Public Functions - Chambers of Rhetoric

Public Functions

The earliest Chambers were closely associated with the church. Many of the societies had priests on their membership rolls. The Chambers assisted with the observance of religious festivals. The societies' creative artists added lustre to processions and performed religious plays. Local government also sponsored public events that could benefit from the assistance of skilled writer/performers. Chambers were called upon by the local governments to organize pageants, to entertain at receptions, to put on plays or mimes on festive occasions.

Cities were regularly expected to stage triumphal entries or street shows to celebrate the visit of noblemen. All important guilds in a city contributed to these civic displays. Since creative arts were the special concern of the Rederykers, civic organizers tended to depend on them heavily for help with public celebrations. A Chamber might be expected, for instance, not only to create a special show for a ruler's triumphal entry but to supply ideas, speeches, and actors and singers for the shows financed by the city or by other guilds.

Cities often rewarded talented and co-operative Chambers with financial subsides and privileges such as exemption from certain taxes. Active civic support added even more glamour to membership in a Chamber for upwardly mobile urbanites.

Mutually beneficial financial arrangements between Chamber and city helped strengthen the secular orientation of the Rederijkers in opposition to their gradually weakening ties to their religious roots.

In addition to these civic functions, the rederijkammers provided many of the same benefits for members other guilds might. Members attended each others’ funerals and weddings sometimes wearing sashes emblazoned with the chamber’s distinctive blazoen. If a member became sick or impoverished, a collection might be taken up for them. Special wedding gifts were sometimes also provided for members by the chamber.