54 Antiquity and Early 



The powers conferred upon the Company in this 

 A.D. 1561. Charter were supplemented by the 

 ^rmed^^^EHza ratification, three years afterwards, of 

 beth. the Company's ordinances. 



An Act of PaHiament of the 19 Henry VII., 

 25th January, 1503, enacted among other things : 

 That no Master, Warden, or Fellowship of Crafts 

 or Mysteries, or any of them, or any Rulers of 

 Guilds or Fraternities, should take upon them to 

 make any acts or ordinances, nor to execute any 

 acts or ordinances by them heretofore made in 

 '' disheriting or diminishion " of the King's pre- 

 rogative or any other, or against the common 

 profit of the King's subjects and liege people, 

 unless such acts or ordinances were examined and 

 approved by the Lord Chancellor and Treasurer 

 of England, the Chief Justice of either Bench, or 

 three of them, or else before the Justices of Assize 

 when on circuit in that shire where the ordinances 

 were made. The confirmation recites that " the 

 Wardens, cominaltye and fellyshippe of the Mys- 

 terie of Sadlers enfranchized w'^'in the Citye of 

 London havinge divers auncient rules ordynnces 

 and othes heretofore tyme out of mynde, by their 

 predecessors ordeyned devised and made for their 

 conservacon, rule, good order and governance of 

 the same, their Misterie and fellishipp, w'^ War- 

 dens and Comminaltie not willinge in any wise to 

 infringe in any thinge the foresaide Acte of Par- 

 lyament, but myndfull in all things to have the 

 same observed and kept and being also desirous 

 to have their foresaide auncient rules ordynnces 



