By the late Rev. R. H. Clutterbuck, F.S.A. 139 
Museum in this city, an institution which would absorb any amount 
_ of time you could give to it, and repay with interest all your at- 
tention, we have the seals of the Weavers’ Gild, the Tailors’ Gild, 
the Carpenters’ Gild, the Bakers’ Company, and relics of others, 
and a painting of the Gild Hall pulled down rather more than a 
century ago. It is not within my province to enlarge on these 
Trade Gilds; but I want to point out that they had so many usages 
_ in common with the special subject I have in hand—the Fraternities 
_ —that it is often more than difficult to distinguish between the 
records of their respective organisations. or instance, the 
_ Weavers’ Gild maintained a priest at St. Kdmund’s Church, and 
he had his own plate and ornaments belonging to his altar, in 
exactly the same way as the Fraternities did in the same Church. 
The Craft Gilds also had their processions, their plays, their sports, 
and entertainments, and as must happen when the details are to be 
gathered from the churchwardens’ account books, which were written 
with no other idea than that of accounting for money received and 
spent, it is very difficult indeed to preserve a clear distinction. I 
have gone upon what I think will be allowed to be a safe rule, and 
considered that what the churchwardens made themselves account- 
able for may fairly be esteemed the property of the Church and of 
indicated by their name. They first sprang up amongst the free 
‘craftsmen when they were excluded from the fraternities which 
| had taken the place of the family unions. Their principal object 
was to secure their members in the independent, unimpaired, and 
ex ough. But when you meet a survival, as you do in the pageants 
at Salisbury, it becomes exceedingly difficult to be confident as to 
whether it must be traced to a craft gild or to a fraternity. And 
in the same way any attempt to get at the particulars of the 
Cathedral history, or the history of the parish Churches, brings the 
