§ 37. There were also special gilds for various classes and ranks called the Major and Minor Gilds of the Kalenders, one of which existed in most towns, and in the larger towns more than one. The organisation was in general the same as in all other gilds; often the president was called Dean; they had halls to which the brothers used to resort 'to beer and to wine.'

§ 38. These religious gilds continued to exist in great numbers down to the time of the Reformation, when the whole fabric was shaken to its foundation, and in all countries where Protestantism gained the ascendency they were by law abolished as religious communities. In England the treasures of these ancient gilds were confiscated in favour of the king and his courtiers; but on the Continent the property and income of these gilds were delivered over to the common treasury for the poor, to poor-houses, hospitals, and schools, according to the intention of the original founders.

$ 39. With regard to the 'confiscation' of the property of these gilds, the following extracts, from the excellent introduction to the English Gilds,' by Miss" Lucy Toulmin Smith, represent the opinions of a man, the late Mr. Toulmin Smith, who had devoted more time and attention to these matters than almost any other Englishman, and whose conclusions, therefore, are entitled to every consideration and respect.

§ 40. Under the Act for the Dissolution of Colleges (37 Hen. VIII. c. 4) the possessions of certain fraternities, brotherhoods, and gilds that had been dissolved with the colleges and chantries, were vested in the Crown; and the king was empowered to send out commissioners to seize the possessions of others, under the plea that they should be "used and exercised to more godly and virtuous purposes," the commissioners being directed to return certificates "in writing of their doings in the

same into the Court of Chancery." The Act of 1 Edward VI. c. 14 went further than this; after completing the demolition of colleges, free chapels, and chantries, it proceeded not only separately by name to vest in the king all sums of money devoted "by any manner of corporations, gilds, fraternities, companies or fellowships, or mysteries, or crafts," to the support of a priest, obits, or lights (which might be taken under the colour of religion), but to hand over to the Crown "all fraternities, brotherhoods, and gilds, being within the realm of England and Wales, and other the king's dominions; and all manors, lands, tenements, and other hereditaments belonging to them or any of them," excepting certain of them which were named, being trading gilds, which saved those in the city of London.' 'The Act of 37 Hen. VIII. c. 4, passed in 1545, put this wanton and wicked pillage of public property as necessary "for the maintenance of these present wars ;" but it also cleverly put into one group "colleges, free-chapelles, chantries, hospitalles, fraternities, brotherhedds, and guyldes." The Act of 1 Edward VI. c. 14 was still more ingenious, for it held up the dogma of purgatory to abhorrence, and began to hint at grammar schools. The object of both Acts was the same. All the possessions of all gilds, except what could creep out as being trading, became vested by these two Acts in the Crown; and the unprincipled courtiers who had devised and helped the scheme, gorged themselves out of this wholesale plunder of what was, in every sense, public property.' In another place Mr. Smith says it was 'a case of pure wholesale robbery and plunder, done by an unscrupulous faction, to satisfy their personal greed under cover of law. No more gross case of wanton plunder to be found in history of all Europe, no page so black in English History.'

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§ 41. In Denmark these religious gilds continued after the Reformation, but the meetings were no longer held monthly, but once, or a few times yearly. In some of these gatherings the same abuses existed, and extravagances occurred, as those to which references were made by Hincmar in the ninth century. Modifications were from time to time made, but after the meals the priests' sometimes quarrelled scandalously, and made a great uproar.' When the early zeal with regard to the Reformation had somewhat cooled down, the want of those old convivial and social gatherings began to be felt, and gilds were to some extent re-established, but for social purposes only, for the essential nature of the earlier gilds was lost in the new conditions of religious life brought about by the Reformation. It is extremely probable that the earlier clubs and benefit societies originated out of the later phases of these religious gilds, for we find certain analogies between the religious and social gilds, and the first attempts to establish the friendly society. The village club with its processions, its march to the parish church, its feast, the bell-ringing and general conviviality, together with its rustic rules and ruder forms of association, all combine to render the resemblance striking, and point to an early origin, although changed by circumstances and by time.

§ 42. The great analogy between the modern friendly societies and the old religious and social gilds has been often pointed out. Sir Frederick Eden, in his work on the State of the Poor,' says: Notwithstanding the unjustifiable confiscation of the property of the gilds under Henry VIII. and Edward VI., there is every reason to suppose that private associations, on a more contracted scale than the ancient gilds, continued to exist in various parts of England, and that it is extremely probable that many of these societies (that is, gilds),

even after the confiscation of their lands at the dissolution, continued their stated meetings in the common room, or hall, for the purpose either of charity or of conviviality.

$ 43. More recently Mr. J. M. Ludlow has instituted a comparison between these two forms of association, and has established the analogy subsisting between the later gilds and the earlier and cruder forms of benefit clubs, which were the forerunners of the friendly societies of the present day. It is well known that usage and custom will outlive law, and after the sanction of law is withdrawn, custom will frequently retain sufficient power to justify its being called unwritten law. Many traces. of these old associations still exist, the origin of which is to a great extent unknown, or are only imperfectly recognised under the new conditions under which they are now seen; some of these are preserved only in the obscure customs of the poorer classes, and often only in those villages which until recently were remote from the great centres of industry and trade. The earlier village clubs long continued to practise some of those ancient customs, and thereby afford evidence of their lineage and descent.

PART III.-The Merchant-gilds and Town-gilds.

§ 44. The sworn fraternities for the mutual protection of rights and the preservation of liberty, in the shape of Frith-gilds, arose quite independently of the township, or indeed of locality. When the town grew into importance there existed the same necessity for the mutual protection of liberty, property, and trade against the violence of neighbouring nobles, ecclesiastical aggressions, or bands of plundering marauders, and the onslaughts of barbarian settlers. The feeling of insecurity within the town itself, at this early period, must have led the small

freemen to the formation of societies for mutual aid and in support of law and order.

§ 45. The early inhabitants of towns were free landed proprietors, some having property in the neighbouring estates, and residing in the town for security or convenience; others, and those chiefly, who held land. within the territory of the township. The possession of town land was the distinguishing mark of these earlier burghers this alone carried with it the privileges of full citizenship as it existed in the ruder forms of civic life. In addition, however, to the possession of land, many of these freemen carried on trade, some also what in later times were called handicrafts. Common dangers, similarity of occupation, community of interests, and close vicinity of residence, were conducive to the conclusion of alliances for mutual protection and aid.

§ 46. Hence we find the whole body of the full citizens, or freemen, uniting into gilds, the citizens and the gilds became identical, and gild-law became the law of the town. Such gilds, as before seen, existed in England in Anglo-Saxon times, and evidences abound in proof of the recognition of their laws, and of their confirmation by grants and charters, similar to those found in later times. The gild charter granted to the townsmen of Beverley is not unlike the grants of civic liberties or constitutions to German towns, nor indeed altogether dissimilar to earlier civic incorporations in England; this charter decreed to the men of Beverley 'all liberties, with the same laws that the men of York have in their city.' This was confirmed by Thurston, Archbishop of York, and also King Henry I.; it is even stated that it was confirmed by the Pope.

§ 47. The same relationship between the gild and the town existed in France, especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, under the name of the commune,