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Contents . PA & E . FKEEMASOirs' MAG-AZIKE : — English Gilds 141 Extracts from the Constitution of the Grand Orient of France 142 The Ordnance Survey of Sinai 145 Old lodge Records 148

Masonic Jottings—No . 33 14 S Masonic Notes and Queries 149 Correspondence 150 Masonic Sayings and Doings Abroad 151 MASOMTO MlKI-OE : — Masonic Alems 152 CEAPT LODG-E MEETIKGS . — Metropolitan , „ , 152

Provincial 153 Canada 154 Royal Arch 157 Kuights Templar - 157 Freemasonry : its History , Principles , and Objects 157 Alasonic Festivities 159 List of Lodge , & c , Meetings for ensuing week 160 To Correspondents 100

English Gilds. *

ENGLISH GILDS . *

LONDON , SATURDAY , AUGUST 20 , 1870 .

{ Continued from page 124 . ) After the German tribes Lad settled in fixed abodes , the families dwelling in a certain district united themselves into common sacrificial assemblies . As a rule , common meals were connected

with them , to which every one taking part had to bring what he wanted of food and drink . From this these unions were called gilds . When Christianity , together with its religions fraternities , came to the north , the latter amalgamated Avith

the heathen sacrificial [ societies which they found there , and from this union arose the religious gilds of the Middle Ages . These fraternities were spread in the Middle Ages , in great numbers , over all countries under

the sway of the Roman Catholic religion , and they exist even noAV in such countries . As the gild statutes contained in this collection—and they are but Avaifs and strays of large flocks—show , these brotherhoods existed in considerable numbers in

every town ; thus there were twelve in Norwich , as many iu Lynn , in Bishop ' s Lynn nine , while abroad , Gallienns counts even eighty in Cologne , Melle about seventy at Lubeck , and Sfcaphorsfc more than a hundred at Hamburgh . But their

objects and organisations Avere so identical everywhere , and remained so essentially unchanged during successive centuries , that a comparison of them in various countries and at various times could only lead to repetitions , I will therefore simply state their objects and their organisation .

What is described here , prevailed in all countries alike . AVith regard to the objects of these gilds , Hincmar defines them completely , when he says , " in omni obseqnio religionis conjunganfcur , " they shall

unite in every exercise of religion . By this were meant , before all things , the associations for the veneration of certain religious mysteries , and in honour of saints . Accordingly , these gilds were everywhere under the patronage of the Hol y

Trinity , or of certain Saints , or of the Holy Cross , or of the Holy Sacrament , or of some other religious mystery . In honour of these patrons they stuck candles on their altars and before their

images ; in some statutes this appears even as the only object of the gild . Wilda narrates also IIOAV the setting up of such a candle became the ori gin of an entire' gild . Once , towards tho end of the fourteenth century , says he , several merchants and

shopmen of Flensburg were sitting drinking together , and having paid their score , six shillings ( standard of Lubeck ) remained over . What should be clone with these , was now the question . At length they resolved to order a candle to be

made , which was to burn before the image of the Virgin Mary on the altar of our Lady . This fraternity , so insignificantly begun , increased rapidly in members and in income ; the gild brothers therefore resolved to adopt a regular constitution

, to elect aldermen , to begin a gild book , & c . People of all ranks took part in these reli gious gilds . NOAV and then , however , people out of a certain class were not to be admitted . The same

person might take part in several reli gions gilds . The members had often a special livery , as is still now the case Avith some fraternities at Rome . These liveries were worn on their ecclesiastical festivals , and probably also at the great feastings

and drinking-bouts which were always connected Avith them . Notwithstanding all the prohibitions against the latter , since the days of Hincinnr , they seem to have so pushed themselves into the foreground , that sometimes special references were

needed in the gild statutes , that " not eating and drinking , but mutual assistance and justice were the principal objects of the gild . " The expenses to be defrayed for attaining the objects of the gild were provided lot- by the

entrance fees , the contributions , the gifts and the legacies of members- The contributions were sometimes fixed , but sometimes , especially in earlier times , they varied according to the wants