214 THE PATH OF DEGENERATIVE EVOLUTION 



was the first act by which was recognized the right 

 of the corporations of Bruges to take part in com- 

 munal administration and to provide a military 

 contingent of their own. 



When these corporations began to decline mili- 

 tary and political functions were the first to be 

 eliminated, in other respects the corporation con- 

 tinued to exist till the close of the eighteenth 

 century in the form of economic groups, and groups 

 for mutual aid and religious development. 



An investigation of such corporations as still 

 survive shows that it is in the economic functions 

 formerly discharged that degeneration has made 

 furthest strides, while the religious character is 

 maintained and banquets are still held. Of the 

 twelve corporations of Western Flanders six preserve 

 the old corporative institutions almost intact ; seven 

 maintain a scale of charges and regulations con- 

 nected with them ; ten provide organizations for 

 assurance against illness ; eleven hold annual re- 

 ligious ceremonies ; twelve, i.e. all of them, continue 

 to hold banquets. 



These figures alone show that the original and 

 earlier functions have remained longest in force, but 

 to further demonstrate this point it will be necessary 

 to enter more fully into details and to study each 

 group separately. 



The first group consisting of associations con- 

 tinuing to protect professional interests consists of 

 three branches : the four offices of Bruges (including 



