Internal Affairs of the Company. 173 



man, who had challenged the Master to a duel, 

 was ordered to be prosecuted. In order, as the 

 minute naively remarks, ''to bring him into a 

 Christian temper." 



The religious observances of the Company 

 „ ,. . , deserve more than a passing^ notice. 



Religious obser- . ^ ^-^ 



varices of the Going back as far as Anglo-Saxon 



Company. . i r i 



times, we learn Irom the convention 

 between the Saddlers and the Canons of St. 

 Martin's-le-Grand, which throws a curious light 

 upon the religious customs of the Guild, that, in 

 those early days, the Company, among other 

 spiritual observances, were in the habit of attend- 

 ing the Chapel of the Convent on the Feast of 

 St. Martin. The present practice of attend- 

 ing St. Vedast's on Election Day is of great 

 antiquity.-^ The City archives inform us that in 

 the fourteenth century the serving-men of the 

 Saddlers' trade were in the habit of attending 

 Divine Service in that church on the Feast of the 

 Assumption, properly the 15th August, in imita- 

 tion, it appears, of their masters, who, it is 

 probable, continued their attendance at St. 

 Martin's-le-Grand until the demolition of the 

 Sanctuary in 1548, when they transferred their 



^ Within recent years it was the custom for each member of 

 the Company and the Chaplain to be presented by the Renter 

 Warden with a bouquet, which was carried to the Church, a 

 practice now discontinued. 



N 2 



