Class notes

Guilds: Calling and Covenant Succession

The purpose of guilds were primarily due to whatever you were called to, and to pass it on to those coming behind you (succession). It was the duty of a father to either teach his son(s) or to apprentice them to someone else to learn a trade well. This was part of their worldview, passing on what you know to the generation after you. It's a very Christian-based idea. It was mainly done within the villages where it was the best place for parish life, trade and commercial centers, and continued traditions. Several important features of a feudal society were agrarianism, practicality, industry, craftsmanship, covenantalism, chivalry, gratitude, rootedness, stability, tradition, legacy and progress. With covenantal calling, we have different jobs and responsibilities. In the family sphere you have the primogenitor (the eldest son inheriting all the money and property when the father dies), the levitate (the practice of marrying the brother's childless widow in order to maintain his line), and courtship (getting to know someone with family interaction more thoroughly before marriage). In the church sphere you have discipleship, community, and gifting. Within the society you have the parish, motherland, and fiefdom; and because of the guilds, you had traditions, rituals, and standards. We can see that due to the guilds we have many important factors that influence us even today.

The guilds weren't about the barrels or the wheels or the candlesticks. They were about covenantal succession. Over time, passing on the passion so that successive generations can surpass past generations, reach higher, do better. That should be the goal for every teacher, every pastor, every businessman, and every mom. It's a part of the reason why this rickety creations, this peculiar notion of medievalism, with all of its faults and all of its flaws and all of its failings, with the corruptions that was rotting from the inside because of the fallenness of man and his institutions - nevertheless became a marvel of culture-building and of enduring impact which we feel to this very day.