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Confrérie, Bruderschaft and guild: the formation of musicians' fraternal organisations in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Europe*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Kay Brainerd Slocum
Kay Brainerd Slocum
Affiliation:
Capital University, Columbus, Ohio
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Extract

Professional musicians first appeared in medieval Europe during the tenth century. These jongleurs, or minstrels, earned a precarious living by travelling alone or in small groups from village to village and castle to castle, singing, playing, dancing, performing magic tricks and exhibiting trained animals. These itinerant performers were often viewed as social outcasts, and were frequently denied legal protection as well as the sacraments of the church. With the revival of the European economy and the growth of towns during the twelfth century the opportunity for more stable living conditions emerged, and the minstrels began to organise themselves into brotherhoods or confraternities, eventually developing guilds of musicians. By forming corporations and thus voluntarily placing themselves under the power of rulers or civic authorities, the musicians could achieve a modicum of social acceptance and legal protection.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 14 , October 1995 , pp. 257 - 274
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 In the historical sources the following terms are basically interchangeable: menestrel (ministruel, ministrer, etc.); jongleur (gokelare, joculator, juglar); spilman (speelman, gleoman); guete (wait); histrio; mimus. Sometimes the terms indicate the social status of the musician, but the terminology is not consistent. For brief discussions of the terms ‘minstrel’ and jongleur see Salmen, W., Der fahrende Musiker im europäischen Mittelalter (Kassel, 1960), p. 24Google Scholar; Schwab, H. W., Die Anfänge des weltlichen Berufsmusikertums in der mittelalterlichen Stadt (Kassel, 1982), pp. 9–11Google Scholar; Strohm, R., Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford, 1985), pp. 74–5Google Scholar; and Wilkins, N., Music in the Age of Chaucer (Cambridge, 1979), p. 125Google Scholar.

2 This attitude seems to have been deserved, at least in some areas, where excessive numbers of minstrels resulted in a lowering of standards and some accompanying abuses. A number of legislative measures attempted to control the ‘outrageous enterprises and idleness’, including decrees from Philippe Auguste (1181), in which such minstrels were banned from his court, Edward I, Edward II (1315) and Henry IV (1402). The decree issued in 1315 by Edward II demonstrates clearly that the spread of uncontrolled minstrelsy could become quite disruptive: ‘Forasmuch as … many idle persons, under colour of Mynstrelsie, and going in messages, and other faigned business have been and yet be receaved in other mens houses to meate and drynke, and be not therwith contented yf they be not largely consydered with gyftes of the Lordes of the houses … We wylling to restrain suche outrageous enterprises and idleness … have ordeyned … that to the houses of prelates, earles, and barons, none resorts to meate and drynke, unlesse he be a Mynstrel, and of those Minstrels that come none except it be three or four Minstrels of honour at the most in one day, unless he be desired of the lorde of the house. And to the houses of meaner men that none come unlesse he be desired, and that such as the maister of the house wyl shewe unto them of his owne good wyll, without their askyng of any thyng. And yf any one do agaynst this ordinaunce, at the first tyme he to lose his Minstrelsie, and at the second time to forswere his craft, and never to be receaved for a Minstrel in any house’ (quoted in Wilkins, , Music in the Age of Chaucer, p. 143)Google Scholar. In France, the edicts of 1372, which legislate against minstrelsy being used as a cover for burglary, and those of 1395, which complain of satirical songs concerning the king or pope, give further evidence of attempts to curb the abuses of the musical profession. See also Faral, E., Les jongleurs en France au moyen-âge (Paris, 1910), ch. IIGoogle Scholar; and Salmen, . Der fahrende Musiker, pp. 63–4Google Scholar.

3 See Faral, , Les jongleurs, pp. 133ffGoogle Scholar., and Berger, R., Le nécrologe de la confrérie des jongleurs et des bourgeois d'Arras (1194–1361), 2 vols. (Arras, 1963–1970)Google Scholar.

4 Berger, , Le nécrologe, ii, pp. 255–6Google Scholar. The reference in the statutes to protection against ‘sudden death’ (‘mort subite’) must refer to the soul passing without the benefit of last rites.

5 Ibid., i, p. 48.

6 Reaney, G., ‘The Musician in Medieval England’, Monthly Musical Record, 89 (1959), pp. 3–8Google Scholar.

7 A translation of the ordinances is printed in Crewdson, H. A. F., The Worshipful Company of Musicians: A Short History (London, 1971), app. 1, pp. 95–9Google Scholar. See also Westlake, H. F., The Parish Gilds of Medieval England (London and New York, 1919), p. 236Google Scholar.

8 Crewdson, , The Worshipful Company, p. 98Google Scholar.

9 Wilkins, , Music in the Age of Chaucer, p. 140Google Scholar.

10 Ibid., p. 141. See also G., and Montagu, J., ‘Beverley Minster Reconsidered’, Early Music, 6 (1978), pp. 401–15Google Scholar.

11 Komorzynski, E., ‘Die Sankt-Nikolausbruderschaft in Wien (1288 bis 1782)’, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft: Sonderreihe, 3 (1956), pp. 71–4Google Scholar.

