Company of Masters

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The Company of Masters of the Science of Defence was an organisation formed in England during the reign of Henry VIII to regulate the teaching of martial arts. It served to prevent unlicenced instructors from operating, both as a form of quality assurance and as a monopoly to protect the livelihoods of its members. It also regulated the conduct of members to one another, both instructor and student.

Like the guilds it resembled, the company certified its members with varying ranks, depending on their level of skill and degree of permission to teach. Beginning students took the title Scholar and were required to hold the rank for no less than seven years before progressing to a higher rank. With proper determination and accumulation of skill, an individual moved to the second rank, Free Scholar. This rank marked noted advancement and skill, and like the previous position, had to be held for at least seven years before further progression. The next rank, Provost, provided the individual with apprenticeship to an instructor with whom they worked closely so as to improve their teaching skills and further their martial abilities. The Provost was not by any means a free teacher, remaining under the guidance and financial constraint, in the form of dues, of his superior. A truly gifted individual may have been raised to the title of Master working as an independent instructor. The Company of Masters of the Science of Defence was governed by four senior Masters.

It never achieved guild status and eventually lost any influence with the passing of James I's anti-monopoly laws

[edit] Literature

Berry, Herbert. The Noble Science: A Study and Transcription of Sloane Ms. 2530, Papers of the Masters of Defence of London, Temp Henry VIII to 1590. London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1991. ISBN 0-87413-441-2.