The Devotional World of Shooting Guilds
3.10 Guilds and Ecclesiastics
The Second Lateran Council, in 1139, had banned the ‘murderous art of
crossbowmen and archers, which is hateful to God’.464 The crossbow’s reputation
463 What is meant by ’ bastaerde’ is unclear, perhaps writing that was, by 1524, seen as old fashioned, it is unlikely to mean vernacular.
464P. Norman and S.J. Tanner. (eds), Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils Vol. 1 (London and Washington, 1990), 203; I am very grateful to Daniel Gerrard for this reference.
as a diabolical weapon extended into popular art works, so it is perhaps
unexpected to find clerical interaction with shooting guilds.465 Ecclesiastic lords granted rights and lands to archery and crossbow guilds, some even joined them.
Abbots may have been honorific members, who did not actually shoot the crossbow, but numerous Brabantine examples exist of bishops, even a sixteenth-century cardinal, as we shall see, shooting the crossbow even becoming ‘king’ of the Brussels guild. Lower down the ecclesiastical hierarchy parish priests joined shooting guild, just as they joined other civic religious fraternities. 466 Though clerical members are well documented in shooting guild, no evidence of clerics playing any role in competitions survives.
Ecclesiastic lords
Relationships between the guilds and their secular lords will be discussed in chapter five, but two important charters, issued by abbots, can be analysed here.
The first was issued by Enguerran, abbot of the Church and Monastery of Notre Dame de Cherchamp to the crossbowmen of Hesdin (Artois) in 1474. It makes clear that devotional activities were to be one of the primary functions of this guild, even in the midst of the wars of Charles the Bold. Stating that ‘the constable, provost and brothers of the charite of the Holy Spirit in the town of Hesdin, who exercise and maintain the crossbowmen’ have requested greater rights and land, so the abbot grants them ‘17 feet of land (for) enlarging their area, to be put and used for their buts and targets’ the land had formerly belonged to his monastery.467 That this had been church land is perhaps less important than
465 See introduction to V. Serdon, Armes du diable, arcs et arbalétriers au moyen âge (Rennes, 2005).
466 T. Dutour, ‘Les ecclésiastiques et la société laïque en la ville, le cas de Dijon a la fin du moyen âge,’ Religion et société urbaine au moyen âge, études offertes a Jean-Louis Bigen (Paris, 2000), 81-92; A. A.-J. Bijstervelde, ‘Looking for Common Ground: from Monastic Fraternities to Lay Confraternity in the Southern Low Countries in the Tenth to Twelfth Centuries,’ Religious and Laity in Western Europe 1000-1400: Interaction, Negotiation, and Power, 287-314; V. Edden,
‘The Devotional Life of the Laity in the Middle Ages,’ Approaching Medieval English Anchoritic and Mystical Texts. Ed. D Dyas, V. Edden and R. Ellis (Cambridge, 2005), 35-49.
467 Espinas, Les Origines, 341-2.
the language used here, especially the emphasis that the guild be composed of good and honest men in a ‘charite’.
In 1511, Charles Abbot of Saint Saulveur issued a revealing charter to the crossbowmen of Pecquencourt (old spelling Pecquencuik), a small town to the east of Douai. The charter established the crossbowmen ‘in good peace, blessing love and tranquillity together’ in ‘a free guild of great crossbowmen’.468 This is followed by the rules of the confraternity, the first of which is that they pay for their entry half a pound of wax for maintaining the guild’s lights. The first four rules refer to entrance, death payments and lights, the fifth is for the annual papegay shooting competition, the sixth and seventh refer to various masses.
Only after the eighth item does the charter lay out the practical, military, obligations, including shooting, practising, owning arms and the important immunity from prosecution should someone die in practise.469
Abbots did not just enfranchise crossbow guilds, they also joined them. The earliest surviving membership list for any crossbow guild in Flanders is that of Oudenaarde. The death-list, shown here, is undated, but as the first name is Robert Count of Flanders, it must date to shortly after his death in 1322.470 The document is in poor condition, and many of the names are now illegible, however it includes at least 2 abbots of Eename, a Benedictine monastery between
Oudenaarde and Ghent.471 These are Gheerart van Stripein and Jan Van Berghen;
the first 2 names in the second column below, the third is also a priest;
468 vray er francq feu.
469 ADN, 1H 369.
470 OSAOA, gilden, 507/II/6A.
471 This abbey, and its records, have received little attention, possible because the archives have been scattered. The chronicle will be discussed in chapter 6, for background see A. Pattin, ‘Un manuscrit du XIIe siècle de l'ancienne abbaye bénédictine d'Eename retrouvé,’ Scriptorium:
Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits / International Review of Manuscript Studies 44 (1990), 79-91; introduction to C. Piot, Cartulaire de l'abbaye d'Eename (Bruges,
Fig 14. Oudenaarde crossbowmen’s membership lists, c. 1322
A close relationship continued between guild and abbey. Fifteenth-century abbots confirmed charters issued by the Dukes of Burgundy, allowing the guild-brother to bear arms on their land. 472 Some of the great crossbow events held in Oudenaarde, such as their 1408 competitions, were recorded in the monastic chronicle. That an important monastery, from its chroniclers to its abbots, took an interest in a crossbow guild shows not just interaction between lords and
townsmen, but also the creation of a spiritual community. Although no other fourteenth-century documents survive to show such clear links between great ecclesiastics and shooting guilds, it is unlikely that this was unique, especially as by the fifteenth-century clerical involvement with guilds was common.
