The first religious guild of which we have any record is the Guild of the Holy Sepulchre, known to us only by an isolated reference in the history of Ramsey Abbey, which tells us of a fraternity existing in 1114-36, whose purpose was the building of a Minster in honour of God and the Holy Sepulchre, and which resulted in the erection of the Cambridge Round Church. Of Cambridge guild life we hear nothing more until the reign of Edward I., when we find record of certain conveyances of land being made to the Guild of S. Mary. From the first this guild is closely associated with Great S. Mary's Church, the University Church of to-day, the Church of S. Mary at Market, as it was called in the early days. The members of it were called the alderman, brethren and sisters of S. Mary's Guild belonging to the Church of the Virgin. Its benefactors direct that should the guild cease, the benefaction shall go to the celebration of Our Lady Mass in her Church. The underlying spirit, however, whatever may have been the superstitious ritual connected with the organisation, was very much the same as that of the English Friendly Society of to-day. "Let all share the same lot," ran one of the statutes; "if any misdo, let all bear it." "For the nourishing of brotherly love,"--so the members of another society took the oath of loyalty--"they would be good and true loving brothers to the fraternity, helping and counselling with all their power if any brother that hath done his duties well and truly come or fall to poverty, as God them help." "The purpose of S. Mary's Gild was primarily the provision of prayers for the members. The 'congregation' of brethren, sometimes brethren and sisters, met at irregular intervals, to pass ordinances and to elect officers. In 1300 they agree to attend S. Mary's Church on Jan. 2, to celebrate solemn mass for dead members. The penalty for absence was half a pound of wax, consumed no doubt in the provision of gild lights before the altar of Our Lady. Richard Bateman and his wife, in their undated grant, made the express condition that in return they should receive daily prayers for the health of their souls.... In the year 1307 ... the gild passed an ordinance directing the gild chaplains to celebrate two trentals of masses (60 in all) for each dead brother. If the deceased left anything in his will to the gild, then as the alderman might appoint, the chaplains should do more or less celebration according to the amount bequeathed to the gild. The rule is naïve, but its spirit is unpleasing. Individualism has thrust itself in where it seems very much out of place. The enrolment of the souls of the dead further witnesses to the purely religious character of the gild, and the purchase of a missal should also be noticed."[47]