THE PATH OF DEGENERATION IN SOCIOLOGY 213 



represents the last stage in a long series of corpora- 

 tions of different kinds, and of increasing complexity. 

 It will be as well to glance briefly through these 

 various kinds of corporations in order to compare 

 the different stages of dissolution through which the 

 corporative system eventually passed with the pro- 

 gressive evolution exhibited in the course of its 

 establishment. 



(a) Associations formed for the holding of 

 banquets and fetes (conmvia) which were origin- 

 ally distributed throughout Northern and Western 

 Europe. 



(J) The convivia assumed a religious character 

 when the Church, unable to suppress them, deter- 

 mined to transform them. 



(c) Guilds (etymologically significant, according 

 to Brentano, of repasts where all expenses were 

 shared) where the original convivium was accom- 

 panied by religious ceremonies, but a feature of 

 which was the addition of institutions of mutual 

 insurance. 



(d) Corporations (ambachten). These embodied 

 all the primitive institutions that had gone before : 

 (1) the banquets ; (2) religious ceremonies ; (3) 

 mutual assistance ; (4) fresh means for the protec- 

 tion and development of professional interests. 



(e) Finally, at the commencement of the four- 

 teenth century, these corporations assumed both 

 political and military functions. The concession of 

 keure to the people in 1304 by Philip of Thiette 



