Craft and Kirk: Security, Status and Shelter

Abstract

This chapter looks at relations with the church, exploring themes of eternal security, earthly status and the material provision of shelter for meetings, before and after the Reformation. In 1475 the Incorporation received not only their seal of cause, granting them trade-regulatory privileges, but also a separate grant of an altar to Sts John the Baptist and Evangelist. This distinction between craft guild and confraternity is crucial to our understanding of the House. The Incorporation made important contributions to public worship, though participation in processions and feast days, and to the provision of masses at their altar in the town’s collegiate church. Beyond this, they also imagined, built and decorated the fabric of these important buildings. In return they were given security and assurance, first through an altar, and later through a pulpit. They received standing through their particularly-prestigious altar dedication and their position in processions nearest to the sacrament, and they took shelter for their corporate meetings in the town’s kirk. With the Reformation, however, the loss of their altar and meeting space had a direct and lasting impact on the corporate identity of the craftsmen.