English Gilds.*

York ; and , the more becomingly to mark themselves while thus riding , they must all be clad in one suit . And , to ensure good order during the said play , some of the brethren are bound to ride or to walk with the players until the play is wholly

ended . And once in the year a feast shall be held , and fresh wardens shall be chosen by the gild , and a true account shall be given to the newly chosen wardens of all that has been done on behalf of the gild during the last year . Also it is ordained ,

that no one shall be let come into this gild , until after he shall have been questioned by the wardens ofthe gild as to whether he has bent his will to live rightly , and so to deal towards the gild and its affairs that he may be at one with the wardens .

And because the founders of the said gild well knew that they themselves might not be wise enough to make , at once , all needful ordinances , therefore , at the end of the ordinances then made , they added this clause : — " Whensoever , and as

often sover , as it may perchance happen that we or our successors , wardens ancl brethren of this gild , may become wiser than we now are , none of us nor our successors shall be deemed a rebel , or as standing out against our wishes or against those

of any of our successors , if haply we put forth , or there shall be put forth at any time hereafter , any new ordinance that will be for the greater glory of God or the welfare of this gild . " Under which saving clause other wardens ofthe gild have since

added , that a chaplain shal } , once a year , celebrate divine service before the gild , for the good of the bretheren and sisteren ofthe gild , alive and dead , and for that of all the good-doers to the gild . Moreover , the bretheren are wont to meet together

at the end of every six weeks , and to put up special prayers for the welfare of our lord the King and for the good governance of the kingdom of England , and for all the brethren and sisteren of this gild , present and absent , alive and dead , and

for all the good-doers to the gild or to the gildbrethren ; aud also , once in the year , to have a genera ! service for the dead brethren and sisteren . There do not belong to the gild any rents of land , nor any tenements , nor any goods save only the

properties needed in the playing of the beforenamed play ; which properties are of little or no worth for any other purpose than the said play . And the gild has one wooden chest , in which the said properties are kept . [ It is added that , ] as the seals of the wardens

English Gilds.*

of the gild will be unknown to many , they have asked that the seal of the "Vicar-General of the Archbishop of York shall be put to this return ; which has accordingly been done , in witness to the truth of the return , on the 21 st January , 1388 [ 9 ] .

[ The people of York seem to have been fond of plays and pageants . Though nothing more is found touching any of these in the Returns made by the gilds in 1889 , there is , in the British Museum ( Lansdowne MSS . 403 ) , a volume

containing the ordinances of a very famous gild of that city , which long kept up an extraordinary annual show of pageants . It seems to have been founded by the priests of York ; and these ordinances , instead of 'being written in the unadorned

simplicity ot those contained in Part I . of this work , and of most of the others that were sent up with them , sho ' w themselves to have been drawn up by some learned ecclesiastic , more anxious for

the display of his rhetorical powers than to bring himself to the level of men of common sense . They begin with a tedious scholastic disquisition upon the creation of man , the fall , what thence followed , the mystery of Christ as appearing in the

flesh and in the eucharist , subtle illustrations of the unity of Christ ' s body aud ofthe brethren , and the seven rules of charity upon which it is declared that the Gild is founded ., Then follow the ordinances themselves ; the marked meagreuess of which

shows fcliafc , though the priest who wrote them might be equal to all manner of scholastic subtleties , he was not able to bring himself to the level of the ordinary common sense and good feeling of the laity in framing a body of gild-ordinances .

Coventry.

COVENTRY .

THE GILD MERCHANT . * This return begins by stating that the merchants of Coventry found themselves much troubled about their merchandise , through being so far from the sea ; and therefore got a charter

( letters patent ) ' from Edward III . for the foundation of a Gild Merchant . This charter , dated 20 th May , 14 th Edward III . ( A . D . 1340 ) , is set forth at full length . It recites that an enquiry had been held , under the Writ ad cpuod damnum ; and that it had been found , by the jury , that no harm