31 A MEDIEVAL CITY

The Mayor held his court in the Common Hall,
where he heard pleas about apprentices and mysteries
(i.e. the rules of the crafts) ; offences against the
customs of the city ; breaches of the King's peace.
It was his duty to'administer the statute merchant.
The Recorder was the official civic lawyer.

The governors of the city were intimately
connected with the control of trade, and the rule of
the pageants. These phases of city life overlapped
considerably and were interdependent. Weaving
was the principal trade. The Mayor and Aldermen
were the masters of the mysteries of the weavers.
Power to enforce the ordinances of the other mysteries
was granted by the Mayor and Corporation.

There were times when the King took the govern-
ment into his own hands. This was done during
the rebellion of the Percies, a northern family skilled '
and experienced in rebelling. Henry IV. withdrew
the right of government from the city in 1405, but
he restored it in 1406 after the execution of Arch-
bishop Scrope, who had been so popular with the
people of York.

Of mediaeval punishments the most obvious
were the stocks, a contemporary picture of which is
to be seen in one of the stained-glass windows OA
All Saints', North Street. Examples of stocks
survive in the churchyards of Holy Trinity, Mickle-
gate, and St. Lawrence's. They were near the
entrance to the churchyard and commanded full
public attention. The petty offender, condemned
to spend so many hours in the public gaze and
subject to whatever treatment the public chose to
inflict on him, sat on the ground or on a low seat,
while his feet were secured at the ankles by two
vertical boards. The upper was raise4 for the
insertion of the ankles in the specially cut-out