In this chapter I have shown, by the aid of John Carpenter, that by the end of the fifteenth century the days of “Uncertain Steps” were passed away. The New Order, which gave the power and authority of the City more and more into the hands of the Commonalty, has now become well defined and established; it is the constitution of the City; the old feuds have vanished; the old City families have disappeared; the craftsmen no longer go about bellowing that they are the Commons; they are reduced to order every one in his own Company, and every man knowing his place in his Company; the place of the craftsman is one of obedience; he has been educated by the Company, apprenticed by the Company, made a freeman of the Company; he works in accordance with the rules of the Company; he is paid according to its rules; when he is old he will be a pensioner in the Company; should he die young his widow and children will be the care of the Company. And instead of the former government of the City by hereditary right, the City is now governed by the forms of popular election, with safeguards, by elected Aldermen, elected Sheriffs, elected Common Council, and elected Wardens as Masters of the Companies. And as to the share which the craftsmen possessed in the elections the less that question was raised the better it was for the order and the security of the City. CHAPTER VIII THE CITY COMPANIES We have next to consider the origin, growth, and development of the City Companies. On the origin and antiquity of Guilds I have already spoken (vol. i. p. 204). It is impossible to conceive of any time, after men had begun to live in villages and towns, after arts and crafts had arisen, after some attempt at order had been made, when there were no such associations as those we call guilds. Those of the same trade were compelled to band together for the use of tools, for instruction, for the regulation of the output, for protection of all kinds. In the fifth century there were “consuls” or chiefs, of the Locksmiths; the bakers of Paris act as a body in the reign of King Dagobert; in Lombardy they had colleges of artisans; in Ravenna in the tenth century there was a college of fishermen; there was a chief of the Corporation of Traders; a chief of the Corporation of Butchers. In Paris in the year 1162 there were dues payable by the Corporation of Tanners, Shoemakers, and Pursemakers. The oldest Guild-Statutes extant in this country are the laws of three Guilds, those of Abbotsbury, Exeter, and Cambridge. The general principles of the three are thus summed up by Brentano:—