We may trace roughly four stages in the growth of a national social consciousness. First, there is the stage at which the individual cares only for himself, a second stage is attained when family claims are recognised, a still higher stage when a duty to a social group is perceived, a fourth stage is reached when social organisations are formed for discharging more effectively social duties. The earliest of these social organisations in point of time--and the most important from the standpoint of education--were the social gilds. These gilds, as we have shown, were essentially religious. They were a manifestation of what may be described as a "democratic religious impulse." The term is admittedly clumsy, but it denotes a desire proceeding from the people to carry out religious duties apart from the official requirements of the Church. On a large scale we can see this force at work in the movements initiated by St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic respectively, or, to take a more recent example, in the Methodist revival in the Church of England. To return to our period, we find that men and women, impelled by a spirit of association, formed themselves into a gild in order to carry out more effectively their religious and social responsibilities. We particularly wish to note that, in some cases, these responsibilities included the making of provision for the education of the young. It is not possible yet to indicate the full extent to which these social gilds made such provision, but it is probable that they did much more for education than is commonly conceived. Our chief means of discovering what was accomplished, is by an examination of the returns which were made when the gilds were being dissolved. From an examination of these records, we are led to the conclusion that, after an association or gild had been formed for specified purposes the general method of procedure was, that the members of the gild made certain payments to secure the services of one or more priests, who were to devote themselves to carrying out such objects as the gild had in view. These aims frequently included the keeping of a school.