibility of such books is unclear, but the care taken over the above emblems implies they were meant to be seen. The details, and the omnipresence of saintly emblems, show a carefully considered devotional choice.

Other symbols and iconography.

Banners, books and seals are the best surviving evidence of guild iconography, but chapels would once have been full of far more elaborate objects. In Lille the

382 Brussel Stadsarchief, AA/OA, reg. 1492 f. 1.

crossbowmen had a stained glass window of Saint George.³⁸³ In 1509 the archers of Cysoing hired a painter from Douai, Gilles Contelie, to travel to Cysoing and paint their chapel.³⁸⁴ Decoration of chapels must have been common, but survival is rare, however inventories and other sources can still show guild devotional choices. Decoration and iconography in chapels, on banners, on seals or in guild books, all demonstrate the prestige of guilds, their choice of patrons and their devotion.