Clerical members
We have seen that women were not mentioned in charters, but present in all lists, so too were clerics. In Aalst, the 1488 membership lists includes 8 priests. This, out of 228 members is a small figure, but that priests are here at all is significant.
Further, in 1489 two ‘religious’ and seven more priests joined, at the same time as civic officials from other Flemish and Brabant towns, including Antwerp.473 That these men joined with members who were not residents of Aalst may imply they
1881); M. De Smet and M. J. Tulleken, Ename in oude prentkaarten, foto's en doodsbeeldekens (Oudenaarde, 1978).
472 OSAOA, Gilden, 507/II/9A.
473 ASAOA, 155, Register Sint Joris guild, 1335-1583 f. 4 -7v.
played little active role in the guild. Even if they only attended one event, that nine religious figures travelled to Aalst in 1489 to join a crossbow guild is surely an indicator that it had spiritual significance, and a devotional respectability, that guilds were peaceful and respectable enough for priest to form a community with.
The Ghent death records are some of the best sources for clerical members. The Saint Sebastian death list included 35 priests and two other ecclesiastical figures out of 4863 dead members. For the crossbowmen, the undated death registers are divided into 4 sections, lords, men, women and priests. In her analysis of the first 30 years, 1468-1497, Sarah van Steen identified 45 priests out of the 1396 members.474 Significantly, at least one of these men left the guild not money for his dootghelt, but a crossbow, showing that he was not simply guild chaplain, but an active shooter. When the abbot of Saint Pieter’s Benedictine Monastery in Ghent, Gerard van Cuelsbrouck, died in 1519 he paid his dootghelt in money to the guild of Saint George.475 Though small in number, that clerics and abbots were present in shooting guilds at all is both surprising and important.
Abbot and priests were often members of shooting guilds; the involvement of bishops and higher ecclesiastics is less common in Flanders. In Brabant further examples can be given. In 1466 and 1471 the ‘king’ of the Brussels crossbow guild was John of Burgundy, bishop of Cambrai. In 1509 the king was another bishop of Cambrai, Robert de Croy, and in 1537 the position was won by a cardinal, Evrard de la Marck.476 All levels of ecclesiastic figures chose to join shooting guilds, the weapons were no longer seen as diabolical; the devotional actions of guilds had made them worthy of such figures.
474 Steen, Den ouden ende souverainen gilde van den edelen ridder Sente Jooris, names on CD.
475 RAG, abbey Sint Pieter, invent 252, n2071.
476 Bernaerts, Chronologie du Grand serment royal et de Saint George, 61-3 ; Wauters, Notice historique, 10-12.
Ecclesiastics and competitions
Through devotion, the guilds had become worthy of ecclesiastical membership, yet competitions have no documented devotional features or participants.
Competitions will be the focus of chapter six, but it is worth emphasising the secular nature of such events. Even in Tournai, an Episcopal city, the archbishop did not welcome guilds; he was not mentioned in invitations nor in poems
commemorating shoots. The abbots of Eename joined the Oudenaarde guild, their chroniclers described shoots, but the abbots did not attend competitions. Secular figures, aldermen or mayors, welcomed shooters, were mentioned in invitations.
Secular spaces, market places and town halls, were used for shoots or for feasts, ecclesiastic space is never referred to. Chapters of the Golden Fleece were preceded by masses in a large urban church, but no source could be found that makes such an implicit link between shooting competitions and ecclesiastical figures or space. Such silence cannot be fully explained, but it may be that the extravagance of competitions, their potential for injury, remained undesirable to clerics, even after the guilds themselves had become acceptable.
Conclusion
Guilds of archers and crossbowmen emerged in towns full of social and religious groups, providing their members with another level of spiritual choice. Though our sources are problematic, a great deal can be discovered about the guilds’
devotional activities. Dedication to saints shows not just guild identity, but a spiritual choice and demonstrations of devotion. Saints’ banners and emblems were displayed in procession, in iconography, or in chapels, showing the
significance of dedication. Though Saint George and Saint Sebastian remained by far the most common patrons, a growing number of female saints demonstrated that dedication was not static, but responsive. Significant spending on, and regulations about, devotional activities shows the vitality of guild devotion, especially in the encouragement of masses and funding of lights. Regional variations emerge, with guilds in smaller towns becoming more concerned for devotion, as fewer spiritual choices were available to guild-brothers.
In death and remembrance, variation between large and small towns is also apparent, though all guilds were concerned to remember dead members. For some, shooting guilds, like Italian confraternities, became an heir of last resort, with property and even houses being left to guild charity. Sources are once again a problem, and how typical Ghent was unclear, but it is in its own right a
fascinating case study. In the Ghent Hospital of Saint George the guild-sisters, like Beguines, cared for the poor, administered guild charity and in doing so showed the strong devotional character of guilds and a growing role for women.
Guild chapels, and their contents, show an investment in devotion, but can be seen as demonstrations of status and largess. Whether in a parish church or a free standing chapel, every guild funded services, in particular prayers and masses.
The contents of such chapels, from flowers to books, show not just wealth, but a care for devotion and learning. Finally clerical members make clear how far the reputation of shooters had evolved from their thirteenth-century diabolical image, to groups worthy of ecclesiastical, even episcopal, membership. Though it is also apparent, that ecclesiastics kept their distance from the large competitions that took place across the Low Countries. Archers and crossbowmen had evolved from military groups, into significant devotional organisations caring for their dead and the living, providing spiritual choices for guild-brothers and sisters.