The number seven was thought to have sacred power;
there were seven sacraments, seven churches in the Biblical
Apocalypse, seven liberal arts and seven devilish arts. The seven
sacraments were: baptism, confirmation, Lord's Supper, penance,
orders, matrimony, and extreme unction.
A borough was run by a mayor elected usually for life. By being
members of a guild, merchant-traders and craftsmen acquired the
legal status of burgesses and had the freedom of the borough. Each
guild occupied a certain ward of the town headed by an alderman.
The town aldermen, who were unpaid, made up the town council,
which advised the mayor. The Mayor of London received 40 pounds
for hospitality, but in small towns, 20s. sufficed. Often there
were town police, bailiffs, beadles [messengers], a town crier,
and a town clerk. London offices included recorder, prosecutor,
common sergeant, and attorneys. In the center of town were the
fine stone houses, a guildhall with a belfry-tower, and the
marketplace - a square or broad street, where the town crier made
public announcements with bell or horn. Here too was the ducking
stool for scandalmongers and the stocks which held offenders by
their legs and perhaps their hands to be scorned and pelted by
bystanders with, for instance, rotten fruit and filth. No longer
were towns dominated by the local landholders.
In London there were 4 royal princes, 6 great earls, 17 barons, 26
knights, and 11 female representatives of the peerage (counted in
1319).
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