Haarlem Guild of St. Luke

The Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke was first a Christian, and later a city Guild for various trades falling under the patron saints Luke the Evangelist and Saint Eligius. History During the lifetime of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, there was probably a painter's guild in Haarlem, but all records of such an organization have been lost. If one existed, it would probably have been associated with the Janskerk (Haarlem), where Geertgen was active as a respected painter. The earliest mention of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke is from 1496, when the heirs of Joost Huge Alboutsdr, who had been the former owner of the location of the altar in the Sint-Bavokerk, ceded all altar rights which up to then had been for the Ascension of the Virgin, to the Guild of St. Luke and St. Eligius. This is possibly also the year that the Guild switched its altar from the Janskerk to the Bavokerk. The guild was for painters and gold- and silversmiths, with St. Luke being the patron saint of the painters, and St. Eligius being the patron saint for the smiths. Earliest charter The earliest charter for the guild no longer exists, but the earliest one still in the archives is from 1514. That charter remained in effect until the beeldenstorm, whereupon the guild altar found temporary housing in the Vrouwenbroerskerk, since the Bavokerk had become Protestant and all the guilds had left the church. The Vrouwenbroerskerk was the church of the Carmelites, whose monastery is gone, but whose archives survive today. Of the original complex, only the entrance gate still stands on the Grote Houtstraat. These archives recorded that a kessophel (chasuble) was donated to this altar in 1575 by Elisabeth van Dorp. After Haarlem lost the Siege of Haarlem in 1573, it became a Catholic enclave that officially fell under the rule of Philip II of Spain. It wasn't until 1577 that the local bishop Godfried van Mierlo set his seal to the Satisfactie van Haarlem wherein he promised to swear allegiance to Willem the Silent rather than Philip II, on the condition that the Catholics would keep the same rights as Protestants. Though Haarlem, like Amsterdam with its Alteratie, reverted the Catholic rights of this Satisfactie a year later, it was this special Catholic-friendly reputation that attracted many from the south that added to the city's wealth in its golden age.