12 Ibid., p. 72.

13 Bernhard, M. (B.), ‘Recherches sur l'histoire de la corporation des ménétriers ou jouers d'instruments de la ville de Paris’, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), pp. 377–404; 4 (1842–1843), pp. 525–48; 5 (1843–1844), pp. 254–84, 339–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar. d'Auriac, E., La corporation des ménéstriers et le roi des violons (Paris, 1880)Google Scholar. Faral, Les jongleurs.

14 Gushee, L., ‘Two Central Places: Paris and the French Court in the Early Fourteenth Century’, Bericht über den Internationalen Musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress Berlin 1974, ed. Kühn, H. and Nitsche, P. (Kassel, 1980), pp. 135–57Google Scholar. Wilkins, Music in the Age of Chaucer.

15 Cambridge, 1989.

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17 Anderson, G. A., ‘Paris, §I (to 1450)’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), xiv, pp. 184–9Google Scholar.

18 Géraud, M. H., Paris sous Philippe-le-Bel, d'après des documents originaux, et notamment d'après un manuscrit contenant le Rôle de la Taille imposée sur les habitants de Paris en 1292 (Paris, 1837), pp. 61 and 68Google Scholar. See also Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), p. 379Google Scholar.

19 In addition to Pariset, the petitioners included Gervaisot la guete; Renaut le Chastignier; Jehan la guete du Louvre; Jehan de Biaumont; Jehan Guerin; Thibaut le Paage; Vuynant Jehanot de Chaumont; Jehan de Biauves; Thibaut de Chaumont; Jehanot l'Anglois; Huet le Lorrain; Jehan Baleavaine; Guillot le Bourguegnon; Perrot l'Estuveur; Jehan des Champs; Alixandre de Biauves; Jaucon, filz le Moine: Jehan Coquelet; Jehan Petit; Michiel de Douay; Raoul de Berele; Thomassin Roussiau; Gieffroy la guete; Vynot le Bourguegnon; Guillaume de Laudas; Raoulin Lanchart; Olivier le Bourguegnon; Isabelet la Rousselle; Marcel la Chartaine; Liegart, fame Bienviegnant; Marguerite, la fame au Moine; Jehane la Ferpiere; Alipson. fame Guillot Guerin; Adeline, fame G. l'Anglois; Ysabiau la Lorraine; Jaque le Jougleur.

20 The statutes are preserved in É. Boileau, ‘Établissement des métiers de Paris (Livre des métiers d'Étienne Boileau)’, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS n.a.fr. 24069 (formerly B.R. fonds de Sorbonne, 350). The text has been printed in Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’. Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), pp. 400–2Google Scholar; Faral, , Les jongleurs, pp. 128–30Google Scholar; Page, , The Owl and the Nightingale, pp. 204–5Google Scholar; and Vidal, A.. La chapelle Saint-Julien-des-Ménestrels à Paris (Paris, 1878), pp. 36–9Google Scholar. Étienne Boileau was provost of Paris during the reign of Charles IX. He compiled the first collection of documents concerning the rules of corporations in Paris, probably making use of a manuscript which was subsequently burned (1737). See also Depping, G. B., Reglemens sur les arts et métiers de Paris, rédigés au XIIIe siècle, et connus sous le nom du livre des métiers d'Étienne Boileau (Paris, 1837)Google Scholar.

21 This statute signified that, by law, all public music had to be performed by members of the confrérie, a stipulation which served to prevent competition from inferior and outside players who harmed the public image of the guild.

22 The condition of imprisonment seems not to have been pure fantasy, for fourteenth-century police records give evidence of less worthy members of the profession who used minstrelsy to disguise the ultimate purpose of robbery. Quoted in Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’, Bibliothèque de 1'École des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), p. 404Google Scholar, from Archives de la Préfecture de Police, Collection Lamoignon, Ordonnances de police, tome 3, fol.198r.

23 The foundation of the hospital was described by Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), p. 388Google Scholar; Faral, , Les jongleurs, p. 131Google Scholar; and Vidal, , La chapelle, pp. 40–2Google Scholar. According to Faral the source for Bernhard's information was du Breul, Jacques, Théâtre des antiquités de Paris (Paris, 1639)Google Scholar, a work based on documents subsequently lost (Faral, , Les jongleurs, p. 131, no. 1)Google Scholar. Official statutes regarding the foundation of the hospital and the chapel are contained in Félibien, M., Histoire de la ville de Paris, 5 vols. (Paris, 1725), v, pp. 648–55Google Scholar.

24 Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 3 (1841–1842), p. 390Google Scholar.

25 Félibien, , Histoire, v, pp. 648–9Google Scholar. The hospital was founded ‘pour hebergier et recevoir les poures passans et soustenir les malades’.

26 Millin, A.-L., Antiquités nationales, ou Recueil de monumens, iv (Paris, 1792), no. XLI, pl. 1, p. 1Google Scholar.

27 Félibien, , Histoire, v, pp. 652–4Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., p. 650.

29 Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’, Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes, 4 (1842–1843), p. 527Google Scholar.

30 Ibid., p. 528.

31 Ibid., p. 529.

32 D'Auriac, , La corporation des ménéstriers, p. 8Google Scholar.

33 Statutes of 1407; see Appendix.

34 Bernhard, , ‘Recherches’, Bibliothèque de l'École de Chartes, 4 (1842–1843), pp. 532–3Google Scholar.

35 Ibid., p. 535.